HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Pod Save America Sep 7, 2025 Pod Save America It can feel like all is lost under Trump 2.0, but America has faced extremely dark chapters before and come out on the other side. Heather Cox Richardson—professor, historian and author of the most-read newsletter on Substack, Letters from an American—joins the show to share her long-view approach for this shortsighted era. She walks Dan through the biggest challenges to American democracy throughout history, how she believes we got to this MAGA moment, and what fuels her optimism about the future of the country. CHECK OUT OUR SPONSORS: SIMPLISAFE – http://simplisafe.com/crooked STAMPS – http://stamps.com CODE: CROOKED COOK UNITY – http://cookunity.com/crookedfree CODE: CROOKEDFREE QUINCE – http://quince.com/crooked CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro to Heather Cox Richardson 01:25 – Finding a Voice (and Audience) on Substack 08:44 – Writing “Letters from an American” 12:24 – Trump and the Myth of the “American Cowboy” 23:43 – Subscribe for Ad-Free Videos 25:00 – Ad Break 1 27:49 – Republicans vs Conservatives vs Radical Extremists 30:37 – Is the Trump Era Actually Unprecedented? 35:09 – Hiding Racism Under an Economic Argument 37:50 – What Drives Political Change? 46:07 – From Barack Obama to Trump and MAGA 50:52 – Ad Break 2 54:06 – Trump’s Deployment of Federal Troops 58:48 – Is Democracy Losing? 01:06:44 – Lessons for Today