Podcasts by Category
Inside the right’s push to retake power, from the conspiracy-slingers to the MAGA acolytes to the straight-up grifters. Thought the Trump era was crazy? Wait ’til you hear what they have planned next. Hosted by Kelly Weill and Will Sommer. New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app today.
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- 120 - Miles Klee on The New Abnormal
Rolling Stone's Mile Klee joins The New Abnormal to talk the myth of "go woke. go broke."
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Wed, 24 May 2023 - 17min - 119 - Erin Reed On The New Abnormal
Erin Reed joins the New Abnormal to talk the lastest in laws targeting transgender rights.
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Mon, 22 May 2023 - 19min - 118 - Cindy Cohn On The New Abnormal
The EFF's Cindy Cohn joins The New Abnormal to talk cyber security.
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Fri, 19 May 2023 - 22min - 117 - Gary Marcus On The New Abnormal
Gary Marcus joins The New Abnormal to discuss the dangers of AI.
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Wed, 17 May 2023 - 18min - 116 - Will Sommer On The New Abnormal
Will Sommer joins The Daily Beast's The New Abnormal to talk the America first movement.
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Mon, 15 May 2023 - 17min - 115 - Kelly Weill On The New Abnormal
The Daily Beast's Kelly Weill joins The New Abnormal to talk the reputation laundering of the Allen, TX mall shooter.
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Fri, 12 May 2023 - 20min - 114 - A Fever Dreams Farewell feat. Asawin Suebsaeng
It’s the final episode of Fever Dreams. After sharing some of their favorite moments from the podcast’s years-long run, the hosts tackle the right-wing obfuscation of a mass shooter’s extremist history and a viral prank on the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
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Wed, 10 May 2023 - 57min - 113 - Steven Crowder Exposed feat. Jason Wilson
Fever Dreams examines the recent headline-grabbing actions of right-wing media darling Steven Crowder, who was outed this week for allegedly exposing his genitals repeatedly to employees. Plus! The latest on Ammon Bundy’s latest brewing standoff attempt.
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Wed, 03 May 2023 - 53min - 112 - Tuckered Out feat. Sam Adler Bell
On this week’s Fever Dreams, a look at the ecosystem of grifters and gadflies who made a living appearing on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show—and what comes next for them. Plus! What is pronatalism, and why are all the Silicon Valley dudes talking about it?
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Wed, 26 Apr 2023 - 55min - 111 - The Ali Allegations feat. Aaron Kleinman
Fever Dreams hosts Kelly Weill and Will Sommer examine a classic style of right-wing outrage—which never seems to back itself up with evidence. Plus! A conversation with Aaron Kleinman of the States Project about all the wacky, extreme characters inhabiting America’s state houses.
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Wed, 19 Apr 2023 - 54min - 110 - Trump-Loomer 2024 feat. Garret Graff
Laura Loomer has been spewing hate online for years—and now Trump apparently wants to hire her. Plus! A look at the way technology has aided the rise of the far right over the past 40 years.
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Wed, 12 Apr 2023 - 48min - 109 - Am I Being Arraigned Feat. Dave Weigel
On this week’s episode of Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss how Trump’s decision to fly to New York instead of hunkering down in Mar-a-Lago to face his historic arraignment had the markings of a political scheme—one which denied stoppedDeSantis from making his own big patriotic stand against the charges. Then, national political reporter for Semafor, David Weigel, joins the podcast and weighs in on the latest Trump drama.
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Wed, 05 Apr 2023 - 55min - 108 - Meme Court ft. Luke O’Brien?
Marjorie Taylor Greene is up to her old tricks—this time, protesting a routine ATF inspection of a Georgia gun store Monday under the guise that there apparently were too many agents from “blue states” conducting the operation. Then, investigative reporter Luke O’Brien joins the podcast to talk about the ongoing trial of Douglass Mackey, a 33-year-old ‘alt-right’ figure dubbed the “Disinformation King” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.. Despite the fact that Mackey allegedly engaged in election interference, he’s become a cause célèbre in right-wing circles—even garnering a number of segments on Tucker Carlson’s primetime Fox News show. Plus! Benny Johnson, the former Buzzfeed writer who was fired for plagiarism before becoming a right-wing media star, ditches Newsmax in order to pursue an independent career.
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Wed, 29 Mar 2023 - 57min - 107 - Pudding Ron feat. Jake Lahut
While prosecutors appear to be closing in on Donald Trump and preparing to file formal charges, he’s been posting up an absolute storm on Truth Social. It’s all happening amid the backdrop of a potential arrest for the former president—which some pundits predict will bolster his re-election campaign. The Fever Dreams team isn’t so sure. Plus! Daily Beast reporter Jake Lahut joins the program to talk about his recent reporting on what appears to be DeSantis’ fledgling campaign—including a number of troubling anecdotes about the Florida governor’s ability to make small talk and press the flesh at his early stops in Iowa and elsewhere.
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Wed, 22 Mar 2023 - 52min - 106 - Woke Bank Run fet. Kat Abughazaleh
If Tucker Carlson seems a little lost at the moment—that’s because he is. At least, that’s what Media Matters researcher Kat Abughazaleh says, and she has to watch the fire-breathing Fox News host every day for work. Then, Fever Dreams digs into the obfuscation being performed by Fox and others in the conservative media after one of the country’s worst banking collapses. Plus! In the podcast’s Fresh Hell segment, Weill and Sommer discuss the worst dressed man in North America—Jordan Peterson—and how exactly he styles the atrocious outfits he’s recently become known for.
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Wed, 15 Mar 2023 - 54min - 105 - Fake Andrew Tate feat. Isaac Arnsdorf
This year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), long a mainstay in Republican politics, wasn’t quite the A-list event of years past. Isaac Arnsdorf joins the podcast to talk about his own CPAC experience, along with breakout star, Kari Lake, who failed to win Arizona’s governor race last November but propelled herself to MAGA stardom with a Big Lie-style campaign at the state level. Plus, in the podcast’s Fresh Hell segment, Weill gives an update on the legal woes of Andrew Tate, the misogynist influencer and alleged human trafficker currently detained in a Romanian prison—as well as the bizarre rumor that he has lung cancer.
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Wed, 08 Mar 2023 - 52min - 104 - Dilbert Downfall feat Seth Harp
Hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill unpack the QAnon connections behind newly elected Michigan GOP leader Kristina Karamo, who declared Michigan as “ground zero for the globalist takeover of the United States of America.” A wave of more than 100 deaths over the past two years at Fort Bragg has rocked the U.S. military—caused in part by an increasing number of overdoses, says Rolling Stone investigative reporter Seth Harp on this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast. Plus, a look into both hosts’ personal history with the comic Dilbert—and its embattled artist, Scott Adams, who sparked a firestorm last week by going on a racist rant and calling Black people a “hate group,” among other things.
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Wed, 01 Mar 2023 - 57min - 103 - Trust The Host ft. Will Sommer
On this week’s Fever Dreams, James O’Keefe gives his fans and foes a truly memorable send-off, while the Libertarian Party continues to its slide to the right. Plus, co-host Will Sommer discusses his years of reporting on QAnon—as well as his new book Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America.
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Wed, 22 Feb 2023 - 58min - 102 - James O’Keefe Theater Camp w/ Kim Kelly
For it's 100th episode, Fever Dreams unpacks all the drama engulfing right-wing undercover video operation Project Veritas, including a number of claims about the difficult workplace culture fostered under founder James O’Keefe. Then the podcast is joined by labor reporter and author Kim Kelly, who talks about how her experience as a fan and critic of metal music helped her better understand—and report on—far-right extremists across the U.S.
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Wed, 15 Feb 2023 - 57min - 101 - The Eliza Bleu Saga feat. Trevor Aaronson
What if there was an atomic bomb about to detonate and kill millions of people—and the only way to defuse it was to have an Artificial Intelligence chatbot say a racial slur? Also on the podcast Weill and Sommer interview Trevor Aaronson, the host of the investigative podcast the Alphabet Boys, which tells the story of FBI informant Mickey Windecker, who almost single-handedly derailed the Black Lives Matter movement in Denver. Plus! Weill and Sommer recap a bombshell investigation into Eliza Blue, an overnight internet sensation who rose to prominence by becoming an ombudsman for victims of human trafficking.
