Next Comes What

Andrea Pitzer
  • 5.0 (257)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
Next Comes What

Author Andrea Pitzer reveals what we can learn from the rise of strongmen around the world to thwart Trump and his allies.

Episodes

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    A Better Way to Take On Trump 2.0 — Inauguration Episode

    What to expect when you're expecting an authoritarian. Our inauguration episode. Read the post that inspired this episode. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What  This episode of Next Comes What is about how to manage the next four years, starting from Day One. Andrea Pitzer discusses the amazing ways that countries around the globe in danger of losing democracy are trying to save themselves right now, the new dangers that the twenty-first century presents to those facing authoritarianism, and some of the most effective ways to confront the threat barreling down on us. She looks at heroic examples in Poland, Myanmar, Brazil, and South Korea, as well as times when everyday Americans have helped change the U.S. into the country they wanted it to become. And she outlines the very real risk, if we're not careful, of people on the left falling into an existence just as removed from reality as the one adopted by MAGA on the right. And she explains how to stay engaged during the crisis now confronting us.

    43 min

  2. JAN 10

    How Authoritarians Abuse and Use the Homeless

    Homelessness has long been used to criminalize suffering and expand detention. Read the post that inspired this episode. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What. Today's episode of Next Comes What is about the relationship between homelessness and concentration camps around the globe, as well as a close look at those living without a home in America today. Andrea Pitzer explains how homelessness has historically been used as a political weapon to expand detention for other groups of civilians. She recounts how Mussolini, Hitler, and even Herbert Hoover went to war against the homeless between World War I and World War II, and narrates the terrible worldwide legacy of their actions. In the second half of the episode, she interviews Brian Goldstone, the author of the forthcoming book There Is No Place for Us, which tells the story of five families who are all part of Atlanta's Black working homeless population. Goldstone lays out the violence that consigns people to homelessness, and discusses with Andrea the concrete ways listeners can take action to secure housing for everyone currently without it — and keep those of us who are lucky enough to have it from losing it.

    32 min

  3. 12/31/2024

    Why Determination Beats Inspiration

    Not everything will go wrong. Some thoughts for the New Year. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/everything-won-t-go-wrong Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Today's episode of Next Comes What is about finding holiday joy even in bleak times. In preparation for the New Year and a new administration coming in, Andrea Pitzer recounts how people in extreme conditions in the past held religious services, celebrated feasts, and even set up circus performances.   She considers stories of Arctic explorers celebrating Twelfth Night or turning their clothes inside out to bring good luck in the New Year, with little possibility that they would survive the winter. Even presidents who tried to do the right things historically have often failed in their efforts. Andrea looks at actions by Jimmy Carter and Harry Truman that were undone by their political foes.   And yet—just as in the camps and in the High Arctic—not everything that could have gone wrong did. She makes a plea for determination over inspiration and hopes that everyone might choose to embrace their agency in 2025.

    20 min

  4. 12/24/2024

    The Power of the Quiet Voice

    From years of teaching self defense and martial arts, some tips for difficult holiday conversations. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/fighting-words Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-comes-what/id1779885475 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7lUaIWeKl0oET2DJVTWhy4 Those times you want to punch somebody over holiday dinner, but you don’t? Andrea Pitzer is here to say “Well done” and to give you some options between starting World War III and just enduring nasty rhetoric. In this short holiday-themed episode of Next Comes What, Andrea talks about the years she spent teaching martial arts and self defense and offers ideas for fraught conversations when you’re more interested in getting your point across than winning. From the power of reaching people with the quiet voice to minding your footwork and not wasting your energy, here’s hoping you can enter 2025 with no hangovers, no arrest record, and no regrets.

    15 min

  5. 12/20/2024

    Somebody To Hate

    Defending immigrants from camps and chaos This week's episode traces the ties between immigrants and concentration camp history then turns to an immigration expert to discuss what Trump will do next. Andrea Pitzer dives into the past of a centuries-old law used to lock up foreigners in America—the very law Trump allies hope will expedite mass deportation. Then she talks about the situation on the ground with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council, who describes Trump's plans for the coming months and the big obstacles to executing them. They offer concrete ways the public can help at-risk immigrants, from volunteering with the Council itself to passing laws in their own communities.   Read the post that inspired this episode. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What.

