Next Comes What

Wild-eyed extremists running our government have resurrected hateful pseudoscience. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/maha-s-american-eugenics WATCH: YouTube: https://youtu.be/y6jjSW-1J6A TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews Get Next Comes What wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.link/1779885475 This week, "Next Comes What" looks at the various ways that the administration has adopted discredited historical views on eugenics and turned them into policies that have already killed hundreds of thousands of people. From RFK Jr. undermining vaccine programs and environmental regulations here at home to DOGE cutting lifesaving USAID programs abroad, the US government is actively dismantling the nation's public health apparatus. Andrea Pitzer talks about her reporting decades ago on the history of American eugenics and the legendary Buck v. Bell case that the US Supreme Court used to allow involuntary sterilization of people deemed defective. The episode has a cameo from someone Andrea met back then: Paul Lombardo, a leading US voice on bioethics and the history of eugenics. Lombardo frames the current administration's policy as not just influenced by our eugenic legacy but as actually adopting eugenics. Andrea also addresses the ways that current obsessions with fertility, purity, and genetic superiority are reanimating discredited principles of eugenics. Though the federal government's footprint in public health is too massive a lift for local programs to replace through small-scale efforts, the episode closes with ideas on how to keep a record of what's happening, push back politically, and stem the effects of the current eugenic tide until this administration can be consigned to the dustbin of history. 0:11 — MAHA's American Eugenics: How Trump and RFK Jr. Are Reviving a Dark History 2:26 — The Origins of American Eugenics: From Francis Galton to Madison Grant 4:57 — RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary: Anti-Vax, Germ Theory Denial, and Public Health Sabotage 6:17 — Purity Culture and Pseudoscience: The Eugenic Logic Behind MAGA Health Policy 10:01 — Carrie Buck and Buck v. Bell: The Supreme Court Case That Enabled Mass Sterilization 12:27 — What a Leading Eugenics Scholar Says About the Trump Administration 14:40 — USAID Cuts and Global Eugenics: How Foreign Aid Destruction Fits the Pattern 16:50 — Pro-Natalism, Birth Rates, and the Billionaire Push to Control Who Reproduces 21:55 — Negative Eugenics in Immigration Detention: Disease, Neglect, and Population Control 28:59 — What You Can Do: Protecting Public Health in Your Community

When times get grim, it's tempting to resort to political violence.   But what if nonviolence packs a bigger punch?     Listen & Subscribe Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Full post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/on-violence Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.link/1779885475    WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/AOwdAIDU7tg  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   About This Episode   This week's episode looks at Cole Allen, who's facing federal charges after trying to bring weapons into the White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton in April. Andrea Pitzer talks about the desperate times we face as a country and lays out why she chooses nonviolent responses. She walks through a handful of reasons that frame her decision to reject violence, from the effectiveness of past nonviolent movements at home and abroad to nonviolent tactics' greater precision as a tool. And she shares her personal conviction, after growing up in a violent household, that she doesn't want to inject more violence into a system already saturated with it. Andrea also frames violence as hardly attention-getting in the US at this point. It's intended to be dramatic theater, but it's so omnipresent, it can become background noise to Americans. Considering the divide between Stephen Miller's ultraviolent approach on immigration, and Tom Homan's less spectacular violence, Andrea looks at how Trump embraces violence and has a solid understanding of how to use it for political theater. But what if nonviolent theater is more surprising and more effective in response? The episode closes with ways to think about using nonviolent tactics in your own community and the larger world.   Chapters 0:00 Cole Allen's Weapons Arrest at the White House Correspondents' Dinner 3:20 Why Political Violence Tends to Backfire 3:47 Assassination, WWI, and the Unintended Consequences of Violence 5:37 Why Strategy and Discipline Are Essential for Real Change 8:26 America's Policed Society: How Violence Becomes the Default 17:58 Trump's Relationship with Violence: Rhetoric, Power, and Impunity 19:31 Why the Civil Rights Nonviolence Model Still Applies Today 22:09 Stephen Miller vs. Tom Homan: The Politics of Immigration Violence 24:34 Nonviolent Theater as the Most Powerful Counter to Authoritarian Power

There are a lot of ways to cure our ailing country. Here's how to convince the patient to cooperate. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/a-sick-society WATCH on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vNY5K9g0Qgw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-comes-what/id1779885475 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7lUaIWeKl0oET2DJVTWhy4 Everywhere else: https://pod.link/1779885475 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews Here's a link to the Duke panel on public health and families in immigration detention that Andrea mentions in the episode: https://warpwire.duke.edu/w/MUoJAA/ This week's episode of Next Comes What considers our crisis of democracy through the lens of medicine. Andrea Pitzer looks at recent rulings by U.S. courts on the Voting Rights Act and mifepristone, as well as a billionaire purchasing his second copy of the Constitution and suggests that what's wrong with our society will take more than just elections to fix (though elections remain critical!). Andrea uses a framework of public health to think about how improvements can happen. If diagnosis is understanding what's going wrong, what condition we're dealing with, prescription is figuring out what the best treatment options are. There's a lot of solid diagnosis out there from people doing incisive analysis of our democratic collapse, and a number of good suggestions on how to fix our systems and fireproof them from future authoritarian threats. But the hardest part of public health work is getting individuals and communities on board--getting people to buy in. Andrea runs through ways that do and don't work, arguing that there's no need to coddle racists or endorse hate to meet people where they're at. She argues for creating a vision of a society that people will want to be part of, one that will deliver for them and invites them to come along. In the end, we'll have to get some people involved who aren't on board yet. Andrea closes by arguing that the patient is treatable, and that in fact countless successful local examples of organizing and successful change are already happening around the country.

A guide to understanding our new concentration-camp era and how to fight it. A re-release of a Next Comes What from July 10, 2025. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/what-s-in-a-name Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Subscribe to this channel on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@DegenerateArtNewsletter?sub_confirmation=1 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews In this episode, Andrea Pitzer lays out the definition of a concentration camp and breaks down each part of it. She looks at international trends in concentration camps across the last century and the specific U.S. history that has made the country vulnerable to propaganda demonizing immigrants and others. Addressing the advantages and disadvantages of comparing modern detention facilities to concentration camps and even Auschwitz, Andrea explores why what we choose to call these places matters. Coming to the conclusion that the new camp in the Everglades is a concentration camp and signals a massive expansion of extrajudicial detention that threatens all Americans, Andrea offers listeners a big-picture plan for how to strategically insert themselves into efforts to combat the concentration camp trend, from local projects to national movements.

A look at the ways that lives of tyrants come to an end, and how that might shape what you should be doing now. Re-release from August 28, 2025. Get more from Andrea and support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/when-trump-is-gone  Subscribe to this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DegenerateArtNewsletter?sub_confirmation=1 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews A look at the ways that lives of tyrants come to an end, and how that might shape what you should be doing now. This week, Andrea Pitzer looks at Trump's recent signs of mental and physical decline and addresses the long history of authoritarians hiding infirmity and the resulting costs of their deception. She considers how the last Shah of Iran misled nearly everyone about his cancer, destabilizing his country, the Middle East, and a U.S. election in the wake of his lies. Andrea recalls officials' obsequiousness toward a series of late-Soviet leaders from Brezhnev to Chernenko, and the comic ways that leaders have lied to the nation. As Trump continues to dismantle so much of what's good about the U.S., with old outrages grinding on while new ones seem to arrive hourly, running from crisis to crisis can feel like using a thimble full of water to put out a forest fire. Considering the Miccosukee people of Florida's recent victory against the concentration camp in the Everglades, Andrea uses their focus on their values and their way of life to suggest an approach for people nationwide to find meaningful and effective paths to respond to Trumpism. One day, he'll be gone. What do you want to bring into being in the world that will outlast him?

