What Rough Beast

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Mandeep Tiwana of CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations and activists working to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world. And CIVICUS just added the United States to its Watchlist.

In this episode, we talk about:

* Why CIVICUS has put the U.S. on a democracy watchlist alongside countries like Serbia and Congo

* The scary erosion of basic American freedoms like protesting, speaking out, and organizing

* How America's gone through rough patches before, but why this time feels way more alarming

* How democracy is torn down with alarming speed, and takes decades and centuries to rebuild

* What regular Americans can do to spot these freedom-crushing red flags before things get even worse

This episode is free to all listeners, but please consider becoming a paid Magic + Loss subscriber. Every dollar goes to the continued fight against fascism.

What Rough Beast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new episodes and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Michael Tomasky, author, journalist and editor of The New Republic.

In this episode, we talk about:

* The media earthquake nobody's talking about - this was the FIRST election where Fox News and right-wing media actually out-muscled the mainstream press in setting the national agenda (and it explains SO much about Trump's win)

* The impossible trap journalists face today: try to debunk crazy stories about "immigrants eating pets" and you end up amplifying the very nonsense you're fighting against 🤦‍♀️

* All the wild stuff happening just LAST WEEK - from Trump's team spilling military secrets in Signal chats to straight-up extorting law firms (and Michael doesn't hold back on what this says about their contempt for rules)

* A brilliant idea that could save Democrats: create a "shadow government" like the Brits do, with designated people to tackle each Trump disaster instead of everyone scrambling to respond to everything

* Proof that good journalism still matters! The New Republic's reporting actually forced the Trump administration to restore a program tracking Ukrainian children taken by Russians (small wins in dark times)

This episode is free to all listeners, but please consider becoming a paid Magic + Loss subscriber. Every dollar goes to the continued fight against fascism.

What Rough Beast is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Nicholas Dames, a Columbia professor and editor-in-chief of Public Books. In this episode, we talk about:

* The importance of political imagination in building community beyond our immediate circles of concern

* How George Eliot's "Middlemarch" offers a model for empathetic action even during challenging times

* The tension between stoicism and engagement as responses to political upheaval

* How today's college students face unique anxieties about their futures and limited options

This episode is free to all listeners, but please consider becoming a paid Magic + Loss subscriber. Every dollar goes to the continued fight against fascism.

What Rough Beast is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Eric Reinhart, a physician-anthropologist of law, psychiatry, and public health and a psychoanalytic clinician in Chicago. A recent piece of his, “RFK Jr.’s Mental Health Bait and Switch,” recently appeared in The New Republic.

In this episode, we talk about:

⭐️ How the politics of health and mental healthcare are intertwined, and how clinical approaches often focus too narrowly on individual interventions rather than addressing broader social determinants of health

⭐️ The weaponization of mental health critiques by political figures like RFK Jr. and the Trump administration, who accurately identify problems in our healthcare system but propose destructive rather than constructive solutions

⭐️ How mental health "destigmatization" has benefited some groups while further marginalizing others, particularly those with serious mental illness

⭐️ The need for community-based care models and public infrastructure that values neighbor-to-neighbor support rather than solely relying on medical professionals

⭐️ The connection between eugenicist ideologies and certain public health approaches that prioritize individual responsibility over structural solutions

This episode is free to all listeners, but please consider becoming a paid Magic + Loss subscriber. Every dollar goes to the continued fight against fascism.

What Rough Beast is a reader-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Ben Tarnoff, whose latest book is Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future. We discuss:

⭐️ How the dynamics between Trump and Musk reveal surprising power shifts, with Musk emerging as the dominant figure in what many describe as an unexpected alliance

⭐️ The deep connections between toxic masculinity and tech culture, including how Silicon Valley's ethos of "conquest" and "elimination of opponents" aligns with MAGA politics

⭐️ How wealth in tech capitalism is socially created but privately owned, and how this contradiction is filtered through gendered thinking about individualism versus interdependency

⭐️ The performance of hyper-masculinity across socioeconomic spectrums, from struggling men to billionaires like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk

⭐️ The potential fractures within Trump's coalition and what they might mean for the future of his administration and American politics

This episode is free to all listeners, but please consider becoming a paid Magic + Loss subscriber. Every dollar goes to the continued fight against fascism.

