Hunter Harris

Thank you both for joining us.

Funny thing is, I want to start actually with a story.

Like, a couple months ago, we were thinking about the show and kind of what can be the organizing premise.

And I was like, you know, what would be the thing that would make you most excited about a podcast?

And my first thought was, I want to be Trump-free.

I want to think about something that does not put him at the center.

And I kind of think emotionally, I wanted to start thinking about kind of what are the seeds of who the country is beyond this guy in the middle.

And when I initially kind of pitched it, there was some question about whether that is even possible, whether we can even see this political moment without foregrounding Donald Trump.

So I kind of wanted to use you all as our first real life focus group about that premise.

What do you think?

Like,

When we think about a politics that does not center Donald Trump, is that possible?

I mean, he is the president.

Yeah.

I mean, what about the question of is Trump a symptom?

of a broken system or the cause of breaking that system.

It feels like we've been in living in that question for a while.

Like, do you think culturally at this point, you feel like you know a clear answer to that?

Yeah, I'm like, in one way that monoculture feels real in the way he hogs attention, but it doesn't feel like the actual outcomes are dictated by some clear vision or some clear set of steps he's going through, more so than this kind of haphazardly nature.

If we were to think about the individuals who are most likely to chart our post-Trump future,