Gaslit Nation - podcast cover

Gaslit Nation

Andrea Chalupawww.patreon.com
Gaslit Nation provides a deep dive on the news, skipping outrage to deliver analysis, history, context, and sharp insight on global affairs. Hosted by journalist and filmmaker Andrea Chalupa, an expert on authoritarian states who warned America about Russia and election hacking before the 2016 election.

Episodes

Gaslit Nation Media Guide: "Fascism Needs Ignorance"

The Gaslit Nation Media Committee, a watchdog against access journalism and regime propaganda, has developed this essential guide. We urge all members of the media to reject complicity in the erosion of democracy. The American crisis is a global struggle between democracy and fascism—one that threatens the entire world. Each of us has a role in defending freedom. If you work in media, use this guide to safeguard your integrity, your liberty, and the values we cherish—before it’s too late. Doing ...

Mar 27, 20256 min

Nazi Hunting

What’s the best way to fight evil? Laugh at fascist idiots and keep hunting Nazis, with your camera and the power of your voice. This week, we’re honored to welcome legend Sandi Bachom, an award-winning documentary filmmaker of such powerful films as Telling Jokes in Auschwitz and a Getty Images contributor whose work has appeared in acclaimed films like Laura Poitras’s All The Beauty and All The Bloodshed, Danny’s Strong’s Dopesick, and Alex Gibney’s Crime of the Century. But Sandi isn’t just b...

Mar 26, 202552 min

"We Are Becoming an Apartheid State."

Here's the first half of our recording of Monday's Gaslit Nation Salon with Dr. Lisa Corrigan , author of Prison Power: How Prison Politics Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation , and Black Feelings: Race and Affect in the Long Sixties . Dr. Corrigan is the Director of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Arkansas, and Affiliate Faculty in both African & African American Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies. The full discussion was over two hours, with Dr. Corrigan...

Mar 21, 202541 min

A Love Letter to Canada

What’s the easiest way for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to invade Canada? Simple: Have voters sit out the upcoming election and let Pierre Poilievre become Prime Minister. If you’re Canadian—especially if you live abroad—now’s the time to get organized. Make sure you and at least five of your family and friends have a plan to vote. Not sure if you’re registered? Check here! Voting from abroad? Double-check your registration and make sure you’ve got everything you need by visiting this link. I...

Mar 19, 20251 hr 6 min

Controlled Opposition - TEASER

What’s the Republican spending bill all about? It’s an extremely dangerous powergab engineered by Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House and dirty lawyer who came up with the legal strategy to try to overturn the 2020 election. The Republican spending bill essentially grants legal protections to Trump and Musk’s ongoing illegal mass purge, to protect them against court orders–one of the last levers of power we have left. Any Democrat who votes for this is complicit in Trump and Musk’s tech-backe...

Mar 14, 202519 min

Nerd Reich

How do we fight back against the broligarchs? Journalist Gil Durán, of the must-read newsletters Nerd Reich and FrameLab, shows the way, in this week’s Gaslit Nation. Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous line, “Hell is other people,” from his play No Exit, written in Nazi-occupied France, captured a grievance that mirrored the era’s ideological clashes—fascism, communism, and isolationism, often overlapping and competing, fueling Stalin’s genocides, the Holocaust, and World War II. The solution to sharing ...

Mar 12, 202549 min

TEASER - Book Club: The Stranger and Man’s Search for Meaning

This motivating discussion was supposed to run earlier, but then the third year anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine was marked by Trump viciously reminding the world he works for Russia by kicking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the White House, after he, Vance, and MTG’s boyfriend tried to ambush the war hero. In our recorded first ever Gaslit Nation book club, we discussed Albert Camus’ The Stranger (Matthew Ward translation) and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search f...

Mar 10, 202516 min

Money, Lies, and God

Who is "Woke Jesus"? It’s the actual Jesus from the Bible—the dark-skinned Jewish revolutionary who advocated for feeding the poor and healing the sick. The Christian nationalists who use Trump’s MAGA movement as a weapon against our democracy are also at war with Jesus, as this week’s guest explains. By the strictest definition, doesn't that make Trump the anti-Christ? Investigative journalist Katherine Stewart, author of the new book Money, Lies, and God , examines the right-wing Libertarian e...

Mar 05, 20251 hr 7 min

All Hands on Deck, Florida!

You may be asking: does America even have free and fair elections in GOP-gerrymandered hostage states like Florida? Under a wannabe-autocrat like Ron DeSantis, voting becomes a defiant fact check of the legitimacy of the GOP’s power. If they were truly effective at governing, why would they resort to gerrymandering and other forms of voter suppression to maintain control? By voting, even if your vote is illegally not counted, your presence casting the vote adds up, and together the exit polls ca...