What Rough Beast is a reader-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Nika Dubrovsky, artist, author and founder of the Museum of Care with her late husband, the anthropologist David Graeber. We discuss:

⭐️ The collapse of empires: Nika draws fascinating parallels between the fall of the Soviet Union and current trends in American society, suggesting we may be witnessing the collapse of the American empire similar to how the Soviet system unexpectedly disappeared "from one day to another."

⭐️ The Museum of Care: An innovative project Nika conceived with her late husband David Graeber during COVID, reimagining museum spaces as networks of care rather than consumption, with a physical location now developing in St. Vincent using an abandoned ship.

⭐️ Decolonizing the Enlightenment: Exploring how Enlightenment ideas weren't solely Western European inventions but developed through conversations with indigenous populations and in places like Madagascar, challenging traditional historical narratives.

⭐️ Feminist economic theory: Nika shares David Graeber's perspective that "the best thing that happened in the 20th century is feminism," explaining how their work recognizes the undervalued care work primarily performed by women in cultural institutions.

⭐️ Finding community amid collapse: Even as empires fall, we can create meaningful communities based on "solidarity and mutual aid" rather than utopian ideals.

To hear our discussion, you’ll need to be a paid Magic + Loss subscriber. So if you’re not a subscriber, please sign up now! Subscriptions are $6 per month or $60 for the year. (Can’t afford a subscription? Send us an email and we’ll give you a freebie, no questions asked.)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

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You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Brooke Harrington, author of Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism and a professor of sociology at Dartmouth, about:

⭐️ The rise of the "broligarchy": how today's tech billionaire bros are playing a whole different game than old-sch…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Baratunde Thurston about:

⭐️ The accelerated harm in current politics: how quickly harmful policies are being implemented, affecting immigrants, LGBTQ+ communities, federal workers, and international relations.

⭐️ The crisis of democracy and c…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com

“The professors are the enemy,” says J.D. Vance. Are they, really?

This week on What Rough Beast, Stephen Metcalf and Virginia Heffernan speak with Wesleyan President Michael Roth about Trump’s authoritarian coup and what universities must do.

As the coup gains speed, and rightwing campaigns to destabilize universities notch victories, Roth has taken a pu…

What are we all whining about?

On this episode of “What Rough Beast,” the great Turkish journalist Aslı Aydıntaşbaş tells Americans to grow up. To finish of Musk and MAGA, we need to marshal the power of the states. Fire up those famous checks and balances. Don’t be scared of infighting.

And—for heaven’s sake—get an emcee with rizz.

To Virginia, this sounds easier said than done.

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If you’re being neurologically hammered by news from the front of Elon Musk’s coup, you’re probably reading scoops by Vittoria Elliott.

Whether you’ve clocked her byline or not, it’s Elliott’s jaw-dropping reporting—and that of her WIRED team—that is driving coverage of Musk’s occupation of the U.S. government.

On this episode of What Rough Beast, Vitto…

Today on What Rough Beast we talk to the great Miriam Elder, whose NY Times op-ed “Don’t Let Donald Trump Drive You Into Internal Exile,” got Stephen and Virginia dreaming of how to check out and skip T2 entirely. When they weren’t having nightmares about Jack Smith’s extinction, that is.

And while Elder acknowledges the powerful seductions of internal exile—she counsels us against it. And gives Stephen and Virginia ideas of what to do. Dammit: why we always gotta stay in the fight?

