HC
Heather Cox Richardson
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Heather Cox Richardson

Things Heather Says on Podcasts

Historian of American politics who teaches at Boston College and specializes in the Civil War, Reconstruction and the American West. Her books include How the South Won the Civil War, To Make Men Free and Democracy Awakening. Writes Letters from an American, a nightly Substack newsletter that puts current events in historical context, and hosts the Heather Cox Richardson and Politics Chat podcasts. Named to TIME100 Creators in 2025 and winner of the 2024 Baldacci Award for Literary Activism. Appears as a guest on Pivot, The Prof G Pod and the Paul Krugman Podcast.

Where to Find Them

Heather Cox Richardson writes Letters from an American , hosts and writes Politics Chat , hosts and writes Heather Cox Richardson , writes https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com , writes Paul Krugman Podcast , writes Paul Krugman , writes The Jim Acosta Show , writes Grounded with Jon Tester & Maritsa Georgiou , writes The Best People with Nicolle Wallace , writes Robert Reich , writes Katie Couric , writes The Bulwark , writes Courtside , writes Platypus Economics , writes Seeing Things , writes The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali , writes Pete Buttigieg's Substack , writes https://jimacosta.substack.com , writes The Cycle- On Substack , writes Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg , writes Zeteo , writes The Forum with Josh Cowen , writes https://petebuttigieg.substack.com , writes The Beat with Ari Melber , writes Joanne Freeman , writes Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara , writes Here's the Scoop , writes The Daily Beans , writes Scott MacFarlane Reports , writes The Long Game with Jake Sullivan & Jon Finer and writes The Jim Acosta Show . They have also been a guest on The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway (4 times) , Prof G Media (4 times) , On with Kara Swisher (2 times) , Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) (2 times) , The Lawfare Podcast , The Lawfare Podcast: Patreon Edition , Foreign Policy Live , This is Gavin Newsom , The Long Game with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer , Runaway Country with Alex Wagner and America, Actually with Astead Herndon . They also write for Cartas de una estadounidense on Substack.

Recently: “The White House Betrays Ukraine” on Heather Cox Richardson (October 2026); “Politics Chat, October 20, 2026” on Heather Cox Richardson (October 2026); “Two Observations” on Heather Cox Richardson (October 2026); “Things Have Changed” on Politics Chat (October 2026); “Things Have Changed” on Heather Cox Richardson (October 2026); “October 18, 2026” on Heather Cox Richardson (October 2026).

What They Said

“That's the way you change American politics is you talk to your neighbors and not say you're an idiot or you need to change the way you vote. You say, hey, are you aware that there is a private prison going in next to our elementary school? And I've got a real issue with that. And that's what makes people show up.” — Heather Cox Richardson, Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway)

A listener asked how to reach the roughly 80 million eligible Americans who didn't vote in the last presidential election. Richardson points to the 1890 midterms, one of the biggest shifts in American history, when organizers went into farm and working districts and neighbors told each other what was happening.

Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) · 2026-10-18 Permalink → Listen →
Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) Around 55:38 into the episode
Heather Cox Richardson

…up, that's it. As you say, they are not mutually exclusive, that that's how you create a successful economy. Unfortunately, that's pretty much what Biden tried to do, and he ended up getting destroyed for it. So whether or not another politician will think it's a good idea is an open question.

Scott Galloway

So we'll do one more question here. Kristen says or asks: 80 million eligible voters, 80 million eligible voters did not vote in the last presidential election. How can we foment some sort of meaningful change here?

Heather Cox Richardson

…history, was that once people paid attention to the fact that the policies were unequal and were favoring railroad industries and industrialists over ordinary people, they got out there and voted. And simply showing up made the difference. But what made them show up was being informed about what was really happening by their neighbors. And that I think we're seeing around the country, but that's the way you change American politics is you talk to your neighbors and not say you're an idiot or you need to change the way you vote. You say, hey, are you aware that there is a private prison going in next to our elementary school? And I've got a real issue with that. And that's what makes people show up. And it does work.

Scott Galloway

Yeah, I have one more idea on how to increase turnout, and that is Heather Cox Richardson. I'm not exaggerating. When I just did this live podcast tour, every time we referenced your name or sourced you, the crowd would erupt into applause. I really hope that you hit the campaign trail. You've…

Heather Cox Richardson

I will, but I just want to point out when I said that about Lincoln being created by the people, that's all I do. Like my name is the symbol for this popular movement. I am the most average person you have ever met, I promise you. But I am able to voice what people are feeling because I know how to…

Scott Galloway

Heather Cox Richardson is a historian at Boston College. By the way, another side note: just finished a college tour with my son, went to eight schools. Hands down, the nicest, warmest vibe was at BC. You guys are doing something right there. Yeah, they totally are. They do. They do a great job.…

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“One of the things that we are suffering from in this particular moment is the conversion of wealth, that is the things that make a life worth living, you know, family, church, if that's your thing, open spaces, time with friends, education, libraries, whatever, that that is essentially being turned into cash. And that, you know, we're liquidating it and turning it into cash and then giving it to a very few people.” — Heather Cox Richardson, Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway)

The historian responds to Galloway on branding and affordability. She separates wealth in the old sense, the things that make life worth living, from money, and suggests brands might try to recover that idea of community.

Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) · 2026-10-18 Permalink → Listen →
Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) Around 52:00 into the episode
Heather Cox Richardson

…produce much that the rest of us care about. And that's overstated, of course. But there does seem to be an extraordinary divorce right now between the stock market and the companies that are hot and what the American people actually need and the companies that are providing that. Is that unfair?

Scott Galloway

…people feel good about America. So if you're a brand appealing to people our age, if it's insurance or, you know, CPAP or MyPillow Guy, yeah, wrap yourself in the flag. Younger people, not so much. I don't know if going to the kind of America well is the right thing for them to do right now.

Heather Cox Richardson

It does seem to me that one of the things that we are suffering from in this particular moment is the conversion of wealth, that is the things that make a life worth living, you know, family, church, if that's your thing, open spaces, time with friends, education, libraries, whatever, that that is essentially being turned into cash. And that, you know, we're liquidating it and turning it into cash and then giving it to a very few people. And so maybe part of branding is recovering that idea of community and so on. Free and fair elections are very much of concern to everybody here. I mentioned before we've come through periods when we have lost free and fair elections, and that's something that everybody should be all over, both at the local level and the state level, reaffirming the idea that our elections are safe and secure…

Scott Galloway

Yeah, I like that. And just going back to this notion about American branding, I just spent time in Northern Europe, and my takeaway there is, and I just think it's such an important lesson, is that we need to settle the argument. And I think Sweden and I was just in the Netherlands settle it. You…

Heather Cox Richardson

Isn't that by definition that they can peacefully coexist? Because if, in fact, you create a healthy, educated workforce, they're able to innovate and do better work. And that's actually how it works. I think you can make an argument that this idea of deliberately creating an undereducated…

Scott Galloway

So we'll do one more question here. Kristen says or asks: 80 million eligible voters, 80 million eligible voters did not vote in the last presidential election. How can we foment some sort of meaningful change here?

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

Collections They Appear In

Money & Markets Policy Tech Strategy & Big Tech US Politics