Fever Dreams

Rolling Stone's Mile Klee joins The New Abnormal to talk the myth of "go woke. go broke." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erin Reed joins the New Abnormal to talk the lastest in laws targeting transgender rights. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The EFF's Cindy Cohn joins The New Abnormal to talk cyber security. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Marcus joins The New Abnormal to discuss the dangers of AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Sommer joins The Daily Beast's The New Abnormal to talk the America first movement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Daily Beast's Kelly Weill joins The New Abnormal to talk the reputation laundering of the Allen, TX mall shooter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the final episode of Fever Dreams. After sharing some of their favorite moments from the podcast's years-long run, the hosts tackle the right-wing obfuscation of a mass shooter's extremist history and a viral prank on the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fever Dreams examines the recent headline-grabbing actions of right-wing media darling Steven Crowder, who was outed this week for allegedly exposing his genitals repeatedly to employees. Plus! The latest on Ammon Bundy's latest brewing standoff attempt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Fever Dreams, a look at the ecosystem of grifters and gadflies who made a living appearing on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show—and what comes next for them. Plus! What is pronatalism, and why are all the Silicon Valley dudes talking about it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fever Dreams hosts Kelly Weill and Will Sommer examine a classic style of right-wing outrage—which never seems to back itself up with evidence. Plus! A conversation with Aaron Kleinman of the States Project about all the wacky, extreme characters inhabiting America's state houses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laura Loomer has been spewing hate online for years—and now Trump apparently wants to hire her. Plus! A look at the way technology has aided the rise of the far right over the past 40 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode of Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss how Trump's decision to fly to New York instead of hunkering down in Mar-a-Lago to face his historic arraignment had the markings of a political scheme—one which denied stoppedDeSantis from making his own big patriotic stand against the charges. Then, national political reporter for Semafor, David Weigel, joins the podcast and weighs in on the latest Trump drama. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is up to her old tricks—this time, protesting a routine ATF inspection of a Georgia gun store Monday under the guise that there apparently were too many agents from “blue states” conducting the operation. Then, investigative reporter Luke O'Brien joins the podcast to talk about the ongoing trial of Douglass Mackey, a 33-year-old ‘alt-right' figure dubbed the “Disinformation King” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.. Despite the fact that Mackey allegedly engaged in election interference, he's become a cause célèbre in right-wing circles—even garnering a number of segments on Tucker Carlson's primetime Fox News show. Plus! Benny Johnson, the former Buzzfeed writer who was fired for plagiarism before becoming a right-wing media star, ditches Newsmax in order to pursue an independent career. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While prosecutors appear to be closing in on Donald Trump and preparing to file formal charges, he's been posting up an absolute storm on Truth Social. It's all happening amid the backdrop of a potential arrest for the former president—which some pundits predict will bolster his re-election campaign. The Fever Dreams team isn't so sure. Plus! Daily Beast reporter Jake Lahut joins the program to talk about his recent reporting on what appears to be DeSantis' fledgling campaign—including a number of troubling anecdotes about the Florida governor's ability to make small talk and press the flesh at his early stops in Iowa and elsewhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If Tucker Carlson seems a little lost at the moment—that's because he is. At least, that's what Media Matters researcher Kat Abughazaleh says, and she has to watch the fire-breathing Fox News host every day for work. Then, Fever Dreams digs into the obfuscation being performed by Fox and others in the conservative media after one of the country's worst banking collapses. Plus! In the podcast's Fresh Hell segment, Weill and Sommer discuss the worst dressed man in North America—Jordan Peterson—and how exactly he styles the atrocious outfits he's recently become known for. