She’s great and Al is always fun. Her book Democracy Awakening is a NYT bestseller.

“Heather Cox Richardson says that Trumpers have bought into an alternative reality and that we are, at this moment, on a knife’s edge. She’s an historian and not a clairvoyant. But she’s also an activist, doing all she can to spread the word through historical analysis.”

She describes her book as “..the story of how authoritarians can use language and history to destabliize and destroy democracy. Then how they can turn that into a movement but crucially.. the final third of the book which I think is by far the most interesting, is how you reclaim democracy turning those tools on their head.”

To me no discussion of “how we got here” is  worth listening to without acknowledging the role of the right wing media ecosystem, which they did – including the Fairness Doctrine, alternative facts, Russia and more.

Highlights:

“If it hadn’t been for Limbaugh maybe there would be no Trump” – Al Franken

“I have always thought of Rush Limbaugh as the big bang of the right wing disinformation universe.” Al Franken