Audio From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton

One of my favorite writers for awhile now has been David Roth, who is an editor, writer, and employee-owner of one of the last essential websites, Defector.com . In addition to covering sports and culture, Roth has become an unparalleled observer and commenter on politics, including one banger of a column after another that leads readers into the minds and continually warped and warpening world be...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com Politics is a funny thing. Sometimes developments occur that have consequences that are difficult to predict or maybe understand, at least with certain mindsets. When I wrote The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis , it became obvious that we were reaching a point in histor...

Thank you Sarah Kendzior for joining me for my first Live conversation and for the thousands who came out to watch. You’ll find here a recording of our discussion. We talk about Sarah’s new book The Last American Road Trip , the experience of living in this crisis, thoughts on the roiling disaster, and, perhaps most importantly, what it is that we must fight to protect and preserve. I’ll be doing...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com Every day brings something new to gnaw on and gnash our teeth over. We’re under a constant assault on our rights but also our emotional core. As I’ve said, authoritarianism means to destroy our ability to imagine something better , to isolate us, make us feel alone and powerless to stop it. But we are not a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com This is the second part of a two-part mailbag episode ( find part one here ). I start this with some thoughts on hope during these hard times. I have struggled and I’m sure you have to maintain a sense in the face of all this brutality and these roadblocks, but we need reminded that living is resistance. If...

I was privileged to sit down today with my friend Danielle Moodie, the author of The DAM Digest newsletter , host of The Danielle Moodie Show , co-host of The Daily Beast’s The New Abnormal and Democracyish . Danielle is one of the few analysts and pundits I have trusted over the years and this episode should give you some idea as to why that is. We talk about the rapid escalation in the authorita...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com Happy Saturday, everyone. Hopefully you’re having a decent one, finding opportunities for rest and joy and maybe even adventure. I recorded this episode of Audio From A Collapsing State feeling angered by the Democrats in the Senate and the ongoing capitulation. It’s incredibly difficult to fight against an...

I had the honor of sitting down with Parker Molloy, the writer behind The Present Age newsletter , in a wide-ranging discussion that touched on how our media has tragically mainstreamed Right Wing hate and changed our political paradigm. We also got into the awful abandonment of Trans Americans in the wake of the 2024 Election, as well as signs that a backlash is building as people move beyond cor...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com In this episode of Audio From A Collapsing State , I answer some reader and listener questions, beginning with an example of someone stepping up in their workplace and organizing with colleagues to pressure higher-ups into rejecting pressure from the Trump Administration. From there, we get into the ultimat...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com As we continue to suffer to suffer the brunt of the oligarchical coup and ready ourselves for the oncoming political, cultural, and economic consequences , we are also seeing signs of the backlash . The nature of authoritarian power grabs always inspires popular uprisings and movements. We’re seeing it with...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com The ongoing oligarchical coup is incredibly disturbing but can also feel so far away. I’ve heard from many people who are in close proximity, whether in their jobs in the government or in groups and organizations that rely on federal funding, but for many people the consequences have yet to hit close to hom...

I’m not feeling great, but there’s been a rash of actions with the Trump Administration so I wanted to get this message out as quickly as possible. As we keep discussing, this is an all-out power grab by the oligarchy. We’re watching Elon Musk and his fellow tech fascists use Donald Trump as a battering ram as they demolish the federal government and carry out their agenda. They’re moving fast. In...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com This has been a hell of a week. Grueling. In this episode of Audio From A Collapsing State we discuss what it was like to shift into the authoritarian reality and endure a relentless assault on our senses, our emotions, and our democracy. It isn’t an easy thing to do. When discussing how to organize we spen...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com The Equal Rights Amendment is absolutely necessary and the people who have fought for its passage over the past century are heroes who deserve our admiration and solidarity. So, hearing that President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he believed that fight was over while not having it published or even ta...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com Authoritarianism is systematic abuse. What you’re experiencing now, as we approach the second Trump Administration, is a flood of abusive rhetoric. In this episode of Audio From A Collapsing State , we address strategies for counteracting this madness and finding, within ourselves, a sense of Self that will...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com We are standing at a crossroads. As the wealth and oligarchical classes takes over we are watching capitalism evolve into its next form: oligarchical autocracy. In this episode, we trace capitalism from its inception and theoretical free markets to imperial capitalism, the form which we have known our entir...

Dispatches From A Collapsing State is an independent media venture and depends on your support. Unfortunately, corporate platforms don’t support actual critiques of capitalism and power, so I rely on your subscriptions. Subscribe today to keep this effort going and growing. Subscribe to Dispatches From A Collapsing State and support independent media meant to speak truth to power As we head into t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com Dispatches From A Collapsing State is an independent media venture. Unfortunately, corporate platforms do not support actual critiques of capitalism or power. Subscribe today to keep this project going and keep it growing. Dispatches From A Collapsing State depends on your support. Subscribe today for full...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com It’s…infuriating watching people get it so wrong. In the wake of the 2024 Election, the Democratic Party and the liberal media has continually pushed for politics to move to the Right, spend more time “engaging” with white voters, especially white men, and generally continue the process of normalizing autho...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com Neoliberalism isn’t just an economic or political project. It was a cultural project as well. Increasing precarity, slashed social programs, and an emphasis on greed, consumerism, and self-advancement turned us against one another, leaving us bereft of mass politics that could change anything. We begin this...

This is a free episode of Audio From A Collapsing State commenting on developing events. As our corporate media does not support critics of capitalism, I rely on your support to continue this project. Please become a subscriber if you value this work. Today, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, claiming lawmakers seeking impeachment for his corruption necessitated a cessation...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com We’re not just experiencing a democratic or political crisis. This is also a crisis of meaning and purpose. Neoliberal capitalism has changed us, isolated us, and systematically co-opted nearly everything that means something real and sustains us. As a result, we’ve been reduced to earning and consumption m...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com Despite what you’re told, seeing reality for what it is isn’t easy. We are so awash in delusional fantasies and magical thinking that clarity is one of the rarest of gifts. We have a choice. This moment could be rock bottom or it could get much, much worse. The choice is yours. In this episode, we continue...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com We aren’t taught how to create movements or how to organize against power. In fact, so much of our education and the narratives we’re fed in our culture are grounded in the belief that all of it is rather unnecessary. The Founding myth of the Revolution, when coupled with our fictionalized Civil War and wat...

Please consider subscribing to support this independent venture and to gain access to regular episodes of Audio From A Collapsing State. This is a special edition of Audio From A Collapsing State . The intent is to get people up to speed on some basic facts that have been regrettably, but understandably, absent from conventional and mainstream political coverage. If we are to create a movement to...