Shows / The Culture We Deserve
The Culture We Deserve
Hosted by Jessa Crispin, The Culture We Deserve covers the state of the arts.
Episodes
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
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 Culture We Deserve
Your Culture Is Our Content
Netflix doesn't just make reality dating shows that violate multiple international human rights treaties -- they also make adaptations of the world's greatest…
- The Culture We Deserve
The Ozempic Economy
MAHA is already a mess. With RFK's recent humiliation ritual at Steak N Shake, the return of factory farming, and an international takeover of our rural land…
- The Culture We Deserve
It's the Annual Lazy Oscars Episode!
The sex worker community hates Anora, Mexicans hate Emilia Perez, brutalists hate The Brutalist... is this where representation culture has left us? The big…
- The Culture We Deserve
What Is Wrong With Men
From the cult of incels running our government to Trump's alliance with Andrew Tate to Elon Musk's mountain of neglected baby boys, one has to ask, what is…
- The Culture We Deserve
250 Years of This, Seven Months Left to Go
As America gears up to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Jessa and Nico discuss this country's obsession with its founding, what Kamala's vision for the…
- The Culture We Deserve
we welcome our new antiwoke cultural overlords
Christopher Rufo and the rest of the anti-DEI crew are planning for a new conservative art world: please, can you spare some aesthetics? What can we all expect…
- The Culture We Deserve
dead geniuses
With the release of the Brian Eno documentary, one has to wonder: What is the real cause of our cultural stagnation? Is it that the United States is incapable…
- The Culture We Deserve
The Brutalist is the Future of Film (Derogatory)
Is America capable of creating geniuses anymore, or just technicians who feed the nostalgia for the age of auteurs? Just a few months ago, The Brutalist was…
- The Culture We Deserve
would you help me die?: death influencers and euthanasia immersion
As assisted suicide becomes more widely available, here come the death influencers. Is it wrong to monetize your suicide? Where does all this "normalization"…
- The Culture We Deserve
we will find out if things can get worse
Predictions! What will the glorious year of 2025 hold for us? Nico and Jessa try to sort it all out. Will Harvard graduates stop referring to themselves as…
- The Culture We Deserve
best and worst of the year
Fine, we give up trying to make original content, let's make a list! Jessa and Nico talk about the best and worst films, television, books, art, and music of…
- The Culture We Deserve
the class war is a shooting war
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
no second acts in american life
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
bad dads: from joe rogan to cormac mccarthy to javier milei
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
What Is Working Class Culture
Quick, how do we politically, financially, and culturally exploit the lower classes, now that the politicians admit maybe wealth inequality and the abandonment…
- The Culture We Deserve
sore winners: what trump supporters and harris endorsers have in common
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
There is a Trump Wicker Man in an Empty Lot in Kensington Philadelphia
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
who you vote for is private, but whether you vote is public
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
every day horrors
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…
- The Culture We Deserve
welcome to the feel bad show
Still dealing with pre-election tension. But some bullying ads ("everyone will know whether you voted!") have us thinking, is it true what they say, that the…
- The Culture We Deserve
AI Bot Me
Everyone is eager to turn themselves into a robot these days. Deepak Chopra has created an AI spiritual guru version of himself, Laura Kipnis botted herself up…
- The Culture We Deserve
Eclipse Season: Olivia Nuzzi, Mark Robinson, and Other Moral Dilemmas
The Lunar Eclipse brought America some moral dilemmas. Too bad America doesn't believe in morals anymore. Should a reporter sext with the people she profiles?…
- The Culture We Deserve
Going to a Town That Has Already Been Burned Down
People are fed up with the United States (again), and are threatening to leave if the election doesn't swing their way. American expat enclaves are popping up…
- The Culture We Deserve
The New Cold Wars
Google Books wanted to scan all the books of the world to digitize and hoard them and, potentially, monetize them. OpenAI wants to scan the history of human…
- The Culture We Deserve
Obamacore and the End of Woke
We are apparently so nostalgic for the Obama years that we are happy to forget whatever lessons we may have learned in the last eight years. New York Magazine…
- The Culture We Deserve
The Means of Overproduction: Mr Beast, TikTok War Crimes, and Elon Musk Doing Coups
In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, when a scrappy crew of kids tries to save America to get the truth out about a corrupt businessman, the businessman swarms the…
- The Culture We Deserve
Mr Walz Goes to Washington
Just a small town guy, beloved by children, sent to Washington to do the right thing -- is Tim Walz our chance to live in a Frank Capra film? Jessa and Nico…
- The Culture We Deserve
Battle of the Sexy
If your idea of a woman is small, frail, vulnerable, and weak, how do you look at women in sports? Well, by assuming that every woman who is strong…
- The Culture We Deserve
What Does a Woman Symbolize?
There's trouble in the tradwife multi-verse, restarting the convo about whether tradwives are Nazi bait or helpless babies who need saving from their own…
- The Culture We Deserve
JD Vance and the Perils of Authenticity
How did a guy with as little charisma and charm as JD Vance end up as Donald Trump's running mate? Because of his authenticity. He symbolizes the American…
- The Culture We Deserve
God Doesn't Call the Qualified
Congratulations to all the TikTok astrology girls, you were right about someone trying to shoot the former president mid-July. Please enjoy life under…
- The Culture We Deserve
Elites Against Elites
The elites are feeling weird again. Biden blames the Elites for pushing him to retirement, Marine le Pen and other populists are claiming to protect the little…
- The Culture We Deserve
Retire, B----: Gerontocracy and the Scramble for Power
Alternative title for this episode: Don't let the Prez sundown on me. Why is the inability to retire or withdraw, damn the consequences, a recurring problem in…
- The Culture We Deserve
The No-Kid Zone: Lowered Birth Rates and Growing Hostility to Children
Is American culture hostile to children? With certain hotels, resorts, restaurants, and other public spaces forbidding the presence of kids, and the government…
- The Culture We Deserve
Publishing Books is a Mistake
Amazon controls everything, literature is culturally irrelevant outside of the Tiktok subgenres of Dark Academia Dark Romance Dark Fantasy, the industry is…
- The Culture We Deserve
The Artistic Age of Decline
What's an Arts District without any art? Mostly condo buildings named after composers, restaurants with a $200 seafood tower, and Madam Butterfly as muzak. And…
- The Culture We Deserve
She's Giving Mother: On Our Collective Mommy Issues
If the masculinity influencers like Tate and Huberman are our society's surrogate daddies, who are the women giving mother? Are the makeup YouTube tutorials…
- The Culture We Deserve
The Agony of Fandom: Klopp's Reign Ends and Liverpool Continues On
It's not a great time to be a fan. The hooligan, the violent and illogical fanatic who will commit crimes to defend their faves, is no longer found only in…