The Culture We Deserve

Jessa and Nico survey the World Cup discourse. Why and how do we love things that we know are corrupt? Why can't the United States stop itself from cheating every time it plays on an international level? Did the CIA send in Evangelical missionaries to convert everyone away from Catholicism to undermine the power of Brazilian football? And has globalized soccer created a monoculture, where all homegrown variety and innovation has been lost?  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

With the release of the final Jackass film comes nostalgia and reverie. Because our media class is the way it is, it includes a lot of think pieces about masculinity. Can't a man just hit another man in the balls without it being theorized? Can scatological entertainment resist inquiry? Jessa and Nico also discuss Jackass's failsons: the YouTube pranksters, the violent and exploitative streaming show Fishtank, and fascism-curious podcasters. How did skateboarding subculture curdle into its current form? Also: Rick Rubin is CIA, right? Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Everything is an emergency! There's genocide(s), environmental collapse, capitalism, patriarchy -- and it all has to be taken care of now! Revolution!  It's the attention economy, baby -- and everyone wants your attention on the emergency because it is making them a lot of money. Jessa and Nico look at the off-putting and unpersuasive language of the Emergency and wonder if there's a way of talking about these issues in a more reasonable way. If everything is trauma, and trauma makes us helpless and overreactive, then how is anything going to change?  Also discussed: Ezra Klein cozying up to the antichrist, the natural birth movement kills another woman, and Bosnia is probably not going to win the World Cup........... but maybe? Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

We all agree that identity politics need to die, yes? They've been infiltrated and exploited by the wealthy and the elites, they led to years of scamming, and they have created a standstill where nothing can be done because nothing can be totally equal. But a return to the bad old system where various identity groups have their needs belittled and ignored would also be a mistake. Could the answer be a politics of dignity? As the Catholic church pivots toward human dignity as the center of their priorities, can we as political actors learn something from this? And is the Catholic Church now the new counterculture?  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Lately social media has been inundated with the loneliness influencer, the people (mostly women) who glamorize and romanticize a cozy little life alone: frozen pizzas, a glass of wine, and a sweet treat eaten in front of a TV, snug in yoga pants or luxury sweats, in your perfectly gray urban apartment. Is this helpful for those still stuck in our loneliness crisis, teaching them to turn solitude into meaningful me-time? Or is this going to drive everyone insane and lead to the dying out of humanity as a species? Why not both? Jessa and Nico look at the so-called loneliness crisis to see how it got so gendered, whether it's a crisis at all, and how this is how American infrastructure wants us, atomized and confusing people on our screens for our friends and enemies. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The Pope's encyclical on the subject of AI inspired a flurry of headlines and quick takes, but then people got distracted. But did the Pope really say Death to All Clankers or was there something else going on there? Jessa and Nico look at this very interesting document, which continues the pivot away from individual sin and toward structural evil and asks if there might be something beautiful and dignified about the un-optimized, un-perfected, un-productive human life? What if there is a way to engage with the idea of the value of a life without focusing on metrics and profit? With the art world totally bought in to Silicon Valley and capitalism's worldview, with the Evangelicals dreams of apocalyptic disaster, and with universities functioning first and foremost as landlords and money managers, maybe the Catholic Church is the only institution offering a different perspective. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

With new books like "How to Be a Dissident," "Read This When Things Fall Apart," "How to Save Democracy," "Beyond Molotovs" and others flooding the shops, it's obvious that the anti-racist grift has morphed into an anti-authoritarian grift. Will the Yale professors really be able to save us? And what exactly do these books propose? Jessa and Nico sift through the new releases to figure out whether democracy will be saved one six-figure book deal at a time. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

While America's religious revival is being a bit overblown, the fact is that the long decline in church attendance and religious belief is over and a new era of stabilization may have begun. The media focuses on the extreme end of this -- the Christian nationalists, the surge in Orthodox conversion, etc -- but much of this is about the return of the  casual, non-fanatical churchgoer. The person open to being bored in a pew once a week rather than the believer who makes their faith the entirety of their being. Jessa and Nico discuss going back to church, what drove them away in the first place, and why the pope is back to being a central figure in political and religious life. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

