Politics is crazy-making, and the discussion around politics—on cable news, on op-ed pages, on Twitter—is even worse. So it’s kind of unbelievable that the antidote to this ongoing madness is a group of podcasts about politics, in which conversations on the issues of today function as a countermeasure to the frustration, alienation, and anger that rational-thinking people experience every day in Trump’s America. Crooked Media—the online media company started by former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Dan Pfeiffer, and Jon Lovett—drops aural bundles of sanity several times a week, and their podcasts aren’t just required listening for more than a million people, but have become trusted sources of political opinions and a vital mouthpiece for the left.
This week, Lovett, who cohosts the semiweekly Pod Save America podcast with his Crooked Media cofounders, is bringing his solo project to Seattle. It’ll be the first time a Crooked Media podcast has taped here since the company formed as a response to Trump’s election in November 2016. Lovett or Leave It is a gabby and outspoken weekly podcast that plays loosely with the variety-show format. (After working as a speechwriter for Obama, Lovett wrote for television, including cocreating the sitcom 1600 Penn.) Lovett’s show is always recorded live, and more often than not, it’s flat-out hilarious, featuring a panel of guest comedians and games played with audience members for prizes.