I Have To Ask

Ron Chernow is the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and author of Alexander Hamilton and Grant. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Ulysses S. Grant was an important figure in civil rights history, why Robert E. Lee’s extremism has been papered over, and what it was like to watch his Alexander Hamilton biography became a musical smash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Egan is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit From The Goon Squad and Manhattan Beach. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what technology might do to fiction-writing, how she crafts her novels, and how her conception of American power has changed since 9/11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gabriel Sherman is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, and the biographer of Roger Ailes. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Fox News has changed since Ailes’ death, whether Trump has “lost a step,” and why Rupert Murdoch secretly “loathes” the president. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jodi Kantor is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how she began reporting the Harvey Weinstein story, why so many of his accusers came forward now, and whether the culture of Hollywood is really going to change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Masha Gessen is a journalist and activist and the author of the new book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Putin exercises control over Russia, and why Trump’s chaotic governing style could still lead to autocracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. In the second installment of a two-part interview, he sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Trump has changed his magazine, whether The New Yorker could ever go web-only, and what’s really killing the NFL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. In the first installment of a two-part interview, he sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether Hillary hatred has gone too far, Ta-Nehisi Coates and writing about race in 2017, and why Obama is cashing in on Wall Street. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The author of Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo, sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she learned from Margaret Atwood, the pain of writing about Nigeria’s turbulent recent past, and using fiction to challenge the idea that women must have children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ABC’s Emmy-Winning anchor and host of the ‘Uncomfortable’ podcast, Amna Nawaz, sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the life of an embedded reporter in Pakistan, researching the roots of white nationalism, and what we can learn from talking to extremists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Claire Messud sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her new novel, The Burning Girl, how Elena Ferrante opened up more space for writing about women, how New York City has changed since she wrote The Emperor’s Children, and what it’s like to be married to a literary critic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Lilla is the author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to debate why Democrats keep losing elections, whether America really used to be more united than it is today, and how much of the Republicans’ recent success is owed to racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Orhan Pamuk is an author and Nobel Prize winner. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new novel, The Red-Haired Woman; the cultural scene in Turkey as it undergoes political purges; and how writing fiction functions as an escape from the real world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glenn Greenwald is one of the co-founding editors of The Intercept. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether America is risking a new cold war with Putin’s Russia, Julian Assange’s complicated personality, and why Trump is less unprecedented in American history than we’d like to believe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Wright is the best-selling author of books such as Nonzero and The Evolution of God. He down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new book, Why Buddhism Is True, what meditation can teach us about how to oppose Trump, and what Buddhist teachings have in common with evolutionary psychology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Olivia Nuzzi is the White House correspondent for New York magazine. She joins Isaac Chotiner to discuss what it’s like to be a woman working in Trump’s White House, how West Wing aides really view the president, and what she learned working for Anthony Weiner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zoë Heller is a novelist and essayist. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Trump’s peculiar Americanness, lame defenses of Hillary Clinton, working on Fleet Street, and becoming friend’s with writers whose books you have savaged. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lydia Polgreen is the editor-in- chief of HuffPost. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her decision to leave the New York Times, the real reason the media screwed up election coverage, and why diversity in newsrooms is so lacking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Heineman is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new movie, ‘City of Ghosts,’ about the journalists resisting ISIS, what he learned interviewing Mark Zuckerberg, and the similarities between extremist groups and drug cartels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maggie Haberman is White House Correspondent for The New York Times and an analyst for CNN. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the anxiety and stress that come with reporting nonstop news, whether the media was fair to Hillary Clinton, and what people don’t get about the President. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss working in the White House, the threat Russia poses to American democracy, why Trump’s advisers can’t control him, and the successes and failures of the Obama presidency.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices