Financial Times 08 15 2020

JANUARY 11/12 2020AUGUST 15/16 2020

Joe Biden has been trying to win the White House for more than thirty years. Will he make it this time?By Edward Luce

RACEOFALIFETIME

3FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

5 JemimaKellyWhy we’re all hypocrites in the end

6 InventoryAnne Lamott, author

8 TechWorldIs it time to call time on time zones?

10 MirandaGreenIn praise of going backwards

10 Letters

12 Avery long race to theWhite HouseAfter nearly 50 years in politics – andprevious runs for the top job – the pollssuggest Joe Biden is on track to become thenext US president. Edward Luce weighs upthe man, his prospects and his plans

24 Theghost treesofPugliaAs the Italian region’s olive grovessuccumb to a deadly disease, photographerJames Mollison documents their destruction

30 ObservationsWhy are we so interested in what previouscivilisations ate and drank? And what does ittell us? Fuchsia Dunlopmixes gastronomyand archaeology to find out

34 OnthepulseDal, the superfood of the subcontinent, lendsitself to countless flavours and textures.Anjli Raval,Mamta Badkar and Tony Tassellshare their favourite recipes

41 Andrew JeffordCanada’s wild west: winefrom British Columbia

43 Fantasy DinnerThe FT’s chief features writerHenry Mance on his dream meal

44 Nicholas LanderDomaine du Météore, Cabrerolles

45 Games46 Gillian Tett

How Generation TikTok could soonbe calling the political tune

@FTMag

‘Puglia was the perfect place to be in quarantine– but our trees were dying before our eyes’James Mollison on the decline of the region’s olive groves, p24

JAMES

MOLLISON

‘Mymother’s dailydal was an expressionof her love’Recipes from FT writers, p34

‘I’m a bit concernedabout Anglo-Saxontable manners’Henry Mance’s Fantasy Dinner withKing Harold and others, p43

Issue number 883 • Online ft.com/magazine • FT WeekendMagazine is printed by the Walstead Group in the UK andpublished by The Financial Times Ltd, Bracken House, 1 FridayStreet, London EC4M 9BT © The Financial Times Ltd 2020• No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any formwithout the prior express permission of the publisher

Cover illustration by Marco Ventura

5ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY HAYSOMFT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

Jemima Kelly is a reporter on FT Alphaville;[email protected] @jemimajoannaSimon Kuper is away

those of others – and it is easier to do so becausewehavegreaterinsightintowhatliesbehindthemandagreaterdesire toexcuseourselves.Hypocrisy is often described as “saying one

thing and doing another”. But actually it is aboutmorethanmereinconsistency;failingto“practisewhat you preach” gets closer to it. A drug addictwhowarns others not to take drugs is not seen asa hypocrite, though someone who publicly con-demns drug-taking as morally abhorrent, say,andthenis foundtohavebeentakingdrugsthem-selvesprobablywouldbe.

Donald Trump has been wildly inconsistentduring his presidency, and is often called a liar, acheat,afraud.Accusationsofhypocrisy,however,don’t tend to stick. That’s becauseTrumpdoesn’ttake the moral high ground; he misleads, exag-gerates and brags shamelessly. That gives him akind of protection against the charge. During the2016presidential campaign, itwas suggested thathe should be taken “seriously, but not literally”.“If you don’t take someone’s words literally, thatperson has a lot of latitude in what they can thendowithout seeming likeahypocrite,” saysEffron.While people may not like a liar, according to

Jillian Jordan, an assistant professor at HarvardBusiness Schoolwho led a 2017 study on the sub-ject, hypocrites are seen as worse. In the study,people perceived those who condemned othersfor illegally downloading music and then did sothemselvesasmoreobjectionable–andmorehyp-ocritical – than thosewho liedaboutdoing so.“Our theory is that theproblemwithhypocrisy

isthatit involvesfalsesignalling,andinterestinglyhypocrisy involvesmore false signalling thanout-right lying,” she says. “That might contribute towhy people hate hypocrites evenmore than theyhate liars.”But though wemight hate it, hypocrisy is per-

haps a necessary evil. If we are to live in a societyguidedbymoralprinciples, it is inevitable thatweimperfect humans will sometimes breach them.Andwhile some of ourmoral principlesmight betoo rigid, it is surely better to have standards thatcannotalwaysbekept than tonothaveanyat all.That doesn’t mean that we should not call out

hypocrisy, but perhaps it should be allowed toslide down our ranking of moral transgressions.After all, we are all hypocrites some of the time.Nevermore so thanwhenwe are berating othersfor theirhypocrisy.

If there’s one thing that people across thepolitical spectrum can agree on, it’s thattheycannot standahypocrite.In our polarised political climate, the

chargeofhypocrisy isoneof themostpow-erfulweapons,oftenusedtosilenceanyonewithwhomwe don’t agreewithout havingto actually engage with their arguments.Once someone has laid out any kind ofmoral principle, if they are ever found tohavesomuchascomeclosetobreachingit,it isasiftheyhaveeffectivelyforfeitedtheir

right to sayanythingelseon the subject.“Hypocrite!” a woman shouted at Dominic

Cummings as the British prime minister’s chiefadviser entered his home back in May, shortlyafter it emerged that he had broken the govern-ment’s own lockdownrulesbymakinga264-miletrip across England. Some pointed out that thehordes of photographers, journalists and othermembers of the publicwho had gathered outsidehis house were themselves being somewhat hyp-ocritical, given thatmany of themwere failing toadequately social-distanceas theychidedhim.It’s much harder to recognise our own hypoc-

risy.Virtue-signallerswhospendtheirtimecallingout other people’s moral transgressions oftenseem blissfully unaware of the instances whentheymaybebreaking theirowntoo-rigid rules.In a recent poll by Ipsos Mori, 75 per cent of

respondents said theywere following the govern-ment’s coronavirus regulations all or nearly all ofthe time, but only 12 per cent believed the rest oftheBritishpublicwasdoingso. Intheearlydaysoflockdown,onewould frequentlyheargrumblingsabouthowmanypeoplewere in thepark,makingit impossible to keep twometres apart. Onewon-deredhowtheyhadmanaged tofind thisout.Andwhile people tend tomake fairly accurate

assessments of others’ behaviour in areas wherethere isn’t much implied moral judgment or asense of them unfairly obtaining an advantage,in surveys on issues such as tax avoidance andthrowing “sickies”, we hugely overestimate how“bad”otherpeopleare.We seem to have a kind of paranoia that eve-

ryone apart from us is busy breaking the moralprinciplesthatholdsocietytogether.Ourinstinct,therefore, is to pounce upon anyone who trans-gresses,soastokeepthatmoralframeworkintact,while giving ourselves a considerable amount ofleeway. To varying extents, we are all, in otherwords,hypocrites.So why can’t we stand this characteristic in

others? Daniel Effron, associate professor oforganisational behaviour at the LondonBusinessSchool, says it’s because we resent people get-ting a “moral benefit” that they don’t deserve.If someone condemns another for some kind ofwrongdoing, theyare ineffect signalling that theythemselvesnotonlydonotengage inthatactivity,but aremore virtuous than the personwho does.Of course, says Effron, we are more motivatedto rationalise our own inconsistent actions than

‘We have a kind of paranoiathat everyone apart from us isbreaking themoral principlesthat hold society together’

JEMIMAKELLYOPEN ING SHOT

Whywe’re allhypocrites inthe end

6

SAM

LAMOTT

‘I found literalsalvation in reading,like other peoplefound salvationin Jesus’

I NVENTORY ANNE LAMOTTAUTHOR

FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

AnneLamott, 66, is the authorofbest-sellingnon-fiction titles suchasTravelingMercies,OperatingInstructions,HallelujahAnywayand SomeAssemblyRequired, aswell as novels including ImperfectBirdsandRosie.

Whatwas your childhoodorearliest ambition?To be awriter. I found literalsalvation in reading, like otherpeople found salvation in Jesus.I would not have been able tobear life without early and fullimmersion into books.Private school or state school?University or straight intowork?Private hippie high school in SanFrancisco. Two years of liberal artscollege, then I quit to be awriter.Accidentally became aKelly Girl,temping for awhile instead.Whowasor still is yourmentor?My fatherwasmyfirstmentor,until he diedwhen Iwas 25. Hewasa very disciplinedwriter, at his deskat 5.30amfive days aweek, rainor shine, flu or hangover, tap taptapping away. For the past 30 years,mymentor has been awild ScienceofMind healer whom I call HorribleBonnie, because she lovesme andlife unabashedly, nomatter howawful our circumstances are.Howphysicallyfit are you?Very, for 66, although I wish I hadremembered to go to the gymafterthe babywas born 30 years ago.I walk an hour every day.Ambitionor talent:whichmattersmore to success?Talent – some sort of inner gift.And then the ability to developstrict professional habits. Disciplinehas beenmypath to freedom –ie I do not askmyself if I want toget a little writing done today.I’m the livingNike ad: “Just do it.”Howpolitically committedare you?Extremely.Whatwouldyou like toown thatyoudon’t currentlypossess?AShar-Pei puppy. Also, aprivate jet.What’s yourbiggestextravagance?Anew skin serum that costs $57 anounce – it promises I will look likeEmmaWatson any day now, insteadof like a Shar-Pei puppy. Cheap attwice the price!Inwhatplace are youhappiest?Onmybed, reading, or hikingnearby under the redwoods, whichI do every day.Walking to 7-Eleven

withmy grandson for ice-creambars. Lying on the couchwithmydog and the latest NewYorker.What ambitionsdoyou still have?None that I can think of. I’d like toget back to India onemore time.Whatdrives youon?My faith in God and goodness,trying to be awomanwho gets outof herself to be a person for others,feeding the hungry. (There aremany kinds of hunger,many kindsof food.) God and I have a deal:I take care of her other kids, andshe takes care ofme.What is the greatest achievementof your life so far?Maybe being sober for 33 years,one day at a time, with a lot ofhelp. Also, I’m a fabulous Sundayschool teacher.Whatdoyoufindmost irritatinginotherpeople?Platitudes during times of hardshipand suffering, eg “God never givesusmore thanwe can handle.”What a crock! Andmale privilege.That sense of victimised and self-righteous entitlement.If your 20-year-old self could seeyounow,whatwould she think?That shewouldwant to bemewhenshe grewup, but would stronglyrecommend that I get heavily intosunscreenASAP.Whichobject that you’ve lost doyouwishyou still had?Myphone.What is the greatest challengeof our time?Trump.Doyoubelieve in anafterlife?Absolutely. And Iwant to sit nearthe dessert table.If youhad to rate your satisfactionwithyour life so far, out of 10,whatwouldyou score?Eight or nine. I have been beyondlucky and blessed professionally.My 30-year-old son is (mostly) awonderful person, and he gaveme agrandchildwhen hewas 19 –whichhad not exactly been in the plans–which has been the greatest joy.Therewere years of desperationand poverty –my teens and entiretwenties – toomany deathswhenIwasmuch younger, a gorgeousand sometimes harrowing career,astonishing lifelong friendships andnow a late-in-lifemarriage to anexcellentman. So let’s say nine.

Interview byHester Lacey.“Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott ispublished by Canongate Books inpaperback and ebook (£9.99/£7.99)

8 FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

Tim Bradshaw is the FT’s globaltechnology correspondent

Is it time tocall timeontime zones?

Anyonewhohas struggledto schedule a conferencecall acrossmultiple timezones should pity the poor

residents of Indiana. For decades,theMidwesternUS state has been influx overwhether to observe Centralor Eastern time. Some countieseven switched time zones twice in asmany years during themid-2000s.This situationmust be

particularly baffling to the peopleof India and China, whose countriesspan thousands ofmiles yet obey asingle time zone –whatever the costto their citizens’ Circadian rhythms.Today’s time zones are a

19th-century invention, drivenby railway engineers’ desire toharmonise schedules across statesand countries. Now that we travelat internet speed, the system isbreaking down.If the “robber barons” of the

railwayswere able to impose theirtimetable on theworld, perhaps itis time for today’s “cyber barons” toabolish time zones altogether. Fromvideo chat to virtual reality, SiliconValley has given us the tools toconquer space. But time is proving atougher adversary, evenwithin thetech companies themselves.In thewake of the pandemic,

companies such as Twitter inSan Francisco andOttawa-basedecommerce group Shopify have toldstaff they can carry onwith remoteworking indefinitely.However, despite predictions

of an exodus fromSan Francisco,employees should be careful howfar they venture fromSiliconValley.Companies that have run far-flungteams for awhile have found timezones to be an intractable problem.

