Welcome to episode one of The Culture We Deserve's Book Club, Revolution and Ruin: Reading the European 19th Century.

In this inaugural episode, Joseph and Jessa discuss Mary Shelley's The Last Man, a prophetic novel about disease, war, and the end of mankind. Unlike the apocalyptic spectacles of your standard end of the world movies and television shows, Shelley's slow burn gets into the grief and despair of humanity's end. Shelley was born at the tail end of the French Revolution and just before the revolutions of 1848, and she is invested in the questions of her era: how should a nation organize itself? how should resources be distributed? how is a person to live amid disruption and unpredictability? And what is the point of making art during tumult?

Join the discussion at:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Looking back at the first round of the Culture Wars, with Jesse Helms discussing a crucifix submerged in urine on the floor of the senate, one figure remains misunderstood: Thomas Kinkade. The "Painter of Light." The guy your alcoholic grandmother who would never admit she terrorized you really loved. Kinkade's career combines the worst of American culture -- multi-level marketing schemes, Jesus Christ kitsch, and televangelism -- into one product. Jessa and Nico discuss Art for Everybody, the new documentary seeking to rehabilitate Kinkade's image, and whether if Kinkade were alive today he would be appointed the new head of the NEA or Kennedy Center (yes). 

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Three professors who study totalitarianism and fascism have fled for Canada, is that bad? Is this brain drain or are our elites just refusing to be slightly inconvenienced by a situation they helped to create? Jessa and Nico discuss the capitulation of the academic Resistance, the great Elite Replacement, and why America wants to be Hungary so bad.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

With all the fuss about Adolescence and the concern about our adrift young men, we have to wonder: are we about to start sending our incels to re-education camps? Jessa and Nico look at RFK Jr's plan for sending the unwell, mentally ill, and addicted to farms (is this our new agricultural policy?), and how much of our economy is now dependent on putting people away: private prisons, rehab facilities, assisted living, and retreats for the troubled.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Ross Douthat has a new book, arguing that America needs a new religious revival. Sir, there is a theocracy establishing itself in Idaho, we have Tradcaths in the government trying to force us all back into patriarchal marriages, is now really the time?? America has always been weird about god, we can't seem to contemplate him for more than ten seconds at a time without praying he destroys the whole world in fiery apocalypse. Jessa and Nico discuss our new gods and whether Jim Jones would have made a better VP than JD Vance.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Netflix doesn't just make reality dating shows that violate multiple international human rights treaties -- they also make adaptations of the world's greatest literature. Everything is IP! Including A Hundred Years of Solitude and The Leopard. Jessa and Nico discuss turning art into slop, people pretending they can't tell the difference between good and bad, and why what's good for the cultural industries is often not great for art.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

MAHA is already a mess. With RFK's recent humiliation ritual at Steak N Shake, the return of factory farming, and an international takeover of our rural land, any hope of making America healthy again is slipping away. I guess it's going to have to be mandatory Ozempic then! Jessa and Nico discuss the failed dreams of those who don't want forever chemicals in breastmilk, how health policy became a rightwing rather than leftist priority, and whether gyms are fascist. 

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The sex worker community hates Anora, Mexicans hate Emilia Perez, brutalists hate The Brutalist... is this where representation culture has left us? The big winners have mostly been rejected by those they claim to represent and loved by those who like a little song and dance number. Jessa and Nico discuss the aftermath of the OscarsSoWhite campaign and why Hollywood is a misrepresentation and stereotyping machine.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

From the cult of incels running our government to Trump's alliance with Andrew Tate to Elon Musk's mountain of neglected baby boys, one has to ask, what is wrong with all the men? Jessa and Nico discuss the root causes of men's unmooring -- naturally this is all women's doing -- and why we need new ways to organize our domestic lives. Also, coming in June 2025 from Pantheon: Jessa Crispin's new book, What Is Wrong With Men.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

As America gears up to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Jessa and Nico discuss this country's obsession with its founding, what Kamala's vision for the anniversary would have been, and whether we'll all live to celebrate 251. Also: Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia celebrates America with the British moppet Ed Sheeran concert, and by the way we both recorded this with the flu.

Shownotes and references:

http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com