Ana talked to Jane Coaston from the new podcast “What a Day” about political purity spirals, the plight of journalists on the MAGA beat and Trump’s weakness for admirers no matter how despicable they are.

Ana Marie Cox is a political columnist for The New Republic and a culture critic whose writing has appeared in Texas Monthly, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and NBC.com. Through 2022, she wrote a “Sober Questioning” column at The Cut. She hosts the science fiction and political science podcast Space the Nation with Dan Drezner (created to fill the hole in their hearts when The Churn was canceled). She’s a regular on the Stephen King podcast The Losers Club (a favorite episode is this one on recovery themes in King’s work). Her memoir, “Just Like Your Mother” — a reported account of addiction, recovery, and intergenerational trauma — will be published by Random House.