The Good Apocalypse Podcast

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.

Hadiya Masieh has over two decades' experience in countering violent extremism and understanding how to challenge hate - and a unique perspective given her own experience as a former member of an extremist political organisation.Today, Hadiya runs Groundswell Project, a pioneering initiative that works in communities to map both extremist and pro-peace groups on the ground, build a diverse coalition to tackle causes of extremism, and then amplify local voices through Groundswell Project's reach with local and national news and on social media.We spoke to Hadiya about her story, her work, and how people working to support larger us rather than them-and-us dynamics can learn from Groundswell Project's insights.