Actions to take while Andrea takes the rest of April off to finish her next book, SNOWBLIND. Subscribe to support this podcast and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe You can find all the links Andrea mentions here: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/april-10-friday-roundup  Movement Call: National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention, April 14 https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/932124/  Communities Not Cages: National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention, April 25 https://www.mobilize.us/notabovethelaw/event/934571/  MayDay Strong, May 1 https://maydaystrong.org/ 

Trump is using deportations to create an international concentration camp system. We need to shut it down. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/planet-of-the-camps WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/UWjrDtHkPwg  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week, Andrea Pitzer looks at third-country deportations of immigrants under Trump—when detainees are forced out of the U.S. but can't be sent to the country they emigrated from. Washington now has agreements in place with dozens of countries, and reports about the conditions of detention are grim. Delving into the history of cross-border camps, from Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in the 1940s to Operation Condor in South America decades later, Andrea shows the past harms that have occurred in these systems. Moving closer to the present day, she identifies the War On Terror after 9/11 as a pivot point for the creation of third-country black sites in the name of counterterrorism. Noting the lasting damage of those sites both to the host countries and back in the U.S., Andrea explores the current trajectory of third-country transports, which have been limited thus far. But 13,000 immigrants are currently at risk for this kind of deportation. The episode closes with suggestions on how to take action and a referral to the Third Country Deportation Watch website, as well as listing some successes in fighting back against deportation to high-risk settings like Libya.    0:00 Trump's Reckless War and the Road to Madness 0:43 Wars Abroad and Concentration Camps at Home: The Historical Link 2:44 ICE Violence, Kidnappings, and Citizens Shot in the Street 3:02 Trump and Miller's Global Concentration Camp Network 4:25 Third-Country Deportations: Exporting Cruelty Around the World 6:22 The CECOT Prison Deal: Venezuela, El Salvador, and the Disappeared 10:49 13,000 Immigrants Targeted for Third-Country Deportation 12:31 Historical Precedents: Nazi Transit Camps and Soviet Deportations 15:23 The War on Terror's Black Sites and the Legacy of US-Backed Torture 19:16 How to Fight Back: Legal Aid, Journalism, and Organizing

The movement behind the biggest single-day protest in US history understands that the assignment is to save democracy. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe    Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/does-no-kings-matter    WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/yz-1BW4D3cA  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews    This week's episode looks at No Kings protests, asking what role they can or can't play in freeing the country from Trump and his collaborators. Andrea Pitzer recounts last Saturday's events around the country, including her morning spent crossing the Memorial Bridge in DC with protesters. A look at research conducted over the weekend by Dana Fisher, a professor at American University, reveals who the protesters are, why they showed up, and what they're planning to do.   Andrea suggests that this series of coast-to-coast demonstrations are creating a nationwide fabric knitting communities together at the ground level, bringing the rest of the country into conversation and action, mirroring successful local resistance in places like Chicago, LA, and Minneapolis. Looking at the current regime as a challenge larger than any one person or party, she points to the vast convulsion against the president and his policies as the beginning of a national reconstruction—one based on rejecting the current litany of exclusion and hatred. In closing, Andrea points to national groups like States at the Core (https://www.stacup.org/) and Indivisible and the ways they're maintaining momentum—from plans for May Day to training on how to organize on the ground where you live. She considers the community actions with long traditions that are gaining strength around the country, and new tactics that people are inventing to transform the world.   Watch The Breakdown with Erica Chenoweth and Steve Levitsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0MmLBxxziA See Dana Fischer's 'No Kings' data: https://danarfisher.com/2026/03/29/anti-war-sentiment-surges-at-no-kings-3/ 

People who aren't already standing up against fascism can be persuaded to. Here's how to reach them without having to embrace hateful policies. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/no-thing-that-they-believe  WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/oVb88YNIeBA  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews    This week's "Next Comes What" focuses on the work and ideas of Anat Shenker-Osorio. A cognitive linguist, Shenker-Osorio has made a career of seeing what kinds of messaging help persuade the public to support progressive issues and candidates. Host Andrea Pitzer talks to her about the tactics activists used to win abortion rights in Argentina, and how a series of campaigns in Australia helped free people seeking asylum who were held offshore in concentration camps for years. They discuss why embracing hateful views in the name of convincing "moderates" is a dead-end strategy, because moderates—at least in the way they're trotted out for these debates—don't really exist. "It's not the job of a good message to say what's popular," Shenker-Osorio says. "It's the job of a good message to make popular what we need said, because we have an agenda we need to enact, and because that's how we win." The episode closes with Shenker-Osorio herself making suggestions about effective terms for everyday folks to use in speaking out against Trump and his minions, as well as specific actions we can take to push back right now—including taking some joy in resistance. 0:00 - Why Words Matter: Introducing Anat Shenker-Osorio & the Science of Political Messaging 3:43 - What Is the Race Class Narrative and How Did It Change Progressive Strategy? 7:03 - Abortion Rights in Argentina: How Organizers Won with Values-Based Messaging 8:29 - Australia's Offshore Detention: A Case Study in Messaging Failure and Victory 11:20 - Base, Persuadables, and Opposition: How to Target Your Message for Maximum Impact 15:16 - Why Hyper-Moderation Fails: Stop Copying the Right to Beat the Right 22:08 - How Shifting Culture Shifts Votes: The Power of Social Proof and Same-Sex Marriage 26:34 - Drop "Administration," Say "Regime": The Language We Need Right Now 30:13 - Hope vs. Despair: What to Do When Change Feels Impossible 34:35 - Action Items: Protests, Boycotts, and Nonviolent Resistance You Can Join Today

Concentration camps are spreading across the US today. Here's why it matters what we call them. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the February post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/what-counts-as-a-concentration-camp WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/W3aMgiR9mMI  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week's episode is a response to Jake Tapper discouraging the use of the term "concentration camp" on CNN while interviewing a bookstore owner describing people in his community being sent to concentration camps during ICE operations. Andrea Pitzer looks at Tapper's consistent stance and traces it back to at least 2019 in an interview with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in which he acknowledges she might be using the term "concentration camp" correctly on a technical level. But he points out that most Americans think of death camps when they hear those words. And he talks about the pain that overuse inflicts on those who suffered in Nazi camps and on their families. Andrea looks at Dachau in particular, which was not a death camp, and wonders whether Tapper would consider it a concentration camp or not, and whether it only became a concentration camp nearly a decade into its existence, after the extermination camps were set up. If Dachau can be called a concentration camp, then what about the camps with similar conditions and similar functions that were operating in other parts of the world. She considers what actually constitutes a camp, at what point those camps can accurately be named, the uses of doing so, and the risks of not seeing what is happening before our eyes.

