Shane Smith sits down with veteran journalist Chuck Todd, former Meet the Press moderator and current host of Sunday Night with Chuck Todd, in a deep dive on the state of American politics and media today. Chuck opens up about his decision to leave legacy media behind and reinvent political journalism for the long-form podcast era, why Meet the Press became “an aircraft carrier that couldn’t turn,” and how he rediscovered his voice in independent media. Together, he and Shane dissect how the Democrats misread Obama’s 2012 victory, how identity politics replaced class politics, and why Gen X got “screwed” out of ever having a president of its own. The two discuss the decline of institutional trust, the collapse of local journalism, and the growing “cold civil war” fueled by redistricting and algorithmic polarization. Todd argues that saving democracy begins at the local level by rebuilding trust through community storytelling, youth sports, and bottom-up journalism, while Shane connects the dots between sports, politics, and America’s addiction to tribalism. The conversation moves seamlessly from Obama and Trump to Reagan and Ross Perot, from Moneyball politics to AOC’s rise, from Walter Cronkite’s myth to TikTok reality. Along the way, Chuck delivers one-liners worthy of a newsroom veteran (“A man named Craig made classifieds free, and yada yada yada, Trump became president”), while Shane pushes him into bold territory on civil war, secession, and whether democracy itself can survive the age of social media. Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News #VICENews #news #sshq Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vicenews?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideo ============================= Chapters 00:00 Welcome, Chuck Todd! 03:00 The Change of Legacy Media Nowadays 08:04 The Controversial Side of the Media 13:08 The Puppet Theater Behind Democracy 18:09 Trump's Impact on American Politics 24:38 The Mistake Behind Democrats' Strategy 30:28 Q&A 35:41 Learning From the Past's Mistakes 39:46 The Rock Bottom of the Democratic Institutions 44:44 China VS America's Disorganized Democracy 47:50 The Redistricting Battles of the US 50:05 The Politics Narcissistic Fragmentation 54:13 The Never-Ending American Civil War 1:00:24 Final Thoughts ============================= How America Lost Faith in Everything ft. Chuck Todd | Shane Smith Has Questions https://youtu.be/_409MGkzows