How My View Grew

Let's admit it. The Trump presidency isn't just creating chaos and destruction with sadistic glee. It's also exhausting. What's exhausting isn't only the President, but also the mafia state he has built, many journalists who cover him, and progressives who frame the situation ideologically. In this 9-minute episode, I describe seven causes of Trump Mafia State Fatigue: The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle The Gaslighting Effect Fly in the Ear Affirmative action for mediocrity The double-edged corruption sword Sanewashing Progressive ideological framing **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode of How My View Grew, I offer nine ways that leaders of key American institutions—Congressional Democrats, the Supreme Court, universities, and law firms—can act differently when facing a warlord Administration. How do you act toward people whose primary modes are force and intimidation and who honor no laws, constitutions, or norms? **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The first two months of the new Administration in Washington DC have brought shocking degrees of chaos and disruption. Many people who didn't vote for the current President feel like they've been punched in the face and knocked to the ground. How in a situation like this do you get back up? What actions can you take to lift your mood and make things in the world better? This week's guest on How My View Grew, which launches season three of the podcast, is no stranger to this dilemma. Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the Zingerman's Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, knows something about getting crushed by a global shock and then finding a way to get back up. In his case, the event was Russia's brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. How he got back up was by learning about Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and then using this as inspiration to bring dignity into the workplace. Ari's story offers a lesson about how to respond to disturbing and horrific events. It also raises a startling question: if millions of people felt a sense of dignity in the workplace, would they vote for demagogues claiming "you've been screwed" and promising to "fix it" for them? Or might they instead say, "No thanks. I'm good. If you want to be an autocrat, move to Russia?" **Key takeaways** 5:00 When Ari was unconsciously competent at dignity 10:00 "Putin isn't going to call me for advice" 14:00 Inspiration from Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity 25:00 Honoring dignity doesn't take more time 27:00 Being authentic without dumping on others 32:00 Showing employees the financial numbers 36:00 "Maybe it's not because they're lazy." 43:00 Slipping daily and then gamefilming 45:30 Amiel's reflections **Resources** A Revolution of Dignity in the Twenty-first Century Workplace, a pamphlet by Ari Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan Ukrainian civic activist Valerii Pekar on Ukraine's stunning resilience (How My View Grew) Historian Marci Shore on how to improve the world amidst evil (How My View Grew) Depolarize politics by escaping the drama triangle (How My View Grew) **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Kim Stanley ("Stan") Robinson is one of the world's most acclaimed and popular science fiction novelists, first famous for his Mars Trilogy. For the past two decades, Stan has been telling vivid stories in which climate change is catastrophic yet people invent ways of reversing it. What he imagines is so bold it takes your breath away, then fills you with hope and resolve that you didn't know existed within you. In his Science in the Capital trilogy, a Washington DC thriller, National Zoo animals roam the capital after a massive flood. The Gulf Stream shuts down. Then a tiny U.S. government agency with bold leadership funds massive global climate projects. That plus the election of an inspiring everyman new President saves the day. Two decades later, Ministry for the Future tells a very different heroic tale. Here the protagonist is a new international agency based in Zurich led by an Irishwoman. After a massive heat wave in Indian kills millions, she gets kidnapped by one of its survivors and eventually answers her captor's challenge to do more. She persuades central bankers to back a "carbon coin" that changes the rules of the economic game. Companies now earn money by keeping oil in the ground, slowing Antarctica's melting, and investing in other projects on a scale commensurate with the climate catastrophe. What led Robinson to dramatically rethink his bold ideas for reversing climate change? What can we learn from this about climate economics and the financial rules in capitalism? How might this learning shift us into more constructive moods as we face seemingly insurmountable challenges? Join me in exploring these questions in this new episode of How My View Grew. **Key takeaways** 4:00 A DC thriller: the Gulf Stream slows down. Washington floods. Science and government save the day 12:00 Stan gets criticized about economics and responds by reading more deeply. The virtues and limits of nationalizing banks. 18:00 A new view of money and lessons from the 2008 financial crisis 23:00 Paying companies to green the planet, changing the economic game 28:45 Stop asking "Is it to late?" Focus instead on better versus worse 33:30 Telling good stories that our culture ignores 35:00 Stan's message to the Left: get over it 40:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** A reference site for Kim Stanley Robinson Amiel's essay, "Beyond the false choice between despair and hope" **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, many American citizens are willing to tear everything down. Where did these destructive inclinations come from? Might they partly reflect the way that voters learned history back in school? How well are we teaching history through the eyes of people living then so we can learn from their experiences? To what extent are we introducing students to their culture's proud traditions so they feel inspired to defend them rather than throw everything away? In this episode of How My View Grew, we explore these questions by hearing from someone from outside the United States. Lene Rachel Andersen is a Danish author, futurist, and economist. As a student, she knew history was important. However, when challenged by a classmate, she couldn't explain why. Lene sensed the disjointed nature of the history curriculum but couldn't pinpoint what was missing. Years later, as the result of a TV series she created that went awry, she discovered answers to both questions. Then postmodernism entered the scene, and Lene wondered: should we be teaching deconstruction to third graders—or can this wait until later? Lene's story reveals deep lessons for avoiding authoritarianism and meeting other challenges of our time. **Key takeaways** 8:00 A classmate's question about history stump Lene 12:00 Put yourself in the shoes of people in history 14:00 To avoid authoritarianism and stupid wars, understand history and humans 18:00 Pitfalls of the postmodern approach to history 24:00 An exciting pilot project in a Danish public school 27:00 Third grade teachers shouldn't be teaching deconstruction 32:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** Lene's web site "The Surprising Lesson of History"—from season one of this podcast **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

