How We Stopped Seeing Ourselves as Humans

This week on Politics Decoded, Ana and Sina continue their discussion about the issue of dehumanization in US politics by tracing its most recent historical development. This episode takes a look back at the recent historical shift towards using economics as the main way to talk about every aspect of society – from the way we go to work to how much we should sleep at night. From the beginning of the Cold War to our current administration, they map out how we went from thinking about ourselves as organic beings to mainly units of economic output and production. They then tie back how this kind of thinking has led to the problematic policies and public reactions related to immigration enforcement described in the last episode.

Soundbites from:

Reagan 1987 Brandenburg Gate Speech

Reagan 1981 First Presidential Press Conference

Trump State of the Union Address 2026