The Culture We Deserve
The Culture We Deserve is hosted by Jessa Crispin. The show examines the state of the arts and cultural life. Each episode offers critical conversation about creativity, art, and the forces shaping them. Crispin brings her perspective as a writer and critic to the discussion.
Episodes
We Don't Deserve Tom Cruise
Critics are absolutely gleeful that Tom Cruise's new movie Digger seems to be crashing at the box office. And in an era where we demand healthy, moral, ethical actors, do we really have a place for complicated, dark, tortured Tom Cruise? Jessa and Nico discuss how his reputation got so bad in the first place (cult member, negligent father, etc), and why we'll never see another star like him. Show
Vigilante Season
From Stranger Danger to Pedo Hunting on YouTube, we have long projected our fears onto the outsider, rather than the people within our family who are much more likely to do us harm. (Maybe not the best week to make this argument as the Philadelphia serial killer's house is still being investigated, but oh well.) Jessa and Nico discuss Primetime and our moral panic around child safety, and our eage
The Invention of the Goddess
In this episode, Nico and Jessa discuss one of the weirder ideas championed during feminism's Second Wave, including by Gloria Steinem: the idea that pre-history's civilizations were matriarchal with a goddess culture at their center. The idea didn't originate with the feminist movement, they were based on a confused interpretation of 19th century archeological finds. But they sure did run with it
Monstrous Women
It takes a certain kind of deranged mind to look at the Lindsay Clancy case and think, "Well, we're never going to get a female president now!" but that is what a lot of the rightwing ladies have been doing. Everything is a Gender War now. Jessa and Nico consider how we think about men and women who kill their children, by looking at two films: Alice Diop's Saint Omer, based on the real life case
True Crime Main Characters
Amanda Knox has written a memoir. And another memoir. And made a documentary. And another documentary. And a fictionalized adaptation of her life story. And she has a podcast. And now she's written a one-woman-show for Fringe. All while the family of the young woman who was murdered begs her to stop. The true crime industry gives a lot of young women the opportunity to endlessly create content abo
The Love We Deserve
Everyone is looking for love, and no one can find it. That's the message from the inside look at matchmaking services, where both men and women are locked in an endless cycle of first dates and "there has to be something better." The rich men want women with degrees and robust fertility but no hobbies or interests of their own, and women want men who are six feet tall and at least half a million a
Everyone is a Book Influencer Now
Katie Porter, fresh off a loss in the California governor's race, has announced she is going to be a book influencer now. Come join her book group, it recommends all the same books that the others do, too! As President Obama releases a new podcast about books, Dua Lipa interviews Booker Prize winners, and the daughter of President Bush tells you which slop books to read, we have to ask, why is eve
But Does This Actually Advance the Plot?
The youths don't like sex in movies anymore. The director of the new romantic comedy One Night Only decided to cut a considerable amount of nudity and suggestive moments out of the film in order to cater to a squeamish audience. As eager as people are to declare horny movies back, due to the release of four erotically themed movies back to back (The Invite, ONO, Camp Miasma, and I Want Your Sex),
Your Job is to Feed the Machine
About five years ago, there was a conversation between journalists who had done years of work under precarious conditions and the YouTubers who used that work to create monetized content that made them a ton of money. If someone spends ten years of their life covering a story, and then some 22-year-old reads a simplified version of that work to the camera while doing their make-up and makes 10x as
Elon Musk: Protector of the West
Elon Musk is going to save Western Civilization from migration, Sharia law, and Christopher Nolan films. He bravely offered up Grok as the tool to generate a woke-free version of The Odyssey, after spending months of his life complaining about casting choices and insults to traditional Greek culture. Jessa and Nico rehash how The Iliad and The Odyssey became culture war flashpoints, how Elon beca
The Films that Define the US
So that 250th anniversary thing was kind of a letdown, huh? A poorly attended (and even more dismally entertained) fair in DC, a fiasco of a July 4th celebration in Philadelphia, the only thing in the movie theaters being a new Minions movie... In this moment of disappointment, Jessa and Nico take the New York Times's lead in figuring out which films define America. Their list included things lik
The Beautiful Game
Jessa and Nico survey the World Cup discourse. Why and how do we love things that we know are corrupt? Why can't the United States stop itself from cheating every time it plays on an international level? Did the CIA send in Evangelical missionaries to convert everyone away from Catholicism to undermine the power of Brazilian football? And has globalized soccer created a monoculture, where all home
Jackass: Can a Man Do Anything Without It Becoming a Statement About Masculinity?
