George Packer
speaker
697 appearances
3 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2025
last heard 6 May
George Packer’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So as we can hear there, that was J.D. Vance speaking in 2017, and he's interrogating the mainstream media. He's kind of digging at it, which will become a talking point later. But you also noted around this time he also began to view the policy intellectuals that were around him differently. What changed during that time period for him personally as well?
Did you try to talk to Vance for this article? And did they respond?
Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, I'm talking to George Packer, staff writer at The Atlantic, about his story, The Talented Mr. Vance, about Vice President J.D. Vance. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is Fresh Air.
Let's talk a little bit about Vance's conversion to Catholicism. This came around the same time as this pivot towards what I guess some might call kind of like a political aggression around 2019, 2020. And of course, we don't know someone's heart. I certainly would never question someone's faith. But his conversion, from your view— Was it more spiritual, more intellectual, more strategic?
You know, up until he entered politics and very specifically until he became vice president, he was a very eloquent speaker. The ability to speak in a way where people from different backgrounds and political ideologies could actually maybe hear some of what he was talking about. But since then, I mean, he has really said some very inflammatory things.
There's this Fox interview where his wife spoke in defense of him calling Democratic leaders childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they've made. He actually points out that he believes that they don't have a stake in the country's future because of their lack of having biological children.
And I want to play a clip of Usha Vance making a statement about this on Fox in August of 2024. Let's listen.
That was J.D. Vance's wife, Usha Vance, on Fox in 2024 speaking about her husband's statements about childless cat ladies. George, how do you assess her role here? She's navigating and mitigating his words, the controversies around the things that he said. How do you assess that?
Some of the people that you talked to for this piece who are friends with Vance said that they still believe that he is motivated by his loyalty to the working class. But you show how many of his actions, repeating election lies, mocking marginalized groups, really contradict that. Who and what do you think he's actually loyal to?
George Packer, thank you so much for this article and for this conversation.
George Packer is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Coming up, TV critic David Bianculi reviews a new HBO movie from the creator of Succession. This is Fresh Air.
Jesse Armstrong, creator of the popular HBO series Succession, has a new drama, this time a comedy, about powerful and wealthy people vying for power and control. It's a made-for-TV movie called Mountainhead, and it centers on a quartet of very rich tech wizards who gather at a private home in a remote area of Utah to play some poker and also dream and scheme.
The stars include Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman, and it premieres on HBO this Saturday. Our TV critic David Bianculli has this review.
David Bianculli is a professor of television studies at Rowan University. He reviewed the upcoming HBO movie, Mountainhead. Tomorrow on Fresh Air, comic, actor, and writer Sarah Silverman. Whether she's tackling sex, abortion, being Jewish, or everyday absurdities, she's known for pushing boundaries to land a deeper truth and a laugh.
We'll talk with her about her new comedy special, Postmortem, which is a bold and moving exploration about the deaths of her father and stepmother just nine days apart. I hope you'll join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller.
Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Brigger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Anne-Marie Baldonado, Lorne Krenzel, Teresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nakundi, and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson.
Roberta Shuroff directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tanya Mosley.
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