Mitch, Lindsey and the Gerontocracy
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mitch McConnell’s “extended absence” (let’s call it that) from the Senate has drawn attention to the fact that the average age of American lawmakers has been skyrocketing. Is it time to talk about mandatory retirement ages?
Guest: Sam Moyn, author of Gerontocracy in America, Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University.
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Podcast production by Rob Gunther, Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | After this weekend, I think it's pretty fair to say that the United States Senate is not in great health. |
| 0:12.5 | On Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham died. He'd just gotten back from Ukraine. He'd been scheduled to appear on Meet the Press. Instead, President |
| 0:22.6 | Trump came on the show to memorialize him. I got a message about one o'clock in the morning from |
| 0:28.6 | one of the people at his office that he had passed away. I said, you can't believe it. He was like |
| 0:36.3 | a member of the family to me. |
| 0:37.5 | It's very tough, actually. |
| 0:38.9 | It's amazing. |
| 0:40.3 | And Senator Graham, he was actually the second lawmaker in a month to be rushed to a hospital. |
| 0:49.1 | Concern over U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell's health is growing. |
| 0:52.8 | There's now been three weeks since McConnell was admitted. |
| 0:56.2 | We still don't know why he's there. |
| 0:59.2 | Senator Mitch McConnell landed in the hospital June 14th. |
| 1:03.7 | That's when medics were called to his home to respond to an unconscious individual. |
| 1:09.0 | And according to the most recent statement from his team, which they pointed us again to today, |
| 1:14.7 | he remains in the hospital. |
| 1:16.7 | His team said, quote, |
| 1:17.6 | The senator released a statement, saying he fell, and he acknowledged she won't be back at work |
| 1:22.5 | anytime soon. |
| 1:24.2 | Some folks say they've spoken to him on the phone. |
| 1:27.5 | None of those people are reporters. |
| 1:35.4 | Senator Graham is the sixth member of the 119th Congress to have died while in office. |
| 1:43.4 | And extended absences seem to have become more common, too. |
... |
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