Bully Pulpit
A wry and pointed take on politics, media and society from Bob Garfield. bullypulpit.substack.com
Fri, June 17, 2022
Off the Air
After nearly four decades of commentary, interviews and storytelling, Bob hangs up his headset. But because he is not yet technically dead, he gets to write his own radio obituary. Like much of his work, it’s a saga, 1400 hours rolled into 80 minutes — some of it kind of dramatic, and some just plain flabbergasting. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, June 03, 2022
What Future?
Bob speaks to his youngest daughter about the despair of her generation. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Thu, May 26, 2022
May You Suffer for Your Crimes
Bob promised good faith arguments. He promised never to become “a spasm of id.” Then they massacred the children. Again. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, May 13, 2022
Tarring the Coal
David Michael Slater has written 22 books without breaking out on the bestseller lists. His next — The Vanishing , out this fall — may increase his visibility. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, May 06, 2022
What's Russian for 'Lie'?
We observe in horror and astonishment Putin’s poisonous, preposterous, obvious lies. But we needn’t look eastward for that. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, April 29, 2022
Bully Pulp
Journalist Mark Leibovich has a suggestion for the craven Republicans who cower before the domineering ex-president. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, April 22, 2022
Before Evil — Part 2: Dynamite
In the second half of their conversation about the origins of tyrants, Bob and Before Evil author Brandon Gauthier consider the immense power of ideas. Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Related Episode: You May Also Be Interested In: Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, April 15, 2022
Before Evil — Part 1
Historian Brandon Gauthier looks at the lives of six murderous dictators to assess the role of childhood trauma on their adult barbarity. But he finds other, surprising influences. Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You may also be interested in: Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, April 08, 2022
Listen to America
Bob splices together a soundscape of a society. And just this once, he mostly keeps his mouth shut. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, April 01, 2022
Russian Undressing
In its horror and its rage, Western society is lashing out at anything Russian. Bob speaks to Northwestern University Professor Gary Saul Morson about cultural vigilantism. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, March 25, 2022
The Cruelty Cult — Part 2
Bob continues his conversation with Elizabeth Williamson, author of Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth . Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, March 18, 2022
The Cruelty Cult — Part 1
Bob speaks with Elizabeth Williamson, author of Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth . Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, March 11, 2022
Inside Baseball
With labor catastrophe once again narrowly averted, Bob speaks to a dyed-in-the-wool free marketeer about the mysteries of the baseball economy. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, March 04, 2022
The Age of Aquarius
Bob wonders what’s that in your hand, and why you’ve been schlepping it around with you all day. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, February 25, 2022
Cynthia’s Ordeal
Bob speaks with writer, actor, comedian and musician Cynthia Kaplan about men, Nazis and Important People who never call back. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, February 18, 2022
The Cosmic Lie — Part 2
In Part 1 of Bob’s conversation with New York Times global economics correspondent Peter Goodman, we learned how the world’s billionaire class rapes the world’s treasure as billions of souls can barely get by. This week, Goodman names names. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, February 11, 2022
The Cosmic Lie — Part 1
The world’s billionaire class strong-arms governments, exploits workers, and repeatedly monetizes human crisis as it siphons off the riches of the world. On this week’s Bully Pulpit, Bob talks with New York Times global economics correspondent Peter Goodman, author of “Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World.” Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, February 04, 2022
The Many Evils of Books
A Tennessee school board voted unanimously last month to remove Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” — a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust — from its 8th grade curriculum. Sadly, it’s not the first time a book will be banned in school and it won’t be the last. Bob talks with Professor Kathy M. Newman of Carnegie Mellon University. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, January 28, 2022
Nobody Knows Anything, Part 2
In the second part of Bob’s conversation with author Emer Gentway , they discuss the capacity of Zen to open our minds and diminish our dangerous levels of certainty. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, January 21, 2022
Nobody Knows Anything, Part I
Tricks of perception, mental shortcuts and a bias toward humanity limit our understanding of our universe and ourselves. Having trouble coping? It may be because you trust too much in what you believe. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, January 14, 2022
Trained Seals in a Legal Circus
Bob examines the claim that our heroes are being forced “to choose between their God and defending our freedoms.” The only thing wrong about the accusation is … everything. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, January 07, 2022
Carbon Assprint
In which Bob, now that he is a gentleman of a certain age facing yet another New Year, attempts a self-audit of his worthiness. It’s a journey, that’s for sure. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Sat, January 01, 2022
The Botched Experiment
