Fever Dreams

By The Daily BeastGovernment

Fever Dreams episodes

February 01, 2023 Big Kanye Payoffs feat Nicky Woolf
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.
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53 min
January 25, 2023 Santosmania feat. Tina Nguyen
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.
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58 min
January 18, 2023 Stove Wars feat. Matthew Sheffield
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.

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56 min
January 11, 2023 The End of Diamond & Silk feat Claire Goforth
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.

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55 min
January 04, 2023 Andrew Tate's Arrest Explained
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.

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41 min
December 28, 2022 Revenge of the Qux
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?
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51 min
December 21, 2022 We Have To Talk About Kevin w/ Corbin Bolies
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!).
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55 min
December 14, 2022 MAGA Undercover w/ Michael Edison Hayden & Hannah Gais
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.
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54 min
December 07, 2022 Kanye Cans Milo ft. Jim Small
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.
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56 min
November 30, 2022 Kanye vs Tim Pool ft. Cerise Castle
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.

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55 min

About Fever Dreams

From the publisher's feed

Inside the right’s push to retake power, from the conspiracy-slingers to the MAGA acolytes to the straight-up grifters. Thought the Trump era was crazy? Wait ’til you hear what they have planned next.…