Howard Stern made his bones as a “shock jock” a million years ago. For the last 20 years, though, I’ve been following him because for my money he does the best celebrity interviews of any broadcaster of his generation.
I usually only listen to Howard on the days he’s scheduled to be live – which is why I wasn’t tuned in last Friday when he broke into his own channel on SiriusXM to conduct an interview with President Biden. I did, however, take the time over the weekend to give it a proper listen. The King of All Media did his expected a yeoman’s job of preparing for and conducting an interview and drew out.
Look, even though he sat through a strong interview, I don’t want to give the impression that I’m suddenly enamored with Joe Biden. We still have significant policy differences, but since the guy still believes in the basics like fidelity to the Constitution and rule of law, it was good to see him trying an approach to outreach that that his predecessors studiously avoided.
If you haven’t listened to the interview, I highly recommend checking it out. If you’re not a fan of Howard (or Joe), maybe this is the chance to take a look at one or both of them in a new context. Everything I learned about American politics when I was taking my degree seems to be hopelessly out of date, so I have no idea of this is the kind of thing that might move the needle seven months out from a general election. In any case, I’d say it’s still worth doing. If you’ve got some free time, give the King of All Media and the president a listen. You might find it as interesting as I did.