and its author, professor of history at yale university tim snyder joins us now. i appreciate you being on the show. i want to mention jeremy bash is still with us and joining us for this conversation as well. prompt snyder, the truth has been threatened many times over. especially during the trump administration on levels that i don't think we could ever have imagined. also characters like donald trump, the cult-like quality, however you want to describe it, being able to really galvanize people based on lies and conspiracy theories. explain how that leads -- seems obvious, but i would like you to sort of break it down for us -- to tyranny? >> well, on the positive side, democracy depends upon truth. democracy is a process of self-correction. democracy depends on our ability as individuals and a society to reflect not just on what we did right but what we did wrong. on the other side, tyranny