So we made a mistake. We thought, based on the reviews and interviews and podcasts and think pieces we saw, that the Devil Wears Prada sequel would be our topic for the week. Then we saw the film, and it was bad. Bad in that way that resists inquiry, lacking in substance to the point where you feel dumber trying to discourse about it. But we had no other things planned, so here's our episode about it anyway! Jessa and Nico discuss: why the fashion industry lacks sophistication, why media figures fell over themselves to praise and discuss this film that has nothing going for it, and why the media class will always run cover for the mega-rich -- even when pretending to satirize them. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

If we didn't have manfluencers and bro podcasts and a mass media owned and operated by billionaires, what would a supportive media environment for men even look like? What are the ideas, problems, and possibilities that men have that are being ignored by the professionals? Jessa and Nico discuss how men's media differs from women's, how magazines like Esquire and GQ in the 90s helped create the reactionary culture men live in now, and whether the suffragettes having social media would have tanked the whole feminist project before it even got started.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Yes, we are doing Hasan Piker/Jia Tolentino microlooting discourse. Microlooting is one of those cursed words -- like latinx, like unhoused -- that accomplishes zero things, is politically alienating, and allows a group of millionaires to talk about "the rich" as some other group with zero self-awareness. If woke won't die, it's because our communist millionaires won't let it.  But a millionaire-led discourse is why these conversations about contemporary ethics always dead-ends in the question, What is the best way to spend money? Jessa and Nico discuss why our rich love anti-social behavior (they always have! they are bored!) and why, ultimately, their class solidarities will probably always be with the Epstein class. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The New York Times recently cut ties with a freelancer after it was revealed he had used AI to assist in the writing of a book review. What is the source of the scandal -- that an underpaid worker uses technology to help him meet a deadline, or that your publication uses such a predictable structure in the work it puts out that AI can easily mimic the formula? The outrage that typically greets any use of AI comes out of a fear that maybe we don't need humans to write our book reviews, our movie scripts, our military propaganda at all. When filmmaker Steven Soderbergh announced he'd be using AI for a future project, there were immediate calls to boycott. But if anything, AI usage seems like a wake-up call to notice how we've created a gatekept, risk-averse cultural space. Jessa and Nico discuss artistic workslop and why everyone going into the trades isn't going to save us from AI. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The upcoming elections are littered with former reality TV stars who have pivoted to politics -- from Fboy Island, The Hills, Teen Mom, and more. We already have the archetype of the failed artist politician (from Hitler to Mamdani), so is the reality star politician just the latest iteration or something different? Jessa and Nico discuss our reality star president and the precedent he has created, and why when someone fails to get into art school or get their rap career off the ground, the next step is often public office. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

No one wants to get married, and no one is having children. How can we make this women's fault? Jessa and Nico talk about the frustrating ways we discourse about family in the media, never bringing in relevant subjects like class into the marriage discussion or dropping fertility rates due to environmental poisoning into birth rate hysteria. Scientists are now positing the human race as a whole might only have 8,000 years left to go -- all the better to let octopus civilization thrive.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Welcome to the 100th episode of The Culture We Deserve -- we really need to rethink our lives. The novel Shy Girl was recently pulled from publication after accusations that the author Mia Ballard used AI during its writing. As arts and culture is infiltrated with LLMs and slop, it doesn't say great things about the future that Hachette, one of the world's largest publishers, can't tell AI from human creativity. But with our standards so low anyway, does any of this matter? What will save us from the slop machines? Jessa and Nico discuss how we recreate taste and high standards, how the institutions of academia, publishing, and music have led us here, and whether it matters if your fantasies are written by human or machine.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Daughter of two members of the Weather Underground Hope Reeves went to the New York Times to complain that the Oscar winning film One Battle After Another wasn't an accurate portrayal of what her tenured professor parents accomplished. Beginning to worry that the media class literally can't tell the difference between reality and entertainment at the moment. But also, what is behind the nostalgia for 1968? A time of political failures, chaotic violence, and a total inability to bring about change? And what does this nostalgia for a failed era do to people who need and desire change, desperately? Jessa and Nico discuss our dreams of failure and the end of American cultural hegemony. Shownotes and references:  http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Back in the 2010s, instead of political progress we got role models, little girlboss avatars to root for. Their happiness, we were told, was our happiness. Their success was our success. Well, now them most of them are divorced or bankrupt or hard launching polyamorous relationships that sound nightmarish and torturous, maybe it's time to think about actual political organization around issues like domesticity, equality, and social welfare programs? Jessa and Nico discuss Lindy West's new memoir, why we only get polyamory memoirs from women, and why polyamory is frequently offered as a consolation prize when actual political progress for women is stalled.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

