I wanted to highlight a comment from one of you that stood out to me. @RomanKnight7199 wrote, “Stacey, I don’t understand why your channel doesn’t get more attention, but I found my way back because I watched Heather Cox Richardson’s recent interview with Mr. Wikler, and I want to thank you for discussing the events in India.” First of all, my thanks to @RomanKnight7199 for coming back. However, the question they raised made me think about three things: why I had Heather Cox Richardson and Ben Wikler on in successive episodes, why the two of them turned up on a different podcast together, and why understanding both of those things can help save America.
We spend a lot of time bemoaning the fall of the media, and there are a lot of us trying to keep information front and center, in different ways, from very varied backgrounds. Personally, I’m not a commentator or a journalist. I host a podcast, which exists because it’s one of the ways I can learn more from really smart people, share what I know, and most importantly, help others get engaged.
We now live in the age of the algorithm, a piece of code deciding what we know and who we hear it from. That algorithm isn’t trying to make us smarter. It’s programmed to make us satisfied rather than curious, and I don’t like it. So part of my mission here is platforming people with their own impressive reach. Heather Cox Richardson doesn’t need my help to reach an audience, but she understands we can’t keep talking to only the people we know and expect to expand our shared fight for democracy. Ben Wikler is on a book tour talking to anybody who will listen. When they meet on a separate show, that’s wonderful, because another group with a different algorithm gets to learn from both.
If you want to help build more than an echo chamber, help us build an ecosystem: follow me, follow them, and tell us what you need to know. It’s going to take more than a village, so let’s get to work.
Trump’s second term has been defined by mounting corruption, but who, if anyone, is holding him accountable? Joining me today for our conversation are MS NOW’s Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels, who also happen to co-host their own podcast, Clock It. We discuss whether Republicans will ever push back against Trump’s abuses of power, Todd Blanche’s nomination, and the growing politicization of the Department of Justice, while also explaining why the upcoming midterm elections could be the country’s best chance to check authoritarianism, what it will take to build a durable pro-democracy majority, and why Americans should demand more from their government.
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