Aaron Sorkin joined Lulu Garcia-Navarro to talk about his career and his new movie, “The Social Reckoning,” which focuses on the real-life Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen. She leaked thousands of internal documents to the Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, showing that the company knew its platforms were having a number of negative effects and resisted doing anything to address them. Sorkin has written about Facebook before — his script for the 2010 film “The Social Network,” won him an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

During his career, Sorkin has dramatized the institutions at the center of American society. From his first play, “A Few Good Men,” in 1989, which he then adapted into the blockbuster movie, to “The West Wing,” “The American President,” “The Newsroom” and beyond, Sorkin has created work that in many ways has shaped our understanding of how politics, the media and the military work, or should work. He discussed how he approaches writing, how he overcame drug addiction and more in this episode.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/magazine/aaron-sorkin-interview.html

[00:01:33] Aaron Sorkin and his new movie

[00:05:07] Why revisit Facebook now?

[00:09:06] Writing stories that involve real-life people

[00:13:07] Mark Zuckerberg, villains and anti-heroes

[00:17:17] Making “The Social Reckoning”

[00:19:21] Sorkin’s public back-and-forth with Zuckerberg

[00:24:10] Patriotism and institutions

[00:28:35] How Sorkin broke his nose writing

[00:31:12] Why Sorkin is optimistic about AI

[00:35:02] Writing high versus sober

[00:40:34] Why not write more about darkness?

[00:49:15] Meta's recent settlement and promise to make changes

[00:52:58] The reception of “The Social Reckoning”

[00:57:04] Who is an inspiring politician today?

[00:57:04] Is a reverence for institutions misguided right now?

“The Interview” features conversations with the world’s most fascinating people. Each week, co-hosts David Marchese and Lulu Garcia-Navarro talk to compelling, influential figures in culture, politics, business, sports and beyond — illuminating who they are, why they do what they do and how they impact the rest of us.

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