Bob Garfield sits down with private equity tycoon and author David Rubenstein to discuss his latest book, The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream , consisting of interviews with scholars and other notable Americans. TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely, there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD : Welcome to Bully Pulpit . That was Teddy Roosevelt, I’m Bob Garfield, with Episode 23… “The Botched Experiment.” In his day job, David Rubenstein is a private equity tycoon who made his fortune buying undervalued companies, restructuring them into profitability for his investors and earning huge management fees as a steward of their stakes. The Carlyle Group, which he founded, has enriched him to the tune of $4.5 billion. Rubenstein also has many side hustles, from philanthropy to amateur historian to T.V. interviewer of the rich and powerful. In these excerpts from Bloomberg T.V. we hear George W. Bush and Oprah Winfrey. RUBENSTEIN : Over much of the past three decades I’ve been an investor, the highest calling of mankind, I’ve often thought, was private equity, and then I started interviewing. GEORGE W. BUSH : (laughs) RUBENSTEIN : When I watch your interviews I know how to do some interviewing. OPRAH : (laughs) His conversations with cultural, political and business icons have been edited into two books, the latest being The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream. Collected within are conversations with the likes of Madeline Albright, Ken Burns, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Wynton Marsalis and Billie Jean King. While acknowledging inequities and fault lines in our society, these conversations are in all a celebration of the so-called “American experiment,” which Rubenstein compares to the unique assortment of genes that determine the nature of the societal organism. Had they not converged, he says, “we would not be who we are, we would not be who we are. Rubenstein joins me now. David, welcome to Bully Pulpit. RUBENSTEIN: My pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. GARFIELD: Your book takes these 13 genes and kind of divides them up among various scholars and cultural icons. What's on the list? RUBENSTEIN: Well, the genes are ones like the belief in the democracy, the belief in the importance of voting rights, the importance of of things like the military should not be in control of the civilian government, the civilians should control the military, the belief in the importance of diversity and importance of the belief in and then having electio
Fri, December 24, 2021
Live From the War on Christmas
SPECIAL WAR BULLETIN 24 DEC 2021 Not since Edward R. Murrow has a reporter so bravely brought home the terrible soundscape of war. Happy New Year! In the warm and generous spirit of the holidays, we’re offering 30% off a subscription to Booksmart Studios until the end of the year. You’ll get extra written content and access to bonus segments and written transcripts like this one. More importantly, you’ll be championing all the work we do here. Become a member of Booksmart Studios today. Thank you for your support. * TRANSCRIPT * TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely, there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. GARFIELD : Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt. I’m Bob Garfield with Episode 22: Live from the War on Christmas. [RADIO STATIC] ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this program to bring you a special report. Bully Pulpit’s Bob Garfield is on the battle lines of a terrible conflict, which is setting the world afire. In the midst of the mad fray, without care for his own safety, Mr. Garfield recounts the sights and sounds of war. We now take you to the North Pole. [THE SOUNDS OF WAR] GARFIELD : This is the North Pole. Last night, some young reindeer fetched me here. These heroes, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid and — with grim and fantastic irony — Donner and Blitzen, describing the very scene that in this benighted duchy now unfolds. The pilot on our journey was called Rudolph, his caribou nose casting light through the smoke and darkness. The team was determined, for here resides the greatest center of holiday production. The shooting of cannon and ack-ack guns, the shrill roar of a diving airship, fills the night with a deathly din. A reporter cannot help but cower in the ruins. The secular humanists, in league with communists and cosmopolitans, are upon us. These are the sounds of the war on Christmas. From my icy shelter (the frozen remnants of a leveled doll factory) the fury seems fantastical. The insurgency began only 13 years ago, in what seemed to be flailing propaganda against a dubious oppression. This is when America first heard from the defenders of Jesus Christ about the godless machinations of the Macy’s department store. BILL O’REILLY : This year they are touting Santa Claus who will help you “with your holiday wishlist.” So here’s my question to Macy’s: What holiday is Santa celebrating? The winter solstice? The birthday of a reindeer? What? GARFIELD : That lowly broadcaster, whose name is now lost to history, used his bully pulpit to speak of conspiracy against not just a persecuted religious minority, but a way of life. O’REILLY<
Fri, December 17, 2021
The 60-Year Coup, Part 2
Part 2 of Bob’s conversation with author Anne Nelson about the Council for National Policy, which has spent decades exploiting bugs in the system to gain minority control of our politics — and our future. * TRANSCRIPT * TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely, there never was a fight better worth making than the one in which we are in. GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I'm Bob Garfield. With Episode 21, “The 60 Year Coup: Part Two.” DONALD TRUMP : Together, we're committed to protecting the American people, preserving American values, defending America's heritage, and keeping America safe, strong, prosperous, and free. GARFIELD: That was Donald Trump, hat in tiny hand, singing for his supper before the Council for Domestic Policy, the umbrella group of evangelical Christians and big energy interests, that for decades has been the patient and ruthless architect of the great right wing conspiracy. In last week's episode I spoke to Anne Nelson, research scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and author of Shadow Network: Media Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right . In part two of our conversation, we'll consider the powerful synergy of CNP and a pathological demagog and the destruction that that synergy wrought. Anne, welcome back. NELSON: Thank you. GARFIELD: All