With the release of the final Jackass film comes nostalgia and reverie. Because our media class is the way it is, it includes a lot of think pieces about masculinity. Can't a man just hit another man in the balls without it being theorized? Can scatological entertainment resist inquiry? Jessa and Nico also discuss Jackass's failsons: the YouTube pranksters, the violent and exploitative streaming s
The Language of Emergency
Everything is an emergency! There's genocide(s), environmental collapse, capitalism, patriarchy -- and it all has to be taken care of now! Revolution! It's the attention economy, baby -- and everyone wants your attention on the emergency because it is making them a lot of money. Jessa and Nico look at the off-putting and unpersuasive language of the Emergency and wonder if there's a way of talkin
The Politics of Dignity
We all agree that identity politics need to die, yes? They've been infiltrated and exploited by the wealthy and the elites, they led to years of scamming, and they have created a standstill where nothing can be done because nothing can be totally equal. But a return to the bad old system where various identity groups have their needs belittled and ignored would also be a mistake. Could the answer
Are People Lonely or Just Alone?
Lately social media has been inundated with the loneliness influencer, the people (mostly women) who glamorize and romanticize a cozy little life alone: frozen pizzas, a glass of wine, and a sweet treat eaten in front of a TV, snug in yoga pants or luxury sweats, in your perfectly gray urban apartment. Is this helpful for those still stuck in our loneliness crisis, teaching them to turn solitude i
The Pope Declares Holy War Against the Robots
The Pope's encyclical on the subject of AI inspired a flurry of headlines and quick takes, but then people got distracted. But did the Pope really say Death to All Clankers or was there something else going on there? Jessa and Nico look at this very interesting document, which continues the pivot away from individual sin and toward structural evil and asks if there might be something beautiful and
How to Be an Anti-Authoritarianism Grifter
With new books like "How to Be a Dissident," "Read This When Things Fall Apart," "How to Save Democracy," "Beyond Molotovs" and others flooding the shops, it's obvious that the anti-racist grift has morphed into an anti-authoritarian grift. Will the Yale professors really be able to save us? And what exactly do these books propose? Jessa and Nico sift through the new releases to figure out whether
Let's All Go to Church
While America's religious revival is being a bit overblown, the fact is that the long decline in church attendance and religious belief is over and a new era of stabilization may have begun. The media focuses on the extreme end of this -- the Christian nationalists, the surge in Orthodox conversion, etc -- but much of this is about the return of the casual, non-fanatical churchgoer. The person op
The Most Beautiful Job in the World
So we made a mistake. We thought, based on the reviews and interviews and podcasts and think pieces we saw, that the Devil Wears Prada sequel would be our topic for the week. Then we saw the film, and it was bad. Bad in that way that resists inquiry, lacking in substance to the point where you feel dumber trying to discourse about it. But we had no other things planned, so here's our episode about
Men's Media
If we didn't have manfluencers and bro podcasts and a mass media owned and operated by billionaires, what would a supportive media environment for men even look like? What are the ideas, problems, and possibilities that men have that are being ignored by the professionals? Jessa and Nico discuss how men's media differs from women's, how magazines like Esquire and GQ in the 90s helped create the re
Why Are All of Our Communists Millionaires?
