How do you write a speech for VP-Elect Kamala Harris? Or Amb. Susan Rice? Or Pete Buttigieg? What happens if you disagree with the person you are writing speeches for? What’s it like to write speeches on the road for an upstart presidential candidate?

With Zev Karlin-Neumann, we address these questions and more. Karlin-Neumann was the chief speechwriter to Mayor Pete Buttigieg in his 2020 presidential campaign, then-Senator Kamala Harris’s speechwriter in the Senate, and Amb. Susan Rice’s speechwriter when she was national security advisor to President Obama. He started his career in the House of Representatives and at the communications firm West Wing Writers.

I hope you enjoy!

Speeches mentioned: President Obama’s speech to the Canadian parliament in 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAxaeB9-E70&feature=emb_title

Mayor Pete’s concession speech on March 1, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP3n1EtCdIQ

Amb. Susan Rice’s remarks to the American Jewish Committee in 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkaTplfdJUA

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1. What's your favorite podcast? The Deciding Decade -- Pete Buttigieg

2. Most insightful person you follow on social media?Prof. Kevin Kruse

3. Book/s that have most shaped your thinking?"A Promised Land" -- Pres. Barack Obama"Master of the Senate" -- Robert Caro"These Truths" -- Jill Lepore

*(Forgot to ask during the podcast, so followed up afterward. Sorry we couldn't have a discussion about these works and how they impacted Karlin-Neumann)