Democracy in Danger
226 episodes - English - Latest episode: 18 days ago -All over the world, liberal democracy is under threat. Autocrats are taking hold. They’re crushing dissent. Controlling the media. Trampling voting rights. Don’t let them.
Join hosts Will Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan as they put the illiberal turn in context. Hear leading thinkers discuss serious threats to government by the people: from the dark web and media disinformation, to climate change, economic inequality and violent extremism. Help save the rule of the people — one episode at a time. And make democracy work better.
Listen, subscribe to the show, leave us some stars and tweet us your thoughts @DinDpodcast. New episodes drop every other Wednesday.
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Episodes
S5 E3. The Justices Have No Robes
September 21, 2022 12:00 - 30 minutes - 70.1 MBThe high court’s conservatives insist that strict readings of the U.S. Constitution have compelled them to strike down popular policies like abortion rights and campaign finance limits. Well, legal expert Christopher Sprigman has some news for these robed rogues. Buried in the law of the land is the key to reining in the federal judiciary. All Congress has to do is act, he says. And all the people have to do is demystify the courts — stripping them of an imperious aura they’ve too long enjoyed.
S5 E2. Closet Civics
September 07, 2022 12:00 - 25 minutes - 58.1 MBIn January 2017, millions of women marched in solidarity to oppose Donald Trump’s inauguration. But in a small Texas county, a growing network of like-minded ladies found each other — and began meeting in secret. Communications scholar Emily Van Duyn followed these women as they became improbable, undercover champions of civic engagement while keeping their activism hidden, from their husbands, families and neighbors. We ask what their story says about the politics of silence and the silencin...
S5 E1. The Good Gamble
August 24, 2022 12:00 - 76 MBWe’re back! Legal scholar Jedediah Purdy joins Will and Siva to help launch a new season focused on democracy, law and the people. Can Americans transcend gross inequality, neoliberal ideology, and the “politics of nihilism” taking root among their leaders? Looking to Frederick Douglass for inspiration, Purdy thinks so. His new book urges readers to reimagine and rebuild their body politic — to rule themselves at last. It may be a crapshoot, but it’s one a free people can’t afford to pass up.
Learning Curbed [Rebroadcast]
August 10, 2022 12:00 - 27 minutes - 62.4 MBPublic schools are ground zero in the battle over American civic life. Teaching history is under attack, book banning is on the rise, and leaders in red states are legislating homophobia in the guise of protecting children. Historian Natalia Petrzela locates the roots of such political backlash in cultural upheavals of the 1960s that continue to play out today, amid a climate of discontent mixed up with pandemic anxieties. With kids heading back to school this month, we revisit our recent edu...
Disconnected [Rebroadcast]
July 27, 2022 12:00 - 30 minutes - 70.4 MBPresident Biden’s recent covid diagnosis is a reminder that the country is not out of the pandemic woods yet. As new variants crop up and infection numbers spike, the demand for remote working and learning will remain. But as many as 120 million Americans lack consistent, high-speed internet. This time we revisit our show with media scholar Christopher Ali. He says the broadband divide isn’t just an economic problem but a threat to democracy itself. Hear why he thinks internet access is a vit...
Telltale Coup [Rebroadcast]
July 13, 2022 12:00 - 23 minutes - 53.7 MBJust as FDR and his allies were crafting the New Deal, a retired Marine named Smedley Butler came forward with a shocking revelation. Powerful business interests, Butler alleged, were plotting to overthrow the U.S. government. Inspired by the rise of fascism in Europe, the conspirators had sought Butler’s aid. Little did they know, decades of fighting for American imperialism had left him disillusioned, so he blew the top on “the Business Plot.” As the Jan. 6 hearings heat up, we revisit this...
Locked and Loaded [Rebroadcast]
June 29, 2022 12:00 - 43 minutes - 99.1 MBThere are more firearms — nearly 400 million — in the United States than people. Hundreds of them were on full display at a pro-gun rally in Virginia, in 2020, where a group of strange bedfellows met in praise of the Second Amendment. On this replay, we revisit that story, and our interview with historian Carol Anderson. If you thought the right to “bear arms” was about individuals carrying weapons, or even about letting militias defend a free state against foreign invasion, think again.
