Anne Applebaum: “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism”

This is the thirty-second episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.
 
 We’re excited to be able to come back to you after an unplanned hiatus due to the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. Since no authors were able to travel, and our partners at the St. Louis County Library and Left Bank Books were physically closed in the early days of social distancing, we were unable to conduct many of the scheduled interviews that we had planned.  But, after the initial weeks of the global shutdown, we were able to set up remote video interviews with many authors. And in the coming weeks, we’ll be providing you with the audio of these interviews. The sound quality may be slightly different than our previous podcasts, but they all still contain the great content that you’ve come to expect.

Our guest this time is Pulitzer-prize winning historian Anne Applebaum. We spoke with her via Zoom in July of 2020 about her latest book “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism” by publisher Penguin Random House.

She is a writer for the Atlantic, as well as a Senior Fellow of International Affairs and an Agora Fellow in Residence at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she co-directs LSE Arena, a program about disinformation and 21st century propaganda. In her new book she uses her expertise in these areas and personal experiences to explore the rise of fascist authoritarianism across the globe and explain how the political landscape’s changes over time have allowed it to happen. In this conversation we’ll learn about the negative effects cultural tribalism has on democracy, explore the ways some world leaders have exploited “cultural despair” for their own gain, and hear how parts of Europe have handled the Covid-19 pandemic as compared to the United states as Anne Applebaum joins us on this edition of Talking With Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.
 
 HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.
 
 Producer – Julie Winkle
 Host – Brenda Madden 
 Video Editor – Greg Kopp
 Audio Editor- Paul Langdon
 Production Support – Jayne Ballew and Christina Chastain
 HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
 Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
 Podcast Producer – Paul Langdon
 Podcast Host - Rod Milam
 
 You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":
 Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingwithauthors
 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors