The Culture We Deserve

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are all pivoting to video. Podcasters, journalists, editors are getting out their ring lights and their botox and they are staring intently into the camera to talk to YOU about what's going on. Is the human and tactile being offered as the antidote to the artificial AI slop? Or is this just surrendering to the influencer economy? Jessa and Nico make a solemn pledge, never to show the listeners what we wear or what our hair is doing while we are recording, and discuss the implications of a news media that wants to make stars and influencers out of reporters. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

With the expansion of ICE and the flood of untrained, unprepared, un-uniformed officers on the street, things are likely to get confusing and potentially violent. Nico and Jessa discuss the Trump admin's embrace of militia culture, why Colombia doesn't have militias, and what Jessa's weird obsession with Timothy McVeigh is all about. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

It's summer, the time of year each nation flings its most obnoxious and provincial citizenry into the rest of the world on cruise ships and discount airlines. And the rest of the world responds to the binge drinking, the clacking of roller suitcases, and public displays of ignorance with, "Why are these people my problem exactly?" It's the annual Gringos On the Move episode, this time covering mass tourism at Jonestown, the Disneylandification of Kyoto, and the anti-tourist and expat protests in Mexico City, Venice, and Barcelona.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Why is everyone so worried about the Antichrist again? After 9/11, the Evangelicals were afraid the Antichrist would take over the United Nations. Now Peter Thiel thinks this demon of destruction might be Greta Thunberg, but it's possible he just took psychedelics while watching Constantine and got scared. Jessa and Nico discuss why we're afraid of the apocalypse again, and whether Trump will ever give us a good Mamdani nickname. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com