{"podcast":{"title":"Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone","slug":"free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501","podcast_index_feed_id":5501501,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/66221.rss","website_url":"https://www.sashastone.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/66221/36b7823df12a5b8d9115f36ad187a369.jpg","author":"Sasha Stone","episode_count":279,"summary":"Analysis of Hollywood's newly adopted ideology destroying storytelling, however good its intentions. Film reviews, essays, perhaps an interview of two.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-21T02:21:00.378485+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501"},"episode":{"title":"Obama's Museum: An Ivory Tower Made of Granite","slug":"obama-s-museum-an-ivory-tower-made-of-granite","published_at":"2026-06-20T03:07:53+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501/obama-s-museum-an-ivory-tower-made-of-granite","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501","url":"https://www.sashastone.com/p/obamas-museum-an-ivory-tower-made","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/202723900/a12aeb7cc60681faf8afbee1d46862a6.mp3","summary":"The emergence of America’s ruling class in Chicago to celebrate the Obama Presidential Center Museum hit like a gust of hot, wet wind. Just days before, tornadoes tore through Illinois and Iowa, upending homes and wreaking havoc on the landscape. By the time Barack Obama and his Royal Court were ready to roll out the red carpet, the skies had cleared. The building perfectly reflects how Obama might see himself, but certainly how he’s ruled over the past 15 years. He still can’t let go of his position as God and King of the once-mighty utopia, one I devoted most of my life to building, protecting, and defending. I was a true believer and a good soldier. Obtuse, mysterious, and opaque, the building, like its inspiration, towers over the indistinguishable figures below, the swirling paths and gardens, not blending into the landscape but rather projecting outward, with a kind of bulk you could even see from space. Not even a tornado could make a dent. The quote on the side of the mighty beast reads: You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.” The quote comes from Obama’s speech, not in Chicago, but at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Most of the rest of it has been trimmed away to make the statement appear more inclusive, shall we say. But note the use o…","meta_description":"The emergence of America’s ruling class in Chicago to celebrate the Obama Presidential Center Museum hit like a gust of hot, wet wind. Just days before, t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2324,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501/episodes/obama-s-museum-an-ivory-tower-made-of-granite/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501/obama-s-museum-an-ivory-tower-made-of-granite.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}