Autocracy in America
A podcast from The Atlantic reporting on the sweeping changes unfolding in the United States, preparing listeners to think about what might happen next. The latest season of five episodes was released on January 9, 2026.
Episodes
American Democracy Under Occupation
When heavily armed agents of the federal government arrived in Minneapolis, the people of the Twin Cities responded with surprising strength.
In this episode, residents describe what drove them to act, and host Anne Applebaum speaks with Atlantic contributing writer Robert Worth about what he learned when he observed the tactics of the federal agents and the response of Minnesotans.
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Elections Distorted
The Trump White House is changing the rules of our political system through intimidation, the distortion of information, financial corruption, and the dismantling of government offices. In the final episode of this season, we examine whether the administration is also trying to change the rules of our elections. Dawn Baldwin Gibson, a North Carolina pastor, tells us about how, in 2024, her vote wa
Rise of the Trump Loyalist
Kathleen Walters was only 23 days away from qualifying for early retirement at the IRS when she decided to quit, rather than acquiesce to a Trump-administration request that she break the law and compromise millions of people’s privacy. She’s one of hundreds of thousands of civil servants who have left or been fired from their federal-government jobs in the past year. In this episode, host Anne Ap
Reality Reshaped
Joan Brugge has worked for nearly 50 years as a cancer scientist, studying the earliest signs that someone might become sick. Then the Trump administration canceled her lab’s funding. The administration’s attacks on medicine, culture, and education—which include funding cuts and verbal threats—are about more than just budgeting and bravado. Our host, Anne Applebaum, speaks with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a p
Crypto Corruption
Brandon LaRoque kept his life savings in a cryptocurrency account. One morning, as he went to check his balance, he discovered that it was all missing. LaRoque is one of many victims of the unregulated crypto industry. President Donald Trump has rolled back regulation of the industry, while he and his family have earned untold billions of dollars from new crypto ventures. Host Anne Applebaum talks
ICE and the National Guard Are Acting with Impunity
The transformation of ICE into a type of national police force, backed, in some cases, by soldiers from the National Guard, has been covered as immigration story—but these forces are reshaping democracy for all of us. This shift was evident even before the shootings in Minneapolis and Portland this week. In this episode, George Retes, a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran, recounts how he was detaine
Coming Soon: Season 3 of Autocracy in America
The Trump administration is making radical, unprecedented changes to American institutions. By doing so, it is seeking to transform the American political system as well. To explain Donald Trump’s project, and to talk about where it might be going, The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum is returning to host a new season of Autocracy in America. She’ll introduce listeners to Americans whose lives were chang
The Admiral
Despite growing up in the Soviet Union, host Garry Kasparov admired American values—believing America was one of the good guys. But is that still the case?
In the final episode of the second season of Autocracy in America, Garry is joined by Admiral Bill McRaven, perhaps best known as the military commander who oversaw the SEAL Team Six raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Recently, he’s be
The Warning
Michael McFaul witnessed Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on dissent as U.S. ambassador to Russia. He has a warning for Americans.
McFaul and host Garry Kasparov discuss how recent moves by the Trump administration mirror the consolidation of power that McFaul saw after Putin was re-elected Russian president in 2012.
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The Columnist
When host Garry Kasparov created the Renew Democracy Initiative in 2017, the founding manifesto warned that “the liberal-democratic order is under attack from within and without.” Eight years later, things have not changed for the better.
Garry is joined by Bret Stephens, a columnist for The New York Times and the principal author of that 2017 manifesto. Both Garry and Bret agree that democracy i
The Negotiator
In the fight to save democracies from the grips of autocrats, defenders of democratic values must partner with people who would otherwise be their political opponents.
In this episode, host Garry Kasparov seeks to demonstrate this lesson by welcoming former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan as his guest. Their long-held and many disagreements aside, Garry and Jake find common ground in stan
The Computer Scientist
With all the hype and hysteria around AI, it’s important to remember that AI is still just a tool. As powerful as it is, it is not a promise of dystopia or utopia.
Host Garry Kasparov is joined by cognitive scientist Gary Marcus. They agree that on its own, AI is no more good or evil than any other piece of technology and that humans, not machines, hold the monopoly on evil. They discuss what we
The Advocate
When democracy and civil society are all you’ve known, they are easy to take for granted. However, for some autocracy is not just a word but a way of life.
Host Garry Kasparov is joined by Oleksandra Matviichuk. She leads the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, and has become a leading figure in documenting the occupation of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ha
The Politician
What does the future of Europe look like with the rise of newly aggressive authoritarian states?
