#1567 Rebuilding Trust in American Institutions

Listening to America

History, Politics, Unitedstates, Society & Culture, American

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Clay Jenkinson’s interview with Dr. Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute about how we can turn America around from this funk of profound disillusionment and cynicism. Dr. Levin is the author of many books, the most recent of which is A Time to Build: How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream. As the United States lurches towards its 250^th birthday, are we still a nation with a common history, a common set of values, and a common destiny? Dr. Levin’s view is that nostalgia for the golden age between the end of World War II and Watergate is a mistake, that we have to stop dwelling on the past and what went wrong, and begin rebuilding trust and trustworthiness in our national institutions. We need to demand more of our political leaders and ask more of ourselves if we want to recover. And, he recommends books every American should read as we get ready for July 4, 2026.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone. This is my podcast introduction to this week's program, Rebuilding Trust in American Institutions.
0:07.0	My conversation with Dr. Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute.
0:12.0	So as we start to think about the 250th birthday of the country coming on July 4th, 2026,
0:19.0	I think we all fear that this is going to be a period of the culture wars on steroids.
0:27.0	But the right is going to accuse the left of apologizing for America and indoctrinating our children to hate this country.
0:35.0	And the left is going to say it's been racism, sexism, misogyny, environmental catastrophe from the very beginning.
0:44.0	We can hope it's better than that. Certainly, great scholarship is being contemplated.
0:49.0	Ken Burns is doing a set of films on the 250th birthday.
0:53.0	But I'm afraid that this is going to play out along sort of predictable lines. I hope not.
1:00.0	Anyway, I've been looking for people, scholars, thinkers, humanists, scientists, political figures who want to talk about this,
1:11.0	who want to talk about the funk that we're in and how we might claw our way out of it.
1:16.0	And so I was attracted to his books. There are a bunch of them.
1:20.0	But the ones that I have read are The Fractured Republic, which 2016 tells you sort of where we are in a time to build
1:28.0	how recommitting to our institutions can revive the American dream. I recommend those books.
1:34.0	We had a wide-ranging conversation about how we got here. His view is that nostalgia for kind of a golden age after World War II is a mistake.
1:44.0	Even though there's some truth to that nostalgia, that was not a characteristic or normal period in American history.
1:50.0	And we sort of got spoiled into thinking that settlement of those decades was capable of being perpetuated.
1:57.0	And now we're seeing that things are coming apart in all sorts of really interesting but frightening ways.
2:04.0	He's an extraordinary scholar. It was great fun and honor to talk with him today.
2:10.0	And I want to share this with you. I'll be looking for people.
2:14.0	And if you know of people, recommend them to me in books to read as we get ready for the 250th birthday.
2:20.0	People to interview ideas to contemplate.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Listening to America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Listening to America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.