At a time when the members of the other party rarely appeared on TV together, Most political interviews are temporary And the election may have decided our fate. The last digital town squareDavid Axelrod’s podcast was an oasis.
Now, after more than nine years and an incredible 605 performances, Axelrod concludes the program with this: Interview his fellow ChicagoansRahm Emanuel.
I’m sad to see The Ax File go, but that’s partly because it’s more important than ever.
Yes, it was respectful and produced more light than heat. There were no food fights. But I’m here to praise Ax, not to bury him in a cloak of past nostalgia for civil discourse.
What made this program so fascinating and unique for this period was that he conducted candid, very personal and wide-ranging interviews with key figures from both parties. Where else can you find that combination today?
Political interviews are fleeting.
It should be made clear here that Axelrod was also featured by various media personalities along with other people from all walks of life. And I sat in on a session in 2016. That’s the right word, since the show has always been equal parts therapy sessions and journalistic investigations.
Axelrod has no psychiatric training–as far as I know–but was once an accomplished political reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He had that in his DNA, and it was reflected in every show when he tried to make news or at least provoke reflection. I always found out that he hated shows where guests appeared with talking points. (I’ve been there!)
However, these were not interrogations. Axelrod typically began his interviews by asking people about their background and where they grew up, “Tell me about your family.” The son of immigrants, Axelrod always found common ground with those just a generation or two removed from the flame of freedom, no matter their politics.
This is why I understand why this show was so important. He revealed humans to be fully formed, complex, and yes, contradictory humans. If you’re looking for a red or blue tribal caricature to see what you like, there were plenty of other options.
Axelrod is a partisan and has strong concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power. But I was proud that he agreed to an in-depth interview with the former Democratic strategist and architect of Barack Obama’s political rise, which many Republicans, in some cases reluctantly, said yes to. I know that.
To be honest, these Republicans agreed in part because Axelrod was an elite figure in American politics, and the invitation conferred some status on the invitees. He was in a proverbial smoke-filled room and even in an unproverbial part of Illinois, a background respected by politicians from all walks of life.
But Republicans also said yes. Because Axelrod is, to borrow a term from his faith tradition, a mensch.
He would challenge his guests, but never use them as punching bags. What mattered was that people engaged in the difficult work of telling their stories, revealing something about themselves, and discussing what politics is about today. It was fitting that two of Mr. Axelrod’s final interviews were with Mr. Trump, the most prominent Republican figure on this year’s campaign. joint campaign manager Chris LaCivita and CNN commentator Scott Jennings axelrod’s disciple (In a personal sense, not a political one, if you’re listening to Kentucky Republican primary voters).
Who are these two people that so many people have read about and heard about this year? Well, listen to their performance on ‘Ax Files’ and you’ll get a good idea of what shaped them.
Like all the best podcasts, there was something else that made this show so appealing. It’s Axelrod respecting the intelligence of his audience. This wasn’t 101 level stuff. If you can’t do that understand why He has a 90-year-old Abner Mikvah. Legendary Chicago legislator and juristMikvah’s podcast broadcast a few months before his death was so moving that perhaps this show wasn’t for you.
To put it mildly, the transition from TV news binges conveyed as political insights to podcasts like The Ax Files has meant that teenagers and teenagers have moved from giggling TV sitcoms to It was similar to moving to a premium program like that. the sopranos and breaking bad. Who can go back? Who would want to do that?
Take Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, a fixture on TV news, for example. Now, do you know what Mr. Sanders didn’t say in his seven-minute interview? About how his childhood home in Brooklyn had three untold names: Hitler, Stalin, and Walter O’Malley, the man who moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles.
Alas, if he had represented his boyhood hometown instead of rural Vermont, he wouldn’t have had such a good voting record on guns.
Sanders made a similar statement in 2015. He was Axelrod’s first guest.. He also spoke about student civil rights work at the University of Chicago, Axelrod’s alma mater and home to the Institute of Politics he founded.
“That pod set the tone,” Axelrod told me this week.
He also spoke to the late Sen. John McCain. speak revealingly McCain talked about all the time he spent visiting, talking with and reading news clips from Arizona to the ailing former Arizona lawmaker Mo Udall as he spent his final days in a nursing home. Unstated, but not necessary, could you imagine a prominent Republican showing up every week to console a prominent ailing Democrat?
Axelrod knows that politics is not a beanbag, and even though he’s moved away from campaigning, he’s close enough to politics that he still pays the price for his grudges. This is why you won’t find a current president in the Ax Files archives. President Joe Biden was the only major 2020 Democratic candidate absent from the show, a target of disdain rooted in the (now revived!) hostile relationship between Bidenworld and the Obama administration. .
But even if Axelrod’s proximity to the upper echelons of politics had some side effects on his appointments, his prominence also guaranteed him some of the best acquisitions.
My favorites so far are: Conversations to watch in 2016 He dated basketball legend Bill Walton too soon. I found Walton to be a great American figure. Dedication to the Grateful DeadWest and John Wooden need no elaboration. And Axelrod met his opponent that day. Please join their chat. Once you get through that, you’ll feel tired and satisfied, just like you did when you played that 3-on-3 game against the Big Red.
Like many of Axelrod’s pods, I listened to it during long drives. Time has passed for good things. When I saw something amazing, I felt like I pulled up a chair his table at Manny’s Deli And I was eavesdropping on two people shooting shit over a Reuben and half a bowl of matzo ball soup.
However, Axelrod, like Larry King talking to Kato Kaelin, just came to mind to kill time, without any preparation, while taking several calls from Walla Walla and other areas. It’s not like I just asked about everything.
Axelrod read his guests deeply, often surprising them with the depth of his knowledge of their backgrounds. It took many hours of work, so it’s easy to see why he wanted to complete it, spending over 600 hours on it. Especially when he has another podcast with Mike Murphy and Jon Heileman about kivitization. Ready-to-use hacks.
But I will miss “Axe Files” and I’m sure others will too.
Introducing Emanuel on his final show, Axelrod said his goal was to “condemn the crude nature of today’s politics and social media culture, which often reduces people to negative caricatures and robs us of our common humanity.” The aim was to provide a small antidote to the
Mission accomplished, brother.
