Yuval Noah Harari on Donald Trump’s Core Delusion

About this episode

Yuval Noah Harari discusses the narratives shaping national identity and the appeal of right-wing movements in the context of the Trump administration.

What are the conditions that enable a country to become great — or great again? The Trump administration — and other right-wing movements in other countries — offers a vision of greatness based on power and domination abroad, and a mix of shared national and religious stories at home. And that vision is clearly appealing to a lot of people. Liberals in the U.S. and elsewhere have been struggling to tell a story that can compete. What story would Yuval Noah Harari tell? One of the through lines of Harari’s best-selling books — “Sapiens,” “Homo Deus,” “Nexus” — is the huge role that stories play in shaping the arc of history, driving humans to cooperate on a grand scale to achieve great things, or divide violently against one another. So I wanted to ask him about the stories that the U.S. and Israel, in particular, seem to have embraced right now. What does history tell us about the power of this story? And why does the liberal story seem so weak right now? Mentioned: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari Unstoppable Us, Volume 3 by Yuval Noah Harari “Understanding AI” by Timothy B. Lee Book Recommendations: The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut Chimpanzee Politics…

People in this episode

Host: Ezra Klein

Guest: Yuval Noah Harari

Topics covered

• politics
• storytelling
• national identity
• liberalism
• right-wing movements
• history

Keywords

• Trump
• greatness
• national stories
• liberal story
• history
• cooperation
• division

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Sapiens, Homo Deus, Nexus, Understanding AI, The MANIAC, Chimpanzee Politics, Brave New World

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