Politics

Episode 10: Interview With Adam McKay, Director of 'The Big Short'

March 15th 2017

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Oscar-winning director Adam McKay famously tackled the disastrous financial collapse of 2007 in the 2015 film "The Big Short." He took an opaque topic — it impacted the world, but remains bafflingly complex — and made it easily digestible for a mass audience.

The issue of money in politics has become a point of action for McKay. He's on the board of Represent.Us, an organization working to root money out of politics. In an interview with ATTN: Editor in Chief Matthew Segal, McKay again breaks down complicated topics from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United to to why people vote against their own interests.

The "Got Your Attention" crew also tackles the latest Congressional Budget Office report on healthcare. On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) admitted that the American Health Care Act (also called Trumpcare, Ryancare, and GOPcare) would need to be revised to pass in the House of Representatives, the Washington Post reported.

This announcement comes two days after the non-partisan CBO released its report on the GOP replacement for the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). The ACHA would cause 14 million to lose their insurance next year, the CBO found, and over a decade, 24 million would lose their coverage.

Who would be most affected by the American Health Care Act? (Spoiler: It's older and poorer Americans, who could see their premiums go up as much as 750 percent, according to Vox.)

The "Got Your Attention" group also chats about escapist television, if alcohol causes you to gain weight, and what happened at Middlebury College on March 2.

Podcast notes:

Read more about the stories we did (and didn't) talk about this week on "Got Your Attention."

  • On Monday we learned the impact of the GOP healthcare bill, the American Health Care Act, on the American public. Spoiler: 24 million would lose coverage over a decade. Here's what Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) had to say about the AHCA.
  • Ivanka Trump's parental leave policy — the one that got a lot of backlash after her heated interview with reporter Prachi Gupta in Cosmo — is getting a makeover.
  • A woman is suing the state of Virginia for blocking her ability to adopt because of her drug record. The Washington Post explains.
  • Major networks are tackling controversial issues this year: ABC's "American Crime" returns with a third season that addresses Mexican workers coming across the U.S. border as well as sex trafficking. Fox, meanwhile, will introduce "Shots Fired," a series that seeks to be equally provocative — built as it is around the shooting death of a white college student by an African American cop, unleashing racial discord.
  • Here's who Nick Viall proposed to on "The Bachelor." And why immigration might be tough for the couple, as broken down by The Cut's Anna Silman.
  • Have you ever wondered how “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” stars make money after they’re done with the show? The Cut did interviews with former contestants to find out.
  • Unreleased video raises questions about the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri.
  • A New York Times article set out to find if cutting out alcohol to lose weight was actually a good piece of advice.
  • ATTN: reported about 2016 being a devastating year for Syrian children: A 2017 report from UNICEF found that a least 652 children died in Syria in 2016. ATTN:'s Charles Davis wrote about "Cries from Syria," a new HBO documentary that has a particular focus on the children of Syria.
  • Congress approved a $19.5 billion NASA budget to get us to Mars.
  • A video of police asking an Uber driver they pulled over to stop recording them because of a new law went viral. Not only did they not believe that the man that he was a n attorney, but they actually made up a law to try to get him to stop recording.
  • What the heck happened at Middlebury? The professor who suffered a concussion wrote about it in the New York Times.

What is the "Got Your Attention" podcast?

If you've ever wondered how the staff pitch and select the stories that you read or watch at ATTN:, we're giving you an inside listen. ATTN: Media is excited to announce "Got Your Attention," a podcast where ATTN: staffers compete to have their pitches accepted by our host — while also unpacking some of the week's most important headlines.

The game is simple: Three ATTN: staff members — Senior Social Trends Editor Omri Rolan, Staff Writer Kyle Jaeger, and Senior Editor Sarah Gray — pitch their best stories to our host and Head of Editorial Mike Vainisi. If Mike picks their story, they get a point, and the four discuss the story.

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