How the Internet Broke America
On this episode of American Prestige: Garrett Graff discusses the failure of digital democracy and the polarization it unleashed in America.

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Danny welcomes to the show journalist and historian Garrett Graff, host of the podcast Long Shadow. They talk about the show’s latest season on the internet, tracing how its promise of democratization and liberation devolved into an engine of polarization and conspiracies. Topics include: Facebook’s cynical algorithmic choices, Watergate’s enduring influence on American political culture, the economic wreckage of deindustrialization and deregulation, the rise of Trumpism as a “burn it down” vote, and the coming AI disruption that threatens white-collar work.
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Elon Musk, with his son X, speaks as Donald Trump looks on at a victory rally at the Capital One Arena on January 19, 2025, in Washington, DC.
(Kevin Carter / Getty Images)Don’t forget to vote for American Prestige in the Signal Awards!
Danny welcomes to the show journalist and historian Garrett Graff, host of the podcast Long Shadow. They talk about the show’s latest season about the Internet, tracing how its promise of democratization and liberation devolved into an engine of polarization and conspiracies. Topics include: Facebook’s cynical algorithmic choices, Watergate’s enduring influence on American political culture, the economic wreckage of deindustrialization and deregulation, the rise of Trumpism as a “burn it down” vote, and the coming AI disruption that threatens white-collar work.
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Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Danny and Derek are still in talks with The Muppets' people about an appearance, so we’ll keep things buttoned up for now. This week: The U.S. and Iran hold talks in Oman, averting an U.S. strike for the moment (0:31); in Gaza, Israeli strikes kill dozens while Rafah reopens under tight restrictions amid concerns over “slow motion” displacement (5:58); the Trump administration’s Gaza “reconstruction” effort raises more red flags (8:48); Reuters reports that the Biden administration suppressed a USAID memo on Gaza’s humanitarian conditions with potential legal implications (12:07); Syria’s government and the SDF announce a new agreement to integrate SDF forces and administrators into the Syrian state (14:39); Sudan’s military claims it has opened a road into besieged Kadugli as militants make gains elsewhere (17:44); Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is assassinated in Zintan, Libya (20:57); in Nigeria’s Kwara State, gunmen kill roughly 170 people in an allegedly jihadist-linked attack (23:44); U.S.-Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi yield little on ending the war, but Washington and Moscow agree to keep honoring New START’s terms (25:29); Pakistan launches a massive counterinsurgency campaign in Balochistan with the death toll approaching 300 (28:21); Trump touts a major U.S.-India trade framework, but key details remain unclear (30:12); Trump signs a new Cuba executive order increasing pressure around oil supplies (33:16); the U.S. president also hosts Colombia’s Gustavo Petro after recent threats (35:33); and the State Department holds a critical minerals conference as Trump announces “Project Vault” and Japan tests environmentally risky deep-sea mining (37:15).
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