Hi, I'm Joe Wiley. And I'm Soie Ball. And we're here to tell you about a brand new podcast, Digit.

Digit is all about the things that Joe and I love. From the kids to the parents and all the stuff in between.

There's a lot going on when you get to this age. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and watch every episode on Spotify. Dig it. Every week. Every week.

For the rest of time. Yes. Okay. Good.

Hello, everyone and welcome to the Focus Group podcast.

I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark.

And this week, we're asking ourselves,

how is America going to get out of this mess?

In the last couple of weeks, we've seen political assassinations in Minnesota,

Donald Trump sending the Marines into American streets,

and ICE roughing up elected Democrats. We've also seen American voters peacefully fighting back

with some of the biggest protests in American history. If you're a listener of this show and

believe, as I do, that American democracy is facing a tough time, you're going to have a lot in common with the voters we hear from today.

They're not 100% sure this experiment we call America is going to endure. This is our last show for the summer. We'll be back after Labor Day.

So I want to leave everyone with a bit of a pep talk, because while America is

imperiled right now, it is not the first time our experiment in freedom and self-government

has looked like it might be ending. And I've got a great co-pep talker. Heather Cox-Ritchards

in history professor at Boston College, an author of the substack letters from an American, which I love. Heather, thanks for being here.

Oh, it's going to be such fun.

It is going to be such fun because I am a huge admirer of yours, and I have found for myself, and I talk about this with JVL sometimes, when I feel really down, I actually, some of our worst

moments in American history have become a real sense of optimism for me. Like it's a place where I go

to say, okay, how did they get through that? And like, look at the things that changed. And I think

...