Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman wants to start a new brain drain -- starve industries like finance and consulting from the world's genius by redirecting Harvard grads into "good work." His new book is Moral Ambition, and in it he pleads with those who have a bit of talent, a bit of smarts, to use it to solve social problems rather than create them. Jessa and Nico go through the recent history of Elites Solving Problems, from Effective Altruism to Christian Missionaries to the Nonprofit Grift. But also ask, why does everyone start squirming when you suggest that perhaps you should actually live by those lofty ideals you have?

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The story of a young man, filled with fiery ambition, twisted political ideology, and resentment toward everyone and everything and utterly lacking adequate paternal guidance.... gee, I wonder why this might resonate in the age of incels, aspirational fascists, and Elon Musk reply-guys. The Revolution and Ruin podcast gets into 19th century France, manic pixie goth girls, misdirected rage, and why orphans have all the fun.

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AI is hallucinating whole genocides now, our influencers are at war with the bots, and the only beacon of truth and ethical journalism is.... Jake Tapper? Good luck! Jessa and Nico get into the Tapper/Thompson book Original Sin about the cover-up of Biden's decline and why the press is largely ignoring some of its bombshell revelations.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

All our animals are going to die of bird flu, but at least we'll have raw milk cocktails to take the pain away. Casey Means was suggested for the Surgeon General post the same week that the sex cult/mindfulness startup OneTaste did their media redemption tour and the New York Times invited the wealthy and the celebrated to talk about their skincare regimens and if ruling the world stresses them out. We will all be so very well! We're all carrying flame retardant in our tissue but we are glowing from all the powdered collagen. (Justice for Marianne Williamson!)

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Are the jiu jitsu men radicalized? Are gyms a white nationalist training camp? Is protein a masculinist conspiracy? Will the swole take up arms in their big meaty arms and overthrow the government? There has been a lot of fear of the swole and the ripped, with Ezra Klein calling UFC a gateway drug to rightwing radicalization and the New York Times referring to Hasan's physique as a "MAGA body." Jessa and Nico dig into this fear of jocks, and whether rolling around on the floor with other men, your face in a sweaty crotch, turns you fascist.

Shownotes and references (and join our Revolution and Ruin book club!):

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Maybe two non-Catholics are not the best people to discuss the legacy Pope Francis is leaving behind, although Catholics like Ross Douthat and JD Vance are doing worse. Jessa cries about the death of the pope, and Nico manages to put his Catholic school trauma to the side to assess Pope Francis as a world leader and not just a religious one.

Shownotes and references:

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Welcome to episode one of The Culture We Deserve's Book Club, Revolution and Ruin: Reading the European 19th Century.

In this inaugural episode, Joseph and Jessa discuss Mary Shelley's The Last Man, a prophetic novel about disease, war, and the end of mankind. Unlike the apocalyptic spectacles of your standard end of the world movies and television shows, Shelley's slow burn gets into the grief and despair of humanity's end. Shelley was born at the tail end of the French Revolution and just before the revolutions of 1848, and she is invested in the questions of her era: how should a nation organize itself? how should resources be distributed? how is a person to live amid disruption and unpredictability? And what is the point of making art during tumult?

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Looking back at the first round of the Culture Wars, with Jesse Helms discussing a crucifix submerged in urine on the floor of the senate, one figure remains misunderstood: Thomas Kinkade. The "Painter of Light." The guy your alcoholic grandmother who would never admit she terrorized you really loved. Kinkade's career combines the worst of American culture -- multi-level marketing schemes, Jesus Christ kitsch, and televangelism -- into one product. Jessa and Nico discuss Art for Everybody, the new documentary seeking to rehabilitate Kinkade's image, and whether if Kinkade were alive today he would be appointed the new head of the NEA or Kennedy Center (yes).

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com