In the wake of yesterday’s assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Regina Bateson, a political science professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, joins Kimberly to unpack the rise of targeted political violence in the United States and what it means for the health of our democracy. Then, one of our listeners shares how digitizing her great grandmother’s WWII diaries helped connect her with her family’s past.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• "A new dark normal of political violence still shocks the nation" Politico 
• "Tracking Attitudes About Elections and Political Violence Over Time" from States United Democracy Center
• "How Americans Justify Political Violence" from The New York Times Magazine 
• "Special Report: Key Political Violence and Resilience Trends From 2024" from the Bridging Divides Initiative 
• Check out Beth’s digitized diary project

Join us tomorrow for “Economics on Tap.” The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.