Spencer Cox Wants to Pull Our Politics Back From the Brink | The Ezra Klein Show

The Utah governor is trying to model a different kind of leadership in a very dangerous political moment. The Trump administration seems intent on using the assassination of Charlie Kirk to crack down on what it calls “the radical left.” But Spencer Cox doesn’t believe that suppression will make Americans safer. For years now, Cox has been thinking seriously about our toxic political culture and what the path out of it could be. So I wanted to have him on the show to talk about how he responded in the hours and days after the shooting, what it has left him thinking about and what he thinks we should do now. 00:00 Introduction 02:40 A Divided Nation 06:50 The Day Charlie Kirk Was Killed 11:00 Why Political Violence is Different 21:44 More Disagreement, Not Less 26:45 On Sanitizing Kirk 34:14 “Acting Together” 38:49 Social Media, Loneliness and the Experience of Politics 51:45 What Kind of Turning Point Will This Be? 56:13 Book Recommendations Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-spencer-cox.html Watch more on ‪@EzraKleinShow Cinematography by Bets Wilkins and Jaren Lyman