With social media filled with AI-generated fake war videos and a war-hawk press eager for regime change and empire building, where does one turn? Jessa and Nico talk about how the death of journalism was not natural causes, it was murder. From venture capital "investment" to Bezos putting the Washington Post through the woodchipper as a gift to Trump to Bari Weiss running CBS news into a wall at high speed, it is beneficial to the select few so they can avoid accountability and oversight. Also: Paramount eats WB and the Fox Empire crackup.  Shownotes and references: http://culturewedeserve.substack.com

Why are we so bad at criticizing or satirizing the wealthy? Is it because we think if we're nice to them we think they'll be less likely to kill us? From Succession discourse to bloodthirsty Taylor Swift fans to Jeffrey Epstein defenders, sycophants and fanboys protect, distract, and play down the egregious acts of the rich. Jessa and Nico discuss how the media protects rather than interrogates the ultra-wealthy and why the self-made man myth needs to die. Shownotes and resources: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

A new book about Tucker Carlson's life tracks how the conservative movement has cracked up over the past several decades, while also showing how one man was able to navigate (and monetize) the changes. But does Jason Zengerle's Hated By All the Right People understand where we are today? Jessa and Nico discuss how conservative media -- from print to cable television to Reddit -- has been evolved from respectable intelligentsia to Holocaust jokes, and whether Jessa can fix Tucker. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Our major arts institutions are broke. The Met Opera has been reduced to begging for money from the Saudis, and meanwhile they can't sell out their theater even for premieres. Colleges are dipping into endowments, theater companies are shutting down, and the MFA Boston is laying people off. The cosmopolitan globalized art model is falling apart, and (now that Epstein is dead) no one has any new ideas except to head out to the petrostates hat in hand. Jessa and Nico look into the state of affairs, and wonder why we're here in the 21st century using 20th century ideas about what art is for and how to fund it. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The American century is over, or so say the speakers at Davos. The United States has had hegemonic control over the rest of the world, its markets, its sovereignty, its culture. But now that might be coming to an end. Jessa and Nico discuss what that means for international culture industries, which have also been playing by America's rules for decades.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

