Lauren Ober and Hanna Rosin

Lauren Ober is a journalist and longtime podcast creator and host of shows such as The Loudest Girl In The World (Pushkin Industries/iHeart), Fine Gorilla Person (Topic Studios/Audible) and Spectacular Failures (AMPStudios). Hanna Rosin is the host of Radio Atlantic, the flagship weekly podcast of The Atlantic. She also serves as a senior editor at the magazine. Previously, Hanna was co-host of NPR’s Invisibilia. 

Most recently, Ober and Rosin created and hosted We Live Here Now for The Atlantic. The podcast is the first (and likely last project) they’ve worked on together. Lol, but like furreal.

Explain We Live Here Now in 10 words or less.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith Go To Washington, but January 6 MAGA-style.

How would you describe the sound / vibe of the show?
LO: We had a nasty run-in with a new neighbor, which is very uncharacteristic for us. We love our neighborhood and have always had great neighbor relations. So this encounter was unsettling and we told some friends about it. Before we knew it, we had Scooby-Doo’d our way to learning who our new neighbor was — a very prominent figure in the January 6 community. So we pulled some string and realized that there was a whole house full of Jan. 6 apologists including (spoiler alert!) the mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed at the U.S. Capitol. So obviously it’s a light podcast. 😩

How do you both play into the podcast? Are you a united team? What are your characters / roles in the story?
HR: Lauren was the one who forged a relationship with our neighbors first. And in the show, I am deeply skeptical of this. Or at least I want to push back. At one point in the show, I ask Lauren “Are you guys like, friends now?” Lauren’s answer is kind of cagey because she’s still not sure where she’s landed with them. She wants to say no, but she has deep affection for Ashli Babbitt’s mother Micki. 

Yes, Lauren Ober is a super professional responsible hard-hitting journalist and all that. But I feel the duty to constantly remind her that these guys are saying and doing dangerous things. I wouldn’t say it’s quite good cop/bad cop, but there’s a little bit of that in the show. And at one point, in the end of episode 3, we play a hot mic moment — which happened for real  — when we got into it in the studio. 

What’s it like working together on an audio project?
LO: Ask our couples therapist. 

HR: Pass.

So this show is about a neighbor, but what’s it really about?
LO: It’s really about the “other” and how to transcend massive cultural, political, economic, etc. differences and just see some humanity in the person sitting across from you. It’s about being able to hold two or more contradictory ideas about a person. And it’s about interrogating your own belief system. 

HR:  But then it’s also about the grotesque revisionist history of January 6 worming its way through the MAGA right. And how regular people have gotten swept up in it. And how dangerous a Lost Cause-style narrative of a national tragedy can be for democracy. Please see: post-Reconstruction Era, Jim Crow South.

How is your relationship with your neighbor now? Does she know about the podcast?
LO: She most definitely knows about it (and the companion print piece that Hanna wrote) and has listened to the episodes. We have been fully transparent with Micki throughout and have gotten her consent at every step. We’ve had a lot of difficult conversations and we have told her over and over that there will be material in the show that she won’t like. But it will be honest and fair reporting. And so far she’s seemed to be ok with that. Which is shocking given her rank disdain for “mainstream” media. Also, as I write this, Micki literally just texted me that she was listening to episode 4 when I was walking the dogs past her house!

Can you tease one great moment of the show?
HR: I will give you one word: Dildo

What’s a podcast you love that everyone already knows about?
LO: Heavyweight

HR: In the Dark

What’s a podcast you love that not enough people know about?
LO: I have a tie: Straightio Lab and The Curious History of Your Home

HR: The Blindboy Podcast

What didn’t I ask you that I should have?
The handles for our very anemic social media!

LO: @oberandout

HR: @hannarosin

Thanks, Lauren and Hanna!