Payments company Stripe, forinstance, has formally operateda “remote hub” for engineersformore than a year, but it stillasksmost teammembers to stayin adjacent time zones to theirimmediate colleagues.“Wewouldn’t hire a scaled

number of engineers 12 time zonesaway from those projects,” PatrickMcKenzie, a software engineerandmarketer who helped drawupStripe’s remoteworking guidelines,toldme earlier this year. There is noeasyway to get people collaboratingat the same timewithout forcingsome to be awake at odd hours.One of the firstmodern-day

attempts to disrupt time zonescame, counterintuitively, fromawatchmaker. In 1998, as dotcomhypewas crescendoing, Swatchtried to divide the day into 1,000“.beats”, each lasting oneminute

and 26.4 seconds. “Internet Timeexists so thatwe donot have tothink about time zones,” Swatchdeclared. Swatch no longerproduces .beats watches and theidea has been largely forgotten.In 2011, economist SteveHanke

and physicist Richard ConnHenrysuggested a slightly less radicalversion of the same idea. Insteadof replacing the current 24-hoursystemof timekeeping altogether,they argued for replacing the“cacophony of time zones” globallywith CoordinatedUniversal Time(UTC), sometimes also knownas GreenwichMeanTime. “Thereadings on the clocks…would bethe same for all,” theywrote, whileoffice hours or shop opening timeswould be adapted locally.This seems evenmore feasible

today, in aworldwhen the nineto five has been replaced by gig-economy jobs andhome-workingparents spend their eveningswithlaptops on their knees.But such a change to global

UTCwould create newheadachesof co-ordination.Wewould nolonger be able to ask, “What timeis it there?” to understandwhenitmight be appropriate to callsomeone. Assuming our calendarstrackedUTC in the sameway theydo local time today, days of theweekwould become a confusingconcept formany parts of theworld.When the clock passeswhatwe now callmidnight,Mondaywould tick into Tuesdayat lunchtime in some places andbreakfast in others. No amountof fiddlingwith the numbers onthe clock can change the factmostpeople will want toworkwhen it’slight and sleepwhen it’s dark.Still, if theywanted to, the tech

moguls of SiliconValley couldimpose this ordermore easily thanSwatch. Now thatmany of us havereplaced ourwristwatcheswithsmartphones for timekeeping,Internet Time 2.0 could be just asoftware update away.But twodecades on fromSwatch’s

original concept, it is getting harderto imagine a single Internet Timewith eachpassing day. The late-1990s utopian vision of oneworldunified by theweb is givingway toan evermore balkanised internet,with China, India, theUS andEurope all raising local barriers toforeign tech companies.Eradicating time zonesmay feel

like an ideawhose time has comebut themoment to achieve it hasprobably passed.

‘Silicon Valley has givenus the tools to conquerspace. But time is provinga tougher adversary’

T E C H

W O R L DBY T IM BRADSHAW IN LONDON

ILLUSTRATION BY PÂTÉ

10

ReRobert Shrimsley’s column“Fromparenthood to Covid:judging each other is backwith avengeance” (August 8/9).We’refamiliarwith judgmentsmadeabout others based on their choicesbeing bad for them;what’s differentnow is people are judging othersbecause their choices are bad forme. This is an overreach in any freesociety and the authorities need tobemindful of indulging it: once theprecedent is set, the intolerant of a“healthy” societywill not let it go.123Beer St via FT.com

Re “Was buying a Brooklyntownhouse just before lockdowntheworst trade ofmy life?” (August8/9). Five years ago Iwas decidingbetween a city house and one in thesuburbs. The idea of commutingone and ahalf hours every dayconvincedme to live in the city.TheCovid crisis is the first time Ihave regrettedmy choice. But onceit subsides, peoplewill flock backto the city.Work cannot survivewithout personal interaction.Jaga theWise via FT.com

What awonderful piece (“DIYfermentation: confessions andrecipes of a culture vulture”,August 8/9). I really enjoyed that.Whowould have guessed fromreadingAlex Barker’s past piecesthat he’s utterly bonkers? Thanks.Cold air balloonist via FT.com

Fascinating article (“A life inpictures: howphotographerNancyFloyd captured time passing”,August 8/9). I scanned our familyphotoswhenwewent digital andsequences such as starting schoolevery September since 1966 arelovely. I hope I can be sent a photoofmy grandchildrenwhen theystart school nextmonth.EnglishRose via FT.com

FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

Reply

Inpraiseofgoingbackwards

TocontributePlease email [email protected]. Includea daytime telephone number and full address(not for publication). Letters may be edited.

ILLUSTRATION BY LUCAS VARELA

MIRANDA GREENTHE NATIONAL CONVERSATION

There’s no going back, orso they say. Andwhen itcomes to our last familycar, there’s never been

a truer example of dedication toprogress – or at least to forwardmotion. About 80 per cent of thetime, a hopeless gearbox left itrefusing to reverse.Where other drivers circle

around simply for somewhere toleave their vehicle, we were forcedto seek parking spots fromwhichwe could cruise out again theonly waywe knew how: forwards.Journeys became a game in whichyou had to avoid any space – orindeed situation – thatmightrequire backing up.If coaxed, it did sometimes

co-operate. This was greeted withcries of amazed delight from bothfront and back seats: I boastedabout having “the knack”. Butit’s been less knack andmoreknackered for a while. So thisweek, we finally gave up andtraded it in.The noise of the jamming gear

stick (wewere on our secondgearbox) was so painful thatpassers-by would flinch and stare.But even these social penaltieshave not been harsh enough toprevent us from putting upwiththe situation and adjusting ourroutes and behaviour.The uncompromising attitude

our venerable Volvo adoptedseemed verymuch in tune withits era – Tony Blair boasted in2003, the year of itsmanufacture:“I can only go one way, I’ve not gota reverse gear.” But why did weendure over a year of this Blairite“forward, not back” intransigence?Our car, tomymind, proves

the theory that the humanrace is prepared to accept anunrecognised degree of downwardconvenience – and sometimeseven to prefer it. Being contentwith less is often the best use ofour resources.Whilemarketers

may chivvy us to update orupgrade,many of us are absolutelyfine with the same or less if itfrees up time,money or energyfor other priorities.My favourite example is a friend

in whose flat all the bulbs graduallyblew except one. Hewas franticallybusy and lived alone at the time.Rather than buy replacements,he carried the one functioninglamp from room to room. Crazy orefficient? It’s a tough call.Of course, adaptation works

in both directions: woe betideany politician who tries todeprive us of privileges we havebecome accustomed to. But I feelgreater affection for our speciesby dwelling on howwell andhow quickly we can cope withreduced circumstances.Decrepitude in cars seems to

bring out this trait inmany of us.A Twitter boast from radio hostMatthew Stadlen about jammedwindows and the vegetationgrowing inside his ancientVWGolf brought forth a litanyof affectionate tributes to bottom-of-the-rangemotoring.The driver of one car without

wipers had to take a passengeralong when it rained, to lean outand dry the windscreenwith atea towel. She only threw in theaforementioned towel when, on

World Book Day and dressed as awitch, she found herself sweepingaside snowwith her broomstick.A surprising number reported

having to clamber through thehatchback or back seats to getto the wheel. This became quitenormal to them. Onemanwascultivating a pea plant growingout of his dashboard – snacks!His delight is testament to ourheroic resilience.We should revelin this tendency to do so wellwith a workaround.Sadly, the pleasures ofmaking

do usually come to an endthrough disapproval; one person’scharmingminor dysfunction isanother’s insane compromise onsafety or quality of life. It was onlya friend’s genuine shock at ourunique no-reverse feature thatfinally forcedme to admit wehad to ditch the car.We are now the proud

possessors of a former fleet vehiclewith blacked-out windows andnot just a reverse gear but alsoa namby-pamby techno-luxurycalled a reversing camera. I don’treally like it. But you see, youcan get used to anything.

Miranda Green is the FT’sdeputy opinion editor;[email protected] Shrimsley is away

Tune in to watchAnthonyFauci discuss a lifetime of fighting disease, anda host of other global speakers, at this year’s digital FTWeekendFestival,September3-5. Join us for an extravaganza of debate, tastings, masterclassesand performances. For passes and programme: ftweekendfestival.com Q

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@cfruman August 6If you read one article today,let it be this one via @FT.Thoughtful voices on how toclose the gender pay gap


RACEOFALIFETIMEAt the start of Joe Biden’s campaign, many dismissedhim as too gaffe-prone, too garrulous and too old.But after a political career spanning nearly 50 years –and previous abortive runs for the top job – the pollssuggest that he may well be elected America’s 46thpresident. Edward Luceweighs up the man, his prospectsand his plans for the divided, pandemic-blighted USA



I t was late afternoon on February 2,the eve of the Iowa caucuses. Wewere jammed into a high-schoolgymnasium inDesMoines, the statecapital, for Joe Biden’s closing rally.No one thought he would win theprimaryseason’s talismanicopeningcontest the following day. Nor washe expected to comeclose tobeatingBernie Sanders, the socialist Ver-monter, in NewHampshire the nextweek. Though he was still ahead in

the national polls, the 77-year-old former vice-presidentwas treatedas yesterday’s news.A crowd of several hundred was waiting un-

expectantly. Biden entered roughly half an hourlate, accompanied by a phalanx of retired poli-ticians: John Kerry, 76, the former secretary ofstate; Chris Dodd, 75, the retired senator fromConnecticut; Tom Vilsack, 69, former governorof Iowa; andHarold Schaitberger, 73, president ofthe International Association of Firefighters. Theoxygen seemed to drain from the room.AsBiden’ssurrogates spoke one after the other, the air gotprogressively thinner. By the time the candidategot up to speak, it was positively embalmed. “Thisis likeawake,” jokedoneveterantelevisionanchor.Biden’s low-keysoliloquydidlittletolift theenergy.Such are the limits of conventional wisdom.

Twenty-seven days later, Biden grabbed the Dem-ocratic mantle after sweeping the South Carolinaprimary. With the notable exception of Sanders,who fought on for another five weeks, most of therest of the field dropped out and endorsed him. Itwas a breathtaking twist. With hindsight, Bidenofficials say they always knew he would be theDemocratic nominee. They were playing the longgame. “We made a decision from the start not tolisten to the loudest voices on Twitter,” says StefFeldman,Biden’spolicydirector.Thatwasnothowmany sounded at the time. When I asked a Bidenstaffer in DesMoines about the campaign’smood,heused theTVanchor’s same funereal analogy.

Who could blame them? Biden’s long historyof running for the White House offered no causefor hope. Over a span of more than 32 years, hehad not won a single primary. In 1987, he crashedout months before the voting began, having beenaccused of plagiarising a speech by Neil Kinnock,leader of theBritishLabourParty. In 2008, hequitafterhavingwonjust0.9percentoftheIowacaucusvote. “At that point,most people thought his pres-idential career was over,” says Shailagh Murray,then a journalist with The Washington Post, whobecameBiden’sdeputychiefofstaff.Hehadatleastanother12yearstogo.Nobodythatnight imaginedthat Barack Obama, winner of the Iowa caucus,would goon topickBidenashis runningmate.The vicissitudes of Biden’s 50 years in politics

ought to make anyone sceptical of forecasts forthis November. In the absence of time machines,we can only go by the numbers. Both the bettingmarkets (about two to one in Biden’s favour) andthe polls (an average eight-percentage-point leadover Donald Trump) suggest Bidenwill be Ameri-ca’s 46thpresident.Whatmannerofpresidentwouldhemake?Half

of Washington claims to know the man well. At ayear above the median USmale’s life expectancy,many expect him to be a ceremonial president.Even Biden’s close friends admit his energy andpowerof recall arenotwhat theywere.His would be a restorationist presidency – an

erasure of what he is fond of describing as theTrumpian “aberration”. Others, notably Trump,depicthimasageriatricprisoneroftheDemocraticparty’s left. Most agree that whatever his agenda,and whatever the time of day, he would probablystill talk too much. The word “logorrhea” (a ten-dencytoextremeloquacity)hasrecentlycomeintofashion. Biden’s campaign is keen to emphasise hewouldnot, likeTrump,bethe“Twitterer-in-chief”.Those who know him the best –many of whom

spoke to me for this profile – are in little doubtabout the character he would bring to the pres-idency. Their Biden may stray too readily into


schmaltz. But his empathy for people is real.In this pandemic-blighted election year, that qual-ity could count for a lot. “Biden is the same guy Ifirst met in 1969 – he was full of piss and vinegar,”says Louis Susman, a Chicago-based investor andformer ambassador to the UK. “He doesn’t sufferfrominnerdemons,hedoesn’tbeargrudgesandhelovesbeing aroundpeople.”Should he make it to the White House, Biden

wouldhave completed the longestmarathon inUSpolitical history. No other serious figure has triedthis long tomake it over thefinishing line in recenthistory. A majority of Americans were not bornwhen Biden first entered national politics. At 30,he was the fifth youngest senator in the country’shistory after hewon office in 1972. Biden’s 48-yearpolitical career is older than John F Kennedy, BillClintonandBarackObamawhentheywereelected.Yet he sounds remarkably similar today to the

ambitious, blue-collar Irish-American that hewasthen. Staffers tried and failed to get him to avoidusing words such as “record player” during the2020 primaries. Calling someone a “horse’s ass”is no longer thought to be cutting. In an interview

Speaking during a presidentialcampaign rally at a school inDetroit, Michigan, on March 9

Previous spread: leaving theplatform at the Hotel Du Pontin Wilmington, after givinga talk about the outbreakof Covid-19 in the US, in March

with Kitty Kelley in 1974, Biden worried aboutbeingseenasa“gayyoungbachelor”aroundWash-ington–bywhichhemeant“happy”,not“LGBTQ”.So popular are Biden’s anachronisms that there

is even a “Biden insult bot” – a Twitter algorithm–towhichfanscanturn.“Yougotsomethingstuckinyour craw, youmilk-swillin’ circus peanut,” readsone tweet. “Shut your piehole, you hood-winkedbritch soiler,” reads another.