right. Let's now turn to the more-or-less present: the rise of Trump and the now violent assault on democracy. How was CNP involved in Trump's ascent? NELSON: The CNP was involved with Trump, initially, very reluctantly. He wasn't one of them, he had no particular religious background, he was multiply divorced, and he really didn't reflect their values in many ways. Their favored candidate was Ted Cruz, but they had a problem - which was that Cruz had a tremendous charisma deficit, and as he lost the primaries, they realized that either they supported Trump, the primary victor, or they lived with Hillary Clinton's presidency, which was unacceptable to them. GARFIELD: Oh, I - I'm sorry, I just - I just have to interrupt to remind you what then Senator Al Franken (laughs) said about Cruz. AL FRANKEN: I probably like him more than most of my other colleagues like Ted, and I hate him (laughs). NELSON: That is the case. Cruz is a formidable intelligence and strategist. He was not a winning candidate outside Texas. So the fundamentalists convened something, like, a thousand leaders and representatives in New York City in June of 2016 at the Times Square Marriott. They brought Trump out to parade him before them, and they had a number of lea
Fri, December 10, 2021
The 60-Year Coup, Part 1
Bob speaks with author Anne Nelson about the Council for National Policy, which has spent decades exploiting bugs in America’s system of democracy to gain minority control of our politics... and our future. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, December 03, 2021
Evidently, You *Can* Go Home Again
Once upon a time, Bully Pulpit’s Bob Garfield played the role of amateur linguist on a delightful show called Lexicon Valley. Today, to celebrate the re-release of ten vintage Lexicon Valley episodes — remastered and ad-free — Bob and Mike Vuolo bring you a special reunion episode filled with banter, history, poignant father-son moments and quite a number of words. Are you happy now? This week only, you can get a subscription to Booksmart Studios for just $4.90/month, or $49/year. As a subscriber you’ll get extra content, including bonus segments, access to full written columns, and all the remastered Lexicon Valley originals. Become a supporter today. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, November 19, 2021
The Gospel of Christie
How do you get the media to be your confederates in a phony redemption story? Criticize Trump, no matter how transparent your hypocrisy. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, November 12, 2021
Madison Avenue Thinks You're Stupid
Guided by the Rule of Three, Bob demonstrates that the age when marketers start infantilizing you is going down, down, down. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, November 05, 2021
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Leptons But Were Too Afraid to Ask — Part II
In Part I , CERN physicist Steven Goldfarb attempted to explain to Bob the difference between leptons, muons, and quarks. In Part II, Goldfarb tackles a thornier question: In this age of so much disinformation, when scientific fact seems to carry no more weight than opinion, does science even matter? Plus: A very special epilogue. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, October 29, 2021
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Leptons But Were Too Afraid to Ask — Part I
Do you know what a lepton is? A muon? A quark? A boson? Bob can’t even grasp the Facebook terms of service, but he found a particle physicist who both understands the nature of matter and was willing to explain it to him. Or try, anyway. Joining Bob for the first of a two-part conversation is Steven Goldfarb, a physicist at the University of Melbourne working on the ATLAS Experiment at CERN — the European particle physics consortium that operates the world’s biggest particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, October 22, 2021
Shopping for a Foxtrap, Part II
Bob has rethought his First Amendment absolutism, and challenges a legal scholar to do the same. Listen as Dean Lyrissa Lidsky of the University of Missouri School of Law somehow fails to bend to Bob’s will. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, October 15, 2021
Shopping for a Foxtrap
Bob thinks the repeated chicanery, misrepresentation and outright lies of the self-proclaimed “news” channel might offer an opportunity for prosecution or litigation under RICO — a.k.a. the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. After saying so on social media, and being ridiculed for his naïveté, Bob takes the question to experts. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, October 08, 2021
Alec Baldwin is Everywhere
In this unholy amalgamation of interview and free-form kibbitz between two cranky former employees of WNYC, Bob Garfield and Alec Baldwin discuss life, acting, and the great Stockton Briggle. Plus, find out more about Bob’s split with “On the Media.” TRANSCRIPT: TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt. I’m Bob Garfield with Episode 12: Alec Baldwin Is Everywhere (Including Here, Right Now). ALEC BALDWIN: I'm a game show host. I'm a podcast host. I'm a father of seven children. I'm out of my mind.... GARFIELD: ..and see what I mean? That’s him , star of stage, screen, Page 6 , iHeart Radio, and, in this case, Instagram Live, where he appears once a week for his 2.1 million followers in conversation with actors, musicians, and at least one dashing, elderly podcaster. Why? Because he graciously wanted to call attention to this show. It was something of an interview, something of a promo appearance, and something of a free-form kibbitz between two cranky former employees of WNYC radio in New York City. I warn you, like other friendly conversations you’ve overheard, it comes with a lot of random digressions. BALDWIN: I'm here with the one and the only Bob Garfield to talk about his new show, Bully Pulpit, to talk about his career in journalism (his long and wonderful career as a journalist), to talk about the fate of journalism. We might talk about that for like 60 seconds, because what's the point? But first of all, Bob, tell me, you left public radio--you were on public radio for quite a while. On the Media, wonderful show. Of course, I'm obviously a fan of yours, a huge fan of yours. But when you left there, talk about the genesis of Bully Pulpit, how did that come together? GARFIELD : Well, first of all, I left there the way an artillery shell leaves a cannon. I was fired. And you know, we can get into that a little bit. The lawyers prevent me from being, you know, too candid. But yeah, we can talk about that. Can we just observe one thing, since this conversation is taking place the day after the Facebook shut down and the Instagram shut down and two days after this blockbuster interview on 60 Minutes with the whistleblower? We are on Instagram, which we now well understand triggers self-loathing in kids, right? Because, you know, Mark Zuckerberg, if we're talking like evil, he makes Vladimir Putin look like Mr. Rogers. So I guess what I'm saying is, kids, please love yourself and we love you too. That's where I want to start. I apologize for talking to you, Alec, on this particular platform because evil. BALDWIN: [coughing] I’m choking. GARFIELD:</str
