Fever Dreams
124 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 months ago - ★★★★ - 751 ratingsInside the right’s push to retake power, from the conspiracy-slingers to the MAGA acolytes to the straight-up grifters. Thought the Trump era was crazy? Wait ’til you hear what they have planned next. Hosted by Kelly Weill and Will Sommer. New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app today.
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Episodes
MyPillow Presents Woodstock ’21 w/Steven Monacelli
August 04, 2021 04:00 - 41 minutes - 95.8 MBAs Trump tried to subvert American democracy, he told DOJ officials that they were not “following the internet the way I do.” He was referring in part to ultra-rightwing conspiracy site Gateway Pundit—run by the so-called “dumbest man on the internet.” This week’s episode of Fever Dreams goes inside how the habitually wrong website so influenced the president that he carried print-outs of its articles around the West Wing as he pushed the Justice Department to declare a fraudulent election. (...
ConservaKids, Feat. Alex Pareene
July 28, 2021 04:01 - 54 minutes - 124 MBIf you’ve ever wished the kids’ books you read your small children included more references to the “cabal” at Jeffrey Epstein’s island, then we have some news for you! On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng delve into the wild and bafflingly lurid world of a new series of conservative children’s books, which include adorable foxes teaching your kids not to embrace communist ice cream. Elsewhere on the episode our hosts interview ‘New Republic’ staff writer Ale...
The MAGA Coffee Wars, Feat. Andy Richter
July 21, 2021 04:00 - 51 minutes - 118 MBOn this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng discuss the ongoing war for consumers that’s raging between two MAGA-style coffee companies, with one of the companies landing in hot water with its fans for trashing the Proud Boys. “I love how Black Rifle Coffee is his perfect little metaphor for what has happened to the Republican Party over the past four years,” Suebsaeng said. Elsewhere on the episode, Suebsaeng and Sommer welcome actor, comedian, and Conan O’Brien ...
The MAGA Coffee Wars, Feat. Andy Richter
July 21, 2021 04:00 - 51 minutes - 118 MBOn this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng discuss the ongoing war for consumers that’s raging between two MAGA-style coffee companies, with one of the companies landing in hot water with its fans for trashing the Proud Boys. “I love how Black Rifle Coffee is his perfect little metaphor for what has happened to the Republican Party over the past four years,” Suebsaeng said. Elsewhere on the episode, Suebsaeng and Sommer welcome actor, comedian, and Conan O’Brien s...
CPAC Showdown Feat. Zach Petrizzo
July 14, 2021 04:00 - 44 minutes - 101 MBOutlandish sunglasses company Pit Viper has a problem: white nationalists love them. This week, Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng talk about Pit Viper’s attempts to push back on their alt right fanbase, after the reflective shades popped up during the Capitol riot. Salon reporter Zach Petrizzo talks his appearance at CPAC Texas, where the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were out in full force and Rep. Matt Gaetz had to throw a party all his own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...
CPAC Showdown Feat. Zach Petrizzo
July 14, 2021 04:00 - 44 minutes - 101 MBOutlandish sunglasses company Pit Viper has a problem: white nationalists love them. This week, Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng talk about Pit Viper’s attempts to push back on their alt right fanbase, after the reflective shades popped up during the Capitol riot. Salon reporter Zach Petrizzo talks his appearance at CPAC Texas, where the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were out in full force and Rep. Matt Gaetz had to throw a party all his own. See acast.com/privacy for ...
The Fascist ‘Diaries’ feat. Kathleen Belew
July 07, 2021 04:00 - 51 minutes - 117 MBIn 1978, an American neo-Nazi published The Turner Diaries, an infamous race-war novel that went on to inspire so many far-right and violent extremists in the subsequent decades. So it wasn’t a huge shock when anti-democratic rioters showed up at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, casually recommending that people read the atrociously racist book. “Please don't go buy this book. The money can still go back to white power groups, if you do,” Kathleen Belew, a University of Chicago ...
MAGA Cruelty is Still the Point w/ Adam Serwer
June 30, 2021 04:01 - 53 minutes - 122 MBThis week’s episode of Fever Dreams features the brilliant Atlantic columnist Adam Serwer, whose new book—The Cruelty is the Point: the Past, Present and Future of Trump’s America—builds off a 2018 essay to examine how President Trump weaponized racism and white identity politics to build in-group belonging among his supporters, as has happened countless times before in U.S. history. Meanwhile, DOWN IN ARIZONA... Our intrepid co-host Will Sommer recently traveled to the Copper State to hang ...
