{"podcast":{"title":"New Books Network","slug":"new-books-network-529292","podcast_index_feed_id":529292,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT4543917034","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/c7b83ac8-f29a-11e8-95f0-b7d36d8f3036/image/Main_Channelpage.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":500,"summary":"Interviews with Authors about their New Books Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network","last_synced_at":"2026-07-13T16:21:50.993700+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292"},"episode":{"title":"Oscar Winberg, \"Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics\" (UNC Press, 2025)","slug":"oscar-winberg-archie-bunker-for-president-how-one-television-show-remade-american-politics-unc-press-2025","published_at":"2026-05-25T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292/oscar-winberg-archie-bunker-for-president-how-one-television-show-remade-american-politics-unc-press-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK2320256728.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK2320256728.mp3","summary":"Political historian Oscar Winberg has a fascinating new book titled Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics. This book weaves together quite a few different threads in examining the historical context in which the television show, All In The Family, landed on American television screens. Archie Bunker for President examines why this particular sitcom was a kind of inflection point within U.S. politics, within the media landscape at the time and moving forward, and how television production shifted and changed around this one particular television series. Winberg also lays out the path from the early 1970s, when All in the Family first aired, to our contemporary political moment, when celebrity and politics seem to be inescapably intertwined. As Winberg notes in our conversation, television as an entity is inherently conservative, since the functional model was about appealing to the lowest common denominator so that advertisers would be willing to pay for time during shows. In order to reach the most viewers, at least in the age of network television, the television series needed to appeal to the largest market possible, and not “turn off” viewers. What happens in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the television show All in the Family is that this dynamic shifts, and the case is made that it isn’t about reaching the most people, but about reaching the people who have the means and inclination to purchase what the advertisers are selling. This is part of the pitch that Norman Lear makes, that CBS executive Bob Wood finally decides to gamble on by greenlighting All in the Family. The dynamic inside the show itself is to focus on politics: to have the characters within the series discuss different political issues, and engage with t…","meta_description":"Political historian Oscar Winberg has a fascinating new book titled Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics. This bo…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3045,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-network-529292/episodes/oscar-winberg-archie-bunker-for-president-how-one-television-show-remade-american-politics-unc-press-2025/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292/oscar-winberg-archie-bunker-for-president-how-one-television-show-remade-american-politics-unc-press-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}