How TV Made Trump

How TV Made Trump

Tom Carson on the president, David Perry on Ilhan Omar, and Pico Iyer on Japan.

Start Making Sense and Jon Wiener
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We all know Trump got famous on TV with The Apprentice—but how many of us ever watched The Apprentice? Reality TV was a key force in making Trump president. Tom Carson talks about Audience of One by James Poniewozik. Tom, a longtime writer on pop culture and politics, won two National Magazine Awards during his time as Esquire’s “Screen” columnist; now he writes for BookForum.

Also: Ilhan Omar has endorsed Bernie for president—how does she deal with Trump’s vicious attacks? David Perry has spent the last few months with her in her Minneapolis district—he says he’s never seen a politician talk as little about themselves as she does in her town halls.

Plus: Pico Iyer has lived in Japan part-time for the last 30 years—he says it’s hard to imagine how different that country is from our own. His new book is A Beginner’s Guide to Japan.

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Start Making Sense Start Making Sense is The Nation’s podcast, hosted by Jon Wiener and coproduced by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes each Thursday.  


Jon Wiener Jon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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