This week, the one and only Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) stopped by to talk with Ana (@anamariecox) about his new book, Everything Trump Touches Dies. Ana kicked things off by asking Rick about things he regrets from his past as a political consultant.

“I should have realized it sooner, that at some point populism wasn’t a machine we could turn on and off or a stimulus we could apply and then remove. Once you start those people on that substance, they stay on it,” he said.

That led to a conversation about the reaction he’s received from past colleagues and clients, and why he decided to move from working in the political shadows to the light.

“I cannot justify morally, ethically, professionally or politically, sitting quietly while this guy wrecks everything I never worked for,” Rick explained

After Ana called him out for the way he uses mental illness and drug addiction in the book to mock Trump supporters, they discussed the people that have disappointed Rick in the Trump era. At the top of the list: Rudy Giuliani.

“A person who’s known him longer than I have described him to me the other day as like another person inhabiting Rudy’s body, and I believe it,” he said.

Afterward, Friend of the Pod Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) joined Ana to answer a listener question from Alex, a Spanish teacher in a deeply conservative, largely homogenous school who wants to reach her students and help them learn that discrimination isn’t ok.

You can find Rick’s book here.

Get in touch with us on Twitter @crooked_friends or email us at withfriendslikepod@gmail.com.

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