Seriously?

Ira talks about what’s alarming him about this year’s election: facts seem less meaningful than they ever have, and the gap between the mainstream media and right-wing media’s versions of the world have never seemed further apart. CNN’s Jake Tapper explains what it was like to be on the air live when Donald Trump tried to take a huge, obvious lie and pass it off as the truth. (8 minutes)

In this election year we look at the story of one small ballot initiative, in one state. We heard this referendum would gut Georgia's Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC), an independent organization that investigates ethics complaints about judges. Years ago, the JQC investigated a judge we did a whole episode about, Amanda Williams, and she resigned from the bench. We wondered why in the world someone would want to tamper with an agency that seemed to be doing a good job at a low cost. Producer David Kestenbaum went to Georgia to figure out what was going on. (21 minutes)

We’ve been wondering about some of the things President Obama thinks about the current election, but can’t say publicly. But since he hasn’t told us his thoughts explicitly, we asked singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles – who did the Broadway musical “Waitress” – to imagine those thoughts for us. One of the stars of Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr., performs the song. Music direction by Nadia DiGiallonardo, strings orchestration by Alex Lacamoire. (4 minutes)

Recorded and mixed by Derik Lee
Emily Grishman, music copyist
Lee Nadel, bass
Jonathan Dinklage, violin
Adele Stein, cello
Todd Low, viola
Antoine Silverman, violin2