It's France in the mid-19th century, and here we have a group of young men who can't decide how to get along. They waste time and money, they go to nightclubs and restaurants, they have affairs and declare themselves and each other artistic geniuses. Meanwhile, the political situation is crumbling and people are putting up barricades in the street. It's time for Flaubert's Sentimental Education, which examines the listlessness and indecisiveness of a generation coming of age in turmoil. Jessa and Joseph discuss how this in no way resembles the contemporary impulse to podcast through a breakdown. Join the discussion here: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Rightwing men have been accusing liberal women of having "suicidal empathy" for the immigrants they claim are trying to murder them. But the only people who truly seem to have suicidal empathy are those who identify and sympathize with the ICE agents and the politicians who are likely to turn on them next. Jessa and Nico discuss the popularity of this idea for figures like Elon Musk. Also, over at the Nation, Anna Krauthamer attempted to reconcile her belief in prison abolition with a horrendous experience of sexual violence, and the whole thing became an illustration of the failures of the sloganeering political left to generate ideas on better ways to do things. Maybe it wasn't a great idea to try to solve complicated social issues with personal essays. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Much like the girlboss, no matter how many times the culture tries to eulogize DEI we find it once again, walking around, making a nuisance of itself. Recent pieces in the NYTimes, Wired, and Compact try to reckon with the legacy of DEI, and then there is of course the walking mascot of DEI culture, Bari Weiss, making a mess of CBS News.  Jessa and Nico talk about the enormous lengths all these people will go to avoid talking about class, why identity politics was a good idea (for a while), and why the most obvious DEI hires were Ross Douthat and Bari Weiss.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Nico was in Colombia when the United States abducted Venezuelan president Maduro, and he has some thoughts on what people in the United States commonly get wrong about South American politics. But also: predictions for 2026: the USA will do some feminist regime change in Iran, just like in Afghanistan! Serbia will be liberated from the heavy yoke of Trump Family influence! Mr. Beast will be charged with crimes against humanity! And more in politics, culture, and art.  Let us know your own predictions and see shownotes here: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

2025 may be over, but its cultural production lives on in our hearts. Nico and Jessa debate the best and worst movies, TV shows, books, and museum exhibits of the year, talk shit about your faves, and hope for better art in the future. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

A very special Christmas treat for our listeners. Joseph and Jessa discuss George Eliot's Felix Holt: The Radical, which asks the very important question: is the socialist's primary task to yell at people and tell them they are wrong about everything? Set in the 1830s after political reform has granted voting rights to new -- but still very limited -- populations, a small English market town deals with the tumult that follows. A powerfully rich heir returns to stand for public office as "a radical," a young man decides to devote himself to the bettering of the working classes by telling them they are all ignorant drunks, and a young woman must decide which one of these weirdos to marry.  But there is also a strange paternity case and a power struggle over an estate, a satirical storyline about the foolishness of patriarchal lineage, and a few good jokes about atheists.  Join the discussion: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

For the last five years, museums around the world have been struggling to answer the question of, who owns cultural heritage? Certain objects, from the Elgin Marbles to the Benin Bronzes, have been fought over as multiple entities, institutions, and nations claim true ownership. Now that the Benin Bronzes have started to return to Nigeria, only to be shoved in storage unseen by anyone except the one man who claims they belong only to him, Jessa and Nico discuss whether anything has been learned from the Decolonize movement.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Jessa and Nico return from their visit to Ireland. All along the way, the subject of whether or not Ireland should be united kept coming up. But beyond the slogans and the bad ideas, there are very real issues at work, tedious and boring but also tremendously consequential. Nico reflects on the influence the Northern Ireland peace agreement had on Colombian politics, Jessa discusses how social media creates a false sense of consensus, and they both worry about our decreased ability to manage complexity in political issues. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Our pop culture has become insipid. What is the difference between Tom Cruise and Glen Powell? Tom Cruise has darkness within him. Watching him is thrilling because you can see him struggling to contain it. Glen Powell looks at every moment like he's about to turn to the camera, wink, and try to sell you a protein powder so you can get as ripped as him. Jessa and Nico discuss the problems of Running Man (which are problems about a lack of real darkness), why Edgar Wright can never be Paul Verhoeven, and why our dark times deserve dark artists.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

A young man goes home to announce his exciting new political and philosophical ideas to his family, only for the family dinner to devolve into shouting, arguing, and eventually a duel? It's a very special Thanksgiving episode of Revolution and Ruin! Turgenev portrays a pre-revolutionary Russia, as nihilism and other ideas begin to circulate among the youth, causing friction and exasperation among their elders. Bazarov and Arkady try to test out their new ideological position, and learn whether or not one can be a young nihilist in love. Shownotes and discussion: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Did women ruin the workplace? Is wokeness feminine? Is this credit card my friend? Is cancel culture Malthusian? etc etc. Yes, the political right will do anything it can to avoid talking about class, and their latest gambit is to blame women for destroying the institutions of our society with their..... feelings. And their gossip. Helen Andrews's THE GREAT FEMINIZATION essay is still making the rounds, so Jessa and Nico discuss which is worse: sexual assault or some young ladies making a TikTok in their workplace. Also whether Leah Libresco Sargeant's counter that wokeness isn't feminine so much as it is coming from a religious impulse holds up.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