What Rough Beast is a labor of love and venom. The podcast aims to bring imagination, gallows humor, and fun, relatable despair to the T2 years. The founding principle is simple: Humans make the world and we can remake it anytime. We’re so glad it’s landing for so many of you.Interviews with PRK on the IRA and Luigi, Liz Weil on annoying activists, Peter Shamshiri on the jacked Supreme Court—the response has been tremendous. Next up is the great Miriam Elder on internal exile, meaning complete under-weighted-blanket denial.One recent reviewer said, “Clear fresh water in a desert. Deeply and respectfully affirming. IMO this is essential for anyone who thinks, and feels, and cares.” <3

Today we pass the hat. Any donation you can make is hugely appreciated. It will let us live to hope together, and make meaning and action of that hope, another day.

What Rough Beast is a reader-supported podcast. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

You can do this in the form of a paid subscription to this newsletter (also giftable to those in your life who are not yet subscribers), which will also let you access comments and the whole Magic + Loss newsletter including advice about political action and powerful men who risk it all for their infatuations with other powerful men and the spray-tanned MAGA youth who drive them.For those who don’t celebrate Substack, you can Venmo a donation to @vpheffernan. Those donations will go directly to our crew, who are making this show happen for no cash (and with all heart). Please also consider one of the big $150 donations in the form of a charter membership. Yes—it’s a lot! But holy smokes it helps! You charter beasts will have a chance to call in with questions or jokes, as well as receive swag in the spirit of the French 68ers.Those hot free-love 68ers in their cool clothes—like all of you—are our inspiration. La lutte continue. We live how we want!With fear for our democracy,Virginia

“Smart. Funny. Hopeful. Heffernan and Metcalf are a perfect pair. We need this kind of problem-solving, forward-thinking collaboration. Listen in.”

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In this live-recorded episode, we invite a few guests to distract us from the Inauguration that by all accounts was a Nazi rally. Hear about the new masculinity from Moira Donegan, what the left should do now from Michael Hirschorn and the enabling of pseudo-realities from Kurt Andersen.

If you missed us live, you can check out the recording here.

What Rough Beast is a reader-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

In this interview with Peter Shamshiri (5-4 Pod, If Books Could Kill), we discuss the transformation of the Supreme Court and conservative legal movement in America. We explore how the court has become increasingly aligned with conservative political ideology, the Federalist Society's 40-year influence, the role of originalism as a legal philosophy, and significant cases like Dobbs, Citizens United, and Trump v. Hawaii.

How is it that personal grievances, cultural resentments, and abortion rights became central to conservative legal thought? And what will be the Court's future role under this second Trump presidency? Listen now!

What Rough Beast is a reader-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

On our third episode, Elizabeth Weil joins Virginia and Stephen to discuss forms of radicalism as we head into an American regime that might call for it. In her New York Magazine piece, the climate activists Liz profiles capsize our assumptions about protest, democracy, and the speed of social change.

Weil profiles provocateur and depressive Donald Zepeda, one of several radical activists who disrupt decorum by throwing paint on the Constitution’s protective glass—not to destroy these cultural objects, obviously, but to force us to confront how complacent are. Asheville is laid to waste and we can’t tolerate spill at an art museum? Weil shows how provocateurs like Donald Zepeda are consciously choosing to be annoying and disliked in service of the climate catastrophe, following in the tradition of ACT UP.

But who in the coming regime is really going to risk stepping out of line and being disliked? It’s harder than it sounds.

What Rough Beast is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support this work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

In the second episode of What Rough Beast, we speak with Patrick Radden Keefe, whose nonfiction account of the Irish Republican Army, Say Nothing, was adapted last year into a Hulu series. Virginia Heffernan speaks with the acclaimed author of Empire of Pain about the parallels between those Irish radicals and Luigi Mangione.

Thanks for reading Magic + Loss! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

In our inaugural episode of WHAT ROUGH BEAST, Stephen Metcalf and I discuss the election, with a refresher on who won and who lost. We take an inventory of our despair and gallows humor and blind hope. Richard Rorty comes up. And stuff that happened to us in high school. In short: What’s to become of America?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe

In this preview of our podcast “What Rough Beast,” Stephen Metcalf and I discuss what this podcast is, why it matters now, and what the deal is with our NAME.

Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for episode 1.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe