Anand Giridharadas

6 hours ago | lucid.substack.com | Ruth Ben-Ghiat |Anand Giridharadas |Michael Cohen

Hello to all premium subscribers! Thank you for continuing to support Lucid. I appreciate your generosity. Last night I filed my grades and completed my semester at NYU. I am on sabbatical in the fall from teaching and I am looking forward to having more time to focus on Lucid. I wanted to let you know about our next small-group zoom, exclusively for yo…

2 days ago | the.ink | Anand Giridharadas |Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Donald Trump is waging war on the American republic. Why don’t more people care? Today I had a conversation I won’t easily forget that sought answers to this question. Are we living through the familiar, well-worn descent into authoritarianism? Or are we witnessing a new phenomenon, specific to modern life, in which people have enough of a subjective feeling of freedom in their personal lives that they are willing to carve out political freedoms they tell themselves they don’t need?

4 days ago | the.ink | Anand Giridharadas

This week, I got to speak at the legendary editor Tina Brown’s annual conclave (the other one) of journalists. At the Royal Institute of British Architects, we discussed and debated the future of media, of the freedom of expression, of accountability and democracy. It was sobering and inspiring. I got to meet and spend a few minutes chatting with Yulia Navalnaya, the fearless widow of the slain Russian dissident leader Alexei Navalny. What a force. I spoke on the opening panel.

4 days ago | the.ink | Anand Giridharadas

Hello from back home in New York. I am here to report that having your plane struck by lightning is totally fine. It happened on my flight back from London — flash, pop, fuselage shimmy. If this is going to happen to you, may it be on a British Airways flight, where the captain very promptly made an announcement about how everything was completely fine. He seemed to be fighting the urge to say “Keep calm and carry on.” The flight attendant informed me that lightning strikes are really no big deal.

1 week ago | the.ink | Anand Giridharadas |Ruth Ben-Ghiat |Michael Cohen

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