Episodes

  • the class war is a shooting war
    Dec 11 2024

    As the stars align for another French Revolution (Pluto in Aquarius, baby), the billionaires and CEOs are quaking. They're upgrading their security teams, they are building compounds. Also, as things escalate with Russia, Jessa and Nico wonder if we're going to get Rocky IV-level propaganda soon. Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey is getting review-bombed for even having a Russian character in her novel, the people demand a new Drago onto which they can project their hate and anxiety! The last Cold War gave us Mikhail Baryshnikov, who knows what wonders await us this time?

    Shownotes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    1 hr and 24 mins
  • no second acts in american life
    Dec 4 2024

    Elon Musk twat that Cancel culture has been canceled. All our bad men are coming back -- Kevin Spacey, Bryan Singer, Armie Hammer. New administration, baby! So what was cancel culture even for? Nico and Jessa discuss grievance culture, how Netflix has monetized the anti-cancel culture grift, and whether anyone is going to learn anything from the last ten years of madness.

    Shownotes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • bad dads: from joe rogan to cormac mccarthy to javier milei
    Nov 27 2024

    Progressive self-flagellation continues this week, as now the left wonders why they don't have a Joe Rogan-like figure to lead the angry young men into socialist politics. Maybe because you guys are all desperately overeager? Maybe because you'd want them to attend a new Columbia University masters program for audio arts before you trusted them to start a podcast? Just a thought. Also: Cormac McCarthy had a teenage lover during his midlife crisis, and is Argentina our new economic libertarian father figure?

    Shownotes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    1 hr and 37 mins
  • What Is Working Class Culture
    Nov 20 2024

    Quick, how do we politically, financially, and culturally exploit the lower classes, now that the politicians admit maybe wealth inequality and the abandonment of class issues has led us to a second Trump administration. There will be lots of solemn talk about the dignity of the working class, lots of PhDs doing working class ethnography, etc. But probably we still won't get healthcare, unless you count RFK replacing fluoride with ivermectin in our water supplies. Jessa and Nico talk about how the working class just can't win, and if there is still an American dream.

    Shownotes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    2 hrs
  • sore winners: what trump supporters and harris endorsers have in common
    Nov 13 2024

    It's the era of the sore winner. Trump voters are feeling emboldened, from racist texts to more Trump flags going up to personal confrontations. And billionaires from Silicon Valley to pop music are bitter they should ever be questioned or criticized about the constant stream of dreck they pump into the world. Jessa and Nico discuss why too much is never enough in the age of infinite branding.

    Shownotes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    1 hr and 42 mins
  • There is a Trump Wicker Man in an Empty Lot in Kensington Philadelphia
    Nov 6 2024

    In DC, Philadelphia, and Portland, monuments to Donald Trump's legacy as a white supremacist and sexual predator have been popping up. Their creator has yet to be revealed (please don't be Banksy). But it does open the door to the question: are we doomed to suffer through four more years of bad anti-Trump art? Or will the pro-Trump guys like Beeple take over cringe creation? And if the bro podcasters are to blame, and the socialist Twitch streamers couldn't save us, what do we do with our culture of overproduction?

    Shownotes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    1 hr and 33 mins
  • who you vote for is private, but whether you vote is public
    Oct 30 2024

    God, this is so boring and please let it be over. Swing state fatigue, billionaire media, and a political sphere dominated by bro podcast hosts.

    Show notes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • every day horrors
    Oct 23 2024

    Is it a contradiction that in this age of trigger warnings people are calling this a golden age of horror? Or is there something cozy and coddling about what is celebrated as prestige horror? Is Longlegs even scary, is The Substance just a montage of better horror films, does Red Rooms even haunt you, bro? Jessa and Nico discuss Variety's 100 Best Horror Movies list, lists as anti-content, and why contemporary horror fails to get at what people are truly afraid of.

    Show notes and references:

    http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

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    1 hr and 36 mins