Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for plucky misfits and problem solvers.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I hope you are off from work wherever you are and enjoying a lovely Monday.

We're going to talk about Martin Luther King Jr. today. In fact, something of a coup for the

program, I am going to speak with the preeminent MLK historian in the entire world. Arguably,

the foremost authority on Martin Luther King, Jr. is going to come on

right here on the political orphanage. And I actually recorded that interview back in 2021,

and the reason it did not air is fairly quotidian. In 2021, remember that period? Kind of the tail end of the pandemic,

depending on where you were. At that time, I was living by myself in a cabin in Wagner, Oklahoma,

and did not have super good internet. I don't think you'll be able to tell in the conversation that

follows, but my God, we had a lot of technical difficulties. The internet cut out at least

six times, and I was absolutely mortified. I just, I hate it when that kind of thing happens.

It makes me look like an idiot in front of my guest who was very patient and had a good

chat with me, but I felt like a total dufous and I was, I was so mortified.

I couldn't bring myself to even touch it.

In fact, even now, I couldn't bring myself to look at it.

Rather, I had to call up my editor emeritus, Eric Stipe, to piece it together instead.

I tracked Eric down at a seedy Colorado bar where he was in a heavily armed poker game,

had an eye patch on. I don't know why he doesn't need an eye patch, but he had one on.

And I explained the grisly technical situation, and he agreed to temporarily come out of retirement,

and he said, I'm getting too old for this shit.

And then he tossed a Mirsham pipe away like a cigarette.

So a weird, gritty thing Eric does.

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