The Culture We Deserve

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

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

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

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 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