    43 min

  6. 12/13/2024

    We've Tried Nothing (and We're All Out Of Ideas)

    People have organized in hard times before. There's almost always something that can be done. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/going-to-roanoke Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-comes-what/id1779885475 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7lUaIWeKl0oET2DJVTWhy4 This episode looks at what regular people can do when a government aims to actively oppress those it’s meant to serve. Andrea Pitzer discusses ways individuals have come together in the face of repressive measures to build community and protect the most vulnerable. Looking at examples from Myanmar to Soviet Russia and Chile, she finds commonalities in very different settings. Then turning toward America, she shows how simple yet extraordinary resistance has a history going back to before the end of the Revolutionary War. Taking a trip this month to Roanoke, Virginia, to be part of one woman’s attempt to organize her city, Andrea outlines the community’s strong response and offers an adaptable blueprint for anyone who wants to do the same in their hometown.

    35 min

  7. 12/06/2024

    How Humor Can and Can't Fight Authoritarianism

    Humor as a weapon in oppressive states. Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/laughter-in-the-dark    Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe    This episode looks at how humor works in resisting strongmen and the ways comedy might be a useful tool against the next administration. Andrea Pitzer considers why dictators (and wannabes) are vulnerable to mockery and explores examples from Syria to Serbia--including some from America's own past. In a political universe that's been repeatedly infiltrated by entertainers (Reagan, Ventura, Trump, and more!), it's worth asking whether satire works differently these days. Andrea finds success stories and cautionary tales as she sketches the limits, risks, and untapped potential of jokes. Outlining the ways the temptations of cynical humor might divide us from the very people whose help we need to make real change, she asks questions about who gets to be in on the joke in a democracy.

    36 min

  8. 11/29/2024

    Who Are the Baddies?

    Why propaganda works and how we fight it This episode looks at evil in the world and how the stories people hear shape their political thinking. Andrea Pitzer considers the horrors of governments running concentration camps, and her encounters with people who insist that one group of perpetrators is supremely evil in ways other humans could never be. From Germans to Russians, Palestinians to Israelis, and even Americans, she asks listeners to consider the power of narrative in shaping hatred. Using the viral is-it-blue-and-black-or-is-it-white-and-gold debates about The Dress a decade ago, Andrea talks about the persuasive worldviews that lead people to abandon reality and her own experience growing up immersed in a delusional perspective. She addresses the commitment that moneyed, powerful interests have in building these narratives as a distraction—one that further isolates and divides the public, the better to fleece it. She closes with why this process isn’t inevitable and how you can shore up the country and the world to resist it. Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer’s Degenerate Art to support Next Comes What.

    34 min

  9. 11/22/2024

    America Goes Rogue -- And How We Come Back

    In our second episode, we consider where we're headed with a rogue president in charge of a rogue state. We take a look back at how people stood up against torture after 9/11 and show how everyday Americans are already defying Trump allies this week. Andrea Pitzer returns to a longtime source, Mark Fallon, who was at one time NCIS chief of counterintelligence for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In the months after 9/11, Fallon worked to stop the torture program at Guantanamo in its early development, later going public to denounce the U.S. embrace of illegal methods. When she first talked to him almost a decade ago, Fallon told her that the torture program had turned the U.S. into a rogue state, and that accountability would be required to return the country to democracy. In light of Trump's willingness to ignore the rule of law both domestically and abroad in ways far beyond most U.S. presidents, Andrea considers what it means to have a shameless executive in charge of a rogue state and how we might follow Fallon's example by standing up in the face of unethical or illegal activities. She offers a heartening early example from Oklahoma of people doing just that.

    36 min

  10. 11/14/2024

    How We Survive This Mess

    From the moment election results started rolling in, people have been wondering how bad life will get during a second Trump Administration. A decade ago, Andrea Pitzer went around the world to talk to people who had survived authoritarian rule, in order to write the first comprehensive history of concentration camps, ONE LONG NIGHT.  In this first episode of Next Comes What, recorded three days after the election, she talks about different ways that authoritarians have come to power, how Trump's rise relates to them, the real danger we're now in, some good news about why it won't all go the way Trump is planning, four areas where we'll likely see aggressive measures in January 2025, and a long list of ways (large and small!) for you to use the next two months to protect yourself and help preserve democracy.

    1h 8m
  • 10 Episodes

5
out of 5
257 Ratings

About

Author Andrea Pitzer reveals what we can learn from the rise of strongmen around the world to thwart Trump and his allies.

Information

  • Creator
    Andrea Pitzer
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    Next Comes What

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