Ukraine is winning, and a botox-bloated Putin looks like a dead-man walking. While the spineless MAGA right still tries to block aid, Ukrainian innovation has turned Russia's imperialist delusion into an embarrassing nightmare, as predicted on Gaslit Nation at the start of the full-scale invasion. Award-winning war reporter James Verini, author of The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War, joins Gaslit Nation to discuss the desperation rattling Moscow. Putin w...
May 20, 2026•27 min
Convicted felon Trump went to China and brought his son Eric along on the nepo-baby express. Eric runs the family business. And by "family business," we mean a transnational crime network of bribes operating like a geopolitical yard sale, selling out our country to the highest bidder. While they were there, Dictator Xi Jinping told the U.S. to back off defending Taiwan. And Trump, in defiance of decades of established U.S. foreign policy, is suddenly sounding suspiciously wishy-washy on approvin...
May 15, 2026•17 min
Gaslit Nation unmasks the real villain: the corporations hijacking our democracy, using Trump as a distraction as they loot and destroy our country. Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a Brennan Center fellow and professor of law at Stetson University College of Law, and author of Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians , explains how corporations funded Trump's violent coup attempt on January 6, 2021. In Part I of our discussion, Torres-Spelliscy shows us the inner-...
May 12, 2026•29 min
Today is Andrea's birthday. Gaslit Nation is celebrating the only way we know how: by re-reading Dorothy Thompson's 1941 essay, "Who Goes Nazi?" , on how to tell who among you at your next dinner party would become a Nazi if given the chance. How does she know? She met these types during the Nazi takeover of her beloved Austria and Germany, hotbeds of intellectual thought and progressive movements, including for LGBTQ and women's rights, before traditional conversatives and business elites put a...
May 11, 2026•10 min
In this special bonus show, Gaslit Nation reminds you that Hitler and Trump rose to power in very similar ways, and why we must stay grounded in that historical truth. The fate of the world literally depends on it. The Holocaust and World War II happened, because people didn't want to believe it would be so bad. Normalcy bias is a dangerous coping mechanism. As the world marks the 81st anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, with Putin, like Hitler, hiding in his bunker, reports of his hands shaki...
May 07, 2026•32 min
On this hopeful Gaslit Nation, we confront the MAGA fascist takeover with a look at the ultimate antidote: how to be a dissident. Andrea talks with The Atlantic's Gal Beckerman about his inspiring new book, How to Be a Dissident. While the establishment chooses conformity to protect their wealth, we explore the rare, stubborn individuals—from the abolitionists to the neighbors in Minnesota forming mutual care networks—who ask themselves the only question that matters: Can I live with myself if I...
May 06, 2026•32 min
Here's what you missed at last week's Gaslit Nation Salon: a lively debate among our listeners over whether Trump, or his allies, somehow staged the WHCD assassination attempt. The discussion opens with a look at the same heightened "unreality" created by Putin in Russia, thanks to a well-funded propaganda operation and conspiracy theories to come to power and stay in power. To join today's Gaslit Nation Salon, find the Zoom link, along with our recordings, at Patreon.com/Gaslit. Thank you to ev...
May 04, 2026•6 min
In this week's Gaslit Nation Bonus Show, Daniella Mestyanek Young, The Knitting Cult Lady, author of the new book The Culting of America , explains how to get justice for survivors and protect children from Christian nationalist cults to Epstein's transnational crime network–better laws, better leaders, and ban home-schooling. "When countries outlaw homeschooling, it is one of the best protections that children can be given," she says. This week's bonus show also includes a look at serial predat...
Apr 30, 2026•19 min
Is America a cult? How can we help those trapped in cult-like thinking? Discussing her new book The Culting of America , Daniella Mestyanik Young, a US Army veteran, intelligence officer, and survivor of the notorious Children of God cult, joins Gaslit Nation to help us identify coercive control in our own lives, and in our White House. Daniella breaks down the "sex cult math" of her upbringing, identifying the same tactics of coercive control now fueling the MAGA movement. Trump has pulled disp...
Apr 29, 2026•49 min
We've received questions and comments from Gaslit Nation listeners about the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend. Here's our response. We can discuss at today's Gaslit Nation Salon at 4pm ET, along with whatever is happening in your neck of the woods. Sign up on Patreon.com/Gaslit to join the discussion: https://www.patreon.com/posts/zoom-link-for-156366425?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_co...
