Assembly Required: Rachel Maddow on Winning America’s Fight Against Fascism
Hysteria
Hysteria
4.7 • 7.5K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Hysteria team is off this week. But we’re excited to bring you a recent episode of Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams.
In the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, we’ve watched Republicans erode American democracy with alarming speed. While this political moment may feel unprecedented, it isn’t new. America has dealt its share of far-right movements, fascist provocateurs, and anti-democratic threats. But time and again, heroes have risen to meet those moments. In this episode, Stacey unpacks how we’ve fought fascism before – and won. She’s joined by the host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism.
Subscribe to Assembly Required wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Learn & Do More:
Be Curious: History can be an extremely useful tool to help us navigate the present. Pick up Rachel Maddow’s book Prequel — now available in paperback anywhere books are sold. Also pick up the Assembly Required Recommended Read: The Dictator’s Learning Curve by William Dobson.
Solve problems: The best thing we can do right now is show up and use our voices. There are two key ways to do this. First: call your representatives! Democrat, Republican, Independent — it doesn’t matter. Tell them where you stand and why it matters. Second: get involved locally. Join a protest, volunteer to support a community that is particularly vulnerable right now, donate to a grassroots group in your area. Change starts with showing up, so let’s get to work.
Do Good: Not only has Trump waged a war on books, he’s waged a war on independent businesses. So if you’re interested in reading any of the books I mentioned today, or want to pick up our weekly recommended reading, purchase them at a local bookstore. If there isn’t a local option near you, or you just prefer the convenience of online shopping, check out small businesses that operate online — like Octavia’s Bookshelf.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Aaron. We are off this week, but we're excited to share with you an episode of |
| 0:04.8 | Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams. In this episode, Stacy teams up with Rachel Maddow to |
| 0:10.4 | break down the first 100 days of Trump's return and how history shows we've beaten back |
| 0:15.0 | fascism before. From past resistance to present threats, this is your crash course in how |
| 0:20.4 | democracy survives when |
| 0:22.0 | people rise up to defend it. I love this show because, honestly, I would listen to Stacey Abrams and |
| 0:27.5 | Rachel Maddow read the phone book. And when they are giving us some hope history and knowledge, |
| 0:33.2 | it doesn't get any better than that. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to subscribe to Assembly Required Now on YouTube |
| 0:39.5 | or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:41.8 | Now, let's get into it. |
| 0:51.6 | This is Stacey Abrams with Assembly Required. |
| 0:55.1 | Last week marked 100 days of Republican control of the United States government. |
| 1:01.9 | And in that 100 days, we have witnessed the erosion of not simply democratic norms, but a nearly uninterrupted rise of contempt for everything we once celebrated |
| 1:13.6 | about our nation. |
| 1:15.0 | We have a president who willfully ignores human rights and civil rights, while he profits |
| 1:20.1 | from schemes that would make a con man blush. |
| 1:23.5 | We have a complicit Congress that has abandoned its basic obligations to serve the people |
| 1:29.5 | rather than accrue their own power. |
| 1:32.3 | We have a judiciary that is grappling with the fruits of its own permissiveness, although |
| 1:38.6 | recent decisions do show some sign of patriotic intent. |
| 1:42.7 | But in the midst of counting up the ways Republicans have made our nation weaker, our people |
| 1:48.3 | more vulnerable, and our values more tenuous. |
... |
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