It’s been a week. To help us through it, we’ve enlisted The New York Times political reporter Astead Herndon.

We start with election night 2024 versus election night 2016 (6:35), what Astead discovered about the electorate reporting across the U.S. on his podcast The Run-Up (9:25), and how insider Democrats arrived at a second Biden run in 2023 (13:30). Then, we discuss politicians’ “lowercase racist” assumptions about Black and Latino voters (16:02), Herndon’s telling one on one interview with Vice President Harris (22:52), and the pervasive, nationwide sentiments that led to Donald Trump’s re-election (32:24).

On the back-half: where the Harris campaign fell short in its messaging to voters (38:48), the rise of the “podcast election” (44:48), a revealing window into the Biden administration (47:35), how quickly “good intentions” can turn power corrupted (53:01), and why the Democratic party must remake itself (1:00:55) as we begin to move forward from this election (1:06:00).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the heels of his latest book The Message, author Ta-Nehisi Coates joins Sam for a conversation in Los Angeles.

At the top, they discuss how The Case for Reparations first guided these essays (5:00), Coates’ early education growing up in West Baltimore (13:00), and his powerful, recent dispatches from South Carolina (21:00) and Palestine (28:34).

On the back-half, Coates reflects on his ten-day trip to the Middle East (35:10), why he believes the mainstream media prioritizes “factual complexity over self-evident morality” (39:20), and this week’s U.S. election (44:50). To close, a formative passage from James Baldwin (50:40) and a story about love and writing (55:37).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air) has been a fixture in Hollywood for the past fifteen years. She joins us this week to discuss Woman of the Hour, her directorial debut and most revealing project to date.

At the top, we dive into the film’s true crime story (7:00), its examination of gender politics in the 1970s (19:29), and the personal Hollywood experiences Anna embedded into this project (22:00). Then, Kendrick reflects on her early years as a child actor: commuting from Portland, Maine into New York City for work (25:40), receiving a Tony nomination at twelve (29:50), and moving to Los Angeles at seventeen (35:10).

On the back-half, Anna unpacks the “dissociative” process of directing a film (38:25), the mentorship she received from actor and collaborator Jake Johnson (45:00), and the dangers of workaholism (47:19). To close, she shares a passage from her memoir Scrappy Little Nobody (57:20) and describes the work she hopes to make in years to come (1:00:00).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.