obama boyband: a podsa primer
So here we are, listening to political podcasts and shipping the hosts. Look. It’s been a stressful time. Some coping mechanisms are stranger than others.
1. Who are these fucking people?
This is Jon Favreau.
No, not that Jon Favreau. Also known as Favs, he’s the former chief speechwriter for President Obama and now hosts Pod Save America with all his best friends. Favs is the secretary of Crooked Media, apparently because that’s the job that was left over. He is infuriatingly handsome, loyal to his core, unable to keep a secret, and wears his heart transparently on his sleeve. Here he is pictured with his dog, Leo. Jesus. Look at that face.
Favs is from the Boston area, 36, and was raised as Catholic. He went to Holy Cross, graduated as valedictorian, and despite this has only just learned to pronounce the word scheme.
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This is Jon Lovett.
Often called Lovett to distinguish from Favs. He was a less influential speechwriter for President Obama and has been told to shut up by a number of very important people, one of whom was definitely Buzz Aldrin. Lovett cohosts Pod Save America and also hosts his own politi-comedy panel show, Lovett or Leave It. He is the CFO of Crooked Media, a job he appears to have claimed purely by virtue of having been a math major. Lovett seems to believe that he has good ideas about fashion because he is gay (out & proud!) but alas, he does not. His dog’s name is Pundit, and this is the least woeful she has ever looked.
Lovett is from Long Island, 35, and Jewish. He went to Williams college, wrote his thesis on rotating linkages on a normed plane, and thrives on praise and Diet Coke.
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This is Tommy Vietor.
The New York Times once ran an article about Tommy getting into fights on Twitter, which about sums that up. Tommy cohosts Pod Save America and has a foreign policy spin-off, Pod Save the World. Tommy is the CEO of Crooked Media and used to be spokesperson for the National Security Council, which would seem to make him the responsible one, but he is, frankly, as bad as the rest of them. Tommy loves dogs, the Iowa caucuses, and talking to members of the military. Since acquiring his puppy, Lucca, he has promptly descended into embarrassing levels of dog-dad.
Tommy is from the Boston area, 37, and as WASPy as they come. He went to Kenyon, majored in philosophy, and is too blond to have eyebrows.
2. So two bros walk into the Senate...
In 2004, Tommy works for the short-lived John Edwards campaign, interviews for a job at the Kerry campaign, and then promptly fucks off to work on a senatorial campaign in Illinois for a guy named Barack Obama. Maybe you’ve heard of him.
In 2004, Favs works his way up to John Kerry’s deputy speechwriter by virtue of being good & eager & enormously stubborn, suffers possibly the only loss in his entire life, and then is recruited, before he can hang up his hat and go to law school, to become Barack Obama’s first ever speechwriter.
Favs and Tommy become, as far as I can tell, completely inseparable.
They share a desk in the Senate! They get jeans banned from casual Friday. Tommy spends Favs’ birthday in 2005 at a three-hour party with all of Favs’ family. They’re two bros from Boston who watch the Super Bowl together and play basketball together and, some three-odd years later, throw their hearts into a presidential campaign together.
They are in love, is what I’m saying.
In 2008 Tommy runs point in Iowa and Favs writes some speeches and they have the most exciting time of their lives, being part of a campaign they believe is gonna make a difference. They live together, frantically tracking the delegate count; they’re together when they lose in New Hampshire and together when they win in Chicago, and it’s hard to imagine there’s anything else in their lives they could want.
Over in the Clinton campaign, Jon Lovett is discontentedly demanding to be included in this narrative.
How @jonfavs & @hillaryclinton got over that photo with help from @tommyvietor & @jonlovett @HRCStateSecrets pic.twitter.com/ScweAscDYz
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 11, 2014
@ZekeJMiller @jonfavs @TommyVietor Guys it was our "meet-cute" as they say in the biz!
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) February 11, 2014
3. All roads lead to the White House
So Jon Lovett works as a speechwriter for Hillary Clinton from 2005 until the end of 2008, at which point he starts contemplating a career change. Lucky for him, the new White House speechwriting team happens to be hiring. Briefly, a scene:
JON LOVETT, a mess: frantically writes his audition speech on a bus five hours before it’s due JON FAVREAU, white house chief speechwriter: somehow decides to offer this former Clinton staffer a job
They are all, I cannot stress enough, absolute idiots.
