BBC News Reporter Mike Wendling on His New Book ‘Day of Reckoning: The Far Right’s War on Democracy’

Wendling takes us on a journey through the American far-right landscape and the militias, conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, and other extremists that occupy it.

Mike Wendling is U.S. National Digital Reporter for the BBC, based in Chicago. In 2020, he co-founded the BBC News disinformation unit and was editor and presenter of Trending, the BBC World Service show that covers the world of social media. He has decades of experience covering extremism, the American far right, social media and disinformation. Today he joins us to talk about his new book, out May 20, called Day of Reckoning: The Far Right’s War on Democracy. Wendling takes us on a journey through the American far-right landscape and the militias, conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, and other extremists that occupy it.

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My 5 Book Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on the Issue

1. Going Mainstream: How Extremists are Taking Over, by Julia Ebner

2. The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, by Jeff Sharlet

3. The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, by Katherine Stewart

4. Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America, by Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss and Brian Friedberg

5. They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency, by Malcolm Nance

   Also Listen to:

• EPISODE 5 – The Growing Fascist Threat To American Democracy, With Jeff Sharlet

• EPISODE 7 – Understanding Backlash Politics And Religious Conservatives Inciting School Board Wars, With PRRI’s Melissa Deckman

• EPISODE 12 – The New Apostolic Reformation: A Revolutionary Theocratic Movement Coming For Pennsylvania, The Nation, And The World

• EPISODE 18 – The Christian Right’s Crusade for Power and War on Democracy, with Katherine Stewart