On Christmas Day, Face The Nation broadcast John Dickerson’s annual interview with Stephen Colbert — an amusing and very thoughtful look backward at a troubled year and forward into a new era of uncertainty.

The Late Show host tries to find a brighter side as the nation approaches inauguration 2017. He explains the simple secret of writing jokes about Donald Trump. And he offers a reading list for the president-elect  — including the U.S. Constitution and Trump’s own book The Art of the Deal, implying that Trump has read neither — while confessing that he strains to remain respectful of the man as well as the office.

As a realist, Colbert keeps that reading list short — indeed, his final recommendation is very short: only four words.