Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian Anne Applebaum Of The Atlantic

We begin our wide-ranging conversation by discussing the attack on a Moscow concert hall last week. What are the implications of that violence? And who is behind it? Then delve into the US's failure to fund the Ukrainian effort and the resulting loss of life. Will we help them? Or will Republicans continue to enable Putin? Anne also lays out the dangers of a second Trump term. With autocracy on the rise around the world, what would it look like here in America?
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[@y-ddraig]

Thank you Anne and Al. We need you more than ever now.

[@NathanCroucher]

@@nancydenton7496 as opposed to asleep 😐

[@connorthompson66]

Dear, Al Please feature Anne Applebaum more often on the podcast. Anne is easily my favorite recurring guest, and I tune into every episode she's in. Please feature her more often! Best, Connor

[@jamespardue3055]

Yep, she has a very good grasp of the situation. Thank you Al!!! I sure wish you would run for Senate again, even though it's such a sh****** job to campaign and work with those people.

[@catbb1000]

20:45 It just blows my mind that a citizen can basically barge in and manipulate Congress. Something else that needs to be fixed.

[@peterthegreat996]

We and Netanyahu barge into our congress and insult the president… soooooo?

[@bbirda1287]

Free speech is a two way street. You have to give room for people you don't agree with to speak so you can have a voice when the time comes too.

[@clarkpalace]

@@bbirda1287wtf has this got to do with the free speech garbage you Americans are currently misusing?

[@mmsapollo]

Thanks Al & Anne. Great conversation.

[@barbellebracht7553]

Thank you, Anne, for sharing your knowledge and thoughts. Extremely interesting!

[@NoSacredCowFla]

Thanks Al and Anne and the great Leo Kottke.

[@luciafidalgo296]

Another great conversation! Thank you Anne and Al.

[@YABBAHEY1]

Only complaint is when you get Ann on, it should be an hour & forty minutes or longer. One of the greatest articulate communicators of the rational mindset there is.

[@user-ds6ov8jr5n]

Anne is so well informed. Thanks Al.

[@JeffreyHavenga]

Thank you Anne and Al 😊

[@hereigoagain5050]

Thanks Anne and Al! Best Easter Sunday yet! Having one of our favorite gentiles celebrating redemption and resurrection.

[@stevenmaginnis1965]

Oi wei.

[@jeremyarbitaljacoby7155]

I gratefully listen to as many independent stations/podcasts etc. But, consistently, I find your programs the most in depth and informative to listen through to the end! Thank you!

[@Mucologist]

Just suoperb. Very topical and hit the nail on the head. Can't wait for her book.

[@gailalbers1430]

I am still blown away that anyone would vote him in . 😮

[@thunderbird3694]

"Faith" is required to "Believe in Lies" and that is why religions demand "Faithfulness" to maintain Power and Control over their subjects and Force their Theocracy on everyone

[@13699111]

I completely agree with your comment

[@mrnobody3161]

Belief and the concept of Belief is in my opinion is the Achilles Heel of Humanity. Truth and truthful information creates permanent, linear, neural pathways in a healthy Human Brain. I'm theorizing that lies, propaganda, misinformation etc., do not create the foundation for a healthy brain. The role Belief plays in the Human Brain I'm sure doesn't enable critical or creative thinking. In my personal experience having never bought into any organized religion and beginning in 1984 deliberately, wilfully, and consciously eliminating the verbal use of the word Belief and all prerogatives of the word from my conscious thought and verbal speech, it's astoundingly pathetic how often Belief and its usage pervades the speech and thought of so called Humanity. Interesting since Belief requires no factual evidence, just never ending speculation, theories, and only blind faith that the source of the belief is honest, genuine, sincere, and of good intent. With Belief so persuasive, it's the easiest thing to do for an individual wanting to exercise power and control to manipulate a population of believers. They're simply sitting ducks. Now one my think that the absence of the concept of Belief would create an individual void of morality, ethics, or Spirituality. Yet, millions of Atheists and non believers are moral, ethical, non violent, and aren't habitual criminals. I prefer to KNOW, rather than Believe and through 50 years of a layman's interest in philosophy, psychology, geopolitics, anthropology and history, as well as 40 years of rejecting Belief from my thought patterns; I have a rich, rewarding Spiritual Life based on a lot of hard diligent work in building a foundation of Knowledge. I have found that the Truth does not require our conscious acknowledgement of it, to be True. It is already True and pre exists our concept of what can Truely be believed. There's the Achilles Heel; the Truth doesn't require Belief to be True, it requires the accumulation of Truthful Knowledge and in the end; can't be believed anyways.