The Critical Race Theory Freak Out feat Brandy Zadrozny
June 23, 2021 04:01 - 50 minutes - 114 MBNow that COVID is waning, Tucker Carlson and the rightwing hysteria machine have to find a new culture war. Heads up, Concerned Parents, there’s a new moral-panic bogeyman—fomented by the far right and Fox News—that’s coming for America’s children, and it’s called critical race theory. n this week’s episode of Fever Dreams, Daily Beast reporters Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer talk to senior NBC News reporter and Daily Beast alumnus Brandy Zadrozny about how the battle over CRT has become th...
The James O’Keefe Musical feat. Ryan Cooper
June 16, 2021 04:01 - 53 minutes - 122 MBFar-right activist Ammon Bundy is running for governor of Idaho—despite being legally banned from the Idaho statehouse. “He’s prepping a run for Idaho governor, to the dismay of the Idaho Republican Party, which really does not want that affiliation,” said The Daily Beast reporter Kelly Weill. Elsewhere on the episode, The Week national correspondent Ryan Cooper talks about a government report claiming that the U.S. Park Police didn’t clear protesters outside the White House—and how its claim...
Talk Radio Crank Yankers Feat. Chris James
June 09, 2021 04:00 - 51 minutes - 118 MBOn this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng sit down with Canada-based comedian and “Not Even a Show” host Chris James, a man who spends his days figuring out ways to prank prominent conservatives and MAGA luminaries, such as Rudy Giuliani and Dan Crenshaw, on-air. “These people are in positions of power and they are acting in this incredibly reckless way,” James says. Elsewhere on this episode, Suebsaeng and Sommer dig into how the false idea of Donald Trump’s Aug...
Banned from Q Con feat. Dave Weigel
June 02, 2021 04:12 - 55 minutes - 126 MBYou thought Michael Flynn calling for a coup was the most exciting thing to happen at the QAnon conference in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend? Think again, Fever Dreams fans, for just before the wacko retired general longingly wished for a Myanmar-style crackdown here in the U.S. of A., our very own beloved host Will Sommer got kicked out of QCon to a standing ovation. Also on this episode of Fever Dreams, our hosts talk to The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel about the massive GOP push to crac...
Trumpy Anti-Trafficking Group Relies on Psychic for Tips FT/ Anna Merlan & Tim Marchman
May 26, 2021 04:00 - 51 minutes - 118 MBA tough-talking anti-human-trafficking organization with ties to Donald Trump relied on a tip from a psychic for at least one of its failed “raids” in Haiti, according to reporters who have tracked the group. “They have defended the use of psychics and made it sound like something that law enforcement does all the time, which they might do, but that doesn’t make it a good idea,” Vice senior staff writer Anna Merlan said on the latest episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast. Hosted...
Why Kramer Would Definitely Go QAnon, Feat. Larry Charles
May 19, 2021 04:01 - 47 minutes - 110 MBOn this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng welcome writer/director Larry Charles, a Sacha Baron Cohen collaborator who also wrote some of the darkest and most beloved episodes of Seinfeld. According to Charles, if Seinfeld were on the air today, Kramer would definitely be a “QAnon believer”... but also somehow in Antifa, too? Charles also opens up about what he sees as mainstream comedy and “very corporate” satire’s major failings in confronting Donald Trump over ...
How ‘Wannabe’ Instagram Models Kneecapped Matt Gaetz
May 12, 2021 04:01 - 56 minutes - 130 MBIf the federal investigation into Matt Gaetz does indeed end up spelling the MAGA congressman’s downfall, it’ll be partly because of a group of wannabe Instagram influencers. On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng welcome fellow Beast reporters Jose Pagliery and Roger Sollenberger, the duo that’s been breaking story after story on the Gaetz scandal in recent weeks. The pair reveal new details on the Gaetz saga that haven’t be...
Secret U.S. Intel Reports on Joe Exotic, Juggalos, and Violent Emojis Actually Exist
May 05, 2021 04:01 - 48 minutes - 112 MBIn this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng sit down with Intercept reporter Ken Klippenstein, to delve into how an incredible amount of taxpayer money goes into the U.S. government’s sprawling, frightening, and oftentimes downright bizarre domestic surveillance programs. Millions upon millions upon millions of that treasure often get funneled into programs such as the Trump administration efforts to prevent threats to the republic as SCARY as… Insane Clown Posse f...