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Wed, 08 Feb 2023 - 56min - 100 - Big Kanye Payoffs feat Nicky Woolf
Journalist Nicky Woolf has spent months looking into the bona fide mystery of what exactly is happening with all of those U.S. diplomats and intelligence operatives reporting brain injuries thanks to some unnamed, futuristic weapon—and come away with the impression that this story, however far-fetched it may seem, may actually be true.
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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 - 48min - 99 - Santosmania feat. Tina Nguyen
Puck reporter Tina Nguyen joins this week’s Fever Dreams to discuss Rep. George Santos and the civil war brewing between his staffers and the far-right figures he’s begun to consult. Weill and Sommer discuss the recently disclosed rulebook for Proud Boys members, which includes a number of incredibly silly measures that members must follow. Then, speculation rages in Trumpworld over whether MAGA broadcaster Silk—of ‘Diamond and Silk’ fame—meant to shade the former president during a memorial speech for her sister and co-host, bashing him for supporting COVID vaccination efforts that conspiracy theorists say – without evidence – may have been responsible for her death.
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Wed, 25 Jan 2023 - 54min - 98 - Stove Wars feat. Matthew Sheffield
The first thing Andrew Tate did after his arrest on Romanian human trafficking charges was to complain about “the Matrix”—a shadowy power structure hell-bent on taking him down for, well, some unspoken reason. He is, of course, not the first one to use this term—it’s an emerging meme in right-wing spaces online, says Fever Dreams host Will Sommer on this week’s episode. Even Logan Paul, the YouTube provocateur and wannabe boxing star, has thrown out the theory to push back on critics after a particularly bad week of PR which began with the discovery of an abandoned pig he apparently once owned. Also on the episode, Sommer and co-host Kelly Weill investigate the origins of a new front in the culture war: gas stoves.
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Wed, 18 Jan 2023 - 51min - 97 - The End of Diamond & Silk feat Claire Goforth
Ineitha Lynette Hardaway—better known as “Diamond” from the pro-Trump broadcasting duo “Diamond and Silk”—passed away this week, leaving the future of the pair’s popular act in limbo. In this week’s episode of Fever Dreams,hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill speculate on what comes next for “Silk”—who was never really the group’s frontman, so to speak. Then, the pair tackle Brazil’s own Capitol riot, which came nearly two years to the day after Jan. 6. In terms of pure aesthetics, the two scenes were incredibly reminiscent of each other: “They had the flags, they had the marching groups, they had the people walking through government chambers, trashing things,” Weill said. But even as this was all going on, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been camped out in Florida at the home of an MMA star, signing autographs and meeting with American fans of his Trumpian governing style. The state has become a new nexus for the world’s various right-wing movements in recent years, according to Fever Dreams guest and The Daily Dot political reporter Claire Goforth—and it appears Bolsonaro is angling to stay there and trade in on his popularity with the MAGA base rather than face the music back at home.
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Wed, 11 Jan 2023 - 51min - 96 - Andrew Tate's Arrest Explained
It may be the start of a new year, but the Republican Party is back to its old antics again—throwing the House of Representatives into chaos as a rogue group of far-right Congresspeople refuses to step into line and back Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the speaker’s gavel. Kelly Weill and Will Sommer, hosts of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast, predict that 2023 will only bring more insane antics from the chamber’s more controversial corners—and Fever Dreams favorites like Reps. Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene are already floating their best ideas for what to do with their newfound majority power. Plus, the pod explores the arrest of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate—and how the downfall of a MAGA-adjacent internet celebrity leaves the rest of that ecosystem in the lurch.
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Wed, 04 Jan 2023 - 36min - 95 - Revenge of the Qux
Kelly and Will dig through the mailbag to answer the burning questions on listeners’ minds. Whatever happened to the Qux Box, the right-wing tech device that was supposed to create a new internet? Are MAGA DJ’s “Milk n Cooks” still jamming out? And did Republicans lose the House because Rush Limbaugh died?
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Wed, 28 Dec 2022 - 47min - 94 - We Have To Talk About Kevin w/ Corbin Bolies
This week, Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Sam Brodey take you down the rabbit hole of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization which looks more and more like the future of the GOP. Also,: a year-end list of the best stories from a particularly deranged 12 months, as well as a look into how legacy media is doing with Daily Beast media reporter Corbin Bolies (Spoiler alert: not well!).
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Wed, 21 Dec 2022 - 51min - 93 - MAGA Undercover w/ Michael Edison Hayden & Hannah Gais
On this week’s episode of the Fever Dreams podcast, Hannah Gais and Michael Edison Hayden from the Southern Poverty Law Center recalled a cast of characters to host Will Sommer and guest co-host, The Daily Beast’s Sam Brodey. Then, in the podcast’s “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts dip into American conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro's growing online movie streaming empire and his burgeoning efforts to create a right-wing Hollywood in Nashville by acquiring the exclusive film and television rights to the books Atlas Shrugged and Pendragon Cycle, along with a forthcoming children’s cartoon about a family of homeschooled chinchillas.
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Wed, 14 Dec 2022 - 50min - 92 - Kanye Cans Milo ft. Jim Small
Kanye West seems more unhinged than ever before—and that’s saying something. And with Milo Yiannopolos now booted from Kanye's orbit, the only person who’s really winning is white nationalist Nick Fuentes, says host Will Sommer on this week’s episode of Fever Dreams. Then, Jim Small, editor in chief of the Arizona Mirror, catches us up to speed on Arizona’s election—and which conspiracy theorists in a couple of fringe counties are still doing their best to keep hope alive.
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Wed, 07 Dec 2022 - 51min - 91 - Kanye vs Tim Pool ft. Cerise Castle
Kanye’s West’s “traveling roadshow of right-wing internet fame balls” may be the topic of the week, but according to Fever Dreams host Will Sommer, fame, like money, does not equal happiness. In this week’s episode, Sommer and co-host Kelly Weill discuss the aftermath of Ye’s controversial dinner with former President Donald Trump last week. Notably though, it was Ye’s guest, the white nationalist Nick Fuentes, that had tongues wagging. Then, Cerise Castle, who covers the presence of gangs in the LA Sheriff's Department in her new podcast, A Tradition of Violence, explains what it takes to become a member.
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Wed, 30 Nov 2022 - 51min - 90 - Anti-Woke Bank Collapse w/ Heidi Beedle
Is Twitter really going to “go crazy” now that new owner Elon Musk has allowed previously banned users like former President Donald Trump back on the platform? Hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss the prospects for the beleaguered social media site on this week’s episode of Fever Dreams.Also on the episode, Heidi Beedle, a reporter for the Colorado Times Recorder and host of the Western Fringe podcast, tells Sommer and Weill that anti-LGBT hate from Colorado Springs community leaders began peaking before this weekend’s shooting at queer venue Club Q.
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Wed, 23 Nov 2022 - 53min - 89 - GOP Midterm Disaster
In this week’s episode of Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss how just two weeks on from the Pelosi controversy, the Twitter CEO jumped on board a vague and unverified theory that is being used to explain why the “red wave” failed to materialize on Election Day. As well, the hosts talk Kari Lake’s Arizona election loss and their surprise that she is among the first to make vague references of fraud during this election cycle, noting her Nov. 15 tweet: “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”
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Wed, 16 Nov 2022 - 41min - 88 - Enter The Manclan feat QAnon Anonymous
Would you eat raw testicles to become an alpha male? This week, Julian Feeld and Annie Kelly of the QAnon Anonymous podcast join us to discuss their new series “Man Clan,” which delves into the dark, dietarily dubious world of masculinity influencers. Meanwhile, as voters go to the polls, election vigilantes are flocking to Telegram channels where they award each other “points” for conspiracy theories about people they baselessly believe to be election “mules.” If Republicans take the House of Representatives, the right might mount an effort to impeach President Joe Biden, albeit on unclear charges. Fever Dreams co-hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill break down how Republicans might try to oust Biden, plus why failed candidate Laura Loomer is now blaming her primary loss on fellow rightwing mudslinger Milo Yiannopoulos.
