[Key quotes] Episode 5: Jeremi Suri - History, And Reducing American Tribalism

Academic Identity and Aspirations: "Was there a specific contribution, specific area of history that you wanted to really study and be a professor in? What was kind of your narrative, your internal thinking, and your development as an academic, as you are now?"

— Jeremi Suri [00:03:07 → 00:03:20]

The Collapse of the Soviet Union: "In your estimation, I imagine this is a part of your scholarship as well. In the early 80s, my parents, I wasn't yet alive at that time, but I think for my dad, he had the impression that this could go on for generations, and within a decade, it was over."

— Jeremi Suri [00:04:21 → 00:04:37]

Echoes of History in Modern Politics: "I want to talk about today, and I want to talk about how history, from your perspective, can inform or better educate, better inform, better help a nation that I noticed just in living here over the past four to eight years that I feel like is in trouble and has reached a level of divisiveness and distrust that I certainly don't remember when I was a kid seeing it from both sides, just opening up that realm of discussion generally."

— Jeremi Suri [00:15:35 → 00:16:08]

Rust Belt Reflections: "It's a rust belt city, and it has been bleeding population for 30 years. My dad, after law school, came up there in the mid 70s when I think it was roughly at its population height. And I look at 2016, I think for so many reasons, was such a watershed year."

— Jeremi Suri [00:21:27 → 00:21:45]

Cultural Separation and Unity: "I think it is human nature for people who find out that they have similarities with others to flock together, right, birds of a feather flock together. And in some ways, I would love to get your thoughts on how, because I think it is healthier for the society, for having a degree of intermixture among people that have different backgrounds."

— Jeremi Suri [00:22:59 → 00:23:21]

The Power of Personal Interaction: "There is something that happens with people. They don't necessarily become lifelong best friends with individuals who they would otherwise have not really had anything in common with. But what does happen to people when they have those interactions, in your judgment, that if you agree with this, that sort of takes some of the poison out of the caricature of people who are, for example, from the south, who are Republicans, who are Democrats, who are this caricature of a person in people's minds."

— Jeremi Suri [00:28:48 → 00:29:19]

The Power of Understanding Differing Views: "Even if you strongly disagree with them on some subject, you at least have some understanding of where they're coming from. And there is just a greater sense of decency that comes out of interactions like that."

— Jeremi Suri [00:31:03 → 00:31:13]

Understanding Others Before Judgment: "the kind of certainty with which people castigate large swaths of the population when they make statements like the one you just articulated comes from a place of anxiety that that kind know thou protest too much, or whatever the Shakespeare line is, they're just overselling the certainty a little bit too much, that they're almost baked into statements like that."

— Jeremi Suri [00:32:23 → 00:32:45]

The Fragmentation of American Society: "those sort of social groups that you were mentioning before that would bring together people of different ethnic backgrounds, different political backgrounds, that was sort of the hallmark of american society, have begun to fray, seriously fray over the last 30 or 40 years."

— Jeremi Suri [00:35:55 → 00:36:07]

New Media Optimism: "And I do view these kind of conversations as a source of optimism and hope for improving the quality of our civilization and our community here in Austin."

— Jeremi Suri [00:41:24 → 00:41:35]