Inside the Church of Bleach Drinkers
April 28, 2021 04:01 - 59 minutes - 136 MBSo, remember when ex-President Donald J. Trump insanely told the United States that injecting yourself with bleach might be a cure for the coronavirus? It turns out that there’s a whole slew of wackos who have been promoting bleach drinking—disguised under the name of “miracle mineral solution”—for a range of health problems long before #45 took office and let more than 400,000 Americans die from COVID on his watch. That includes a scammy father-son duo who tried to form a church of bleach s...
Pro-Trump Meet-Up Features Call to Kill Political Enemies
April 21, 2021 04:00 - 50 minutes - 116 MBIn this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng go deep on the far-right “Health and Freedom Conference” in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where thousands of attendees flocked to reaffirm their commitment to Donald Trump, the QAnon conspiracy, coronavirus denialism, and the belief that their high-profile political enemies deserve to be shot and killed. Sommer recounts his time reporting from the terrifyingly mask-free conference. Suebsaeng and Sommer also welcome Sara Kenigsberg, a ...
When Your Girlfriend Dimes You Out as a Capitol Rioter
April 14, 2021 04:01 - 45 minutes - 104 MBIn this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng welcome HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly, who dishes on some of the wildest, least expected, and flat-out dumbest ways alleged U.S. Capitol rioters have been handed over to the feds. Some are, intentionally or accidentally, snitched out by their wives or significant others. Others get screwed by people who hated them in high school. Others get arrested following the help of amateur “Facebook stalkers.” Additionally, Suebs...
He Was Partners With ‘QAnon.’ Now He Wants Them Arrested
April 09, 2021 04:01 - 23 minutes - 54 MBNote: If you're coming here from The New Abnormal the interview picks up after the commercial around 12:30 He founded the noxious online forum that gave QAnon life. And now, he thinks “Q” should be arrested and tried. In Q: Into the Storm, HBO’s new six-part documentary series on QAnon, the filmmakers make their case that father-son duo Jim and Ron Watkins are the true culprits behind “Q.” In a new interview with The Daily Beast, the breakout star of the doc dishes on the Watkins’ “fascist...
How 'Q' Tried to Pin the Whole Thing on Steve Bannon
April 07, 2021 16:20 - 51 minutes - 118 MBBy the end of the big new documentary series on QAnon, the filmmakers show off a pretty damn strong case that a shitposting systems administrator named Ron Watkins is the guy currently behind “Q.” But the docuseries doesn’t fully capture—at least not in detail—all the crazy lengths to which Watkins went in order to finger Steve Bannon as the head of the violent, culty conspiracy movement. “Ron actually had been planting the seed for Bannon from the very first time I met him,” Q: Into the...
Why QAnon Is So Bummed to See the Suez Ship Go Free
March 31, 2021 04:00 - 38 minutes - 89 MBDid you know that everyone’s favorite Suez-Canal-blocking ship is now the subject of a QAnon conspiracy? The Daily Beast’s Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer lay out why the adrenochrome set is convinced that the stuck ship’s cargo is full of trafficked children on the latest episode of our Fever Dreams podcast (Hint: it has to do with Hillary Clinton’s secret service code name—you guessed it, EVERGREEN.) Speaking of Hillary conspiracies, Suebsaeng and Sommer discuss why the right just can’t...
What It’s Like When MAGA Nation Wants to Kill You for Your Movie
March 24, 2021 04:00 - 50 minutes - 115 MBTake one self-proclaimed satanism expert. Add in a pinch of dumpster-diving. Throw in a chicken-coop fire, and (of course) pillow magnate and Donald Trump pal Mike Lindell. And you’ve got the recipe that Trump 2020 deadenders are currently leading in the great state of Arizona to try to, somehow, overturn the election there. “It could be like a Coen brothers movie. It has that atmosphere,” Daily Beast political reporter Will Sommer tells his colleague and co-host Asawin Suebsaeng on the pre...
Fever Dreams Trailer
March 16, 2021 17:50 - 1 minute - 3.66 MBThe Daily Beast’s top reporters take you inside the right’s push to retake power, from the conspiracy-slingers to the MAGA acolytes to the straight-up grifters. Thought the Trump era was crazy? Wait ’til you hear what they have planned next. Hosted by Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer. New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.