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Wed, 09 Nov 2022 - 54min - 87 - The QAnon Coalition feat Alex Kaplan
There’s a very good chance that at least two secretary of state positions in the battleground states of Nevada and Arizonawill be won by people who are part of a coalition put together by a QAnon promoter who some people believe is also JFK Jr. In this week’s episode of political podcast Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill take a deeper look at that “shadowy character,” Juan O. Savin, and how he, along with his supporters, could destroy American democracy. Also on the podcast, Alex Kaplan, a senior researcher at Media Matters for America who is an expert on all things Savin, says that while it’s hard to say exactly what would happen if these candidates take office, “the concern is that if these people got elected they could try to cast doubt on the election result or frankly just try to flat out overturn it and refuse to certify it. What this could do is essentially connect QAnon to a constitutional crisis, and that’s what could play out here if that/s what happens.”
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Wed, 02 Nov 2022 - 45min - 86 - Mule Majnia w/ Maurice Chammah
Things have gotten a lot crazier over the past few years for award-winning former CBS News war correspondent Lara Logan. Now reinvented as a far-right commentator, she was most recently kicked off Newsmax after appearing on Eric Bolling’s primetime program and launching into a QAnon-themed rant on air, claiming world leaders drank children’s blood and made people eat insects, among other notable wild conspiracies. Elsewhere in the episode, Maurice Chammah, a reporter at The Marshall Project and author of Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, talks American sheriffs and their far-right tendencies. In the podcast’s “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts discuss reports of intimidation at early ballot drop boxes, particularly in Arizona from those who are hyped up by Dinesh D’Souza’s debunked conspiracy film, 2000 Mules.
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Wed, 26 Oct 2022 - 48min - 85 - Oathkeepers In Love w/ Kyle Spencer
The rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, faces an uphill battle to revive the “ghost town” that is the conservative MAGA site Parler, say hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill in this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast. Ye is buying the social media platform after being kicked off Instagram and Twitter for an antisemitic post, Parler’s parent company announced Monday. Also on the podcast, Kyle Spencer, journalist and author of the new book Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America’s Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power, talks MAGA media personality and radio talk show host Charlie Kirk and how he got his start. Then, in this week’s “Fresh Hell” segment, Sommer reviews the Fox Nation special The Trial of Hunter Biden, which he describes as “honestly one of the strangest pieces of content” Fox has ever produced.
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Wed, 19 Oct 2022 - 52min - 84 - Anti-Woke Banking w/ Jared Holt
Kanye West has been inching towards reimagining himself as both a virulent antisemite and the public face of Fox News and over the past few weeks, he’s been off the handle. Also on the podcast, Jared Holt, a senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and host of the podcast, Posting Through It, discusses a new reportthat he co-authored on the ugly election trends we can expect in 2022 and 2024. In this week’s “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts discuss the new Republican “unwoke” bank, GloriFi, and how unfortunately, the new venture doesn’t seem to be getting off the ground, considering it is on the verge of bankruptcy.
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Wed, 12 Oct 2022 - 57min - 83 - Herschel Walker’s New Scandal feat Travis Waldron
Herschel Walker already faced an uphill battle to become a U.S. senator after The Daily Beast reported he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion. But now it appears Walker is embroiled in another fight: one with his own son. Christian Walker, a conservative with a substantial social media following—particularly on TikTok—has taken aim at his father, whom he accused of violence and said abandoned his children from multiple women. “Herschel’s problem is that his son has such a way with words,” Will Sommer tells co-host Kelly Weill in this episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast, referring to Christian’s impassioned online reaction to his father’s denials of the abortion allegations. Also on the podcast, Travis Waldron, senior national reporter at the Huffington Post, talks Brazil and its politics, which have been popping off thanks to the Brazilian general election. “The stakes of this one feel pretty high given the concerns about democracy and [President Jair] Bolsonaro’s efforts to follow Donald Trump down the path of election skepticism and potentially an all out challenge to the result of the elections,” Waldron says.
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Wed, 05 Oct 2022 - 52min - 82 - GOPlenty of Fish w/ Michael Schaffer
“Corruption chic” is in. That’s according to The Conservateur, a new “D.C.-based fashion-and-lifestyle platform” from some of conservative fashion’s most elite, who, upset over Vogue snubbing Melania Trump, are now throwing in their political views with a cute new pair of shoes–or ankle monitors–in their own attempt at creating content. Michael Schaffer, a senior editor at Politico whose Capital City column runs weekly in Politico Magazine, tells hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill in this episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast that while he doesn’t think Anna Wintour is losing a lot of sleep, the “MAGA answer to Vogue” has landed, and it’s already making headlines. In this week’s “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts discuss the right’s reaction and misreporting to the emerging trend of colorful fentanyl pills dubbed rainbow fentanyl.
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Wed, 28 Sep 2022 - 52min - 81 - Doing Hardee's Time w/ Matt Binder
What's the motivation and meaning behind the recent Trump rally in Ohio where supporters held up one finger in a “weird” salute. But what does it mean? Plus, Matt Binder, reporter for Mashable and host of the podcasts Doomed and Scam Economy, brings us inside the wacky world of crypto scammers.
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Wed, 21 Sep 2022 - 56min - 80 - MAGA Cinema Cringe feat. Ethan Chorin
It’s on par with Don’t Worry Darling for being one of the most talked about cinematic events of the fall, but just how bad is Goonies star Robert Davi’s film My Son Hunter? On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’sFever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and returning co-host Kelly Weill review the biopic of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. “It’s got legs on Don’t Worry Darling,” Weill says. “I think I fell into some kind of brain fog while watching it.” Also on the podcast, Ethan Chorin, Libya expert and author of the new bookBenghazi!: A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink, digs into the famous 2012 terrorist attacks and the way that Benghazi exists in our politics to this day, particularly on the right.
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Wed, 14 Sep 2022 - 51min - 79 - Return To Beartaria w/ Philip Bump
Just when you thought Dr. Mehmet Oz was losing the war against Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, this week, the reality TV star found a new arsenal at his disposal. On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’sFever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and guest host Ursula Perano, politics reporter at The Daily Beast, discuss the latest in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Also on the podcast, Philip Bump, National correspondent at The Washington Post, explains how he became the guy to go through all of the 2020 election fraud claims, eventually debunking each of them one by one. As well, Sommer talks about the confusing mess that was far-right political commentator and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes’ supposed arrest by the FBI last week.
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Wed, 07 Sep 2022 - 46min - 78 - Emo Beanie w/ Andy Kroll
On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’sFever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and guest host Andrew Kirell, senior editor at The Daily Beast, discuss the new song released by the pro-Trump YouTuber, who has used some of his wealth to fund a rock song, “Only Ever Wanted.” Also on the podcast, Andy Kroll, a reporter for ProPublica and the author of the upcoming book, A Death on W Street: The Murder of Seth Rich and the Age of Conspiracy, discusses how the story of Seth’s life and death took on this bizarre, conspiratorial afterlife online.
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Wed, 31 Aug 2022 - 48min - 77 - Andrew Tate Explained w/ Nikki McCann Ramirez
Sometimes the biggest surprises come from the strangest of places. On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’sFever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and guest host Andrew Kirell, senior editor at The Daily Beast, return to the icy north to discuss the QAnon “Queen of Canada,” Romana Didulo, and her disco RV.Also on the podcast, Rolling Stone political news reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez talks former kickboxer “turned-awful-man” Andrew Tate.
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Wed, 24 Aug 2022 - 54min - 76 - Aura Shift w/ Nick Lutsko
The fallout from the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort feels never-ending, and those still suffering the sting of the right-wing backlash are the ones who enforced the move, including the federal magistrate judge who signed off on the search warrant.Also on the podcast, the hosts talk with Nick Lutsko, a musician who writes and sings songs that, according to Sommer, are a crossover between our crazy political moment and the lives we lead on the internet. But most importantly, says Sommer, Lutsko sings about conservatives including Dan Bongino and, unsurprisingly, Alex Jones.