Most American voters already know of thetragedy that struckBiden inhis early career.A fewweeks after he was elected to the Senate, he losthiswife,Neilia,andone-year-olddaughter,Naomi,in a car crashwhile theywere Christmas shoppingin Delaware, his home state. His sons, Beau, agedthree, and Hunter, aged two, survived but werehospitalised with severe injuries. Most peoplewould have disintegrated. Biden considered nottakinghisSenateseat. Intheend,hewaspersuadedtobesworn inat thehospitalbesideoneofhis sons.He said he could only continue in politics if he sawhis kids everymorning and night. Thus was born“AmtrakJoe”–thesenatorwhotookthe90-minute▶

‘Joe doesn’tsuffer from innerdemons, hedoesn’t beargrudges andheloves beingaroundpeople’Louis Susman,formerUSambassador

From left: Joe Biden shortly after beingelected senator for Delaware, on hiscommute between Washington andWilmington, Delaware; Biden made thedaily round trip (for which he becameknown as ‘Amtrak Joe’) so he could saygoodnight to his two sons who wererecovering from a car crash in whichBiden lost his wife and baby daughter;he was even sworn in at their hospital


◀ journeyeachevening fromWashington toWilm-ington to say goodnight to his sons. He commuteduntil 2008, long after the boys had grown up. Sub-tracting a tenth of nights for other travel, andnearly half the year for recess and weekends, I cal-culate that Biden spent at least 21,000 hours – orthreeyears of his life – on that train.

“He knew the names of every conductor andthey all loved him,” says Paul Laudicina, Biden’slegislativedirectorbetween1977and1982.“Often,he would still be talking when he boarded, and Iwould go to Wilmington with him and then crosstheplatformandcome straight back.”

In the 1974Kelley interview, the famously acer-bicjournalistsaidthatBiden“reeksofdecency”.Henevertheless managed to sound almost Trumpianabout his deceased wife. “‘Let me show you myfavouritepictureofher,’hesays,holdingupasnap-shot of Neilia in a bikini. ‘She had the best bodyof any woman I ever saw. She looks better than aPlayboybunny,doesn’t she?’”Kelleydescribedhisofficeas a shrine toNeilia.

Biden recently conceded that he has been tooinvasive ofwomen’s personal space – “handsiness”has also entered theDC lexicon.Unlike someof hiscontemporaries, however, he has not been doggedby rumours of infidelity. A former Senate staffer,Tara Reade, accused him earlier this year of sexu-allyassaultingherinacorridorin1993.Bidendeniesit andher storyhasbeencriticisedas inconsistent.

In1977BidenmarriedJillTracyJacobs,ateacherbased inWilmington.Ontheirfirstdatehedressedin a jacket. When he dropped her back homehe shook her hand. According to What it Takes,the celebrated 1988 campaign book by the lateRichardBenCramer, Jill said she could not believe

suchmen still existed. “Jill is Biden’s least appreci-ated strength,” says Susman,who often hosted theBidens forThanksgiving inhisNantuckethome.

Much of Biden’s sense of gravity comes fromher. Even when her husband was vice-president,Jill Biden continued to teach every day at a com-munity college in Northern Virginia. When he leftoffice in 2017, the Bidens’ net worth was less than$500,000. They still hadn’t paid off the mortgageon theirWilmingtonhome.

Until he was rescued from near-certain genteeldecline by Obama, Biden was defined by his dis-astrous 1988 presidential bid. Most of the peoplewhohelpedhimonthat jinxedquest, includingTedKaufman, his long-running chief of staff, MichaelDonilon, his chief strategist today, and Donilon’sbrother Tom, Biden’s foreign-policy adviser, arestill around him. They are mostly Irish-Americanand very tight-knit. Cathy Russell, Tom Donilon’swife, was Jill Biden’s chief of staff when she was“second lady”. Her husband is tipped as a possi-ble secretary of state. Kaufman is running Biden’spresidential transition – that long and ricketybridgebetweenvictory and inauguration.

In the 1988 campaign, Biden tried to presenthimself as the new John F Kennedy – young, Irish-Catholic and handsome. It never quite took hold.Then he saw a video of Kinnock’s soaring oratory– “Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand gen-erations to be able to get to university?” That wasthe middle-class poetry Biden had been lacking– the story of how the sons and daughters of coalminers had been lifted up by the welfare state,Britain’sversionof theNewDeal. “Hegrabbedthattapeandtook ithome;he inhaled the thing,”wroteCramer. “It was like when Barbra Streisand came

From top: campaigningfor the Democratic nominationin the 1988 presidentialelections with Jill, hissecond wife, in Wilmington;announcing his candidacy

‘Joe has a totalblind spot aboutHunter… thecampaign justhas to keephimout of thepicture’A family friend


on the radio – Kinnock was singing Joe’s song.”Forthemostpart,BidencreditedKinnock’swords.But therivalMichaelDukakiscampaignfoundonetapewhereBidenhadnot. They leaked it.

Suddenly, Biden was inundated with callsasking whether his grandfather had been a coalminer (none of his forebears hadbeen). “It lookedlike Joe didn’t just steal the words, it looked likehe ripped offKinnock’s life,” Cramer wrote. A fewmonths after dropping out, Biden had a near-fatalaneurysm. Then another. He was given a 50-50chanceof surviving thefirst nine-houroperation.

“Joe wouldn’t be alive today if he had stillbeen running for president,” says Kaufman. “Hewouldn’t have had the time to get his headacheschecked out.” Or, as Biden said when he emergedfrom the anaesthetic: “Now I know why the cam-paign ended like it did.” For what it’s worth,Kinnock’s LabourParty lost the election too.

B iden’s 2008 loss left less of amark onhim, partly because he became vice-president less thanayear later. “Howcould you begrudge losing to BarackObama?” says Murray. “Obama waslike The Beatles.” The campaign

Bidenstill regretswas theonethathedidn’tfight in2016. His reluctance stemmed from another trag-edy, the death in 2015 of his son Beau from braincancer. But he had little encouragement fromObama, who had already committed to backingHillaryClinton. Biden’s internal polls show that hewouldhavebeatenTrump.Buthehad littlechance

ofwrestingthecrownfromClinton,whosemachinehe couldnothope tomatch.

In his memoir Promise Me, Dad, named afterBeau’s request that his father stay inpolitics, Bidenrecountshis anger followingaPolitico story thathewasexploitinghisson’sdeathforelectoralpurposes.“It exceeded even my worst expectations of whatthe opposition was going to be like,” he wrote. Intruth, he could not discuss runningwithout break-ingdown.“Hewouldliterallystarttocryeverytimeweraised the subject,” saysaBidenconfidante.

In another cycle, Biden’s lachrymosity mighthave been an albatross. During coronavirus, hisemotional antennae look like a virtue. More than165,000Americanshavenowdiedinthepandemic.That toll is likely to be approaching a quarter of amillion by early November. Trump’s inability toexpress condolences for America’s grieving fami-lies couldnot be further apart fromBiden’s.

In 2016, angerwas the dominant political emo-tion. In 2020, it feelsmore like sadness. “If Trumpwere matter, then Biden is anti-matter – theircharacters are opposites,” says Laurence Tribe, aHarvardlawprofessorwhohasbeenadvisingBidenonconstitutionalmatters since themid-1980s.

When Biden was vice-president, Norm Orn-stein, aveteranCongressionalwatcher, losthis sonin a tragic accident. “Themomentheheard, Bidentelephoned and spent an hour on the phone withme and my wife, talking us through it,” saysOrnstein. “The next day I received a handwrittenletter of condolence from him. There is nothingfake abouthis sympathy.He feels it deeply.”▶

With his late son Beauat the DemocraticNational Conventionin Denver, Colorado,during the 2008presidential campaign

‘What leaps outabout Biden’speople is theircompetence.Neither he norhis teamneedtrainingwheels’JohnPodesta, formerClintonandObamaofficial


◀Andrew Yang, the maverick hit of the Demo-cratic primaries, says: “When most people hadn’tfigured out who I was, Joe took me aside and wasvery gracious and friendly. This was just as truewhen thingswere goingbadly forhim–he’s alwayssteadyandgood-natured, inpublicandinprivate.”

Some in Biden’s world admit they have one ortwoconcerns about the electionandbeyond.Chiefof these is his tendency to make gaffes. In thatsense, the lockdown has a silver lining: there is nocampaign trail to avoid. Zoom is easier tomanage.

When Obama was elected to the US Senate in2004, Biden invited him to join the Foreign Rela-tionsCommitteeofwhichhewaschairman.Havinglistenedtoa trademarkBidendisquisition,Obamascribbled a note and handed it to a staffer. It read:“Shoot. Me. Now.” When the two men were dis-cussing how theywould handle theirWhiteHouserelationship, Obama said: “I want your advice Joe,I just want it in 10-minute, not 60-minute, incre-ments.” For themost part, Biden complied.

Sometimes, he couldnothelphimself. The term“Bidenism”– self-inflictedpublichumiliation–haslongbeen in currency. “StandupChuck, let ’emseeya,” Biden once said to aMissouri state senator in awheelchair. “Folks, I can tell you, I’ve known eightpresidents, three of them intimately,” he said inpraise of Obama, adding: “I promise you, the pres-ident has a big stick, I promise you,” in a mangledrendition of Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum aboutspeaking softly and carrying a big stick. Fear ofsuch miscues saw the Obama camp “quarantine”Biden for most of the 2012 re-election campaign.Thisyear’sactualquarantinecouldthusbehelpful.

Many in Biden world are betting that his choiceof Kamala Harris as running mate will immunise

him against a record of racial gaffes. Earlier thisyear, Biden apologised after saying that “you ain’tblack” if you would consider voting against him.As a mixed-race American of Indian and Jamaicanheritage, the Harris pick will buy Biden more pro-tection. Given Biden’s age, she is far likelier thanmostrunningmatestobecomepresident.AsBidendiscovered in theprimaries, she alsoknowshow tothrowapunch.

It is hard to find anyone in Biden’s circle whois losing sleep over his three debates with Trumplaterthisyear.AsBidenshowedin2008withSarahPalin and in 2012 with Paul Ryan – the Republicanrunning mates of John McCain and Mitt Romney– he is a surprisingly taut debater. Trump, mean-while, seems to be afflicted with his own severedose of logorrhea. His recent boast in a Fox Newsinterview that he recalled five words in order in acognitive test was greeted with mockery. “I havetwowordsforyou,”saysasenioradviser,whenIaskabout Biden’s age and prolixity: “Donald Trump.”Nor is the campaign worried about Twitter. WhenI asked two Biden officials whether he composedhis own tweets, or would know how to send one, Igotanunexpectedlyconstipatedresponse:“Noonehaseveraskedusthat.” It turnsout thatBidendoesnot physically send his own tweets but is involvedwith their substance.

