Ian’s new podcast Today Plus Everything: Conversations in an Anxious Time kicked off with guest Sam Tanenhaus, who appeared in one of Ian’s favorite documentaries Best of Enemies (a Sundance official selection in 2015 and one of 15 documentary features shortlisted for an Oscar nomination that year). Sam is a journalist for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Time, The Atlantic, and Esquire; a historian; and an award-winning author (his biography on Whittaker Chambers was a Pulitzer-prize finalist).
Sam and Ian discussed the present political crisis in the United States through the centerpiece of Best of Enemies: the now-famous televised debates between William F. Buckley Jr. on the right and Gore Vidal on the left. They also talked about the rise and fall of the conservative movement, the Obama legacy, Trump’s response to COVID-19, Attorney General Barr as enabler, the unidentified federal agents policing the streets of Portland, and more.
Listen below or on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Listen Notes, or Today Plus Everything.
