Settle In with PBS News – Episode Summary

Episode Title: The stories we tell ourselves about America
Host: Jeff Bennett (PBS News)
Guest: Tressie McMillan Cottom – Sociologist, Professor, Writer, MacArthur Fellow, NYT Opinion Columnist
Date: January 20, 2026
Episode Theme:
This episode features an in-depth conversation with Tressie McMillan Cottom about American institutions, the enduring narratives that shape national identity and individual lives, the realities of class, the limits of meritocracy, and how hope—and agency—can combat the exhaustion from a relentless cycle of bad news.

Main Themes and Purpose

• Why many American institutions work as they were designed, not as they promise.
• The powerful stories America tells itself about progress, merit, and possibility.
• How institutions encode exclusion—and what it takes to create stories and systems that give hope.
• The role of class in American society and opportunity.
• What real hope and community action look like beyond the internet.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. On the Civic Responsibility of Intellectual Work (00:41–03:58)

• Tressie McMillan Cottom explains her early understanding that her work must engage with real civic problems—not just academic debates—modeled after intellectuals like W.E.B. Du Bois.
  • Quote: “Historically Black academics... have never really had the choice of not engaging with the civic problems of citizenship, our legal inclusion in the Constitution.” (01:16)
• Cottom describes the dual nature of this responsibility—as both a profound gift and an emotional burden.
  • Quote: “There's this point at which the work feels cyclical instead of progressive, that we are still debating issues about federal versus state, that we're still in many ways, fighting the Civil War.” (02:51)

2. Institutions Are Not Broken—They Are Working as Designed (03:58–07:03)

• American institutions’ exclusionary aspects are now more visible; the "illusion of linear social progress" has been shattered.
  • Quote: “What has happened under Trump is that the gap between our illusion about social progress and how institutions function has collapsed... there’s a certain amount of bald honesty in that because we have wholesale abdicated the idea that social progress is not just desirable, but that it is inevitable.” (05:03)
• Now, more Americans are experiencing what marginalized communities have long faced.

3. The Collapse and Construction of National Narratives (07:03–08:55)

• There is no prevailing, shared story of an American future that isn’t rooted in nostalgia.
  • Quote: “We can’t come up with a story about the future that is not, at its heart, a story about how we need to return to the 2000s or return to the 1990s. The problem with that is that during those times, institutions were failing lots of people.” (07:48)
• The political right has powerfully weaponized nostalgia, while the left has struggled to articulate a forward-thinking narrative.

4. Class as the Ever-Present but Underdiscussed Force (08:55–11:27)

• Cottom describes how she was prepared for sexism and racism but "did not have nearly enough preparation for how social class was going to shape my sense of opportunity and possibility in this country." (09:43)
• America lacks a language to discuss class that doesn’t serve the wealthy.
• Shame often prevents honest class conversations, making social mobility narratives incomplete.

5. Higher Education: Sorting Machine, Not Just Ladder (11:27–14:38)

• U.S. higher education historically had a brief moment as a ladder but now largely reproduces class hierarchies.
  • Quote: “Higher education can only be a pathway to upward social mobility if there is upward social mobility.” (12:52)
• The problem isn’t in education alone but in weakening social and economic policies.
  • Quote: “We cannot create entry level jobs. We cannot create a social compact that will guarantee you a career ladder... Education has always needed that partnership.” (13:55)

6. Meritocracy—A Mythical, Self-Justifying Story (14:38–17:19)

• Meritocracy’s very origins are satirical, yet it has become a secular religion in American thought.
  • Quote: “Meritocracy actually starts out as satire... It becomes a secular religion in our culture that those with power and money have it because they deserve it.” (15:32)
• The story of meritocracy disciplines individuals and rationalizes inequality by conflating power with deservedness.

7. Building New Stories that Stick—And Why Hope Is Essential (17:19–19:39)

• Stories that resonate offer explanations for personal experiences and, above all, hope and redemption.
  • Quote: “People do not like a story that forecloses on the future... what people want to know is: if I buy into this story, will it explain some part of my life that I have trouble explaining?... and they also need the option for hope.” (17:53)
• Authoritarian narratives succeed partly because they offer the only positive vision to some; alternatives must offer hope, too.

