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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics, power and prejudices.

This year, 2024, is an election year in America, a presidential election year.

And so we will be doing two podcasts a week, rather than our usual one, because we want to

and because we know you can't get enough Americano in your life.

I am delighted to be joined by John Askenos. Yes. and because we know you can't get enough Americano in your life.

I am delighted to be joined by John Askenos, who is assistant professor of politics at the Catholic University of America.

And we're going to be talking about the return of John Stewart.

Now, John Stewart, as I think probably most listeners will be aware, is a comedian who dominated late-night television, late-night comedy with his show, the daily show.

And he's now going to return.

And the way I think about this, John, is I imagine some producer or some executive in America ringing up

John Stewart and saying like Rambo, like approaching Rambo in a movie and saying, you know,

Donald Trump's back, he's unstoppable, you're the only person who with your savage wit

can destroy him. But John, you wrote a fascinating piece two years ago,

which was headlined how John Stewart made Tucker Carlson.

And in this piece, you argued essentially that John Stewart is responsible in many ways,

or the phenomenon that produced John Stewart is responsible in many ways for the political landscape

in America today.

For our listeners who haven't read it, could you give us an idea of your argument?

Yes, and thanks so much for having me on, Freddie.

I'm a huge fan of the work they're doing at The Spectator.

So the overall argument is that John Stewart both represents and himself and his show pioneered

...