[@TLA725]

Excellent guest and content, thank you.

[@gerym341]

Another great one. Thank you both

[@blicket]

Amazing. More of her, please 🙏

[@kenmcmanamy6809]

Thank u sir.

[@hazellove2144]

Informative. Thank you.

[@paulclissold1525]

It takes alot of cowards to make this thing hapoen. Continue your work.

[@practice4089]

the putin cocktail... blame all your enemies in one go for a tasteless euphoric delusion

[@gar365]

Of course they don't understand, if they did Trump would be in jail.

[@rhondah1587]

Al should interview historian Heather Cox Richardson. She is brilliant and can tie what's going on today with history like no one else. She has a new book out too that he should promote.

[@floydblandston108]

Pretty sure he did....check his past videos.

[@user-eh8yz6ko3t]

This was excellent 👏

[@ianleslie6971]

Another great one for a change Al, the only hesitation I might have is the quibbles, the mights and maybe. It was an outright attempted shake down of NATO and a few more of that nature. The Wagner mercenary army did not completely disappear, there are reports of them " helping and aiding " countries in Africa. Not in the Army sized force that Putin created by emptying prisons. But company or brigade sized units. . It was an enjoyable and informative show. Thank you Mr Franken

[@karenhousley610]

I remember telling my daughter, " It's a book", 1984, lol

[@nathanngumi8467]

Great episode!

[@sarahcarder7076]

Love Anne

[@dianesilkey1445]

Bravo. Another good one.

[@markrobinowitz8473]

re: September 1999 bombings, read "Blowing Up Russia" by Felshtinsky and Litvinenko. The latter was a former FSB officer who fled to Britain and was later poisoned with polonium.

[@moxita91]

Always a great listen. Thank you both.

[@peterweicker77]

They're not asking anyone to believe in the Big Lie. They don't and they know that few applicants do. They're demanding that applicants display submission by pretending to believe. Feigning belief in lies is how lackeys try to cling to some pathetic scraps of personal dignity.

[@robertgreybeard1432]

That grabbed me! Thank you.

[@nomercadies]

Often, it's a strong independent woman who has the time and means to give so much thought to how we can better live our lives. Thank you for your guidance and direction towards a softer and more loving/motherly world.

[@wegder]

With Mike Flynn leading our military and removing all military leaders that don't pledge allegiance to Trump, I think things can get bad.

[@VintageSoloHarmony]

What’s the story with military and Trump?

[@conscientioussubjector1360]

@@VintageSoloHarmony I think that most generals and higher ranking officers are well read enough (colonels and generals often have multiple advanced degrees) to understand the danger that Trump presents. But there exist the Mike Flynn types. Tho use who would behave as he did MUST be weeded out…anytime they engage in partisan politics, particularly in uniform is a violation of the UCMJ and cause for removal.

[@user-pt3gi5ul2e]

Assignment for Anne Applebaum: If Anne or anyone in her networks speaks & reads Hungarian, I wish Hungarian media could be combed to see if Viktor Orban's visit to Mar a Lago is being presented as a visit with a sitting president. If so, I don't hope for a prompt charge and conviction of djt for impersonating a public officer, but I would think it could be grounds for bail revocation. In my dreams.

[@JJNow-gg9so]

"laughter is the music of the soul"...

[@johnhumphries505]

Frontline reported one of the apartment building bombs did not go off. It contained explosives exclusive to the Russian military.

[@muttshaman2040]

Great program, but I can do without the snorting 😂

[@billytheweasel]

Hi Al!!!

[@susha4511]

Your laughter Al, in response to horrific scenarios is really baffling, and indeed unsettling!

[@brementmark]

Up is down and down is up , but here’s the catch; the MAGA population literally says the same about the normal population

[@DunnoWhatHandleToUse]

The difference is that the normal population is right. There's a reason they're the normal ones! 2+2 always equals 4, no matter how many people say it's 5.

[@VintageSoloHarmony]

This is my favorite topic. They say =5 because it gives them a pleasant sense of belonging to Maga, quite like chanting in religion. The thing is, liking a statement doesn’t make it true. That’s a reason why math training in all schools is so important, forms good cognitive emotional habits.

