Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I am the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Magazine.

My guest today is someone you'll probably be pretty familiar with.

He has pretty wide name recognition. I am speaking to Santa Claus.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He's here on the Current Affairs podcast to talk to us.

He lives in North Pole, Alaska, where he is a member of the city council and currently

it serves, I believe, as Mayor Pro Tem.

Santa Claus, nice to talk to you.

Nathan, thanks for inviting me and having you on current affairs.

I appreciate it.

So just to let people know, this is serious.

I am talking to Santa Claus.

You can look at the Anchorage Daily News. There is a headline. April 9th, 2022, Santa is running and Santa's serious. And it's a discussion of the congressional race in Alaska for the U.S. House seat in Alaska that Sarah Palin is currently running for.

This is to replace Representative Don Young.

It's a special election.

There are 48 candidates.

And the Anchorage Daily News says the 48 candidates include an ex-governor, a doctor,

a professor, a gardener, a few lawyers and

fishermen, but no figure is more recognizable than Santa Claus. This particular sentence's personal

history is not a regular Christmas tale. He's a monk who took a vow of poverty, serves on the

North Pole City Council and agrees with most of what Bernie Sanders has to say. But with a white beard, a round appearance and soft-spoken demeanor,

he looks and sounds like the real deal.

...