Is there a link between a specific subset of men who resent their exes and everything wrong in the country today? Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-most-divorced-men-in-history WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/srV7aQcE7mA  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   The latest "Next Comes What" considers Trump and his lackeys through the prism of being the most divorced guys in history. Andrea Pitzer points out how reckless and chaotic the administration's actions are, and notes the oft-discussed concept of divorced-guy energy, in which some men adopt self-destructive behaviors and become resentful of their exes. She offers up Trump himself, Russell Vought, Pete Hegseth, and RFK Jr. as examples. JD Vance and Stephen Miller qualify in their own ways, despite not being divorced. Andrea considers Elon Musk perhaps the most divorced guy in the world.   The episode then covers a recent study from Rural Sociology actually identifying a pattern among some (but not all) men in communities undergoing social or economic shifts, in which they embrace risk-taking and often self-destructive behaviors. When the researcher asked why in interviews, this particular group of men often brought up a partner they were no longer with, and expressed resentment about that person. She considers them in light of the already-identified concept of reactive protest masculinity. Andrea takes a hypothetical leap (because the study was quite small), and wonders whether this is a scientific identification of divorced-guy energy, and suggests what it might mean for the country if a similar pattern is happening in and around the White House. She closes with thoughts on how to push back on what Trump is doing if this administration is in fact acting out reactive protest masculinity on a global scale.

Classic authoritarian tactics reveal what Trump is hoping to do, but they may backfire. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/starting-wars-and-spying-at-home WATCH Watch Andrea as part of the 50501 call "Fighting and Winning Against Trumpʻs Concentration Camps" https://youtu.be/IyszCsiUq2U?si=HB1te6l_tfRog3b4  YouTube: https://youtu.be/5y4aB70ZcFA  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews The latest "Next Comes What" covers two significant events from the last week: the massive bombing attack conducted by the U.S. and Israel on Iran and OpenAI's announcement that it would partner with the government just hours before the attack began. Andrea Pitzer looks at the guardrails OpenAI competitor Anthropic had attempted to set up in recent weeks, drawing red lines around fully autonomous weapons and any use of its products for domestic surveillance. And she outlines how Open AI appears to have agreed to something that Anthropic would not in order to seal the deal with the government. Both the bombing of Iran and the possible opening of floodgates for increased domestic surveillance reflect two classic strategies of wannabe and established authoritarians. Andrea explains how such leaders use external conflict to try to unify the people behind problematic policies, and expand domestic surveillance to suppress dissent. But right out of the gate, the war on Iran is unpopular with the American public. And recent work from Marcel Dirsus suggests that increased surveillance can actually work against tyrannical aims over time, creating the illusion of control, as governing elites become more isolated and paranoid. Trump may very well not get what he wants out of either tactic. Andrea closes the episode with some thoughts for how to take action. 

The US is detaining pregnant children in Texas and limiting their access to health care. We shouldn't tolerate this obscenity. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/mothers-and-the-disappeared WATCH THIS EPISODE YouTube: https://youtu.be/TAdTQWt_5cg TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews Our episode this week looks at events in San Benito, Texas, where pregnant immigrant minors are being detained by the US government. As recently as 2024, the facility was kept from receiving pregnant minors due to mismanagement of medical appointments and care plans. More importantly, the former head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement during Trump's first administration has explained that moving pregnant girls there from around the country is done entirely to keep them from getting access to abortions.   Andrea Pitzer discusses the significant risks that pregnant adolescents face in giving birth compared to women in their twenties. She also looks at the history of pregnant detainees in Argentina under dictatorship, where hundreds of women were killed after giving birth, their children handed off to members of the military or their allies to raise as their own. The toll of that especially heinous family separation has torn families apart for generations in Argentina.

Small fixes to ICE brutality can be dangerous, because they run the risk of entrenching what we want to stop. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/institutionalizing-harm Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-comes-what/id1779885475  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7lUaIWeKl0oET2DJVTWhy4 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week's episode begins by considering the reforms to ICE operations that some Democratic leaders are demanding, as well as remarks by Hillary Clinton last weekend in Germany. Andrea Pitzer argues that what Democratic leadership is calling for runs the risk of making the overall Trump project on immigration permanent. She looks at how the talk of reforms is well-intentioned, but by failing to likewise address the larger problem, the opposition could solidify the expanding network of camps going forward. Andrea considers three examples from the history of detention at Guantanamo of how small shifts had huge, unfortunate repercussions, The first is from Bill Clinton's first term, and shows how an attempt to save the lives of some migrants in detention at Gitmo was successful, but it came at the cost of leaving the site a legal black hole with no guaranteed rights for detainees. The second example comes from the post-9/11 era, when the Supreme Court gave minimal rights to detainees in the third year of War on Terror abuses there, but did so without addressing the larger abomination that Guantanamo represented. Andrea's third example looks at the expeditionary project model used in 2007 to build Camp Justice for the big trial of 9/11 suspects expected to take place on the island. That trial has still not happened. But in recent weeks, the same expeditionary model has been funded through a Navy contract to stand up detention camps for immigrants on a vast and expedited basis inside US borders. Andrea closes with recent successes from everyday people and ways that anyone can take action to stop ICE and close the camps.

The Trump administration is pushing to acquire warehouses to stage mass deportations. But we can bust the concentration camp boom.   Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/building-the-camps WATCH THIS EPISODE YouTube: https://youtu.be/dR9WCWv9Dlk  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week Andrea Pitzer talks about the Trump administration's move toward the warehousing of human beings as part of its war on immigrants and everyone else. She looks at why this shift is a threat and why it's necessary for everyone to resist it now. All over the globe for more than a century, how to detain vast numbers of individuals with the least investment in their care has been a key concern of most of the world's worst leaders. Andrea explores how the US is now run by one of them. She looks at conditions in detention, the mushrooming expansion of camps, and what that means for every American. The episode closes with the many ways communities have successfully been fighting warehouse detention near them, and other ideas for how to resist and document the inhumanity being installed in towns and cities across the country.

A sea change is underway. Take heart, and keep going. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/it-s-happening WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/gryI7vyFaKM  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week's episode focuses on two events from Texas in recent days. The first is the release of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from a detention camp after court intervention. The second is the stunning upset in a Texas state senate race, which pro-labor veteran Taylor Rehmet won handily, though Donald Trump had defeated Kamala Harris in the same district by double digits just over a year ago. Andrea Pitzer looks at these recent happenings and despite the violence and turmoil still taking place nationwide, believes a sea change is underway. She walks listeners through recent court cases and polling that are going very much against the Trump administration. She traces local actions in places like Virginia and New Jersey working to keep ICE detention facilities out. She notes recent research from sociologist Dana Fisher, who has found tremendous support for organizations engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, including sit-ins and blockades.    It's not that the government isn't continuing to terrorize whole cities and communities. What the president and his allies are finding out is that being able to terrorize a people is often not sufficient to force them surrender. Bringing everyone into this fold of civil rights and humane treatment won't happen automatically. It takes work. But the seeds have been planted, and a movement is growing.

Demanding a perfect victim to justify outrage when law enforcement kills someone is a trap we don't have to step into.   Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first:  https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe   Read the post that inspired this episode:  https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-innocence-trap  Watch YouTube: https://youtu.be/-z3OVVkJBXM  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   This week, Andrea Pitzer considers four recent killings by law enforcement officers responsible for apprehending or detaining immigrants. She goes through the huge outpouring of sympathy after the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and notes the public tributes to them nationwide. The New Year's Eve killing of Keith Porter Jr., a Black man, drew outrage in Los Angeles, but did not get as much attention across the country for reasons that Andrea ponders. She then considers the ways the deaths of those seen as "good people" can galvanize Americans against state violence, but also run the risk of stepping into a trap.     The case of the death at Camp East Montana in Texas of Geraldo Lunas Campos, who had served sentences for criminal conduct in the past, including sexual contact with a minor, is more uncomfortable to consider. But Andrea argues that his offenses don't justify the building of a vast system of concentration camps, his being swept into them years after serving his time, or his being killed by guards in detention. And she warns that he is just as much of a canary in a coal mine for the risks faced by all Americans, documented or not, if we allow agents of the government to execute people with impunity. The longterm law enforcement violence that has been cheered on from both sides of the aisle has set the stage for where we are at now, and is an issue we will have to address as a country before we can truly be safe from the nightmare that ICE and Border Patrol are inflicting on the country today. The episode closes with what you can do to deal with this government violence and immigrant detention operations that are still taking place nationwide.

