Episode 2233: Paul Greenberg predicts a George Washington vs Donald Trump election in 2028

The good news is that the interminable 2024 election is almost done. The bad news is that the 2028 Presidential campaign - sure to be described as the most important election in American history - will begin later this week. The best-selling writer Paul Greenberg is already imagining this election. “It is 2028 and a certain president wants a third term,” is the premise of Greenberg’s new satire, A Third Term: A Novella. And to counter this Republican President, (un)popularly known as “the Tyrant”, an operative snatches a certain George Washington from his deathbed in 1799 and makes him the 2028 Democratic candidate. The really interesting question in this imaginary Trump-Washington match-up are their running mates. If Washington selects FDR, then I’m guessing Trump will go with Robert E. Lee. It’s going to be quite a spectacle. I can’t wait.

Paul Greenberg writes at the intersection of the environment and technology, seeking to help his readers escape screens and find emotional and ecological balance with their planet. He is the author of six books including the New York Times bestseller and Notable Book Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food. His other books are The Climate Diet, Goodbye Phone, Hello World, The Omega Principle, American Catch, and the novel, Leaving Katya. He currently hosts the podcast Fish Talk. Paul’s writing on oceans, climate change, health, technology, and the environment appears regularly in The New York Times and many other publications. He’s the recipient of a James Beard Award for Writing and Literature, a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and many other grants and awards. Currently the writer-in-residence at The Safina Center, Paul contributes to academic life as a visiting scholar at the University of Washington’s Ocean Nexus Center, and as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Animal Studies Program in Manhattan. In summers he runs a study-abroad program on the Mediterranean Diet in Greece for Boston’s Northeastern University. His books are used widely in university and high school curricula and have been excerpted on the College Board’s AP English Exam. Paul is a frequent guest on national television and radio incl