Mar 04, 202517 min

Russia and America vs. The Free World

America joined Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Israel, led by indicted corrupt criminal and Putin pal Netanyahu, wanted for war crimes, to vote against Ukraine’s United Nations resolution calling for peace and an end to Russia’s genocidal invasion. In this week’s Gaslit Nation, Andrea and Terrell Starr, of the Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack, joining from Kyiv, explain how we got here and what to do about it. Fascism helped build America, and global resistance to fascism will help us overcom...

Feb 26, 202559 min

TEASER - Hey EU, Pass an Ivanka Trump Travel Ban

To help us navigate these dark times, Gaslit Nation will hold our first book club. Join us next Monday, February 24, at 4pm ET for a salon discussion on two profound works: Albert Camus’ The Stranger (the Matthew Ward translation) and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. These books capture the emotional truth of our era. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychologist, offers extraordinary insights into how people confronted genocide in death camps. His account of prisoners organizing cabare...

Feb 21, 202522 min

Will We Have Free and Fair Elections in the Midterms?

There’s a troubling sense of normalcy bias among some Democratic leaders who believe they’ll regain their footing in the 2026 midterms, riding another anti-Trump wave. But here’s the critical question: will the United States even have free and fair elections? To answer that, we need to look back and ask: was the 2024 U.S. election free and fair? Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and those around them, break the law so brazenly, how can we trust they came to power without breaking the law? According to...

Feb 19, 202556 min

TEASER - How to Stop a Mafia State

This week’s bonus show is our live recording with Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman, who answers listener questions about combating the Russian-backed fascist threat of the Musk/Trump regime. We also discuss Trump and Russia’s attempts to strongarm Ukraine into a deal that would buy Russia time to continue its genocidal invasion. Don’t miss this special episode. A heartfelt thank you to all our Gaslit Nation supporters. This show wouldn’t be possible without you. Together, we’re shining a light ...

Feb 15, 202531 min

The World Must Stand Up to Trump’s America

One of the most striking aspects of living under a dictatorship is how eerily normal life can appear on the surface. The sun still rises, children still play in parks. Yet, beneath this façade of normalcy, the foundations of democracy are being purged. Drug-fueled Nazi oligarchs, emboldened by their unchecked power, withhold critical funding, endanger lives, and proudly defy the courts. They destroy the rule of law and unleash a culture of corruption, all while the world watches America turn int...

Feb 12, 202550 min

How to Protect Our Healthcare

Protests matter because they challenge the regime's legitimacy, remind us we're not alone, and connect us with incredible people fighting to protect human rights in an era of rising technofascism. At the People’s March in Washington, DC, in January, which protested MAGA fascism, Andrea met Dr. Meena Bewtra, a physician with Doctors for America—a group of doctors on the frontlines of advocating for healthcare as a human right. In this live taping with our Patreon community, Dr. Bewtra answers lis...

Feb 06, 202556 min

Hitler Youth

If you want to see where America is headed, watch The Bibi Files. The greatest threat to Israeli democracy, as well as peace for both Palestinians and Israelis, continues to be Bibi Netanyahu and his wife, Sara. Joining us this week are filmmakers Alexis Bloom, director of The Bibi Files, and producer Alex Gibney, who is also working on a documentary on Luigi Mangione and the corruption of the healthcare industry. Check the show notes for a link to watch The Bibi Files–one of the most chilling t...

Feb 05, 202557 min

TEASER - Divided We Fall, United We Fight Oligarchy

Don’t count America out just yet! Democrats flipped a state Senate seat in Iowa, in a district Trump won by 21 percent—a resounding rebuke to the psychopath in the White House. In an election year that saw incumbents lose all over the world, Trump barely scraped by with one of the narrowest victories in generations, even with the help of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, bribing voters, rampant far-right disinformation, voter suppression laws, several Russian bomb threats, and GOP ratf*cking—e...

Jan 31, 202523 min

Felon 47

Welcome to week two of Trump and Project 2025’s Reign of Terror. A convicted felon, a Russian asset, an adjudicated rapist, a chronic cheater, a trust-fund brat with six bankruptcies, and a psychopath displaying clear signs of dementia is dismantling the foundations of American democracy, just as promised—and just as we warned. The cruelty is sending dangerous shockwaves across the globe. With each passing day under this regime, the nightmare grows darker. But here on Gaslit Nation, we’re fighti...

Jan 29, 202546 min

TEASER - Trump Ushers in the Chinese Century

What’s the easiest way for dictator Xi Jinping of China to invade Taiwan? Bribe the President of the United States! Trump’s loyalty lies in enriching himself and his family, all thanks to the highest bidder – including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others. As China shows more signs of preparing to invade Taiwan, Musk’s Twitter is normalizing this very idea. Andrea and Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman discuss this and more, including Trump and Melania’s meme coin cash grab, in this week’s Gas...

Jan 24, 202532 min

Trump is Putin 2.0: Where Does That Leave Putin?

Trump used and discarded the powerful Fred Trump daddy figures who helped him rise to power: infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, whom he abandoned as Cohn was dying of AIDS; Fox News kingmaker Roger Ailes, forced out over sexual harassment allegations; and, possibly, Vladimir Putin. The Russians invested decades of financial and other support into Trump and his family, as Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman explains on this week's Gaslit Nation. But now, with American oligarchs, unlimited money, immunity gr...

