July 5, 2019

The Wannabes

This country is crawling in presidential candidates right now and they're bumping into each other in Des Moines and yelling over each other in Miami. We hang out with them, in this weird early period of the election when they're easy to walk right up to.

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Transcript

Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel at a campaign event in Iowa.
Zoe Chace/This American Life

Prologue

Producer Zoe Chace drives around with Washington Post political reporter extraordinaire Dave Weigel. He delights in this special period in the race where it’s easy to trip over people running for president. (8 minutes)

You can sign up for Dave Weigel's newsletter The Trailer for insights on political campaigns around the country.

By

Zoe Chace

Act One

Wannabes One

Weigel and Zoe drop in on two candidates desperately trying to break out of the one percent. (7 minutes)

By

Zoe Chace

Act Two

Wannabes Two

Host Ira Glass follows presidential hopeful Julián Castro as he prepares for the first debate of the Democratic primary. His goal is just to let people know he’s in the race! By, possibly, interrupting somebody onstage. (15 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Act Three

Wannabes Three

Producer Emanuele Berry plays Ira Glass some weird inside his head tape of presidential hopeful Cory Booker trying to walk two blocks. (6 minutes)

By

Emanuele Berry

Act Four

Wannabes Four

Producer Ben Calhoun gets on the road with presidential hopeful Andrew Yang as he bestows free money on an Iowa family to make a point. (11 minutes)

By

Ben Calhoun

Act Five

Wannabes Five

Producer Zoe Chace and Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel spin through some greatest hits of their weekend in Iowa once more, and Weigel reflects on what’s about to come next in the presidential race. (7 minutes)