David Remnick Interview: Examining the Personal & Political Journey of Barack Obama

David Remincik describes Barack Obama as “writerly”, discusses his unique childhood, diverse family, meeting his wife Michelle, and how he entered Chicago Politics. Remnick examines how Obama embodied his identity and drew from his past to give a language to his presidential campaign that was based on optimism.

David Remnick is a journalist and writer. He has served as the editor of The New Yorker since 1998, and a staff writer since 1992. He has written many pieces for the magazine, including reporting from Russia, the Middle East, and Europe, and profiles on Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Katharine Graham, Mike Tyson, Ralph Ellison, Philip Roth, and Benjamin Netanyahu. Remnick began his reporting career as a staff writer at The Washington Post in 1982, and by 1988, started a four-year tenure as a Moscow correspondent. Remnick has written six books, including Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (1993), for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and a George Polk Award for excellence in journalism in 1994; and The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama (2010), a biography of Barack Obama.

From the 2021 three-part HBO documentary series Obama: In Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union. The personal and political journey of President Barack Obama is explored that weaves together conversations with colleagues, friends, and critics, alongside his own speeches and interviews.

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David Remnick, Journalist
Interviewed By: Peter Kunhardt
Interview Date: September 22, 2018

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