You know all the reasons Trump won, right?

Economic anxiety. Racial anxiety. The forgotten working class. The forgotten rustbelt...

But what if the real cause were something much simpler and much more pervasive: our popular culture.

This hour, a conversation with Peter Biskind, the author of The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism.

You know all the reasons Trump won, right?
<a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2016/11/10/elections/economic-anxiety-key-some-trump-voters" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.marketplace.org/2016/11/10/elections/economic-anxiety-key-some-trump-voters">Economic anxiety</a>. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/16/17980820/trump-obama-2016-race-racism-class-economy-2018-midterm" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/16/17980820/trump-obama-2016-race-racism-class-economy-2018-midterm">Racial anxiety</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html">The forgotten working class</a>. <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/how-rust-belt-delivered-trump-presidency-deep-dive-522091" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.newsweek.com/how-rust-belt-delivered-trump-presidency-deep-dive-522091">The forgotten rustbelt</a>...
But what if the real cause were something much simpler and much more pervasive: our popular culture.
This hour, a conversation with Peter Biskind, the author of <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/sky-falling" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://thenewpress.com/books/sky-falling">The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism</a>.

The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

<a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/show/the-colin-mcenroe-show/about">The Colin McEnroe Show</a> is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called <a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/tags/the-nose">The Nose</a> for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

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