[@cathyallen3967]

It took more than an hour for help to arrive, which is suspicious because there was a police station nearby and soldiers two miles away. Yet help didn't arrive until the shooters had left.

[@aleksbakman7562]

USA Money doesn't go to Ukraine. It goes to the domestic defense contractors

[@oldreprobate2748]

When does the military stand up to honor their oath of service.

[@UmaticSota]

Richard Nixon doesn't look so bad now, does he.

[@13699111]

I agree

[@rainmanjr2007]

Tricky still looks bad to me. I've been to his grave and he's literally rotting.

[@user-ie1tz5rm8x]

Nixon....as in I smell Nixon ? It's very close but yes trump is worse than Nixon.. you can't really measure a criminal endeavor with a parade of madmen ...trump is headed to jail. , jail , trump , crime , judges ,jail...it's still hard to swallow

[@NiteMoves2010]

It is not enough to say you see three fingers, you have to believe you see three fingers!

[@jerrybyrd8784]

Thanks Al, as you promised Anne was enlightening due in large part to your questions. My wife just said to me that she misses you in the Senate as do I. Both of us think Trump will loose the election badly. Maybe you should prepare to run for President in 2028 as Biden will turn over a better running government than he received in 2020. Then you could take the USA and the planet into the stratosphere with kindness and a sense of humor. We listen to Heather Cox-Richardson once in a while, now we have another brilliant person to pay attention too.

[@mikedavis8008]

Al we need you back in politics win back your senate seat

[@ArtDocHound]

I love a husky voice on a woman 💜🎉

[@elizabethmcdonnell30]

I heard the same about who is supporting Russia in the war with Ukraine. I also heard Belarus is helping with allowing people/planes through the border?

[@AZWings]

Weaponizing international finance is extremely dangerous and we should tread lightly, in my opinion. It is part of the foundation of the modern economic system and we benefit greatly from keeping it stable and trustworthy. We undermine it at our own peril.

[@hereigoagain5050]

True. Should countries that have the long term goal of destroying the liberal economic order be allowed to exploit the modern economic system?

[@user-ie1tz5rm8x]

Hum

[@newbloomwon]

There was a great Polish radio station called Troika that the “Law and Justice [sic] Party” shut down.

[@floydblandston108]

The irony of all this is that none of it would have come to pass if either or both of our political parties had stood up for lower echelon, working people while they hollowed out our nation's economy during the early 80's-2010 period. Instead, we had a corrupt 'technocratic' elite functioning in the same way Russia's plutocrats do now, enriching themselves while the rest of us were slowly destroyed. I have a long memory, and everytime I hear someone like Applebaum going on about the Threat posed by Trump, I think back to how they championed the threat led by the Clinton's. Less ink was spilled then, because higher level media were effectively 'cut in' instead of being held forth as 'enemies of the people'. Nontheless, the damage was done....

[@bbirda1287]

The divide between political speech in vs. out of uniform is a great source of consternation in the military. One of the things they say is "You sign away your 1st amendment rights when you sign your enlistment form." Thank goodness for rules, though. Side note, Active Duty, Reserve, and Guard units have been supplementing the Border Patrol for decades in an advisory capacity. It's really astonishing we don't have better drones.

[@kennj321]

Germany has the largest shortfall with NATO and it about the same as some of the red states deficit compared to federal tax paid vs money spent there. Trump never says anything about putting those states on austerity programs.

[@johnhumphries505]

Mike Johnson is close to becoming a historical figure Yeah, We must save Mike

[@yvonneplant9434]

Good. No mention of OJ Simpson.

[@nomercadies]

Happy Easter. As we observe the rebirth of the son of God, it's comforting to know, we're taking care of the least of us by welcoming the poor and infirm from the rest of the world.

[@patrickmaline4258]

16:24 you’re saying conspiracy theories but describing unchecked corruption. earlier you said there won’t be nazis marching in the streets, but a few minutes later, that our representatives fear nazis harassing them in the streets? it’s like decoding hidden messages listening to you. i’ve heard it many times, always from oppressed people who seem afraid to speak out. instead they talk in disguised comments shielding themselves from ad hominem attacks. if you’re going to appear on a show of this magnitude, you need to say what you mean. ☮️ ❤🌍🌏🌎

[@charlesashurst1816]

It’s about time Al Franken had an intelligent guest.

