NYU and the Remarque Institute hosted a talk with Rory Stewart (writer, politician, academic, and podcast host) about his new book How Not to Be a Politician with Natasha Lewis of Dissent Magazine and Susan Pedersen of Columbia University. I was expecting the talk to be in an auditorium, but it was hosted in what looked like a conference room or classroom. So the format was a bit odd when watching on Zoom.
I have been following Stewart’s writing career for years, having purchased his first two books in 2007 from Garrison Keillor’s former bookstore in St. Paul (Keillor was doing a book signing and I was supposed to be striking with the librarians and the union, but I took the day off and went to the book signing instead. Yes, Keillor was wearing red tennis shoes). So this talk was about Stewart’s latest book concerning his years in politics – which was a wild ride from being elected to a northern constituency to being looked at as the next Prime Minister of the UK to being kicked out of his political party. And you thought American politics were messed up. What does a politician (or really anyone) do when their political party is a shadowy reflection of what it once was and is controlled by assholes, liars, and the unhinged?
