You can only fully understand politics, business and your own anxiety in 2026 by reckoning with the three, once-in-a-generation shifts unfolding at once:
- The ideologies, tactics and tone of governance.
- The lightning-fast advancements in AI.
- The overnight transformation of how our realities are shaped.
Why it matters: All three are hitting all of us — and all at once. If you focus on only one (like many do with President Trump), you miss the enormity of change pushing our minds and nation somewhere new, different and uncertain.
The good news: Once you see it, you can't unsee it. It helps explain your anxiety, your visceral sense that work and business are evolving, and your confusion about politics and policies. And once you see it, you can do something about it.
- You'll have a framework to better understand why things are moving so fast, in so many new directions.
- We first introduced you to these tectonic shifts in a column last fall. Today, we're bringing you our latest thinking on each, in conjunction with a new "Behind the Curtain" video.
We plan to spend this year illuminating these shifts bluntly, but helpfully. We're big believers that you can only successfully navigate reality by fully understanding it.
The shifting tectonic plates: 1. A once-in-a-century shift in politics and governance. President Trump reinvented the Republican Party ... then American politics ... then American governance. He has proudly turned Republicans into an America First movement and stretched the powers of the presidency to unprecedented lengths.
- His actions — and the reaction to him — are reshaping what the parties believe in or stand for, who votes for them, the language and platforms our politicians use, the relevance and popularity of institutions and outside experts, and the way other nations view us.
- The politics and norms of one short decade ago are unrecognizable today. Democrats, especially California Gov. Gavin Newsom, are adopting many of Trump's most pugnacious tactics. And Democrats are as likely to counter with socialism as they are with more conventional liberalism. Whatever politics was before, it won't be again, absent a massive reset. You confront the future knowing the politics you have, not the politics you wish for.
2. A once-in-a-generation shift in how our realities are formed. Stop thinking about news as a way to understand the world. That's no longer how your reality, and what's left of our shared reality, forms. We call this the "post-news era." As a society, we're breaking into hundreds or thousands of information bubbles, shaped and hardened based on our age, politics, jobs and interests.
- Pick six random people (we've both done this at dinners). You'll often find that most get their information from platforms the others never visit, and trust people the others have never heard of. This is a brave new world.
- The common window we once collectively looked through has splintered into countless pieces. This change is accelerating with the decline of broadcast TV and cable news, traditional print and digital media, and local news.
- In its place: soaring podcasters, YouTubers, Substackers, and digital and encrypted communities. With attention scattered and trust shattered, we've grown highly susceptible to manipulation, polarization and persistent frustration.
3. A once-in-a-generation technology shift. AI has the promise, and high likelihood, of upending society at a scale greater than the internet — and possibly as profoundly as fire or electricity.
- Make no mistake: AI is getting better, faster, and more human-like in its thinking than most realize. Companies the size of nations are pouring hundreds of billions into making it even more powerful, faster.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns it could destroy half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in a few short years, and has a 25% chance of essentially wiping out human existence. Sit with that sentence for a minute.
- We're unleashing a technology with god-like powers. Its own creators readily admit they have no idea how it works or whether it could one day think and act on its own.
- At the same time, there's nothing on the American or global landscape with more promise to cure disease, extend life, stretch our economy and enrich our imaginations. We've no choice but to get this right. You can't slow it or stop it, and government is mostly on the sidelines.
You might find this panoramic portrait of the American landscape horrifying or confusing or electrifying. But it's the most accurate portrait of our reality today.
- Any one of these shifts could cause grand social or political upheaval. All three, moving at once, crashing into each other, virtually guarantee it.
The bottom line: Never before has the nation needed more people spending more time thinking more originally about how to change government, business and personal thinking to meet this moment.
- Never before have your understanding and participation been more imperative.
Go deeper: "How to AI."