The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards. We can end the current nightmare. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/into-the-abyss  Watch this episode YouTube: https://youtu.be/L49CCANEbVI  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews  This week's episode discusses how societies come to concentration camps, and the ways ICE is helping the US to solidify into a concentration-camp regime. Andrea Pitzer discusses the rapidly rising numbers of those detained in immigration detention--some 66,000 at the end of 2025--with the agency's already stated eventual goal of arresting millions. She looks at the kidnappings, deliberate blindings, the murders of detainees in Texas and of random people out on the streets, and the general terror currently unleashed on cities led by politicians opposed to Trump. Andrea explains how concentration camps aid the rise of police states, and the ways terror becomes entrenched into bureaucracy. We are already deep in that process, and this year is critical. We must stop the calcification of the detention-camp system before we lose the ability to fight back. The US is currently holding more than three times as many people in immigration detention as the Nazis held in their concentration camp system in the spring of 1939, more than six years into the Third Reich. This situation has come to pass, Andrea argues, because of long-standing deep weaknesses in our system that have enforced second-class citizenship for millions at each stage of American history, allowing politicians to manipulate public fears for their own gain. But we also have a heritage of extraordinary resistance from everyday people, and Andrea outlines ways that everyone can help shut down the authoritarianism that is already here and getting worse.

The US government is attacking its own people (and others), but you don't have to spend your life feeling helpless or marinating in fear and fury. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/what-just-happened-7ad4 Watch this episode YouTube: https://youtu.be/mSClVKYVFlU  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews/video/7596153371589987598?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc  This week's episode covers the gravity of the moment in the US, the curse of glib centrist pundits, and how to come together in useful ways to fight the abuses the federal government is inflicting on civilians daily. Andrea Pitzer considers recent violence, particularly the murder of Renee Good, and looks at the ways we absorb current events and how we talk to one another and why they matter. Referencing the tendency to snipe at others who have similar views, Andrea addresses that the upside is that we do want to connect and change the current landscape. But the downside is that we often just go online to tear into or demotivate one other. Meanwhile, many pundits exist in some other universe entirely, where nothing changes or nothing matters. Dissecting a clip of David Brooks on the PBS NewsHour, Andrea outlines how his comparison of the conflict between ICE and unarmed civilians to an Ivy League football game reveals centrist pundit preoccupations and uselessness. They want to preserve a status quo in which there are two morally equivalent sides, while they get to referee. Yet the work of demonstrators and the brave people standing up to ICE across the country (especially in Minneapolis right now) are making a difference. US public opinion on ICE is shifting quickly and dramatically, which will help motivate politicians who haven't yet found a voice to protect the American people in the short run—and in the long run offers an opening to shatter the agencies that are methodically brutalizing the country. Andrea closes with an idea of how we might bring our voices together more powerfully going forward.

Donald Trump is just a symptom of our national disease. We have to--and we can--change the system that coughed him up. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-century-long-year Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/Mc_NuxKJ1AM  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews  This week, Andrea Pitzer focuses on the U.S. attack on Venezuela, looking at what we know, how recent events fit into history, and why it's important to stop Trump. But she also dives into why the president is just a symptom of what ails the country. The episode speed-runs the last two centuries of U.S. policy in the Americas, and the long history of intervention. Andrea shows how Trump's administration is mired in the rhetoric and fixations of the last century, with control over oil and anti-Communist obsessions determining how his advisors respond to almost every situation. More importantly, she talks about Trump as merely the vessel of the real dysfunction afflicting the U.S. This illness could have wormed its way into the Democratic Party instead of the Republican Party, building a propaganda machine and bringing some virulent, billionaire-backed populism to power in some other form. But it didn't, and we are where we are. Which means we have to fight the Republicans' assault on democracy while simultaneously building a new kind of national governance that rejects the rot at the core of the current system. Andrea quotes her former editor Laura Helmuth arguing that we need to "move slow and build things." The episode closes by referencing a handful of the evidence-based policies that would transform everyday Americans' lives, and encourages listeners to work for one long-term change that matters to them.

The tactics Trump allies are using to gin up hate against trans people reveal how propaganda works and why it's so dangerous. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe   Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/you-re-soaking-in-it   TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   In this week's episode, In this last episode for 2025, Andrea Pitzer reviews recent actions by the US and state governments targeting trans women and trans youth, showing how propaganda takes root and becomes effective over time. She considers the recent announcement by RFK Jr., the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the government's direct targeting of medical care for trans kids. Bizarre bathroom measures taken in Texas also get a mention, and show how politicians use these measures to garner political power for themselves. Turning to the UK, Andrea explores how quickly propaganda can shift a country's baseline acceptance for rights of minority groups when staff at key news outlets actively embrace exclusion. Considering how the recent shift in the US toward transphobia is being generated--especially the wave of anti-trans legislation--Andrea discusses evangelical Christianity's strong tradition of policing gender roles. From women's rights to the acceptance of gays and lesbians in the US, she shows how the expansion of rights is being strategically undone today.   Rep. Sarah McBride's informal speech on the Capitol states last week about being trans, as well as her prior public statements, offer useful ways to think about sidestepping the kind of back-and-forth that's unlikely to be productive in addressing transphobia. Andrea considers the value and shortcomings of shitposting in offering solidarity and changing hearts and minds. She closes with a look on how to find the most effective means to help close to home, where propaganda is weakest and easiest to undo.

Why the Trump administration (and a lot of other people) are trying to kill journalism, and what we can do to stop them. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/shredding-public-knowledge Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/s768y0SrCp8  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews In this week's episode, Andrea Pitzer looks at a new report on journalism from the Roosevelt Institute that reveals how corporate interests have prioritized power and profit, shattering news organizations and journalism itself. She goes further than the report to suggest that the current attack is not just on journalism but all public institutions in the US, from universities to public schools, hospitals, and the very idea of independent knowledge. This suppression of the right to know facts and establish reality is a hallmark of authoritarians, and Andrea outlines a few past examples from around the world. Journalism in the US has faced creeping destruction for decades, but now it's all accelerating with devastating speed, not only on the corporate side, but as a direct result of White House actions: through personal attacks on journalists, the recent White House "media bias" project, the stripping of credentials from any real Pentagon Press Corps, and more. The Roosevelt Institute report outlines how public-interest obligations have been ignored, and media institutions have been made vulnerable to capture in ways that leave them unable to withstand authoritarian pressure. Andrea looks at those reporters and outlets who are still fighting the good fight, and closes with what you can do to help. Get the full report: https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/political-economy-of-us-media-system/ 

None of us know what exactly will end Trump's rule. But we can keep expanding the possibilities. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe   Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/this-may-be-the-last-time   Watch: https://youtu.be/TOrj4Yfp9JY    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews    Our episode this week is a deep dive into the variety of ways the president's current authoritarian overreach is meeting blowback. Andrea Pitzer covers developments from recent days, including a Washington Post report about the deliberate execution of two shipwreck survivors in September after the U.S. military destroyed their boat at sea. She notes that Trump policies have already brought death to hundreds of thousands of civilians around the globe, but these two casualties seem to be particularly unsettling to a number of officials, as well as elected officials. Walking through many other recent ways that Trump's allies have refused to go along with his attempts to maintain or even expand his powers, Andrea speedruns multiple Senate votes aimed at upending Trump's tariffs, a state politician rejecting the call for gerrymandering, the blue wave in last months' off-year elections, the defeat of his attempt to keep the House from voting to release the Epstein files, and more. She continues by singling out other roadblocks, from CEO refusal to fund Trump's ballroom and the endless parade of judges attempting to hold the president to the rule of law, in some ways that appear to be sticking. Going through examples from history in Kenya, Argentina, and right here in the US, Andrea finishes by talking about how no one knows the moment when a demagogue's movement will collapse, and suggests some ways for us to speed up the process along through local actions on the ground.

