2810 - The Perception Gap

August 7, 2026

What happens when what Americans see and experience no longer matches what they are being told?

Tonight, John B. Wells welcomes back 30-year law-enforcement veteran Michael Letts for a wide-ranging examination of the growing perception gap across America. From shifting political ideologies and concerns over domestic security to rising violence, institutional accountability, election integrity, and the expanding influence of media, social platforms, and artificial intelligence, the conversation follows the widening divide between public experience and institutional narratives.

Then the lens moves beyond America’s borders as John and Michael examine Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, and the increasingly blurred line between foreign affairs and security here at home.

At the center of it all is a fundamental question: when people can no longer agree on what is happening around them, what happens to trust in the institutions meant to hold a nation together?