Omnishambles – Details, episodes & analysis

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

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

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

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

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You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

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

In this episode, we talk about:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

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

In this episode, we talk about:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On this episode of What Rough Beast, Vitto…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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