PODCAST · history
Thinking about...
by Timothy Snyder
The words we need for the politics of today. snyder.substack.com
Episodes
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Modern Fascism, the Collapse of Truth, and Why Americans Need “Small Courage”
Dear thinkers: Timothy Snyder joined fellow historian and teacher Sharon McMahon for a sweeping conversation about the state of American democracy, the evolving nature of fascism, and the growing influence of technology and wealth on politics. Below are some thematic highlights and select quotes...
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Between the River and the Railroad Tracks
I am sure many of you will share my enthusiasm for Nicole Fleetwood’s “Between the River and the Railword Tracks,” which is a remarkable micro-history of a beautifully and tragically intense neighborhood, the Second Ward of Hamilton, Ohio, the historically segregated African-American district…
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Four Wrongs of a Public Execution
We as Americans are being invited by the Secretary of Defense to view an execution by firing squad over the internet. This is wrong in at least four ways. In the video I explain, and here I summarize. It is wrong psychologically. It looks like revenge. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has chosen...
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Where Do Democrats Go From Here? With Rep. Jake Auchincloss
Dear thinkers, Tim recently joined Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) for a Thinking Live conversation. The biggest question during the conversation: where do Democrats go after the midterms? They planned nothing in advance, and the conversation covered a lot. Here are the big themes. Watch the entire...
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Basic Political Wisdom (Kharkiv Meditations, 10/10)
At night last month in Kharkiv, Ukraine, I was moved to record a cycle of thoughts. This is the final one: on basic political wisdom. By that I mean nothing more than a few answers to questions that I get asked a lot, on issues where historical examples, consensus in political science, and...
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Hydrocarbons (Kharkiv Meditations, 9/10)
I had an excellent visit to Kharkiv last month, during which I found myself with some free time by myself at night. With the war in the background, or rather in the foreground, I used the opportunity to record the thoughts that arose in that special setting. In this recording, the next to last…
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The Richness of Language (Kharkiv Meditations, 8/10)
Last month I had some time at night in Kharkiv to record a few thoughts. One of the prompts was the regularity of Russian attacks; the other was a certain logic that led from one topic to the next. This one is about our capacities as speakers of languages. It follows naturally from earlier...
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Thinking Live with Min Jin Lee about American Hagwon
A great novel is here and I had the pleasure of speaking to its author. Please have a listen, and please read the book: American Hagwon. It brings the great themes of the last fin-de-siècle, astonishingly lively and plausible characters, and an exemplary combination of moral sensitivity and…
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Disagreement and Persuasion with Jessica Tarlov
Dear Thinkers, Tim recently sat down with Fox News commentator and pollster Jessica Tarlov for a nearly hour-long conversation, split between the state of the midterms and Jessica’s new book, I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends. Below are just some of the topics they touched on:...
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Trump, Power, What Comes Next with Robert Reich
Dear Thinkers, Tim just finished speaking with Robert Reich as a guest on his Substack for a wide-ranging conversation about power, corruption, and what history can tell us about where America goes from here. Below are just some of the things they touched on (watch the full video above for event...
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Regime Change and Corruption with Anne Applebaum
Dear Thinkers, We live in trying and testing times, with a lot of noise and information being hurled, which is why there is no better time than a clarifying and thoughtful conversation with historian and journalist Anne Applebaum (Anne Applebaum), built around her September 14 Atlantic article,...
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AI, War, and Dignity (Kharkiv Meditations, 7/10)
Given the air raids and such, I had some time at night in Kharkiv to do some thinking out loud. This is the seventh of ten videos that I recorded. There is a logical progression to these ten short meditations; by this point I was thinking about AI, which I suppose was slightly prompted by the…
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On Fascism (Kharkiv Meditations, 6/10)
While in Kharkiv I found myself meditation on some basic issues at night; the prompts came from the war itself, but the time awake lent itself to the effort of connecting daily experience to bigger political concepts. Fascism, the topic of this recording, came to mind at night in Kharkiv for...
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Freedom (Kharkiv Meditations, 5/10)
Wherever I am, I try to write in the morning; staying in Kharkiv, visiting friends and soldiers during the day, I found it most convenient to instead record a few things at night. The setting was an evocative one: a city that functions despite war and war crimes; the apartment of an interesting...
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One Good Thing (Kharkiv Meditations 4/10)
This is the fourth of the ten video meditations I recorded at night in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, near the border with Russia. This one is about a very simple idea; to believe in only one thing is to come very close to believing in nothing. It is an idea prompted by an essay written by...
