We Live Here Now

We found out that our new neighbors were supporting January 6 insurrectionists. We knocked on their door. We Live Here Now is about what happened next. Hosted by Lauren Ober and Hanna Rosin. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are a few names closely associated with the aftermath of January 6. Donald Trump, of course. The “QAnon Shaman,” for obvious reasons. And Ashli Babbitt. She was the only person shot by a Capitol Police officer that day, after she climbed through a broken glass panel. Almost immediately, rioters who witnessed her shooting recognized its symbolism. Myths began to spring up about her life. Trump began to mention her at rallies, and raised suspicion around the circumstances of her death.  Two years later, this mythologizing crashed into our mundane domestic reality when we, two journalists who are also partners, went on a dog walk and got into a verbal altercation with some neighbors. We soon realized that one of these neighbors was Babbitt’s mother. Her name is Micki Witthoeft, and she moved to Washington, D.C., in an attempt to restore her daughter’s reputation, and to help rewrite the history of January 6.  In this new six-part podcast series, we get to know Witthoeft and her mission. She is many things to many people—“Mama Micki” to the January 6 perpetrators, mother of a dead domestic terrorist to others. But to us, she’s something else; she’s our neighbor. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every night without fail, our new neighbors hold a vigil outside the D.C. jail where the rioters arrested for their actions on January 6 are held. We visit and discover an alternate universe, where the people we know as insurrectionists are considered heroes. We get closer to our neighbors, and they invite us to their house, which they call the “Eagle’s Nest.” There we learn about how their lives were turned upside down after January 6 and how they were wrecked by grief. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The women at the Eagle’s Nest never had anything to do with politics before they arrived in Washington D.C. But they’ve managed to get their message to all the key MAGA leaders, including Donald Trump. And by their constant presence in the city they call the “cesspool,” they may have diverted the course of history.  Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just after we discovered who our neighbors were, Lauren got called to serve as a juror on a January 6 case. About 1,500 people have been charged for their actions on January 6.  Like many of them, the defendant in Lauren’s case had no previous criminal record. We get uncomfortably close to the dilemma of how to punish this unique category of defendants.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

January 6 rioters have been held together in a segregated wing of the D.C. jail, which they came to call the “Patriot Pod.” They developed their own rituals and inside jokes and, over time, radicalized one another. We follow a young rioter from the Patriot Pod who went into jail a mischievous goofball and emerged willing to die for MAGA.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this final episode of We Live Here Now, the outcome of our homegrown experiment comes into focus. Lauren visits Witthoeft at her San Diego home and sees a softer side of her. Hanna talks to Representative Jamie Raskin, who has something essential in common with Witthoeft. And we contemplate what might be coming for us on January 6, 2025.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices