Introducing The Will Bunch Culture Club

Ever since I started one of the first blogs by a mainstream newsroom journalist (Attytood, way back in early 2005) I’ve been motivated by the idea that meaningful journalism starts with a community and a conversation. I took a great leap forward a couple of years ago with the launch of The Will Bunch Newsletter (it’s weekly and it’s free to all — if you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for?!) — and now comes a spin-off that I’m incredibly excited about: The Will Bunch Culture Club.

A few times a year, I hope we can bond over a cultural event — a new book, or maybe a podcast, or a documentary — that captures the zeitgeist of the things we like around here. The idea is to then all get together after several weeks — enough time to read the book or listen to the podcast or watch the documentary — to talk about it. We’ll start virtually but maybe one day we’ll actually get to do this in person!

I’m thrilled to announce we’re going to start with the fantastic, acclaimed new book Watergate: A New History by Garrett M. Graff.

Graff is both a political fanatic and a great storyteller. Some of you may have read his oral history of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky — and he was right to think that the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in which occurred on June 17, 1972, is the perfect time to revisit the most famous political scandal in American history. If you’re a boomer like me and watched the downfall of Richard Nixon unfold through the eyes of a young person, Graff will help you see some things in a new light, like the role of journalists Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and their “Deep Throat” source — the FBI’s Mark Felt. If you’re like most folks and weren’t around in the 1970s, Graff’s tome will show you what all the fuss was about, and why today’s scandals — like Jan. 6 — are still viewed through a Watergate prism.

Watergate: A New History is out now — at your local independent bookseller, at the usual suspects like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, at the library, as an audiobook on Audible and in the Kindle format. Please check it out, and then sign up to join Garrett and me as we talk about Watergate and writing the book, and as he answers your questions, during a live virtual event. It’s happening on March 30 — that’s a Wednesday — at 4:15 p.m., but you can email me with your thoughts at any time, or tweet them to me @Will_Bunch. And after the event, I’ll publish some of your thoughts and reviews in the newsletter, and we’ll start planning the next one!