Formula For Success

One of my favorite TV shows of all time is The O.C., and one of my favorite scenes from the series comes during the first season. The dreamy but troubled Ryan Atwood is nursing a grudge against the privileged, thuggish jock, Luke. At one point, Luke makes some disparaging remarks about Ryan, and Ryan laughs weakly and asks, “Know what I like about rich kids?” He hauls off and punches Luke, then answers his own question. “Nothing.”

This is a little how I feel about politics.

I’ve tried lots of political podcasts, but I always come back to the Slate Political Gabfest. For me, there’s a formula to success for political podcasts, and it looks something like this:

(Brains + Insight) Personality
———————————————— – Smug = Best Political Podcast
Opinions


(It’s no Indexed, but it’s all I’ve got.)

The weekly gabfest delivers on all of the elements of the formula. It’s smart but not superior, and the three gabbers can all have different opinions without the show devolving into a shouting match.

The primary players are John Dickerson, Emily Bazelon, and David Plotz, all reporters and editors at the online magazine Slate. Between them, they’ve got some excellent cred: a law degree, White House correspondent, and an award from the National Press Club for political reporting. But they’re also the friendly, interesting, and funny people you’d love to be able to invite to your next party. There’s not a lot of cynicism in the podcast, and that in itself is an accomplishment.

During the half-hour show, they hash out the top three political stories of the week. They might talk about whether or not a gaffe made by a political candidate is going to matter a month from now, or whether a recent Supreme Court ruling will make a difference in your life.

At the end, they each offer a single piece of cocktail chatter—a tiny but interesting piece of news that might otherwise get passed over. It’s sometimes, but not always, related to politics.

I’m not the only one singing the praises of the Gabfest—it was named one of the top 10 podcasts as part of the 2007 Weblog Awards. It’s also been picked up by XM radio.

Detractors note that the three sometimes stray from their political topics to their cell phones or the size of the conference room they’re sitting in. Important stuff? Not really. But unlike the blow-dried commentators on TV, these people actually seem human.

Know what I like about that? Everything.