As you know if you've been following my posts and podcast episodes lately, I'm writing and releasing the chapters of my new book The Liberal Backbone in real time. When Joan Esposito of WCPT Chicago heard about it, she had an idea: a "radio book club," with me coming on her show to talk about the book as it comes together, chapter by chapter, with her and her listeners.

On December 13, we had the first episode, and I thought it went great — Joan is one of my favorite interviewers. We explored the book's big themes: what liberals actually stand for and how they can stand up for it a lot more effectively, at a time when that's needed more than ever.

I'm sharing the interview here, lightly edited.

As always, you can find the text version at DastardlyCleverness.com and at Substack.

And I hope you'll follow me on Substack — just search there for Spencer Critchley.

— Spencer