“We are at a tipping point:” Yale historian Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale and a world renowned scholar of authoritarianism. His 2017 international bestseller, On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century, is a roadmap to how autocrats rise and democracies fall. Snyder’s newest book is Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary. He describes his near death experience following a missed medical diagnosis last year, and he eviscerates America’s failed coronavirus response. He calls on us to rethink the fundamental connection between health and freedom. “Other countries look at us and for the first time ever, they sincerely pity us, but also wonder, how can you have so much wealth… and kill so many people?” He observes, “We’re at a tipping point. To say that it can’t go on like this is an understatement. Things could get much worse than they are — and they might.” He notes that if Joe Biden is elected president, he will have to undertake “a redo of the 21st century.”

Timothy Snyder, Levin Professor of History, Yale University, author, On Tyranny and Our Malady

How Democracies Die: Harvard Prof. Steven Levitsky

Is America on the brink of authoritarianism? Steven Levitsky has been wrestling with that question. Levistky is professor of government at Harvard University and is co-author, with fellow Harvard Professor Daniel Ziblatt, of the international bestselling book, How Democracies Die. “There’s lot to worry about,” says Levitsky. (June 10, 2020 broadcast)

This conversation has also been published as an article in Medium, “How Democracies Die.”

Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University, co-author, How Democracies Die