Ezra Klein

What are three books you'd recommend to the audience?

Kaitlin Dickerson, thank you very much.

This episode of Isoclancho is produced by Jack McCordick.

Fact-checking by Michelle Harris.

Our senior audio engineer is Jeff Gelb, with additional mixing by Amin Sahota.

Our executive producer is Claire Gordon.

The show's production team also includes Annie Galvin, Marie Cassione, Marina King, Roland Hu, Kristen Lin, Emmett Kelbeck, and Jan Kobel.

Original music by Amin Sahota, Carol Saburo, and Pat McCusker.

Audio and strategy by Christina Simulowski and Shannon Busta.

The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Strasser.

Special thanks to Sarah Stillman and Aaron Reikland-Melnick.

One of my obsessions over the past few years has been the role of attention in modern American politics.

The way attention is a fundamental currency.

And the way it works differently than it did at other times when it was controlled by newspaper editorial boards and nightly newsbookers.

And so I've been particularly interested in politicians who seem native to this attentional era, who seem to have figured something out.

We've talked a lot about how the Trump administration uses attention, how Zoran Mamdani uses attention.

But somebody who's been breaking through over the past year in a very interesting way is a state representative from Texas named James Tallarico.

And Tallarico is a little bit unusual for a Democratic politician.

He's this very forthrightly Christian politician.

He roots his politics very fundamentally in a way you don't always hear from Democrats in his faith.