Timothy D. Snyder
American historianWikipedia
204
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138
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104
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Search complete. 204 mentions across 138 episodes found for "Timothy D. Snyder".
Oct 30, 2026
Pat KahnkeHOST
hey everybody i just had the opportunity to interview someone who's been super influential in my own thinking over the past 10 years as i've tried to make sense of the mega movement dr timothy snyder is one of the foremost scholars on authoritarianism today and i read his book the road to unfreedom years ago and i'm still processing that book his newest book is called on freedom And maybe the best introduction to his work is his very short book called On Tyranny, 20 Lessons from the 20th Century.
Pat KahnkeHOST
If you've heard the saying, do not obey in advance, that's the first of those 20 lessons in On Tyranny.
Pat KahnkeHOST
And Tim was in town this week, so we met up at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis.
Pat KahnkeHOST
It just felt right to talk about the future of the country with Tim Snyder while there were these little kids shopping for books just a few feet away from us, just out of the camera shot.
Pat KahnkeHOST
It was just a special interview, so enjoy.
Pat KahnkeHOST
Dr. Timothy Snyder, welcome to Minnesota.
Pat KahnkeHOST
It's really significant to have you here specifically, you know, because I started reading your books years ago when I retired from ministry and you taught me a lot about authoritarianism.
Pat KahnkeHOST
And now we saw the face of it here in the Twin Cities this past winter.
Bernie SandersSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And here in Michigan, we are going to end that strategy.
Jennifer WelchHOST
And this strategy is something that, as you all that have been long listeners to the program, I've had on Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Timothy Snyder, Jason Stanley, these professors that are historians, that are experts on authoritarian regimes, autocrats, strongmen.
Jennifer WelchHOST
This is an old playbook.
Jennifer WelchHOST
This is what Hitler did.
Ali VelshiHOST
Obama's still there, but more importantly, you're still here.
Ali VelshiHOST
And I'm reminded of a conversation that I had a few days after the 2024 presidential election with Tim Snyder, a distinguished history professor and a friend of this show.
Ali VelshiHOST
At that point, the presidential race had been called for Donald Trump, and half of the country was reckoning with the idea of his vengeful return to the White House.
Ali VelshiHOST
But Tim Snyder had this advice for anyone who was feeling hopeless back then.
Ali VelshiHOST
He said, while the circumstances around you might change, you don't have to change with it.
Ali VelshiHOST
And more than that, you have the choice to resist the changes that this administration tries to impose on you or your country or your values.
Ali VelshiHOST
Quote, freedom means you decide who you are.
Ali VelshiHOST
And when things change around you, you continue to be that person.
Mary TrumpHOST
Right.
Mary TrumpHOST
Otherwise, it's as your friend Timothy Snyder says, it's, you know, obeying in advance, which is not something we should ever, ever do.
Mary TrumpHOST
So, They have done a pretty decent and comprehensive job of turning our institutions against us and putting mechanisms in place to protect themselves from us.
Mary TrumpHOST
A Democratic win.
Bernard HickeyHOST
Yeah, it's a fascinating period in history, and the pain and the grief in that part of Europe was particularly awful during the Second World War.
Bernard HickeyHOST
There's a book by Timothy Snyder called Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler and
Peter BaleHOST
Stalin.
Peter BaleHOST
This eastern Polish area called Kresy, or known as Kresy, which is the borderlands, is also the site or part of the site of what was called the Pale.
Matt RobisonHOST
You're trying to create a disincentive to lawbreaking.
Matt RobisonHOST
And so I guess my question to you is, Does deterrence work? And this is something that you got into recently on this question of accountability with Yale historian Tim Snyder.
Matt RobisonHOST
This is the kind of why we have to go after this.
Matt RobisonHOST
Have you seen in your years as a prosecutor the principle of deterrence work because we've gone after criminals?
Jim BraudeHOST
speaking of caving, one of the things – you call it preemptive capitulation.
Jim BraudeHOST
Tim Snyder used this a lot last year, anticipatory obedience.
Jim BraudeHOST
You have this great line, and I think it was an email or a letter that the children or grandchildren or something, and one of the founders of Paul Weif, Rifkin – wrote him, you travel to D.C. to Brad Karp.
Jim BraudeHOST
You travel to D.C. to surrender even before you begin to fight.
Quyen TuHOST
Self-censorship is going far beyond what the law actually demands.
Quyen TuHOST
So historians like Timothy Snyder have argued that most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given out of fear without explicit order or demand.
Quyen TuHOST
So that is a rather long section of grim news.
Quyen TuHOST
Sorry, listeners.
Pete DominickHOST
It's going to take a while probably to sort it out, but we're up next.
Pete DominickHOST
And, you know, different people look at this and analyze this and historians of authoritarian governments from Heather Cox Richardson to Timothy Snyder talk about this and have ideas about which way Europe is going, which way the U.S. is going in terms of autocracy, authoritarianism and fascism or some sort of democracy where we don't cheat for the elections and try to do everything we can to then pull the ladder up and destroy democracy.
Pete DominickHOST
any ability to regain power for minority parties.
Pete DominickHOST
Where do you think we're going? Where do you think the world is headed given this week? It's been a pretty good week.
Matthew MežinskisGUEST
It primarily happened in Eastern Europe.
Matthew MežinskisGUEST
You know, Tim Snyder called it the bloodlands in his book.
Matthew MežinskisGUEST
It's just so, it's so utterly ridiculous.
Matthew MežinskisGUEST
And then to try to bring in this sort of Nazi Hitler, that we are, you know, we're really...
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