Franklin Foer

an article that became the cover story for the news magazine, The Atlantic, entitled, The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending.

In that article, author Franklin Foer shook up the Jewish publishing world.

He argued that rising anti-Semitism in America would bring an end to the unprecedented period of safety and prosperity Jewish Americans have experienced and demolish the liberal order that we helped establish.

He lamented what so many commentators and thinkers and podcasters have been saying over the past few years, that we have reached what appears to be The end.

But, um, I think also, you know, a lot of these families did encourage their kids to engage in debate about what was going on in the news, and I think that, um, it, I've also interviewed people who say, "I tried that, and my kids just weren't having it." And, you know, you know what your kid is capable of, and, you know, you can't really f- I think mostly you have to be authentic to who your kids are and who you are.

But I think a spirit of playfulness and a spirit of nothing is off-limits, and we're gonna have a, a, you know, Frank Foer, um, whose brothers are all bestselling authors, talked about a kind of freewheeling a- atmosphere at the dinner table where they could talk about, like, what would it be like to build a, you know, um, a s- a space shield out of Legos, but also about civil rights, you know? Um, and allowing for a spirit of, um, civil discussion and debate is probably healthy.

Also, I think learning how to debate in a way that is, um, spirited, but doesn't get out of control is, like, an amazing life skill.

So I don't know, I always, um, I tried to leave the n- by the way, not that I- I'm any model, but, like, I tried to just leave the newspaper on the table at breakfast time, you know, and then it would be there all day, and every once in a while, one of my kids would pick up the paper.

Thanks.

And, um, Franklin, your, uh, y- your analysis of this?

Yeah, I mean, I think the laxating of standards is part of a drive to make up for that gap of all these, all the expertise that has fled the building, and we've seen how that expert, the loss of expertise, has hurt the FBI in pretty graphic ways, where there's been some bungling.

There's been examples of incompetence.

He lives in Washington, D.C. with his family.

Leffler will be joined in conversation with Franklin Foer, a staff writer at The Atlantic and former editor of The New Republic.

He is the author of several books, including most recently The Last Politician, Inside Joe Biden's White House, and The Struggle for America's Future.

He also lives in Washington, D.C. with his family.

Please join me in welcoming to Politics and Prose James Leffler and Franklin Foer.

Hi.

Hi.