Political and cultural critic Thomas Frank joins host Whitney Terrell to discuss how Democrats and Republicans courted voters from the Midwest and South at their respective conventions. Frank gives reports from the floors of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, which he attended. He analyzes the efforts that the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz tickets have made to attract union and working class, “red state” votes. He also reads a passage from his famed 2004 book What’s the Matter with Kansas on the origin of the terms “red state” and “blue state” and discusses the surprising staying power, and fundamental absurdity, of these categories.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Others:

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 3, episode 22: “The Unpopular Tale of Populism: Thomas Frank on the Real History of an American Mass Movement”
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, episode 31: “What Do Dems Do Now? Thomas Frank on How the Left Can Counter a Rogue Supreme Court”
David Brooks
John Podhoretz
Blake Hurst
Hulk Hogan
Kid Rock
Ted Cruz
Tucker Carlson
“Acid, amnesty - and abortion: 1972 and all that” by Michael Cross | Law Society Gazette | May 4, 2022
George McGovern
George Wallace
The New Deal
Robert Reich

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S7 Ep. 50: Thomas Frank on How the Harris-Walz Ticket Can Win Red State Voters