Fri, October 01, 2021
The Tortilla Scandal
Bob stumbles on a controversy about a media personality’s enchilada recipe — and learns about truth, celebrity and Mexican food. TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt. I’m Bob Garfield with Episode 11: The Tortilla Scandal. Gotta tell you, this one is hard. Look, I think it’s fair to say that in 44 years of journalism, I haven’t shied away from difficult subjects — because that’s what we do, right? That’s why we are here, to shine light into some dark corners. Sometimes dark and damp. The kind of fetid hiding places where bad things happen out of public view. Unseen crevices, shadowy and, you know, moist. But journalism is all about venturing there, risks be damned, to protect the public’s right to know. I’m looking at you, Armando Tinoco of Showbiz Cheat Sheet . He is the author of the blockbuster story headlined “‘Magnolia Table’: Joanna Gaines Makes ‘Controversial’ Substitute in Mexican Enchilada Recipe.” JOANNA GAINES: So I’ve got my 9x13 pan, and I’m going to put about half a cup of the enchilada sauce at the bottom. GARFIELD: The Magnolia Table episode starts out normally. As the old saying goes, “You can’t make enchiladas if you’re not willing to make enchilada sauce.” And the host, Joanna Gaines, for a while says and does nothing that would suggest controversy. GAINES: So, I’m going to add the shredded rotisserie chicken and then I like to add some mozzarella cheese. It’s a nice go-to, safe recipe that everyone will love. GARFIELD: OK, trigger warning. I’m not going to show you this, because we have some technical problems with our video, but it turns out not to matter what Gaines says about “safe” and “everyone will love,” because pictures don’t lie. She is wrapping her enchiladas in wheat-flour tortillas. It’s like watching police body-cam video. And there were some in the audience who were all, like, am I really seeing this? MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY: Holy...f*****g s**t. GARFIELD: You can say that again, Matthew McConaughey, maybe even slower. Because Gaines totally courts the inevitable backlash, openly declaring, and I quote: “I grabbed a handful of fresh tortillas from Jesse’s today. In traditional enchiladas, sometimes it’s corn tortillas, but I like to use flour tortillas and it’s quite controversial.” “Controversial,” she says. No wonder she got the attention of Showbiz Cheat Sheet , which zeroed right in (I mean, if we’re to credit the headline) on this potential crime against humanity — like genocide, or cinnamon-raisin bagels. Is God okay with tortillas not made with corn? YEAH YEAH YEAHS: (Music) It's sacrile
Fri, September 24, 2021
Airing Dirty Laundrie
In the ongoing drama surrounding the murder of Gabrielle Petito, Bob realized that the media are telling us everything under the sun, except for what matters most. TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt. I’m Bob Garfield with Episode 10: Airing Dirty Laundrie. GABRIELLE PETITO: Hello, hello, and good morning. It is really nice and sunny today. It’s only ten o’clock in the morning, but it rained all afternoon yesterday…oh, my God! GARFIELD: That’s from a YouTube post a few weeks ago by wannabe travel vlogger Gabrielle Petito, documenting her cross-country van journey with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie. We see them hiking, taking in sunsets, eating camp-style, hugging and kissing and frolicking, doing cartwheels on Santa Monica beach — two attractive young people living the dream. That the dreamy footage obscured a gathering nightmare, of course, is by now, hardly news to you. FOX NEWS REPORTER: Yeah, good morning Todd and Gillian. Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito were on a cross-country trip they were documenting for their YouTube series, but on September 1st, Brian returned home alone and has been hiding out at his parents’ house, right behind me.Yesterday, North Port police named him a person of interest in this case. GARFIELD: Now, people go missing all the time in this country. One this month was Gregory Martin, a 70-year-old Buford, Georgia man, afflicted with dementia, who strayed away from his optometrist’s office. You did not see anything about him on the news before he turned up safe and sound. You probably haven’t heard of Quawan Charles, who was 15 when he went missing last year from his rural Louisiana home. If you were to Google “missing teenagers 2020,” you wouldn’t find his picture. A lot of white schoolgirls, not a lot of black male schoolboys. His disappearance did not captivate the nation, or even the local police. LOCAL TV REPORTER: The family called the Baldwin Police Department and St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s office to report him missing. Although the family asked that an amber alert be issued, officers declined to do so. The family claims the police downplayed their concerns, including speculating Charles may simply be attending a football game and not answering his phone. Charles’ body was found days later, on November 3rd, in a wooded area about thirty minutes from his hometown. GARFIELD: And incredibly, in 2019, more than 5,590 Native American women were reported missing. You cannot name a single one of them. But when I say Natalee Holloway, or Jaycee Dugard, Elizabeth Smart, Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy — all of whom were TV news fodder for weeks or months at a time over the pa
Fri, September 17, 2021
What Would Jesus Inject?