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Wed, 17 Aug 2022 - 53min - 75 - Conceptual Lames w/ Jessica Pishko
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago! This week on Fever Dreams, Will Sommer and guest host Anthony Fisher talk about the FBI search on Mar-a-Lago, whether the feds should have given Trump advanced notice, and whether Republicans will vaporize the Justice Department the next time they have power. In Fresh Hell, Will explores the depths of alleged depravity at James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas group, where an ex-employee claims sexual harassment and drug use is running wild. Anthony talks about the Twitter demise of the infamous “Groomer” troll Conceptual James. Reporter Jessica Pishko joins to talk about sheriffs acting with impunity and positioning themselves as right-wing voter fraud influencers.
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Wed, 10 Aug 2022 - 52min - 74 - New Age Fever Dream w/ Matthew Remski
On the latest episode of Fever Dreams, host Will Sommer and guest host Anthony Fisher discuss the motive behind Donald Trump’s endorsement for Eric…but which one? The team also discuss and review Alex Jones’ “documentary” as his Sandy Hook trial continues. Elsewhere in the episode, Matthew Remski, cohost of the Conspirituality podcast, explains the meaning behind “conspirituality” and what it encompasses.
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Wed, 03 Aug 2022 - 55min - 73 - Intellectual Dork Web w/Eiynah
On the latest episode of Fever Dreams, host Will Sommer and guest host Anthony Fisher discuss Alex Jones’ upcoming trial and John Rich’s No.1 hit, “Progress,” along with the problems surrounding the title.
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Wed, 27 Jul 2022 - 55min - 72 - Alt Right Reservoir Dogs feat. Matt Ford
On the latest episode of Fever Dreams, host Will Sommer and guest host Asawin Suebsaeng–returning to the podcast he helped launch– talk about the “little people just riding around the miasma of MAGA-ism”. One of those people is Ray Epps, whose life has been turned upside down by a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory and who's had to go on the run. But the big guys have problems, too. The hosts discuss Trump's reasons for running again in 2024—not least among them, his belief that it's harder to prosecutors to go after him if he's in the Oval Office. And Matt Ford, a writer with the New Republic, delves into the nitty gritty of how exactly we got to where we are as a country with an aggressively rightwing Supreme Court
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Wed, 20 Jul 2022 - 54min - 71 - The Floor Is LAVA
Move over, MAGA — it’s LAVA time. With efforts to overturn the election stalling, a former inventor and treasure hunter proposes that Trump supporters embrace a new acronym: LAVA, or “Let America Vote Again.” Fever Dreams host Will Sommer buries the hatchet with his one-time podcasting partner and Rolling Stone reporter Asawin Suebsaeng to break it down. Also on this week’s episode: Trumpworld looks for a patsy to take the fall as the Jan. 6 committee closes in. Will explains the meaning of “NESARA,” the mythical law some conspiracy theorists means they don’t have to pay their credit card bills. Finally, the boys say goodbye to the Georgia Guidestones, a Fever Dreams favorite recently blown up by a mysterious bomber.
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Wed, 13 Jul 2022 - 36min - 70 - Multiverse Vibe Shift w/ Baynard Woods
Hope you didn’t get too rowdy on Independence Day — the Large Hadron Collider is about to zap us into another dimension, and July 4th partygoers will be left in the old universe. So goes the thinking in a new TikTok conspiracy theory. On this week’s Fever Dreams, host Will Sommer and guest host Andrew Kirell discuss what they’re expecting to get from the new dimension, and whether the Mandela effect is at play. Also on the podcast: MAGA supporters declare July to be “America Month,” and a Michigan secretary of state candidate gets into sexual demonology. 2020 election deniers build up their local infrastructure. Also: Reporter Baynard Woods joins to talk about his new book, “Inheritance,” an investigation of his family’s history in white supremacy.
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Wed, 06 Jul 2022 - 47min - 69 - Q Lives
Q of QAnon infamy has returned! Hosts Will Sommer and Sam Brodey talk about Q’s new posts after a nearly two year hiatus, and QAnon conspiracy theorists’ excitement about them. Sam gives an update on the pardon-crazed January 6th committee, and Will talks about the right’s obsession with a possibly fake pro-abortion rights group promising a “Night of Rage.” In this week’s Fresh Hell, QAnon believers are duped into buying bogus cryptocurrencies and lose a ton of money.
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Wed, 29 Jun 2022 - 31min - 68 - Woke Alamo feat. Jessica Huseman
Will Sommer and Sam Brodey chat with Jessica Huseman, editorial director for Votebeat, about how folks who actively tried to subvert the 2020 election are now vying to get on ballots for positions that could allow them to influence the next presidential race. Elsewhere on the podcast, the hosts discuss the “kerfuffle at the GOP convention in Houston over the weekend” in which a “YouTube prankster” staged a dramatic confrontation with Congressman Dan Crenshaw, and wonder how many British documentarians are going to come out of the woodwork at the January 6 committee hearings. And finally, the hosts note how a drag queen named Barbara Seville busted apart Kari Lake’s anti-LGBTQ hypocrisy, and discuss how Texas Republicans are terrified that the woke are now coming for the Alamo.
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Wed, 22 Jun 2022 - 50min - 67 - Proud Boys 101 feat. Andy Campbell
The Proud Boys are at the center of the January 6 committee hearings — but who are they? HuffPost editor Andy Campbell, the author of an upcoming book on the Proud Boys, joins Fever Dreams host Will Sommer and guest host Sam Brodey to give. from their cereal-themed beat-in rituals and their varying self-love regiments. Sam, a congressional reporter for The Daily Beast, weighs in on the committee hearings. In other extremist news, Will and Sam discuss a botched appearance from Patriot Front white supremacists at an Idaho gay pride parade. And finally, Will takes us to a lower depth of “Fresh Hell” that was previously believed possible, exploring the right-wing manosphere’s belief that receipts somehow steal their masculinity.
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Wed, 15 Jun 2022 - 54min - 66 - Milo Goes To Congress feat. Brian Knappenberger
From the newest development in the Capitol riot investigations, with Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy indictments, to Kevin McCarthy’s war with MAGA hardcore believers, Will Sommer and guest host Zachary Petrizzo break down the state of the political right in this week’s episode of the Fever Dreams podcast. As for the guest this week, the duo was joined by documentary filmmaker Brian Knappenberger who is behind the upcoming Nextix docuseries Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies, and the Internet. (Watch the trailer here.)
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Wed, 08 Jun 2022 - 51min - 65 - Pizzagate Is Back, Baby! Feat. Sarah Posner
In another wild week for right-wing Fever Dreams, Ted Cruz is all about door control now, Dinesh D’Souza has new competition from the MyPillow guy in the fight for the craziest documentary about what Democrats supposedly did to steal the 2020 election, and much more as host Will Sommer and guest host Zachary Petrizzo help navigate the madness, with an assist from “Unholy” author and Christian nationalism expert Sarah Posner.
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Wed, 01 Jun 2022 - 49min - 64 - MAGA Rap feat Tess Owen
Who’s the most goated pro-Trump rapper alive? Perhaps it’s Forgiato Blow, the trash-talking, Hooters-addicted “Mayor of Magaville.” Vice News reporter Tess Owen joins Will Sommer and guest host Zachary Petrizzo to talk about her recent profile of Blow. Plus: the wheels come off the trucker convoy, and Zach and Will break down the latest failed stunt from Jacob Wohl.
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Wed, 25 May 2022 - 47min - 63 - Pennsylvania Putsch ft. Michael Hayden
The Pennsylvania Senate primary results are in, and the hosts discuss how insurgent right-winger Kathy Barnette’s rise was an indication of how fringe figures are now outflanking even the former president and his favored candidates. Michael Hayden from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) joins the podcast to discuss the mass shooting in Buffalo and the accused killer’s obsession with the bogus ‘great replacement’ lie. The podcast hosts also discuss a recent New York Timesexpose on how QAnon factions within evangelical churches are driving out conservative pastors who give “any sort of nod to any kind of social justice, any kind of nod to Black Lives Matter or treating the poor well”—and how neo-Nazis in Idaho are driving out more moderate Republicans by entrenching themselves in local politics and running vicious harassment campaigns against their enemies.
