Book · 2026 · Political Science
How to Eat an Elephant
One Voter at a Time
- mentions
- 5
- people
- 2
- podcast
- 1
- episode
- 1
- recommendation
- 1
How to Eat an Elephant. It's a fantastic book. Everyone go buy it. We don't want Ted Cruz beating you on the bestseller list. Yeah, or Victor Davis Hanson or some other weird Republican. Any of these fucking losers.
Why people recommend it
How to Eat an Elephant by Sarah Longwell is a book that examines contemporary American politics, voter behavior, and the information environment. Jon Favreau recommended the book enthusiastically on Pod Save America, urging listeners to purchase it and prevent it from losing ground on bestseller lists to other political commentators. During the interview, Favreau engaged with several key themes from the text, discussing Longwell's insights into the pervasive lack of trust in modern politics and connecting his own observations about political advertising and the cultural demand for authenticity to her arguments. Sarah Longwell also used her appearance on the podcast to elaborate on the political dynamics covered in her book, analyzing the shifting coalitions among non-college working-class voters, Hispanic voters, Black voters, and young voters during recent elections. Additionally, Longwell shared an anecdote from the book's introduction about encountering former politician Kevin McCarthy backstage at a New York Times summit, using the story to illustrate how voters might perceive figures like Marco Rubio within the post-Trump Republican Party.
Every mention
Jon Favreau How to Eat an Elephant. It's a fantastic book. Everyone go buy it. We don't want Ted Cruz beating you on th… 3
“I also think in, you write about this in the book that, um, I think you said like, sometimes you think that the most important thing about politics is the lack of trust right now. The trust is the biggest issue.”
“I have this unproven theory that at some point there's just diminishing returns on saturating everyone's screens with political ads because people just tune them out partly because there are so many, partly because they just don't seem authentic in an information environment that prizes authenticity, which you write a lot about in the book. But what do you think?”
“How to Eat an Elephant. It's a fantastic book. Everyone go buy it. We don't want Ted Cruz beating you on the bestseller list. Yeah, or Victor Davis Hanson or some other weird Republican. Any of these fucking losers.”
Sarah Longwell And, but I guess, uh, so I tell a story in the book, right in the introduction about being backstage at the… 2
“On the other side of that coin though, is the non college working class voters and a multiracial working class coalition. You know, Trump, Trump won with Hispanics or much, much higher proportion of Hispanics, a much higher proportion of black voters, much higher proportion of young voters. Um, and I think once you get to a general election, the”
“And, but I guess, uh, so I tell a story in the book, right in the introduction about being backstage at the deal book summit, uh, for the New York times and Kevin McCarthy is there and he's preening around.”
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“She's also got a great new book out. But first, Lovett, speaking of books, I think you had an event that you wanted to mention.”
“You're here on your book tour. I am. The book is How to Eat an Elephant, One Voter at a Time. It's a fantastic book. Thank you.”
“I think to me, what's more interesting is not who runs. It's sort of what voters want in a post Trump world, because a big part of my theory of the case rests on this fact that Trump has changed the Republican party to such a degree where it is this cult of personality.”