Bob looks at how the so-called “religious exemption” for COVID-19 mandates is the latest assault on secular law and a grave risk to the nation. Get full access to Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield by Booksmart Studios at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe
Fri, September 10, 2021
The Outsider
Bob speaks with “The Outsider” co-director Steve Rosenbaum about his film documenting the fraught creation of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I'm Bob Garfield. Episode 8: The Outsider. It has been twenty years since the bloody horrors of September 11th, 2001 scarred lower Manhattan and the American psyche. Within three years of the terror acts that claimed nearly 3,000 innocent lives, plans were underway to commemorate the fateful day and its events for posterity. The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum would be constructed on the hallowed footprint of the atrocity. A decade later, the half-billion dollar project would be opened to the public. Here was President Barack Obama at the dedication ceremony: OBAMA: A nation that stands tall and united and unafraid -- because no act of terror can match the strength or the character of our country. Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us today, nothing can ever break us; nothing can change who we are as Americans. GARFIELD: That was perhaps a fitting tribute to a new national shrine, the memorial part of the project that must necessarily dwell in the grief, the sacrifice, the heroism that so dominate the 9/11 narrative. But what Obama left out was the museum part and its role of exploration, illumination and inquiry, such as where do those acts of terror and their bloody toll fit into the broader sweep of history, into America's story, into our understanding of human events before and since? If the dedication ceremony was appropriately a moment for communion and remembrance and resolve, surely the ongoing work of the museum would go beyond the heroism and sacrifice to the complex history and geopolitics that led to 9/11 evil. SHULAN: One of the key meta narratives of this exhibition, one of the most important things about this exhibition, is to say to people, “Use your eyes, look around you, look at the world and understand what you're seeing.” And if we don't do that with the material that we're presenting to people, then how can we give them that message? How will that message ever get through? GARFIELD: A new documentary by husband and wife filmmakers Pam Yoder and Steve Rosenbaum offers an inside view of the creation of the 9/11 Museum. It tells the story of the storytellers as they labor for a decade, collecting artifacts, designing exhibits, and editing the narratives flowing from that fateful day. And its protagonist was a relatively minor character who was propelled by internal conflict among the museum's planners into a central role in this story. The film is called “The Outsider,” available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu, Facebook and other
Fri, September 03, 2021
Back to the Future
Bob speaks with author and scholar Lawrence Weschler, who shares astonishment that The Machine Stops could — from very few data points — extrapolate our present, so paradoxically connected and detached. * FULL TRANSCRIPT * TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I’m Bob Garfield. This is Episode 7: Back to the Future. It’s a special episode, featuring not an essay or an interview exactly but a conversation — a literary conversation no less — with author Lawrence Weschler. The subject is a 12,000-word novella called The Machine Stops , and the occasion, for reasons that soon will be apparent, is the Venice Architecture Biennale. This is an abridged version of our back-and-forth for that audience. Now you may know Ren Weschler from his decades as a staff writer for the New Yorker , or for his dozen-some books on subjects as varied as Chilean torture, Polish liberation politics and his Boswell-ish engagements with such pioneering artists as David Hockney, Robert Irwin and the maker of hand-inked paper-money facsimiles, JSG Boggs. And so much more, because he is a journalist of astonishing scope and erudition, as you are about to ear-witness. At some points I may interrupt the Venice conversation for a clarifying point. Meantime, for reasons that will also soon be obvious, we will begin not with a description of The Machine Stops , but of Ren reading the first page or two. WESCHLER: Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk — that is all the furniture. And in the armchair there sits swaddled a lump of flesh — a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as fungus. It is to her that the little room belongs. An electric bell rang. The woman touched a switch and the music went silent. “I suppose I must see who it is”, she thought, and set her chair in motion. The chair, like the music, was worked by machinery and it rolled her to the other side of the room where the bell still rang importuningy. “Who is it?” she called. Her voice was irritable, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people, in certain di
Fri, August 27, 2021
Crime of the Century
