Ruth Ben-Ghiat joined me recently for a conversation on this week’s episode of “The Chauncey DeVega Show.” Ben-Ghiat is a historian at New York University who specializes in authoritarianism, aesthetics, cultural politics and Italian history. She is the author of several books including an upcoming project on authoritarianism and political strongmen. Ben-Ghiat is also a regular contributor to CNN, The Atlantic and The Huffington Post.

In our conversation, Dr. Ben-Ghiat shared her worries about authoritarianism and Donald Trump’s rise to power, his predatory masculinity and how violence is a central component of Trump’s appeal for his voters. On this point, Ben-Ghiat explained to me how, “Trump is always trying to best the other man. To do this he engages in a type of ritual humiliation of all men who want to be around him. This is a kind of bullying that I call the ‘culture of threat.'”