Their second concern is ageing. At 74, Trumpis only a smidgen younger than Biden. The differ-ence with Trump is the people with whom Bidenwould surroundhimself. Chief among these isRonKlain, a long-standing Biden aide who is likely tobe White House chief of staff. Tony Blinken wouldprobably be his national security adviser. Othertop-job contenders would include Tom Donilon

Speaking to familiesabout his affordablehealthcare plan inLancaster, Pennsylvania,earlier this summer

‘Howcould youbegrudge losingtoObama?Obamawas likeTheBeatles’ShailaghMurray, Biden’s formerdeputy chief of staff


and Susan Rice (successive national securityadvisers to Obama), Kurt Campbell (who ranAsia policy for Obama), Jake Sullivan (who leadsBiden’s campaign policy), Nick Burns, a formerunder secretary of state, and Bill Burns (no rela-tion), a former deputy secretary of state. MichèleFlournoy, a former under secretary of defence, istippedas a likelyPentagon chief.

One adviser predicted that Biden would chooseRomney, the Republican senator from Utah, ashis secretary of state. That would annoy VladimirPutin’s Russia, which Romney described as Amer-ica’s “number one geopolitical foe”. It would alsoupsetmostDemocrats for verydifferent reasons.

Eitherway, thecontrastbetweenBiden’s friendsand the parade of often bizarre cameos that havestaffed the Trump administration is glaring. Thecurrent president is now on his fourth chief ofstaff and sixth national security adviser. By con-trast, most of Biden’s coterie have known him fordecades. “What leaps out about Biden’s people istheircompetence,”says JohnPodesta,asenioroffi-cial in both the Clinton and Obama White Houses.“Neitherhenorhis teamneed trainingwheels.”

There are also lingering worries about HunterBiden, who has long been a source of concern forhis father.“JoehasatotalblindspotaboutHunter,”says a close family friend. Hunter was dischargedfrom the US Navy because he tested positivefor cocaine. He launched various business ven-tures while his father was vice-president. He wasaccused of monetising the Biden name and subse-quently got a seat on the board of a Ukrainian gas

company. Trump’s attempts to extort Ukraine tosupply Biden opposition research resulted in hisimpeachment last year (though he was acquittedby the Senate). “The campaign just has to keepHunter out of thepicture,” says the friend.

W hatwouldBidenactuallydoinoffice?Tackling thepandemicwouldbe thefirst, secondandthird priority of any incom-ing president. Little canhappen while the US econ-

omy is under semi-permanent lockdown. Beyondthat his economic platform is radical by the stand-ardsofanyrecentDemocraticpresident, includingObama.“Wewouldhavethelargestmobilisationofinvestments since world war two,” says Feldman.“Wewould start byputtingpandemic logistics andsupplyonawar footing.”

Some people compare the gargantuan chal-lengesof todayto1932,whenFranklinDRooseveltwontheelection in themiddleof theGreatDepres-sion.Despiterunningafairlyblandcampaign,FDRthen embarked on a streak of “bold, persistentexperimentation” thatwould remakeAmerica.

But the differences are more interesting. Forall its ravages, coronavirus is not as intractable asthe Great Depression. By next January, the worldshould be closer to having a vaccine. Biden wouldalso be fulfilling the first rule of any job – alwaysfollow an under-performer. He could achieve a lotin his first 100 days simply by covering the basics,such as launching a national coronavirus plan, ▶

Alongside formerpresident BarackObama as Donald Trumpis sworn in as the45th US presidentin Washington, DC,January 20 2017

‘If Trumpwerematter, thenBiden is anti-matter – theircharacters areopposites’Laurence Tribe, Biden adviser

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◀ shunningTwitter and not insulting foreign lead-ers. “If you have anAmerican president at foreignsummits eating with his mouth closed and notthrowing cutlery around, the world will give hima standingovation,” says oneadviser and friend.Low-hanging foreign-policy fruit that Biden

would pluck in his opening days include rejoiningthe World Health Organization, the Paris Agree-ment on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal,says Jake Sullivan. Hewould also convene a globalsummit to tackle Covid-19. Domestic steps wouldinclude stopping work on the US-Mexico borderwall (such as it is), setting up a daily coronavirusbriefingledbyDrAnthonyFauciorRonKlain(wholedObama’s Ebola team) and picking an attorney-general who would embrace planks of Black LivesMatter’s criminal-justice reformagenda.InhisdealingsbothwithRepublicansandforeign

leaders, Bidenwould place great stock in personalchemistry. Enjoying the company of people is onearea where Biden is as different to Obama as he istoTrump. “The thing thatBidenmost likes iswhatObama liked the least – the personal stuff,” saysPodesta. Nick Burns says Biden revels in the “con-stantgardening”ofdiplomacy– talking frequentlytohis counterparts.Scepticspointout that today’sRepublicanparty

isunrecognisabletotheonewithwhichBidengrewup. Shouldheemerge intact fromtransitionwith aparanoidTrump,thechancesof thedefeatedpartyworkingwith himwill be slim.Woke nativismwillprove amoredurablepathogen thanCovid-19.Moreover, Biden’s global honeymoon would be

unlikely to last long.Mostpeopleviewhismusingsabout restoring the status quo ante – going back totheworld before Trump – aswishful thinking, not

that geopolitical trends were particularly stableduring the Obama years. China looms far largertoday than it did in 2016. Biden’s favourite Euro-pean,AngelaMerkel,Germany’s chancellor, isdueto retire by next year. And Biden will neither beinclined –nor likely in aposition – to offerBritain’sBoris Johnson theUS-UK tradedeal he craves.Not everyone is enamoured of Biden’s foreign-

policyjudgment.Inhis2015memoir,RobertGates,Obama’s first defence secretary, said Biden had“beenwrong on nearly everymajor foreign policy[andnationalsecurity]issueoverthepastfourdec-ades”. This included voting against the first Iraqwar in 1991, in favour of the second one in 2003and opposingObama’s Afghanistan surge in 2009.Biden was also a lonely voice in opposition to theAbbottabad raid that killedOsamabinLaden.Gates now says hemay have been a little harsh

on the former vice-president. “If I had one changeI would say that Biden and I agreed that ObamamishandledHosniMubarak [the autocratic Egyp-tianleadersupplantedbytheMuslimBrotherhoodwith Obama’s green light] and we both opposedObama’s intervention in Libya,” he says. “Otherthan that, I stick to what I wrote.” Tony Blinken,Biden’s senior foreign policy adviser, says Biden’sscepticism about Obama’s ineffectual Afghani-stan surge looks better and better in hindsight. “Irespect Gates tremendously but he just wanted arubber stamp for his Afghanistan plan and Bidendisagreed,”hesays.BidenwasinfavourofUSinter-vention in Bosnia in 1995, he adds, to convey thatBiden is not some inveterate peacenik.

But Biden’s biggest migraine would probablybe at home. In the coming weeks, Trump is likely

Left: with SenatorKamala Harris, who heselected as his runningmate on Tuesday, at acampaign rally in Detroit,Michigan, in MarchAbove: greeting fellowDemocratic presidentialhopeful Bernie Sandersat a CNN debate inWashington, March 15Facing page: speakingat Delaware StateUniversity, June 5

‘Biden andBerniemaydisagreeideologicallybut they respecteach other’sintegrity’TedKaufman


to make a lot of Biden’s “socialist” agenda – thehundredsofbillionshehaspledgedtospendoneve-rythingfromcollegeeducationtoruralbroadband.Should Biden follow Obama’s example and pickWall Street-friendly economic advisers, the left’sdistrustwouldsoonresurface.Lastweek,LawrenceSummers,Obama’schiefeconomicadviserandBillClinton’s Treasury secretary, ruled out joining aBiden administration. “My time in government isbehindme,”he told theAspenSecurityForum.

To many people’s surprise, the left has largelyfallen into line. Bernie Sanders dropped nearlyall his most-cherished demands to agree a jointplatform with Biden. This is in stark contrast toSanders’ stand-offish – and simmeringly uneasy–ceasefirewithClinton in2016.Anestimatedone-fifth of Sanders’ supporters in 2016 either sat ontheir hands or voted for Trump. Biden has notadopted a universal basic income,Medicare for allor a wealth tax – Sanders’ top three priorities. Yetthe Vermont senator seems to be a happy passen-ger onAmtrak Joe’s train.Their policiesmaydifferbuttheirvaluesarenotmilesapart.“Bidenbelievesthathisultimatecallingistomakelifebetterforthemiddle class,” says Jared Bernstein, an economicadviser.“Hiswatchwordis ‘dignity.’”TedKaufmanadds:“BidenandBerniemaydisagreeideologicallybut they respect eachother’s integrity.”

Might such charms work on Republicans?I spoke tomany people in Biden’s world and nonethought the Republican leopard was likely to

change its spots. One said: “Joe is still a romanticabout the Senate. He will have to learn the hardway.” The omens for old-fashioned Biden-stylebipartisanship are not cheerful. Yet there is animprobability to Biden’s odyssey that should giveanyone pause. The lyricsmaybe corny. Themusicis not. It is an odd mix of Shakespearean tragedyandShakespearean comedy.

I have heard people describe Biden as theembodiment of America’s can-do spirit. ShailaghMurray called him a “spiritual optimist”. A cam-paign official talked of his “strategic empathy”. IhavealsoheardpeoplecallBidena“clown”, includ-ing a former Obama official. Biden loves to talk ofwhen “the man meets the moment”. The joke isthat he has said this about himself every time hehas run for office. There has never been amomentwhere Biden does not think he should be residingin theWhiteHouse.

But perhaps this time he is right? “Life is aboutchoices,right?”saysaformerseniorCIAofficialwhohas interacted with Biden for more than 30 years.“Biden or Trump?” He admitted that he occasion-ally saw Biden as a “mediocre” politician. But headded that Biden always struck him as fundamen-tallydecent,whichsounds likeasubversivequalityin today’s Washington. “Even if you thought thatBiden was mediocre,” he continued, “you wouldtakemediocreover catastrophic every time.”

EdwardLuce is theFT’sUSnational editor

‘Life is aboutchoices, right?Biden or Trump?’FormerCIAofficial

24 FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

Photographer James Mollison was so captivated by thebeauty of the Italian region’s olive groves that he boughtone. But today, as the area’s trees succumb to a deadlydisease, he finds himself documenting their destruction

T H E GHOST

T R E E S O F

P UG L I A

25FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

INFECTED TREE, SPONGANO, PUGLIA


A TRADITIONAL PAJARA (SHELTER) SITS AMONG INFECTED TREES, MAGLIE, PUGLIA


Sixteenyears ago, aneighbour inVenice toldmeabout some olive groves for sale in Salento,southern Puglia. I visited the region that July, andthe grovesweremagical. They had a patchworknature: huge groves owned by olive-oil-producersweremixedwithmany small groves, which hadbeen divided into smaller and smaller plots asthey passed down the generations.Meticulouslyneat groves bordered thosewherewildflowersburst out around the trees.

I bought a grove on a slope dottedwith 116old trees. A fewmonths later, Imet Amber andwe had a house built, inspired by the pajare(shelters) erected centuries ago for thosewhotended the olive trees. The housewas finished theday before ourwedding, andwe return to it everyspring and summer and sometimes inwinter.

In 2014, we heard about a disease calledXylella fastidiosa, which stopswater reachinga tree’s branches and causes them to die. Thebacteriumhas ravaged vineyards and citrusgroves in theAmericas, where it’s endemic. Oncein Puglia, it jumped to olive trees among others.

Whenwe asked howwemight protect ourgrove, we encountered awave of contradictoryadvice and conspiracy theories. Somemen in thelocal barwere convinced the disease had beenengineered by agribusiness tomakemoney, whileenvironmentalists blamed the use of chemicals.It took a year for the authorities to decree thatthe ground under the trees had to be kept clear,either by ploughing or cutting back theweedsthat proliferate each spring, asXylella is spread▶

INFECTED TREE, SPONGANO


FELLED OLIVE TREES READY TO BE TURNED INTO PELLETS IN SPONGANO

◀by plant-sucking insects. By then,more thanamillion trees in Salento had been affectedwithwhat is nowknown as olive quick declinesyndrome, or OQDS.

A few of our trees began to show the tell-tale signs, with dried-out twigs on the outerbranches.We cut themback, and the first trees tobe infected sent out a few fresh shoots from thetrunk. But these soon seemed the last gasps of astrong tree being slowly strangled, its centuries-old root systems desperate to survive.

This year, Pugliawas the perfect place to be inquarantine – instead of being coopedup in a flat inVenice, our sons had an olive grove to play in – butour treeswere dying before our eyes.Wewatchedthe grove turn froma soft green to a ghostly grey.

