I asked what advice she would offer the countless young women who have been galvanized by her loss — in a way they never were by her candidacy — to become more engaged in public life. “Toughen up your skin,” she counseled, referring to the nastiness often directed at prominent women. “Be ready. It’s not a new phenomenon, but it feels new and painful every time it happens to you.”

Clinton noted that when she stepped down as secretary of state, she had an approval rating of 64 percent and was one of the most popular public officials in America. But that was ancient history by Election Day. “Oh my gosh,” she said, “by the time they finished with me, I was Typhoid Mary.”

We talked about lots of issues, including Syria — she advocated attacking Syrian air strips; hours later, President Trump did just that — and she was ready to fire a few salvos of her own. She raised the “chaotic functioning” of the new administration and said she didn’t understand the Trump team’s “commitment to hurt so many people,” from its travel ban to its health care legislation.

Why did she lose the election? Clinton’s staff has conducted autopsies that, she said, suggested that two of the most important factors were the plunder and release of her campaign emails and the last-minute announcement by the F.B.I. director, James Comey, that the investigation into her use of a private email server could be reopened.

So, I asked, when you heard Comey say recently that he had been investigating Trump’s Russia ties since July but couldn’t disclose it then because it’s inappropriate to discuss ongoing investigations, what did you throw at the television?

She savored the question. “Yes,” she said, smiling. “That was one of the high points of the last weeks.”