Solid six year old @crookedmedia photo of the three of us. pic.twitter.com/xHofLJIy2G
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) October 20, 2017
This is, to the best of my knowledge, a complete accurate physical representation of these golden White House years. Some very vivid word pictures (& occasional real pictures) of this era:
.@jonfavs tried to fire me for being gay so I took it all the way to the Supreme Court and it became a little movie called Erin Brockovich
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) November 7, 2013
.@jonlovett issue wasn't your sexual orientation, but orientation towards pants (not till noon), scooters (in the office) and work (none)
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 7, 2013
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I never snitched on @jonlovett for putting a couple years' worth of lunches on @jonfavs tab at the Mess #loyalty #friendship https://t.co/gpAYl6SRcq
— Cody Keenan (@codykeenan) July 11, 2017
Sounds like SOMEBODY needs to use the CASH APP
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 11, 2017
What's a few hundred apples with peanut butter among friends?
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) July 11, 2017
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Favs is Lovett’s boss! Tommy and Lovett are roommates! They all write jokes for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner together! It is a good time all around.
4. Our heroes, lost at sea
In September 2011, Lovett decides to leave the White House and go write in Hollywood, first working on the ill-fated 1600 Penn, cancelled after one season, and then drifting from project to project.
In May 2012, Favs visits Lovett in LA, and then tells Obama he’s only gonna stay on as speechwriter through election season, and that’s it. He takes Tommy with him when he leaves, in March of 2013; together they found Fenway Strategies, a communications consulting firm. Favs and Tommy are trying to fund a show of their own, something about the early days of a presidential campaign, but it’s hard to get a political show greenlit in Hollywood. Favs ends up working for his old boss David Axelrod at the UChicago IOP for a term, and half a year later, so does Tommy.
It’s a confusing time for all of them. It’s hard for them to leave politics. In 2014, after dreaming about it for years, Favs moves to Los Angeles, right across the street from Lovett. Tommy ends up in San Francisco.
Picture him yelling this at you on your way home from Starbucks at 8am, and you can't keep scrolling. pic.twitter.com/C3PpP5275C
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 13, 2015
@jonfavs the only that's not believable is "8am". If you said 1130 it'd be chilling.
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) July 13, 2015
@TVietor08 @jonfavs you chose to live near him, no one to blame but yourself
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) July 13, 2015
@danpfeiffer @TVietor08 @jonfavs He literally said "please don't yell at me about Harper Lee" and then I did anyway.
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) July 13, 2015
They’re looking for something to do with their lives: something that feels as important as what they used to do.
5. Jon and Dan start a podcast
In March of 2016, Favs starts a podcast with Dan Pfeiffer, another Obama alum, to provide commentary on the ongoing presidential election. Naturally, they use their old connections to start booking guests. Lovett does an episode with them early on; Tommy comes on the episode after.
Turns out that being guests on one episode wasn’t satisfying enough for any of them, though:
Until we embarrass them, @ringer has given @danpfeiffer and I a weekly podcast called Playing Politics. This week's: https://t.co/KdUlt5udM1
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) March 25, 2016
@jonfavs @ringer @danpfeiffer any chance you can add @TVietor08 ?
— Zac Andrews (@ZacAndrews) March 25, 2016
@ZacAndrews @ringer @danpfeiffer @TVietor08 we hope Tommy will join us often so that our pod is basically the same as our daily text chain
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) March 25, 2016
In August, Tommy and Lovett join Favs in a bonus episode of the pod to announce that in addition to Favs and Dan’s regular Thursday episodes, Tommy and Lovett will begin hosting Monday episodes of the pod with Favs.
I do this new thing when I'm "out and about" with @TVietor08 and @jonfavs which is to ask people to guess which one of us is the gay one.
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) August 10, 2016
whatever everyone liked the flowers I bought the most
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) August 10, 2016
you sort of ruined it for people by yelling about British divers in public but I think we can stump them next time
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) August 10, 2016
The Monday pods go great. Talking about politics is what they like, and they like it best when it’s with each other. The podcast gets successful enough that they do a liveshow. They dissect debates; they go canvassing. They think there’s no way they’re gonna lose this election.
Plan A) Hillary wins Plan B) pic.twitter.com/nVyu7g3Lbv
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) November 8, 2016
I'd like that to also be Plan A?
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 8, 2016
6. Crooked Media
In the wake of an election that leaves half the country reeling, Favs and Lovett and Tommy decide to start a company. They call it Crooked Media.
Came home & asked when they were getting office space. @jonlovett countered by asking why I live at Crooked Media. #PodSaveAmerica & me. pic.twitter.com/xN5dMOCRNW
— Emily Black Favreau (@ebfavs) January 10, 2017
They found Crooked Media because they feel guilty--about being wrong, about not having done enough--because they’re shaken and frustrated and want to do something. They found Crooked Media because they can’t change what happened, but they can damn well try to change what happens next.