The local paper reports that 20million treeshave been infected, while the patchwork thatonce enchantedme is transforming into a grimnewpattern. There are groves of stumpsmade byowners who believe you can cut out the disease;trees left to grow bushy by ownerswho have givenup now they no longer produce olives; plots filledwith tiny saplings; groveswhere people haven’thad the heart to pull out the old trees and haveplanted new ones among them (aswe have done).

There is still a beauty to the ghostly trees, yetlastmonth I came across a bulldozer pushing oversome several centuries old. A fewweeks later,a wood grinder arrived. It picked up the trunkswith their tangle of dead branches.Within 10seconds, amature dead treewas chipped andsprayed, ready to be reduced to pellets.


OLIVE TREE IN OSTUNI WITH DEAD BRANCHES ON THE OUTER EDGES, POSSIBLE SIGNS OF INFECTION


The four sheep turnedon their spits,waftingout rich aromas over the bleached Turkishlandscape. Nearby, I stirred a vast potful of lentilstew over an open fire, lashed by smoke andsunlight. A long table in the yard was alreadyladen with dishes: handmade hummus andfava bean paste, whole honeycombs, stacks oftandoor-bakedbread andpiles of pomegranates.Beyond it loomed the great burial mound of aruler of the Phrygian kingdom who had diedhere in the eighth century BC – thought to be ahistorical King Midas or his father. Aided by ateam of Turkish cooks and food experts, I wasdoing my best to recreate his funeral feast.

This wasn’t an idle exercise. In the 1950s,archaeologists from the Penn Museum at theUniversity of Pennsylvania had excavated thetomb, near the old Phrygian capital at Gordion.Although this King Midas was not the mythicalman with the golden touch, they still found atreasure trove of bronze cauldrons, drinkingbowls and clay pots in his burial chamber,including the largest Iron Age drinking setever discovered. The vessels contained thephysical remnants of a banquet the mournershad shared, but it was about 40 years beforeadvances in science permitted chemical analysisof the residues. This was done in the late 1990sby experts from the Penn Museum, led byPatrick McGovern, scientific director of itsBiomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine,Fermented Beverages and Health, and author ofAncient Brews: Rediscovered&Re-created.

Using modern techniques such as infraredspectroscopy, liquid and gas chromatographyand mass spectrometry, McGovern and his teamexamined the vestiges of both food and drinkfound in the bronze vessels. The mourners, theyconcluded, had shared an unusual brew madefrom a mixture of honey, grapes and barley –a sort of cocktail of mead, wine and beer. Andalthough the researchers couldn’t be sure, theysuspected it had also contained saffron becauseof the intense yellow colour of the residue (andbecause some of the finest saffron of the ancientworld was produced in what is now Turkey).

The chemical detective work on the brownclumps of food matter showed these were

A taste ofantiquityWhy are we so interestedin what previouscivilisations ate anddrank? And what does ittell us? Fuchsia Dunlopmixes gastronomy andarchaeology to find out

the leftovers of a great stew made from lambor goat that had first been seared over fire toproduce caramelisation, then simmered withsome kind of pulse (probably lentils) along withingredients such as honey, wine, olive oil, fennelor anise and other herbs and spices.

The remainsof the feast atGordionareamong numerous ancient foods and drinksscattered throughout the collections ofmuseums all over the world. Many havebeen retrieved from graves, store cupboardsand shipwrecks; others were collected by19th-century European explorers during theirexpeditions to the non-western world.

A recent exhibition at the AshmoleanMuseum in Oxford, Last Supper in Pompeii,included carbonised bread and solidified oliveoil dating from AD79, the year Mount Vesuviuserupted and buried the city. Desiccated pastriesdating back to the Tang dynasty (AD618-907),now in the British Museum, were found inthe Astana tombs in western China, as was abowlful of jiaozi dumplings: totally dried outbut otherwise much like those you might eat innorthern China today.

More appetisingly, the preserved soyabeanswith ginger from the Mawangdui tombs inChina’s Hunan province, interred about 2,200years ago, appear no different from those sold inany modern Chinese supermarket.

At the first virtual Oxford Food Symposiumlast month, Dutch food historian LindaRoodenburg displayed a photograph of a19th-century reindeer-milk cheese from thecity’s Pitt Rivers Museum: it looked hard andmouldy but otherwise intact. Roodenburg, thefounder of a virtual food museum, is compiling acookbook based on the assortment of comestibletreasures in the Pitt Rivers collection, which alsoinclude wild potato bread from Japan and driedbird’s nest from Sumatra.

Food objects were collected and shippedto European museums in the 19th century“because food was considered an importantpart of a culture, especially when it was relatedto specific rituals”, Roodenburg says. But asmodern anthropology took shape, the▶


Illustrations by Toby Morison

Observations


Observations

◀ focus shifted from these physical relics andtowards analysing and interpreting the socialstructures of “primitive” societies. “With thisdisengagement from natural science, organicand edible objects became irrelevant foranthropological research,” she continues.

The neglect of food relics did have onebenefit, however: their survival. “Without anymeddling of museum conservators, the contentsfermented, dried, moulded or evaporated: aprocess of slow museum preservation that isstill going on,” says Roodenburg.

Edible objects in museums have a lowstatus today, she adds, perhaps because“nowadays ethnological museums preferpresenting their objects as ‘art’ instead ofethnographic artefacts. In this context, a pieceof old reindeer cheese or a glass jar with mouldysea cucumbers is less aesthetic than spectacularmasks and sculptures.” The Tang dynastypastries in the British Museum now lurkmostly unseen by visitors in the bowels of theinstitution, where they are known affectionatelyby staff as “the jam tarts”.

The archaeological finds at the Mawangduitombs in China included not only opulentwoven silks, gorgeous lacquerware and medicalmanuscripts, but plenty of food, such asdesiccated grains, eggs, millet cakes and thebones of beasts and fowl. A nobleman’s wife hadeven been buried with a kind of last supper:a lacquer tray laid with bowls of food and wineand a clutch of skewered kebabs. These relicshave revealed as much about the food and drinkof the upper classes in Han-dynasty China astextual evidence.

Aside from their historical and scientificimportance, food relics tend to fascinatemuseum visitors, says Liz Wilding, who isworking with Roodenburg on the Pitt Riverscookbook. “There is, of course, the pleasureof the unexpected, due to the obvious rarityof actual food in museums. Beyond this,food has an emotional and intimate power toengage people by evoking strong reactions ofpleasure and disgust.” She cites visitors sniffingthe pungent smell of ancient fermented milkin a gourd at the Pitt Rivers Museum as an

‘We had eaten something that was olderthan Christianity and the Chineseempire. And still the siren scent ofsaffronwas singing to us, like pure gold,untarnished by the passage of time’


example that “has repelled some but provokedthem to engagewith the object’s backgroundinmore depth”.Scientific advances have highlighted the

value of preserving the vestiges of ancientfood and drink. Some years ago, when Iwasseeking information about food remainsin a Chinese tomb,museum staff toldmethey had been cleaned out of the excavatedvessels and discarded, like dust or sand. Buttoday, according toMcGovern, archaeologistsand curators take enormous care to preservesuchmaterials.

Myown initiation into thewonders ofancient food and drink, at the Gordion tomb,started 20 years agowhen a television companyhiredMcGovern as a scientific consultant for adocumentary,KingMidas’ Feast. They invitedme, a recently published foodwriter with someexperience of Turkey, to recreate the feast,guided by the evidence and the advice of localexperts, including food and drink journalistAylin Öney Tan.McGovern had already collaboratedwith a

winemaker to recreate the funeral beverage:a gorgeous golden elixir fermented frombarley,grapes and honey. The golden colour camefrom saffron, which they used guidedmore bya hunch than any solid proof of its presence inthe original brew (a craft brewery in theUS stillproduces a beer inspired by this).As I pondered the possibilities for a

historically accuratemenu, I began towonderwhat the residues from the tombwould tastelike and how it would feel to eat somethingthat had been cookedmore than 2,500 yearsago. I was astounded thatMcGovern andhis colleagues had never tasted the residuesthemselves: this would have beenmyfirstimpulse –which is probablywhy I’mnot anarchaeologist.Would it be possible to try some?I askedMcGovern, cheekily. I can’t rememberhis reply. In any case, it seemed unlikely hewould agree.After intense discussions, Tan and I came

upwith amenuwe reckoned could have beenmadewith the produce and techniques of Iron

their potency. Themysterywas solved – at least,that is what I thought.“So now you know,” I said toMcGovern,

elated, “it was saffron after all!” He, ever themeticulous scientist, was cautious, pointingout that theworldwas going to demandmoreproof than the assurances of two peoplewhohad tasted the residue at a party on a summer’safternoon. It gave the revelation a bittersweetedge, knowing both that we had tasted saffronand that othersmight doubt it.Though in a physical sensewewere just

eating grit, consuming it was one of themostextraordinary, and pleasurable, gastronomicexperiences ofmy life – a reminder that eatingis always amatter of psychology aswell asphysiology.McGovern and I, sitting in thatarbour as the sun set, full of spit-roasted lambstew and figs and hummus,mellowed bymead,were almost literally sharing a feast withthemourners of an IronAge Phrygian king.We had eaten something that was older thanChristianity and the Chinese empire. And stillthe siren scent of saffronwas singing to us, likepure gold, untarnished by the passage of time.Later,McGovern and I corresponded by

email, and I asked him about the ethics ofeating archaeological evidence.Waswhatwedid, atmy instigation, justified? Sure, we hadconsumedmere specks of residue, but did thiscount as thewanton destruction of a valuablesample?He replied that while hewouldn’tnormally recommend eating the evidence, thiscase had been special. Pounds of the residueshad been recovered,more than he had seen atany other site, and the chemical analyses hadbeen completed. Nineteenth-century chemistshad not shied away from sensory tests, sowhyshouldn’t amodern scientist have a taste, oncein awhile, if itmight prove enlightening?Since that unforgettable evening inAnatolia,

I have looked at the saffron inmykitchencupboardwith a new respect. I had longsuspectedmyChinese preserved beanswouldkeep for about twomillennia in an airtight jar(or tomb). But now I know that the saffron, witha bit of luck,might last even longer. Put that onyour sell-by date.

Age Phrygia – long before the appearance inTurkey ofmodern ingredients such as tomatoes,lemons, chillies and even sugar.On the eve of the feast, wemarinated the

sheep in salt, onion, wild thyme, honey, pekmez(grape syrup) andwine, ready for the spits andthe sheep-dung fires.Wemade a rudimentaryhummus, seasonedwith sumac and vinegarrather than lemon juice, and a fava bean pasteenlivened by dill. The followingmorning, Icooked the lentil stew according toMcGovern’sadvice, flavouring it with onion, sheep-tail fat,garlic, fennel seeds and pekmez. McGovern andthewinemaker poured their recreated funeralbeverage intomagnificent copper cauldrons:replicas of the bronze vessels found in thetomb that had beenmade for us by the coppermerchants of Ankara.That afternoon, a hundred or so invited

guests, including journalists and diplomats,arrived for the feast, alongwith 200 curiouspassers-by. The roasted lambwas carved offinto the lentil stew, andwe fed everybody in thegolden light of the sun. Alongwith the visitingdignitaries,McGovern, Tan and I, happilyexhausted after our labours, quaffed the amberbrew from copper bowls.Just when I thought the day couldn’t get

any better,McGovern tookme aside and toldme he had brought some of the residue fromone of the pots, a sample of the remains of themead-like beverage. The two of us sneakedoff, leaving the crowd and the drifting smokefrom the fires, and took refuge in a secludedarbourwherewe sat down on awoodenbench.He removed a tiny plastic phial fromhis pocket and divided the contents betweenus. For amoment I just looked at the grainycrumbs in the palm ofmyhand, awestruck.Thenwe looked at each other and put themin ourmouths.Our faces lit upwith amazement. For there

it was: the taste of saffron, bright, pure andunmistakable. I couldn’t believe it. I hadexpected to get an emotional kick out ofeating the residue but not to taste anything.Yet aftermore than twomillennia in the tomb,the flame-coloured pistils had lost none of


On thepulseDal, the superfood of the subcontinent, lends itselfto countless flavours and textures.Anjli Raval,Mamta Badkar and Tony Tassell share their favouriterecipes. Photographs byCharlie Bibby


36 FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020 37FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

When Iwent to university and latermovedabroad,my grandmother’s cookingwas no longeraccessible. I didn’t have the time or, frankly,the knowledge tomake the array of dishes thatmade up the flavour-laden thalis thewomeninmy family seemed to curate subconsciously.Andwith thatmy grandmother’s “everyday” daldisappeared frommy life.

