The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

The New Playbook for Resisting Authoritarianism — with Julia Angwin & Ami Fields-Meyer

July 16, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

When Scott Galloway asked Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer what single thing they would ask their audience to do to resist creeping authoritarianism, their answer was not "sign a petition" or "march in the streets." It was: find a political home. That answer emerged from two years of interviewing more than a hundred dissidents across five continents—people who had fought back in Venezuela, Hungary, Serbia, Hong Kong, and the United States. The result is their book On Courage, a practical manual for ordinary people who feel something is wrong but don't know what to do about it.

What "dissident" actually means now

The word "dissident" conjures tank men and Navalnys, but almost none of the people Angwin and Fields-Meyer interviewed were comfortable with the label. The people they profile are not preternaturally courageous figures. They are a mother in Venezuela who quietly abandoned the Maduro apparatus after the economic crisis broke her loyalty. They are journalists in Hungary operating independent media under slow-rolling defunding and political pressure. They are civil servants inside the U.S. government being asked to do things that violate their ethics. The common thread is not physical heroism but context-appropriate risk. As Fields-Meyer put it, authoritarianism "doesn't ride into town on the back of a coup"—it is the slow hollowing out of institutions, the gradua

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (02:22) **Why This Book and Why Now** - Julia explains the shift in her threat model after the 2024 election, realizing surveillance tech could be wielded by a wannabe authoritarian. Ami notes that modern authoritarianism isn't a coup but a slow hollowing out of institutions.
  • 2 (06:57) **Who Are the "Dissidents"?** - Most interviewees rejected the label "dissident" or "courageous." Ami profiles a spectrum: a Venezuelan mom who left the Maduro apparatus, journalists in Hungary under political pressure, and U.S. civil servants facing job threats.
  • 3 (10:22) **The Boring Work of Resistance** - Julia reveals that fighting authoritarianism isn't James Bond spycraft; it's often mundane institutional pressure.
  • 4 (14:46) **The Profile of Someone Who Takes Real Risks** - Ami identifies three common attributes among the dissidents they interviewed.
  • 5 (18:07) **Courage Is Contagious, and Timing Matters** - Julia pushes back on Scott’s self-deprecation, noting his boycott movement was a courageous act. The key is to resist early, before the regime is fully entrenched.
  • 6 (21:05) **Online Bravery vs. Offline Cowardice** - Scott argues people take too many risks online (angry, anonymous comments) and are cowards offline. Julia counters that young people are saying hard things to people's faces, but there's a narrative struggle: many young people don't see democracy as something worth saving.
  • 7 (29:30) **Authoritarianism from the Left and the Need for Coalitions** - Ami acknowledges that authoritarianism can come from any side. The solution is a "negative coalition"—a big tent of strange bedfellows agreeing on the bare minimum to get the "jeep out of the mud."

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Guests on this episode

Julia Angwin Ami Fields-Meyer

Show Notes

Scott Galloway speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Angwin and former White House senior advisor Ami Fields-Meyer to discuss their new book, On Courage. 


They explore what modern authoritarianism looks like, why it often advances gradually rather than through dramatic coups, and what ordinary people can do to resist it. They also debate the role of Big Tech, anonymous speech, coalition-building, and why small acts of courage can matter more than grand gestures.


Algebra of Happiness: It goes fast.


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