PBS recently decided to schedule the documentary The Last 600 Yards, about American troops fighting in Fallujah, after having shelved it for over a decade for being too pro-military. Co-produced by Steve Bannon, its re-emergence, according to Semafor, is because Bannon wants to convince Trump and his cronies from invading Venezuela. But like all shows, films, and media that centers military or police experience, it ends up glorifying the boots on the ground. Jessa and Nico discuss the upcoming Call of Duty film, the one (white) man against the cartel action film, and just how bad the propaganda was during the War on Terror. (Rest under whatever conditions you created for millions in the Middle East, Dick Cheney.)  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Once an archetype has been constructed, it's really difficult to dismantle it. And one of the prevailing archetypes of the 20th century was that of the American Hero. From World War II to the genre of the Western, the idea of the Great American as someone principled but reluctant to intervene, with a complicated past but a good heart, and setting right a problem not of his own doing is firmly ingrained in our culture. But what is more worthwhile: tearing down the idea of "greatness" in a complicated figure like Abraham Lincoln or doing away with heroes altogether? Jessa and Nico discuss how difficult it is to critique an archetype and why propaganda works. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

In the new book Motherland, Julia Ioffe discusses how the Soviet feminist revolution was state sponsored. During and after 1917, the government mandated several rights that the women hadn't even gotten around really to demanding yet. The result was a kind of trickle down feminism, the opportunity and demand to be equal. It led to advances in women's careers in medicine and the sciences, but entrenched rather regressive gender roles in relationships and society. Because you can't dictate progress from above. Jessa and Nico discuss whether MeToo was another moment of Trickle Down Morality, and how a stupid movie like After the Hunt looks nuanced after such a stilted movement. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Nico's got that funny feeling again, that the program the United States ran in South America for decades has come home. We talk about the uncanny feeling that has taken over the United States and how it has manifested itself in films, from John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May to Alan Pakula's Parallax View to Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. When the mirror is reflected only distortion, where does one go? Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

In the industrial age, there was a widespread disruption of communities. Traditional methods of charity and redistribution of resources were undermined by the changing policies of the church, the military whims of the government severed trade routes and exchanges of money, and families were scattered as people looked for work. In Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, Caroline Helstone is trying to figure out what to do with her existence as she suffers the disappointment of being prevented from finding vocation. She and the other members of her community find themselves out of work, out of sorts, and in and out of respectable love, and try to make do with what is left over.  Join the book club at The Culture We Deserve. http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

In the creative economy, it is more profitable to be a dead creator than a living working writer. Or that is the lesson learned from the lawsuit the Michael Crichton estate filed against The Pitt. Crichton, who earned a quarter of a billion dollars for his contribution to the NBC show ER -- his contribution being a film script that was later adapted by someone else into a network pilot -- while the actual writers, actors, and crew made considerably less. Jessa and Nico talk about the writers who filed suit against AI, why Basquiat is in his most prolific era yet (37 years after his death), and the curse of the Frida Kahlo Barbie doll. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

One of the bestselling nonfiction books of the moment is a memoir about a wealthy and successful woman dealing with memories of horrific sexual assault by her teacher when she was in middle school. The only problem: her memories were "recovered" in therapy with the use of hallucinogens. Meaning they probably aren't real. And the author just so happens to have a stake in a company that is trying to get hallucinogens approved by the FDA for use in therapy to treat PTSD. Jessa and Nico talk about how the recovered memories craze of the 1980s led to our last great Satanic Panic, why everyone has PTSD now, and why women's media loves wishywashy fake memoirs about sexual assault. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The political right has been looking for a George Floyd figure, a martyr they can name streets after and get protests around and use to pass sweeping legislation. But they have overplayed their hand with Charlie Kirk's death. Jessa and Nico sort through this cards-on-the-table moment on the right, where everyone is suddenly more sincere about where they stand than usual. So, Ted Cruz, Candace Owens, and Tucker Carlson: welcome to the resistance.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

