{"podcast":{"title":"The Back Room with Andy Ostroy","slug":"the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy-5638395","podcast_index_feed_id":5638395,"rss_url":"https://media.zencast.fm/the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy/rss","website_url":"https://the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy.podcast.radiofreerhinecliff.org","image_url":"https://podcdn.zencast.fm/download/Podcast%2Fartworks%2F10316%2Flarge%2Fd96691adc1075ab252791855d22902fe070a56106b6a1a6cb38d64aad906f0a8%2F72875a20c9335ce6.jpg","author":"Radio Free Rhinecliff and Andy Ostroy","episode_count":525,"summary":"The Back Room with Andy Ostroy presents a humorous, honest take on politics and pop culture featuring notable guest interviews, a shit-ton of righteous indignation, and rip-roaring repartee with co-producers Matty Rosenberg and Jen Hammoud. We're havin' a ball, and so will you! Got somethin' to say?! Email us at BackroomAndy@gmail.com Leave us a message: 845-307-7446 Twitter: @AndyOstroy Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff Music by Andrew Hollander Design by Cricket Lengyel","last_synced_at":"2026-07-05T12:17:09.795662+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy-5638395"},"episode":{"title":"Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Trump, Orban, Xi/China and Whether She's Still Optimistic About American Democracy","slug":"ruth-ben-ghiat-on-trump-orban-xi-china-and-whether-she-s-still-optimistic-about-american-democracy","published_at":"2026-05-26T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy-5638395/ruth-ben-ghiat-on-trump-orban-xi-china-and-whether-she-s-still-optimistic-about-american-democracy","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy-5638395","url":"https://the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy.podcast.radiofreerhinecliff.org/episodes/ruth-ben-ghiat-on-trump-orban-xichina-and-if-shes-still-optimistic-about-american-democracy","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/media.zencast.fm/the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy/2e64a8eb-3d1c-437e-b8f6-052376412573.mp3?source=feed","summary":"Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, and propaganda. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships; an advisor to Protect Democracy; an MSNBC opinion columnist and television commentator; and publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy. Her latest book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, looks at how illiberal leaders use propaganda, corruption, violence, and machismo - and how they can be defeated. Ruth's back with us again for a discussion on Trump's second-term autocratic overreach, including his latest brazen act of corruption, the $1.776-billion 'Anti-Weaponization' slush-fund and his IRS immunity 'settlement'. So is Ruth as optimistic as she was back in December? Tune in to see where Ruth currently stands on Trump's threats to democracy; her takeaways from his recent China summit; Viktor Orban's defeat and it's impact on Trump and American politics; and more. Got somethin' to say?! Email us at BackroomAndy@gmail.com Leave us a message: 845-307-7446 Twitter: @AndyOstroy Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff Design by Cricket Lengyel","meta_description":"Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, and propaganda. She is the recipient of Guggenh…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2175,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy-5638395/episodes/ruth-ben-ghiat-on-trump-orban-xi-china-and-whether-she-s-still-optimistic-about-american-democracy/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-back-room-with-andy-ostroy-5638395/ruth-ben-ghiat-on-trump-orban-xi-china-and-whether-she-s-still-optimistic-about-american-democracy.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}