Spencer Cox Wants to Pull Our Politics Back From the Brink

Spencer Cox Wants to Pull Our Politics Back From the Brink

The Utah governor is trying to model a different kind of leadership in a very dangerous political moment.

The Trump administration seems intent on using the assassination of Charlie Kirk to crack down on what it calls “the radical left.” But Spencer Cox doesn’t believe that suppression will make Americans safer.

For years now, Cox has been thinking seriously about our toxic political culture and what the path out of it could be. So I wanted to have him on the show to talk about how he responded in the hours and days after the shooting, what it has left him thinking about and what he thinks we should do now.

Mentioned:

Politics and Social Change Lab

Book Recommendations:

Our Biggest Fight by Frank H. McCourt, Jr.

A Time to Build by Yuval Levin

American Covenant by Yuval Levin

The Pursuit of Happiness by Jeffrey Rosen

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html

This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact checking by Michelle Harris, Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Kristin Lin, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Roger McDonough.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(499)

Best Of: Barbara Kingsolver on ‘Urban-Rural Antipathy’

Best Of: Barbara Kingsolver on ‘Urban-Rural Antipathy’

“It’s so insidious, people don’t realize it,” Barbara Kingsolver told me, describing the prejudice against “country people.” Kingsolver is one of those “country people,” as well as a literary legend i...

29 Jul 20251h 1min

Is Decarbonization Dead?

Is Decarbonization Dead?

Biden passed the most ambitious climate legislation in American history. Trump just shredded it. What does that mean for the future of renewable energy in America? Where does the climate movement go f...

25 Jul 20251h 17min

Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another

Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another

The consensus that held American Jewry together for generations is breaking down. That consensus, roughly, was this: What is good for Israel is good for the Jews; anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitis...

23 Jul 202523min

Why Trump Can’t Shake Jeffrey Epstein

Why Trump Can’t Shake Jeffrey Epstein

MAGA has been infighting over the Jeffrey Epstein files. And that’s because the conspiracy theories around Epstein hit at the very core of MAGA’s whole worldview.Today’s episode looks closer at that w...

17 Jul 20251h 9min

Why Does My Mind Keep Thinking That?

Why Does My Mind Keep Thinking That?

I have had a meditation practice for about 15 years now. I started hoping it would calm me down, and it has. But it’s also made me more aware of the strangeness of my mind. Certain thoughts emerge see...

11 Jul 20251h 7min

How the Attention Economy Is Devouring Gen Z — and the Rest of Us

How the Attention Economy Is Devouring Gen Z — and the Rest of Us

Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani are both proof of how the ability to capture attention is power. And the attention economy isn’t reshaping just politics; it’s also reshaping the actual economy: the cr...

8 Jul 20251h 5min

The Disaster That Just Passed the Senate

The Disaster That Just Passed the Senate

President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is a bad piece of legislation. It includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts that are very much tilted toward the rich, along with savage cuts to Medicaid, nutri...

2 Jul 20251h 11min

Mamdani, Trump and the End of the Old Politics

Mamdani, Trump and the End of the Old Politics

Zohran Mamdani created a new anti-establishment playbook — in his use of social video, his focus on affordability and his position on Israel.   His assumed victory in New York City’s Democratic mayora...

28 Jun 20251h 24min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
forklart
stopp-verden
popradet
dine-penger-pengeradet
det-store-bildet
rss-gukild-johaug
nokon-ma-ga
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
fotballpodden-2
hanna-de-heldige
aftenbla-bla
rss-ness
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
e24-podden
rss-dannet-uten-piano
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-utenrikskomiteen-med-bogen-og-grasvik