ICYMI - Our interview with Obama

We released Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias' full 70-minute interview withPresident Obama this past Monday. It was a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation on everything from the filibuster to foreign aid. The weekend is the perfect time to watch it again. Here are some of the highlights; click on the video to watch on YouTube. Obama on why inequality has skyrocketed "Some of it has to do with technology and entire job sectors being eliminated — travel agents, bank tellers, a lot of middle management — because of efficiencies with the internet and a paperless office. A lot of it has to do with globalization and the rest of the world catching up. … Workers increasingly had less leverage because of changes in labor laws and the ability for capital to move and labor not to move. You combine all that stuff, and it's put workers in a tougher position." Obama on why he’s such a polarizing president "The balkanization of the media means that we just don't have a common place where we get common facts and a common worldview the way we did 20, 30 years ago. And that just keeps on accelerating … Technology which brings the world to us also allows us to narrow our point of view. That's contributed to it. Gerrymandering contributes to it. … And a lot of it has to do with just unlimited money." Obama on the goal of his foreign policy "The goal of any good foreign policy is having a vision and aspirations and ideals, but also recognizing the world as it is, where it is, and figuring out how do you tack to the point where things are better than they were before. That doesn't mean perfect. It just means it's better." Obama on what most Americans get wrong about foreign aid "Time and time again, when they do surveys, and they ask people what proportion of the foreign budget is spent on foreign aid, they'll say, '25%.' They're pretty sure all their hard-earned money that they pay in taxes is somehow going to other folks. … It varies between 1-2% depending on how you define it." You can watch Ezra's interview on Obama's domestic policy here and Matt's interview on his foreign policy here; be sure to also check out the full text with annotations. Enjoy, and don't be shy about sharing with your friends! Read more from Vox President Obama: I’d love a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United The irony of Obama’s optimism on race and politics The glaring contradiction in Obama's case for his own foreign policy The Obama Undoctrine Randomgate is why politicians are so boring