Watching the coverage of the COVID-19 crisis,

watching the failures on the state and the federal level,

watching the rise in new cases,

you might be tempted to say, wow, America has gone Haywire.

And my guest this week says, yeah, you're right, but this is not new.

So let's get to this week's Reliable Sources Podcast.

Kue the Music.

I'm Brian Stelter, and this weekly podcast is our chance to go more in depth with media leaders and

newsmakers talking about how the news gets made, how this media world works.

And I think to understand this environment we are all in.

And I think to understand this information environment we are all in,

this disinformation environment, the so-called

Infodemic on top of the pandemic, you have to understand your history. So let's learn from it with this week's guest.

Kurt Anderson is the author of numerous books including True Believers,

Hayday, Turn of the century.

And his title from a few years ago that I think has

new found relevance right at this moment

was Fantasyland, the subtitle How America

went Haywire a 500 year history.

Haywire. It feels right. It feels true to this moment. But Kurt wrote about this

back in 2017. Actually he finished the book right as the Trump era was

beginning.

...