Yes, we are doing Hasan Piker/Jia Tolentino microlooting discourse. Microlooting is one of those cursed words -- like latinx, like unhoused -- that accomplishes zero things, is politically alienating, and allows a group of millionaires to talk about "the rich" as some other group with zero self-awareness. If woke won't die, it's because our communist millionaires won't let it. But a millionaire-l
AI Losers
The New York Times recently cut ties with a freelancer after it was revealed he had used AI to assist in the writing of a book review. What is the source of the scandal -- that an underpaid worker uses technology to help him meet a deadline, or that your publication uses such a predictable structure in the work it puts out that AI can easily mimic the formula? The outrage that typically greets any
Our Reality Star Overlords
The upcoming elections are littered with former reality TV stars who have pivoted to politics -- from Fboy Island, The Hills, Teen Mom, and more. We already have the archetype of the failed artist politician (from Hitler to Mamdani), so is the reality star politician just the latest iteration or something different? Jessa and Nico discuss our reality star president and the precedent he has created
Are We Doomed?
No one wants to get married, and no one is having children. How can we make this women's fault? Jessa and Nico talk about the frustrating ways we discourse about family in the media, never bringing in relevant subjects like class into the marriage discussion or dropping fertility rates due to environmental poisoning into birth rate hysteria. Scientists are now positing the human race as a whole mi
Taste Will Save Us from AI
Welcome to the 100th episode of The Culture We Deserve -- we really need to rethink our lives. The novel Shy Girl was recently pulled from publication after accusations that the author Mia Ballard used AI during its writing. As arts and culture is infiltrated with LLMs and slop, it doesn't say great things about the future that Hachette, one of the world's largest publishers, can't tell AI from hu
Revolutionary Nostalgia
Daughter of two members of the Weather Underground Hope Reeves went to the New York Times to complain that the Oscar winning film One Battle After Another wasn't an accurate portrayal of what her tenured professor parents accomplished. Beginning to worry that the media class literally can't tell the difference between reality and entertainment at the moment. But also, what is behind the nostalgia
The End of Lifestyle Feminism
Back in the 2010s, instead of political progress we got role models, little girlboss avatars to root for. Their happiness, we were told, was our happiness. Their success was our success. Well, now them most of them are divorced or bankrupt or hard launching polyamorous relationships that sound nightmarish and torturous, maybe it's time to think about actual political organization around issues lik
Who Killed the Media?
With social media filled with AI-generated fake war videos and a war-hawk press eager for regime change and empire building, where does one turn? Jessa and Nico talk about how the death of journalism was not natural causes, it was murder. From venture capital "investment" to Bezos putting the Washington Post through the woodchipper as a gift to Trump to Bari Weiss running CBS news into a wall at h
Gilded Guilt
Why are we so bad at criticizing or satirizing the wealthy? Is it because we think if we're nice to them we think they'll be less likely to kill us? From Succession discourse to bloodthirsty Taylor Swift fans to Jeffrey Epstein defenders, sycophants and fanboys protect, distract, and play down the egregious acts of the rich. Jessa and Nico discuss how the media protects rather than interrogates th
We Are All Tucker Carlson
A new book about Tucker Carlson's life tracks how the conservative movement has cracked up over the past several decades, while also showing how one man was able to navigate (and monetize) the changes. But does Jason Zengerle's Hated By All the Right People understand where we are today? Jessa and Nico discuss how conservative media -- from print to cable television to Reddit -- has been evolved f
The Money Runs Out
Our major arts institutions are broke. The Met Opera has been reduced to begging for money from the Saudis, and meanwhile they can't sell out their theater even for premieres. Colleges are dipping into endowments, theater companies are shutting down, and the MFA Boston is laying people off. The cosmopolitan globalized art model is falling apart, and (now that Epstein is dead) no one has any new id
The End of American Freedom
The American century is over, or so say the speakers at Davos. The United States has had hegemonic control over the rest of the world, its markets, its sovereignty, its culture. But now that might be coming to an end. Jessa and Nico discuss what that means for international culture industries, which have also been playing by America's rules for decades. Shownotes and references: http://theculture