Trump's denigration of women is part of the authoritarian playbook. Here's how to stop it. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/quiet-piggy Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4s0_Cx5rYM  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews  Our episode this week looks at Donald Trump saying "quiet, Piggy" to a reporter aboard Air Force One and the larger context of what the president is doing. Andrea Pitzer looks at Trump's long history with denigrating women, from journalists who ask him hard questions to his ex-wife Ivana, who at one point asserted in a sworn deposition that he had raped her. Andrea explores how Trump's behavior with women represents more than just his own perverse attitudes; it's a recognizable element of authoritarianism. And the pattern of how people in power are currently speaking about and treating women is a political bid to roll back the clock on half a century of progress for women, from Title IX to abortion and job security. Looking at everything from tradwives to attacks on trans women, Andrea sketches out how the larger wave of those in charge trying to force women into specific roles and keep them there is a naked bid for power—one we should resist. The episode ends with a list of ways to support women in the workplace and in daily life, whether it's speaking up when they're denigrated or standing up for abortion rights, access to child care, and basic dignity. 00:00 Trump's Piggy-ness 00:40 Trump's Disrespect Towards Female Reporters 01:16 Trump's History of Misogynistic Remarks 07:36 Historical Context of Misogyny in Authoritarianism 11:10 Modern Impacts of Trump's Rhetoric and Policy 24:28 We Can Do Better

What if you threw a party to transform the country—or at least your little corner of it—and everybody came? Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/of-by-and-for-the-people  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week's "Next Comes What" is a snapshot of a city responding to the havoc of the second Trump administration, and follows the drafting of a candidate for Congress who aims to flip the tables. Andrea Pitzer visited Roanoke for the fourth time in the last year, having been intermittently involved in a group of do-gooders who gathered to support the vulnerable groups Trump had specifically targeted in the runup to the 2024 elections. Later, as the administration and its allies took aim at federal workers, farmers, Medicaid, and more, the group realized everyone was at risk. Their movement grew from meetings coordinating with existing nonprofits to protests and educational programs. This week, the core protest group formally drafted journalist and author Beth Macy to run for Congress, opposing a Republican incumbent who has stopped holding town halls for months at a time and refuses to meet with his unhappy constituents. Andrea traces the growth of the movement to reclaim Virginia's sixth district for the people, and attends Macy's coming-out party as she announces her candidacy. The episode closes with what it all means for the rest of us.

Standing up for trans folks isn't just the right thing to do—which it is!—it's also a way to win elections. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/stop-trans-scapegoating  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   Our episode this week focuses on how trans people have been demonized by politicians, and why that approach backfired in elections around the country last week. To find out why this kind of hate mongering seems to be a weapon of choice for the Republican Party right now, Andrea Pitzer looks at the many prejudices that transphobia taps into, going back to the Lavender Scare, McCarthyism, and beyond. She considers how part of the hostility to trans identities also rises out of women gaining civil rights, and Republican frustration that they can't slot everyone into the roles they prefer.   Andrea looks at two trans lawmakers in office now, and suggests they (and trans people as a whole) shouldn't have to shoulder the burden of carrying the banner for trans rights. Recalling an interview with researcher Mike Jones from more than a decade ago, Andrea recounts how he found that heroes in policy narratives are even more effective than villains in getting people to come aboard. She analyzes the different ways that Abigail Spanberger and Zohran Mamdani addressed trans issues. Both campaign styles, she finds, offer strategies to effectively counter Republican demonization of vulnerable groups in America. Andrea ends by discussing ways that we can all embrace the hero narrative and show that we're strong enough to stand up for everyone's rights.

Tuesday was a big day for democracy! But only if we follow through on its promise. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/just-a-wave-not-the-water Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlDH54C4azc  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week, we celebrate the immediate results of the November 4 elections— which delivered key victories for candidates running against Trumpism and offering concrete policies to benefit their constituents. Andrea Pitzer looks at how, win or lose, elections do matter. But they're only one tool. Pointing out how even winning candidates can abandon the platforms they ran on, or give into donor pressure once in office, she lays out how the ultimate power remains with the people. There are many other ways that voters and non-voters alike can impact their communities. Andrea considers the degree to which dedicated voters can sometimes demonize non-voters or blame them for failures at the ballot box. But nonvoters may have given up hope in our system altogether. And in any case, if getting out the vote is the goal, persuasion is more likely to work. She considers the ruptured promise of our republic, and the ways in which she still believes elections can lay the foundation to repair it. But only if we understand that Tuesday may have been a wave, but we ourselves are the water.

Trump's immigration policies may be echoing Nazi history, but that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do about it. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/when-bad-things-get-worse TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week's episode tracks the administration's shift in immigration enforcement as the power given to Border Patrol expands. Andrea walks listeners through the origins of and tactics used by Border Patrol and ICE in recent decades, as well as the ways unstable leadership and a lack of accountability have shaped their evolution. She turns to a conversation that she had last December with immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick in which he laid out the two paths detention and deportation would likely take in the new administration: one in which Tom Homan became ascendant, the other in which Stephen Miller took charge. Andrea notes that the Miller approach seems to have gained the upper hand for now, and it's far more dangerous for Americans across the board. Diving into Nazi history, she outlines the way that an abusive law-and-order model for governing was defeated by the reign-of-terror concentration-camp model, and sees the U.S. as now moving more fully into the latter mode. But she points out that even if you failed to imagine how quickly U.S. guardrails would give way to expanding violence against civilians, you don't have to let that earlier failure of imagination keep you from thinking of ways to protect yourself and others. The episode closes with mutual aid actions that can help those most affected, as well as thoughts on preemptively closing some doors to immigrant enforcement operations.

