The Good: a conversation about reparations; the Bad: Mandy and pandas; and the Ugly: Josh and Sam dancing (?) to “The Jackal.” Plus, a few words from West Wing music supervisor Anne Kline (@theannkline).
footnotes —
“The Case for Reparations,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, in The Atlantic.
“The Jackal,” by Ronny Jordan, featuring Dana Bryant (full song)
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If you don't like this episode, just be wrong. Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it. Plus, Hrishi brings back a field report from the Democratic National Convention, with thoughts on The West Wing from former DNC CEO Amy Dacey (@AmyKDacey), Senator Chris Coons of Delaware (@ChrisCoons), and Zeke Miller of TIME (@ZekeJMiller).
Correction:
A couple astute listeners have pointed out that the "hundred years ago thing" is, in fact, a real book: When My Grandmother Was a Child, by Leigh W. Rutledge. The title and author are mentioned in the diner scene with Zoey and Charlie, but their dialogue overlaps with Gina saying some Secret Service stuff. Apologies for missing it.
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We live in Los Angeles, but no one has offered *us* a development deal. We're going to the wrong parties.
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Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (@JayCarney) joins Josh and Hrishi to discuss Josh Lyman's secret plan to fight inflation, and other ways press briefings can go horribly, horribly wrong.
footnotes —
A graph of West Wing episodes, plotted by IMDb ratings.
Josh with CCH Pounder, Jeff Probst, and Alex Trebek, at Celebrity Jeopardy, 2003.
Lymanspreading.
President Obama answer press questions about his smoking.
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Josh and Hrishi team up with the FiveThirtyEight Elections Podcast to discuss how polling is used in The West Wing, by looking at a few scenes from the show. This episode was recorded live at the Crest Theatre in Los Angeles. We talk about scenes from seasons 1–4, so there are spoilers throughout.
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From our super fun show with @hrishihirway and @joshmalinasjoshmalina of The West Wing Weekly.
A photo posted by FiveThirtyEight (@fivethirtyeight) on