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Wed, 18 May 2022 - 50min - 62 - Kicked Out of Incel Club feat. James Pogue
A newly nominated Republican congressional candidate in Ohio claims he’s not a QAnon guy, despite appearing to own an extensive wardrobe of QAnon merchandise. This week on Fever Dreams, we revisit J.R. Majewski, the next likely candidate to join Congress’s growing Q wing. Elsewhere, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss a falling-out among the white nationalist America First movement, which entered a bitter feud after its former treasurer got a girlfriend (a faux pas with the movement’s celibate leader). While that racist youth movement flounders, another is quietly amassing influence. Reporter James Pogue joins us to discuss the New Right movement, an anti-liberal alliance whose star candidate J.D. Vance just won his GOP nomination for Congress. Finally, we visit a more longshot candidate, who, if elected, pledges to blow up a Georgia monument that she believes is Satanic.
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Wed, 11 May 2022 - 55min - 61 - Roe Leak Hunt feat. Jordan Green
The right has achieved a decades-long goal by successfully overturning Roe v. Wade, but all they want to talk about is finding out who leaked the opinion breaking the news. Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill talk about the right’s leak-hunt and insistence that, somehow, the leaker is a terrorist. Meanwhile, Alex Jones gets some hefty bitcoin donations. Plus: this potential future congressman has bars! Will and Kelly discuss J.R. Majewski, the Ohio congressional candidate poised to become Congress’s third QAnon support — and its first rapper. Raw Story’s Jordan Green joins to talk about Jan. 6, and Will reviews “2,000 Mules,” pundit Dinesh D’Souza’s latest stab at proving the election was stolen.
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Wed, 04 May 2022 - 43min - 60 - The Intellectual Dark Webbers Behind 'Groomer' Panic Feat. Anthony Fisher
'Groomer' panic is sweeping the nation as right-wing types turn against LGBTQ rights, and the talking points—as with the backlash against Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools—can directly be traced back to a group of anti-wokeness activists on the "intellectual dark web." As The Daily Beast's senior opinion editor Anthony Fisher notes, the 'anti-wokeness' activists have "created this groundswell that is absolutely affecting policy," with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' own press secretary is now parroting the leaders of the movement. Meanwhile, the co-hosts discuss how Elon Musk's successful bid for Twitter is galvanizing the right (and QAnon numerologists), and how two manosphere influencers in Romania have been raided in connection with an human-trafficking and rape investigation.
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Wed, 27 Apr 2022 - 46min - 59 - Brainpill Bankruptcy feat. Nikki McCann Ramirez
Would you buddy up to a neo-Nazi for a cut of crowdfunded “patriot freedom” cash? That’s the question reportedly wracking a wing of a D.C. jail, where multiple alleged January 6 rioters are being detained. This week on Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill dive into the far right’s money troubles—both behind bars and outside them, as three of Alex Jones’ companies file for bankruptcy. Media Matters associate research director Nikki McCann Ramirez joins the podcast to discuss Tucker Carlson’s bizarre new “special” on masculinity, which features a guy tanning his balls on what looks like a Tesla charger. Elsewhere, Will and Kelly check in on the stinkiest new QAnon trend: not bathing due to fear of snake water.
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Wed, 20 Apr 2022 - 52min - 58 - Paging Seymour Butts Feat. Taylor Lorenz
No, passenger “Let’s go Brandon” does not need to check-in at Gate 10. It’s just the latest right-wing trend that has conservatives paging fake passengers over airport intercoms. This week, Fever Dreams brings you the bleeding edge in COVID-19 conspiracy theories (this time about snake blood), as well as dispatches from Colorado and Pennsylvania, where primary contests are revealing divides between the GOP mainstream and its growing QAnon wing. Finally, we’re joined by Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz, who brings us up to speed on Republican TikTok and the battle for Gen Z viewers. The kids aren’t alright.
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Wed, 13 Apr 2022 - 56min - 57 - The People's Court, Feat. Murder Bryan
Hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer have one thing on their minds: how they can score $2,500 to land spots on a bogus “grand jury” indicting Anthony Fauci. On this week’s episode, Swin and Will discuss the burgeoning trend of soaking your fans by selling them “super juror” spots on fake grand juries aimed at Fauci and Hunter Biden. Street Fight podcast host Murder Bryan joins to explore the world of right-wing shock jocks, with a focus on “Mancow” Muller. Bryan also weighs in on a QAnon referee scandal that has roiled pro wrestling. Elsewhere on the ep, Swin and Will talk about the right’s new crusade to prove that Disney is part of a groomer cabal, and Herschel Walker’s troubled Senate campaign.
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Wed, 06 Apr 2022 - 57min - 56 - 'Playboy' Poems of the Trump Attorney, Feat. Elizabeth Williamson
Some of Donald Trump's lawyers have some cringe hobbies, like trying to do coup d'états. But did you know that one of them is an amateur poet, who has written verses about "THE TORONTO SUBWAY SYSTEM" and, "of life and sex and puzzled joy, a chopped up mess of Miss Playboy." In this week's episode of Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng bring you dramatic readings of the Trump "legal B-team" poetry. Elsewhere on the pod, our hosts welcome New York Times writer Elizabeth Williamson to discuss her new book on the Sandy Hook massacre, Alex Jones, and "the Battle for Truth." For those interested in plumbing the depths of Ginni Thomas's efforts to support Trump's efforts to cling to power, Sommer breaks down the wild, undeniable QAnon connections. Finally, for listeners curious about the question, "Why are Capitol Hill Republicans so furious this week about (alleged!) cocaine-fueled orgies involving 70-something year-olds?" our hosts—unfortunately—have an answer for you!
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Wed, 30 Mar 2022 - 57min - 55 - Alex Pwned, Feat. Ryan Mac
Fever Dreams host Will returns to the pod to talk with Swin about Alex Jones’s maybe-fake illness, which conveniently struck him down right before a Sandy Hook deposition. New York Times reporter Ryan Mac stops by to talk about Republican mega-donor Peter Thiel’s plans for 2022 — what is that guy up to? Also on the agenda: the trucker convoy’s bumbling, accident-prone attempts to terrorize DC and the Ohio Senate race that nearly turned into a real-life brawl. Finally, Swin kicks off his farewell tour by announcing he’s leaving the pod and The Daily Beast for good.
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Wed, 23 Mar 2022 - 50min - 54 - My Own Private (Nazi) Idaho, Feat. C.J. Ciaramella
Is this the country’s most off-the-rails local Republican party? This week, Fever Dreams checks in on the Kootenai County, Idaho GOP, where local leaders are accused of trying to force a hostile takeover of the local Democratic party, and install an antisemitic troll as the new Democratic leader. Plus, we bring you the latest from Mar-A-Lago, where Donald Trump is making angry phone calls about his floundering social media site, Truth Social. We’re also joined by Reason reporter C.J. Ciaramella, who tells us about the FBI’s secret collection of police brutality statistics—and why those numbers might never see the light of day.
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Wed, 16 Mar 2022 - 58min - 53 - Trump’s ICE Man Heads To Nazi-Palooza, Feat. Chris MathiasAmerica First Political Action Conference, a white nationalist event, keeps its location secret, in part to keep the press away. This week’s guest, HuffPost Christopher Mathias, found the location anyway. He joins Fever Dreams to discuss his bizarre conversation with former ICE Director Tom Homan, who was a scheduled AFPAC speaker, but bailed out at the last minute. Elsewhere on the podcast, we check in on Donald Trump and far-right “Boogaloo Boys,” both of which have been daydreaming about conducting bizarre military stunts in Ukraine, like disguising American jets as Chinese and bombing Russia. (Trump’s suggestion.) Later, we visit the right-wing trucker convoy that attempted to encircle D.C. So far, they’re fighting a losing battle against beltway traffic.
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Wed, 09 Mar 2022 - 51min - 52 - Dance Dance Revo-Putin, Feat. Adam Rawnsley
Donald Trump is racking up massive Secret Service bills—and hassling those agents about their physical fitness and whether they voted for him. This week on Fever Dreams, we visit wannabe demagogues at home and abroad. In Florida, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at a Hitler-hyping white nationalist conference. Other members of her party, meanwhile, prefer to heap praise on Vladimir Putin, whom they laud as “anti-woke” as he oversees Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That attack is so large that researchers have been sounding alarm bells about Russia’s military buildup for months. This week’s guest, Daily Beast reporter Adam Rawnsley, describes how researchers have tracked Russian troop movements through Google maps and TikTok videos, bursting the Russian military narrative about the reason for the invasion.