Eventually, however,my stomachpinedfor home cooking and I started compiling acompendiumof family recipes. Until then, no onehad reallywritten themdown.Measurementswere vague and told to one another in “mutthi”or fistfuls, as opposed to grammes or cups.I interpreted recipes andwrote down everything –my grandmother’s original flavour combinations,mymum’s different versions of dishes and soonenoughmyownadaptations.

Preferences and styles of cooking vary evenamong thosewhohave grownup together.A recent survey ofmy family – via a 14-personWhatsApp chat – yieldedmore than20 “favourite”dals. Results depended onmood, occasion,wheretheywere eating the dal andwhowas cooking.

Eight years ago, I rangmy grandmother fromNewYork and told her thatmy go-to dal hadbecome a tweaked version ofmymum’s tadkadal – originally a Punjabi dish,which shemakeswith yellow split peas and splitmoong beans.“Youmean that thick one that is ameal in itself?”she asked. I remember howappalled shewas,implying it was heavier andnot as delicatelyspiced as her everyday dal.

It is indeed ameal in itself and that’s exactlywhy I turned to itwhen Iwas thousands ofmilesaway fromhome.My everyday dalwas simpletomake, rich, delicious and it didn’t need thesupporting acts.

These days, I’mnot an ocean away fromhome.I’m six and ahalfmiles down the road in London.Likemanypeople lately, I have been cookingcomfort food – including all the extras I never feltthe need tomake before. And at the centre of it allismydal – even if the recipe is not onemy grannywill necessarily agreewith.▶

Anjli Raval is the FT’s senior energy correspondent

Everydaydal

AnjliRaval

• 1 cup yellow split peas• ⅓ cup moong dal• 5 cups water• 3 tbs rapeseed orvegetable oil

• 2 tsp cumin seeds• 1 dried red chilli• ⅓ tsp asafoetida• 1 medium white onion,diced

• 1 tsp grated garlic• 1 tsp grated ginger• ½ tsp chilli powder• ½ tsp turmeric powder• 1 tsp coriander powder• 1 tsp cumin powder• 1 tsp garam masala• Salt to taste• ⅓ cup blendedchopped tomatoes orpassata

• Fresh choppedcoriander to garnish

1 — My mum gave me asmall pressure cookermany years ago and it’sone of my prizedpossessions. It followsme wherever I go – anddramatically cuts thetime it takes to makea dal.

2 — Wash the yellow splitpeas, then put them in apressure cooker with themoong dal, two cups ofwater and a teaspoon ofsalt. Turn the gas underthe pressure cooker onto a medium heat. Afteryou hear about fivewhistles – roughly 15minutes – turn it off and

let it cool before youopen it. The dal shouldbe cooked through butnot mushy. (If you do nothave a pressure cooker,soak the dal for a fewhours – or overnight –and then boil it in a panwith water and saltuntil cooked.)

3 — In a separate panadd the oil and, whenhot, the cumin seedsand dried red chilli. Thenadd the asafoetida anddiced onion. Whenslightly brown and soft,add the grated garlicand ginger followed bythe cooked pulses. Addanother three cups ofcold water. As the dalsimmers, add the chillipowder, turmeric,coriander powder,cumin powder, garammasala and salt to taste.Once the dal starts tobubble, add the blendedchopped tomatoes(or passata).

4 — Simmer for a further15 minutes on a lowheat, stirring frequently.You can use a handblender to blitz it a littlebut try to keep thetexture of the dal. Youcan make it as thin orthick as you like, addingwater as needed.Garnish with choppedfresh coriander.

‘A recent survey ofmy familyyieldedmore than 20 “favourite”dals. Results depended onmood,occasion, where they were eatingthe dal andwhowas cooking’

This time of the year remindsme of my childhoodhome ineast London.

In the late afternoons,as my brother and I played,my grandfather would sit atthe head of the dining tableslicing fruit for the evening’s

dessert. When Indian mangoes were in season,he would sneak us sweet, unctuous orange pieces.Later, strawberries, slices of watermelon or othersummer fruits.

But the overwhelming aromasfilling the air atthat time of the day came frommygrandmother’sGujarati rasoi. Above all, fromher “everyday” dal.

The scent of her red gramandmoong lentilsbubbling awaywith cinnamon, cloves, sweetand sour kokum, curry leaves, ginger, chilli andjaggery is fixed inmymemory. The reddish-brown, thin, soupydal packed a punch. The spicekickwould hit the back of your throat. It wasnevermeant to be had on its ownor justwith ricebutwas part of an array of dishes on our steelthalis. A small bowlwould be set amid amasala-stuffedpotato dish or okra curry, somethingfried like amethi bhajiya (fenugreek fritters)withcoriander chutney, a sambharo saladmadewithshredded cabbage and carrot, rotli (flatbread),yoghurt, rice, pickle and papad.

Dal itself canmean a dried legume – suchas a lentil or pea – that grows as a seed insidea pod and canbe split or cookedwhole. But itis also the nutritious soupy dish or stewmadefrom these samepulses. TheOxford Companionto Food calls it “one of the principal foods of theIndian subcontinent”. Eachdal differs in flavour,texture and cookingmethod. Varieties changeaccording to the region – south Indian specialitiesare thinner and translucent, for example,whileheartier and creamier ones are popular in thenorth. They can befinishedwith tempered spicesor somefinely chopped fresh coriander. They canbe sweet or tomatoey, packedwith curry leaves ora spice blend such as Bengali panch phoran, whichincludes fennel seeds, fenugreek, nigella seeds,cumin seeds andmustard seeds. The range isseemingly endless.


Growing up in Bombay, dal was astaple at lunch and dinner, andessential,mymother said, to addprotein tomy vegetarian diet.Yet it was something I atewillingly onlywhen Iwas unwell.

I had a taste formore eclectic cuisine andmymother, an exceptional cook, pandered tothese whims now and then. But dal – the prosaicpulse, the lacklustre legume – remained aconstant fixture.Every day Iwould try tomount a resistance

and every daymymotherwould crush thesolemutineer at the dining table like somegastronomic despot. I found consolation in thesabzis (vegetables) – okra and a fenugreek andgreen pea curryweremy favourites – and rotis.Weary ofmy intransigence,mymother started

towhip up a variety of dals.Most dayswewouldhave a simple tadkadal or a spicymasala dal,but then she started to pepper ourmenuswith kali(black) dal – a creamydalmakhani – and a versionofmeetha (sweet) dal that uses jaggery andtamarind paste. Still, eating anydalwasmostly achore and something I associatedwith being ill.Later, as I headed off to university inNewYork

City – foodie paradise – Iwas ready to purge dalfrommydiet once and for all.Notwithstanding,mymother scribbled a

handful of simple Indian recipes into a notebookand tucked it – alongwith some essential spicesand a small pressure cooker – intomy suitcase.These recipes remained inmy luggage during

my first fewmonths in America, as I tested thelimits ofmymetabolism. As a student, my dailybudget was tight andmymeals consisted largely

AartiBadkar’smasaladal

MamtaBadkar

• ½ cup red lentils• ½ cup split pigeon peas• ½ tsp turmeric• 4 tsp sunflower oil• 1 tsp mustard seeds• 1 tsp cumin• 1 or 2 bay leaves• Pinch of asafoetida• ½ cup onion, finelychopped• ½ tsp ginger, finelychopped• 1 tsp garlic, finelychopped• ½ cup tomatoes, finelychopped• 2 green chillies,quartered anddeseeded• 1 tsp red chilli powder• 1 tsp curry leavesor powder• 1½ tsp salt• 4 tsp coriander leaves,chopped

1—Wash the red lentilsand split pigeon peas,then put them in apressure cooker withthree cups of water andthe turmeric. Close thepressure cooker and setit on a medium flameuntil you hear threewhistles. Then turn offthe stove.

2—Prepare your tadka(tempering) ingredients,while the dal cooks. On alow flame, heat somesunflower oil, add themustard seeds, cumin,one bay leaf and a pinchof asafoetida. Don’t letthe spices burn.

3—Add the choppedonion and cook until itturns yellow, then add inthe ginger and garlic.Add the finely choppedtomatoes, along with thegreen chillies and redchilli powder (I like touse Kashmiri chillipowder) andmix well.Then add the curryleaves and salt and,finally, pour the dal intothe pan and let it allsimmer for a couple ofminutes. Turn off theflame.

4— To top it off, rinsecoriander leaves, chopand sprinkle on thecooked dal. Serve withroti or rice.

Mamta Badkar is US head of fastFT

of falafel wraps from the halal cart just outsidemy campus, plus Koronet’s jumbo pizza slices,heavy on the grease and arteries, but light onmy pocket.It was thewinter chill thatmademe long for

thewarmth of home – and, tomy surprise,mymother’s homemade spicy dal.Much as I haddismissed it inmy teens, it waswhat I had eatenwhen Iwas under theweather or stressed andnothing could comfortmemore.So, inDecember 2009, duringmywinter break,

I reached formymother’s notebook. She hadhelpfully ledwith an index of spices in bothEnglish andHindi, followed immediately by aneasymasala dal recipe.Imademyway fromManhattan’sUpperWest

Side toMurrayHill (or CurryHill as it is oftencalled) andbought somedal, chillies, onions,tomatoes, garlic and ginger froman Indianstore. As I set out to cookdal for the very firsttime, I realised I didn’t have any bay leaves andpanicked.Mymother chuckled, explained thatthey aren’t essential and assuredme thatmycooking planswere not in fact ruined. Shewalkedme throughher recipe – one that I stick to,more orless, a decade later.It tookmoving halfway across theworld for

me to realise thatmymother’s daily dalwas anexpression of her love. Living inNewYork, oneof the epicentres of the pandemic and far fromfamily, it’s themeal Imost often cook formyhusband andme.Andwhen I return home toBombay,myfirstmeal is always homemade curdrice and a serving of dal.

‘It tookmoving halfwayacross the world forme torealise thatmymother’sdaily dal was an expressionof her love’


Lately, I have gotten a littlemoredal, turning to the superfood of thesubcontinent and one of theworld’sgreat comfortmeals.

Formany, dal is a taste of home.Meera Sodhawrites in her cookbook

Made in India: “Ask any Indianwhat their favouritefood is, and theywillmost likely tell you that it’stheirmother’s dal-bhaat (dal and rice). Itmightsoundhumble, but in the hands of an Indian cookthese simple ingredients are transformed intofood for the soul.”

I first acquired a taste for it on family trips toIndia as a kid and later as an adult, including astint living inMumbai in the 1990s. Frombustlingtrain station cafeterias to five-star restaurants, dalwas foundprettymuch everywhere, in countlessvariations andflavours across the country.

Loyalty to favoured variations runs deep.Inmy family,we have developed a dal thatwe likemost, a great, quickweekdaymeal, savingmoreelaborate ones forweekend experimentation ordinnerwith friends.

I havemade it somany times, I could almost doitwithmy eyes shut. Once,when Iwas on a diet,I ate it every day for lunchwith its slow-burningsustenance reducing the need for snacks. And asI have cut back onmeat in recent years, I havecooked itmore.

My recipe is based on an old one by the chefMerrilees Parker but I have adapted it over theyears. Each time Imake it, it is a little different.This is not precise cooking.

Tomatoandtadkadal

TonyTassell

• 300g red lentils• 1-2 tbs tomato paste• 400g canned tomatoes• A neutral oil (rapeseedor vegetable)• About 12 curry leaves• 2 tsp black mustardseeds• 2 tsp cumin seeds• A red or green chillisplit down the middle• 1 tsp chilli flakes• 4 cloves garlic, thinlysliced• Salt• Juice of half a lemon

1—Wash the red lentilsin a saucepan until waterruns through it clear.Drain. Then add 900mlof water. Bring to a boiland cook until tender,about 20-30minutes.Remove any scum thatcomes to the surfaceduring cooking.Blitz with a hand blender,if you have one, to yourdesired consistency.Or handmash a little.

2—Add a tablespoon oftomato paste and a tin oftomatoes. Stir and letsimmer for a few

minutes. In a separatepan, make what is calledthe tadka – flavoured oil.Heat up three to fourtablespoons of oil. If youwant a richer dal, useghee instead.

3— Into the oil gothe curry leaves, blackmustard seeds, cuminseeds, red or green chillisplit down the middle,chilli flakes and aboutfour cloves of thinlysliced garlic. Fry for aminute or two. Then tipthe tarka into the daland stir. Add salt to taste

and the juice of halfa lemon.

