Matt Giorgianni - President Taft

We talk to research scientist Matt Giorgianni (specializes in genomics, which is interesting enough that we could have just talked about that but restrained ourselves) to discuss his obsession with President William Howard Taft. After a chance viewing of a portrait of Taft in New Orleans, Matt got obsessed with him. Most people only know that Taft was "the fat president?" but there is a lot more to taft: He was a protege and later rival of Teddy Roosevelt, an incredibly popular student of law and reform and getting things donate governor-general of the Philippines on behalf of the US and then later the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which means he's the only person to be at the had of TWO of the three branches of US government. Man look at all we're writing: this is a great episode! Also, Will talks about the close-up magic of Helder Guimaraes, and Anthony discusses some advice on rewriting from author George Saunders.