We Live Here Now podcast review — Trump lovers and haters in search of common ground

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It’s a measure of where we are with podcasting that the medium has had a starring role in the US election campaign. While Kamala Harris has given interviews on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay, Unlocking Us with Brené Brown and Call Her Daddy podcasts, Donald Trump has appeared on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant, the Nelk Boys’ Full Send and, most recently, on The Joe Rogan Experience — not only the most popular podcast in America but across the world.

But there are better ways to understand the political landscape and the motivations of voters than listening to candidates in self-promotion mode. I’ve spent the past week glued to We Live Here Now, in which podcasters Lauren Ober (Spectacular Failures, Fine Gorilla Person) and Hanna Rosin meet activists demonstrating on behalf of the insurrectionists jailed after the storming of the US Capitol building on January 6 2021. 

Ober and Rosin are partners who live in a staunchly Democratic neighbourhood in Northeast Washington DC where, just over a year ago, new neighbours moved in with “Free our Patriots” and “J4J6” (Justice for January 6) stickers on their car. They turned out to be Micki Witthoeft, mother of Ashli Babbitt, a protester shot and killed at the Capitol building; Nicole Reffitt, whose husband Guy was the first person to be tried for crimes associated with the riots; and Tami Perryman, whose partner, Brian Jackson, was jailed for assaulting police officers with a flagpole. 

There was an initially tense exchange between Ober and her new neighbours as the former loudly noted the presence of “that fucking militia-mobile”. This prompted Reffitt to lean out of her car and shout, “We live here now so suck it, bitch.” But Ober subsequently apologised, after which these women from opposite ends of the political spectrum started to get to know one another.

For Ober and Rosin, this meant entering a world where people continue to believe the 2020 election was stolen and that those involved in the riots are martyrs and heroes. For Witthoeft, Reffitt and Perryman, fighting for justice for their loved ones dominates their lives as they hold nightly vigils in America’s capital city. All believe Donald Trump, who has demanded that Babbitt’s killer be brought to justice, represents their interests.

And so we listen as Ober and Rosin hang out with these self-described patriots and hear about their anxieties and how they have channelled their grief and rage. What they discover are individuals and families who feel disenfranchised and unheard, who have trolled and been trolled online, and who have dedicated themselves to what they feel is a righteous cause. At no point are Ober and Rosin won over by that cause, but the empathy, humanity and depth of their reporting reveals much about these febrile times and how political adversaries can find much to laugh about if only they would sit down and talk.

theatlantic.com/podcasts/we-live-here-now