Revolution and Ruin: Gustave Flaubert's Sentimental Education
It's France in the mid-19th century, and here we have a group of young men who can't decide how to get along. They waste time and money, they go to nightclubs and restaurants, they have affairs and declare themselves and each other artistic geniuses. Meanwhile, the political situation is crumbling and people are putting up barricades in the street. It's time for Flaubert's Sentimental Education, w
Suicidal Empathy
Rightwing men have been accusing liberal women of having "suicidal empathy" for the immigrants they claim are trying to murder them. But the only people who truly seem to have suicidal empathy are those who identify and sympathize with the ICE agents and the politicians who are likely to turn on them next. Jessa and Nico discuss the popularity of this idea for figures like Elon Musk. Also, over at
Die, DEI
Much like the girlboss, no matter how many times the culture tries to eulogize DEI we find it once again, walking around, making a nuisance of itself. Recent pieces in the NYTimes, Wired, and Compact try to reckon with the legacy of DEI, and then there is of course the walking mascot of DEI culture, Bari Weiss, making a mess of CBS News. Jessa and Nico talk about the enormous lengths all these pe
Predictions for an Unpredictable 2026
Nico was in Colombia when the United States abducted Venezuelan president Maduro, and he has some thoughts on what people in the United States commonly get wrong about South American politics. But also: predictions for 2026: the USA will do some feminist regime change in Iran, just like in Afghanistan! Serbia will be liberated from the heavy yoke of Trump Family influence! Mr. Beast will be charge
Obligatory Best and Worst of the Year Episode
2025 may be over, but its cultural production lives on in our hearts. Nico and Jessa debate the best and worst movies, TV shows, books, and museum exhibits of the year, talk shit about your faves, and hope for better art in the future. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com
Revolution and Ruin: George Eliot's Felix Holt: The Radical
A very special Christmas treat for our listeners. Joseph and Jessa discuss George Eliot's Felix Holt: The Radical, which asks the very important question: is the socialist's primary task to yell at people and tell them they are wrong about everything? Set in the 1830s after political reform has granted voting rights to new -- but still very limited -- populations, a small English market town deals
The Art Goes Home
For the last five years, museums around the world have been struggling to answer the question of, who owns cultural heritage? Certain objects, from the Elgin Marbles to the Benin Bronzes, have been fought over as multiple entities, institutions, and nations claim true ownership. Now that the Benin Bronzes have started to return to Nigeria, only to be shoved in storage unseen by anyone except the o
United Ireland (Take Two)
Jessa and Nico return from their visit to Ireland. All along the way, the subject of whether or not Ireland should be united kept coming up. But beyond the slogans and the bad ideas, there are very real issues at work, tedious and boring but also tremendously consequential. Nico reflects on the influence the Northern Ireland peace agreement had on Colombian politics, Jessa discusses how social med
The Crisis of Darkness
Our pop culture has become insipid. What is the difference between Tom Cruise and Glen Powell? Tom Cruise has darkness within him. Watching him is thrilling because you can see him struggling to contain it. Glen Powell looks at every moment like he's about to turn to the camera, wink, and try to sell you a protein powder so you can get as ripped as him. Jessa and Nico discuss the problems of Runni
Revolution and Ruin: Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons
A young man goes home to announce his exciting new political and philosophical ideas to his family, only for the family dinner to devolve into shouting, arguing, and eventually a duel? It's a very special Thanksgiving episode of Revolution and Ruin! Turgenev portrays a pre-revolutionary Russia, as nihilism and other ideas begin to circulate among the youth, causing friction and exasperation among
Ladies Ruin Everything
Did women ruin the workplace? Is wokeness feminine? Is this credit card my friend? Is cancel culture Malthusian? etc etc. Yes, the political right will do anything it can to avoid talking about class, and their latest gambit is to blame women for destroying the institutions of our society with their..... feelings. And their gossip. Helen Andrews's THE GREAT FEMINIZATION essay is still making the r
Copaganda Returns
PBS recently decided to schedule the documentary The Last 600 Yards, about American troops fighting in Fallujah, after having shelved it for over a decade for being too pro-military. Co-produced by Steve Bannon, its re-emergence, according to Semafor, is because Bannon wants to convince Trump and his cronies from invading Venezuela. But like all shows, films, and media that centers military or pol
