In today’s episode of Shrinking Trump, our hosts Dr. John Gartner and Dr. Harry Siegel take a hard look at the symptoms of Trump’s worsening cognitive and psychological decline. And we’re joined by Arlie Russell Hochschild, Professor Emerita of Sociology at Berkeley, who introduces a crucial new perspective for helping us understand the socio-economic dimensions of Trump’s rabid support base.

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We kick things off by analyzing Donald Trump’s visible cognitive decline and possible dementia, emphasized through a changing gait and a series of bizarre phonemic paraphasias— when someone fails to finish a word they've started. We’ll unpack several recent examples of Trump’s speech anomalies and disorganized statements that are telltale signs of a deteriorating brain condition. 

Professor Hochschild shares valuable insight from her book, Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right, and explains how structural shame and socio-economic decline among white, non-college-educated communities have fueled the appeal of Trump’s rhetoric. She provides us with the hard truth about why these communities find solace in Trump’s transgressive, anti-establishment behavior.

We’ll talk about the TikTok phenomenon "Eat the Cat," a new viral trend making fun of Trump’s absurd statements about Haitian immigrants. Dr. Gartner and Dr. Siegel break down the multiple layers of meaning behind this meme, highlighting it as both a form of derision and a war cry of resistance.

You’ll hear highlights from Kamala Harris’s recent examples of  empathetic engagement, compassion, and leadership that serve as a stark contrast with Trump. 

And You won’t want to miss the supercut of Trump’s recent speech in New York, where he made seven phonemic paraphasias in one sitting. Trump’s gaffes, ranging from mispronunciations to nonsensical statements, highlight an alarming frequency and severity of these cognitive slips.  As Richard Friedman wrote in The Atlantic, traditionally, such behavior would necessitate an urgent psychiatric evaluation.

Thank you for joining us. Stay tuned for our next session as we continue to explore Trump’s cognitive decline during this transformative moment in American history.

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