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), long a mainstay in Republican politics, wasn't quite the A-list event of years past. Isaac Arnsdorf joins the podcast to talk about his own CPAC experience, along with breakout star, Kari Lake, who failed to win Arizona's governor race last November but propelled herself to MAGA stardom with a Big Lie-style campaign at the state level. Plus, in the podcast's Fresh Hell segment, Weill gives an update on the legal woes of Andrew Tate, the misogynist influencer and alleged human trafficker currently detained in a Romanian prison—as well as the bizarre rumor that he has lung cancer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill unpack the QAnon connections behind newly elected Michigan GOP leader Kristina Karamo, who declared Michigan as “ground zero for the globalist takeover of the United States of America.” A wave of more than 100 deaths over the past two years at Fort Bragg has rocked the U.S. military—caused in part by an increasing number of overdoses, says Rolling Stone investigative reporter Seth Harp on this week's episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast. Plus, a look into both hosts' personal history with the comic Dilbert—and its embattled artist, Scott Adams, who sparked a firestorm last week by going on a racist rant and calling Black people a “hate group,” among other things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Fever Dreams, James O'Keefe gives his fans and foes a truly memorable send-off, while the Libertarian Party continues to its slide to the right. Plus, co-host Will Sommer discusses his years of reporting on QAnon—as well as his new book Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For it's 100th episode, Fever Dreams unpacks all the drama engulfing right-wing undercover video operation Project Veritas, including a number of claims about the difficult workplace culture fostered under founder James O'Keefe. Then the podcast is joined by labor reporter and author Kim Kelly, who talks about how her experience as a fan and critic of metal music helped her better understand—and report on—far-right extremists across the U.S. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if there was an atomic bomb about to detonate and kill millions of people—and the only way to defuse it was to have an Artificial Intelligence chatbot say a racial slur? Also on the podcast Weill and Sommer interview Trevor Aaronson, the host of the investigative podcast the Alphabet Boys, which tells the story of FBI informant Mickey Windecker, who almost single-handedly derailed the Black Lives Matter movement in Denver. Plus! Weill and Sommer recap a bombshell investigation into Eliza Blue, an overnight internet sensation who rose to prominence by becoming an ombudsman for victims of human trafficking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Journalist Nicky Woolf has spent months looking into the bona fide mystery of what exactly is happening with all of those U.S. diplomats and intelligence operatives reporting brain injuries thanks to some unnamed, futuristic weapon—and come away with the impression that this story, however far-fetched it may seem, may actually be true. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Puck reporter Tina Nguyen joins this week's Fever Dreams to discuss Rep. George Santos and the civil war brewing between his staffers and the far-right figures he's begun to consult. Weill and Sommer discuss the recently disclosed rulebook for Proud Boys members, which includes a number of incredibly silly measures that members must follow. Then, speculation rages in Trumpworld over whether MAGA broadcaster Silk—of ‘Diamond and Silk' fame—meant to shade the former president during a memorial speech for her sister and co-host, bashing him for supporting COVID vaccination efforts that conspiracy theorists say – without evidence – may have been responsible for her death. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first thing Andrew Tate did after his arrest on Romanian human trafficking charges was to complain about “the Matrix”—a shadowy power structure hell-bent on taking him down for, well, some unspoken reason. He is, of course, not the first one to use this term—it's an emerging meme in right-wing spaces online, says Fever Dreams host Will Sommer on this week's episode. Even Logan Paul, the YouTube provocateur and wannabe boxing star, has thrown out the theory to push back on critics after a particularly bad week of PR which began with the discovery of an abandoned pig he apparently once owned. Also on the episode, Sommer and co-host Kelly Weill investigate the origins of a new front in the culture war: gas stoves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ineitha Lynette Hardaway—better known as “Diamond” from the pro-Trump broadcasting duo “Diamond and Silk”—passed away this week, leaving the future of the pair's popular act in limbo. In this week's episode of Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill speculate on what comes next for “Silk”—who was never really the group's frontman, so to speak. Then, the pair tackle Brazil's own Capitol riot, which came nearly two years to the day after Jan. 6. In terms of pure aesthetics, the two scenes were incredibly reminiscent of each other: “They had the flags, they had the marching groups, they had the people walking through government chambers, trashing things,” Weill said. But even as this was all going on, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been camped out in Florida at the home of an MMA star, signing autographs and meeting with American fans of his Trumpian governing style. The state has become a new nexus for the world's various right-wing movements in recent years, according to Fever Dreams guest and The Daily Dot political reporter Claire Goforth—and it appears Bolsonaro is angling to stay there and trade in on his popularity with the MAGA base rather than face the music back at home. