News Nerds

This week, we continue to hear from the candidates running to be Montana’s next governor. Libertarian Kaiser Leib worked as a software developer before starting his stand up comedy production company in Helena. We’ll talk today about how he views taxation, transgender rights, and climate change and how tangible libertarian ideals really are. After last week’s presidential debate, it was interesting to hear what the inner structures of the libertarian party look like. Leib speaks to the question of what political parties should be, commenting that when the libertarian party focuses on winning elections, they compromise their message.

I don’t have anything scheduled regarding the Biden campaign and its struggles after last Thursday’s debate, but if you have any questions or interview recommendations, please reach out. Also check out reporting from past News Nerds guests including the NYTimes's Peter Baker.

We have reached out to Governor Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate, and continue to ask for an interview.

Ezra

From 1995 to 2020, Ryan Busse worked in the gun industry as the vice president of sales for Kimber America. This sparked his 2021 book, Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America, and a period in his life when he began to question his political beliefs. His sons were 2 of the 16 plaintiffs in Held v. Montana, a landmark climate lawsuit fought against the state government that alleged state agencies have implemented policy in violation of the right to a "clean and healthful environment," which was ratified into the 1972 Montana State Constitution. A state court sided with the plaintiffs and struck down two state laws preventing agencies from considering the climate impacts of proposed projects. 

Busse announced his candidacy for governor against incumbent republican, Greg Gianforte in 2023 and tapped Raph Graybill as his running mate for lieutenant governor. Graybill is a lawyer based in Helena and has argued 12 lawsuits against the Gianforte administration. He’s won cases related to abortion and mail ballot access. He was former Democratic governor Steve Bullock’s chief legal counsel and ran for Attorney General in 2020. During his time with the Bullock administration, Raph worked at the Department of Military Affairs chairing the Montana State Emergency Response Commission.

We have reached out to Governor Gianforte for an interview and are waiting for a response

Ezra

During the pandemic, I learned to love cooking. I picked up a copy of the Art of Simple Cooking ad started experimenting with salad dressings, pie dough, and breads. My guest today is who I have to thank for that. Alice Waters built her restaurant, Chez Panisse, off of the food culture in France, where she visited at 19, and the values of Maria Montessori. Waters focused on organic, local, and seasonal produce and paid the farmers - not the distributors - the price for their crops. In 1995, Alice founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, an initiative that engages students in growing and cooking their own food as part of school curriculum. Today, Chez Panisse remains at its original location in Berkeley after 50 years. Since the last time we talked in March of 2021, Alice opened a new restaurant in Los Angeles called Lulu with the former head chef at Chez Panisse, David Tanis, announced the creation of the Alice Water Institute for Edible Education at UC Davis, and wrote a book. She shared with us today that she’s organizing an event called Climate, Food, Hope on the National Mall this October before the presidential elections. 

As you might have guessed, I won’t be publishing episodes as frequently as once a week anymore; I’ve gone into high school but still want to bring important conversations like this to you every few months.

Ezra

Hi,

Technically we're off for the summer, but it's fun to break rules.

Today, a conversation about religion, parenting, acting, and comedy with David Cross. Cross is best known for partnering with Bob Odenkirk in the 1990s to create Mr. Show, and acting in shows and movies such as Arrested Development, where he played the Tobias Funke, and Alvin and the Chipmunks, where he played the villainous Ian Hawke. That might be true, but he’s also thought a lot about his place in religion from an early age when he began to feel doubt about Judaism. He also has a daughter and is currently on the Worst Daddy In The World tour. Just a note: my WIFI wasn’t too good, so apologies for any delays or sound issues.

Ezra

Today we talk to forensic pathologist Werner Spitz. Dr. Spitz is 96 but shows no signs of retirement. As we’ll find out, he wouldn’t even want to retire on his 100th birthday in 2026. Spitz was born in what was then Germany and is now Poland in 1926 to a Jewish family and moved to France early in Hitler’s rise to power. The family moved to Israel, where Spitz would later receive an MD. After he moved to the U.S., Werner worked as a forensic pathologist in Maryland and in Michigan, where he’s based now. Over his career, Spitz has worked on the cases of JFK, MLK,  JonBenet Ramsey, Nicole Brown Simpson, and others. He’s also a coauthor of the textbook, Medicolegal Investigation of Death, an over 700 page tome written to help new forensic pathologists and the police. The book’s in its fifth edition, it now contains color photographs, and has gotten rave reviews from many, including David Sedaris. We’ll talk about the structure of forensic pathology, Werner’s family, and his career.

We'll be starting our annual summer hiatus soon.

Ezra

This week, the search for the perfect interview. Public Radio host Barbara Bogaev will join us to talk about her experience growing up in Philadelphia listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross to eventually guest hosting the show. Bogaev also hosted the radio documentary series Soundprint and Weekend America. She has also guest hosted Marketplace Weekend and programs at KCRW in Santa Monica. Today, we'll talk about the night in which she may or may not have been drinking and landed a job in radio, her thoughts on what makes radio good, and how she became a suspected terrorist and inadvertently helped to burn down a sheepherder’s hut in Morocco in a unseasonably strong blizzard.

Ezra

I think it’s rare for a biography to be so well written that almost every aspect of a figure’s life is detailed. My guest today, Jonathan Eig, seems to have done just that and managed to keep my attention for more than 600 pages. Jonathan is the author of 5 other nonfiction books, as well as 4 children’s books. He was also a reporter. His upcoming book, King: A Life, chronicles the rise of Martin Luther King Jr., from his childhood in Atlanta, Georgia, where his father served as a preacher at the Ebenezer Baptist church, to his time organizing the civil rights movement from the Montgomery bus boycott to the March on Washington. Today, we’ll talk about King’s education, the father-son relationship, the events of the civil rights movement, and King’s legacy. Eig’s book will be published on the sixteenth.

Ezra

Today, a conservative view of the April 4th Trump indictment brought by Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg. My guest today, Peter Ticktin, was a lawyer for Donald Trump who worked on a legal case against the Clinton campaign, the DNC, and other Democrats. Ticktin and the other lawyer working on the case argued that the Clinton campaign leveraged accusations relating to Russian election collusion against the former president as the 2016 election progressed. The team of attorneys were fined more than 50,000 dollars for their work on the case based on a judge's ruling that the legal claims were only "political grievances." Ticktin also wrote a book called, What Makes Trump Tick: My Years with Donald Trump from New York Military Academy to the Present, which explains his experience as Trump's classmate at the academy. We'll talk to Ticktin about Trump's indictment and arraignment, his legal practice, and his personal views.

When a gunman killed 20 first graders and 6 educators on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, many called for bipartisan action. My guest today will explain that this action never really came and in addition, conspiracy theorists including Alex Jones spread false claims that the shooting was staged by the government. Elizabeth Williamson is a feature writer for the New York Times and has written about what she calls a “battle for truth” surrounding the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Williamson was previously part of the Times’ editorial staff and wrote for the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post before joining the Times. While there, she was a correspondent covering eastern Europe. We’ll talk about her book, Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy And The Battle For Truth, which is now out in paperback.

This week is also our third anniversary. Donate today.

Ezra