A big chunk of Clinton hatred and a big chunk of Clinton's downfall to the extent there was a downfall

had to do with his near-compulsive need to just trim the truth a little bit.

The mention of Bill Clinton, his face showing up in the TV, would send my father into an apopleptic rage.

Hey, slow burn listeners. A few weeks ago, our podcast team wrapped up season two with a series of live events.

We traveled to five cities, New York, D.C., San Francisco, Portland, and Chicago.

And in each location, I explored some lingering questions about the Clinton administration

with reporters, historians, and cultural critics. In this special episode of Slow Burn,

as well as one more that you'll hear next week, we're going to share some highlights from those conversations. Now, a few seconds ago, you heard the voices of Washington Post columnist

Ruth Marcus, who covered the Clinton White House, and Rick Pearlstein, author of The Invisible

Bridge and a scholar of the conservative movement. Marcus and Pearlstein talked to me about

how the Clinton administration infuriated journalists

fed into the hands of their enemies and galvanized the political right. We'll also talk about whether

the conflicts they found themselves in were inevitable. But first, before we get into those, I wanted to

play you the opening act of the show we put on in every city we travel to this fall. It's a story from the Clinton

saga that did not make it into season two of Slow Burn, but it gets into some of the big

questions we hoped to leave people with at the end of the season.

Hey, everybody. So Slow Burn 2 is over. And I've been thinking about how if we had known what we

know now back when we started, we would have definitely made the season longer. At least 10 episodes,

maybe 12, definitely not 8. Because there's just so much plot. So many things happened. Travelgate,

prom night at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, federal prosecutors taking a blood sample from the president at the White House, always wearing a tuxedo.

I never knew about any of that stuff. And I'm wondering if anyone here knew about the blood sample

thing, for example. Anyone? What about prom night? All right, perfect audience.

...