Emanuele Berry

I think I've read the phrase sliding towards authoritarianism countless times this year.

But it's not a slide, is it?

It's more like steps.

Steps we the people are taking.

Not just politicians, all of us.

We're changing too.

Taking steps so small you can miss them.

But here in this museum, I caught my foot mid-air.

Our program today was produced by Emmanuel Jochi.

The people who put together today's show include Fia Benen, Dana Chivas, Michael Kamate, Molly Marcello, Tobin Lowe, Catherine Raimondo, Stowe Nelson, Ruthie Petito, Nadia Raymond, Anthony Roman, Ryan Rumrey, and Ike Shrishkandarajah, Lily Sullivan, Francis Swanson, Christopher Switala, Marisa Robertson-Textor, Nancy Updike, and Julie Whitaker.

Our managing editor is Sara Abdurrahman.

Our senior editor is David Kestenbaum.

The original Our Ancestors Were Messy team includes executive producer Adriana Ambriz, sound design by Kyle Murdoch, research producer and narrator Chioke Ianson, story producer Martina Abrahams-Ilunga.

Special thanks to Nate Wong, John DeLore, Sean Usher, Angelina Mosier-Salazar, Abby Conklin, Tom Preston, Benjamin Dolly, and everyone at Virginia Public Media.

Also, thanks to Connor Anderson and everyone at WDET Detroit.

Thanks also to our This American Life partners, premium subscribers who support the show financially, which means we can continue making this show.

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Go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners.

That link is also in the show notes.