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Wed, 02 Mar 2022 - 49min - 51 - Phat Earth, Feat. Dylan Gelula
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is back with a wacky new claim, this time about Fever Dreams host Asawin Suebsaeng. It’s not true—but it’s not even the weirdest conspiracy theory on this week’s podcast, where we preview co-host Kelly Weill’s new book about the flat earth movement. We check in on a flat earther who got arrested for trying to hand out flyers at a school playground, and learn why the movement even alienates some QAnon believers. Actress Dylan Gelula joins us to discuss her podcast “Lecture Hall” and why we can blame Mad Cow Disease for the rise of Dr. Phil. Elsewhere, we try to log into Donald Trump’s new social network (which is too glitchy to load) and learn about an upcoming gathering of clout-chasing white supremacists, and the politicians who support them.
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Wed, 23 Feb 2022 - 49min - 50 - Canadian Bacón, Feat. David Roth & Mack Lamoureux
Even though the Canadian trucker protesters have been cleared from Ottawa’s border bridge and commerce lanes with the U.S. reopened this past weekend, Canada is still struggling to contain the demonstrators—and as Fever Dreams guest and Vicewriter Mack Lamoureux notes, more insidious, and even armed, groups are emerging within the greater protest. What’s more, Canada’s trucker blockade is spawning copycats far and wide. Elsewhere on the pod, co-hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Kelly Weill, and very special guest host David Roth, talk about how Super Bowl 2022 was just one gigantic ad for crypto, and how Ohio Senate primary candidate Josh Mandel—the one whose alleged sex life Trump likes to gossip about—“looks like he just hatched out of something.” The hosts also unpack how QAnon-loving Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has become a prime kingmaker in GOP political endorsements, and follow several disturbing developments in the story of the violent Denver manosphere shooter Lyndon McLeod.
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Wed, 16 Feb 2022 - 53min - 49 - Their Satanic Travesties Request, Feat. Andy Levy
t’s that time of year again for the Super Bowl halftime show and while the 2022 lineup of Dr. Dre, Snoop, Mary J. Blige and Eminem reads to most fans like a warm and fuzzy 90s nostalgia bath, “to hear certain conservative commentators describe it,” notes Fever Dreams co-host Kelly Weill, “this Super Bowl is ripe for Satanism.” It's all part of the Satanic Panic that’s been brewing in the U.S. for awhile, including the bonkers QAnon conspiracy theories around the deadly Travis Scott concert at Astroworld in December. Meanwhile, Fever Dreams reveals why President Trump has refrained from endorsing a candidate in the Ohio Senate primary race—spoiler, he thinks Josh Mandel is “fucking weird” and has been gossiping about his sex life—and the hosts discuss how Joe Rogan and Spotify have become a proxy for the larger culture wars. And The New Abnormal co-host Andy Levy brings us tales from the crypts of Fox Headquarters, where Fox News once let him host a late-night comedy show with very little supervision.
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Wed, 09 Feb 2022 - 1h 02min - 48 - Run, Ronny, Run!! Feat. Byron Tau
The first QAnon campaign finance filing is finally here, everybody! And it’s… hilarious how much cash this congressional campaign managed to raise. “His first campaign finance filing came in, and it seems to support the idea that not too many people want Mr. QAnon himself in Congress,” Fever Dreams co-host Kelly Weill reports. Elsewhere on this episode, hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Weill interview Wall Street Journal reporter Byron Tau, who reveals how an ordinary citizen’s phone can suddenly turn its user into an unwitting spy for the U.S. military. Also, the Fever Dreams gang tries to answer one of contemporary popular culture’s most enduring, most annoying mysteries: “Why does Bill Maher laugh so much at his own jokes all the time?”
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Wed, 02 Feb 2022 - 1h 03min - 47 - Fire and Furries, Feat. Jane Coaston
Is Joe Biden just as bad as Donald Trump for calling attention to voting rights? The nation’s whataboutist pundits say yes! This week, Fever Dreams dives into the beltway’s favorite new talking point. Elsewhere in D.C. this weekend, anti-vax celebrity Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that he was more persecuted than teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank because he cannot hide in an attic. (Kennedy currently has a top-selling book, so the persecution analogy falls a little flat.) Later, Jane Coaston, host of the New York Times podcast “The Argument” explains how she broaches tough conversations and forges unlikely agreements with people across the political spectrum. Finally, a hoax about separate restrooms for students who identify as “furries” has sent Michigan Republicans into a weird, anti-trans panic.
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Wed, 26 Jan 2022 - 1h 01min - 46 - Slagged Across Concrete, Feat. Jonathan Katz
The latest conspiracy theory to convulse MAGA-land does not involve COVID-19 boosters or deep-state January 6 plots, but a bit of routine construction at dear old 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—which has convinced some on the right that Biden is about to impose martial law. Meanwhile, Trump’s favorite network One America News is in trouble, and the former president is threatening to crush and “destroy” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if he doesn’t fall in line for 2024. And finally, the co-hosts discuss the Ray Epps saga, a rightwing deep-state conspiracy about a January 6 that has made it all the way to the January 6 committee—and that has caused a spate of young rightwingers accusing likeminded boomers of “being feds”—and journalist Jonathan M. Katz joins the podcast to talk about his book, Gangsters of Capitalism, about a man named Smedley Butler who was involved in most of the U.S. invasions and occupations and wars around the turn of the century and who eventually became an antiwar activist and “blew the whistle on a fascist plot to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
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Wed, 19 Jan 2022 - 59min - 45 - Vlog or Die, Feat. Abbie Richards
One surefire way to garner some extreme MAGA-cred nowadays is to get COVID-19, lie about it and say you just have pneumonia, and remain unrepentant as an avowed anti-vaxxer. But there’s at least one MAGA diehard—an associate of Steve Bannon—who has taken things a step farther. This guy has recently been vlogging (yes, vlogging) from his hospital bed—after being admitted for contracting the coronavirus. Of course, he’s talked about how thrilled he is that he never got the COVID vaccine… even though he’s been vlogging lately from a COVID ward about how much trouble he’s had breathing. Join Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng, as they offer this latest glimpse into a most lethal American culture war. Elsewhere on the episode, Suebsaeng and Fever Dreams producer Jesse Cannon interview Abbie Richards, a TikTok “power user” who’s also a leading expert on how conspiracy theories wildly proliferate on TikTok.
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Wed, 12 Jan 2022 - 54min - 44 - The MAGA Infiltrator, Feat. Amanda Moore
When Amanda Moore lost her job, she decided to go undercover in MAGA land, attending QAnon events and CPAC, hanging with Neo-Nazis and “blood-and-soil fascists,” and palling around with Proud Boys at Harry's Bar in the lead-up to the January 6 Capitol Riot. But what her new compatriots didn’t know was that she was often recording them, and the result is a chilling portrait “of what the right looks like from the inside.” Elsewhere on the podcast, co-hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng discuss the results of a Texas election audit that “Republican officials were trying to bury”—namely because “they found basically nothing wrong with the results”—and dissect an increasingly bitter feud between two audit-fanatics that has descended into potty-mouthed doxxing. Sommer recounts his firsthand experience of being at the Capitol during the riot a year ago, and the hosts dissect the newest catchphrase to devour the far-right and the latest chaos roiling the ultra-alpha manosphere.
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Wed, 05 Jan 2022 - 58min - 43 - A Fever Dreams Carol
The year 2021 brought some major grifts in MAGA-land, as Fever Dreams hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer noted in their final podcast of the year—think Melania Trump’s NFT’s and the ‘Freedom phone,’ which was basically a “rebrand of a cheapo Chinese phone” selling at five times the price. But the Qux Box (pronounced “Cucks”) takes the prize as the pair’s “favorite dumb character of 2021.” Months after it was first promoted by its inventors—a former Infowars reporter and her husband—“I’m still trying to figure out what the Qux Box is,” Sommer notes. “Seems to be an off-brand Roku as best as I can tell.” Meanwhile, as the Omicron wave hits the United States with a vengeance, some right-wingers are convinced that the reason they’re sick is not because of the widely transmissible and near-ubiquitous new variant of COVID-19, but because of … anthrax.