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It may be the start of a new year, but the Republican Party is back to its old antics again—throwing the House of Representatives into chaos as a rogue group of far-right Congresspeople refuses to step into line and back Kevin McCarthy's bid for the speaker's gavel. Kelly Weill and Will Sommer, hosts of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast, predict that 2023 will only bring more insane antics from the chamber's more controversial corners—and Fever Dreams favorites like Reps. Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene are already floating their best ideas for what to do with their newfound majority power. Plus, the pod explores the arrest of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate—and how the downfall of a MAGA-adjacent internet celebrity leaves the rest of that ecosystem in the lurch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kelly and Will dig through the mailbag to answer the burning questions on listeners' minds. Whatever happened to the Qux Box, the right-wing tech device that was supposed to create a new internet? Are MAGA DJ's “Milk n Cooks” still jamming out? And did Republicans lose the House because Rush Limbaugh died? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Sam Brodey take you down the rabbit hole of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization which looks more and more like the future of the GOP. Also,: a year-end list of the best stories from a particularly deranged 12 months, as well as a look into how legacy media is doing with Daily Beast media reporter Corbin Bolies (Spoiler alert: not well!). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode of the Fever Dreams podcast, Hannah Gais and Michael Edison Hayden from the Southern Poverty Law Center recalled a cast of characters to host Will Sommer and guest co-host, The Daily Beast's Sam Brodey. Then, in the podcast's “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts dip into American conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro's growing online movie streaming empire and his burgeoning efforts to create a right-wing Hollywood in Nashville by acquiring the exclusive film and television rights to the books Atlas Shrugged and Pendragon Cycle, along with a forthcoming children's cartoon about a family of homeschooled chinchillas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kanye West seems more unhinged than ever before—and that's saying something. And with Milo Yiannopolos now booted from Kanye's orbit, the only person who's really winning is white nationalist Nick Fuentes, says host Will Sommer on this week's episode of Fever Dreams. Then, Jim Small, editor in chief of the Arizona Mirror, catches us up to speed on Arizona's election—and which conspiracy theorists in a couple of fringe counties are still doing their best to keep hope alive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kanye's West's “traveling roadshow of right-wing internet fame balls” may be the topic of the week, but according to Fever Dreams host Will Sommer, fame, like money, does not equal happiness. In this week's episode, Sommer and co-host Kelly Weill discuss the aftermath of Ye's controversial dinner with former President Donald Trump last week. Notably though, it was Ye's guest, the white nationalist Nick Fuentes, that had tongues wagging. Then, Cerise Castle, who covers the presence of gangs in the LA Sheriff's Department in her new podcast, A Tradition of Violence, explains what it takes to become a member. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Twitter really going to “go crazy” now that new owner Elon Musk has allowed previously banned users like former President Donald Trump back on the platform? Hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss the prospects for the beleaguered social media site on this week's episode of Fever Dreams. Also on the episode, Heidi Beedle, a reporter for the Colorado Times Recorder and host of the Western Fringe podcast, tells Sommer and Weill that anti-LGBT hate from Colorado Springs community leaders began peaking before this weekend's shooting at queer venue Club Q. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode of Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill discuss how just two weeks on from the Pelosi controversy, the Twitter CEO jumped on board a vague and unverified theory that is being used to explain why the “red wave” failed to materialize on Election Day. As well, the hosts talk Kari Lake's Arizona election loss and their surprise that she is among the first to make vague references of fraud during this election cycle, noting her Nov. 15 tweet: “Arizonans know BS when they see it.