Sam Bee’s Interview With Expert On Authoritarianism Is Must-Watch

Long gone are the days of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert eviscerating some hapless target in their opening monologue. Stewart has gone to pasture and Colbert is busy at CBS. Instead, we're left with watching Trevor Noah and John Oliver literally thinking that "Drumpf" was funny. So that leaves us only with Samantha Bee. The late-night host has been a small shelter in the shitstorm that has defined American political discourse over the last two years. And her interview with journalist Masha Gessen, an expert on authoritarianism, is as eye-opening as it is horrifying. Her chief fears include: Nuclear war, irreperable damage to the environment, and the end of American democracy. So basically she thinks we're all gonna be fine. If you don't know Gessen by now, you really ought to. She wrote this indispensable guide to surviving autocracy in the days after the election. She's also written about her family fleeing Nazi Germany, how Vladimir Putin operates, and another about how Putin views America. If you hadn't guessed, she's Russian but fled the country. Her archive is a good place to start. Watch the interview below.