When New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor, conservatives warned of creeping socialism. This episode looks beyond the headlines to ask a deeper question: why do capitalist systems always turn to socialist policies to survive? From FDR’s New Deal to modern bailouts and public infrastructure, history shows that when markets falter, collective investment holds society together. Mamdani’s victory underscores a simple truth: capitalism relies on socialism to avoid collapse.

This episode explores how truth loses ground when appearance becomes the measure of power. From the Renaissance to the age of Fox News, it traces how performance, fear, and repetition reshape public belief. It follows the evolution of persuasion—and the way our minds impose coherence on chaos, binding whole societies to the theater of their own illusions.

This episode explores how belief takes shape, why certainty often survives even when the evidence doesn’t, and what happens when truth becomes more about preference than proof. We look at how societies built guardrails—science, journalism, education—to help us test what’s real, and why those systems are now under attack. When the institutions that keep us grounded are defunded, censored, or discredited, we’re left more vulnerable to stories that feel good but mislead. The result isn’t just confusion or disagreement—it’s an environment where loyalty can matter more than truth, and where doubt itself becomes a political tool.