Podcasting Through It with Heather Cox Richardson
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What are the historical parallels to current political frustrations in America?
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the weekly show podcast. My name is Jon Stewart. It is March 31st. We are on the lamb side of March moving into April. And other than that, though, I would say I am I'm having a feeling of I don't know what it's like to be on a bobsled course or on a luge course. But that's what it feels like right now in this country. We appear to be careening towards something. And you're not quite sure if we are going to stay on the track or fly off and explode in midair. And when I have feelings like this, when the complexities of the world and the velocity of world events seem to be speeding towards a frightening conclusion, I reach to those, as Mr. Rogers would say, I reach for the helpers.
I reach for the helpers, those that can help put this in perspective. And our guest today is just one of my favorites who I just, I love her Substack. I love everything that she does. But her ability to sort of create frameworks around all these things that are so difficult for all of us to process is what makes her such a valuable voice in this current moment. 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.
Always a pleasure, John. Heather. John.
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...
How have citizens historically overcome failing government systems?
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.
So let's start with the place it's always important to start, and that's that the future is unwritten. We are writing this story, and we are doing it. And one of the reasons that I think people like you and me reach for the people around us is because ultimately this is an extraordinarily – human process. The people in the past did the same thing. Yes, though, I feel as if, like you seem to feel, that we are heading toward some kind of a cataclysm soon. And that, I think we should maybe unpack a little bit about what's going on there. But Again, to reach back into history, we are not the first people who are approaching a catastrophe without really being able to understand what is going to happen or what it looks like.
And I always think of the fact that years ago, I went to write a piece on the great crash of 29. And I thought, you know, everybody's done the, you know, the economics and everybody's done this and everyone's done that. What am I going to do? So I went back to a newspaper from the time and read the night before to see what it looked like on the verge of it. And it's really interesting because it was the opening night of the opera in New York City. And so you had all these stories about the people in there. you know, beautiful coaches and the, you know, the guys with the uniforms and the people wearing diamonds and going in and going to see the opera. And there was a really small note about a man who had died by suicide that night because his business had gone under and he was distraught and he couldn't face the fact that he was the only failure in this entire city, country, world, right, in his mind.
And that's always stuck in my mind because I just, you know, I kept saying to the little piece of paper, dude, hang on, hang on 12 more hours.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the historical parallels to current political frustrations in America?
0:08–2:35
2
How have citizens historically overcome failing government systems?
2:35–5:25
3
What lessons can we learn from past American crises?
5:25–8:06
4
How does the disinterest of leadership affect national stability?
8:06–11:00
5
What role do citizens play in shaping their government?
11:00–13:33
6
How can art and music influence political change?
13:33–15:25
7
What is the significance of storytelling in politics?
15:25–17:47
8
How can we envision a more equitable future for America?
17:47–1:26:19
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
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