Saturday's NO KINGS is the beginning of a movement. Thoughts on what it means and where we go from here. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/what-just-happened Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/-ozqcCEtRRc?si=nyvG3tY3-UGofGEd  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week, Andrea Pitzer looks at the October 18 No Kings marches and rallies nationwide and jumps into what seven million people showing up means for the country. She narrates the Saturday march from Arlington National Cemetery across the Memorial Bridge into DC and along the National Mall. Along the way, she talks to demonstrators, members of the National Guard stationed in the District, and DC cops. She recaps surveys of those who showed up and what matters to them, including data from Dana Fisher* and some great points made this week in a conversation between Erica Chenoweth and Steven Levitsky.** Addressing why police departments around the country put out press releases, Andrea wonders if—for their own reasons—they're trying to create some distance between themselves and the administration. She also reviews how shook the White House was by No Kings. Different people will play different roles in mass protests, and they may diverge even more in their approaches as mass protests become a mass movement. Andrea considers how this range of experiences, goals, and tactics can be a strength, rather than something that deepens conflict. And as always, at the end, she reviews ways to think about and take action in the moment, to push back against authoritarianism. * Fisher's topline data from Saturday is now available here: https://danarfisher.com/2025/10/23/nokings-2-0-brings-joyful-resistance-across-the-us/  ** You can see the whole conversation between Chenoweth and Levitsky in The Breakdown from the Ash Center: https://youtube.com/live/dqoSPLEK2Mg?si=C1f53eivbGGV2Pm3 

Our society is descending deeper and deeper into authoritarianism, but hitting the streets this weekend is a good way to push back. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-opposite-of-complicity Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/DeOVwwATutg  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week's episode looks at the US crisis and how protest plays a key role in demanding a more accountable democracy. Andrea Pitzer considers the many ways that the administration is trying to suppress dissent. By calling the demonstrators terrorists, America haters, and supporters of Hamas, Trump's allies are trying to intimidate those who oppose them. But they're also revealing just how frightened they are. The government's response to inflatable frog and unicorn costumes, impromptu marching bands, and at least one naked bike ride has made them look ludicrous, and helps to expose the violence our expanding police state is unleashing on its own people. Andrea explores what protests are doing right now in the country, and what they have the potential to do. She addresses the limits and failures of democratic movements as well, with a nod to why it's crucial for you to get involved right now if you can. She covers how to take action if disability or your personal risk level makes it inadvisable or even impossible to march. Looking at recent research on the power of popular protest and at the risks of backsliding into authoritarianism, Andrea explains how developing communities of public dissent and mutual aid can help not only in building real democracy, but holding all leaders accountable going forward.

 Public apathy is a greater danger to the country than actual oppression in this moment. As our first anniversary approaches, we've gathered the most important bits from the debut year of "Next Comes What." Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/state-of-the-degenerate-union Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/RTsu0EG5LYQ  Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews  Nearly a year since the 2024 election and the start of "Next Comes What," Andrea Pitzer brings together the most critical parts of what she's shared so far on the podcast. She begins with a look back at the first post-election episode, and predictions she made about how 20th-century events in Chile, Germany, and Russia were likely to repeat here in the U.S. Offering a mea culpa for her biggest misstep, Andrea gives a state of our degenerate union today, considering where things stand with the Courts, Congress, the executive branch, our institutions, and the people. Pulling together success stories from at home and abroad, she considers how both overreach and resistance are likely to unfold from here. In closing, Andrea reminds listeners about the upcoming October 18 "No Kings" events and provides specific paths to action going forward.

If you aren't sure what you stand for, you're going to get played. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/you-don-t-have-to-swallow-frogs Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/yVS10nrdWu8?si=okUVNHwIpOe98aTF  This week, Andrea Pitzer considers the recent conversation between New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and author Ta-Nehisi Coates, and what it means for all of us as American authoritarianism expands. The two men shared very different thoughts about what the moment requires, including their doubts about each other's approach. Andrea summarizes the talk and suggests that Coates's emphasis on history and his intellectual heritage offers more possibilities for avoiding paralysis in the moment. She worries that Klein's willingness to barter away protection of some vulnerable populations leads to a lost state in which it becomes impossible to stand for anything. Sharing a Czeslaw Milosz quote about a man who rationally convinces himself to swallow live frogs, Andrea suggests that Klein has lost sight of the fact that doing something unpleasant isn't the same as doing something effective. She closes with thoughts on how you can find your own moral or ethical center—one that might offer some clarity on how to take action today.

What if my telling you there's still time to save democracy keeps you from thinking you need to act now? Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/mind-the-gap Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/YYqsM-LoYlM  This week's "Next Comes What" focuses on the difference between staying on top of the administration's attacks on democracy and actually doing something to save democracy. Nearly a year into the podcast, Andrea Pitzer outlines the ways that Trump continues to overreach, even as he grows more and more unpopular. The federal government is in the process of hiring people who seem willing to assault Americans (documented and not) on the streets. Yet it doesn't have enough of them to silence the majority of Americans who oppose Trump. Now is the time to act. But Andrea wonders whether constantly telling listeners that there are still actions they can take is too reassuring. Do people get lulled into thinking things will just be fine, and they don't need to stand up? In the last week, a Congressional candidate, a Chicago pastor, and elected officials have faced attack or arrest by law enforcement agents ostensibly carrying out immigration operations. But what most of us need to do in our communities is nothing nearly that heroic. Andrea looks at rising food insecurity and ways we can tackle the effects of immigration detention and tariffs close to home. She closes with a look at a study by university researchers who suggest that most U-turns—even those that radically reorient a country toward authoritarianism—wind up leading to greater democracy in the end. Authoritarian U-turns are often followed by counter-shifts that reverse the harms and result in the growth of democratic rights and institutions. But one key to these reversals is that they need to happen quickly. It's up to us to go to work in our communities today checking Trump's power and rebuilding our freedoms.

It only takes a few bad men to ruin scientific progress for everyone. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and read Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe    Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/bad-medicine This week's episode covers how RFK Jr. and Donald Trump are rejecting science and data to eliminate competing authorities in government. Andrea Pitzer looks to the past for the ways that science and scientists have been used to further dictatorial regimes. Touching on the example of Einstein, she addresses how his work was dismissed as Jewish science, and the Nazi tactics that eventually forced him into exile. She also considers the converse situation, when Joseph Stalin lifted up Trofim Lysenko, who rejected genetics in favor of unsound theories of agriculture. Soviet promotion of Lysenko's ideas led to a rejection of science and countless deaths, a situation with many looming parallels in RFK Jr.'s attacks on vaccines today.   Andrea considers how destroying public science helps aspiring and established authoritarians create their own mythic realities and forces their constituents to live in an alternate world, where all information and benefits flow directly from the leader. While Trump and his allies are deep in the process of enriching themselves and garnering more power, the president insists on rejecting facts on the ground at every turn. Andrea ends the episode with talking about ways you can help make sure your community accesses the health resources it needs, and offers some specific suggestions for fostering scientific reality close to home for kids and adults alike.

DC shows how to push back against a government clamping down on vulnerable Americans, and how to stand up for what we believe in.    Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and read Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe    Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/what-do-you-stand-for  [This week's episode was recorded before Charlie Kirk's assassination, so you'll find only one reference to it in a brief clip here. But Andrea Pitzer will cover it further in her written post on Friday for Degenerate Art: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/.]    This week, Andrea considers the value of letting others know what you stand for and building community together, in public. She outlines the ways that the preemptive caving we've seen from corporations, universities, and local governments is a response to the government's own vice signaling, which needs to be opposed. Narrating her afternoon at the "We Are All DC" march in Malcolm X Park in DC last weekend, Andrea describes the many groups that showed up and the ways people found to show what matters to them.   She addresses the symbolic value of Sandwich Guy's actions in August, which happened just a few blocks away. Pointing out that the mushy middle can never be represented by politicians looking to court that sector for votes, because it doesn't stand for anything, Andrea talks about the role of everyday people in establishing ethical norms for the country. It's possible to use virtue signaling as a spur to action and set an agenda for a new and true American democracy.

