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Politicians on Podcasts

WTF with Marc Maron

On June 22nd 2015, President Barrack Obama sat down with host Marc Maron for the 613th episode of the WTF Podcast. This was the first appearance of President Obama's presidency on a web-based podcast, and the first appearance of a sitting president on an online podcast. The WTF Podcast was broadcasted from Marc Maron's garage in Los Angeles, California. The conversation between Maron and President Obama covered a range of subject, starting with the president's upbringing in Southern California and Hawaii then evolving into in a discussion about the main issues which the administration was dealing with at the time, gun laws, universal healthcare and the current political divide in America. The President cited the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the deadest school shooting in U.S history, as an example of his frustrations with the current Senate at the time and their inability to act due to lobby groups like the NRA, and the effects of the inaction on public opinion.

The President then continued to speak on the disconnect between the daily lives of average Americans and what is being shown in the U.S media and how the current political system does not create space for ordinary conversations about politics. Obama then spoke about disappointing his supporters on certain policy issues and how his administrations rectified some of the actions that they took, citing the difficulties about the implementations of public healthcare and national defence. The conversation then switched to racial relations in America, referring to the 2015 Baltimore protests and the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri. The President then argued that it is "...incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly..." and that the shadow of racist policy and attitudes is still prevalent in American institutions. The interview ended with Marc asking Obama about his father with Obama describing him as a "tragic figure" with the interview ending with Obama and Marc discussing the President's legacy and his "fearless mindset".