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Podcast: Defending truth. Advancing knowledge.

Podcast: Defending truth. Advancing knowledge.

Democracies around the world are under threat from populist movements, demagogues and dogmatic extremists who use disinformation, conspiracy theories, cancel culture and shaming to weaponize social media and challenge our ability to distinguish truth from falsehood.

Most recently, the Russian government has used lies and fake news to justify its attempted land grab in Ukraine. In "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth", best-selling author, journalist, and public intellectual, Jonathan Rauch, offers a stirring defense of the social system of checks and balances that is crucial for turning disagreement into verifiable facts.


In this episode of "How Do We Fix It?", Jonathan arms listeners and advocates of truth with a clear understanding of what they must protect, and how to do it. He makes a clear and moving argument for how all of us can help defend truth and free inquiry from threats that come from as far away as Russia and as close as our cellphones.

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USA, Washington D.C., Supreme Court building and blurred American flag against blue sky.
Americans increasingly distrust the Supreme Court. The answer may lie not only in Court reforms but in shifting power back to states, communities, and Congress.
Getty Images, TGI /Tetra Images

Hypocrisy in Leadership Corrodes Democracy

Promises made… promises broken. Americans are caught in the dysfunction and chaos of a country in crisis.

The President promised relief, but gave us the Big Beautiful Bill — cutting support for seniors, students, and families while showering tax breaks on the wealthy. He promised jobs and opportunity, but attacked Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. He pledged to drain the swamp, yet advanced corruption that enriched himself and his allies. He vowed to protect Social Security, yet pursued policies that threatened it. He declared no one is above the law, yet sought Supreme Court immunity.

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Portrait of John Adams.

This vintage engraving depicts the portrait of the second President of the United States, John Adams (1735 - 1826)

Getty Images, wynnter

John Adams and the Line a Republic Must Not Cross

In an earlier Fulcrum essay, John Adams Warned Us: A Republic Without Virtue Cannot Survive, I reflected on Adams’s insistence that self-government depends on character as much as law. Adams believed citizens had obligations to one another that no constitution could enforce. Without restraint, moderation, and a commitment to the common good, liberty would hollow out from within.

But Adams’s argument about virtue did not stop with citizens. It extended, with equal force, to those who wield power.

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A Man Who Keeps His Word — Even When He’s Joking

U.S. President Donald Trump tours the Ford River Rouge Complex on January 13, 2026 in Dearborn, Michigan.

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A Man Who Keeps His Word — Even When He’s Joking

We’ve learned why it’s a mistake to treat Trump’s outrageous lines as “just talk”

“We shouldn’t need a mid-term election” is his latest outrageous statement or joke. Let’s break down the pattern.

When a candidate says something extreme, we, the public, tend to downgrade it: He’s joking. He’s riffing. He’s trolling the press. We treat the line like entertainment, not intent.

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From “Alternative Facts” to Outright Lies

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on January 7, 2026 in Brownsville, Texas.

(Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)

From “Alternative Facts” to Outright Lies

The Trump administration has always treated truth as an inconvenience. Nearly a decade ago, Kellyanne Conway gave the country a phrase that instantly became shorthand for the administration’s worldview: “alternative facts.” She used it to defend false claims about the size of Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd, insisting that the White House was simply offering a different version of reality despite clear photographic evidence to the contrary.

That moment was a blueprint.

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