From this episode
Recommended books
Top books
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Authors:
Neil Postman
,
Andrew Postman
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Author:
Matthew Desmond
Democracy in America
Authors:
Alexis de Tocqueville
,
Harvey C. Mansfield
,
Delba Winthrop
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Author:
Isabel Wilkerson
War and Peace (Vintage Classics)
Authors:
Leo Tolstoy
,
Richard Pevear
,
Larissa Volokhonsky
The Origins of Totalitarianism
Author:
Hannah Arendt
Episode overview
I answer your questions on the year’s political lessons, the struggles of young men and handling heat on the show.
The end-of-year Ask Me Anything episode has become a tradition on the show. So as 2025 comes to a close, I’m joined by Claire Gordon, the show’s executive producer, to answer your questions about an eventful year — how my thinking on the Trump administration has evolved, how well the Democratic Party has played its chips, what I think it means to be a Democrat right now, whether “Abundance” is centrist, how politicians might address adriftness of young people, how I’ve handled the criticism the show has received and how many packets of Splenda I consume in a day.
Note: This conversation was recorded on Tuesday, Dec. 2, and does not reflect more recent developments in Congress’s review of the Sept. 2 boat attack.