Introducing: Bedrock, USA

Bedrock, USA is a podcast about political extremism, small town life and the fight for democracy, hosted by Laura Bliss, a reporter at Bloomberg CityLab. 

In a super-divided, pandemic-era America awash in conspiracies and misinformation, it’s about a group of people who didn’t like what they saw happening in their local governments, and decided to get involved - whether that meant holding a rally, running for office, recalling an official or storming their government with bullhorns and threats. 

Their stories show how far-right ideologies enter into local politics - sometimes quietly, other times at full volume - and what it takes for regular people to fight back. They show the beauty as well as the risks, struggles and pitfalls of being an active participant in democracy today. And together they create a human-level portrait of a democracy that is fracturing, and the role that extremist ideologies are playing. (And they’re not going away.)

Where do their stories point us as a country? 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Political extremism is showing up everywhere these days, including in
small town America. Hello, my name is Josh. I live
in Squim. I would request that near Armacrost denounce Q
and On. It's surreal, it's shocking, and it's no longer fringe.
You don't vote your way out of socialism. Once it

(00:24):
takes root. The only way to eradicate it is to
fight with arms, to have a violent, violent confrontation out
blood in the streets. For the past year and a half,
I've been reporting on two communities on the West Coast
where far ideologies and conspiracy theories have moved the center
of civic life. These radical beliefs are testing the very

(00:44):
foundation of democracy, and I found it's shockingly easy to
chip away at that bedrock. It's happening all over the country,
maybe even in your own backyard, because this is what
is happening in local rural communities all across the nation,
and it's really starting. I'm seeing kind of they're sneaking
on the school board and then dip in a toe

(01:04):
in the city council, and then once they get a
foe hole that it's over. Welcome to bed Rock, USA.
A tale of two cities. This new series uncovers how
the far right is making inroads into local government and
the unsettling consequences, but it also reveals how people are
coming together across political lines to fight back. I think
it's really important for people to know that they need

(01:27):
to wake up and pay attention to what's going on.
I'm your host, Laura Bliss. Bed Rock USA is a
new series from Bloomberg City Web. Listen on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting U