# Would You Trust the Government in a Real Crisis

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-theories-exploring-the-unseen-4853551/would-you-trust-the-government-in-a-real-crisis
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-theories-exploring-the-unseen-4853551/would-you-trust-the-government-in-a-real-crisis.md
Podcast: [Conspiracy Theories Exploring The Unseen](https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-theories-exploring-the-unseen-4853551)
Published: 2026-05-15T07:55:02+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/would-you-trust-the-government-in-a-real-crisis--72010445
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72010445/would_you_trust_the_government_in_a_real_crisis_part_1_1.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/conspiracy-theories-exploring-the-unseen-4853551/episodes/would-you-trust-the-government-in-a-real-crisis
Duration seconds: 191

## Resource

We’ve seen many crises shake the foundations of public trust in government. The question today is, how much does trust really matter when real challenges arise? Let’s start by acknowledging that public trust in government has been on a downward trajectory for quite some time. As of September 2025, only 17% of Americans trust the federal government to do what is right most of the time, which is astonishingly low—one of the lowest levels we’ve recorded in nearly seventy years. This decline raises serious questions about the ability of the government to respond effectively during crises, doesn’t it? Interestingly, despite this overall decline, there’s a pattern of temporary surges in trust that we can’t overlook. For instance, following the 9/11 attacks, trust in government shot up from 44% to 54%. And early in the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a brief increase to 24%, even if the optimism didn’t last long. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/conspiracy-theories-exploring-the-unseen--5194379/support .

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/conspiracy-theories-exploring-the-unseen-4853551/episodes/would-you-trust-the-government-in-a-real-crisis/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-theories-exploring-the-unseen-4853551/would-you-trust-the-government-in-a-real-crisis.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.