Madness: the Podcast.

Five years after his last podcast, Steven Reisner returns, reporting from Berlin – the city that unleashed the devils of the 20th century - to explain how, today, America is losing its mind. Drawing on Freud, Shakespeare, Heidegger, Elon Musk and Marc Andreesson, Reisner traces the collapse of the enlightenment values that once held fascism at bay: conscience, guilt, empathy, self-reflection. According to Reisner, the second coming of Donald Trump threatens to transform America into an extension of his own mind, heralding a great cultural transition: the age of psychosis.

Featured music: Hell is Empty by The Tiger Lillies. Music written and composed by Martyn Jaques; performed by The Tiger Lillies. © and ℗ Misery Guts, London, UK.

Five years after his last podcast, Steven Reisner returns, reporting from Berlin – the city that unleashed the devils of the 20th century - to explain how, today, America is losing its mind. Drawing on Freud, Shakespeare, Heidegger, Elon Musk and Marc Andreesson, Reisner traces the collapse of the enlightenment values that once held fascism at bay: conscience, guilt, empathy, self-reflection. According to Reisner, the second coming of Donald Trump threatens to transform America into an extension of his own mind, heralding a great cultural transition: the age of psychosis

When Donald Trump steals our democracy, will Americans fight to save it? In Episode 7, Dr. Steven Reisner argues that if America is to be saved—if America is worth saving—Americans must reconnect with the emotion that psychoanalysts (and biblical prophets) believe is necessary for social change: shame

In 1842, Edgar Allen Poe wrote the Masque of the Red Death, a prescient short story about a country devastated by plague. “No pestilence,” Poe wrote, “had ever been so fatal or so hideous.” But the Prince of the land ignored the epidemic. He holed up in his castle and held a masked ball, insisting the revelers dress in grotesque fashion, as if daring the contagion to threaten their immortality.

Climate trauma – is it the result of the climate catastrophe or a consequence of our inability to really imagine such a catastrophe, even when it is taking place all around us? Dr Steven Reisner takes a deep dive into the psychology and history of trauma to show how the best way to cope with tragedy is with eyes and heart wide open.

Paranoia - is it a mental disorder or a political strategy? Dr Steven Reisner exposes the underlying connection between our Trumpian culture of paranoia and the eruption of antisemitic violence by mentally ill assailants on the streets of New York.

What was Trump’s very first lie? Steven Reisner explores the effects of lying on children, on politics, and ultimately on our democracy. And he asks the question, if Trump has been lying all along, why, now, is he being impeached? Is it because Trump actually exposed a truth about American politics? A truth that threatens the Democrats and Republicans equally?? Tune in to episode two of Madness: where psychology and capitalism collide.