This Doesn't Feel Like We're Making America Great Again [175]

I have got to stop waking up like this!

So we awoke to news the US attacked Iran (again). I really want to stop this pattern of waking up to news that my country has used military force against another one without congressional authority. Phillips P. OBrien tries to make sense of it, but basically sums it up thusly: “I think we can assume after the events of the last few hours, that [Trump] believes a successful military operation to overthrow the Iranian regime will reap him major political benefits. For he certainly does not care about the Iranian people…”

Reading

The convincing case for less convenience and more friction. President Trump has ordered strikes in seven countries in his second term. A 12-year old is dead after a bully threw a water bottle at her head. “Gen Z didn’t experience what there was left to save” of democracy. AI added ‘basically zero’ to US economic growth last year, says Goldman Sachs. Bill McKibben on how the only protection from the Trumps of the world may be solar panels.

Book on my nightstand: Pool House, by Mary H.K. Choi. It’s coming out later this year but I got an advance copy because I’m a Mary HK Choi superfan. If you haven’t read her yet, try Emergency Contact or Permanent Record.

Werk Werk Werk

Just an hour after the 6-3 decision that ruled Trump’s emergency tariffs were unconstitutional, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sat down with me for 45 minutes to appear on Raising Us, the podcast I host for A Kids Co. The couple of minutes of “Can you see me, Justice? Can you hear me now?” as we tried to sort out our remote connection were so human and normal that it obliterated my nerves. She went on to speak so movingly of the experiences that shaped her worldview, feeling isolated as a college freshman, and how she thinks about being a mom and role model today.

Later this month you’ll hear me hosting a limited series for the BBC World Service that’s coming out in a few weeks. It’s called INHERITANCE, and it’s real life stories of, well, succession, that actually play out like the fictional world of Succession. In my season, we tackle Samsung and the ruling Lee family, which is full of intrigue and tax avoidance and dressage horse bribing of the South Korean president, which then brought her down. True story!

Podcast The Newsletter’s Lauren Passell was so kind to do a write up of our new show, The Epstein Files Book Club. We’re truly only doing this because we think it matters — the Epstein story is about horrific sex crimes and human trafficking, but really it’s about the entitlement and permissiveness at a certain stratosphere of wealth and power. It is maddening that the United States has yet to prosecute other conspirators besides Epstein accomplice Ghislane Maxwell. Our latest episode is with journalist Vicky Ward, who discusses how Epstein became rich in the first place, and why this story won’t slow down.

I’ll be guest posting on Downtime by Alisha Ramos for the next couple of months as she takes parental leave. I’m really looking forward to conversations with authors, readers, writers, chefs, fashionistas and overall just interesting people over there.

Watch and/or Listen

Watch: Finally, I watched ANDOR and am almost finished with its full 24 episode run. There is no more important show to watch in full right now, as it’s about an anti-fascist rebellion, and the machinations of power in a fascist regime. The writer Tony Gilroy is someone I’ve long admired because he wrote one of my top five favorite films of all time, Michael Clayton, and here he’s created a world so rich, so real, so riveting … you must watch it if you haven’t already.

Also: The Pitt S2, Sentimental Value (starring Stellan Skarsgaard, who is also excellent in Andor), Buzz Williams gives journalism advice, and Connor Storrie’s turn on SNL.

Listen: The Watch podcast’s conversation with Tony Gilroy, on all the historical ties he drew upon to build the fascist Star Wars empire in Andor and Rogue One.

All right. That’s it for this roundup, but you can hear me on the now four(!) podcasts I’m simultaneously hosting and the fifth, a limited series, later this month.

Stay even,

E