Ben Rhodes is a former Senior National Security Staffer and speechwriter for Barack Obama, co-host of Pod Save the World, and author of the new book "After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made." He joined the podcast to discuss rising authoritarianism in the world, and what it means to be an American in the world we built.

Praise for The World as It Is

“A classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, told with candor and immediacy . . . [Ben Rhodes’s] achievement is rare for a political memoir: He has written a humane and honorable book.”—The New York Times Book Review

“More than any other White House memoirist, Rhodes is a creature of the man he served.”—The New Yorker

“Insightful, funny, and moving, this is a beautifully observed, essential record of what it was like to be there.”—Samantha Power