Lowering the Boom on the Boomers

So we're a day late getting this episode ready because we went on location, and recorded live in a real bar, located in an undisclosed location in the Free State of Texas. Here as we do show prep I'm having a glass of Oban 14, and Lucretia is having some Glenlivet, and for our recording segment I switched to one of her favorites, MacCallan 18, which, I had to admit, I liked a fair bit, even if it isn't a peaty Islay malt. Score another win for Lucretia I suppose, though by now isn't this getting monotonous?

But there's a second departure from format in this episode, as we have a special guest: Helen Andrews, the editor of The American Conservative magazine (the magazine of "main street" conservatism"), and author of a terrific new book, Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster. You might well think, "Hey—I resemble that remark!" But in fact I'm a self-loathing Boomer who enjoys a thorough thrashing, so I love this book. So you should buy it!

The book is modeled loosely after the famous Lytton Strachey book of a century ago, Eminent Victorians, and like Strachey's book, Helen looks a six prominent Boomers who represent the full range of Boomer bombast and blunderbuss, from Steve Jobs and Aaron Sorkin, to Al Sharpton and Sonia Sotomayor. (And as you might imagine, Lucretia has some sharp words for Sharpton.)

Because we taped at a real bar, with lots of real drinkers around (because Texas), the production values are, shall we say, rather. . . authentic. I'll just leave it at that I think.