Journalism is reverting to a pre-kindergarten state in the face of Trumpism, but we can still get the word out. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and read Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/see-no-evil This week's episode considers how coverage of Trump's second administration by journalists and public intellectuals is failing Americans on an institutional level. Andrea Pitzer walks through recent coverage that refuses to analyze the framework offered by the president for sending the National Guard to DC. Flashing back to her years teaching martial arts and self defense, she explains how she coached pre-kindergartners to "spot the con" in dangerous situations, even though their minds weren't yet developed enough to be able to rely on abstract thinking to connect the dots on a higher level. She laments how some veteran journalists appear to be afflicted with the same limitations today. Sharing historical examples of betrayals by journalists who refused to see what was happening right before their eyes, she describes Soviet writer Maxim Gorky's betrayal of concentration camp detainees held at the Solovetsky Islands in 1929, and the passive collaboration of Walter Lippmann and other journalists with the whitewashing of correspondent George Polk's death in Greece in 1948. Criticizing the response made by Semafor's Ben Smith to a question about whether democracy is currently in danger, Andrea runs through a whole series of examples in which the press seems to be willfully blind to the present threat. The episode closes with a list of news outlets that are meeting the moment and need support, as well as some concrete ways listeners can themselves get the word out to their fellow Americans.

A look at the ways that lives of tyrants come to an end, and how that might shape what you should be doing now. Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/t0Trm8k1lgc?si=mZGNVV8-UrAB-PdX  Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/when-trump-is-gone Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and read Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe This week, Andrea Pitzer looks at Trump's recent signs of mental and physical decline and addresses the long history of authoritarians hiding infirmity and the resulting costs of their deception. She considers how the last Shah of Iran misled nearly everyone about his cancer, destabilizing his country, the Middle East, and a U.S. election in the wake of his lies. Andrea recalls officials' obsequiousness toward a series of late-Soviet leaders from Brezhnev to Chernenko, and the comic ways that leaders have lied to the nation. As Trump continues to dismantle so much of what's good about the U.S., with old outrages grinding on while new ones seem to arrive hourly, running from crisis to crisis can feel like using a thimble full of water to put out a forest fire. Considering the Miccosukee people of Florida's recent victory against the concentration camp in the Everglades, Andrea uses their focus on their values and their way of life to suggest an approach for people nationwide to find meaningful and effective paths to respond to Trumpism. One day, he'll be gone. What do you want to bring into being in the world that will outlast him?

The ways that concentration camps get closed down and how we can make that happen. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/how-does-this-end  Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and read Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRXkA4kF-9Q  This week's "Next Comes What" explores patterns in what's forced concentration camp systems around the world to close in the past. Andrea Pitzer mentions a few larger systemic issues present in most countries where concentration camps are able to take root, but spends the episode focused on how camps themselves get shut down. She explores examples in which defeat in war, the death of a "cult of personality"–style leader, international pressure, court intervention, or internal dissent have been the triggering force. Andrea reviews the administration's stated goal of detaining and deporting tens of millions of people currently in the country, and notes the logistical impossibility of any humane detention and deportation project of that scope. Even when peak detention levels have been reached, and the population held by a given country in camps is on the decline, she notes, it frequently takes years to dismantle any large system. Analyzing the role that various triggers might play to halt or reverse Trump's rapidly expanding detention network, Andrea emphasizes that in the U.S. more than in many of the countries she's studied, it's likely to come down to everyday people taking action. The episode closes with suggestions on how to do that.

What history best explains the authoritarianism surging in the U.S. today? Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-origin-story-for-a-villain Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Watch this episode:  This week's "Next Comes What" considers where the expanding oppression in the U.S. comes from. America has centuries of experience with genocide, incarceration, and racism to rely on as the government embraces authoritarianism. Yet Trump and his most fervent followers also mimic the rhetoric and actions of twentieth-century fascist movements in Europe and elsewhere. Andrea Pitzer looks at the roots of the misery being deliberately inflicted on vulnerable populations in the country today. She recalls a Kurt Vonnegut line about villains and society that suggests one way to think about what's happening now. The truth is that there's no hard line between domestic and international political violence against civilians. In fact, technology over the last century has evolved quickly and led us to a place where these movements are cross-pollinating and global, even as local and national culture still shape violence in critical ways on the ground. Andrea turns this around to note that the repetition of these abuses in many places and times also sparked countless forms of resistance that have worked in the past and offer hope for us going forward.

A step-by-step list for assessing your community's relationship with ICE and learning how to end it. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/de-iceing-your-town Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzYHpKiiv5I&feature=youtu.be This week, Andrea Pitzer answers a request she's been getting from many readers and listeners lately: figuring out ICE's involvement in a given community and what to do about it. To get some expert advice, she talked to Oliver Merino of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Oliver is from Alexandria, Virginia and has been involved in addressing mistreatment and abuse of immigrants for more than a decade. In this episode, they discuss concrete ways to find out what level of cooperation ICE currently receives from your local law enforcement. Oliver lays out specific actions everyday people can take to reduce both official and unofficial partnerships. He also covers a number of other ways anyone can help their neighbors who have already been targeted by the government. The situation on expanded ICE funding on the federal level is grim, but there's still a lot that most of us can do to change policy and reduce harm at the local level.

What if we already have what we need to do what has to be done? An unlikely story of magic and surprises, with receipts. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/pity-the-person-who-needs-something-from-me Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh4yh7-efyc  This episode of "Next Comes What" is a strange and magical story about coincidence and connection. Andrea Pitzer steps away from the current crises in the US to talk about needs and expectations that we have about one another and the tendency to want to believe someone somewhere else has more answers and will be more ready to lead, or at least more ready to act. Andrea recalls a passing exchange on Twitter from more than a decade ago that's become meaningful to her, and discusses it with her husband, who suggests she write about it. Meanwhile, she goes off to a cabin in the woods for a week for a solo writing intensive to work on a book, and tries to put off the many requests people make on her time, so she can focus on her work-in-progress. She somehow ends up interrupted anyway, and the connections between the tweet from twelve years ago and someone entirely different who is interrupting her at the cabin form a startling closed loop—and a good reminder that we're bound together in ways we barely notice. All this winds up being a map for finding a way to invent the world we hope to live in.

Listening to the voices of the disappeared who have come back is a first step toward changing what's happening all around us. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-voices-of-the-returned Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/DfFEA-3d8GU  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-comes-what/id1779885475 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7lUaIWeKl0oET2DJVTWhy4 This episode of "Next Comes What" looks at the recent departure from El Salvador of hundreds of men President Trump deported last spring to the CECOT camp there. Andrea Pitzer remembers seeing a Peter Greenaway production in the 1990s that used an actual historical ledger of the dead bodies pulled out of the Seine in Paris two centuries ago, and thinking about accountability to history. Underlining the importance of preserving events, she talks about a Paris protest in 1961 when the historical record was deliberately muddied, and the French government tried to censor and cover up a massacre. More than a hundred Algerians were killed while protesting peacefully against a curfew targeted directly at them. Many bodies fell into the river; others were thrown in to drown. Unlike the corpses in the 19th-century ledger from the Peter Greenaway film, these bodies and the lives they represented were erased for decades by the authorities. Andrea then looks at the reappearance in recent days of the men the US government tried to disappear into a black hold of detention in El Salvador. Addressing the importance of logging the vanished and the dead and listening to the voices of those who return, she begins to address how we might interrupt the cycle.

