Campaign "Spying" & the Ways and Means of Power (with Bob Caro)

Stay Tuned Episode 04/11/19

Bob Caro, the two-time Pulitzer-Prize winning author whose biographies of Robert Moses and LBJ double as studies of political power, joins Preet to kick off a special Stay Tuned series of conversations with writers about their craft, their lives, and life lessons. Caro’s new book is called Working. 

WEBBY AWARDS

Stay Tuned with Preet has been nominated for a Webby Award for the best individual episode of a podcast. The selection is Preet’s interview with Bill Browder, a financier who became the driving force behind the Magnitsky Act and is now often described as President Putin’s #1 foe.

If you haven’t already, check out the episode, and cast your vote for Stay Tuned at webbyawards.com, in the podcast category. We appreciate your support!

REFERENCES & SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

Check out Preet’s book, “Doing Justice”!

Like the Q&A at the top of Stay Tuned? Check out CAFE Insider, which includes a weekly podcast from Preet and his co-host Anne Milgram on the latest news at the intersection of law and politics.

THE Q&A

Bill Barr & the Mueller Report

• “William Barr Testimony Highlights: Attorney General Says He Thinks ‘Spying Did Occur’ on Trump Campaign,” NYT, 4/10/19
• “William Barr Says Mueller Report Will Be Public ‘Within a Week,’” NYT, 4/9/19
• “Limited information Barr has shared about Russia investigation frustrated some on Mueller’s team,” WaPo, 4/4/19
• “William Barr’s Choices,” New Yorker, 4/7/19
• Rule 6, The Grand Jury, Legal Information Institute
• AG Bill Barr’s letter summarizing Mueller’s principal conclusions

Kirstjen Nielsen & the “Acting” Cabinet

• “Kirstjen Nielsen Resigns as Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary,” NYT, 4/7/19
• “Trump relies on acting Cabinet officials more than most presidents. It’s not an accident,” WaPo, 4/8/19
• “Nominations: A Historical Overview,” United States Senate

THE INTERVIEW

Robert Caro

Books:

• Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing
• The Power Broker
• The Path to Power
• Means of Ascent
• Master of the Senate
• The Passage of Power

Senate Desks

• “Desk Jockeying in the Senate Creates a Hotbed of Intrigue,” WSJ, 1/7/03
• “Names Listed inside the Desk Drawer,” Senate Chamber Desks

Robert Moses

• “Robert Moses: An Atlantic Portrait,” The Atlantic, Feb 1939
• “Robert Moses, Builder, Left Behind His Power Tool,” NYT, 2/14/07
• “Robert Moses, Master Builder, Is Dead at 92,” NYT, 7/30/81
• “One Man's Dream, Blissful Jones Beach Is Like No Other Place,” NYT, 9/28/97
• “Robert Moses and the decline of the NYC subway system,” Curbed, 7/27/17
• “Cross Bronx Expressway: Historical Overview,” NYC Roads

Lyndon B. Johnson

• LBJ Presidential Library
• “Lyndon Bains Johnson,” United States Senate
• “Lyndon B. Johnson,” PBS
• “The American Promise,” Lyndon Johnson’s speech to Congress, 3/15/65
• “The Great Society at 50,” WaPo, 5/17/14
• “Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam,” NYT, 2/24/17
• “How LBJ Saved the Civil Rights Act,” The Atlantic, April 2014
• “Lyndon Johnson left office as a deeply unpopular president. So why is he so admired today?” WaPo, 3/30/18
• “LBJ and Sad Irons,” Texas Escapes, 9/10/10

LBJ Speech Writers

• “The LBJ the Nation Seldom Saw,” LBJ Presidential Library, former LFB speechwriter Rob Hardesty
• “Richard Goodwin: The Speechwriter Who Named the ‘Great Society,’” Politico, 12/30/18
• “Horace Busby, 76, Ex-White House Aide and Johnson Adviser,” NYT, 6/3/00

Al Smith

• “Alfred E. Smith Dies Here at 70; 4 Times Governor,” NYT, 10/4/44
• “Frank and Al: A Tale of two New Yorks,” Politico, 3/4/14

R.P. Blackmur

• “Blackmur, Richard P.” Princeton Companion, 1978

Anthony Trollope

• Anthony Trollop, The Palliser Novels
• “Trollope Trending,” New Yorker, 4/27/15

Bob Woodward

• “Bob Woodward Gets to the Bottom of Things: Timeless Investigative Journalism,” Writer’s Digest, August 1996

Belle Moskowitz

• “Belle Moskowitz,” Jewish Women’s Archive

THE BUTTON

Kurt Vonnegut

• “Kurt Vonnegut, Writer of Classics of the American Counterculture, Dies at 84,” NYT, 4/11/07

Books:

• God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1998)  
• Welcome to the Monkey House (2014)
• Slaughterhouse-Five (1999)
• Breakfast of Champions (1999)
• The Sirens of Titan (1998)
• Slapstick (1999)
• A Man Without a Country (2007)

William Goldman

•  Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade (1989)

Do you have a question for Preet? Tweet it to @PreetBharara with the hashtag #askpreet, email staytuned@cafe.com, or call 699-247-7338 and leave a voicemail.