The Good Apocalypse Podcast
Host Alex Evans talks with fascinating people about how to navigate the turbulent times we’re living through. Some may want to stoke fear, rage and division, but at the Good Apocalypse Podcast we’re focusing on how we can steady ourselves, find purpose and meaning, and build connection with others as ways towards a brighter future.
Formerly the Larger Us Podcast.
The Good Apocalypse Podcast
Why some people are primed to be authoritarians - with Karen Stenner
Karen Stenner has spent years researching why some people seem to have a psychological predisposition towards authoritarianism in the right conditions.
With her co-author Jonathan Haidt, Karen has explored how about a third of people across dozens of liberal democracies share this trait to some degree - a key factor in understanding why, for instance, so many Americans continued to support Donald Trump even as he lurched steadily further towards authoritarianism, and which has led Karen to argue that "liberal democracy has now exceeded many people's capacity to tolerate it."
We spoke to Karen about why support for authoritarianism is so widespread, what we can do about it, and what's next in countries like the US where right wing populism has been surging.