“2016 was a story of political media completely missing the country. That has been my driver of the reason to do bottom-up reporting. By the time I came to The New York Times in 2018, I was very explicit that I wanted to try something different. I wanted to report on different types of stories.”
-Astead Herndon, episode 339 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
With the closing of the latest season of The Run-Up, political reporter Astead Herndon (The New York Times) returns to the show. At the top, we discuss the recent impactful decisions issued by the Supreme Court (6:36), what to expect from the GOP primaries (8:54), and the potential of a third-party ticket (17:32). Then, we dive into the kitchen table issues guiding the electorate (22:55), Herndon’s early years at The Times (24:40), and why he believes in the power of grassroots journalism (25:38).
On the back-half, we examine his mission statement as a reporter (29:30), what he believes The Times has learned in the years since the 2016 election (42:30), and who he ultimately makes this work for (59:06).
Show-notes:
- Listen to Astead’s podcast The Run-Up.
- Read more of his reporting in The New York Times.
- Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
- For more talks, hear our conversations with Kara Swisher, Congressman Maxwell Frost, Ezra Klein, Neal Katyal, Sara Nelson, Margaret Atwood, and Tom Hanks.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi.
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