Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone - podcast cover

Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone

Sasha Stonewww.sashastone.com
Essays on politics and culture from Sasha Stone's Substack. A former Democrat and Leftist who escaped the bubble to get to know the other side of the country and to take a more critical look at the left. Sashastone.substack.com

www.sashastone.com
Last refreshed:
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

Why This California Liberal is Voting for Donald Trump

“Once upon a time you dressed so fineThrew the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?People call say 'beware doll, you're bound to fall'You thought they were all kidding youYou used to laugh aboutEverybody that was hanging outNow you don't talk so loudNow you don't seem so proudAbout having to be scrounging your next mealHow does it feel?” - Bob Dylan I’ve listened to Bob Dylan’s anthem of alienation, Like a Rolling Stone, so many times throughout my life, but it’s never hit home quite the way i...

Oct 13, 202430 min

The Slap Not Heard Round the World

When the New York Times asked professional women if they’d ever been sexually assaulted, I answered them, and my story appeared just before the Harvey Weinstein allegations broke. It was Trump’s Access Hollywood tape that turned our world upside down. We’d convinced ourselves that America had just elected a “racist” and a “rapist.” As a Democrat, you have to be willing to lie. Elections can be won if everyone is on board with the same lie. We lie about our candidates. We lie about the opposition...

Oct 09, 202431 min

Trump's Triumphant Return to Butler, PA

Tomorrow, on Saturday, Trump is returning to Butler, PA. Trump and Butler seem connected in ways that make for one of the greatest stories in American history. It wasn’t just the assassination attempt. Butler had come to stand for the quintessential town of the forgotten working class who turned to Trump as their last best hope. Just before the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson gave the most insightful, eloquent monologue about Trump and his supporters I’d ever heard. It went viral because no one ha...

Oct 04, 202433 min

It's The Crisis of Masculinity, Stupid

It seems to have suddenly occurred to the Democrats that they have a problem with men. Oh, we know they have a problem with men. That’s all we’ve heard about for the past ten years ever since Donald Trump committed the great crime of beating Hillary Clinton. I know because I used to be one of them — the #stillwithher type who marched with hundreds of thousands of women to protest the Trump election. And the one who said #metoo and fought every day as a brave member of the resistance? Yeah, that ...

Sep 30, 202426 min

Mama Bears for Trump

I’ll never forget the moment when I realized what being a mother meant. It wasn’t the 18 hours of labor or crying out for the nurse to hand me my newborn daughter or that I held her to my chest for a full two weeks after I brought her home. No, it was the day she walked behind me, and I dipped my toe in the pool. When she copied me, she fell in. I didn’t realize it at first, but then I didn’t hear her behind me anymore. I turned around to see her in the pool starting to sink. As I dove in to sav...

Sep 26, 202425 min

Dear Hollywood: Read the Room

Hollywood used to give us the chance to sit under one roof and enjoy a universal story. The magic of the movies was always something we could share. We all remembered lines from famous movies like “I’ll be back,” “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” “Here’s looking at you, kid,” “We’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” We got along better as a country when we could share movies. We didn’t just share the experience inside a movie theater, where we coul...

Sep 24, 202426 min

Rachel Maddow and the Madman

I was one of those people who believed Rachel Maddow. I sat glued to her show every night. I even patrolled Trump’s entire Twitter feed to find the exact moment when he was “turned” by the Russians. I saw it all play out in my head. The hapless Trump in Moscow, the beauty pageant, the room with a hidden camera, the prostitutes, the embarrassing sex acts all designed as “kompromat,” a word middle-aged white women like me suddenly threw around like we were Valerie Plame. Rachel Maddow sounded so s...

Sep 19, 202437 min

Trump's Surprising Secret Weapon: Sympathy

Kamala Harris believes she “won” the debate. It’s hard to argue with that conclusion. But there were unintended consequences her team did not factor in. And that is sympathy for Trump, or as they would tell it on the Left, “sympathy for the Devil.” Please to meet you. Hope you guessed my name. I, too, thought Kamala Harris had won the debate. By the end, I was so demoralized, so sad, and so full of despair that I just went to bed and hoped it would be gone by morning. I knew it wasn’t just a deb...

Sep 12, 202428 min

Interview with Me by Paul Finn of the Generation Report

I have just discovered that my very long interview with the great Paul Finn of The Generation Report is finally up on YouTube. He runs a really great channel (CLICK HERE) examining the Fourth Turning. I recommend watching all of his videos. If you are interested in our interview, here it is. He takes care to edit in images along with the audio so it’s worth a watch, though I am including an MP3 for the podcast feed. Paul’s work is exceptional, and it’s always bothered me that he doesn’t have a l...