8. The Political Economy of Attention and Exhaustion (19:39–24:10)

• Diagnosing problems and fostering anger are not sustainable; solutions require a vision for the future.
  • Quote: “Anger can be a first step... but anger is not a sustaining emotion. Once someone is awakened... you have got to tell them what is possible for them.” (19:50)
• The attention economy and media choices were political—regulating tech and prioritizing meaningful narratives remain open choices, not inevitabilities.
  • Quote: “It is a political choice not to regulate technology companies... We have been willing to cede our attention in the name of money, but that was a political choice.” (22:49)

9. The Prescription for Exhaustion: Agency Beats Apathy (24:10–25:56)

• True political exhaustion arises from too little action, not too much awareness.
  • Quote: “Sometimes we aren’t exhausted because we are aware of too much. We are exhausted because we are doing too little. People who feel agentic aren’t as tired.” (24:34)
• Small local action—protests, community programs—restores hope and personal energy.

10. Unlearning the Myths of Upward Mobility and Power (25:56–28:02)

• Cottom reflects on the tension between individual advancement and collective loss:
  • Quote: “The very sense of possibility for me came at the expense of opportunity for others. And that in fact, the closer I get to the seat of power... what that usually means is that a lot of people behind me were denied an opportunity.” (26:33)
• Advocates for holding dual awareness: striving for personal success while recognizing and challenging systemic inequalities.

11. The Power of Popular Culture and Comedy in Social Imagination (28:02–30:40)

• Black sitcoms and comedians of the 1990s offered essential playgrounds for negotiating identity and possibility.
  • Quote: “Popular culture... is, however, the playground for regular people to work out the possible future that the social world has not made real to them.” (28:42)
• These representations allowed for safely imagining and contesting futures otherwise unavailable in everyday life.

12. Hope Beyond the Internet: Real-World Possibility (30:40–32:31)

• Quote: “There is an entire world outside of the Internet first and foremost... you will feel more hopeful, you will feel more human, and you will feel more possible the more you expose yourself to that world. And it is out there.” (31:02)
• Real possibilities for hope and solidarity are being created daily in physical communities, tenant unions, literacy programs, grassroots protests.

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On the enduring burden of civic engagement:
  “There's this point at which the work feels cyclical instead of progressive, that we are still debating issues about federal versus state, that we're still in many ways, fighting the Civil War...” (02:51 – Tressie McMillan Cottom)
• On the present moment’s brutal honesty:
  “What has happened under Trump is that the gap between our illusion about social progress and how institutions function has collapsed.” (05:03 – Tressie McMillan Cottom)
• On class, mobility, and language:
  “America has a really poor history of developing a language around class that serves wealthy interests. By the way, the less that we talk about class, the more power those with economic power gain over us.” (10:15 – Tressie McMillan Cottom)
• On meritocracy’s origins:
  “Meritocracy actually starts out as satire, right? This was not a real concept... It becomes a secular religion in our culture that those with power and money have it because they deserve it.” (15:32 – Tressie McMillan Cottom)
• On political and personal exhaustion:
  “Sometimes we aren't exhausted because we are aware of too much. We are exhausted because we are doing too little. People who feel agentic aren't as tired.” (24:34 – Tressie McMillan Cottom)
• On restoring hope and humanity:
  “There is an entire world outside of the Internet... you will feel more hopeful, you will feel more human, and you will feel more possible the more you expose yourself to that world.” (31:02 – Tressie McMillan Cottom)

Key Takeaways for Listeners

• Most American institutions aren’t failing—many are functioning as designed to advantage certain groups and exclude others.
• National stories about progress, opportunity, and merit need to be reconstructed with honesty, inclusivity, and hope at the center.
• Class is a critical, often ignored axis of inequality, shaping opportunity and belonging more profoundly than we like to admit.
• Effective new narratives must explain people’s realities and offer true hope for change—not just anger or diagnosis.
• Hope and renewal are cultivated through direct, local engagement—action in the real world, not passive consumption online.

For those feeling exhausted or hopeless, the episode’s final message is clear:
Real possibility emerges not from retreating away from troubling news or online noise, but from stepping into real community—even in small ways. There, new stories and futures are waiting to be built.