You Can Call Him Al

On this week's Al Franken podcast, his guest is former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. And this and the recent podcast with Dana Carvey best-exemplify what I think makes this series so terrific.  There are few people who can handle both a conversation about political humor and a lively, and actually-entertaining talk on nuclear physics.

As the website describes, "Moniz and Al discuss putting pragmatic meat on the bones of the Green New Deal. Al coins a new Kennedy-esque slogan, 'We choose to go to zero-carbon not because it is easy, but because otherwise WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!' Moniz, who was the chairman of MIT’s physics department, negotiated the technical nuclear parts of the Iran Deal with his Iranian counterpart. Because Trump has repeatedly called the US negotiators of the Iran Nuclear Deal 'very stupid people'”.

By the way, even if you don't want to listen to the whole conversation -- or any of it -- at least try to listen to the first 13 minutes when Franken has a sort of "opening monologue."  While it's always a bit lighthearted, it's also informative with stories related to what's in the news.  And here he tells a wonderful story about a young Minnesota girl born in Somalia who was a Senate page when Franken was in the Senate, and he later introduced her when she gave the valedictorian speech upon graduating high school.