Category: Active

Trump returns to the Capitol for the first time since January 6th and receives a hero’s welcome from House and Senate Republicans—where he calls Milwaukee a “horrible city,” refers to the Justice Department as “dirty bastards,” and complains about Taylor Swift not endorsing him. Meanwhile, the same Republicans attempting to overturn Trump’s conviction are instead trying to prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland. Plus, SCOTUS affirms legal access to abortion medication, Biden takes voters’ cost of living concerns head on, and Trump tries to woo CEOs with more tax cuts.

 

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

 

We talk to Lance Oppenheim, director of Ren Faire, the new docu-series on HBO. Ren Faire looks at the drama behind the scenes of the enormous Texas Renaissance Festival. When capricious 86-year-old owner and founder “King” George Coulam attempts to retire, his underlings, the obsequious & loyal-to-a-fault Jeff and the ambitious & conniving Louie, are pitted against each other in their attempts to gain control of the park. It’s a darkly comedic real-life Shakespeare story, but it also touches on a lot of ideas about work, employment, ownership, power, performance, alienation, and an (unhealthy?) obsession with the past, all in the context of a very particular modern workplace. All three episodes of Ren Faire are available now to stream on Max (the place for HBO).

In this episode, Joseph Pearce joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his book “The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful: A History in Three Dimensions.” Music by Jack Bauerlein.