Kurt Andersen on Fantasyland, with Baratunde Thurston

With Fantasyland, Kurt Andersen offers a new understanding of our post-truth world and explains the American instinct to believe in make-believe.  He argues that our post-truth, “fake news” moment is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path.  From the Salem witch trials to Scientology, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood, from conspiracy theories to our fetish for guns and obsession with extraterrestrials—our peculiar love of the fantastic has made America exceptional in a way that we've never fully acknowledged. In conversation with Baratunde Thurston.

Baratunde Thurston is a futurist comedian, writer, and cultural critic who helped re-launch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, co-founded Cultivated Wit and the About Race podcast, and wrote the New York Times bestseller How To Be Black. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award as host of the Spotify/Mic series, Clarify and is a highly sought-after public speaker, television personality, and thought leader who has been part of noteworthy institutions such as Fast Company, TED, the MIT Media Lab, The Onion, and the gentrification of Brooklyn, New York.