What The Economist's John Prideaux Learned From A Road Trip Across The U.S.

BusinessMediaWhat The Economist's John Prideaux Learned From A Road Trip Across The U.S.ByAndy Meek,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I report on media as well as its intersection with news and culture.Follow AuthorJun 15, 2026, 08:45am EDTAn 'America 250' banner is displayed outside the Peoria Riverfront Museum in Peoria, Illinois, on April 25, 2026.Getty ImagesIn 1831, the French writer and political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville traveled across the new American republic in search of answers about democracy. Nearly two centuries later, The Economist executive editor John Prideaux set out on his own version of Tocqueville’s journey for a new podcast series — and came away reassured that the country’s capacity for self-renewal remains surprisingly intact.“It’s hard to have a settled view about America, and maybe it’s actually unhelpful,” Prideaux told me in an email about Tocqueville Road Trip, the new six-part podcast series from The Economist that marks 250 years since the founding of the U.S.“Even the Founding Fathers suffered bouts of extreme pessimism. John Adams wrote that ‘Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself.’ A road trip is a good antidote to that kind of thinking.”Prideaux went on to tell me how, while the podcast was in production, Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. That same month, Prideaux himself visited New York’s Sing Sing prison — still standing nearly 200 years after Tocqueville visited it — and talked with men who’d been locked up for life. One of them started quoting Tocqueville, from memory, on the ability of America to heal itself.Looking For Tocqueville’s AmericaPrideaux’s encounter at the prison was just one stop on a trek that follows Tocqueville's route through a very different America.MORE FOR YOU“Tocqueville Road Trip,” a new podcast from The Economist marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S.The EconomistBeginn...