The Realignment - Podcast Rankings and reviews

First listen: Peter Turchin episode : show seems intellectually humble + honest. Interviewer asks question and then listens to answer without interruption. Whatever bias interviewer may have he does not let it take over. Guest shared a lot of information on his topic. Well done.

This is my favorite political podcast. They always have a diverse group of guests and a diverse group of ideas being presented, always being presented in a non condescending way which other podcasts lack. I appreciate Marshall letting guests speak their mind and responding rather than trying to push his ideals or condescend on guests.

Marshall is one of the most effective podcast hosts. His ability to interview the world’s leading thinkers and draw from his own vast knowledge about foreign and domestic affairs makes this truly the bleeding edge of thought and discussion on these topics.

I find myself envying Marshall and his ability to go toe to toe with the world’s leading thinkers on topics as diverse as the war in Ukraine, and US housing policy.

Huge kudos to Marshall and the guests for providing one of the most important forums of discussion on critical topics of the day.

Interesting topics and conversations. I may not agree with all the guests, but that would be pretty boring, lol. Marshall has a great voice & calm demeanor. He could challenge the guests a bit more & probably would make it even better :)

A year ago this was one of my favorite podcasts, now I find myself listening to one out of every ten episodes, max. I think there are two problems, which may or may not be interconnected:

- First, Saagar’s role in the show has been substantially diminished. He used to participate in most of the interviews but he now only comes on twice a month for discussion episodes with Marshall. I know that this is because of his increased commitments to Breaking Points (which I subscribe to) but I always find myself missing his questions during interviews. Marshall is good at a lot of aspects of interviewing but he rarely has any tough questions for his guests. Marshall says this is because of his interviewing style, which I would accept if I hadn’t heard him pointedly question interview subjects with dovish or right-leaning views in the past. Unfortunately, this issue seems to be a product of Marshall finding himself in general agreement with most of his guests’s positions on the topic at hand and thus unable or unwilling to find significant areas of difference to tease out.

- Second, the distribution of guests has noticeably shifted over the past year. Originally this show’s guests were varied and interesting, both in terms of the topics they discussed and their positions on those topics. Unfortunately, that diversity has been waning on both fronts. Today there are 3 archetypal guests on The Realignment: hawkish foreign policy analysts (most of whom used to work for the US Government), esoteric VC/tech personalities, and left-liberal commentators who have a direct stake in the preservation of the current neoliberal regime. There are still some episodes on issues like industrial policy or the problems with higher education with guests who are making interesting arguments that you won’t find in mainstream sources, but they’re not as common as they used to be. I know the show has always stayed away from social/cultural issues but issues that could be addressed in a non-culture warry way like immigration and crime are never discussed.

In the end, while I still check in on new episodes, I doubt that I will be able to re-engage with this show in the way I used to. It seems to have found a new niche that I personally find much less interesting.

I used to like Saagar, even when he went on Fox News or other places and regurgitated the party line talking points for the day. However, after listening to the latest episode, the blatant ignorance regarding JFK’s foreign policy (e.g. “the JFK admin orchestrated the coup in Vietnam”) and basic facts about the Vietnam War (e.g. “…we didn’t even really invade Vietnam”), I have unsubscribed and am leaving this review. We all have limited time in our lives and we choose to rely on certain sources as experts (or at least for their well-informed assessments) to save us time of having to do the research ourselves (your listeners have jobs, families and responsibilities). In sum, if you can’t do the work to make sure you’re statements are accurate and well informed, then people won’t listen to your podcast.