And now from the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago and CNN audio,

The Axxwiles.

With your host, David Axelrod.

When Ezra Klein trains his big inquisitive brain on a subject, any subject, it's something

to behold. You can find an earlier episode of the

axe files and trace his journey from indifferent student to blogging Phenom to

exacting commentator and podcaster. Now a featured presence on the op-ed pages of the New York Times.

Ezra has written so many interesting pieces and hosted so many fascinating conversations

about the unique campaign of

2024 that I asked him to come back and talk about it with me.

Isra Klein, great to see you.

Always a pleasure.

You know, I know from our first conversation that we had here years ago,

and I don't know whether we discussed or not or whether it just turned up in my notes that you were you

were moved by a history teacher who talked about sometimes the fists of history tighten

around your neck? I think there was a little softer than that. I

think she said you can feel the fist of history clunching around you.

Wasn't specifically around my neck, thankfully.

You know, this feels like a sort of interesting, feels like sort of a hinge moment in history. So I wanted to talk to you about this very unusual election that we're in and that you've

been writing so incisively about. Where do you think we are in this race? A nice small question. Where are we? So

we're talking today is Monday the week before the

DNC. I feel like I don't know if you've had this experience David but I

...