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Wed, 29 Dec 2021 - 38min - 42 - Jimmy Pesto Goes To Washington, Feat. Dick Lehr
Some internet mischief-makers created a fake DHS website purporting to show President Biden’s plan for COVID concentration camps—and rightwing Senate candidate JD Vance fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Elsewhere on the podcast, The Daily Beast discovers the answer to whether character actor Jay Johnston—who voices the villainous Jimmy Pesto on Fox sitcom Bob’s Burgers—really did storm the Capitol on January 6. Meanwhile, the Proud Boys are teaming up with a radical Black nationalist organization called The Black Hammers, who are darlings of right-wing media for doing things like bashing Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Journalist Dick Lehr drops by the pod to discuss his new book, White Hot Hate, on a domestic terror plot to bomb an immigrant mosque in Kansas. And James O’Keefe is entertaining the crowd at rightwing conferences with songs from the musical Oklahoma. As co-host Asawin Suebsaeng notes, further proof that “failed theater kids will destroy us all.”
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Wed, 22 Dec 2021 - 1h 00min - 41 - Alex Jones and The Hypnotist, Feat. Knowledge Fight
Her name is Trevian Kutti. Is that the name of the lamest Bond villains of the Pierce Brosnan era? Or is she a Kanye West publicist who fumbled her way into a Coen Brothers-style mission to shred the democratic order and keep Donald Trump in power? On this week’s Fever Dreams, hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer are joined by Daily Beast colleague Adam Rawnsley to bring you a new deep-dive into the life and bizarre world of Kutti. Later on, our hosts welcome Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes, the hosts of the excellent Knowledge Fight podcast, wherein “each episode, Dan and Jordan take a look at some clips from that day's Alex Jones Show and struggle to make sense of what they find.”
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Wed, 15 Dec 2021 - 54min - 40 - The New New NEW Right Feat. Sam Adler-Bell
Trump fanatics Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn had a secret falling-out—and it’s just the latest revelation in the ongoing civil strife that’s been engulfing some of MAGAworld’s top election deniers. On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng dig deeper on some of the unreported aspects of the backstabbing and high-school-style melodramas that are throttling the once tight-knit community of far-right luminaries who tried to nuke American democracy to make Donald Trump happy. Elsewhere on this episode, writer and “Know Your Enemy” podcast co-host Sam Adler-Bell talks about his article in The New Republic on the latest “New Right” and upstart young conservative intellectuals talking up “counterrevolution.” Sommer and Suebsaeng also get into the apparently out-of-shape neo-Nazis marching around in Washington, DC, and also take a look at the latest on former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ world-historically shambolic book tour.
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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 - 1h 01min - 39 - The Qanon Riot-Squad, feat. Dan O'Keefe
‘Seinfeld’ writer Dan O’Keefe is the man who gave us the holiday of Festivus—and as he reveals for the first time on Fever Dreams, its origins are pretty dark. Elsewhere on the podcast, the big MAGA civil war between Trump-loving attorney Lin Wood and former national security advisor Michael Flynn went nuclear this week and has turned into a circular MAGA firing squad. The co-hosts identify the next anti-vaxxer trend to sweep the far right internet, and it involves black sharpies. Finally, O’Keefe—who also worked on ‘Veep’—talks about how Trump’s awful presidency totally changed Selina Meyer’s story arc.
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Wed, 01 Dec 2021 - 55min - 38 - Drama at MAGA High, Feat. Abdur-Rahman Muhammad
In the aftermath of the contested 2020 vote, Trump’s biggest election-fraud cheerleaders—Lin Wood, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn—were a tight crew. But the MAGA clique’s now in trouble as they turn on each other over wild accusations and petty infighting. Elsewhere on the podcast, the hosts discuss how Trump’s hand-picked candidate in a Pennsylvania election has flamed out (possibly to be replaced by Dr. Oz), and eagerly await an upcoming Hunter Biden biopic. And scholar and activist Abdur-Rahman Muhammad joins the show to discuss the exoneration of two men accused of Malcolm X's murder—and why the FBI is “guilty as hell.”
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Wed, 24 Nov 2021 - 53min - 37 - Tim Pool, Ivermectin Posterboy w/Robert Silverman
One-man YouTube brand and far-right darling Tim Pool came down with a nasty case of COVID-19—and with Joe Rogan’s help, became the latest posterboy for the dubious treatment of the virus with ivermectin. Meanwhile, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is waging war on Insiderfor an article that detailed his allegedly brutal sexual encounters with women. Bari Weiss’ unaccredited University of Austin is already bleeding staff members. Alex Jones lost big in court to the Sandy Hook parents. And a new, wacky Jan. 6 documentary, by character actor Nick Searcy, is coming to America just in time for Thanksgiving.
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Wed, 17 Nov 2021 - 53min - 36 - Paul Gosar, Meme Lord ft. Justin Baragona
Congressional dentist Paul Gosar is tweeting anime beheading videos of his colleagues and the hosts of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreamshave some questions. Namely, “who on Gosar’s staff is the meme Lord?” As host Will Sommer notes, “Not a good sign for the state of the country, or the right, to be tweeting your anime assassination fantasies.” Elsewhere on the podcast, Sommer and host Kelly Weill discuss the FBI raid on Project Veritas, and the proliferation of TikTok Satanist conspiracies around the deadly Travis Scott concert. And The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona appears on the pod to talk about Tucker Carlson’s new Jan. 6 documentary, in which he warns the leftover the prospect of more violence from what he sickeningly calls “legacy Americans.”
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Wed, 10 Nov 2021 - 53min - 35 - Return To The Grassy Knoll Feat. Tim Mak
Will JFK Jr. rise from the dead and proclaim himself QAnon King in a Dallas press conference this week? Probably not. But that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists from gathering in Texas to meet the long-departed lawyer. This week on Fever Dreams, Will Sommer and guest host Kelly Weill discuss the nuttiest legal battles on the far right, from conspiratorial attorney Lin Wood accusing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of stiffing him $5,000, to neo-Nazis representing themselves in a trial over the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. NPR correspondent Tim Mak joins the podcast to discuss his new book MISFIRE: Inside the Downfall of the NRA, which delves into the secrets of the powerful gun lobbying group and its downright weird leader. Plus, Will gives a harrowing cautionary tale from the metaverse.
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Wed, 03 Nov 2021 - 52min - 34 - Jesus Goes Full QAnon ft. E.J. Dickson
Jesus—aka actor Jim Caviezel—has “emerged from his chrysalis as a QAnon butterfly” and is now spending his days making videos about adrenochrome and appearing at Q conferences to quote from Braveheart. Meanwhile, Sean Hannity and other right-wing types are in a gleeful tizzy over MAGA rap songs, while Gen Z is falling in love with some pretty crazy conspiracies—5G, Scientology, and old-school Pizzagate—over on TikTok. And a civil court case against the deadly organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville could have big implications for the January 6 rioter trials.
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Wed, 27 Oct 2021 - 51min - 33 - PragerU Covid Club feat Amanda Montell
Did Dennis Prager deliberately catch Covid-19, or is he just embarrassed now that he did? Will Sommer and guest host Kelly Weill discuss the talk radio host’s coronavirus hunt, plus Laura Loomer’s intense memoir about getting PTSD from a Twitter ban. Author Amanda Montell joins to talk about her new book, Cultish, an investigation of real cults like Heaven’s Gate and quasi-cults like Crossfit. Audit fever hits never-before-seen heights. Plus: Will and Kelly talk alleged QAnon operator Ron Watkins’s bumbling congressional bid and MAGA lawyer Sidney Powell’s rap-heavy legal defense.
