Fever Dreams

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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On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng discuss the ongoing war for consumers that’s raging between two MAGA-style coffee companies, with one of the companies landing in hot water with its fans for trashing the Proud Boys. “I love how Black Rifle Coffee is his perfect little metaphor for what has happened to the Republican Party over the past four years,” Suebsaeng said. Elsewhere on the episode, Suebsaeng and Sommer welcome actor, comedian, and Conan O’Brien sidekick Andy Richter, who dishes on his philosophy on late-night comedy and politics—and how eye-rollingly lame it was that one time Donald Trump actually dropped a condom right in front of him and Conan.

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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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Outlandish sunglasses company Pit Viper has a problem: white nationalists love them. This week, Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng talk about Pit Viper’s attempts to push back on their alt right fanbase, after the reflective shades popped up during the Capitol riot. Salon reporter Zach Petrizzo talks his appearance at CPAC Texas, where the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were out in full force and Rep. Matt Gaetz had to throw a party all his own.

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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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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.