[@susansprague7304]

I can tell that you are intimately knowledgeable about Al and his guest list by the way you misspell his name,

[@charlesashurst1816]

@@susansprague7304 Doh!

[@brucemclennan9715]

Anne is a smart geopolitical scribe, what does she think about the book: The New Leviathans by John Gray? This book describes the end of liberal democracy as we know it (and it has been the aspiring political system since 1990 and before-while USSR was around).

[@direwolf6234]

and nicolle wallace the former mouthpiece for bsuh/cheney was directly involved with the iraq war lies and she was 'rewarded' with a fat msnbc contract and a prime time show .. what's the difference ??

[@stevenmaginnis1965]

39:57 But when you own a big chunk of the bloody global south, the babies just come with the scenery?

[@user-of2xd4id1o]

Why would anybody want to work for the R?N c unless they were mega

[@as3346]

Why hasn't anyone said dt is behind that war?

[@davidwitzany5852]

2:11

[@DunnoWhatHandleToUse]

Speaking of Ukraine, American credibility, and the Global South, can you consider bringing on Peter Beinart to talk about Israel-Palestine? He has spoken about how many people who advocate for Ukraine have a blind spot for the Palestinians and how it weakens their pro-Ukraine messaging, especially among people in non-Western countries. Some of his views may differ from yours but he is principled, well-meaning, and argues in good faith, and honestly I think the two of you have more positions in common than not. It'd also be nice to get someone on other than the usual cast of Atlantic columnists (for a change).

[@NathanCroucher]

frakens in denial about that situation.

[@tarnopol]

Oh, great-lauding an insane warmonger. Nice one, Al!

[@annsanse2935]

i'd been wondering about the nbc thing for awhile now bc the plan to add political diversity looked half baked and a bigger risk than it was worth, being that the network already has folks from both the left and right and all of them seeming pretty solid, it meant going after the dumpster maga audience, and doing that means having to go to crazytown to get the talking heads for it. and here the scheme fell apart for me bc the maga base is shrinking and dumpster's pretty certain loss in november means it wanes further. so what were the nbc bean counters attempting to do by hiring someone way high up in the pro dumpster gop to draw in a thinning crowd and not seeming to have any idea how the real world would react? (imagine, an american television network engaged in gathering and disseminating the news from around the world not being able to gather and assess the info it needed to make a major decision.) but then with what anne applebaum is saying, nbc may have actually been looking at the longshot odds of dumpster being back in the white house and it being one of the few news organizations able to stand its ground before the beloved dictator and all bc it took a huge hit for him when few others were willing to do the same. it's so painfully perfectly sane in the end, if that's what was up. and even with the odds being that dumpster will be headed instead for some low rent south florida trailer park the network survives, no matter. dang, she should write a book about dumpster planning to copy what orban did. and i wonder if orban's mal visit influenced nbc? and maybe this other book she has out now did too? hope she gets another pulitzer.

[@NathanCroucher]

its not left and right, its normal and crazy. One side accepts reality the other doesnt. Heres the simple test, who won the election.

[@ehRalph]

AI makes mistakes, the Internet doesn’t speak the truth -

[@peterphalam8946]

13th chapters of Revelation in the Bible explains current time.

[@gjnelsondotcom]

Third!

[@hereigoagain5050]

O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?

[@gjnelsondotcom]

@@hereigoagain5050 They got a new Snickers pie at Cracker Barrel!

[@hereigoagain5050]

@@gjnelsondotcom Too rich! :)

[@paulclissold1525]

The christian/russian orthodox empire will defeat all enemies speaker mcfly will do gods work.

[@jezalb2710]

Slava Ukraïni

[@judykinsman3258]

Are you now accepting only religious guests?

[@NathanCroucher]

Ukraine lost this from the start. If they do win (they wont) the affects of the monumental death, destruction and debt will hold that country back for decades. All for what? Fewer oligarchs?? Nothing. Very brave anne from arcross the world.... 28:34 The extent of her knowledge is cache phrases. Oh man there 12 more minutes to go.

[@LMM7880]

Thanks Vlad.

[@NathanCroucher]

@@LMM7880 Clearly not russian in anyway, a 2 sec check would show that mr annonomouse

[@hg1644]

Boring