American Heroes
Once an archetype has been constructed, it's really difficult to dismantle it. And one of the prevailing archetypes of the 20th century was that of the American Hero. From World War II to the genre of the Western, the idea of the Great American as someone principled but reluctant to intervene, with a complicated past but a good heart, and setting right a problem not of his own doing is firmly ingr
Trickle Down Morality
In the new book Motherland, Julia Ioffe discusses how the Soviet feminist revolution was state sponsored. During and after 1917, the government mandated several rights that the women hadn't even gotten around really to demanding yet. The result was a kind of trickle down feminism, the opportunity and demand to be equal. It led to advances in women's careers in medicine and the sciences, but entren
The American Uncanny on Film
Nico's got that funny feeling again, that the program the United States ran in South America for decades has come home. We talk about the uncanny feeling that has taken over the United States and how it has manifested itself in films, from John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May to Alan Pakula's Parallax View to Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. When the mirror is reflected only dist
Revolution and Ruin: Charlotte Bronte's Shirley
In the industrial age, there was a widespread disruption of communities. Traditional methods of charity and redistribution of resources were undermined by the changing policies of the church, the military whims of the government severed trade routes and exchanges of money, and families were scattered as people looked for work. In Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, Caroline Helstone is trying to figure ou
Exploit or Be Exploited
In the creative economy, it is more profitable to be a dead creator than a living working writer. Or that is the lesson learned from the lawsuit the Michael Crichton estate filed against The Pitt. Crichton, who earned a quarter of a billion dollars for his contribution to the NBC show ER -- his contribution being a film script that was later adapted by someone else into a network pilot -- while th
Recovered Panic
One of the bestselling nonfiction books of the moment is a memoir about a wealthy and successful woman dealing with memories of horrific sexual assault by her teacher when she was in middle school. The only problem: her memories were "recovered" in therapy with the use of hallucinogens. Meaning they probably aren't real. And the author just so happens to have a stake in a company that is trying to
The Charlie Kirk Effect
The political right has been looking for a George Floyd figure, a martyr they can name streets after and get protests around and use to pass sweeping legislation. But they have overplayed their hand with Charlie Kirk's death. Jessa and Nico sort through this cards-on-the-table moment on the right, where everyone is suddenly more sincere about where they stand than usual. So, Ted Cruz, Candace Owen
The Biological Gig Economy
When Cindy Bi hired a surrogate to carry her baby, she neglected to tell her that she had health issues that could put her life in danger. It turns out, she's not required to do so by law. And when the pregnancy went wrong and the child was lost, as reported in Wired Magazine, it opened up a legal, ethical hellmouth. Jessa and Nico discuss the gig economy's takeover of the womb, why the surrogacy
Revolution and Ruin Book Club: William Thackeray's The Luck of Barry Lyndon
When a man is down on his luck, what is he to do? His fortune squandered, his estate mishandled, his love unfaithful, Barry Lyndon goes to war, and to prison, and to the gambling table, and to Prussia, and to Ireland. He schemes his way, hoping to get back into the good graces of the universe, trying to manifest that happy ending he's put on his vision board. Jessa and Joseph discuss whether Barry
The Smithsonian is on Fire
The dumbest culture war in history continues, as the Trump administration seeks to purify the national collection of knickknacks and souvenirs. And the liberals are falling for it, declaring that this is just like the time the Nazis burned books and called art degenerate. As the bitter war over wall text next to a Papier-mâché Statue of Liberty continues, Jessa and Nico discuss the "museums are no
Seeking Utopia
What is behind the drive for small communities of like-minded people? The MAHA millionaire farm, the white nationalists in Arkansas, the makeshift Texas beguinage? Are we re-entering an age of utopian experimentation or are we creating cults? Jessa and Nico discuss the history of utopian projects in the American Midwest, how people from the United States have been bothering South Americans for dec
Eugenics Season
