Here we are. How are we doing? Is your lamb cooked to your liking? I sound like an overly eager maître d’, don’t I?
Funny though we’re all separated and apart, I feel closer to you all than I did when we were out and about. I think it’s knowing that we’re all grinding our teeth together through this muck and dread… and that’s not even including the pandemic. We’re stuck, but let’s face it. We’re fortunate. Many of us already worked from home. Some of us could survive without full time work. The biggest challenge, but I think we’ll be grateful for it when this siege is over may be reinvention.
I’m not saying it’s easy. God, I wish I were good at it myself, but when we reenter 2021 (or 2022) after we’ve been vaccinated and Covid is more of a memory than a present danger, we will have to reassess and reboot. Maybe I’ll be doing a podcast from Costa Rica? Maybe I’ll go grey. Maybe I’ll become an officious maitre d’. I can honestly say that anything could happen. (And now the caveats that should run across the bottom of the virtual screen like side effects in a Humira commercial – taking care of mother, spending time with #Exhibits, and so on.)
As we witness historic bad behavior by the outgoing president, I wanted to find out why the president’s chief of staff is considered so essential to the running of the operation. We’ve heard that Ron Klain, former chief of staff to Vice President Biden will be President Biden’s new chief of staff. (Oh that felt good to actually say it out loud!). The current occupant of the White House has been through 4 so far, and as he’s firing staff left and right, Mark Meadows might not last till January 20th.
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Lisa Birnbach and Chris Whipple
My guest this week is Christopher Whipple, who has written The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every President. More recently he wrote The Spy Masters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future. Chris Whipple is also a documentarian, a former 60 Minutes producer, and it’s great to have him here today.
But first, friends, my five things that made life better.
The Queen’s Gambit. People are talking about this streaming series based on a novel about a female chess prodigy. Once again, my friend Fred Bernstein suggested that I watch this. So I did as soon as we hung up the phone. For starters, the set and costume design alone are worth the price of watching this 7-8 episode series. Set in Kentucky (and Las Vegas, Mexico City, Moscow, and Paris) it follows an orphan from her first day in the orphanage to her triumphant life as an international chess sensation. Just watch it.
2. Christopher Krebs, the former Microsoft executive who ran Trump’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He refused to go along with the charade of a rigged election, thus he was fired. He showed more spine than most anyone in the GOP. (Why he wanted to work for Trump is another thing altogether. I don’t think it will serve anyone well who is looking for a job post January 20th.)
3. A woman named Kim whom I may never meet, who did me a great favor. I had the luck after holding on for ages and repeating my social security number and date of birth a quadrillion times, to reach her when I was trying to schedule my annual mammogram at Weill Cornell Hospital. Based on my insurance calendar, it is always in December. When I called yesterday the earliest appointment, I could get was April 29th, 2021. I took it, but whoah, was not happy. I asked Kim to put me on a waitlist for cancellations and figured it would never happen. Today she called me with the good news that I can have it done in December. Besides providing me with the appointment I needed, she was just kind. Lovely. Thank you Kim.
4. Being able to look forward to the return of Shtisel, season 3!!!! Do you understand how excited I am? Shtisel is such a fine tv series. I’d like to see a show of hands: how many of you watched it? If any of you didn’t, you have time to see it before it returns on December 20th. I’m also looking forward to watching both seasons 3 and now 4 of The Crown.
5. The election wasn’t rigged. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be holding the reins on January 20th.
More About Chris Whipple:
The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future
By Chris Whipple
Facebook @ChrisWhipple
Twitter @ccwhip
Website: chriswhipple.net
The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC.
My team is Shpresa Oruci, Michael Porte, Sam Haft and Boco Haft.