Molly Ball on whether facts matter in politics

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2017

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may remember the Atlantic's Molly Ball from the fantastic pre-election conversation we had on this podcast. She's back this week to talk about an issue I've become more and more obsessed with — does factual argument matter in American politics? Or is it just a contest of identity activation?In the most recent Atlantic, Ball profiles Kellyanne Conway, whose television appearances and "alternative facts" offer an unusually clear window into this debate. We talk about that, as well as:- What's surprised us about Trump's presidency so far- How different elections activate different political identities- Fake news, how much it matters, and the ways in which it's rising among liberals- Why presidencies are defined by crises, and what we've learned about how Trump will manage his first- Whether Democrats are completely irrelevant now- How hatred of the other party became a more powerful motivator than belief in your party- Sean Trende's "missing white voters" theory- The low-grade espionage happening all over DC all of the time- Ezra's theory of what really happened between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives- Why Trump's approval numbers are far from disastrousAnd much more. Ball is one of my favorite people to talk politics with, and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You've probably heard about the job of an intimacy coordinator.
0:04.0	But do you know what they actually do?
0:06.5	In every intimacy coordinator's kit, it's going to be some form of mint.
0:10.0	Really? I think most of the time.
0:11.5	Oh, 100%.
0:13.0	Then we add in the full retro-listering breath strip, which is crucial.
0:18.0	Several years into the era of the intimacy coordinator,
0:22.0	we ask what they've changed for the better in Hollywood.
0:26.0	And what still needs work?
0:28.0	This week on Intuit, Vultures Pop Culture Podcast.
0:37.0	The following podcast contains explicit language.
0:51.0	Hello, welcome to The Esther Klein Show.
0:53.0	My guest this week is Molly Ball, the return of Molly Ball.
0:57.0	Molly is at the Atlantic and I think is back in October.
0:59.0	We had a fantastic conversation about the election.
1:02.0	One of my favorite episodes of the show so far.
1:04.0	So I asked her back to talk about, you know,
1:06.0	where 50-ish stays in to the Trump administration?
1:09.0	How's it going? What does she think is happening?
1:12.0	Molly had just written a great profile of Kellyanne Conway,
1:15.0	the sort of Trump whisperer.
1:17.0	You probably know her. She does a lot of not answering questions on cable news.
	...

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