Pivot Extra: Timothy Snyder on America’s Superpower Suicide

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If there's one thing fans ask us for, it's more Kara and Scott. Well, anyways, we'd like to think that. So we're giving it to you. Starting this week, we'll have an extra audio episode dropping in your feed on Sunday from the extended Kara and Scott universe. So if you're going into withdrawal over the weekend, you can check out an episode of Prof G Conversations right here in your Pivot feed. And for more conversations like this one, listen and follow The Prof G Pod wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the 415th episode of The Prof G Pod. Today's episode, we speak with a Prof G favorite, Timothy Snyder, a leading historian of authoritarianism, Ukraine and Eastern Europe. We discussed with him where Russia's war on Ukraine stands, what dwindling US support means on the ground, what we can learn from Mark Carney standing up to Trump, and what's at stake in the upcoming midterms. I've said this before, Professor Snyder is a role model. I think he's unafraid, incredibly smart, leveraging his domain as a historian to have a really profound impact on the world today and how we view some of the most important issues in our society. Anyways, with that, we hope you enjoy our conversation with Professor Timothy Snyder.

Professor, where does this podcast find you?

Timothy Snyder (3:00)

I'm in Toronto. I'm just back from a long trip to Ukraine, but now I'm in Toronto.

Scott Galloway (3:05)

Oh, that's nice. I heard that Toronto has a WNBA expansion team. Is that right?

Timothy Snyder (3:11)

Well, I actually just saw one of the last games of the season. Yeah, they got blown out by the New York Liberty.

But yeah, it was fun to watch.

Scott Galloway (3:19)

I was at an event this weekend, and I met this, I met a guy who's a, you know, legendary basketball player, and his daughter, her name is Kiki Smith, is on the team. So all of a sudden, I'm following.

Timothy Snyder (3:32)

Oh, she's a fan favorite, I can assure you of that.

Scott Galloway (3:35)

Oh yeah?

Didn't expect to talk to you about it. I'm sure you didn't expect to talk about this. Let's bust right into more of your domain. You were just in Kharkiv in Northeastern Ukraine less than a minute from Russia by missile anyways. And since you got home, you've been releasing 10 Kharkiv meditation videos. You recorded there at night on cowardice, courage, freedom, and fascism. Why are you in the Ukraine? And can you give us a sense for the atmosphere and the feel on the ground there?

Timothy Snyder (4:07)

Well, I'm there because it's my job. I mean, I'm a historian of Ukraine. I'm running a big project that involves a couple hundred colleagues, roughly half of whom are Ukrainians. We have big conferences every year in Kiev, which works out very well, better than fine.

And in general, if you're going to write about a place or talk about a place, you should go there. So I was in Kharkiv staying as a guest and I kind of writing retreat, which is the apartment of a Ukrainian philologist and doing my own work. And then I was in Kiev helping to run these big projects. The atmosphere is like, there's one more thing you have to worry about, which is that you'll get killed at the gas station trying to get gas. There's one more thing you have to worry about, which is that you'll get killed by a missile strike, going to the grocery store or to an outdoor market. People live their lives trying to adapt to this, and they do it very well. They do it in a way which I personally find exemplary.