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Would you eat raw testicles to become an alpha male? This week, Julian Feeld and Annie Kelly of the QAnon Anonymous podcast join us to discuss their new series “Man Clan,” which delves into the dark, dietarily dubious world of masculinity influencers. Meanwhile, as voters go to the polls, election vigilantes are flocking to Telegram channels where they award each other “points” for conspiracy theories about people they baselessly believe to be election “mules.” If Republicans take the House of Representatives, the right might mount an effort to impeach President Joe Biden, albeit on unclear charges. Fever Dreams co-hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill break down how Republicans might try to oust Biden, plus why failed candidate Laura Loomer is now blaming her primary loss on fellow rightwing mudslinger Milo Yiannopoulos. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a very good chance that at least two secretary of state positions in the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona will be won by people who are part of a coalition put together by a QAnon promoter who some people believe is also JFK Jr. In this week's episode of political podcast Fever Dreams, hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill take a deeper look at that “shadowy character,” Juan O. Savin, and how he, along with his supporters, could destroy American democracy. Also on the podcast, Alex Kaplan, a senior researcher at Media Matters for America who is an expert on all things Savin, says that while it's hard to say exactly what would happen if these candidates take office, “the concern is that if these people got elected they could try to cast doubt on the election result or frankly just try to flat out overturn it and refuse to certify it. What this could do is essentially connect QAnon to a constitutional crisis, and that's what could play out here if that/s what happens.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Things have gotten a lot crazier over the past few years for award-winning former CBS News war correspondent Lara Logan. Now reinvented as a far-right commentator, she was most recently kicked off Newsmax after appearing on Eric Bolling's primetime program and launching into a QAnon-themed rant on air, claiming world leaders drank children's blood and made people eat insects, among other notable wild conspiracies. Elsewhere in the episode, Maurice Chammah, a reporter at The Marshall Project and author of Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, talks American sheriffs and their far-right tendencies. In the podcast's “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts discuss reports of intimidation at early ballot drop boxes, particularly in Arizona from those who are hyped up by Dinesh D'Souza's debunked conspiracy film, 2000 Mules. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, faces an uphill battle to revive the “ghost town” that is the conservative MAGA site Parler, say hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill in this week's episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast. Ye is buying the social media platform after being kicked off Instagram and Twitter for an antisemitic post, Parler's parent company announced Monday. Also on the podcast, Kyle Spencer, journalist and author of the new book Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America's Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power, talks MAGA media personality and radio talk show host Charlie Kirk and how he got his start. Then, in this week's “Fresh Hell” segment, Sommer reviews the Fox Nation special The Trial of Hunter Biden, which he describes as “honestly one of the strangest pieces of content” Fox has ever produced. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kanye West has been inching towards reimagining himself as both a virulent antisemite and the public face of Fox News and over the past few weeks, he's been off the handle. Also on the podcast, Jared Holt, a senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and host of the podcast, Posting Through It, discusses a new report that he co-authored on the ugly election trends we can expect in 2022 and 2024. In this week's “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts discuss the new Republican “unwoke” bank, GloriFi, and how unfortunately, the new venture doesn't seem to be getting off the ground, considering it is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Herschel Walker already faced an uphill battle to become a U.S. senator after The Daily Beast reported he paid for a girlfriend's abortion. But now it appears Walker is embroiled in another fight: one with his own son. Christian Walker, a conservative with a substantial social media following—particularly on TikTok—has taken aim at his father, whom he accused of violence and said abandoned his children from multiple women. “Herschel's problem is that his son has such a way with words,” Will Sommer tells co-host Kelly Weill in this episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast, referring to Christian's impassioned online reaction to his father's denials of the abortion allegations. Also on the podcast, Travis Waldron, senior national reporter at the Huffington Post, talks Brazil and its politics, which have been popping off thanks to the Brazilian general election. “The stakes of this one feel pretty high given the concerns about democracy and [President Jair] Bolsonaro's efforts to follow Donald Trump down the path of election skepticism and potentially an all out challenge to the result of the elections,” Waldron says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Corruption chic” is in. That's according to The Conservateur, a new “D.C.