Sarah Kendzior on the Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Sarah Kendzior, the author of "Hiding in Plain Sight", to discuss the truth about the calculated rise to power of Donald Trump since the 1980s and how the erosion of our liberties made an American dema­gogue possible. Sarah Kendzior is a writer who lives in St Louis, Missouri. Sarah is best known for her best-selling essay collection The View From Flyover Country, reporting on political and economic problems in the US, prescient coverage of the 2016 election and the Trump administration, as well as her academic research on authoritarian states in Central Asia. Kendzior is also the co-host of Gaslit Nation, a weekly podcast which covers corruption in the Trump administration and the rise of authoritarianism around the world. Since 2017, she has been covering the transformation of the US under the Trump administration, writing on authoritarian tactics, kleptocracy, racism and xenophobia, media, voting rights, technology, the environment, and the Russian interference case, among other topics. \Sarah is an op-ed columnist for the Globe and Mail, where she focuses primarily on US politics. Sarah is also a frequent contributor to Fast Company, NBC News, and other national outlets. From 2012-2014 she was an op-ed columnist for Al Jazeera English. Sarah Kendzior has also written for POLITICO, Quartz, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, The Diplomat, Marie Claire, De Correspondent, The Atlantic, Medium, Radio Free Europe, POLITICO Europe, The Chicago Tribune, The Baffler, Blue Nation Review, Alive Magazine, Ethnography Matters, The Common Reader, The New York Daily News, La Stampa, Slate, World Policy Journal, The Brooklyn Quarterly, Belt Magazine, Centre for International Governance Innovation, Teen Vogue, City AM, Opinio Juris, HRDCVR, World Politics Review, Shondaland, and The New York Times. In August 2013, Foreign Policy named her one of “the 100 people you should be following on Twitter to make sense of global events”. In October 2013, St. Louis Magazine profiled Sarah as one of 15 inspirational people under 35 in St. Louis. In September 2014, The Riverfront Times named her the best online journalist in St. Louis. In June 2017, St Louis Magazine named her the best journalist in St. Louis. In addition to working as a journalist, Sarah Kendzior is a researcher and scholar. She has a PhD in anthropology from Washington University in Saint Louis (2012) and an MA in Central Eurasian Studies from Indiana University (2006). Most of her work focuses on the authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union and how the internet affects political mobilization, self-expression, and trust. Sarah's academic research has been published in American Ethnologist, Problems of Post-Communism, Central Asian Survey, Demokratizatsiya, Nationalities Papers, Social Analysis, and the Journal of Communication. She has worked as a program associate for the Central Asia Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Sarah Kendzior is regularly interviewed by the media and has been a guest on NBC, MSNBC, NPR, CBS, Al Jazeera, CBC News, BBC World Service and other broadcast outlets, and is a recurring guest on the MSNBC show “AM Joy”. Sarah has given talks all over the world as an invited speaker at universities and at conferences on foreign policy, politics, education and technology.