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Moral Language (Kharkiv Meditations, 3/10)
This is the third of the ten video meditations I recorded in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border. The first couple were about courage and cowardice, which led me to the importance of moral categories in general. Is there anything more objective about terms like…
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Small Courage (Kharkiv Meditations, 2/10)
This is the second of the ten video meditations I recorded at night not long ago in Kharkiv, Ukraine. They are thoughts that came to mind in a place which has been under constant attack by missiles and drones for more than four years. The topic this time is small acts of courage, and idea which...
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On Cowardice (Kharkiv Meditations 1/10)
This is the first of ten video meditations I recorded at night in Kharkiv, a frontline city in northeastern Ukraine. They concern matters that came to mind during the general setting of a long and terrible war; they were inspired though by the particularities of daily life in Kharkiv, which is…
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On National Interest, Power, and Ethics with Susan Rice
Dear Thinkers, Hard as it is to believe, today marks 164 days since President Trump dragged the United States into war with Iran — a war that has produced devastating and deeply humiliating consequences. To make sense of where we are, Tim recently sat down with former U.S. Ambassador and Domestic...
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Strongmen Can Fail if We Act with Joyce Vance
Dear readers: Hope you have a cup of coffee in hand for this one. Tim joined Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney during the Obama Administration and host of Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance on Substack, to talk about what language to describe our moment, democracy, and civic participation look like...
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Iran, Ukraine, and Freedom with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer
Dear thinkers: Earlier today, Tim talked with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, two former senior national security aides to President Biden on their new show, “The Long Game.: They began with Iran — and, specifically, the power the United States has effectively surrendered through this war. As Tim…
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Strongmen, Oligarchs, & Fascists: Thinking Live with Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Dear Thinkers, This afternoon, Tim sat down with Ruth Ben-Ghiat for a conversation I think many of you will want to watch with a notebook in hand. Ruth is one of the foremost scholars of strongmen and authoritarianism — she teaches at NYU and has spent her career studying exactly the kind of…
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Trump's Military Dictatorship Budget
In this video, I say the obvious about Trump’s proposal to increase the military budget by nearly 50%: it’s a bribe to officers and soldiers so that they will side with him when he tries to overthrow the Constitution and stay in power indefinitely. This is where all the evidence points. If there…
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The Era of the Superlosers
The United States and Russia are both losing wars. And they are losing wars that make no sense, in an uncanny folie à deux, to the benefit of China. This video, which I filmed after dozens of meetings and public discussions in Europe this month, supplies an explanatory concept: the superloser. A...
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Copycat Tyranny
If you are American, there is no particular reason you would have heard of Zbigniew Ziobro. He was one of the authors of the attempt to transform Poland into an authoritarian regime. When this was halted by the Polish elections of 2023, he fled to Hungary. At that time Hungary was ruled by Viktor...
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Thinking Live with Lawrence Lessig on the End of Dark Money
I talked with Professor Lawrence Lessig about his case that would effectively end Super PACs and dark money in politics. I think you’ll learn a lot from our conversation and hope you’ll check out EqualCitizens.US to learn more about their case and why it matters. Thinking about... is a...
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Superpower Suicide
“Superpower Suicide” is a concept to help understand the approach of the Trump regime to the rest of the world. We are fighting a war for no reason we can name, losing it, and covering our defeat with genocidal and apocalyptic propaganda. This is bad enough on its own; but I think this…
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Thinking Live with Journalist Terry Moran
I talked with journalist Terry Moran, who most recently was a reporter at ABC News and many other newsrooms. Our conversation spanned current events, from how we got here to what we all have to do on the other side of all of this. Watch our full conversation here. Thinking about... is a...
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Thinking Live with Phillips O'Brien on War in Iran and Ukraine
I talked with Phillips O’Brien today about the Iran War, the Ukraine War, and other foreign affairs news. This is the second conversation Phillips and I have had recently, and I know you’ll learn as much from him as I do. Here is the link to donate to Come Back Alive: https://savelife.in.ua/en/...
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No Kings in Cincinnati
A quick video to remind you why we protest! I’ll be in Cincinnati tomorrow; there are thousands of protests to join across the country. Click here to see all of the locations and make your plans! Please share this post. My books that might be helpful. Thinking about... is a reader-supported...
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Thinking Live with Heather Cox Richardson
Here is a recording of my conversation with historian Heather Cox Richardson from yesterday. As two historians, we discussed the importance of history to make sense of our current moment, understanding freedom to build a better future, how people can meaningfully respond and resist, and more. I...