When Cindy Bi hired a surrogate to carry her baby, she neglected to tell her that she had health issues that could put her life in danger. It turns out, she's not required to do so by law. And when the pregnancy went wrong and the child was lost, as reported in Wired Magazine, it opened up a legal, ethical hellmouth. Jessa and Nico discuss the gig economy's takeover of the womb, why the surrogacy industry is powerful yet almost entirely unregulated, and the baby market. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

When a man is down on his luck, what is he to do? His fortune squandered, his estate mishandled, his love unfaithful, Barry Lyndon goes to war, and to prison, and to the gambling table, and to Prussia, and to Ireland. He schemes his way, hoping to get back into the good graces of the universe, trying to manifest that happy ending he's put on his vision board. Jessa and Joseph discuss whether Barry is just another manifestation girlie, how politically useful the British found the Irish famine, and other adventures in capitalism and colonialism. Shownotes and references, and join the book club discussion: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The dumbest culture war in history continues, as the Trump administration seeks to purify the national collection of knickknacks and souvenirs. And the liberals are falling for it, declaring that this is just like the time the Nazis burned books and called art degenerate. As the bitter war over wall text next to a Papier-mâché Statue of Liberty continues, Jessa and Nico discuss the "museums are not neutral" stance progressives had, why a rich kid with an MFA from Yale is not Otto Dix, and one of the architects of the contemporary culture war, Victoria Coates.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

What is behind the drive for small communities of like-minded people? The MAHA millionaire farm, the white nationalists in Arkansas, the makeshift Texas beguinage? Are we re-entering an age of utopian experimentation or are we creating cults? Jessa and Nico discuss the history of utopian projects in the American Midwest, how people from the United States have been bothering South Americans for decades with their "intentional communities," and why Swifties only want to talk to other Swifties. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The fuss over Sydney Sweeney's jeans/genes ad, and there are those who accused her of "normalizing eugenics," misses an important point: we are already doing another round of eugenics. It's just that this round is about the Haves having access to surrogates, IVF, CRISPR, and other genetic assistance while the Have Nots have plummeting fertility rates and no longterm care options when they have children with health problems. Jessa and Nico talk about the history of eugenics, why it was a leftist cause for so long, and what a baby with a $5 million miracle cure says about the future of humanity. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

As we were recording between two long work trips and through various mishaps, this week Nico and Jessa just go through headlines and updates on previous subjects. Covered: why the Trump administration is besotted with Confederate monuments, women separatist spaces, Uber's inability to protect their passengers from sexual assault, and more ICE chat. We were tired, okay?! Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

It's cancellation season again, although it's not really working the way it used to. Joey Swole, Sydney Sweeney, Anthony Fantano, a mother in New York who died in a mass shooting, have all been deemed by the collective as unacceptable. Is it the Trump effect that is preventing the cancellation from taking hold, or something else? Have we as a society progressed past the need for cancel culture? Ha hahaha ha haaaa hahaha.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Following our earlier discussion of the documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics, Jessa and Nico get into the spread of Evangelicals in power -- not only in the United States but also where missionaries have established bases overseas. Like every other truly terrible contribution the US has made, this is all about the Cold War.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Welcome to the creative economy, which is built to strip mine from your body and soul any glimmer of talent, skill, or genius you might possess and exploit it. Our unlucky men, Lucien and David, a poet and an inventor, are looking to make their riches in pre-1848 France, only to find the world is not built to tolerate, let alone celebrate, people like them. They try their luck. It doesn't go well. But at least Balzac spends a lot of time telling us about what kinds of velvet they were wearing along the way. Joseph and Jessa discuss why Marx loved Balzac, why a fool makes a frustrating character, and why one shouldn't read about a failed poet while on book tour. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com