Jan 22, 202552 min

Lessons from Joan of Arc for America and Ukraine

From Joan of Arc, the novel Mark Twain considered his finest work—one that took him longer to write than any of his other books, and one so deeply personal to him that he chose to publish it anonymously: “When we consider that her century was perhaps the most brutal, depraved, and morally corrupt in history since the Dark Ages, we are left in awe at the extraordinary emergence of such a figure from such a time. The contrast between her and her era is as stark as the difference between day and ni...

Jan 17, 202520 min

Crackhead Ken

In a Gaslit Nation first, we’re speaking to a guest whose voice is… well, masked like Putin’s stiff botoxed face. That’s because we’ve had to protect their identity—our guest today is none other than the undisputed ruler of the underworld, likely the wealthiest person on the planet (given the cadre of oligarchs they’ve got on speed dial), and—let’s not forget—a master strategist. You may know them as Darth Putin KGB , the Twitter titan who once made parody fun before it got, well, a little too r...

Jan 15, 202540 min

TEASER - Ben Wikler for DNC Chair

Announcement! If you’re a Gaslit Nation supporter on Patreon, join us for the first ever Gaslit Nation Game Night this Friday at 8:30pm ET, organized by Gaslit Nation listeners. The game of the night will either be Codenames or Chameleon . The Zoom link is posted in the Victory Chat as well as this episode page on Patreon! When it comes to the DNC Chair election on February 1st, the only choice is Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin since July 2019. None of the other candid...

Jan 09, 202522 min

An Unpunished Attempted Coup Paves the Way for a Successful One

On January 6, 2021, we watched on live television as Donald Trump and several Republican members of Congress incited a violent attempted overthrow of our democracy. This insurrection led to several deaths, including police officers who later died by suicide. When Joe Biden was sworn in as President in January 2021, Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress. Instead of using their time in power to pass a resolution or bill banning Trump and his supporters from holding office under the 14th A...

Jan 08, 202543 min

NowMarch.org

Andrea will be speaking at the peaceful Now March this Friday, January 3rd, on Capitol Hill calling for Congress to take their final opportunity to stop MAGA fascism. Obviously the time to stop Russian-backed Trump was years ago, as Gaslit Nation has documented for years now. Andrea will join the Now March to support the tenacious organizers, to take a stand on the right side of history, and to never stop reminding people: none of this is normal. An unpunished coup is a dress rehearsal for a suc...

Jan 02, 20256 min

Opus Dei

How does Franco’s reign in Spain connect to the rise of Trump? In this gripping true-crime thriller, financial journalist Gareth Gore, while investigating a bank collapse in Spain, follows the money trail to uncover a vast international conspiracy behind Opus Dei. What is Opus Dei? It's a shadowy global right-wing organization founded in Spain just before the Spanish Civil War. Supported by powerful Republican figures like Leonard Leo, Opus Dei is a Christian nationalist movement fueling efforts...

Dec 31, 20241 hr 3 min

TEASER - Dr. Emma Briant on Combating Disinformation

Good news! Staying off social media is good for your mental health and countering disinformation. In this week's Gaslit Nation bonus show, listen to an excerpt of our inspiring live interview with Dr. Emma Briant , one of the world’s foremost experts on disinformation warfare and propaganda. Dr. Briant, co-editor of The Routledge Handbook on the Influence Industry and author of Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change , shares invaluable insights into the weapons of global ...

Dec 31, 202423 min

TEASER - Art is Survival: Churchill the Artist

Great Britain was woefully unprepared when Hitler's Nazis invaded nearly half of Europe. As the country faced the relentless terror of the Blitz—where cities were bombed like Ukraine is being bombed today by Putin—Churchill was tasked with turning the tide. In the midst of this devastation, he turned to his favorite act of self-care: creating art. In our ongoing discussion, Robert Schmuhl, author of Mr. Churchill in the White House, explores how painting was a profound source of solace and stren...

Dec 28, 202417 min

Self-Care with Churchill and FDR

Self-care is an act of resistance, especially when the fate of the free world depends on you. In the latest episode of Gaslit Nation , Andrea interviews Robert Schmuhl, author of Mr. Churchill in the White House . Their conversation reveals the fascinating dynamics between White House roommates Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. It also delves into the debate: did Churchill really see Lincoln's ghost? Two of the most powerful men of the 20th century, with towering e...

Dec 24, 202452 min

Israel and Palestine: The Path to Peace

“And hope here, I don't think it's passive. It is active. It's a form of resistance against despair. And it must be paired with a political imagination, that belief that we can build the future.” –Wasim Almasri, Director of Programs, The Alliance for Middle East Peace In this important conversation, Andrea and Terrell speak with Avi Meyerstein, Founder and President of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), and Wasim Almasri, Director of Programs based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Th...

Dec 18, 202443 min
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