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The Crackup of the Trump Elite (video)
Joe Kent never should have been director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Given his complete lack of qualifications and his sympathies for those who wish harm to Americans, the scandal is his appointment, not his resignation. His resignation reveals a fault line in the Trump elite, but…
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Thinking Live with David Pepper on Ohio, Elections, and the Future
We have an unusually interesting Democratic ticket in Ohio in he gubernatorial elections — and they could very well win. I spoke back in November to the amazing Dr. Amy Acton, who is running for governor. Joining her on the ticket is David Pepper, whom I know mainly as the author of fine books of...
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Thinking Live on Iran with Janice Stein
Professor Janice Stein is a leading authority on negotiation and war as well as a regional specialist on the Middle East. Our conversation covers the origins of the Iran war, its meaning for the region and the world, and its possible trajectories. Throughout Professor Stein offers her...
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Thinking Live with Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Iran, Strongmen, and more
Earlier this week, I sat down with historian and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” Ruth Ben-Ghiat for a conversation about the war in Iran, how history can inform us about our moment, and what we can all do. We also discussed how ritual humiliation functions as a political tool, why...
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Making Sense of Iran War
This post contains my conversation with military historian Phillips O’Brien about the U.S. strikes on Iran. Phillips walked us through what air power can and can’t do — it can devastate a regime, but it can’t replace one, and what we’ve likely unleashed is a chaotic internal struggle with no…
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Thinking Live with Paul Krugman: Ukraine, Economics, and Our Political Moment
I spoke with Paul Krugman about Ukraine, economics, and the political moment we are living through in the United States. We discussed the dangers to democracy that come from within, especially in an age of oligarchy and extreme inequality, and we talked about what the war in Ukraine reveals about...
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My Conversation with Ava DuVernay about Don Lemon & Georgia Fort & How we Respond to Our Current Times
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of a long and wide-ranging conversation with Ava DuVernay—a producer and director whose work has consistently helped Americans see themselves and their history more clearly. We spoke about many things: where we are as a country, what history can still teach us,...
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Conversation with Misha Collins and Emily Farallon
We talked about a wide range of topics today — from the happenings in Minnesota to what people can do to push back to Ukraine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe
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My Conversation with Stacey Abrams
Watch my conversation with Stacey Abrams. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe
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Can the Russo-Ukrainian war end?
In this second part of the conversation, we turn to the current state of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and discuss American diplomatic antics as well as European shortcomings. We also juxtapose the current narratives around diplomacy, which are often very misleading, with the state of the battlefield....
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How wars are won
I had a wide-ranging conversation with the distinguished historian of war Philipps O’Brien, who has been an important voice on the Russo-Ukrainian war. In part one, we discuss the structural reasons for victory and defeat in war, and assess the first critical year (2022) of Russia’s current...
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Oligarchs and Diplomats (video with Michael Weiss)
Greetings all! These past few days were some of the weirdest in American diplomatic history, and I was lucky to have a special guest to help explain what happened and why it matters. This was a wonderful and timely conversation with the reporter Michael Weiss on the diplomatic imbroglio that...
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The Putin-Witkoff Plan Worsens the War
Among all the other things that are happening, we have a US administration trying to bully Ukrainians into accepting Russia’s proposal that their sovereignty be undone. Aside from the naked injustice of this, there are five basic practical reasons why it would make the world far more dangerous. I...
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Conversation with Dr Amy Acton
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe
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When we say No Kings, we mean Freedom (video)
Cincinnati was where I wanted to be for No Kings, and I was so glad to be there. We have dozens of civic groups signing people up to work together, and tens of thousands of people down by the river for hours. I was proud to be there and proud to open the rally with this speech. Thanks to everyone...
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Why We Protest
Five reasons to rally! Another one I didn’t mention — it’s fun and it makes you feel better. Thanks to everyone who is already out there. I’ll be at No Kings in Cincinnati. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or...
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The Truth about Panics
The Trump administration is trying to seed a panic about «antifa,» one which, if it succeeds, brings the media and the result of us along as collaborators in authoritarian regime change. So let’s be thoughtful. It is not good practice to just repeat the words of those who are trying to…
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Gaza and Protest
Today the president is taking credit for a cease-fire in Gaza. But who, in America, was first in calling for that exact thing? Students on campuses. And what happened to them? They were banned from their own public spaces, all over the country. So the president should be thanking them for their...
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No Kings — Freedom (video)
A week from today, on October 18th, millions of Americans will gather in thousands of places to protest the countless ways our current administration is attacking our freedoms. Some elected officials — details in the video — cannot even bear to say the name of the protests out loud « No Kings »....
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Thinking about... currently has 104 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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The words we need for the politics of today. snyder.substack.com
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Thinking about... publishes regularly with 104 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Thinking about... is created and hosted by Timothy Snyder.
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