In his new book, Barack Before Obama, David Katz takes us back to a time when Barack Obama could walk on a crowded New York City sidewalk just like any other guy, talking on his phone, without a single person rushing up to him to shake his hand or try and grab a selfie:

The book—filled with hundreds of rarely or never-before-seen photos (like the one above, which shows Obama having his hair cut by his longtime barber, James Zariff Smith, who would open his shop after hours to cut the candidate’s hair after long days campaigning)—documents the time from Obama’s 2004 race for the U.S. Senate right up to his election to the presidency in 2008.

In our conversation, we talked about how he got to know Obama—and how he earned enough trust that Obama let him photograph his private moments with his wife and daughters.

[Thanks to David Katz and Ecco for sharing these photos, which are all copyright David Katz, from Barack Before Obama, and excerpted by permission of Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers]

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In Episode 8 of the podcast, I talked to Jon Sternfeld, whose new book, Unprepared, documents the coronavirus’ spread from Wuhan, China to the U.S., and how public health officials and the nation’s elected leaders responded—some with great empathy and a commitment to science, and others with a stubborn refusal to take the virus seriously.

In our conversation, we talked about some of the most striking moments from those early months of fear and lockdown—and what we may be facing now as the spread of Covid-19 reaches peaks unseen at any time since the coronavirus first appeared in the U.S.

At Forbes:

On NBC’s ‘Today,’ Dr. Fauci Says Covid-19 Trend ‘As Bad As I Feared’

MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki To Swap Election Map For Playoff Picture On NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’

News Networks See Record Ratings In November; Fox News, CNN Split Victories

In First Interview Since Losing Election, Trump Calls Result ‘Greatest Fraud’ In U.S. History

Author Says Trump Shifted Covid-19 Response From Science To Politics, And ‘That’s Why We Got Decimated’

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