I got to interview Evan Barker about her new book, Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative (which is now a New York Times bestseller!). We traded stories of working in progressive politics during the Trump era, while Evan shared what “call time” is—the fundraising rite of passage forced upon anyone trying to run for office. We talked about how our different class and geographic backgrounds influenced how we saw our roles in the professional world of politics and lamented the question on everyone’s mind: what the hell can be done about a system that is more responsive to spectacle and money than ordinary people? While we don’t have any simple answers, we both agreed that some restoration of a commitment to place will be necessary to reduce the reliance on coastal big money and bring back some semblance of representative democracy.
Huge thank you to Evan for the conversation.