4—Sometimes I alsoadd a few handfuls ofspinach to the mix.Another variation is toadd a couple ofteaspoons of gratedginger to the lentilswhen they are beingboiled or to the tarka.Sometimes I will addcoconut milk to theboiled lentils to make aricher flavour. But this isvery forgiving cooking.It should be tweaked toyour own tastes.

Tony Tassell is the FT’s deputy news editor


Wine’s complicationsare predicated on foursorts of differences:origin, vintage,

grape variety and craft (the skillor otherwise of the winemaker).Origin enjoys the highest statusof these, via the notion of terroir:the idea that wines might tasteas they do because of the place inwhich their grapes grow.

Newly planted vineyardsrewrite the range of possibilities,sometimes dramatically. InBritish Columbia, Canada’s farwest, localwinemaking endeavoursover the past three decades haveunearthed some shockinglyunusual growing locations,without parallel elsewhere intheworld. “We’re still in a giddyphase of experimentation,” saysVancouver-basedwine buyer andcommentator Barbara PhilipMW.

One nascent growing locationcalled Lillooet, for example, liesfurther north than Reims andEpernay in Champagne – yet itswarmth (measured as “degreedays” – the summation of all thedegrees over 10C during the seven-month growing season) exceedsthat of Bordeaux in France’s south.Philip’s fellow Master of WineRhys Pender, who now makeswine at Little Farm in the nearbySimilkameen Valley, remembersone August day in the southernOkanagan Valley when it wasjust 7C in the morning – but 46Cby the end of the afternoon.

When Séverine Pinte, whohad trained inBordeaux andLanguedoc, arrived at Le VieuxPinwinery in theOkanaganValley,she found that the vineyardsexperienced similar overall warmthto those regionswithwhich shewas familiar – but had amonthless to ripen, as the “shoulderseasons”were so brutal. A fullyear can see 60Cof variation,from40C in summer to -20Cinwinter. Frosts linger late andreturn early. Thefirst autumnrains, after a summer too dry for

inflection that characterisesOntario’s seamof inspiration.

The Okanagan is spindly,topographically chaotic – and170km long. There are considerabledifferences between the sculpted,shapely wines of its northernsector around Kelowna and LakeCountry (Riesling, Chardonnayand Pinot) and the richer whites(the widely planted Pinot Griscan be excellent) and vivid,sometimes explosive reds (Merlot,Cabernet Franc and Syrah) ofthe south. The SimilkameenValley over the hills from thesouthern Okanagan is differentlyorientated and a little cooler, aswell as having some propitiousgravels; Riesling and Pinot Blanc

can do well there... but so, in theright site, can Syrah and CabernetSauvignon. Giddy experimentationremains the order of the day.

A final advantage for bothregions is ambitious investorswith deep pockets. The Chinese-Canadian Richter Bai’s miningfortune funds Phantom Creek,which has managed to enticeOlivier Humbrecht MW fromAlsace to oversee its whites inthe Okanagan (the Pinot Gris ispromising) and brought PhilippeMelka from Napa to tutor thereds. More unusually, the crazefor White Claw Hard Seltzer (andbefore it Mike’s Hard Lemonade)also helps fund terroir researchin the Okanagan. Its billionairecreator, Anthony von Mandl,began his working life as a wineimporter and now owns MissionHill (one of the Valley’s largestwineries) as well as CedarCreek,CheckMate, Martin’s Lane, Road13 and Liquidity Wines.▶

‘Local winemakingendeavours have unearthedsome shockingly unusualgrowing locations’

Canada’swildwest

AndrewJeffordWine

Illustration by Mark Long

the vines to survive unirrigated,may fall white – as snow.

One advantage of this high-latitude yet almost desert-likedrama is that there are very cleardifferences of style between thewines of British Columbia andtheir Canadian siblings over theRockies inOntario, where summersaremuchmore humid. There is aquietness, gentleness and restraintabout theOntario style, whereas

that of theOkanagan (source of84 per cent of BCwine) is bright,colourful anddramatic, particularlyfor the Syrah-based redwinesproduced in its southern end,adjacent to theUSborder. Itmakesmost sense, indeed, to see themaswines of theNorthAmericanwestcoast: they share the unshackledexuberance of California andWashington statemore thantheEuropean-style nuance and


Join Jancis Robinson for an interactivetasting of California wines at the digitalFT Weekend Festival, September 3-5.For passes and information onpre-ordering wine, go to:live.ft.com/jancisrobinson

◀That, though, doesn’t exhaustBC’s surprises. Vancouver Islandis also an increasingly sought-aftervineyard location – and itwould behard to find a bigger contrast to theOkanagan. In place of a land-lockedmountain fastness, you’ll find theislandmoist, oceanic anddreamy.Duringmypre-lockdownvisit inFebruary, a night-long storm rockedthe house Iwas staying in,while theday that followed sawveils of finerain dancewith sunlight as theymight during aHebridean equinox.It’s actually further south than theOkanagan – indeed, the island’scapital Victoria is almost as closeto Seattle as it is toVancouver –yet despite that, this is a far coolergrowing location, and onewitha growing season as extendedas theOkanagan’s is abrupt.Hybrid vines originally

accounted for the core of plantings,notably those by independentSwiss breeder Valentin Blattner,but in recent years both Pinot Noirand Pinot Gris have flourishedtogether with smaller plantings ofother varieties including GamayandAuxerrois. The island’ssparkling-wine potential isevident and these were themostimpressive wines I tasted here,together with some silky yet freshwhite blends, sappy Pinot Grisand subtle, fine-toned Pinot Noir.Alcohols are always low, againin contrast to the wines of theOkanagan, even though pickingruns into late October. This long,languid delivery of flavour ripeness

AndrewJefford.com;Jancis Robinson is away

‘This long, languid deliveryof flavour ripeness withsustained acidity is justwhat sparkling-wineproducers look for’

with sustained acidity is just whatsparkling-wine producers look for.Youmight assume that the

pulse of global warming favoursboth of these high-latitude regions,but that isn’t necessarily true.Vancouver Island growers don’tneed to irrigate at present, butdrier summersmightmean theyhave to;morewarmth, too, wouldmean their wines begin to losetheir distinctive edge and nuance.The situation in theOkanagan,meanwhile, illustrates thecomplexity of these issues. Summerstorms have always caused firesin themountains. Recent changes(including the devastationwroughtby themountain pine beetle ondrought-stressed forests)meansthat these fires are growingworse.Smoke can hang in the valley forlong periods during the summerripening season, veiling thesunshine and potentially taintingthe grapes. And evenwithout thesmoke risk, no one in theOkanaganwould likemuchmore heat andripeness, or exuberance couldrisk toppling into caricature.

Okanagan Valley• Bartier Bros (Chardonnay and Semillon)• Bella (sparkling)• Blue Mountain (sparkling)• CheckMate (Merlot)• Nichol (Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Syrah)• Nk’Mip (Merlot)• Osoyoos Larose (blends)• Painted Rock (Syrah)• Phantom Creek (Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon, blends)• Poplar Grove (Chardonnay, Viognier)• Quail’s Gate (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc)• Synchromesh (Riesling)• Tinhorn Creek (Roussanne)• Vieux Pin (blends)

Similkameen Valley• Clos du Soleil (Pinot Blanc, blends)• Little Farm (Riesling, Chardonnay)• Orofino (Riesling)• Vanessa (Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, blends)

Vancouver Island• Averill Creek (blends, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir)• Blue Grouse (Ortega, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir)• Emandare Vineyard (Pinot Noir)• Rathjen Cellars (Auxerrois, Pinot Gris)• Unsworth (sparkling, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris)

For stockists, see winesearcher.com

A selection of top British Columbia producers(with their best wine styles in brackets)

Let’s be clear: any dinner partywould be a dream right now.I’d take the first five people inthe phone book. I’d probably

take the first five in the commentssection under this article.But if I’m allowed to be greedy,

the first name on the seatingplan isVictoriaWood, theBritish comedian who died in2016. She could be funny in almostany format. I’m imagining her atthe piano, leading everyone in arendition of her song “The Balladof Barry and Freda” about alustful woman (“No caution,just contortions! / Smear anavocado onmy lower portions!”)and her lustlessman (“Stoppouting, stop shouting! / You knowI pulled amuscle when I did thatgrouting”). Maybe it will worksome time in that restless periodbetweenmain course and pudding.

Name two isNelsonMandela.Yes, I know it’s a cliché. But I oncehad lunch in the same roomashim and I’ve never seen anyoneso keen on introducing himself toother people. You can forget, whenorganising a fantasy dinner party,that youwant a social event, notfive concurrent Reith lectures.Mandelawould be the ideal guest– someonewho everyonewants tomeet, but who actually wants tomeet them too. Fingers crossed hecan sing.A dinner party should include

someonewho’s had a shocking day.Their presencemakes everyoneelse feel better about themselves.I’m choosingHaroldGodwinson,the Anglo-Saxonwhowas brieflyking in 1066, before facing thealmost simultaneous invasionsof KingHarald of Norway andWilliam, Duke of Normandy, andthen – possibly – being shot in theeyewith an arrow.I imagineHarold falling through

the door, exhaling, “Youwon’timaginewhat’s happened tome,”and downing three glasses of red.I’m a bit concerned about Anglo-Saxon tablemanners. But howeverbad they are, they’d beworth it forhearingwhetherHarold did in factpromise the throne toWilliam,thereby finally putting to rest

whether theNorman invasionwassort-of justified or not.Alexander vonHumboldt

was an amazing polymathwhoexplored the Americas at the endof the 19th century. He inspiredCharles Darwin andHenry DavidThoreau, and foreshadowed theenvironmentalmovement bysignalling the harm caused bycutting down forests. Humboldtcould also be gossipy and

incredibly rude. So he’s on thelist too – in a one-off dinner party,you need people whowill cut tothe chase.Being green shouldmean being

daring and curious. Humboldtwas all these things. Althoughweprobablywant the young explorer,rather than the old know-it-allwho barely let Darwin speakwhentheymet.I’ve struggled a lot with the last

spot. I love thewriter JoanDidion,but Tina Brown’s diaries say shewas hardwork at dinners. Shakirais a lifelong idol. Brian Cox, the

Succession actor, never gives a dullinterview. Is thismy only chance totouchRoger Federer?In the end, I’m going for the

author Zadie Smith. I grew up innorth London andWhite Teeth is,forme, the great north Londonnovel (NW isn’t bad either). Smith’sessays are themark of someonewho can be interesting and nuancedon almost any subject.The food is all vegan. But

before anyone thinks aboutcancelling, it will be fromvegetable king Alain Passard ofthe triple-Michelin-starredArpègein Paris, relocated to some lushEnglish countryside,maybe theSouthDowns. I amdesperate tounderstandwhy anyonewould pay€155 for amain course, and equallydesperate not to pay €155 to findout. So this is the opportunity.Wewon’t go for the vegetable

tastingmenu – tastingmenus arethe culinary equivalent of speeddating, and youwant to leavewellbefore the end. Let’s have somechunkyportions of tomatoes fromthe rich soils of Passard’s farms,followedby an arrangement of peasand other greens, then plums, quasi-veganhoney and orange for dessert.I don’t want to be prescriptive

aboutwine. I am a fan of openingwhatever guests have brought.It brings a certain accountability tothe gifting process: you can arrivewith a £4.99 bottle, but you’re goingto drink it.The best dinner parties reach

a point where the guests almostforget how they arrived, or whytheywere invited, or who the hostis. You discover hidden passagesto each other’s personalities thatyou never knew existed, howeverlong you’ve been friends. Theconversation bursts whateverbanks it begins with.SoMandela andHumboldt

start off talking about colonialismandwildlife, but end up on sometangent about how to reinventthe shoelace.Zadie Smithwould be prodding

Harold Godwinson to see thebright side of overseasmigration,before they zoom in on thehilarities of home-schooling.Bottle after bottle disappears.All I ask is that I don’t reach the

stagewhere I getmy phone out andaskVictoriaWood if she thinksmytweets are funny.I realise I have forgotten to invite

mywife, so I guess this is a test ofwhether she does readmy articlesto the end.One final request: can

Donald Trumpplease be leftwashing the dishes?

