Sarah Kendzior
I don’t know where to start in recommending Sarah Kendzior. She is a beautiful writer, an old soul, and an accomplished scholar. Her weekly essays have come to define my Sunday mornings as I indulge in a second cup of coffee and linger a little longer in bed. One minute she will be writing astutely about how the US government has become a transnational crime syndicate that only masquerades as a government. The next she will write something like “There are times I pass a mirror and don’t recognize myself. I got old too fast and saw too much. People think I’m younger than I am until they catch the look in my eye.”
In addition to her weekly newsletter, Sarah is the author of four books. They are widely available wherever books are sold.
The View From Flyover Country: Dispatches From The Forgotten America (2018)
A collection of essays written for Al Jazeera in the early 2010’s. From the Amazon description:
A clear-eyed account of the realities of life in America’s overlooked heartland, The View from Flyover Country is a piercing critique of the labor exploitation, race relations, gentrification, media bias, and other aspects of the post-employment economy that gave rise to a president who rules like an autocrat. The View from Flyover Country is necessary reading for anyone who believes that the only way for America to fix its problems is to first discuss them with honesty and compassion.
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America (2020)
Sarah took her academic training studying authoritarianism in Uzbekistan and focused her lens on America. The result is a documented and well-referenced account of how the ascendency of Donald Trump and the decline of democracy in America were deeply intertwined and self-reinforcing.
They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent (2022)
From the Author’s Note:
I wrote this book in 2021: between the coup plot and the war, between delta and omicron, navigating the mix of chaos and inertia that defines our era. 2021 is a year that will be remembered in history—if the future is lucky enough to have history—as pivotal, much like 1918 and other years that make or break the world. They Knew discusses the difference between a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory, two terms that those in power want us to believe are inseparable so that we remain ignorant of the past and passive about the future. 2021 brought a reexamination of the United States as a country built on conspiracy, and They Knew is a reboot of the historical record. It is not comprehensive and it is not conclusive, and that is a good thing. Whatever happens between the time I wrote this and the time you read it, I hope you are still left with the freedom to make up your own mind.
The Last American Road Trip: A Memoir (2025)
The Last American Road Trip is one family’s journey to the most beautiful, fascinating, and bizarre places in the US during one of its most tumultuous eras. As Kendzior works as a journalist chronicling political turmoil, she becomes determined that her young children see America before it’s too late. So Kendzior, her husband, and the kids hit the road — again and again.
In Their Words…
I am a writer. I am well-known for my coverage of the Trump administration and its aftermath and for writing about authoritarianism, kleptocracy, transnational organized crime, racism and xenophobia, media, voting rights, technology, the environment, and corruption, among other topics.
From 2016 to 2020, I wrote op-eds for The Globe and Mail. From 2012 to 2014, I wrote op-eds for Al Jazeera English. I contributed to dozens of other academic and mainstream publications as well. From 2018-2023, I co-hosted the podcast Gaslit Nation. I am no longer on that podcast. If you’d like to support my work, this newsletter is the place to do it!
In 2012, I received my PhD in anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis, where I researched politics and digital media in authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union. Then I applied the skills I gained studying Uzbekistan to cover the autocratic rise of the host of Celebrity Apprentice.
I live with my husband and two children in St. Louis, Missouri. I have wide and varied interests and write about them here. I do my own writing, my own thinking, and my own photography. No AI, no lies, and no charge — this newsletter is free. I don’t believe in paywalls in times of peril.