When new political leaders promote disruptive and even violent change, then people accustomed to pressing the gas pedal on change may choose instead to hit the breaks. Liberals become small "c" conservatives. In this episode of How My View Grew, I suggest that after November 5, 2024 every liberal in the United States became a small "c" conservative. Instead of pushing for change in society, liberals now have good reason to slow it down. That's because the changes coming with the new Trump Administration threaten to destroy or disrupt many things worth preserving, from liberal gains of the past 90 years to basic Constitutional protections we've had for two and a half centuries. Much that we Americans take for granted, everything from childhood immunizations to Constitutional freedoms to the rule of law, is now at risk. Someone needs to stand up and shout, "Stop." For decades, liberals associated this stance with Republicans, and for good reason. But today's Republican leader doesn't have a small "c" conservative bone in his body. His Administration will be about rapidly disrupting and destroying much that liberals—and all Americans—value. So, who will fill the void of slowing down change and preserving that which we hold most dear? Liberals. After making this case, I describe five steps liberals can take to embody such small "c" conservatism. **Key takeaways** 2:00 The reactionary changes coming 5:30 The two forms of conservatism: small "c" and big "C" 8:30 Big "C" conservatism, the ideology, is whatever the Republican Party currently stands for 13:30 Five steps liberals can take to conserve liberal gains and American traditions **Resources** My recent essay, "Nine tempting but unhelpful interpretations of Mr. Trump's victory" On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In the upcoming U.S. presidential election, democracy, many say, is on the ballot. But is democracy versus autocracy the best description of the stakes? Not according to Stephen E. Hanson, co-author with Jeffrey Kopstein of the new book The Assault on the State. The democracy/autocracy distinction is about how people come to power. It doesn't address how leaders rule their staffs and administrations once they are in power. In the West, we've long managed states based on professional expertise and the rule of law. It's so common that we take it for granted. Yet, in recent years a different form of rule has taken root, first in Russia, then in Eastern Europe, and now in England, the U.S., and other parts of the West. Here the method of rule resembles the mafia. It's based on loyalty to a single leader, typically a man, and characterized by attacks on professional experts and power centralized in a ruling household. For many years, Hanson, an expert on Russia and Eastern Europe, didn't think that strong mafia-like states were possible in the 21st century. And he was far from alone in this. Then, when Putin defied the odds by building one in Russia, Hanson didn't think this model of rule would spread elsewhere. And yet it has. In this episode of How My View Grew, we explore why it made sense to bet against the rise of mafia-like states and why such bets turned out to be misguided. **Key takeaways** 5:30 Steve's prediction that Russia wouldn't build a state after communism 8:30 How Putin built a state with loyalists 14:00 Why nobody thought Russia's mafia-like rule would spread 17:00 An epiphany during the pandemic sparks an "aha" 20:00 Three warning signs 24:00 Democracies can be run like the mafia. Autocracies can be run by experts based on the rule of law 28:00 The "unholy alliance" leading the assaults on the expert-run state 33:00 How an assault on the state in Israel contributed to the country's lack of preparedness for Hamas's massacres on October 7, 2023 39:30 We only notice government when it fails 41:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** The Assault on the State by Stephen E. Hanson and Jeffrey S. Kopstein **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Why might a liberal Democrat with progressive values hold a conservative disposition? Could it make sense to both advocate for positive change and honor traditions and the social cohesion they foster? Might this represent the twin challenges facing today's Democratic Party? In this 30-minute episode of How My View Grew, Boston College philosophy professor David Storey explores these questions through his own personal and professional experience. How did someone who dismissed the Republican Party as simplistic and repellent learn to recognize the virtues of the conservative disposition, even as Republicans themselves abandoned this disposition? What does this tell us about MAGA, Mr. Trump, January 6, and the the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election? Who are the "barstool conservatives," and why are they anything but conservative? If you believe in the gains brought by liberalism and progressivism, aren't you acknowledging that these are traditions you want to conserve? **Key takeaways** 3:00 The thick culture and Fox News habits of a childhood friend's family 5:30 Discovering positive patriotism on 9/11 9:00 Learning from Andrew Sullivan that traditions are complex, involve pruning, and were built by people 12:00 Why the Iraq War violated conservative principles and climate activism can piggyback on them 17:30 The primal ethnocentric energies of George Wallace and Patrick Buchanan—also not truly conservative 20:00 How these primal energies broke through to the mainstream in the form of MAGA and Mr. Trump 22:30 The "barstool conservatives" who are angry they can't watch cheerleaders or call things "gay" 25:00 The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is what happens when you abandon the conservative disposition 27:00 The important contributions of the Never Trumpers 28:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** David's web site, including his podcast, Wisdom@Work The Institute for Cultural Evolution, where David is a Senior Fellow **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.