First Blood

In the West, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is always seen as one of two things: KGB spy or judo master. But to anyone who’s ever lived in the Soviet Union, Putin is something else entirely: a street kid. Join journalist Julia Ioffe as she explores how Putin’s childhood taught him lessons that shape his thinking and actions to this day.

Progress isn’t inevitable. Justice is forever elusive. Liberty is always fragile. What will it take for America to find its better angels? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The religious right becomes a force in American politics. Guided by a belief that Christianity belongs at the center of public life, some Evangelical voters view secularism as an existential threat: a threat that has helped create a false choice between faith and fact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Republican presidents in second half of the 20th century were not strangers to extreme rhetoric and hardline statements, but in practice they were more centrist than members of the far-right might have hoped. Over several decades, the spirit of what George HW Bush called, “sound governance” aggravated the ideologues and fomented a contempt for compromise.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the Yalta Conference to the centrist Dwight Eisenhower administration, members of the far-right feel a sense of betrayal as the country integrates and embraces separation of church and state, laying the foundation for a paranoid style of politics and a flight from fact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LBJ announces his vision for a "Great Society" in an America predominately defined by two competing visions, both rooted in a shared sense of reality. But on the far right wing of the political spectrum there is a disaffected group of people, driven by paranoia and fear, who are captive to conspiracy—setting a dangerous course for the decades to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to a new audio documentary, Fate of Fact, a presentation of Shining City Audio, a C13Originals and Jon Meacham studio. Throughout the course of five episodes in season one, Pulitzer-Prize winning and best-selling historian, Jon Meacham and esteemed guests, will explore the question of how fear conquered truth, the history and origins of the strong grip misinformation and disinformation have on our politics , and how we got here today. Meacham will trace the roots of America’s prevailing culture of polarization, with an emphasis on why the right has chosen to break with a governing consensus that, however imperfect, was once embodied by the figurative conversation between Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Fate of Fact offers a historically grounded perspective on the forces that led to the presidency of Donald Trump and the insurrection of January 6—an attack on the Capitol and on democracy as grave as any American moment since the Civil War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices