Trust used to flow upward. To experts, institutions, and authority.
Then it shifted to “people like me.”
Now even that circle is tightening.

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a growing insularity: smaller tribes, hardened perspectives, and a widening mass-class divide driven by whether people believe the system works for them.

Persuasion is shifting to trust brokerage, and what communicators, leaders, and businesses can do when trust itself has become the battleground.

Watch For
00:00 What does it mean that trust is moving from “echo chambers” to “turtle shells”?
04:06 Why is the trust divide between low-income and well-off people widening so dramatically?
04:52 How are culture and technology (especially AI) intensifying polarization and fear?
08:51 What structural forces in media, politics, and tech amplify fear? And how can we blunt it?
16:59 What’s the real difference between marketing that persuades and Public Relations that builds trust?

Guest: Tim Weber, Managing Director & EMEA Head of Editorial, Edelman

Listen on your favorite podcast app https://podcast.storiesandstrategies.ca/episodes/