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Wed, 20 Oct 2021 - 53min - 32 - All Aboard MAGA Airlines, feat. Jennings Brown
As far-right efforts to “audit” the 2020 election fizzle, some of the movement’s biggest names have accused each other of being communists, FBI informants, and “homewreckers.” Meanwhile, other right-wing figures have more pressing concerns: namely, how to launch their own airlines for pilots and passengers who refuse to be vaccinated. And hosts Kelly Weill and Will Sommer dish on the dumbest new t-shirt slogan that’s about to take off with Trump fans.
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Wed, 13 Oct 2021 - 47min - 31 - SQAnon Game, Feat QAnon Anonymous
The hosts of QAnon Anonymous dropped by this week to talk about the latest Q conspiracies involving the Facebook outage and the annoying fact that Joe Biden remains in the White House. Plus: Trumpcoins are flooding Telgram via fake celebrity accounts, Corey Lewandowski’s police report is a must-read, and the Sandy Hook parents are finally victorious over Alex Jones.
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Wed, 06 Oct 2021 - 50min - 30 - Razing Arizona feat. Jerod MacDonald-Evoy
With the Arizona audit in chaos after confirming Biden won, the boys are joined by Arizona Mirror reporter Jerod MacDonald-Evoy to talk through the aftermath — and the audit-enthusiast civil war. Kelly Weill joins to talk about the new book bans. Plus: the rise of “vigilante medicine” urging COVID patients to stay out of the hospital, and a consideration of rising Gen Z Republicans Gunnar Thorderson and Morgonn.
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Wed, 29 Sep 2021 - 52min - 29 - NFT Hustle Tips feat. Joe Carnahan
Ron Watkins, the alleged mastermind behind QAnon, is getting in on the NFT game by selling Trump retweets. And Tiffany Trump and the Krassenstein Brothers aren't far behind...Meanwhile, Eric Trump is headlining an anti-vaxxer conference that also features the Q. yoga crystals lady—so, sounds prestigious. And Fever Dreams hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer chat with director Joe Carnahan about his latest movie, Copshop—including the post-production drama that led Frank Grillo to slam the film's editors.
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Wed, 22 Sep 2021 - 54min - 28 - The Cuck Box, Feat. Josh Ruben
A former InfoWars reporter is pushing a hot new gadget on the right-wing electronics market: the Qux… Yes, it’s pronounced “cucks.” No, no one knows what it does. But for $99, it promises to free Donald Trump’s supporters from the tyranny of Big Tech! Elsewhere on the pod, Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng welcome on filmmaker and horror-comedy auteur Josh Ruben, director of “Werewolves Within” and “Scare Me.” Ruben dishes on his as-of-yet unproduced horror-movie script—inspired by a true story of a woman enraptured by the cult of Trump.
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Wed, 15 Sep 2021 - 59min - 27 - General (Air)Strike!, Feat. Spencer Ackerman
Over $8 trillion spent, and almost a million dead bodies. The U.S.-led war on terror absolutely devastating over the last two decades. The wars also led to Donald Trump’s rise to power, irreparably degraded our culture, and made our far-right conspiracy theorists somehow even dumber. On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng bring on national-security reporter and ‘REIGN OF TERROR’ author Spencer Ackerman to break down how, thanks to the War on Terror, “[what’s] QAnon today,” is likely “going to be the Republican Party on Capitol Hill in however many years.”
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Wed, 08 Sep 2021 - 56min - 26 - Radio, Radio, Feat. Matt Gertz
Conservative talk radio hosts keep dying of COVID-19, after voicing skepticism about vaccines. Meanwhile, at the top of the conservative news food chain, Fox News hosts face backlash if they’re even perceived to promote vaccination. Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters joins Fever Dreams to discuss how right-wing media is falling prey to its own COVID talking points. Later, hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Kelly Weill discuss the GOP’s new thirst for invading Afghanistan, the wannabe-Rambos invading school board meetings, and the disappearance of a lawyer tied to a number of conservative causes.
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Wed, 01 Sep 2021 - 55min - 25 - Rise of the Wario Cop, Feat. Ben Collins
There is something wrong when your local police department warns you about marauding ‘Antifa buses’ coming to your town to hurt your grandmother. It’s even worse when the police dispatch a helicopter to hunt down the imaginary bus of Antifa soldiers. On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Kelly Weill welcome NBC News reporter (and Daily Beast alum) Ben Collins to explain what happens when police departments across the U.S. start “falling down these rabbit holes.” Elsewhere on this episode, Weill and Suebsaeng dive in on how the horse paste and “sheep drench” craze among anti-vaccine COVID truthers—and to a certain extent, on Fox News—is getting so out of hand… that the FDA had to spend part of its weekend telling people to knock it off.
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Wed, 25 Aug 2021 - 57min - 24 - Critical War Theory, Feat. Jared Holt & David Roth
*** CONTENT WARNING - On this weeks episode after the ad break at 27 minutes we start an interview that has a graphic description of a child being murdered by a Q-Anon follower. If you wish to skip this content we give warning after the ad break and you can skip to the 33 minute mark in the podcast if you would like to avoid it. ****Hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Kelly Weill and guests David Roth and Jared Holt discuss Mike Lindell’s hilariously chaotic Stop-the-Steal conference, a QAnon murder, and why the MAGA crowd thinks ‘woke generals’ are to blame for the disastrous Afghanistan exit.
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Wed, 18 Aug 2021 - 56min - 23 - Beer for My Horse Paste, feat. Cam Joseph
Remember when hydroxychloroquine was the "it girl of the conspiracy verse"—a supposed COVID miracle pill touted by Donald Trump and the Demon Sperm Doc? Those days are over and there's a new drug blowing up the unhinged corners of Facebook and the internet. As our Fever Dream host Asawin Suebsaeng, and guest hosts and Daily Beast reporters Kelly Weill and Adam Rawnsley, explain, the drug—called ivermectin—is sometimes used by humans for parasites and fungal infections. Elsewhere on the podcast, Rawnsley discusses how Russian trolls—not the GRU guys, kind of a clumsier, knockoff version—are trying and failing to make Americans and Europeans believe that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will turn us into chimpanzees. Weill walks us through the latest audit clown showdown in Virginia, where State Senator Amanda Chase really hopes you'll give her $$$$ to retally her state's not-even-close election. And guest Cameron Joseph, a senior political reporter at Vice News, breaks down the simmering cold war between Mitch McConnell and Trump for control of the Republican party and its candidates during the midterms.
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Wed, 11 Aug 2021 - 48min - 22 - MyPillow Presents Woodstock ’21 w/Steven Monacelli
As Trump tried to subvert American democracy, he told DOJ officials that they were not “following the internet the way I do.” He was referring in part to ultra-rightwing conspiracy site Gateway Pundit—run by the so-called “dumbest man on the internet.” This week’s episode of Fever Dreams goes inside how the habitually wrong website so influenced the president that he carried print-outs of its articles around the West Wing as he pushed the Justice Department to declare a fraudulent election. (One official says he threw the printouts in the trash. Or maybe recycled them.) Hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng also break down how new restrictions on anti-vaxxers are convincing some of them to finally get the jab, and how ISIS militants have infiltrated the alt-right’s new social media network Gettr. Elsewhere on the episode, Daily Beast reporter Kelly Weill talks about how all those conspiracies about Trump retaking power in August are now imploding, and reporter Steven Monacelli breaks down how a flyer purportedly from Black Lives Matter groups making the rounds in Texas—which asked white parents to pledge to not send their kids to Ivy League schools—was in fact the work of a conservative PR firm and was amplified by the right-wing media ecosystem..
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Wed, 04 Aug 2021 - 41min - 21 - ConservaKids, Feat. Alex Pareene
If you’ve ever wished the kids’ books you read your small children included more references to the “cabal” at Jeffrey Epstein’s island, then we have some news for you! On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng delve into the wild and bafflingly lurid world of a new series of conservative children’s books, which include adorable foxes teaching your kids not to embrace communist ice cream. Elsewhere on the episode our hosts interview ‘New Republic’ staff writer Alex Pareene on why Democrats suck at “propaganda,” as compared to their Republican opponents, and how the future of the mainstream GOP was accurately (and depressingly) spelled out for us—among the marchers in Charlottesville in 2017.
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Wed, 28 Jul 2021 - 54min
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