The Front Runner

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Natural Sciences, History, Documentary, Science, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2018

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

So, a cool thing happened for the show recently. A couple years ago, our episode "I Don't Have to Answer That" made it to the ears of director Jason Reitman. The story is about presidential candidate Gary Hart, who, in 1987, was caught in an extramarital affair that forced him to drop out of the race. And at the time, this sort of personal scandal was the first of its kind in politics. It pushed politicians and political reporters into unchartered territory that forever changed the way we scrutinize political figures and judge their fitness for office. When Reitman heard this, he saw a major motion picture in his head. And today, that film, The Front Runner, is out in theaters. Listen to Reitman and his team talk about how Radiolab inspired them to make this movie. This piece was produced by Jackson Roach.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So maybe we just start with you introducing yourself?
0:05.0	Yeah, sure.
0:06.0	My name is Jason Reitman and I'm the co-writer and director of the frontrunner.
0:10.0	The youngest candidate, Hart spoke at full campaign trail.
0:13.0	The clear frontrunner.
0:14.0	Where do you want to start this?
0:16.0	So start with the shoulder in a little?
0:18.0	Uh...
0:19.0	My name's Gary Harden. I'm running for president.
0:21.7	Well, I guess I'll start with the moment I heard the story for the first time.
0:26.8	Wait, you're listening.
0:27.9	I live in Los Angeles, spend a lot of time in a car.
0:31.4	I make movies.
0:32.3	I spend a lot of time on planes.
0:33.6	I spend a lot of time intimately listening to Radio Lab. I spend a lot of time intimately listening to Radio Lab.
0:43.7	I started this podcast, went in blind.
0:46.2	Hey, I'm Chad I boomrod.
0:47.4	I'm Robert Crulwich.
0:48.8	This is Radio Lab and, you know, here we are.
0:50.5	And having no idea who Gary Hart was.
0:53.0	And the story that we're going to tell on this podcast is about a moment, a shockingly recent moment.
0:58.3	I didn't. I was 10 years old when this incident happened.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.