Podcast
Diabolical Lies
Hosted by Katie Gatti Tassin & Caro Claire Burke · EN
16episodes
Episodes
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The "Rise" and Fall of the Girlboss
4d ago02:24:49Summary readyRESTOCK ALERT: Just in time for your summer vacation, the Banned Books tote is back in stock.Alt. title: Katie finally bites off more than she can chew and attempts a nuanced exploration of the Lean In, Girlboss cultural era.13 years ago, Sheryl Sandberg published Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. The following year, Sophia Amoruso published #GIRLBOSS.The broad understanding of this period was that—for a few solid years—we widely embraced the edicts of “corporate feminism” or “Lean In feminism” or “Girlboss feminism,” so named for a societal shift that saw a recognition and celebration of women’s career ambition as a decidedly positive thing worthy of support and encouragement or, at the very least, a collection of sassy poly-blend T-shirts.We tried it, and it didn’t work.…but did we?Diabolical Lies investigates.All citations and references can be found at https://www.diabolicalliespod.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com/subscribe
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How to Give Birth in America, Pt. 2
3w ago00:15:14Summary readyThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com
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Gen Z Women's New "Anti-Woke Voice"
May 302:16:59Summary readyNEW SWAG ALERT 🚨 The Small Government line is back & better than ever. Get yours here.Katie’s back on her metaphoric “What’s Charlie Kirk up to these days?” editorial grind—checking in with one of the hottest new Gen Z Lady Voices taking the middle-aged men of the center-right by storm.In this episode, we check in with a writer we haven’t discussed since one of our very first episodes:Freya India, also known as three Jonathan Haidts in a very hot 26-year-old trenchcoat, just published her first book, Girls®—an excoriation of the modern world and its effects on The Youth (or, more specifically, the pathologies of liberal teen girls, as she often puts it).To hear India tell it, young girls have been Filtered, Diagnosed, Documented, Disconnected, Detached, and ‘Empowered,’ all thanks to the increasingly rapacious incentive structure of a pyramid-shaped economic system that necessitates a constantly growing consumer base wait, sorry, no. That’s not it. Actually, we’re not really sure why. You know what? It’s not important. Let’s move on.What Girls® lacks in explanatory mechanisms, it makes up for in solutions: Logging off, finding God, and starting a family.The ideological project underway here should be obvious to anyone whose brain hasn’t been marinated in a dutch oven full of expired bath salts, so why has this book been endorsed by a gaggle of high-profile, putatively left-wing men?Diabolical Lies investigates.All citations and references can be found at www.diabolicalliespod.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com/subscribe
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Who's Afraid of Hasan Piker?
Apr 1900:20:44Summary readyThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com
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The Caro Episode
Apr 501:42:10Summary readyOrder Yesteryear if you like nice things, have good taste, or don’t want Katie to show up in the middle of the night at your house with a strongly worded remonstration.What does it feel like to spend 10 years of your life pursuing an uncertain dream when the chances of breakthrough success are one in a million?What does it feel like to—finally, at long last—be “the one”?Caro Claire Burke, one-half of your favorite podcast, is publishing her debut novel this Tuesday, April 7. Yesteryear is mouthy, thrilling, important, ambitious, and, as one of my favorite reviews said, “moves like a freight train.”Sound like anyone else you know?Today, I finally get the opportunity to talk to caro claire burke about:* whether publishing your debut novel is a dream come true or a nightmare* who she was before she wrote Yesteryear* her seemingly endless years writing clickbait for a paycheck in the content coal mines of various aggregators* how she felt when we met 🥰* how I felt when we met 👹* the psychological experience of feeling like everyone’s looking at you (Professionally™️) and knowing the precise dates and times when your life’s work will be dissected for sport in public lol* to what extent it’s fair to infer someone’s politics from their fiction (a la this piece)* her Official Stance on separating the art from the artist (compelling tbh)* a spoiler-frenzied discussion of the Next Great American Novel* and a very personal, very special update for Caro This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com/subscribe
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How 'Love Story'—and the Kennedys—Fooled America
Mar 2200:48:55Summary readyThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com
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Jeffrey Epstein & the Ordinary Misogyny of "Extraordinary" Men
Mar 802:28:38Summary readySome quick housekeeping to start this lovely Sunday:If you’ve already pre-ordered Caro’s debut novel Yesteryear, or wish to do so now, Knopf wants to thank you. They’re sending custom, limited edition bandanas to DL Substack subscribers — all you have to do is input proof of your order in this link here, and they’ll ship you the bandana, clean and simple. (This is only for US subscribers.) Thanks so much for the support, y’all!Jeffrey Epstein got away with it because he was richer than God. No — he got away with it because he had a rolodex filled with the most influential and powerful people on the planet. No — he got away with it because of his wiliness, and his almost preternatural ability to charm people. All of these claims have been discussed to death in both mainstream and alternative media, and continue to serve as the prevailing theories for why this man was able to abuse young women at a terrifying scale for decades without suffering legal repercussions for it. Today, we discuss an alternative hypothesis. ”A Young Jeffrey Epstein Made An Impression