Everyone’s an expert now | The Gray Area
Almost a decade ago, Tom Nichols warned that Americans were losing respect for expertise. He didn’t expect things to get this bad.
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Sean talks with Nichols about his 2017 book “The Death of Expertise” and what’s happened since: why people don’t just distrust experts but actively push back against them, how the internet turns bad ideas into communities, and why a society that can’t agree on basic facts can’t function for long. They also dig into the deeper causes: loneliness, narcissism, and the weird psychology of living in a world where everything “just works.”
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)
Guest: Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom)
00:00 Intro
01:13 A Growing Contempt for Competence: Revisiting The Death of Expertise
08:14 Decadence and the collapse of respect for competence
18:07 How internet echo chambers destroys shared reality
21:59 Is the ruling class to blame for the death of expertise?
28:34 How to separate healthy skepticism from destructive contempt for expertise
35:04 What happens next in a post-expertise world?
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@habsfan-i8m
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Great interview with Tom. I suggest that "mainstream media" can be just a toxic as online news. The Washington Post has changed fundamentally and TV is dominated by Fox, etc. It's not useful to watch local or national news if you don't have the ability to filter and process the information. The problem is more fundamental and relates to the psychology of decadent individualism.
@kamrynduplessis1997
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
he lost me when he conflated "experts" with the ruling class. im a neuroscientist, im an expert. but i am a member of the working class, along with most other scientists
@dacisky
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
This gices me hope,Thank you.
@Jkenn96
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
A lot of these issues come from the lack of faith in institutions. Which is earned through the numerous atrocities committed in the name of government to maintain status quo.
@CTguyjesse
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
12:23 I wanna start by saying I really enjoyed hearing the ideas presented in this video. I've singled out the timestamp about how technological advancement breed dissatisfaction. In his example, he talks about the miracle of clean on-demand running water, which is undeniably magical! I wonder what he thinks about data canters making water undrinkable or the famous example of flint Michigan. It feels to me like a lot of grander context is ignored, even while its simultaneously true that not everyone properly appreciates modern technology.
What I'm getting to is: I appreciate the guest's point about how contempt for authority is dangerous for society. But, I would ask if it seems like faith in authority has been lost for good reason? Doesn’t it make sense that a government failing its citizens would lose their trust? Just thinkin
@Maryxus
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Mmmm… @ ~00:28:00: He just spent most of the "Is the ruling class…" section trying to dissociate 'experts' from the ruling class, but now he's giving it up for the ruling class—which he's "never been a part of"—because experts have done a lot for us over the past 50 years?
I agree with a lot of what he's saying, but I detect some system justification. Or maybe it's fear that he'll lose funding, since the academic scene is funded almost exclusively by grants from the ruling class.
@mcconegh
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
I'm an expert on the 13th century German poet Hartmann von Aue, but I'm not the target of any hate mail. I like the idea that the "problem" arises when expertise is coupled with authority. Good insight. However, that authority over the lives of us peons is any better because expertise is banned there (e.g. Trump, RFK, Hegseth, et al.), seems ludicrous, unless, as Tom says, Americans are bred to think they are authorities unto themselves.
@Confuzledish
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Nichols barely addresses institutional legitimacy. An expert working for an institution that has lied, hidden harm, or punished whistleblowers isn't just an "expert." They're a representative of a compromised system. He tends to treat the expert as a free-floating bearer of knowledge, rather than someone embedded in power structures.
@WorldAffairsExpert
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
29:40 | the fact is that people already have nefarious intentions, then work backwards
@WorldAffairsExpert
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
I’m glad I was born in 2003, can’t imagine life without the internet, but the internet busted the floodgates for social upheaval
@miffys_bicycle
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
I wish every American would watch this video. People hear about their privilege and clam up, feeling personally offended, personally victimized, despite how we regularly exploit the rest of the world for our gain. It's not that everyone in the USA is living glamorously; there are people suffering and dying every day, but it is at the behest of this 'I only care about myself' attitude that people of every social class like to pedal (along with the greed and egos of those who hold power, upheld by the average citizen who wants a sliver of that power). It's devastating. Our resources are immense and our empathy is little. Loneliness and isolation are killing people, and our strength as a community 🙁
@insertmusichere
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Tell me you’re rich without telling me you’re rich. I was with you until you said the economy is good. You must be in the top half of the K shaped economy. If you don’t understand the economic struggles of a huge swath of the country then I’m not sure how much stock to put in your take on why the country is skeptical of experts and expertise.
@Mike23571113
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
experts often get out of their lane, where they aren't experts even though they pretend they are
@Dangermaniac206
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
27:45 NATO? 😂😂😂 I can’t believe this dude thinks this is a good thing
@PaperMario64
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
It’s narcissism and the lack of humility. You need humility to receive new information because you have to be willing to admit you don’t know it all.
@PaperMario64
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Everyone needs to see this video.
@Rosie-Qn
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Yeah the echo chamber spiral is real ….
@koreabrewingadventure
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Essential interview, truly.
@7384
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
During the tuskegee experiment they trusted the experts and the experts ruined their health? Guess what ?
It resulted in lasting mistrust of medical institutions and was cited as one of the reasons many did not take COVD shots,but then guess what? Now it’s coming out that was massive misinformation and hidden information about that to that also led to more mistrust of the so called “experts “.
Science and experts lie
@TexasVernon
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
I had a 1977 Dodge 318ci with a carburetor so bad I kept a CARBURETOR in reserve.
The funny thing about experts is it seems the further the expertise is from the grasp of a person the less likely the expertise will be given credence. Experts in plumbing, home electrical wiring, automotive repair, etc. surround us in everyday life and we believe that people can be experts in those areas. We don't usually run into research scientists so when what they do is rediculed we have no personal perspective to judge what is being said.
I lay this at the feet of our school systems. Why do people come out of high school so easy to dupe?
@TheNymanator
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Buddy glossed right over the idea of when experts are wrong as if it wasn't a major contributor, especially in the context of the Internet, where it is super easy to find reputable sources that contradict media figures and science communicators when they do make mistakes. It doesn't help that plenty have been caught red-handed misrepresenting data or outright lying. Acting like academics and media communicators are innocent in this and their errors are misunderstood by the public is a plain example.
@Tomatron77
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
People lost trust in experts after Covid
@BecauseSymbols
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Vox was just purchased by the Murdoch family. Sure, it wasn't the complete sociopath brother, just the polite one, but ummm, billionaires controlling journalism is umm bad m'kay?
@RaggedyAndy8455
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
I constantly have this same argument from the perspective of higher education. Degrees have become a check in The box with the sentiment that “I’m not learning anything I don’t already know.”
@Hammyann
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Lol welcome to being a woman. Just one famous example for those who are like “oh it’s not a woman thing” this happens all the time.
A guy at a conference once told Dr. Tasha Stanton, pain neuroscientist, that she really ought to read this great paper by Stanton et al. Her reply: “I. Am. Stanton.”
@dear-future-ai
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Ignorance is strength.
@whatwelearned
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
They'll come around once their health fails or their favourite populist imprisons them etc
@joshwew9551
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
Yeah the echo chamber spiral is real
@alexcupert
May 23, 2026 at 5:48 am
internet is dead
Comments are closed.