What Tom Hanks Thinks of America
About this episode
Ezra Klein asks Tom Hanks what he makes of America, using the actor's new novel 'The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece' as a starting point. Hanks describes his fascination with ordinary American lives and the craft of moviemaking, and discusses his beloved typewriter collection as emblems of deliberate, physical work. He pushes back against the cynical turn in film and television — the dominance of superheroes and antiheroes — arguing that sincerity and decency, in the mode of Mr. Rogers, are harder and more interesting than irony. Klein draws him out on how America's stories about itself have changed, and Hanks offers a fundamentally optimistic account: the country, in his telling, keeps muddling toward its ideals. There is little disagreement; the episode is a warm, reflective conversation about storytelling, craft, and national character.