Candace Owens soared to right-wing media superstardom within weeks of posting her first YouTube videos in 2017. This episode reviews Owens’ life and career arc, exploring how someone who was victimized by racial hatred in high school became one of the MAGA movement’s most prominent — and most divisive — political commentators. This episode features exclusive comments from Candace Owens, provided through a spokesperson, and includes previously unreported details about her life story.

Madeline Peltz, a longtime researcher of right-wing media, joined Mike and Jared on this episode. Peltz’s first book “PICK ME: The Right-Wing Siege of Gender and Gen-Z,” will be published by Sourcebooks next year.

Links for Madeline Peltz:

* Bluesky: @peltzmadeline.bsky.social

* X/Twitter: @peltzmadeline

Transition Music: “Pharmacist” by Alvvays

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Programming Note: We’re taking next week off. We’ll be back on May 19.

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Hannah Gais and Steven Monacelli join for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of Twitter (now called “X”) three years after Elon Musk first moved to purchase it. Since then, Musk has transformed the platform into a self-serving MAGA machine that is crowning a new generation of right-wing media royalty. Monacelli walks us through his reporting on one of the platform’s newer standouts — “Captive Dreamer” — as an example of who’s benefiting from the new status quo.

Links for Steven Monacelli:

* Daily Dot: “A Hitler-quoting ‘Aryan’ has the attention of JD Vance and Elon Musk—who is @captivedreamer7?”

* Bluesky: @stevanzetti.bsky.social

* Contact/Work: linktr.ee/Stevanzetti

Links for Hannah Gais:

* Bluesky: @hannahgais.bsky.social

* Newsletter: postsfromunderground.ghost.io/

Transition Music: “California Magic” by Goose

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

Teddy Wilson, a journalist and researcher, joins to discuss developments within the Radical Right since Trump issued pardons and commutations for every one of his supporters involved in the 2021 riot at the US Capitol Building — including extremist movement members and supporters — at the start of his second term. Mike and Jared take a trip down memory lane to reflect on the ways Republicans have come to embrace what happened that day.

Links:

* Teddy’s newsletter: radicalreports.org

* Teddy’s tracking of Capitol riot defendants: capitolriotmap.com

* Teddy’s account on Bluesky: @reportbywilson.bsky.social

Transition Music: “head empty blues” by Ekko Astral

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

Nikki McCann Ramírez, a political reporter at Rolling Stone and co-host of the podcast “American Friction,” joined to discuss the inhumane prison system in El Salvador where the Trump administration has sent hundreds of migrants — effectively disappearing them from their families and denying them any methods of recourse. Before she joined, Mike and Jared reflected on the rising power of Stephen Miller: the architect behind the Trump administration’s most vicious immigration policies.

Links:

* Read Nikki’s piece in Rolling Stone: The ‘Judicial Black Hole’ of El Salvador’s Prisons Is a Warning for Americans

* Follow Nikki on BlueSky: @nikkimcr.bsky.social

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

Tim Pool draws millions of viewers — and dollars — making political podcasts and commentary videos on YouTube. This episodes explores Pool’s evolution, from a self-proclaimed “activist” live-streaming Occupy Wall Street protests to one of today’s most-popular MAGA pundits. Along the way, we review Pool’s early media career, eventual drift into far-right politics, and rapid construction of the media empire he oversees today.

Mike and Jared were joined by Robert Silverman, a feature writer who has published what might be the world’s definitive investigative reporting on Tim Pool.

Links to some of Robert’s reporting:

* The Daily Beast: How ‘Coward and Phony’ Tim Pool Became One of the Biggest Political YouTubers on the Planet

* The Daily Beast: Tim Pool’s News Site Plagiarized the Mainstream Media He Claims to Hate

* Follow Robert Silverman on Bluesky

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

Renée DiResta is one of the nation’s leading researchers of social media and the author of “Invisible Rulers : The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality”: a book about the ways social media platforms are used — and abused — to reshape the way we think and behave. Renée also shared her thoughts on the government’s hostility toward researchers who study social media and some of her experiences interacting with Matt Taibbi.You can read Renée’s emails with Matt Taibbi here: reneediresta.substack.com/

Transition Music: “Get Dumber - feat. Jeff Rosenstock” by PUP

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

Eoin Higgins is a historian and author who joined the show to discuss his book: “Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left.” The gang talks in-depth about Glenn Greenwald and some of the other characters featured in Eoin’s book, right-wing billionaires’ attempts to undermine the news industry, and 90s techno.

Check out Eoin’s other work:

* Twitter / Bluesky

* Substack

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

The Anti-Defamation League has invited controversy for its leaders’ coziness with the Trump administration, and for its characterizations of student-led protests against Israel’s mass-killing of Palestinian civilians. Mike and Jared recap the events that got us here, the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, and why they see the ADL’s political maneuvering as cause for concern.

Later on, Emmy-nominated reporter Vegas Tenold joins the show to discuss his experience working at the ADL from 2018-2020, and he offers his perspective on what the organization is doing today. Read Vegas’ post about the ADL’s coziness with the Trump administration here: https://whathappensinvegas.substack.com/p/the-fascist-and-his-little-helpers

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

Jack Posobiec is one of the MAGA movement’s biggest social media stars, recently seen accompanying Pentagon officials on an overseas trip and posing for photos with Donald Trump and JD Vance in the Oval Office. This podcast explores Posobiec’s early political career and its overlaps with white supremacist movements, “Pizzagate” conspiracy theories, and hostile state influence operations — among many other things. Mike and Jared were joined by Hannah Gais, who researches and writes about the far-right.

Links:

* Read Hannah in The Baffler: Unhuman Resources: The many grievances of Jack Posobiec

* Subscribe to Hannah’s newsletter

* And follow Hannah on BlueSky and Twitter.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com

J.M. Berger wrote the book on extremism — literally. The internationally renowned expert discussed methods of defining “extremism” and whether a mainstream political movement, like MAGA, could be accurately labeled that way.

Read J.M. Berger’s work:

* Extremism (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

* The Social Construction of Extremism (Dissertation)

* Lawful Extremism (Series)

~~~A huge thank you to Katharine Antoun for the show’s new cover art. (Website / Instagram)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com