The beginning of Season Six of the HBO comedy Veep finds Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, assuring the nation in a morning news interview that her post-White House life is going really well.
In reality, she's had to spend some time getting over her election defeat at what she insists was a spa. The season follows Selina and her luckless staffers as they try to cement her legacy through a memoir and a presidential library celebrating her very brief tenure in the oval office.
Our guest today is David Mandel, the Emmy-winning showrunner of Veep. He took over for series creator Armando Iannucci at the beginning of Season Five.
Mandel got his start on Saturday Night Live, and went on to write for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He tells us about overseeing Veep in the age of Trump, keeping track of the show's relentless torrent of vicious insults and how his wife's hands inspired one of the most famous episodes of Seinfeld.