Apr 27, 2026•12 min
On Monday May 11 at 4pm ET at the Gaslit Nation Salon, get ready for a big peek behind the curtain. To celebrate Andrea's birthday, we're starting that day's salon with a production of the first 15 pages or so of one of her antifa screenplays. It's based on a story longtime Gaslit Nation listeners may recognize. And we'll leave it there. To get your ticket and support the show, join our community of listeners at Patreon.com/Gaslit, get all episodes ad free, bonus shows, exclusive invites, and mo...
Apr 23, 2026•7 min
While Orban's gang of Kremlin-paid criminals burn proof of their crimes, the new leadership in Hungary goes after their propaganda machine and GOP allies who used Hungarian taxpayer money to fund CPAC. This is against U.S. law. If America had a real DOJ and functional Congress, all Republican officials would be investigated for being foreign agents of Hungary and therefore Russia. "Foreign governments are barred from spending money in American elections, and Americans are forbidden from soliciti...
Apr 22, 2026•44 min
Americans must fight a war on two fronts: against MAGA fascism and Democratic Party complacency. Wajahat Ali of the Left Hook on Substack and author of Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American joins Gaslit Nation to discuss how to actually build back better this time. Donald Trump is America's karma of white supremacy, greed, and misogyny. But while the MAGA virus burns through our institutions, another danger is the "Big Club" in Washington, D....
Apr 15, 2026•41 min
To those who could not join our launch party for Mrs. Orwell tonight, we've made you a play list from the event. It opens with a British Pathé newsreel of what to do in an air raid ; Edward R. Murrow reporting from London on the Blitz; a popular war-time show "Gert & Daisy"; Flanagan and Allen's "Run Rabbit Run," and "Ay Carmela!" one of the most popular songs of the Spanish Civil War, which Eileen and Eric Blair would have heard throughout their time in Spain. We're going to play this audio...
Apr 13, 2026•11 min
Gaslit Nation presents an Instagram Live discussion recorded over the weekend with the acclaimed illustrator Brahm Revel , the artist of Mrs. Orwell . Brahm is based in Barcelona, where Eileen and Eric Blair (aka George Orwell), spent their honeymoon fighting fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Eileen was holed up in the Hotel Continental, which still exists, where Stalin's agents searched her hotel room, stealing Orwell's Spain diaries and other papers, which are believed to be somewhere in Mosc...
Apr 13, 2026•49 min
FDR had to take some bold swings to transform America for the better. He had his pearl-clutching critics who thought he was going too far. But that's what was needed to usher in the New Deal and strengthen democracy and improve people's lives. The "good guys" must not be passive. We must fight back. Virginia, the world's eyes are on you to vote YES on redistricting -- vote now through April 21. You will help restore balance to Republican authoritarian gerrymandering. Your YES vote in Virginia is...
Apr 11, 2026•7 min
Vice President JD Vance, a creation of the Peter Thiel dark-money machine, traveled to Hungary to openly threaten voters on behalf of the Kremlin's favorite strongman, Viktor Orban. This is emotional blackmail on a global scale. Vance effectively told a post-Soviet nation that if they don't re-elect Orban this Sunday, they lose the protection of the U.S. military. It's a "nice country you've got there, shame if something happened to it" mafia tactic. Why is MAGA obsessed with Hungary? Because th...
Apr 09, 2026•20 min
As Donald Trump holds the world hostage with his sloppy Iran War, and JD Vance campaigns for Orban, the Kremlin's weapon in Hungary, Gaslit Nation returns to a shared family history of resistance. Andrea is joined this week by the brilliant artist Maya Hayuk to break down the story behind Andrea's new graphic novel, Mrs. Orwell . Born from a decade of research into the Holodomor, Stalin's genocide famine in Ukraine, Mrs. Orwell is a monument to an unsung heroine of literature and the truth the K...
Apr 08, 2026•1 hr 5 min
Congratulations to Pam Bondi for doing everything the fascist serial predator, convicted felon, and Russian asset wanted, only to be ritually humiliated by Trump anyway. The Epstein cover-up continues. So make Bondi testify–and get asked to leave every restaurant and bar she ever tries to enter, for protecting pedophiles. Come to the Gaslit Nation Salon today at 4pm ET to discuss this and more, including sharing what's happening in your neck of the woods. Find the Zoom link on Patreon.com/Gaslit...
Apr 06, 2026•14 min
As we fight the daily battles of the "Great Disillusionment," corruption and unchecked greed are poisoning our bodies. Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet , a group dedicated to helping the world transition away from plastics, joins Gaslit Nation to discuss the systemic corruption wreaking havoc on our environment, our water, and our food. We are now breathing, eating, and drinking a credit card's worth of plastic every single week. Big Oil, facing a transition away from fossil fuels...
