Politics is crazy-making, and the discussion around politics—on cable news, on op-ed pages, on Twitter—is even worse. So it’s kind of unbelievable that the antidote to this ongoing madness is a group of podcasts about politics, in which conversations on the issues of today function as a countermeasure to the frustration, alienation, and anger that rational-thinking people experience every day in Trump’s America. Crooked Media—the online media company started by former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Dan Pfeiffer, and Jon Lovett—drops aural bundles of sanity several times a week, and their podcasts aren’t just required listening for more than a million people, but have become trusted sources of political opinions and a vital mouthpiece for the left.
This week, Lovett, who co-hosts the semiweekly Pod Save America podcast with his Crooked Media co-founders, is bringing his solo project to Portland. It’ll be the first time a Crooked Media podcast has taped here since the company formed as a response to Trump’s election in November 2016. Lovett or Leave It is a gabby and outspoken weekly podcast that plays loosely with the variety-show format. (After working as a speechwriter for Obama, Lovett wrote for television, including co-creating the sitcom 1600 Penn.) Lovett’s show is always recorded live, and more often than not, it’s flat-out hilarious, featuring a panel of guest comedians and games played with audience members for prizes.
In another era, this might sound like some hokey, Capitol Steps-style bullshit. It’s anything but. We’re living in perhaps the most absurd time in American history, and Lovett or Leave It’s humor does not depend on satire, thank god. (I think America might finally be beyond satirizing.) Instead, Lovett’s show often functions as a cathartic scream into the void, and he’s adopted a tongue-in-cheek, self-aggrandizing persona whose frankness and tendency to rant serve as a vicarious release valve for listeners.
Yuks aside, Lovett or Leave It and Crooked Media’s other shows take their politics refreshingly seriously.