I Have To Ask

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

Raúl Grijalva is a Democratic Congressman from Arizona’s Third Congressional district. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the unrelenting fear in immigrant communities, the divisions that threaten the Democratic Party, and whether the Trump administration is “unhinged.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

George Saunders is a short story writer and essayist who has just written his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what he learned while researching Abraham Lincoln, why spending time with Trump supporters is important for progressive writers, and the necessity of art in a society under siege. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Delia Ephron is a novelist, humorist, and screenwriter, whose credits include You’ve Got Mail. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she learned about movies from Tom Hanks, why dating apps are ruining romance, and the challenge of being funny in the age of Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Cole is a Republican Congressman from Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District. He speaks with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether Trump’s “ban” is religiously motivated, whether repealing Obamacare will cause 23 million people to lose health insurance, and how Fox News has changed the Republican Party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ashley Parker is a political reporter at The Washington Post. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what it’s really like to cover this White House, how the President’s staffers manage his personality, and the stresses of waking up to Trump’s tweetstorms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pankaj Mishra sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new book on the roots of populist rage, the problem with critiques of “identity politics,” and whether Western liberal parties can ever win back the white working class. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Chait is a writer for New York magazine, and the author of Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Obama’s surprisingly resilient legacy, why populists have trouble governing, and whether the Democratic Party is destined to move leftward.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pamela Paul is the editor of the New York Times book review and the woman who oversees all of the paper’s books coverage. She sat down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what our books say about who we are and why giving someone a book is so fraught with meaning. She also discussed what it’s like to run the Times’ book review, the future of literary criticism, and the debate over pornography addiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Grann is universally recognized as one of the masters of longform journalism. Here, The New Yorker writer sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the difficulty of reporting unsolved murders, and President Trump’s impact on the news media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ethan Sherwood Strauss has been covering the Golden State Warriors for several years for ESPN, during which time the team became the most popular and successful in the NBA. On the eve of the NBA Playoffs, he sat down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss life on the NBA beat, the strange life of Steph Curry, and fans who want ESPN personalities to “stick to sports” in the age of Donald Trump. And please take our brief survey:  http://www.survey.megaphone.fm  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Sullivan has been writing about the menace of Donald Trump over the past year for New York Magazine, warning America about creeping authoritarianism and the danger Trump poses to American democracy. Born in England, Sullivan was for many years known as the most prominent gay conservative in America. He sat down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the rise of illiberalism, the role of racism in American politics, and dealing with Trump-induced depression. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elif Batuman, is an author and staff writer for The New Yorker. She’s the daughter of Turkish immigrants and her first book, The Possessed, was about her experiences with Russian literature and her travels around the world. She sat down with Isaac Chotiner to talk about her work and her new novel, The Idiot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices