"Macaca" (2006) w/ Peter Hamby [[Archive Episode]]

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

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It’s August 10th. This day in 2006, Virginia Senator George Allen is caught on tape referring to S.R. Sidarth, a young man filming his event, as “macaca.” This video became an early viral moment and helped lead to Allen’s defeat later that fall — showing how viral video could transform politics.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Peter Hamby of Snapchat and Puck News to discuss the incident, how the internet was changing politics in the mid-2000s, and whether Allen’s comments would have been so controversial today.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone Jody Avigan here on Sundays over the course of the summer July and August
0:04.4	We're going to be bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the Archives
0:07.8	You're still going to get brand new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we're giving ourselves a little bit of a break on Sundays running a previous episode.
0:15.4	It's still from around the same date, so it will still hook in in that way.
0:19.6	But look, we've done about 450 of these.
0:22.1	There's a good chance you haven't heard this one or haven't heard it in a while and might want to re-listen.
0:27.0	So here we go with a Sunday favorite from the archives.
0:31.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:35.6	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:39.0	This day, August 10th, 2006, the incident actually happens on August 11th 2006 George Allen was on a
0:45.8	campaign stop in breaks Virginia near the Kentucky border. George Allen was
0:50.1	running for re-election as Virginia senator. He had also been Virginia's governor, but
0:54.4	today he stepped in it because on this day in 2006 he was caught on camera. What was he caught on
1:00.5	camera doing, Peter Hamby?
1:02.8	He was saying, give a big welcome to my friend
1:05.5	Makaka over here.
1:07.0	Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia,
1:10.6	or something like that.
1:11.9	Something like that.
1:12.4	That is, of course, the voice of Peter Hamby who we have on because he does such a good George Allen impersonation.
1:18.0	We just were like who does the best George Allen in the world. But now, Peter Hamby is political journalist, host of good luck America
1:24.7	at Snapchat, contributor to the new outlet Puck News, but also I think a great fit for this
	...

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