Inside Up With Chris Hayes: Behind The Commercial Breaks

This past Sunday, prior to my interview with Up With Chris Hayes host Chris Hayes, I got to observe the last hour-and-a-half of MSNBC's new, rapidly rising weekend political roundtable. In the last installment of Inside Up With Chris Hayes, we take you behind the scenes and show you what happens during the show's much-talked-about, but never seen, commercial breaks with Hayes and panelists Reihan Salam, Rebecca Traister, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, and Elise Jordan. As I've discovered from watching the #Uppers hashtag, there are two things that Up fans are inordinately fascinated with: the discussions that go on during the commercial breaks, which are frequently referenced on the air, and the plate of muffins and pastries that many guests seem too shy to sample. I've got generous helpings of both for you. During my time on the set, I tried to swoop in like a media Marlin Perkins and capture the panel in its natural habitat, undisturbed. The banter during the breaks is indicative of the energy that makes the show so appealing. The talk doesn't turn peripheral, there is no actual "break." The conversation just...continues. The dialogue can be difficult to hear, so I boosted the audio as best I could, but these clips are also fascinating if you're into backstage details, like I am. As it happens, I'm going to show you the last break first, because it requires a little bit of setup. Sunday's show featured a terrific interview with Dr. Susan Wood (which you should watch here), and a discussion about the Obama administration's awful decision to make Plan B a prescription-only drug for those under age 17, and the President's awful response to it (he parroted Republican talking points about selling Plan B "alongside bubble gum"). During an earlier break, Hayes had said that he thought the politics of the decision were right. During the final break, which was longer than the others, I asked him if he meant the decision itself was the right politics, or the President's framing. The clip also features panelist Reihan Salam, who is known to Up viewers as the one guest who can be relied on to chow down during the show, literally inhaling a pastry in the background, but surviving the ordeal. NEXT: The Politics Of Climate Science Another thing you'll notice from these breaks is that Hayes spends nearly all of them dividing his time between his panel and his Twitter feed. He doesn't tweet all that much during the show, but as the last clip indicates, he is listening. During this next break, NRO's Reihan Salam and Hayes engaged in a lively discussion of the politics of climate science: NEXT: Rebecca Traister On Plan B In this clip, Salon's Rebecca Traister talked, disapprovingly, about President Obama's response to the Plan B question. This is where Hayes says "The politics of this are exactly right." For what it's worth, I strongly disagree with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' decision, and even more with President Obama's statement on the subject. Instead of a "cool" statement of support for Sebelius' decision, the President delivered an emotionally manipulative, intellectually dishonest response that effectively put Plan B into a political lock box. NEXT: Rick Perry's Anti-Gay Ad Some of these clips are shorter than others, because I was also shooting stills. This break features a brief discussion of Rick Perry's anti-gay TV ad, and the ironic way it demonstrates progress: NEXT: What You Should Know It's a little difficult to hear this next clip, but it does give a good sense of how the show sets up for things like the "What You Should Know" segment: NEXT: Alex Witt Tease And Show Wrap Finally, this is a clip that I love, because it demonstrates the weird spatial relationship between Weekends host Alex Witt, as she teases her upcoming show, and the Up Scooby Gang. ON TV, it looks like they could be in completely different studios, but in reality, they're just a stone's throw apart. I also included the show wrap: It occurs to me only now that I took my anthropological role entirely too seriously, and never actually spoke a word to any of those panelists. If you're reading this, sorry about that, and it was nice to meet you all. Well, that's the end of our trip Inside Up. If you're a fellow fan of the show, I hope you've enjoyed getting to know a little (or a lot) more about it. If you're not, I recommend you find an hour or four this weekend to give it a try. There's music and fun, and if you're not careful, you might just learn something before it's done.

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Inside Up With Chris Hayes: Behind The Commercial Breaks

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