The Nature of Modern Authoritarianism

What does 21st century authoritarianism look like in the United States? Author and Atlantic staff writer George Packer joins Offline to talk about America’s zombie democracy, who could be the most dangerous MAGA heir, and how Democrats should be fighting for the country. For our last episode of 2025, George and Jon connect the dots between Trump, polarization, oligarchs, AI, social media, Charlie Kirk and more. 

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.