They start with a podcast named Pod Save America.
SOURCE MATERIAL
Pod Save America. The classic. The original. The flagship of sexually charged banter.
Pod Save the World, aka Tommy Vietor is a nerd about foreign policy.
Lovett or Leave It, wherein Lovett demonstrates he’s funny, though not as funny as Favs and Tommy think he is.
Instagram, documenting mainly dogs and only peripherally people:
Crooked Media
Leo
Lucca
assorted Twitters:
Favs
Lovett
Tommy
They
Oh haiiii @jonlovett @jonfavs 😎😎 pic.twitter.com/3aty9I3uRp
— Shannon Woodward (@shannonwoodward) January 10, 2017
that's my "oh no what's Lovett gonna say" face
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) January 10, 2017
if Chris had said "you have an announcement?" I was going to say "we're getting married!"
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) January 10, 2017
is Jon coming out?
— Jake from state farm (@my2bits4u) January 10, 2017
not today I'm exhausted
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) January 10, 2017
flirt
a
Wait until the humorless backless to your fun story begins!
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) November 5, 2016
tom why did your autocorrect go with backless
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 5, 2016
I've been doing a lot of online dress shopping
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) November 5, 2016
lot
Planning the @PodSaveAmerica tour: pic.twitter.com/TtHwD3Qruw
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) September 18, 2017
Dangerous Slack precedent but I appreciate the austerity measures.
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) September 18, 2017
It would've been a Queen but we're saving $ by taking a Bolt Bus everywhere
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 18, 2017
THE SHIPS
jonjon - Favs/Lovett
“I want people to know that I do enable you.”
Jon Lovett loves attention and Jon Favreau loves giving that to him, which makes this the most indulgent ship in the world. They own matching half-sibling goldendoodles. Lovett canonically steals Favs’s clothes. Favs gets distraught thinking about Lovett leaving him; Lovett… kind of does the same. Please consider some examples of Favs looking at Lovett.
He does that a lot.
It goes like this: Lovett’s a performer looking for an audience, most of all, and Favs has never once gotten tired of him.
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jontommy - Favs/Tommy
“You know what I hate about you? You never give yourself credit.”
Soft woke bros. A ship about trust and loyalty; about people who’ve depended on each other so long that it’s become instinct. These are the guys who worked for Barack Obama when he was just a junior senator from Illinois, stumbled into adulthood together, fought the same wars and decided, at the end of it all, to go forge a future outside the White House cocoon with each other.
Whether it’s officiating a wedding or running a company, here’s the bottom line: what they love most might be that they’re in it together.
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tommyjon - Lovett/Tommy
“I one day hope to look at Tommy and have Tommy look at me the way the two of you look at each other.”
Two people who can’t turn down a challenge. Tommy likes to set boundaries; Lovett likes to push at them. Lovett demands attention; Tommy doesn’t always give it to him.
But for all that, Lovett can still strike Tommy helpless with laughter and Tommy will carry on bits with Lovett for weeks; Lovett shakes Tommy out of being too serious and Tommy keeps Lovett on his toes, and maybe it’s complicated but in the end, it’s still worth the trouble, every bit of it.
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brot3 - Favs/Lovett/Tommy
“We never leave each other’s sides.”
A ship about people who make each other happy, who find the strength to face hard things together, and who keep choosing each other, again and again. Also a ship about Lovett flirting excessively with his cohosts, who in turn love him very much.
Seriously, they adore him. Even if he sometimes worries they don’t.
Favs and Tommy are Lovett’s best audience; they’re each other’s guiding stars; and not a lot is certain these days, but you know what, maybe this one’s true: they're the best things that have happened to each other.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
This is outside the scope of this primer, but there is also a decent amount of shipping activity involving real-life partners of the pod. Favs and Emily met in 2011, and they were married in June of 2017. Lovett has been with his current partner for six years or so; he’s been mentioned on the pod, though not in that capacity. Tommy and Hanna started dating in 2012, and became engaged in August 2017.
OTHER REFERENCES
Jon Favreau’s interview on the Longform podcast
Lovett on The Moment with Brian Koppelman
Tommy’s appearance on Zero Blog Thirty
love & thanks to @crookedcommunela, @mpdgoblin, @throuples, and @lucy-vanpelt, who offered thoughts and support and encouragement while i wrote this. i’ve chosen to link to this blog whenever possible to forestall dashlock/url change issues; if you would like to be credited for something directly, please let me know.
