Anne Applebaum: The Authoritarian Slide

To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes

Charlie Sykes

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.9 • 718 Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum joins Charlie Sykes from Warsaw to examine the alarming rise of authoritarian tactics in the U.S., from the militarization of federal agencies to the normalization of political cruelty. They discuss the Trump administration’s embrace of spectacle, the breakdown of truth, and the erosion of institutional guardrails. Applebaum warns that what once seemed unthinkable is now unfolding in broad daylight, and cautions that history shows how quickly democracy can vanish when we stop recognizing the danger.

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2:00.4	Welcome back to this episode of To the Contrary podcast.
2:03.6	I am Charlie Sykes, and we are joined by Pulitzer Prize winning author Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, who is talking to us from Warsaw, Poland.
2:12.8	Thanks for joining me, and I appreciate it very much.
2:15.3	No, I'm delighted to be with you.
2:19.4	Well, you know, I was making some notes about, for our conversation today and looking back over the things that you've written
	...

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