S4 E16. Past, Present, Future
June 15, 2022 12:00 - 42 minutes - 96.4 MBComing to you live this week from the American Political History conference at Purdue University, it’s our season finale. Will and Siva speak with three historians — Liette Gidlow, Derek Musgrove and Thomas Zimmer — about the past, present and future of government by the people. Our guests ponder the Jan. 6 hearings, D.C. statehood, social mobilization and the structural problems of the Constitution itself. Did America’s founders sign democracy’s death warrant at its birth?
S4 E15. Saving Social Media
June 08, 2022 12:00 - 36 minutes - 83.1 MBIn recent years, American politicians seem to be getting tougher about internet oversight. But it remains unclear whether Washington has the will to regulate big tech companies and the platforms they control. This week we hear from Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, and former Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Republican, live from the University of Virginia’s celebrated dome room. They see hope for bipartisan action on Capitol Hill — to protect users and free speech alike. Siva reflects with guest-host Da...
S4 E14. In Ukraine, Hell — and Hope
June 01, 2022 12:00 - 30 minutes - 70.1 MBRussian forces have pulled back from around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. They’ve left the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv. But farther east and south, the fighting has intensified, and the civilian death toll is mounting. How will this war end? What will remain of Ukraine? And are European powers doing enough to punish Russia for its devastating invasion? Journalist Peter Pomerantsev — recently back from covering the conflict for the Atlantic — helps Will and Siva parse a complex picture.
S4 E13. Broken News
May 25, 2022 12:00 - 77.9 MBNewsrooms are shrinking, hedge funds are buying up local papers and clickbait is shaping more and more what you know about the world. What the heck is happening to the news business — and what does this spell for the future of democracy? Journalism professors Jay Rosen and Nikki Usher say the internet isn’t all to blame: Journalists, they argue, need to get more creative about who they reach, what they cover and how they fund their work.
Body Politics [Rebroadcast]
May 18, 2022 12:00 - 80.5 MBAfter a surprising leak, Americans have seen a draft Supreme Court opinion that would undo the right of women to terminate their pregnancies. At issue in this case out of Mississippi: a near-total ban on abortion that ignores Roe v. Wade. A final ruling is expected next month before the end of the court’s term. This week, we replay a conversation with journalist Rebecca Traister. She says establishment Democrats failed to ensure the healthcare needs of poor and marginalized people — and to d...
S4 E12. Criminal Laws
May 11, 2022 12:00 - 33 minutes - 77.4 MBEntering the United States without permission is a crime. But should it be? This time on the show, we hear from a couple of lawyers who have been fighting to decriminalize unauthorized immigration. They say federal law unfairly targets Latin Americans — locking up hundreds of thousands of migrants who cross America’s southern border, costing billions of dollars each year. Plus, Will speaks with a University of Virginia historian who has helped make the case that those laws have patently racis...
S4 E11. Learning Curbed
May 04, 2022 12:00 - 27 minutes - 63.1 MBEducation is our subject this week. You’ve heard all about attacks on the teaching of racism and slavery, about the banning of books on the Holocaust and gender identity, about Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill. Public schools are ground zero in the battle over American civic life. But this is nothing new, historian Natalia Petrzela says. She locates the roots of such controversies in the cultural upheavals of the 1960s that continue to play out today, in a climate of discontent muddled by pande...
S4 E10. Crisis of Faith
April 27, 2022 12:00 - 28 minutes - 64.8 MBA critical Supreme Court decision in the early 1970s galvanized white evangelicals and set them on a path to outsized political influence in America. Roe v. Wade? Nope: Green v. Connally. This more obscure ruling two years before, in 1971, really got the religious right fired up, says historian Anthea Butler. That case stripped segregated academies — often religious schools — of their tax-exempt status. This week, Butler examines the racism, money and power behind a movement’s claims to moral...
S4 E9. False Flag
April 20, 2022 12:00 - 33 minutes - 76.4 MBWhen Evan Mawarire draped himself in his country’s flag six years ago, he didn’t know the video he was about to make would put his life in danger — and help topple a dictator. His forefathers had fought for Zimbabwe and for that flag. But now, Mawarire says, it “felt like a fraud.” Over four decades, Zimbabweans had suffered crushing economic woes and political oppression under President Robert Mugabe’s rule. Mawarire recalls that tumultuous time and its fallout with Siva and guest-host Emily...