The fuss over Sydney Sweeney's jeans/genes ad, and there are those who accused her of "normalizing eugenics," misses an important point: we are already doing another round of eugenics. It's just that this round is about the Haves having access to surrogates, IVF, CRISPR, and other genetic assistance while the Have Nots have plummeting fertility rates and no longterm care options when they have chi
Variety Hour (and Twenty Minutes)
As we were recording between two long work trips and through various mishaps, this week Nico and Jessa just go through headlines and updates on previous subjects. Covered: why the Trump administration is besotted with Confederate monuments, women separatist spaces, Uber's inability to protect their passengers from sexual assault, and more ICE chat. We were tired, okay?! Shownotes and references: h
Cancel Culture Is Over, If We Want It
It's cancellation season again, although it's not really working the way it used to. Joey Swole, Sydney Sweeney, Anthony Fantano, a mother in New York who died in a mass shooting, have all been deemed by the collective as unacceptable. Is it the Trump effect that is preventing the cancellation from taking hold, or something else? Have we as a society progressed past the need for cancel culture? Ha
We're Talking About the Christian Nationalists Again
Following our earlier discussion of the documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics, Jessa and Nico get into the spread of Evangelicals in power -- not only in the United States but also where missionaries have established bases overseas. Like every other truly terrible contribution the US has made, this is all about the Cold War. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com
Revolution and Ruin Book Club: Honore de Balzac's Lost Illusions
Welcome to the creative economy, which is built to strip mine from your body and soul any glimmer of talent, skill, or genius you might possess and exploit it. Our unlucky men, Lucien and David, a poet and an inventor, are looking to make their riches in pre-1848 France, only to find the world is not built to tolerate, let alone celebrate, people like them. They try their luck. It doesn't go well.
Video Killed the Journalist Star
We are all pivoting to video. Podcasters, journalists, editors are getting out their ring lights and their botox and they are staring intently into the camera to talk to YOU about what's going on. Is the human and tactile being offered as the antidote to the artificial AI slop? Or is this just surrendering to the influencer economy? Jessa and Nico make a solemn pledge, never to show the listeners
Taking Up Arms
With the expansion of ICE and the flood of untrained, unprepared, un-uniformed officers on the street, things are likely to get confusing and potentially violent. Nico and Jessa discuss the Trump admin's embrace of militia culture, why Colombia doesn't have militias, and what Jessa's weird obsession with Timothy McVeigh is all about. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.co
Touristification
It's summer, the time of year each nation flings its most obnoxious and provincial citizenry into the rest of the world on cruise ships and discount airlines. And the rest of the world responds to the binge drinking, the clacking of roller suitcases, and public displays of ignorance with, "Why are these people my problem exactly?" It's the annual Gringos On the Move episode, this time covering mas
The Antichrist Has Risen
Why is everyone so worried about the Antichrist again? After 9/11, the Evangelicals were afraid the Antichrist would take over the United Nations. Now Peter Thiel thinks this demon of destruction might be Greta Thunberg, but it's possible he just took psychedelics while watching Constantine and got scared. Jessa and Nico discuss why we're afraid of the apocalypse again, and whether Trump will ever
The Corrosion of Character
America doesn't really make things. Even in its financial system, the highest rewards go to those who speculate, making bets on things that other people have created but creating nothing real or tangible in itself. Jessa and Nico discuss the difficulty in reversing the trend toward service and virtual production as well as the effects that working in the spectral rather than material realms has on
Revolution and Ruin Book Club: George Sand's Indiana
Indiana is married to a brutish man who bullies and abuses her. She is followed around by her cousin Ralph, who loves her but remains a loyal friend to the man who stomps her on the face and kills her dog. Then there is Raymon, the scoundrel, who loves Indiana but is also sleeping with her maid Noun. It's a love pentagon, and somehow no one is having a very good time. George Sand's Indiana is a st
A Lack of Vision
Greg Grandin, author of the new book America, América, said in an interview this week, "You don't beat fascists by calling fascists, fascists. You beat fascists by offering an alternative and a broad vision of social democracy." But that vision is stalled or mired in nostalgia. Nico and Jessa consider how people on the left from Chris Murphy to Gustavo Petro seem stuck in a 20th century leftism in
Do I Have to Have Empathy for Men?
