California Governor Gavin Newsom has spent his career outrunning a public image that reduces him to a caricature—slick, ambitious, and impossibly polished. But in this wide-ranging conversation, recorded in-person in Los Angeles, Newsom explains why his new memoir, A Young Man in a Hurry, is an earnest attempt to show people the person behind the persona. (So far, most reviews agree that it is.)

Now a leading Democratic voice taking on Donald Trump, Newsom describes his approach (in short: “punch that bully in the face”) and wrestles with how his record in California will play on the national stage—offering a revealing look at his vision for the US in the coming years.

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