Republic of Texas [Rebroadcast]
April 13, 2022 12:00 - 70.2 MBBesides all but banning abortions, GOP leaders in Texas are limiting what students may learn about slavery, they’re sidelining transgender athletes, they’re allowing citizens to carry guns unlicensed, and they’re making voting harder rather than easier. This week we replay for you the story of a teacher in Dallas who says those education reforms hurt classrooms and democracy. Plus, two historians speak Texan with Siva and guest-host Allison Wright of VQR, as they cover all those other divisiv...
S4 E8. Titans of Tech
April 06, 2022 12:00 - 35 minutes - 80.3 MBDuring the Cold War, U.S. taxpayers funded the huge investments that gave Big Tech its jump-start. And so Silicon Valley was born amid a peculiar blend of hypermasculine, militaristic libertarianism and 1960s countercultural values. Now the titans of the tech industry seem enthralled with visions of a post-democratic society driven by algorithms more than actual human connection. Historian Margaret O’Mara joins Will and Siva to ponder what it will take to tame the beast Americans created half...
S4 E7. On Edge
March 30, 2022 12:00 - 36 minutes - 84.1 MBThe United States is “backsliding,” says Kevin Casas-Zamora, head of a Sweden-based think tank that assesses the health of democracies around the world. And it’s the first of two key warning signs that, political scientist Barbara F. Walter argues, could lead America unexpectedly into a second civil war. The other sign: the coalescing of a powerful political party around identity rather than ideology. Walter spells out her case for why Americans should be very worried and what they should do ...
S4 E6. Body Politics
March 23, 2022 12:00 - 32 minutes - 75.5 MBLast December, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a Mississippi case that could hurt women across the country. At issue is a near-total ban on abortion that flies in the face of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision a half-century ago. Conservative justices could overturn abortion rights in America by the end of the court’s term. This week, journalist Rebecca Traister argues that establishment Democrats have failed to protect the healthcare needs of poor and marginalized people — and to d...
The Terrible War [Rebroadcast]
March 16, 2022 12:00 - 33 minutes - 76.3 MBThe post-9/11 “forever wars” — in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere — claimed a million lives and cost the United States $8 trillion over two decades. But what about the costs you can’t count? As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rages on, we flash back to an episode we did with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Spencer Ackerman, about the fallout on the home front from the war on terror. Ackerman says the enterprise was built on lies and has disfigured America’s political culture.
S4 E5. Telltale Coup
March 09, 2022 13:00 - 23 minutes - 54.4 MBJust as FDR and his allies were crafting the New Deal, a retired Marine named Smedley Butler came forward with a shocking revelation. Powerful business interests, Butler alleged, were plotting to overthrow the U.S. government. Inspired by the rise of fascism in Europe, the conspirators had sought Butler’s aid. Little did they know, decades of fighting for American imperialism had left him disillusioned. So Butler blew the top on “the Business Plot.” Journalist Jonathan Katz helps unearth this...
War Comes to Ukraine [Special Episode]
March 02, 2022 13:00 - 34 minutes - 78.4 MBJane Lytvynenko hasn’t slept much in two weeks. From her home in Toronto, she is watching Russian troops invade and bombard her native Ukraine, threatening loved ones and friends. And it’s rattling her nerves. But through all that, Lytvynenko, a freelance journalist, remains hopeful. Siva speaks with her about the failures of world leaders to stand up to Vladimir Putin. Plus, we revisit a couple of interviews from last year that help add context to the conflict.
S4 E4. Locked and Loaded
February 23, 2022 13:00 - 43 minutes - 99.5 MBThere are more firearms — nearly 400 million — in the United States than people. Hundreds of them were on full display at a pro-gun rally in Virginia, in 2020, where a group of strange bedfellows met in praise of the Second Amendment. Also on the show, historian Carol Anderson breaks down the sordid history of the right to bear arms in America. If you thought it was about the “individual right” to carry weapons, or even about militias defending a free state against foreign invasion, think again.
S4 E3. The New Old Dominion
February 16, 2022 13:00 - 30 minutes - 69.2 MBVirginia recently adopted progressive new voting measures championed by Democrats. Then the people rewarded Republicans, putting the levers of state government back in GOP hands. Now a new chief executive, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, is railing against the discussion of systemic racism in public schools and rolling back covid restrictions. Still, Del. Sally Hudson is focused on the positive: an increasingly diverse legislature, plans to weaken corporate influence in politics, and new checks on gerry...
S4 E2. Disconnected
February 09, 2022 13:00 - 31 minutes - 71.6 MBAs many as 120 million Americans lack consistent, high-speed internet access — a problem that remote working and learning during the pandemic has made painfully clear. Media scholar Christopher Ali says it isn’t just an economic problem but a threat to democracy itself. And while the rural-urban divide is well known, Ali tells Will and Siva, poor, densely populated areas are also drastically under-served. Do Americans have the will to treat internet access as a public service rather than a co...
S4 E1. By Unpopular Demand
February 02, 2022 13:00 - 33 minutes - 77.5 MBWe launch Season Four this week on familiar turf: autocratic shenanigans right here in the United States. Join Will and Siva for a conversation with Ohio writer and politician David Pepper. His new book tells the sordid tale of how state legislatures across the country get slammed with unpopular bills. On everything from voter suppression efforts to “Stand Your Ground” laws, right-wing lobbying groups are flooding the policy pipeline so hard and so fast, the opposition can’t keep up.
Growing Pains [Rebroadcast]
January 26, 2022 13:00 - 35 minutes - 82.3 MBGiven a real choice, people everywhere would take a shorter work week over bigger salaries, consume less to live more and seek mutual flourishing rather than plunder their natural resources, says economic anthropologist Jason Hickel. In our final replay of the winter break, we revisit his idea of “degrowth.” Hickel says the core tenet of capitalism — insatiable expansion — is holding humanity hostage. And if we don’t fix that, he argues, we won’t save the planet, never mind democracy.
Climate Shame [Rebroadcast]
January 19, 2022 13:00 - 31 minutes - 73.2 MBThe Democrats have come up short on President Biden’s spending package, failing to deliver $555 billion for renewable energy that climate advocates say was direly needed. This week we dust off an episode on the relationship between good government and climate policy. Science journalist Kendra Pierre-Louis says better individual choices won’t really address the looming ecological crisis. She argues instead for international reparations and a wholesale shift in social norms, including a healthy...
WTF, GOP [Rebroadcast]
January 12, 2022 13:00 - 38 minutes - 87.3 MBThis isn’t and never has been a podcast about “Democrats” in danger. But in the United States, one political party epitomizes the antidemocratic moment: Republicans remain devoted to a corrupt leader, intent on suppressing the vote and hostile to racial justice. This week, after GOP politicians simply ghosted the Jan. 6 commemoration in Congress, we’re replaying a show that takes a hard look at their party — with help from a former Republican congresswoman who has dared to call out former Pre...
Insurrection Reflection [Special Episode]
January 05, 2022 13:00 - 31 minutes - 72.1 MBJamelle Bouie and Nicole Hemmer return to the show this week for a special conversation looking back on the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — and looking forward at the prospects for democracy in the post-Trump era. Both the country’s political leaders and the media, our guests say, have been reluctant to embrace a rhetoric of emergency to define the moment. And as lawmakers investigate the attack, the window is closing on enacting genuine reforms to ensure voting rights and fair el...
Disinformation Wars [Rebroadcast]
December 29, 2021 13:00 - 31 minutes - 72.7 MBAs the first anniversary of the assault on the U.S. Capitol approaches, we recall the media misuses that presaged that moment. Internet giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter aren’t just part of the disinformation problem — they are the problem, author Nina Jankowicz told us back in Season One. She examines Russian efforts to meddle in other countries, turning the tools of democracy against itself. While the stakes are high, Jankowicz says, stronger regulation and better education are with...
India Burning [Rebroadcast]
December 22, 2021 13:00 - 45 minutes - 104 MBWhen Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014, he promised economic growth and relief from the corrupt and calcified Congress Party. Instead, Modi has stifled dissent, championed Hindu nationalism, undermined democratic institutions and assailed India’s Muslim minority. Last spring and summer, on his watch, the coronavirus delta variant took a devastating toll. Now omicron is rearing its head. Will Modi oversee yet another catastrophe? With that in mind, we revisit this episode fro...