The day that Nico arrived in Colombia this week a presidential candidate was shot, reigniting old fears of perpetual chaos and instability. Meanwhile, Marines are on the streets of Los Angeles. When the Menswear guy gently suggested on social media that if people really cared about immigrants they should spend their time on real immigration cases and policy instead of burning cars, he was swiftly
How to Do Good
Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman wants to start a new brain drain -- starve industries like finance and consulting from the world's genius by redirecting Harvard grads into "good work." His new book is Moral Ambition, and in it he pleads with those who have a bit of talent, a bit of smarts, to use it to solve social problems rather than create them. Jessa and Nico go through the recent hi
Revolution and Ruin Book Club: Stendhal's The Red and the Black
The story of a young man, filled with fiery ambition, twisted political ideology, and resentment toward everyone and everything and utterly lacking adequate paternal guidance.... gee, I wonder why this might resonate in the age of incels, aspirational fascists, and Elon Musk reply-guys. The Revolution and Ruin podcast gets into 19th century France, manic pixie goth girls, misdirected rage, and why
Panic Merchants
AI is hallucinating whole genocides now, our influencers are at war with the bots, and the only beacon of truth and ethical journalism is.... Jake Tapper? Good luck! Jessa and Nico get into the Tapper/Thompson book Original Sin about the cover-up of Biden's decline and why the press is largely ignoring some of its bombshell revelations. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substac
The Wellness Grift
All our animals are going to die of bird flu, but at least we'll have raw milk cocktails to take the pain away. Casey Means was suggested for the Surgeon General post the same week that the sex cult/mindfulness startup OneTaste did their media redemption tour and the New York Times invited the wealthy and the celebrated to talk about their skincare regimens and if ruling the world stresses them ou
Fear of a Hunk Planet
Are the jiu jitsu men radicalized? Are gyms a white nationalist training camp? Is protein a masculinist conspiracy? Will the swole take up arms in their big meaty arms and overthrow the government? There has been a lot of fear of the swole and the ripped, with Ezra Klein calling UFC a gateway drug to rightwing radicalization and the New York Times referring to Hasan's physique as a "MAGA body." Je
An atheist and a recovering Christian walk into the Pope's funeral
Maybe two non-Catholics are not the best people to discuss the legacy Pope Francis is leaving behind, although Catholics like Ross Douthat and JD Vance are doing worse. Jessa cries about the death of the pope, and Nico manages to put his Catholic school trauma to the side to assess Pope Francis as a world leader and not just a religious one. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.su
Revolution and Ruin Book Club: Mary Shelley's The Last Man
Welcome to episode one of The Culture We Deserve's Book Club, Revolution and Ruin: Reading the European 19th Century. In this inaugural episode, Joseph and Jessa discuss Mary Shelley's The Last Man, a prophetic novel about disease, war, and the end of mankind. Unlike the apocalyptic spectacles of your standard end of the world movies and television shows, Shelley's slow burn gets into the grief an
The Art Gallery in the Mall of America
Looking back at the first round of the Culture Wars, with Jesse Helms discussing a crucifix submerged in urine on the floor of the senate, one figure remains misunderstood: Thomas Kinkade. The "Painter of Light." The guy your alcoholic grandmother who would never admit she terrorized you really loved. Kinkade's career combines the worst of American culture -- multi-level marketing schemes, Jesus C
Make America Go Away
Three professors who study totalitarianism and fascism have fled for Canada, is that bad? Is this brain drain or are our elites just refusing to be slightly inconvenienced by a situation they helped to create? Jessa and Nico discuss the capitulation of the academic Resistance, the great Elite Replacement, and why America wants to be Hungary so bad. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedese
Recovering America
With all the fuss about Adolescence and the concern about our adrift young men, we have to wonder: are we about to start sending our incels to re-education camps? Jessa and Nico look at RFK Jr's plan for sending the unwell, mentally ill, and addicted to farms (is this our new agricultural policy?), and how much of our economy is now dependent on putting people away: private prisons, rehab faciliti
America's Religious Revival
Ross Douthat has a new book, arguing that America needs a new religious revival. Sir, there is a theocracy establishing itself in Idaho, we have Tradcaths in the government trying to force us all back into patriarchal marriages, is now really the time?? America has always been weird about god, we can't seem to contemplate him for more than ten seconds at a time without praying he destroys the whol
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