Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy ‘We are being beaten into submission with lies’ - writer George Saunders on Trump, truth and power
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Feb 20, 2026 
George Saunders, prize-winning fiction writer known for moral, power-focused stories, discusses truth, power and storytelling. He talks about how repeated lies and denial shift norms and blunt satire. He explores climate denial, elite disconnect from everyday decency, and whether fiction and community action can push back against cruelty.
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Teach Russian Short Stories Early
- Require children around age ten to read Russian writers like Chekhov, Gogol, and Tolstoy.
- Saunders says these stories open moral questions and even help parties in mediation find common ground.
Normalization By Repetition
- Continuous exposure to falsehoods shifts what people accept as normal and moves the Overton window.
- Saunders compares repeated garbage fed to a populace to serving a plate of garbage five times until it's mistaken for a meal.
Community Power Trumps Performative Might
- Community-scale, peaceful collective power can push back against elite coercion.
- Saunders highlights Minneapolis as an example where organized community opinion shifted outcomes.