S3 E13. Hot Spots, Part IV – Eastern Europe
December 15, 2021 13:00 - 38 minutes - 87.2 MBThe drumbeat of war is sounding at the doorstep of eastern Ukraine. In Poland, desperate migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan had to flee from tear gas and water cannons. And Hungary’s right-wing dictator is cracking down on any hint of dissent. Liberated from the grip of authoritarian rule 30 years ago, Eastern Europe has become a tinderbox — and a headache for U.S. diplomats. Two seasoned experts on the region discuss the latest on these dilemmas, and what America’s role in solving...
S3 E12. Hot Spots, Part III – Myanmar
December 08, 2021 13:00 - 36 minutes - 83.7 MBMyo Yan Naung Thein had to be smuggled out of his country last spring or face certain torture and death. A leader in Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, Naung Thein worked in the National League for Democracy, the party of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Now in exile in the United States, Naung Thein shares his gripping tale, and explains why he thinks the Burmese military regime is losing.
S3 E11. Hot Spots, Part II – Cuba
December 01, 2021 13:00 - 113 MBA wave of extraordinary protest came to Cuba in July. Thousands hit the streets to call for more civil liberties, cheaper food and better health care, in a nation whose leaders for decades have defended socialism, at least in words. This week, NYU scholar Ada Ferrer brings some historical perspective to the circumstances in her native country, and our producer considers the island’s uncertain prospects for homegrown activism unafraid of repression and political transformation free of American...
Nuestra América [Rebroadcast]
November 24, 2021 13:00 - 34 minutes - 79.3 MBMexico’s murder rate has tripled in 15 years, even as the country enjoys a robust multiparty electoral system, a growing economy and a vibrant civil society. That mixed fate is common across Latin America, as the region struggles to overcome its colonial past and face the problems of the present: violence, inequality and agonizing migrations. Sociologist Gema Kloppe-Santamaría says there is common ground on which the Americas, together, can build a better future. Listen back to this episode f...
S3 E10. Hot Spots, Part I – #Charlottesville
November 17, 2021 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MBFour years after far-right demonstrators came to Charlottesville, Va., victims of the mayhem are suing the rally’s organizers. At the core of their federal lawsuit is the 19th-century KKK Act — and thousands of texts and social media posts shared on the dark web. This month two media experts joined us for a conversation about the trial, taped live just a mile from the courthouse where jurors are weighing the facts. Here’s an edited version of that show, the first in our series on democracy “h...
S3 E9. Some Fine States, Part V – The Wrap
November 10, 2021 13:00 - 27 minutes - 62.8 MBSo many of the wedge issues covered in our series on “some fine states” were on full display in Virginia’s nail-biter of a governor’s race: education, abortion and the election system itself, to name a few. Missing from both campaigns, say Will and Siva, was much substance. Join our intrepid hosts as they wrap up this miniseries with a conversation on what Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Old Dominion means for democracy in America. And more — a brief national history and the tale o...
The Florida Show – Bonus Interview with Desmond Meade
November 05, 2021 12:00 - 35 minutes - 82.3 MBThis week our “Florida” show features the inspiring story of Desmond Meade’s struggle to right the ship of his life — and his fight to sail the Sunshine State into a future where ex-felons get another shot at political engagement. A MacArthur genius and the director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Meade is working to get citizens who have served out their sentences their civil rights back. He just got his last month. Listen to a full version of his interview with our producer, Ro...
S3 E8. Some Fine States, Part IV – Florida
November 03, 2021 12:00 - 47 minutes - 109 MBPolitical analyst Susan MacManus calls Florida the most complex and difficult swing state to win. And many assumptions about how voters vote, whether based on age or ethnicity, go to die in the Sunshine State. Florida is getting younger and more diverse, and it’s pushing the needle on democracy — in both directions. Hear how activist Desmond Meade helped enfranchise more than a million new voters, even as his state’s Republican-controlled legislature has limited how and when Floridians cast t...
S3 E7. Some Fine States, Part III – Colorado
October 27, 2021 12:00 - 26 minutes - 61 MBSomething weird is going on in Mesa County, Colo. Images, passwords and copies of raw data from election equipment mysteriously turned up online over the summer. Then Mesa’s elections clerk vanished, only to resurface weeks later, claiming she had uncovered fraud — in a county that Trump won handily. This week, investigative reporter Emma Brown of the Washington Post breaks down this bizarre case from Colorado. It fits a national playbook designed to undermine the 2020 election and faith in v...
S3 E6. Some Fine States, Part II – Virginia
October 20, 2021 12:00 - 32 minutes - 73.3 MBLast year, Virginians approved a redistricting commission that was supposed to bring an end to gerrymandering. But this month the commission broke down while trying to decide on statehouse districts, and the process appears headed to the Virginia Supreme Court. Meanwhile, citizens in the Old Dominion are heading to the polls next month to elect their first governor of the post-Trump era. We talk state politics with former Del. David Toscano and Brian Cannon, who championed the redistricting r...
S3 E5. Some Fine States, Part I – Texas
October 13, 2021 12:00 - 75.1 MBBesides all but banning abortions, GOP leaders in Texas are limiting what students may learn about slavery, sidelining transgender athletes, allowing citizens to carry guns unlicensed, and making voting more difficult. This week a teacher in Dallas explains why those education reforms hurt classrooms and democracy. Plus, we hear from two historians about all those other divisive measures... Join Siva and guest-host Allison Wright of VQR as they speak Texan in this first of a series on state-l...
Threadbare Country [Rebroadcast]
October 06, 2021 12:00 - 33 minutes - 77 MBAmerican democracy is supposed to come with a warranty: equal opportunity, social mobility, the promise of success with hard work. But the fabled Dream is fraying. In fact, journalist Eduardo Porter says, it was never sold as advertised. This week we’re replaying an episode that speaks to the current impasse in Congress over social spending. To mend a tattered republic, Porter tells Siva and Will, we need “a new idea of America,” made from policies that address wealth inequality across the so...
S3 E4. Red Pill, Part IV – Drones of Combat
September 29, 2021 12:00 - 33 minutes - 77.2 MBIn 1905, Austrian baroness Bertha von Suttner won the Nobel Peace Prize, which she had helped convince Alfred Nobel to establish. Largely forgotten among antiwar activists, she was an outspoken critic of efforts to make combat merely less brutal. Today, Yale legal scholar Samuel Moyn finds inspiration in Suttner’s story for his own provocative stance against the logic of “humanizing” war with technological innovations like drone strikes. He says we’re only making conflicts more frequent and l...
Haiti, Interrupted – Bonus Interview with Laurent Dubois
September 25, 2021 12:00 - 26 minutes - 59.5 MBListen to Siva’s full conversation with Haiti expert Laurent Dubois, co-director of the UVA Democracy Initiative. Dubois narrates the early history of slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, the founding of Haiti and the country’s history up through a brutal intervention of the U.S. Marines in the early 20th century. This past, he says, helps put into context the current crises in Haiti, where conflicting models of political and economic autonomy have been in tension for 230 years.
S3 E3. Red Pill, Part III – Haiti, Interrupted
September 22, 2021 12:00 - 46 minutes - 73.6 MBIn 1791, the people of Saint-Domingue threw off the yoke of slavery and revolted against their French masters, eventually founding a new nation with the radical promise of universal freedom: Haiti. Then came the hard reality of a world-system that would plague the country with debt, discord and military interventions, including a 19-year occupation by the United States. Three scholars — Marlene Daut, Laurent Dubois and Robert Fatton — help us consider Haiti’s burdened past and its echoes in t...
S3 E2 – Red Pill, Part II – Blind Ambitions
September 15, 2021 12:00 - 42 minutes - 96.3 MBIt’s hard not to see shades of Saigon in the frenetic evacuation of Kabul last month — and wonder why U.S. leaders seem not to have learned from bungled foreign wars and nation-building efforts. In this second part of a series reflecting on the debacle in Afghanistan, Will and Siva speak with two historians of the post-Vietnam era. They shed light on the grandiose and self-interested visions America has tried to realize abroad and ask what hope there may be for a future of soft power and huma...
S3 E2. Red Pill, Part II – Blind Ambitions
September 15, 2021 12:00 - 42 minutes - 96.3 MBIt’s hard not to see shades of Saigon in the frenetic evacuation of Kabul last month — and wonder why U.S. leaders seem not to have learned from bungled foreign wars and nation-building efforts. In this second part of a series reflecting on the debacle in Afghanistan, Will and Siva speak with two historians of the post-Vietnam era. They shed light on the grandiose and self-interested visions America has tried to realize abroad and ask what hope there may be for a future of soft power and huma...