Sep 10, 20241 hr 22 min

WaPo's Matt Bai is Okay with Dehumanizing Trump Supporters

There is nothing more loathsome to the average upper-crust liberal intellectual than an American holding Donald Trump’s book in one arm and the Bible in the other. At least, that’s what the stock image on Matt Bai’s column in the Washington Post tells us. Matt Bai — political columnist and one-time screenwriter for a DOA film about Gary Hart called The Front Runner — is going to give the Left all the justification it needs to continue their ongoing hate campaign against ordinary Americans. He wr...

Sep 09, 202433 min

Kamala Harris’ Run for the Presidency Looks Like an Oscar Campaign.

Harris has been tripping the light fantastic on the campaign trail only showing the side her campaign wants people to see. It reminds me of the many years I’ve spent covering the Oscars. The campaigns for Best Actress always follow the same pattern. They get a stylist. They make selective appearances. They show up on the rope line. They shake hands. They look great. The one thing they don’t do is interviews. Hollywood has its greasy fingerprints all over the Harris campaign. We know that. They s...

Sep 06, 202427 min

America is Being Love-Bombed by the Harris Campaign

America is being love-bombed by the Kamala Harris campaign. It’s been confusing and disorienting, but so many are going along with it because how can they not? Being love-bombed is hard to resist. Yes, love-bombed. That is what all of this looks like. And as any dimestore trauma therapist will tell you, those who are the most insecure are the ones who must love-bomb to erase any doubt or critical thinking. They know Kamala Harris is one bad interview away from losing this election. They know she...

Aug 25, 202432 min

The Weirdness of Manufactured Joy

Congratulations to all of you who supported the Democrats. You won. You should be very proud of yourselves. You won in your singular support of Joe Biden for the presidency. You won in how you attacked any primary candidate who might challenge him, you know, the one guy who told the truth about Biden’s cognitive decline? Dean Phillips? What a terrible person he was for saying the Emperor had no clothes. You did it! You won the primary for Joe Biden. You had an entire press corp - and an army of ...

Aug 19, 202424 min

Adopting Positions from Her Rivals is a Signature Move for Kamala Harris

The new Kamala Harris is a grand illusion. It looks more like an Oscar campaign for Best Actress than an election for President of the United States. But that happens when your political party is in bed with Hollywood. They have all the best writers and executives in the business to sell a more palatable version to the people. The real Kamala Harris has proven to be not quite ready for prime time, or as she might see it, America is not quite ready for her. We’re getting the kinder, gentler Kamal...

Aug 18, 202434 min

"Joy" ™ or How to Beat a Forever Regime

How do you solve a problem like Kamala Harris? If you criticize or attack her , you’ll be seen as a “racist” by the powerful people on the Left, which fuels their momentum and reminds them of their collective sense of purpose. Why is she ahead in the polls now? Because it feels good to vote for her, it’s as simple as that. It’s time for a woman, they proclaim, especially a woman of color. Kamala Harris has now made history four times as the first woman and first woman of color District Attorney,...

Aug 11, 202432 min

How Did Orwell Know?

A few days ago, a reporter from one of the trades asked me for an interview. I knew there could only be one reason she would want to interview me, and it wasn’t to talk about how I ran a website for 25 years on the Oscar race. It wouldn’t be that I raised a baby as a single mother and launched my site out of a guest house in Van Nuys, California, or that I’d worked as a sports photographer, a fake horoscope writer, a film reviewer, a janitor, and a teacher’s aide to raise my daughter without sen...

Aug 06, 202428 min

[Listen] JD Vance is a Hero

[This is the podcast version of an already posted story] It’s too late for me. I followed the feminist lie through most of my life, only to wake up much too late to have lived it a better way. You see, it takes a while to realize that it really is about the warm body next to you. It is about the laughing children and grandchildren. It is about the stories, the recipes, the memories, the picnics, the vacations. No, life is never going to be perfect. There will be problems with every family, unfor...

Aug 04, 202414 min

[Listen] Yes, Trump Should Debate Harris

[This was already posted as a story, here is the podcast version] Trump is under no obligation to debate Kamala Harris, who was hand-picked for the nomination without so much as a single vote. They can’t just change the rules and expect everyone else to comply. On the other hand, it might not be a bad idea. Trump can do the job the media will not. A debate might be the only time Harris will be made to answer any tough questions before the election. True, Trump runs the risk of the debate going b...

Aug 04, 202431 min

"Get Me a Normie White Guy"

Just when you thought America was No Country for White Men, the Democrats have once again rewritten their own rules. White people, even white men, are in. And all to show up for the coronation of the first woman of color to win an election without ever having won a primary. It was never losing democracy. They were worried that the wrong people would have a say in this democracy. And in their minds, it was white men. Well, what a difference a Joe Biden stepping down makes. Next, on the Greatest S...

Jul 30, 202422 min

Feminists for Trump

Republicans have a problem: a fast-moving narrative that will dominate the news cycle for the next few months if they allow it to. This comes courtesy of some eager beaver operative who dug up this clip of JD Vance from 2021 that has now gone viral. The old me would have joined the outrage train on X, distorting what he said into an opportunity to wax sanctimonious and proclaim that it’s great to be a woman who chooses not to have children, and how dare he say such a disgusting, sexist thing? Sh...

