Holiday breather this week, but no skipping the brain food. We're re-airing Marcus's live Town Hall Seattle conversation with historian Heather Cox Richardson, and somehow it's more relevant now than when it was recorded.

Richardson (Democracy Awakening, Letters from an American) zooms out past the personality-of-the-week politics to ask the big, slightly terrifying questions: How do democracies actually fall apart? Why do bad myths keep working? And why have marginalized communities always been the ones dragging this country closer to its own promises?

From the Declaration of Independence to cable news chaos, from ballots to "reality-based communities," this is sharp, hopeful, and deeply clarifying. A reminder that history isn't over, and neither is the fight to make democracy real.

It's smart, funny, unsettling, and, against all odds, hopeful.

Mentioned in the episode:

Town Hall Seattle | Letters From an American | Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

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Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

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