‘The party should includesomeone who’s had ashocking day, makingeveryone else feel better’


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The FT’s chief featureswriter picks the guests,location, dishes and drinksfor his dream meal

FANTASY DINNER PARTYHENRY MANCE

‘We chatted over a glassof rosé and some seriouslyaccomplished snacks,including squid-inkcrackers with wasabicream and cured anchovy’

At the end of July, I enjoyedmyfirstmeal in a crater.Ten thousand years agoameteorite crashed into

a place nowknown as DomaineduMétéore in the foothills of theCévennes and left one of the largestcraters on earth. Syrah vines havesubsequently been planted inthis bowl linedwith holm oaksand arbutus.Thewine estatewas bought 18

months ago by twoEnglish doctors,Paul Jenkins and Paul Jarman.Last summer they built a kitchendown in the crater, with a generatorable to power a couple of fridges,a small induction hob and lightingfor the outdoor tables, the kitchenand an eco-lavatory. InMarch, theFrench chefNicolas Delorme andhis Australian partner Jaclyn Sunleyarrived in theHaut-Languedoc.Mywife and Imet this talented

couple (Sunley has a number ofroles, includingwaitress, sommelierand guide down to the restaurant)in thewinery’s tasting room,wherewe chatted over a glass of roséand some seriously accomplishedsnacks, including squid-ink crackerswithwasabi creamand cured

transform it as intelligently andsensitively as he can. He seems tosee the limitations of his kitchenas an extra challenge – and it’s onethat he rises to.Our first dishwas a couple of

oysters fromMaisonTarbouriechinMarseillan on the nearbyMediterranean,where an ecosystemof freshwater and seawater addsextra flavour. These came toppedwith thin slices of cured cucumberand a plumcleverly preserved inMarseillan’s vermouth,Noilly Prat.It was followedby, perhaps, the

evening’smost creative dish. Thewritten description – “this season’stomatoes, basil and pine nuts” –scarcely did it justice.Half a dozenvarieties of tomato – expertlypeeled and confited – arrived in acolourful dishwith three differentbasil leaves, red, green and small,hot Thai basil, overwhichDelormepoured a transparent tomatoessence. Best of all were the pinenuts, whichhe had cleverlymixedwith buckwheat, seasoned andbaked and then broken into threesmall pieces to accompany the dish.On their own, thesewould havemade an excellent cocktail snack.Three contrasting subsequent

dishes displayed Delorme’sfascinationwith Asia. A slow-cooked egg with grilled sweet leekswas toppedwith top-qualitymiso,which he buys online. A loin ofwild boar alongsidemulticolouredyoung carrots had beenmarinatedin sake. And finally, thin slicesof yellow peaches, with perfectmeringue wafers, sat on top of amousse flavoured by a Japaneselong peppercorn. As well ashaving a nose for the ingredientsthat constitute an excellent dish,Delorme has a good eye for coloursand textures.By 9pmourmeal was over.

The sun had disappeared and themoonwas bright. Delorme andSunley did a quick tidy beforedriving us back to thewinerywhereI paidmy bill of €100 for two.Before leaving I asked Sunley the

obvious question: what happens ifit rains? “Well,” came her response,“I keep a close eye on the forecast.And, since we opened inMay, therehas been only one night whenwehad to cancel our bookings becauseof the forecast. And then, of course,it didn’t rain.”

anchovy, and a small bowl of spicedred pepper creamwith octopus andcrisp ham fragments. Then I helpedDelorme and Sunley shoo theirchickens into a coop for the night –another first forme.Delormedrove his van down to

the crater andwe followed on foot.The rough track tookus throughthe vegetable garden that theyhad recently planted, past awellthey haddiscovered and throughthe vines. After about 10minutes,we heard the humof a generator.We emerged from the

undergrowth into the crater to findan outdoor restaurant. Four tables,each of which could seat fourcustomers, stood beside a kitchenin a wooden shedwith smokefrom old vine cuttings billowingout. The tables were attractivelydecoratedwith leaves, candles andshards of the schist for which thisregion is renowned.The scenewas breathtaking.

As the sunwas setting just before8pm, themoon rose to the south-east. It felt like being inAustralia– rugged nature, the vines,scrubland and, quite soon, someextremely good food andwine.Delorme is a classically trained

French chef who has travelled andcookedwidely. He knowswhat hehas to do: find the best produce and

Domaine duMétéore9 Route d’Aigues Vives,Cabrerolles 34480, Francedomainedumeteore.comDinner Wednesday to Saturdayuntil the end of September

DomaineduMétéore,Cabrerolles

More columns at ft.com/lander

TOMATO, BASIL AND PINE NUT SALAD (LEFT) AND DOMAINE DU MÉTÉORE’S RESTAURANT

Restaurant InsiderNicholas Lander



All the answers hereare linked in someway. Once you’vespotted the link, anyyou didn’t know thefirst time aroundshould become easier.

1.Halvard Solness isthemain characterin which play byHenrik Ibsen?

2. During the Englishcivil war (above),which radical group

– originally known asthe True Levellers –was led by GerrardWinstanley?

3.What kind ofjungle featured inthe title of a 1950film noir directedby John Huston?

4.Which Londonstreet gave its nameto a best-selling2003 novel byMonica Ali?

5.Whose first defeatas a professionalheavyweightboxer came onOctober 30 1974?

6. In bridge, what’sthe highest-rankingsuit of cards?

7. According to a long-running advertisingslogan, the drinkIrn-Bru (below) ismade fromwhat?

8. Black-necked, red-crowned, Siberianand whooping are allspecies of which bird?

9.Which bandof the 1960s and1970s consisted ofthe comedian JohnGorman, the poetRoger McGough andPaul McCartney’sbrother Mike?

10.Which Frenchwriter had a 10-yearrelationship withChopin between1837 and 1847?

+ =

00 00 00

11

9

2

15

16

19 20

25

1

13

17

23

3 4 5 6 7 8

12

10

14

22

18

21

24

26

The Across clues are straightforward, while the Down clues are cryptic.

Who or what do these pictures add up to?

The CrosswordNo 501. Set by Aldhelm

A Round on the Linksby JamesWalton

The Picture Roundby JamesWalton

Answers page 10

ACROSS1 Eccentriccharacter (8)6Grinding teeth (6)9 Small gland inthe brain (6)10 Tell off (8)11 Short scene (8)12Of a group ofsingers (6)13 Then, next (12)16 Solo (6-6)19 Rhapsodic (6)21 Primary (8)23 Computer’s defencefrom attack (8)24Harm (6)25 Dread (6)26 Scottish eastcoast city (8)

DOWN2Not quitelifting fruit (6)3 Completely pure (5)4 Friend with a placefor food that’s tasty (9)5 Swing gin withease, we hear (7)6 Impersonateoperatic heroinewith leader ofcontraltos (5)7 Light food’scooked aroundbeginning of night’ssleep (4, 2, 3)8 Naughty friendsmashed cars,at first (8)13 Tourist’s wistfulreaction to wildtrees (9)14Weaken oneDemocrat witha symbol ofaristocracy (9)

15 Drug withtonic mixed withpopular drug (8)17 Plant feet first aftera nasty fall for one (7)18One churchfeature – hope (6)20One holdingmeeting about1960s musical (5)22 Vehicle withsecond pedal alearner missed (5)

Solution to Crossword No 500

A I M P E R S O NQ A O A X A E A AU S U R P A P E PI A N A L A S A ON A T H N I E LC A A A I A S A EE X P A N D A C ON A E A A A T A NT H R E A T E N A

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ILLUSTRATION BY SHONAGH RAE46 FT.COM/MAGAZINE AUGUST 15/16 2020

Gillian Tett will be appearing at this year’sFTWeekend Festival, online September 3-5.For programme, go to ftweekendfestival.com;[email protected]; @gilliantett

pany Crocs. The agency that represents RichardstoldCNBCthat influencersmake“anywherefrom$5,000 to $20,000 a post” depending on howmany followers they have, and thus how muchhorizontal influence theyhaveon thecrowd.This is striking. But an even more interesting

question is what it might mean for politics. Onefigure who has cropped up in this strange newlandscape is Brock Pierce, a former child actorwho apparently made a fortune in cryptocur-rency. Last month he toldme he had long been amentor of Richards and the TikTok crowd; he isnow running as an independent presidential can-didate, ona libertarian,digitally focused ticket.Hiscandidacyisalongshotbutheclearlyhopes

Triller’s audience – with 250 million app down-loads, versus TikTok’s two billion – can help hiscampaign, insofar as they are of voting age, andthathecanbuildabiggerwebofinfluencehimself.

The influencers are circumspect: Richards (andthemanagers of Triller) tellme theywant to stayapolitical in the 2020 elections and be “friendswitheveryone”, includingTikTok.But the key point is that Pierce, and everyone

else, knows that if anyone can harness this Gen Zcrowd, throughwhateverapptheyareusing, theycould wield a powerful political weapon. Indeed,TikTok has already been deployed: in mid-June,TikTokers said theyhadrequestedhugenumbersof tickets for a Trump rally in Oklahoma, onlyto not turn up, leaving the venue largely empty.TikTokhasalsoplayedakeyrole in spreading themessagesof theBlackLivesMatterprotests.So will the TikTok crowd turn more politi-

cal ahead of the 2020 race, or bemanipulated byoutside interests? Orwill theymigrate to Triller?Could Instagram’snewplatform,Reels – intendedto competewith TikTok – disrupt things instead?Ormight this whole phenomenon just disappearasfastasitemerged?Itishardtopredictrightnow.One thing is clear: Gen X leaders at the top of

corporate and political hierarchies are going tofind it hard to read, let alone control, these newinfluencer channels; hierarchical orders do notwork well in this horizontal network world. Soeven if you have never heard of Richards, Pierceor the SwayHouse, watchwhat they do next andponderwhat itmeans to live in a time of horizon-tal influence. The answer is as discomforting forGenXaswatchingRichards’15-secondvideos.

Recently I spent an hour staringat an unruly mop of teenage hairon my computer. The owner wasan 18-year-old Canadian calledJosh Richards. That name proba-bly means nothing to you if, likeme, you are a staid member ofGeneration X. But if you belong toGenZ,bornbetweenthemid-1990sandabout2010,youmightsquealindelight–asoneofmydaughtersdid.The reason is that over the past

two years Richards has become one of the mostsuccessful “influencers” onTikTok, the platformwhere people post short videos of themselves,often dancing or lipsyncing. He has garnered 1.3billion likes for his videos and 21 million follow-ers. Richards is often shirtless in his TikToks andfrequentlyaccompaniedbyaposseoffellowinflu-encers, known as the “Sway House”, who havebeen living together inLosAngeles.Then,lastmonth,Richardsandotherinfluencers

announcedtheywere leavingTikTokto joinasim-ilar platformcalledTriller,whereRichardswill be“chief strategy officer” with a large equity stake –nevermindthathehasjustlefthighschool(hetellsmehehasnoplans togotocollegeatpresent).No, this news was not as big as other recent

TikTok headlines, namely that President DonaldTrump has tried to shut the app out of the USbecause of “national security” concerns relatingto its Chinese parent company, ByteDance – orthat Microsoft has been in talks to buy TikTok’sUS, Canadian and Australasian businesses. Butwhat Richards and TikTok teach us about powerand information isworthheeding.WhenIwasateenager in1980sBritain,a“star”

was somebody who was packaged by powerfulcorporate interests and presented tome in a one-directional manner, usually on a television showsuch asTop of the Pops. Information and celebrityflowed vertically down to me. Advertising wasattached to this, onTVandradioand inprint, inarelativelyobvious fashion.Today,however,celebritiesbuildtheirfanbases

morehorizontally, byappealing to a crowd, inter-acting with them and persuading them to enlisttheirfriendstospreadideasandbrands.Richards,for example, says he started posting videos at 13,largelyonhisown,andwhileheisnow“managed”by a professional crew, he knows he cannot buildmomentum unless he finds a way to constantlygrab his audience’s attention in an interactivemanner. “Youhave to surprise them,”he says.Today’s influencers, in other words, are a

little like the wandering minstrels of medie-val Europe: unless they can constantly delightand read their crowd and echo their mood, theirinfluence and fame will quickly die. So will theirrevenues: instead of endorsing top-down adver-tisements, the influencers monetise their famepartly through product placements. Richards,forexample,haspromotedmusiciansandbrandssuch as sportswearmakerReebok and shoe com-

‘Gen X leaders at the top ofhierarchies are going to find ithard to read, let alone control,these new influencer channels’

GILLIANTETTPART ING SHOT

HowGenerationTikTok couldsoonbe callingthe political tune

Financial Times 08 15 2020

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Transcript of Financial Times 08 15 2020