Jul 26, 202432 min

The Beginning of the End of Woketopia

It began with the nation’s first Black President, but it would become much bigger. It would become a movement that captured every major institution in this country, including public schools, universities, corporations, and nearly all of culture. This could not last only two terms. No, this had to last forever. When Donald Trump won in 2016, the power concentrated in the Obama coalition refused to step aside. Trump was the problem. His supporters were the problem. They didn’t like this new utopia...

Jul 23, 202420 min

Donald Trump and the Angels

"Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength."— Theodore Roosevelt In 1912, Teddy Roosevelt was on his way to deliver a speech when he was shot in the chest with an assassin’s bullet. James Strock writes : The history of 1912 leaves breadcrumbs if we summon the humility to look. In the moment Roosevelt was, to put it mildly, controversial. Seeking a third term as president, he split his political party. Longtime accusations of “Caesarism” were giv...

Jul 20, 202440 min

Finally, They Said Their Names

“President Trump represents America’s last best hope to restore what — if lost — may never be found again. A country where a working-class boy born far from the halls of power can stand on this stage as the next vice president of the United States of America.” - JD Vance Tulsi Gabbard’s voice is greatly missed from the Republican National Convention. However, it still resonates profoundly in our culture, especially after Vice President Kamala Harris insulted JD Vance’s love of country and called...

Jul 19, 202427 min

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Gets the Last Laugh

Beautiful, elegant, strong—when Sarah Huckabee Sanders glided out on stage on Night 2 of the Republican National Convention, I could not help but think of the film Carrie. In it, the shy wallflower emerges as the beautiful prom queen moments before she’s sabotaged by two mean and bitter people who want nothing but her total humiliation. But of course, they don’t realize what they just stepped in as Carrie turns to them, flips the switch that turns on her supernatural powers, and enacts her reven...

Jul 18, 202429 min

The Courage to Change Your Mind

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ― George Bernard Shaw Last night, at the RNC Convention, Make America Wealthy Once Again, Donald J. Trump walked into the room like the Gray Champion he is, battle-scarred but standing tall. Teddy Roosevelt would be proud. His supporters gave him the hero’s welcome he deserved. There was not a dry eye in the house. It was apparent to anyone watching that this wasn’t your grandfather’s Republican Party anymore. The head of the Teamster...

Jul 16, 202433 min

Oh, the Inhumanity

When I found my way to Trump’s rallies in the Summer of 2020, I felt like I had crawled out of a desert searching for signs of life. No one could know my discovery. I had to keep it a secret. If anyone found me out, I would be MAGA. I would be a Trump supporter , and that would be the end of my career and most of my relationships. Despite how often I’d become the target of the fanatical mobs that rule over social media and the Left writ large, I’d knew not to cross the Trump Line. That would be ...

Jul 15, 202429 min

All the News that's Unfit to Print

Dear New York Times Editorial Board, In your haste to make nice with your paying subscribers—I am one, too, by the way—you decided to swap out journalistic ethics for fear and hyperbole once again. Trump, you declare, is “dangerous” and unfit to lead. Now, I know it’s been hard on you folks lately, with your otherwise reliable audience turning on you once you spoke the truth about Joe Biden. You had to show them that you’re still on their side. But in so doing, you fail to make the case for why ...

Jul 12, 202425 min

Oh, That Sweet Sweet Schadenfreude

“Schadenfreude can’t get much better than watching the Republican Party self-humiliate with an abject inability to win while controlling the House, Senate and White House.” - Daniel Henninger, WSJ Oh, I beg to differ, Mr. Henninger. It most certainly can get better. How about a political party that rigged the game in its favor and had nearly all of the legacy press in its pocket suddenly in the spotlight for the biggest political cover-up in modern American history? The puppet masters are mad th...

Jul 10, 202432 min

They've Been Hidin' Biden and Harris Since the 2020 Election

Team Joe wasn’t a popular place to be back in May of 2019 when I was invited to a fundraiser in Hancock Park at the home of wealthy donor Cynthia Telles. The Democratic Primary had only just begun, but it was wide open then and almost no one wanted Joe, an old white guy. For four years, the party had lost its mind and lost its way over Trump. They seemed to believe he was such a bad president they could reach for the sky. Big structural change! A democratic socialist! The first gay president! Bu...

Jul 04, 202433 min

Donald Trump, Taylor Swift and Me

It’s hard to believe I’ve become a completely different person than I was four years ago. Not only am I a Trump supporter now, which in and of itself is hard to grasp. But I’m also a Swiftie. Who would have ever thought it? Not me. In March of 2020, my one and only daughter was sent home to live out the last few months of her senior year at college. She would end up having her graduation on my balcony in Burbank. Everything shut down. Half of the restaurants would eventually go out of business. ...

Jun 28, 202438 min
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android