Apr 01, 2026•49 min
"We're not going to get the liberation we all crave on a soul level without risk." Andrea reflects on why, now more than ever, we must follow our hearts and refuse to let fear, or Steve Bannon, that Jabba the Hutt of American politics, live rent-free in our heads. Being brave, taking risks: that's how we win. In this special excerpt from last Monday's Gaslit Nation Salon, Andrea honors her beloved uncle, Phil Bourne . "Uncle Phil" was the founding dean of the University of Virginia School of Dat...
Mar 30, 2026•8 min
Beyond showing up for No Kings, build power where you live. Join the Good Neighbors Coalition, a vetted decentralized hub linking neighborhoods, groups, and organizers to share support, resources, and strategy, submitted by a longtime Gaslit Nation listener. Check out The Relay, a no-signup start page packed with tools, trainings, and news. And try the simple 2-10 method, submitted by another Gaslit Nation listener: contact two to ten politicians about an issue you care about, then ask two to te...
Mar 28, 2026•10 min
Christopher Steele, who ran the Russia desk at MI6, believes Jeffrey Epstein was a Russian asset. He used girls and young women from Russia and other former Soviet states to lure powerful men into kompromat traps. Michael Wolff made the allegation, which has since been pulled by The Daily Beast, that Epstein introduced Melania and Trump, and that they even had sex for the first time on the Lolita Express. So was Melania a honeypot, trained to keep Trump in their pocket, and prevent an unpredicta...
Mar 26, 2026•15 min
As we navigate a world of "alternative facts" and corporate-state surveillance, George Orwell's life, times, and pain, transformed into enduring art, like 1984, show us how to be defiant today. Resistance begins in the mind. This week, we're joined by British critic Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984, to trace the biography of a nightmare. The Orwellian slogan "2+2=5" was taken from Soviet propaganda. Orwell reviewed Assignment in Utopia by Eug...
Mar 25, 2026•52 min
Thank you, Afroman, for standing up for freedom of speech and expression. Our human rights matter, and artists have always been on the front lines defending them with courage and power. "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal." --Toni Morrison See you at today's Gaslit Nation Salon at 4pm ET. The Zoom link to join to vent, sh...
Mar 23, 2026•7 min
Across America, people are waking up to the fact that Donald Trump has always been exactly who he said he was: a serial con man propped up by white grievance, impunity, and a media that normalized his crimes. Trump fears accountability. The question is whether we are prepared for what he and his allies may do to avoid it in the 2026 midterms. Trump's push for the SAVE Act and the broader assault on voting rights should be understood for what it is: a strategy to stay in power by any means necess...
Mar 20, 2026•16 min
Trump and Kushner chose a war they don't understand, thinking they can use 20th-century "shock and awe" to topple a deeply entrenched terrorist state. The Iranian people are caught between two maniacal regimes and deserve our solidarity: an estimated 30,000 Iranians were just killed by their own government, and now they're being bombed by a Fox News host. Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman joins Gaslit Nation to discuss the surreal hallucinating AI simulation we've found ourselves in. Meanwhile, ...
Mar 18, 2026•1 hr 1 min
Despite holding one of the most powerful microphones in the world, the silence from major winners at the Oscars regarding human rights and the rise of fascism was the real star. When artists like Paul Thomas Anderson, whose film One Battle After Another swept the awards, refuse to use their power to address the very real injustices their films capitalize on, they "obey in advance." This silence is the symptom of massive corporate media consolidation. Director David Borenstein, winner of best doc...
Mar 16, 2026•11 min
"I've been Doged." Over 300,000 federal workers were purged by drug-fueled sociopath Elon Musk and his "Department of Government Efficiency." In this week's Gaslit Nation, we're joined by Sasha Abramsky, contributor to The Nation and author of the explosive new book American Carnage: How Trump, Musk, and DOGE Butchered the U.S. Government . Abramsky details how Musk and his "Hitler Youth" tech bros, led by Edward "Big Balls" Coristine, infiltrated government agencies like a wrecking ball. They w...
Mar 11, 2026•43 min
The progress we enjoy today, now under threat, was built by people who chose to turn despair into action, to do something instead of nothing. In these final days of winter, it's up to each of us to build an American spring. Call the Congressional switchboard 202-224-3121 and demand that your reps fight for the full release of the Epstein files, justice for every survivor and those killed, and accountability for every predator and enabler. And tell them to stop another forever war in the Middle E...
Mar 05, 2026•17 min
