Johns Hopkins experts anchor new 'Atlantic' podcast on autocracy in the U.S.

Two experts from the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University are anchoring a new podcast from The Atlantic that explores how U.S. democracy is under threat by the rise of autocracy's popularity.

Image caption: Peter Pomerantsev and Anne Applebaum

Autocracy in America is scheduled to debut on TheAtlantic.com on Sept. 6 and will feature two hosts who are both senior fellows for the SNF Agora Institute: Peter Pomerantsev and Anne Applebaum, who is also an Atlantic staff writer. Applebaum's recently published book, Autocracy, Inc., examines the world's dictators and their shared interests.

"In a new podcast, hosts Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev illuminate democracy's long-standing vulnerabilities and highlight America's transition away from democracy and toward autocracy," The Atlantic said in promotional language for the new podcast series. "Authoritarian tactics are already at work in the United States. To root them out, you have to know where to look."

In an introductory teaser about the new podcast, Pomerantsev states that the United States features many warning signs of rising autocracy.

"When we look at America today, right now, we see a place where the slide to autocracy has already begun," says Pomerantsev, author of How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler.

Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian, supports her colleague's observation by stating that the "the tightening grip of conspiracy theories," the "growth of dark money" in elections, and the "lack of transparency in politics" are worrisome trends.

"It's not some distant future," she says. "It's the present."