More Apocalypse, Less Optimism - w Dana R. Fisher

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Professor Dana R. Fisher of American University is one of the most astute analysts of two things going through a huge stress test right now in the US - climate science, and democracy.

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The necessity of today’s outro track will become obvious, and with apologies for my slandering of Flava Flav:

She spoke to us from near Washington, where Elon Musk and his merry band of DOGE incels is being cheered on by Donald Trump as they ignore court orders and systematically gut research on the climate.

She joined us at the end of last year, to talk about her book Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action. We planned to talk for maybe 20 minutes today about her recent work researching and documenting the vandalism to American science underway. Then she told us about her new research surveying attendees at the “People’s March” who were 75% female, overwhelmingly moderate, middle-aged, mainstream Democratic voters, she found that 33% of people surveyed thought violence was justified to protect American democracy. And that was BEFORE Trump’s inauguration and his pardon of those convicted of violently trying to overturn the results of the 2020 US election on Jan 6 2021.

So we went over time. For nearly an hour.

Come walk with us.

Outro Tracks

Chapters

05:33 Introduction and Guest Welcome

05:52 Discussing the Current State of the Apocalypse

06:22 Field Work and Resistance Movements

08:37 The People's March and Data Collection

10:02 Media Misrepresentation and Crowd Sizes

15:00 Political Violence and Survey Findings

23:32 Impact on Federal Funding and Research

29:06 Government Actions and Future Implications

34:06 National Guard and Rising Tensions

34:49 Impact on Jobs and Development

35:39 USAID and Soft Power

37:51 Theories on Government Dismantling

38:38 Civil War and Martial Law Concerns

39:02 Military's Role and January 6th Reflections

48:20 Normalization of Violence

51:00 Climate Change and Democracy

52:36 Future Uncertainties and Personal Reflections

Thanks

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