-based fashion-and-lifestyle platform” from some of conservative fashion's most elite, who, upset over Vogue snubbing Melania Trump, are now throwing in their political views with a cute new pair of shoes–or ankle monitors–in their own attempt at creating content. Michael Schaffer, a senior editor at Politico whose Capital City column runs weekly in Politico Magazine, tells hosts Will Sommer and Kelly Weill in this episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast that while he doesn't think Anna Wintour is losing a lot of sleep, the “MAGA answer to Vogue” has landed, and it's already making headlines. In this week's “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts discuss the right's reaction and misreporting to the emerging trend of colorful fentanyl pills dubbed rainbow fentanyl. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's the motivation and meaning behind the recent Trump rally in Ohio where supporters held up one finger in a “weird” salute. But what does it mean? Plus, Matt Binder, reporter for Mashable and host of the podcasts Doomed and Scam Economy, brings us inside the wacky world of crypto scammers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's on par with Don't Worry Darling for being one of the most talked about cinematic events of the fall, but just how bad is Goonies star Robert Davi's film My Son Hunter? On this week's episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and returning co-host Kelly Weill review the biopic of President Joe Biden's son Hunter. “It's got legs on Don't Worry Darling,” Weill says. “I think I fell into some kind of brain fog while watching it.” Also on the podcast, Ethan Chorin, Libya expert and author of the new book Benghazi!: A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink, digs into the famous 2012 terrorist attacks and the way that Benghazi exists in our politics to this day, particularly on the right. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just when you thought Dr. Mehmet Oz was losing the war against Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, this week, the reality TV star found a new arsenal at his disposal. On this week's episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and guest host Ursula Perano, politics reporter at The Daily Beast, discuss the latest in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Also on the podcast, Philip Bump, National correspondent at The Washington Post, explains how he became the guy to go through all of the 2020 election fraud claims, eventually debunking each of them one by one. As well, Sommer talks about the confusing mess that was far-right political commentator and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes' supposed arrest by the FBI last week. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and guest host Andrew Kirell, senior editor at The Daily Beast, discuss the new song released by the pro-Trump YouTuber, who has used some of his wealth to fund a rock song, “Only Ever Wanted.” Also on the podcast, Andy Kroll, a reporter for ProPublica and the author of the upcoming book, A Death on W Street: The Murder of Seth Rich and the Age of Conspiracy, discusses how the story of Seth's life and death took on this bizarre, conspiratorial afterlife online. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sometimes the biggest surprises come from the strangest of places. On this week's episode of The Daily Beast's Fever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and guest host Andrew Kirell, senior editor at The Daily Beast, return to the icy north to discuss the QAnon “Queen of Canada,” Romana Didulo, and her disco RV.Also on the podcast, Rolling Stone political news reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez talks former kickboxer “turned-awful-man” Andrew Tate. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fallout from the FBI's raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort feels never-ending, and those still suffering the sting of the right-wing backlash are the ones who enforced the move, including the federal magistrate judge who signed off on the search warrant.Also on the podcast, the hosts talk with Nick Lutsko, a musician who writes and sings songs that, according to Sommer, are a crossover between our crazy political moment and the lives we lead on the internet. But most importantly, says Sommer, Lutsko sings about conservatives including Dan Bongino and, unsurprisingly, Alex Jones. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago! This week on Fever Dreams, Will Sommer and guest host Anthony Fisher talk about the FBI search on Mar-a-Lago, whether the feds should have given Trump advanced notice, and whether Republicans will vaporize the Justice Department the next time they have power. In Fresh Hell, Will explores the depths of alleged depravity at James O'Keefe's Project Veritas group, where an ex-employee claims sexual harassment and drug use is running wild. Anthony talks about the Twitter demise of the infamous “Groomer” troll Conceptual James. Reporter Jessica Pishko joins to talk about sheriffs acting with impunity and positioning themselves as right-wing voter fraud influencers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.