Show notes
The novel for the week was Brave New World. Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn were preparing to lead us through it. It was more disturbing and more timely than 1984, another novel in the outsider book club that many of us had become part of over the last few years with two of the greatest teachers alive. How lucky we were, I always thought, every time they dug into a new book. Culture has dramatically changed. It has become exclusive rather than inclusive, despite how they would describe themselves. Matt and Walter, on America This Week, filled a deep, dark, and dry well for thirsty people in need of the kind of observations of human behavior, fearlessness, and wit we used to get from great writers of the past. You can partake of the culture now, but you have to be a true believer if you want in. You have to love Big Brother, or at least have learned how to keep silent enough that no one ever notices. Matt and Walter, two dissidents from the decaying dystopia our culture has become, were never going to play that game. They gave us so much just by taking us back to a time when writing was brilliant, and thinking was essential. I start with the books because that is what really made America This Week something unique and valuable, not just to people like me who found it so pleasurable just to listen to them talk about books, but to the broader culture, so in need of not just education but enlightenment. Two great writers, two great readers, two great thinkers - how did we ever have it so good? Both Walter and Matt had already been “canceled” by lesser beings who had no idea what kind of genius they’d given up. Or maybe they did know. Maybe they burned with jealousy that these two hadn’t sold themselves out for conformity or acceptance. Maybe they burned with jealousy because they were now trapped and silenced. Or maybe they just envied their talent.Either way, their loss was our gain, we outsiders who help build a “little gulag” on the other side of Eden, to quote Milan Kundera. Our little gulag was disrupted on Monday when Matt Taibbi appeared alone and, it must be said in the spirit of the truth, a little shaken. He made his way through the video to explain both why Racket Staff was now changing and why Walter suddenly vanished. We still don’t know all of the reasons. Maybe we never will. If there is one thing I know about Walter and Matt, despite their own protestations to the contrary, they are gentlemen. Neither would ever throw the other under the bus.Here is how Walter explained it:And of course, fans of the show were heartbroken:And angry:Still here we are, bereft in the middle of Brave New World. I waited before writing anything. I thought maybe this would fix itself. The Beatles will get back together, or the parents who are headed for divorce will reconcile. I thought maybe it’s like that scene in Spinal Tap after the dramatic breakup with Nigel Tufnel, where they perform their freeform jazz exploration, “We hope you like our new direction!” but that Nigel would be back before the movie was over.But I also know that it’s not easy being cast as a leader of a large audience that starts to feel like a movement. Maybe Matt felt confined or frustrated, and he stuck it out longer than he wanted to for his readers’ sake, until he finally had to do what he thought was right: become a news site again. They call it “audience capture,” and in a way, that’s right. Candace Owens is probably one of the best examples of how not being honest with your readers can take you down a dark road. If you want to keep the clicks and views coming, you must give your audience what they want. If you decide you can’t anymore, you risk what I did. Losing everything.If I suddenly decided that I loved the Democrats again and I hated Trump and MAGA, that would mean breaking an agreement with many of my readers and subscribers here, and that’s especially tricky if they’re paying subscribers. But if I felt that way, I would still take the leap and jump rather than lie to them. Some of us just can’t do the other thing, and I suspect both Walter and Matt are like that, too.But I also know life is change. People change. We evolve. I could feel Matt’s growing pains for a while now because his audience was built not just on his own reputation but on ours, the abandoned outsiders, many of them MAGA, looking for deeper understanding or validation from the unrelenting, biased legacy media. No, we’re not crazy because look, Matt Taibbi is writing something that makes it make sense, and suddenly, we can feel our feet on the ground.I felt so validated when Matt took up my story and wrote about how Hollywood discarded me for a joke on X and then decided I should be kicked out of utopia. It mattered that it was Matt Taibbi. They couldn’t ignore it. Because even though they’d canceled him in a way, they still paid attention to what he wrote about, and for whatever reason, it made a huge difference for me. They never leave him alone, in fact. They all feel so personally betrayed by him. He routinely beats back critics and trolls on the Left and Right on X, feeling betrayed for one reason or another, trying make him take a definitive side. Some in the comments of his last video for America This Week said they were “glad he was back” and “things were getting weird” with Walter. Those people make me sick. No offense, but you have to be dumb as a rock not to get the greatness of Walter Kirn. That alone explains why our culture collapsed. Too many stupid people are writing books and making movies. America This Week was the cure. It was reality. It was original thought. Walter has a deep empathy for the forgotten men and women in this country, whom the establishment discarded and then demonized. Not just on America This Week but throughout all of his work. He sees humanity in the macro-view. He also isn’t afraid to wonder, ask questions, and let his mind take him where it wants to go. I can’t imagine choosing to do without that. And for what, MS-Now? The New Yorker? No thanks.Without America This Week, our world just got a little smaller and a little darker. I used to say to myself, just hold a little longer. It’s almost Thursday, and that’s when they record their podcast, and it drops on Friday. And then it’s only the weekend, and they’re back on Monday.They weren’t the only great podcast out there. There are plenty of others. What made theirs different is that they’re novelists. They’re absurdist thinkers who see the times we’re living through as material, and thus, they are always just outside of it, not getting emotionally invested in any of it but trying to see how everything fits together and what it means. That is what we don’t get anywhere else. We also don’t get acceptance from the podcasts that call themselves heterodox but detest people who voted for Trump and thus, keep themselves within arm’s reach of paradise.I will continue to follow Matt and Walter wherever they land. Matt will still be writing at Racket, and he says he’ll be doing even more of it. Walter will be on X and on Walter Kirn, and he is still writing books and screenplays. I’m sure both will be doing interviews, and who knows, maybe podcasts. But America This Week, at least as of right now, is done. I will miss them. I hate saying goodbye. We all have things we hold onto, our touchstones, and America This Week was mine. All I can say to both of them is a line they will know: “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”You can find their wonderful podcasts over at Racket on the archive, but also on YouTube. Their live shows are on the “live” tab. // This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sashastone.com/subscribe