Allan M. Brandt is a professor of the history of science at Harvard and author of The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America . He discusses the tobacco industry’s 20th-century campaign to make its addictive and deadly product somehow acceptable — and its 21st-century campaign to do it all again. * FULL TRANSCRIPT * GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I’m Bob Garfield with Episode 6: Crime of the Century. OLCZAK : The prime cause of harm generated by the smoking is an outcome of the combustion. Okay? When you burn the cigarette, when you burn the tobacco you release the thousands of the chemicals. Many of those chemicals, they are very bad for the human body. If you eliminate the combustion, you actually can achieve a very, very significant reduction in exposure to the toxicants. GARFIELD: In our last episode, we heard from Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olczak as he boasted about Philip Morris’s plan to convert half of its business to non-combustible tobacco products by the year 2025 — a strategy that impresses Wall Street and part of the public-health community, but to others is merely reminiscent of a century of Big Tobacco manipulation, cynicism and fatal lies. In that story we heard briefly from Allan Brandt, professor of the history of science at Harvard and author of The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America . This week, we return to the professor and the subject of the Cigarette Century, so deadly and corrupt.Allan, welcome to Bully Pulpit. BRANDT: Thanks so much for having me. GARFIELD: The tobacco industry has a long and dark history, going back at least to the early 50s when the evidence of smoking's dangers became an existential threat to cigarette sales. Can you tell me what the research was at that turning point? BRANDT: There’d been a lot of research going all the way back to the middle of the 19th century about the possible harms of smoking, but there wasn't fully substantiated knowledge, I would argue, til right around 1950. But then things changed quickly and radically because a group of early epidemiologists, both in England and the United States, began to study smokers and what happened to their health, and they began to study lung cancer patients and what their smoking behaviors had been. And they came up with incredibly robust and important findings that were published around 1950, ’52 and three, more studies by 1954. And all of them reached one absolute conclusion, which was that smoking was actually a cause of lung cancer and likely other diseases that would be studied subsequent
Fri, August 20, 2021
Where There's No Smoke, There's Fire
The 174-year-old tobacco company spent much of its life blowing a cloud of deceit around the deadly effects of its signature product. Now eager for a do-over, PMI’s highly advertised “Unsmoke the World” initiative seems strangely noble, until you start asking questions. * FULL TRANSCRIPT * TEDDY ROOSEVELT : Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I’m Bob Garfield. This is episode five: Where There’s No Smoke, There’s Fire. It’s been a hot and violent and infectious and altogether unsettling summer, in the midst of which — in the New York Times and all over the internet — emerged this: Philip-Morris International CEO Yatzick Olczak in an ad campaign speaking about the dangers of cigarettes. OLCZAK : The science exists today and there is no time to spare to solve the problem of smoking. The problem of smoking? From the maker of Marlboro’s ? There’s an attention getter. A bona fide Merchant of Death vowing to phase out cigarettes in favor of so-called smoke-free products, like his company’s non-combustible IQOS. TUTORIAL : Say hello to new IQOS heat control technology. Using it couldn’t be easier. Remove the IQOS holder from the pocket charger, insert the tobacco stick tobacco side down in the holder and up to the silver line. Turn on, and when the LED turns solid green you can start to experience the true taste of real tobacco by heating, not burning it. The goal, Philip Morris says, is for smoke-free products to represent half of the company’s revenue within four years. “Unsmoke the world,” is the slogan. OLCZAK : The prime cause of harm generated by the smoking is an outcome of the combustion. Okay? When you burn the cigarette, when you burn the tobacco you release the thousands of the chemicals. Many of those chemicals, they are very bad for the human body. Olczak says this as if it’s a fresh revelation, but it’s still jarring to hear Phillip Morris, of all institutions, speak of smoking as a scourge. And to bet the corporate future on a gizmo that aims to obsolete its core product. Listen to the man’s frustration that there are skeptics who are not immediately accepting IQOS as a triumph of science and technology. OLCZAK : I do recognize that there is still a group of people who don’t believe us. That’s fine. So, it’s perfectly okay to disagree with us, but it is not perfectly okay to deprive yourself from the ability to have a dialogue with us, to listen, to have a conversation, to read our science. We know that our vision is right, because of the impact PMI has on the society to solve the problem of smoking and the faster we recognize this whole thing and start working on a strategy, the better
Fri, August 13, 2021
It Wasn't Me. It Was My Dog.
Bob talks with Princeton scholar Orestis Papakyriakopoulos about the social media titan’s latest assault on transparency, and the all-too-familiar blame-shifting that followed it. That has become standard operating procedure from a company Bob describes as “amoral, except when it’s immoral.” TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD : Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I'm Bob Garfield. Episode 4: It Wasn't Me, It Was My Dog. Last week, Facebook abruptly shut down a research program by scholars, at New York University's Ad Observatory, who had been monitoring the company's political advertising inventory. NEWSCASTER: Now, this whole battle started on Tuesday when Facebook disabled the accounts of researchers at the NYU Ad Observatory, Facebook explaining, quote, “NYU’s Ad Observatory project studied political ads using unauthorized means to access and collect data from Facebook in violation of our terms of service. We took these actions to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people's privacy in line with our privacy program under the FTC order.” BG : Yes, Facebook's product management director, Mike Clark, claimed in a blog post that the company's hands were tied by the government. You know, just like Son of Sam claimed it was his dog who ordered him to kill. Within 24 hours, Wired magazine and others revealed that the FTC consent order provided no such thing. Even the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection weighed in, with acting director Samuel Levine writing to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saying, quote, “I am disappointed by how your company has conducted itself in this matter.” Please note that Levine didn't say surprised, just disappointed, because the history of Facebook is the history of Facebook conducting itself in disappointing ways, voicing shame and regret from the bottom of its heart, and then returning to deceptive and greedy business as usual. MARK ZUCKERBERG (MONTAGE): We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake and it was my mistake. This was a major breach of trust and, and I'm really sorry that this happened. We have a basic responsibility to protect people's data. And if we can't do that, then we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people. NEWSCASTER: In 2003, Zuckerberg apologized in the Harvard Crimson for any harm done after his website FaceMash asked users to rate people's hotness. Three years later, Zuckerberg said Facebook, quote, “really messed this one up,” following user complaints that the newly launched news feed invaded their privacy. NEWSCASTER: Zuckerberg apologized once again in 2007 for an uproar over the company's Beacon advertising system, saying,
Fri, August 06, 2021
Bob Garfield Interviews the Author of "Pussypedia"
Owned by half the human race yet often shrouded in shame, secrets and lies, the (mostly) female sexual anatomy finally gets the scrutiny and plain talk it deserves. Author Zoe Mendelson discusses the heroic, misunderstood pussy. * FULL TRANSCRIPT * TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD : Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I'm Bob Garfield. Once there was the encyclopedia. The digital age gave us Wikipedia and a whole mess of other online information repositories from Investopedia, to Baby Names Pedia, to Pancreapedia, for one stop shopping on all things pancreas, to Conservapedia, for evangelical Christians sick of being brainwashed with science and facts. MAN: Wikipedia has become unsuitable because it's become very biased. It's become very anti-American. It's become very anti-Christian. GARFIELD : After four years of online collaboration by 200-some contributors on three continents, we now have a hardcover book titled Pussypedia, about the anatomy, physiology, culture and fraught history of the mostly female organs and structures for reproduction, urology and pleasure. The book is learned, informative, poignant, often infuriating, and often also very funny. But what most distinguishes Pussypedia is that it's an FAQ for questions that have been answered incorrectly suppressed, deemed taboo, gone bizarrely uninvestigated and/or steeped in shame off and on for most of human history. Just for one meager example, this 1969 educational film strip from a right-wing organization agitating against sex education. NARRATOR: Every emotional and psychological aspect of sex is presented. But without the introduction of any moral concepts of right and wrong. Sexual intercourse between unmarried young people is presented as acceptable. Masturbation is not only acceptable, but a desirable means of relieving tension. Having an illegitimate baby is nothing to be ashamed of. Youths are instructed in use of every manner of contraceptive device and may obtain them without cost. But moral concepts of right and wrong rejected. GARFIELD : To my knowledge, there is no comparable screed associated with pancreas information. Into this environment enters Pussypedia, illustrated by Maria Conejo and written by Zoe Mendelson, who joins me now. Zoe, welcome to Bully Pulpit. ZOE MENDELSON: Thank you. Thanks for having me. GARFIELD : OK, let's start with the title. It isn't Vaginapedia, although that is the body part most associated with the slang word pussy. Isn't that like calling every Baltic state Lithuania? MENDELSON : Yes, it is. Yes, totally. The vagina is only the tube that connects the, the uterus to the outside. I
Fri, July 30, 2021
Bridging the Divide
During moments of rhetorical generosity, politicians will give lip-service to bipartisanship or working across the aisle. Another favored metaphor of both Democrats and Republicans is “bridging the divide,” which, once upon a time, would actually happen on major legislation. With the Biden administration now calling for cooperation on infrastructure and other bills, Bob reflects on the fact that not all bridges are well built. Sometimes they collapse. * FULL TRANSCRIPT * TEDDY ROOSEVELT : Surely, there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD : Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I’m Bob Garfield. Episode 2: Bridging the Divide. MAN1 : My talk today is gonna be about how to bridge political divides. WOMAN : President-Elect Biden has made it very clear that he wants to reach across the aisle. MAN2 : And then that’s gonna be us turning towards each other and seeing a common humanity that we struggle to see now. MAN3 : We need to stop talking about them so much and start talking with each other and about our shared condition, and our shared condition is one of deep divides. Well, gosh, who can argue about that? Who doesn’t want two