Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're

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For today's conversation, I am speaking with Kurt Anderson. Kurt is a best-selling author,

and he's written for Vanity Fair and The New York Times. He's also written for Time and The New

Yorker. He also writes for television and film and stage. He co-founded Spy Magazine,

and he was at one point the editor-in-chief of New York Magazine. And he's the host and creator

of Studio 360, the award-winning public radio show. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College,

where he was the editor of the Harvard Lampoon. But most relevant for today's conversation,

he's the author of a new book titled Fantasy Land, How America Went Haywire.

And we talk about it today. We talk about the American aptitude for unfounded belief. We talk

about the way in which credulity inspired the founding of America, specifically the religious

lunacy of the Puritans. We talk about media and the growing populist mistrust of authority,

the link between postmodernism and religious fundamentalism. And inevitably this all comes

around to the Trump phenomenon about which Kurt has much to say, also the effect of fame on politics,

and there are other topics here. Anyway, we only had about an hour to discuss these things,

so this is briefer than most podcasts, but I think you'll find Kurt's take on the present moment.

Quite interesting. And now I bring you Kurt Anderson.

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