A Centrist Look at Trump Week One

Dear listeners,

I’m back in your ears this week — testing out an idea that we might turn into something more regular.

I was discussing with Sara Fay (who produces and edits all the content from Very Serious Media) how there’s a lot of political chat shows out there aimed at slices of the ideological spectrum, but the middle is underserved. Shouldn’t we have a show to digest the news, hash out some civil disagreements, talk a little bit about how the right and left are screwing things up, and also have a little fun?

So this week, we’re bringing you a lively conversation that I had with some friends you probably know:

Ben Dreyfuss

, author of the Calm Down newsletter;

Megan McArdle

, columnist at The Washington Post; and

Mike Pesca

, who hosts “The Gist” and “Not Even Mad.” We covered a lot of ground, looking at Trump’s first week, the big economic promises he’ll have trouble fulfilling, the relative apathy of “the Resistance” compared to 2017, what we’re looking forward to about his presidency, the war on DEI, the TikTok ban reprieve, and even the newest unit of measure of time: the “Ramaswamy,” which is negative one days.

We hope you find our conversation interesting, informative and enjoyable. We’re also interested in your feedback — would you like to hear more episodes like this? Do you have suggestions or ideas for us? Our lines are open at mayo@joshbarro.com and we’d love to hear from you.

Enjoy the show,

Josh