I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Thursday, December 30th.

Welcome to our annual Brian Lairer Show, end of year news quiz.

Were you paying attention in 2021?

Here's the way it works.

Call in if you want to play, obviously.

And if you get two in a row right, you'll win a Brian Lair Show mug with a package of all organic rocka hot chocolate.

Same thing as our thank you gifts for the membership drive that we're doing today.

And with us as our special guest quiz leader this hour is none other than Kai Wright,

host of the WNYC podcast and Sunday Night Call-In Show, the United States of Anxiety.

Hi, Kai. Happy New Year.

Thanks for playing with us today. Thanks for coming out to play.

I am very excited to be here.

So while the calls are coming in and we're getting people set up, let me ask you about a couple

of recent things you did on US of A. One was that you had A.O. Scott, the New York Times movie

critic reviewing the year in arts and culture. What a bizarre and challenging year for anyone

in the arts.

What were some takeaways?

Well, I mean, one of the big takeaways for him was just the bizarre nature of his job, as you point out,

you know, the idea that we are all kind of performers now.

He had this fascinating idea about, you know, the way in which

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