Wednesday, Feb. 19, a cohort of NPR’s politics reporters took the stage at the Fred Kavli Theater in Thousand Oaks, CA to record an episode of the NPR Politics Podcast in front of a live audience. Over the course of roughly 90 minutes, NPR White House Correspondent Tamara Keith, NPR Political Correspondent Scott Detrow, NPR Political Reporter Juana Summers and NPR Senior Editor and Correspondent Ron Elving broke down the current suite of political news.
The journalists analyzed the most recent Democratic debate, discussed the upcoming Democratic primary elections, fielded questions from the audience, recorded retakes for the to-be-published podcast and finished the show with a segment on their personal favorite stories from the week.
With primary elections in California set for Tuesday, March 3, the evenings debate proceedings were first and foremost in many audience members’ minds.
Irvine resident Jesse McCarl came to see the show, wanting to hear the debate recap, and more generally, see the process of taping a live podcast.
Similarly, Thousand Oaks resident Tyler Berry was most interested in hearing about the debate and how it would affect the upcoming primary.
The NPR Politics crew delivered on the debate analysis front, coming fully prepared with fresh video snippets of key moments from the debate, which had ended shortly before the start of the show. Particular debate moments highlighted included Elizabeth Warren’s combative performance, fiery exchanges between Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigeig, some seemingly hostile exchanges between Amy Klobuchar and Buttigieg, as well as Mike Bloomberg’s underwhelming showing.
LA County resident Greg Sgammato enjoyed the debate breakdown and expressed an appreciation for the journalists’ emphasis on the content of the debate rather than the emotion of it all.
After debate analysis, the NPR reporters recorded a few retakes for the published version of the podcast to ensure proper audio quality, then fielded questions from the audience. Audience responses ranged from questions about particular moments from the evening’s debate to general questions about this year’s primary election process.
Finally, the show wrapped up with a segment called “Can’t Let It Go” where each of the reporters discuss one thing in politics or beyond that they can’t let go of. Keith reminisced about her wedding photos in front of the state capital, Elving brought up a kind interaction he had with a stranger earlier in the day and Summers discussed the fallout after a bank issued debit cards with Harriet Tubman on them.
Finally, as an avid baseball fan, Detrow couldn’t let go of the Houston Astros cheating scandal. Detrow jokingly accepted any gratitude for his hometown team beating the LA Dodgers in the 2019 National League Championship Series, which allowed the Nationals to take on and defeat the Astros.
“I wanted to say, we are from Washington, a lot of us root for the Washington Nationals, and I just wanted to say ‘You are welcome!’ for (the Nationals) beating (the Dodgers) in the NLCS thanks to Howie Kendrick’s bat,” expressed Detrow. “Which I know at the time was probably upsetting, but of course the Nationals went on to beat the Houston Astros in the World Series.”
Detrow finished by commiserating with Dodgers fans in the room over the cheating scandal, which many feel cost the Dodgers a World Series.
“I know that Dodgers fans, more than anyone else, are probably dwelling on this, given they lost the World Series in seven games to those Astros,” stated Detrow.
The recorded NPR Politics Podcast from the live show is available through NPR as well as various other podcast providers.
