Jonathan Kaufman Takes Us Back to the 80s, and I Remember Them All Too Well

It's Constitution Day, and we're 46 days from the end of voting in the midterms. I open with YouTube's attempt to demonetize and block a Hamilton-cast get-out-the-vote video — over parody music, of all things — so I play it anyway, because getting people to check their voter registration matters more than YouTube's copyright bots. Then I dig into the "Democrats for Biggs" sign campaign spreading across Arizona: an AI-generated, deepfake disinformation operation from Turning Point USA meant to trick voters into thinking Democrats are backing Andy Biggs for governor. It's fake, their signs are everywhere in my neighborhood and I want to know if I can legally do something about it (a caller sets me straight).

Then Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Kaufman — director of the School of Journalism at Northeastern University — joins me to talk about his new book, When America Roared: How the 1980s Saved, Then Broke, The Country --and Led Us To Today. We trace how Reagan-era decisions on media deregulation, the Fairness Doctrine, and free-market ideology built the "invisible architecture" we're all still living in — from Fox News to Trump's own media instincts. It's a fascinating, sometimes uncomfortable look at how the 80s built today.

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