adversarial sides to come together, like warring tribes on opposite shores, connected at last by a bridge of understanding? That’s the premise, for example, of Nathan Borney’s new book, Bridge Builders: Bringing People Together in a Polarized Age. And also for the Listen First Project, aimed at healing America by quote, “building relationships and bridging divides.” It’s just so eminently reasonable. NARRATOR : The magic of a bridge is that in a way it allows you to walk on air. Bridges provide pathways through the sky so that you can get from here to there sort of flying over, without going through the river or down into the valley or across those railroad tracks. OK, that’s from a documentary about actual bridges, many of them now crumbling from decades of neglect. But, yes, in the political context, too, imagine: walking on air , having all obstacles magically averted — not with trusses or girders or cables — but common interest and goodwill. Crowd noise Because I suppose there is no dispute too thorny that opposing sides can’t, with courage and foresight, broker a deal. Cheering Yep, in 1939, evidently people actually shouted “hooray.” The cheers were for British Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain, returning to London from Munich, where he had bridged the divide between Great Britain and Nazi Germany. CHAMBERLAIN : This morning I had another talk with the German chancellor Herr Hitler, and here is the paper, which bears his nam
Fri, July 23, 2021
Things That Fall
Here we are. After all kinds of Sturm und Drang , my new foray into the interview/commentary form is here. Bully Pulpit is a podcast about politics, media, culture and society based on four simple principles: observation, argument, narrative and honesty. It should also go without saying that the interviews, essays and pieces will hinge on evidence — as opposed to the asinine and dangerous political currents that favor sentiments and full-on delusions over facts. Indeed, I don’t invoke Sturm und Drang lightly, because that was the name of the intellectual and artistic movement of the late 1700s that privileged sentiment over reason, rejecting Rationalist rigor in favor of human emotion. (Thanks for nothing Jean-Jacques Rousseau.) And as long as we’re doing historical shoutouts, let me also offer a Rough Rider-hat tip to Theodore Roosevelt, the pioneer of Progressivism, who is my spirit guide in this enterprise. Not only did TR lend me the title, his voice of resistance to reactionary forces will literally grace every episode of Bully Pulpit. The century-old audio rides a little rough, but listen hard. It matters. * FULL TRANSCRIPT * TEDDY ROOSEVELT : Surely, there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in. BOB GARFIELD : Welcome to Bully Pulpit . That was Teddy Roosevelt, I’m Bob Garfield. This is sort of Episode 1. Also, sort of a teaser. Or let’s just say an “artist’s statement” about the exhibit displayed in this space. I got no wine and cheese for you, so this will have to do. Every week, Bully Pulpit will feature essays or interviews on media, politics, society and the culture. Maybe some business and sports, from time to time. Possibly even weather and traffic on the 1s. What I’m saying is: eclectic. The organizing principle is: It depends. But the thrust, the throughline, the raison d’etre is to figure out, in the words of the poet, what the f**k is going on? Because our other current methods of divining the world around us just aren’t working very well. STEVE HARVEY : Kaylee, what’s the first question somebody asks when they wake up from a coma? KATIE : What’s, like, new on the radio? STEVE HARVEY : What’s on the radio?! BG : New on the radio? That was a poor answer, but not that surprising an answer, because as a species we’re just not all that great at paying attention. Even if you were to accept that Family Feud is somehow a legitimate arbiter of the zeitgeist, you’d discover how lousy many humans are at noticing things. I mean, to borrow Steve Harvey’s own method. Families, we’re looking for Things That Fall. CONTESTANT 1 : Toddlers! CONTESTANT 2 : The stock market! CONTESTANT
Tue, July 20, 2021
Introducing Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield
Bully Pulpit is a wry and pointed take on politics, media and society from longtime public radio personality Bob Garfield. His astute cultural criticism, infused with wit and humor, has earned him many prestigious journalism awards, as well as praise such as “very brave” and “national treasure.” For more than 20 years, Bob Garfield was co-host of public radio’s weekly, Peabody Award-winning On the Media , following 12 years as a roving correspondent for NPR’s All Things Considered. He currently hosts The Influencer video series at RealGarfield.com and recently performed a national tour of his one-man show, “Ruggedly Jewish.” A heroic multimediocrity, Garfield has been a columnist or contributing editor for the Washington Post Magazine , The Guardian , Advertising Age , Mediapost , Folio , Civilization and the op-ed page of USA Today . He has also written for The New York Times, Playboy, Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, Wired and the Mainichi Shimbun , and been employed variously by ABC, CBS, CNBC and the defunct FNN as an on-air analyst. A lecturer and panelist, he has appeared in 37 countries on six continents. He wrote a dreadful episode of the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender , and co-wrote a song recorded by Willie Nelson (long story). He is a six-time New York Times worst-selling author. His latest book, American Manifesto , explains how our society came to insurrection. If you haven’t yet, please consider a paid subscription to Booksmart Studios! It’s only $7/month or $70/year and will get you extra podcast episodes, extended guest interviews and an opportunity to engage directly with our hosts. Plus, you’ll be supporting all of the work we do here at Booksmart. Bully Pulpit is just one of at least three shows that we’ll launch this summer. Others include: Banished : An earnest and thought-provoking show about our reassessment of the many people, ideas, objects and even works of art that conflict with modern sensibilities. What can we learn about our present obsession with cancel culture by examining history, and what might it mean for freedom of expression? Lexicon Valley : A close examination of language — its power to inform and misinform, to elucidate and obfuscate — from renowned Columbia University linguistics professor John McWhorter. A true polymath, McWhorter will analyze the words and phrases that dominate our discourse and make the headlines. <str
loading...