Host Garry Kasparov is joined by Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, a member of parliament in Lithuania. Like Garry, she’s a chess grand master who pivoted to politics. Lithuania is one of the most ardent defenders of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. Lithuanians worry that if Ukraine falls, their nation co
The CEO
With the United States stepping back from its global leadership role, many around Europe and the world are waiting for Germany to step forward. Will it?
Host Garry Kasparov is joined by Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the German multinational media and technology company Axel Springer, who argues that Europe is a “Sleeping Beauty” that must awaken to protect democracy and the open-society model. But can
The Realist
Soviet dissidents have long admired the United States and its Founding Fathers for their attachment to a moral core, the basis for individual human liberty. So what happens when American power is used not for moral interests but for solely pragmatic ones?
Host Garry Kasparov is joined by George Friedman, the founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures, a firm that analyzes foreign policy and fo
The Ambassador
How should American power be deployed in the world? Since the Cold War, America’s role as a global leader has been up for debate.
Host Garry Kasparov and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton dissect the state of the neoconservative geopolitical worldview. They consider what the latest iteration of the “America First” foreign-policy rationale signals for democracy worldwide an
The Dissident
What is a dissident? In an autocracy, standing against the rulers could mean harassment, prison, torture, even death. Dissidents stand up anyway.
Host Garry Kasparov is joined by Masih Alinejad, whose work for women’s rights against the Islamic Republic of Iran has led to her exile in the United States. It has not ended her fight, nor has distance made her safe—she was targeted for assassination
The Pollster
Have Americans grown complacent, thinking nothing can shake the United States’ democracy? Host Garry Kasparov is joined by Frank Luntz, someone well versed in taking the temperature of the American public.
Luntz is perhaps best known as a behind-the-scenes operative in Republican politics. He is the pioneer of an “Instant Response” focus-group technique that lets him understand not just what peo
The Return
Since The Atlantic first released the podcast Autocracy in America last fall, Donald Trump was elected president again. Staff writer Anne Applebaum describes how Trump’s return to the White House fits into the changing geopolitical landscape as she hands the show over to its new host: Garry Kasparov. The former world chess champion and lifelong democracy activist will guide a series of conversatio
Coming Soon: A New Season of Autocracy in America
The former world chess champion and lifelong democracy activist Garry Kasparov guides a new series of conversations about society’s complacency with liberal values and how this carelessness has fueled a democratic retreat—and a new belligerence among dictators.
New episodes launch every Friday, starting July 11.
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Bonus: Goldberg on Signalgate
Anne Applebaum speaks with The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg about the consequences of the Signal breach. This conversation was recorded live from The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.
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Introducing: We Live Here Now
Hosts Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev talk with Hanna Rosin about the new series We Live Here Now. Rosin, along with her co-host, Lauren Ober, recently found out that their new neighbors moved to Washington, D.C., to support January 6 insurrectionists. They knocked on their door. We Live Here Now is a podcast series about what happened next. Subscribe to We Live Here Now here: Apple Podcasts
Politicize ‘Freedom’
Freedom in the United States is a word that has had more than one meaning. It has meant freedom for some people and the repression of others. In a democracy, freedom also means the right to take part in politics. So how can that freedom best be secured?
This is the fifth episode of Autocracy in America, a five-part series about authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States and where
Join the Kleptocracy
Since the earliest days of the republic, America’s international friendships have shaped domestic politics. And some of those friendships helped America strengthen its democratic principles. So what happens if America’s new friends are autocrats? John Bolton, former national security adviser for President Donald Trump, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island argue that if America no longer
Consolidate Power
Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate hundreds of workers across federal agencies if he becomes president again. Consolidating power and placing friends in key roles are textbook autocratic maneuvers, but they also are not new in the United States. This episode revisits the story of Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who sought to take over the apparatus of government in his state, just as illiberal lead
Capture the Courts
In authoritarian states, the public has no agency and no real access to justice. Renée DiResta, a scholar who researches online information campaigns, struggled to counter false accusations leveled against her after a series of courts accepted them without investigation. As courts become more political, people could begin to assume justice is impossible.
This is the second episode of Autocracy in
Start With a Lie
The corruption of democracy begins with the corruption of thought—and with the deliberate undermining of reality. Stephen Richer, an election official in Arizona, and Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman, learned firsthand how easily false stories and conspiracy theories could disorient their colleagues. They talk with hosts Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev about how conformism and
Introducing Autocracy in America
There are authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States. To root them out, you have to know where to look.
Autocracy in America is produced by The Atlantic and made possible with support from the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, an academic and public forum dedicated to strengthening global democracy through powerful civic engagement and informed, inclusive dialogue.
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