I’ve just got to share a link to “Searching for Bernie,” a new podcast series that promises to track the Bernie Sanders phenomena as it unfolds on the campaign trail.
The “shameless self-promotion” part is where I will be featured in one of the upcoming segments.
A couple of months ago, I received an email request for an interview from journalist Alan Mairson, who describes himself thusly:
I’m a freelance journalist, a former staff writer and editor for National Geographic magazine, a husband, a dad, and a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. I’m also not much of a Lefty or a progressive. I’ve never considered myself a democratic socialist. I tend to be suspicious of large groups of people who gather under a single banner, any banner, to do virtually anything. I’m not a big joiner, and I’m certainly no revolutionary…
Alan had come across one of my GMD diaries discussing Bernie’s appeal, over the years, to Vermonters, and he asked if he could interview me over Skype for his podcast series that was then in development.
He explained that he and his teenage son, Caleb, who will be a first-time voter in the 2016 election, were setting out on a shared experience in practical democracy, pounding the boards on the campaign trail in Iowa.
After hearing Bernie speak and “Feeling the Bern” first hand, they signed on to ring doorbells and make phone calls as campaign volunteers. At the same time, Alan would be collecting and editing interviews for the podcast series.
That series has just premiered with the ‘Welcome’ and first interview episodes, which are very professionally framed, edited and presented with stirring impact.
The production schedule is apparently lagging a bit due to the other commitments that have emerged for the two volunteers; but any of us who have ever volunteered for Bernie know all about how that goes. One quickly comes to appreciate how much of the success of this aspirational campaign rests on the shoulders of committed individuals.
My own interview with Alan was a delightful experience for me, and I hope it will bring something of use to his undertaking.
It made me feel that I was able to play a small role in capturing the excitement of this audacious attempt to move mountains of well-oiled political machinery using just the collective will of the people.
Look for my interview on Searching for Bernie, sometime in the coming weeks (months?), and keep checking Green Mountain Daily for it’s upcoming makeover and re-boot.