Jon Stewart

So I'm just going to get on in and bring on our guest, the fabulous Heather Cox Richardson.

So, ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct pleasure and honor to welcome back once again the great Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history at Boston College.

Heather, thank you so much for being here.

First of all, let me apologize to you that in times of trouble, I hate to treat you like a salve that I reach for in times of need, a bottle of Valium.

Your experience and your knowledge of the arc of history and the narratives of history always bring me a comfort.

in that the things that we're experiencing are not necessarily unprecedented, and that there are historical analogs, which we don't want to use as a crutch necessarily.

But Heather, I'm wondering in this moment, I wanted to reach out to you because it feels there is...

a toxicity that seems to be building to some kind of volcanic eruption.

And I can't shake that feeling of impending catastrophic.

So I wanted to kind of pick your brain a little bit about how you're processing this moment, knowing how well you're able to see the landscapes of the past and lay them into the present.

That's a beautiful way of putting it.

And there's also something within that kind of tableau that seems really appropriate, which is the cataclysm always seems to occur.

the night before, Cataclysm Eve, if you will, always seems to be draped in finery.

You know, you sort of, you almost get that sense of using the Titanic as that's, you know, and what's happening, the band is playing in the grand ballroom and people are draped in there and they're riding in luxury on what appears to be a kind of portend for this glorious and

future of riches.

And then there's one dude who's like, hey, what's that?

What's that shadow of an iceberg that's over there?

And it feels that way a little bit here.

And I'll tell you why this moment for me is the world faces those challenges and potential cataclysms and all those things and navigating these difficult waters.

The difference for me now is the captain of our ship seems utterly disinterested