Concentration camps perpetuate themselves, but the fight against them shapes the future, too. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/choking-on-the-cruelty  Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6XoJL6puGU&list=PLijFVcbACdeU0Zk5DeB1R_CHwCHjPJ5lF  This episode of "Next Comes What" looks at how concentration camp systems grow, how the existing institutions choke on them for at least a while, and what that means in terms of trying to stop those who want to expand our concentration camp society. Andrea Pitzer explores how some camp systems have been influenced by those created in foreign countries, while others rely more strongly on a country's own preexisting internal history. Sometimes immigration, as with Nazis to South America in the wake of World War II, shifts the political or detention environment. In each case, there are usually both foreign and domestic influences. Andrea looks at how everything from camps for Japanese Americans during World War II and immigrant detention at Guantanamo in the 1990s shaped the Everglades concentration camp and the constellation of similar camps the Trump administration is working to create now. Listing ways to block and undo this drive toward detention, Andrea includes networks of demonstrations and training opportunities that can connect listeners to concrete ways to help.

A guide to understanding our new concentration-camp era and how to fight it. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/what-s-in-a-name  Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhvb9PfUw2U  In this episode, Andrea Pitzer lays out the definition of a concentration camp and breaks down each part of it. She looks at international trends in concentration camps across the last century and the specific U.S. history that has made the country vulnerable to propaganda demonizing immigrants and others. Addressing the advantages and disadvantages of comparing modern detention facilities to concentration camps and even Auschwitz, Andrea explores why what we choose to call these places matters. Coming to the conclusion that the new camp in the Everglades is a concentration camp and signals a massive expansion of extrajudicial detention that threatens all Americans, Andrea offers listeners a big-picture plan for how to strategically insert themselves into efforts to combat the concentration camp trend, from local projects to national movements.

The budget bill unleashes a detention system that threatens every American, but we can still act. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/america-s-not-so-secret-police  Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Watch the video of this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oldNLnCJy5w  Police-State Blues This week, Andrea looks at how police-state tactics are increasing across the country, not least with the debut of a new concentration camp in the Everglades. She draws parallels between the US and Nazi Germany (this is what people are always asking about) and shows how, in fact, our tilt toward authoritarianism now has many more echoes from that era than existed in the U.S. during Trump's first administration. The episode also considers the effects of the budget bill and how such massive funding for ICE detention and related projects could lead to repetition of another part of history in a different country: 2016 Russia, where the creation of an army-size National Guard under Putin's control marked the point where internal dissent and any significant opposition to his rule became almost impossible. Andrea suggests that we may be rapidly approaching a similar lockdown, but we aren't there yet. She lists a dozen things you can do to stop the ICE power grab.

The Supreme Court uses the shadow docket to stick a knife into due process. But every toehold matters when you're taking back the country. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/rogue-scotus-on-the-loose Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to get all the posts first and to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe In this week's episode, Andrea Pitzer looks at Monday's Supreme Court ruling, which permits the government to send immigrants from U.S. soil to countries they did not come from and to which they have no connection, places where they might be tortured or trafficked. The decision, on the shadow docket, included a dissent but no explanation of the majority's rationale. Andrea considers what this means in terms of rights for immigrants and everyone else, and how—barring future decisions limiting it, clarifying it, or reversing it—this decision is likely to lead to violence, abuse, and concentration camp patterns of detention for those we deport abroad. She also explores how the time required to negotiate agreements with countries the US will need to bully or bribe into taking detainees will lead to even worse overcrowding in existing US detention facilities. With news of plans for a new Florida detention center nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz", officials are emphasizing the role of pythons and other reptiles to keep prisoners on site. The episode finishes with some examples of local communities fighting detention facilities and ideas for what you can do to take action yourself.

Millions hit the streets last weekend to secure democracy and change America. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/there-is-no-final-boss Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe This week "Next Comes What" focuses on the five million (or so) Americans who turned up in cities and towns across the country last Saturday for No King's Day. Andrea Pitzer looks at the arc of nationwide protests from 2017 and 2020 and connects 2025 to them as a way to think about what's unfolding: a mass movement capable of rejecting Trumpism and transforming the country. Framing the fight for democracy as an ongoing effort rather than any "one and done" phenomenon, she stresses the importance of continuing to show up between the big events. Andrea recounts her reporting from two Saturday demonstrations in Falls Church, Virginia, where she lives, and considers what happened in the rest of the country. Often hopeful, yet touched by tragedy, June 14 was a wake-up call made and answered by America itself.

People in the streets of LA and staff at NIH show all Americans how to stand up to power.  Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/standing-up-to-power  Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe In this week's episode, Andrea Pitzer looks at actions in Los Angeles and at NIH from recent days as models for how we might each be able to shore up democracy in our own communities. She runs through a timeline of how ICE arrests in California drew residents to protest, which was met with violence by law enforcement. After the Trump administration triggered then escalated the crisis, the president took the likewise unnecessary steps of deploying the California National Guard and U.S. Marines. Andrea considers the destructive nature of these actions and the threat to democracy that they represent, as well as highlighting a few ways that Californians found to resist this overreach. The second half of the episode focuses on an interview with Rui Carlos Sá, a program director at NIH, whom Andrea first met at a "No Kings" demonstration in February. As one of the signers of Monday's Bethesda Declaration calling out the damage the new administration is inflicting on the National Institutes of Health, Sá talks about the importance of NIH and how he made the decision to stand up publicly. Andrea closes with a look at things we can do to follow in the footsteps of people speaking out in DC and LA, with an emphasis on the upcoming "No Kings" demonstrations across the US on Saturday, June 14.

The Trump administration is accelerating the concentration camp tendency worldwide, worsening conditions people are held in around the globe. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-concentration-camp-tendency-part-2  Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe This week, Andrea Pitzer looks at overseas expansion of the concentration camp tendency that sits at the heart of federal policy right now. This exclusion of whole groups from society is something the US is actively promoting overseas. By making plans to or actually sending people to Libya, South Sudan, El Salvador, and Panama, the current administration is creating an overseas network of concentration camps. As the US leads the way, problematic detention is being tipped over into more dangerous territory. Meanwhile, massive cuts to US aid globally are staggering international efforts to deal with political and economic crises abroad, including reducing rations in refugee camps in several countries. Andrea considers what everyday Americans can do at home and abroad, offering the example of Camden, Delaware, where community outcry ended a collaboration agreement between local police and ICE. Stick around for the details of a June 11 event at noon ET hosted by Harvard that you can sign up to attend virtually, where Andrea will be joined by former Kamala Harris policy advisor Ami Fields-Meyer and resistance-movement researcher Erica Chenoweth in conversation about ways irregular detention is expanding and how we can strengthen democracy. (Register here: https://ash.harvard.edu/events/concentration-camps-and-the-machinery-of-repression-lessons-for-saving-democracy/.)

The constitutional right that keeps you from disappearing—and why Trump wants to suspend it. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/disappearing-bodies Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe What dives into the writ of habeas corpus and how it protects U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike. Andrea Pitzer considers Stephen Miller's comment that the administration would consider suspending habeas corpus depending on how U.S. courts rule on immigration cases underway now. She looks at how ruptures in these kinds of guarantees led to dictatorships lasting more than a decade in places like Chile and Nazi Germany. Turning to events closer to home, Andrea walks listeners through the times habeas corpus has been suspended in the U.S., and how battles over it dominated key cases in War on Terror detentions at Guantanamo. The establishment of military zones along the border and the arrest of Newark mayor Ras Baraka compound the issue of who gets to detain people and who gets to contest those decisions. Andrea closes by looking at what people are doing to take action, and what you can do, too.