Kara and Scott discuss Meta's stock continuing to rise, California businesses challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom on taxes, and Elon Musk's robotaxi announcement. Then, Disney successfully fended off Nelson Peltz in a proxy battle, but where does the company go from here? Plus, could Congress be getting close to actually pas

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, and propaganda. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships; an advisor to Protect Democracy; an MSNBC opinion columnist and television commentator; and publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to dem

A century ago, journalist H. L. Mencken provocatively stated in Notes On Democracy (new edition by Warbler Press, 2023) that anti-democratic behavior is not only not shocking but that we should in fact expect democracies to give rise to un- and even anti-democratic forces. Mencken doubted that such the evils of democra

Jeet Heer explains the devil's bargain that the GOP faces with their flawed Speaker of the House candidates. Author Ruth Ben Ghiat details how all the criminals within the Republican Party play right into the authoritarian handbook. Lawyer Josh Koskoff outlines his lawsuit against the gun company Remington with the aim

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is an historian who specializes in authoritarianism and propaganda. Her most recent book, Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present, examines how authoritarians use propaganda, virility, corruption, and violence to stay in power, and how they can be opposed.  In this interview, Ruth reveals how Trump and

From Russia and China to America, Turkey and beyond, illiberal leaders have used corruption, machismo, disinformation, propaganda and violence to stay in power and expand their influence for decades.   With authoritarianism now governing over 60% of the world’s population, are we witnessing a backslide in democracy and