On His High School Students,” by Cat Schuknecht for NPR“Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich,” by David Enrich, Steve Eder, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Matthew Goldstein for The New York Times “The Talented Mr. Epstein,” a March 2003 profile by Vicky Ward for Vanity Fair “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery,” a 2002 profile by Landon Thomas Jr. for New York MagazineHere’s one of the many, many early pieces of reporting I leaned on from The Palm Beach Post; not going to link all of them because it would fill Substack’s word count limit but highly encourage poring through their 2005/2006 archivesAnd here’s a pretty interesting FBI transcript of an interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, conducted in 2020And here’s the deposition interview between unproblematic king Brad Edwards and World-Renowned Fucking Loser Epstein:Highly encourage anyone and everyone to read Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s GirlHere is the deposition Katie and I role-played where a Very Smart Lawyer played Very Smart Gotcha with Giuffre about, checks notes, whether or not she was a bartender in 2007Here’s where a federal judge decided that Giuffre’s testimony about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring was not relevant to a case about Epstein’s sex trafficking ringHere is a timeline from the Miami Herald on all this gruesome shit; cc looking through their archives, too, as well as the archives for The Tampa Bay Times for any interested armchair sleuths If you liked that timeline by reporter Julie K. Brown, consider reading her book, Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story”How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” by David Enrich, Matthew Goldstein, and Jessica Silver-Greenberg for The New York Times“Newly Unsealed Epstein Records Shed Light on Years of His Financial Transactions with Wall St. Figures,” by Kara Scannell for CNNHere’s a link to the Epstein email dump, neatly organized in this little faux-inboxHere’s the meta study elaborating on the justice gap, which highlights precisely how fucked survivors of sexual assault are in their efforts to seek justiceRead Jessica Knoll’s phenomenal book, Bright Young Women, if you want a highly entertaining and cathartic literary experience to exorcise the fury from your bodyThanks (and also sorry???) for listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com/subscribe
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The Myth of Centrism
Feb 2200:26:08Summary readyThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.diabolicalliespod.comIf you pay attention to political commentary, you’ll often hear a few pieces of conventional wisdom:— America is “too polarized” — “Both sides” are “too extreme”— Or, most innocuously, that politicians should simply do that which is “popular,” which is itself code for policies that are considered “moderate”But do voters really punish candidates for being extreme? Are most “popular” ideas the “moderate” ones? And, moderate or not, does popularity necessarily indicate merit?The supposed antidote to this handwringing about political polarization is, more often than not, the mythical “centrist” candidate who will appeal to the even-more-mythical “ordinary American.” Centrism is, as the name implies, an ideology that lacks an ideology. Today, Diabolical Lies investigates the myth of centrism.[Full references and citations can be found in the show notes at www.diabolicalliespod.com.]
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Usha Vance, Rama Duwaji, & the Tragedy of Heterosexuality
Feb 801:56:38Summary readyLittle bit of a heterosexual smackdown taking place today!But first, some housekeeping:As a reminder: Caro’s debut novel, YESTERYEAR, is coming out this spring (April 7th, to be exact), and she would love to see you all at the evening launch event in NYC. One can reasonably assume there will be laughter, tears, a book signing, and Caro on a stage looking incredibly sweaty while she talks about all things America, womanhood, tradwives, writing sex scenes in fiction, etc. She’ll be joined on stage by the famed pod duo Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton as moderators for the evening, which essentially means we have finagled this book launch into a pseudo Good Noticings/Diabolical Lies crossover event. Ur welcome.Also, we’d be so grateful if you humored us with a little anthropological insight by letting us know how you found the pod. Quick survey here.Now, onto the show notes.The Usha-Verse“What Is Usha Vance Thinking?,” by Irin Carmon for The Cut“From Yale to Newsmax, Usha Vance Has Helped J.D. Vance Chart His Path,” by Joseph Bernstein and Katherine Rosman for The New York Times“Usha Vance Tries to Defend her Husband’s ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Comment,” by Eric McDaniel for NPR“The One Thing You Need to Know to Understand Usha Vance,” by Susan Matthews for Slate…and of course, If Books Could Kill’s Coverage of Hillbilly ElegyThe Rama-Verse“The Artist in Gracie Mansion,” by Danya Issawi for The Cut“Artist Spotlight of Rama Duwaji,” by Nasri Atallah for YUNG“Mamdani Names an All-Woman Transition Team,” by Nandika Chatterjee for TIMEThe Tragedy of HeterosexualityRead the book “The invention of ‘heterosexuality’,” by Brandon Ambrosino for the BBC This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diabolicalliespod.com/subscribe
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ICE is a Public Jobs Program for Losers
Jan 2500:28:07Summary readyThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.diabolicalliespod.comNote: This episode was filmed on Monday, January 19 and the edit was finalized early on Saturday, January 24, before news broke about the second (known) ICE execution in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti.Today, we’re talking about a beloved American pastime: killing civilians in the name of public safety.On the right, you’ll watch JD Vance and his trademark charmless sneer explain that this is only happening because civilians are being disorderly. Kristi Noem will tell you—straight from her lying bitch face—that ICE agents are being assaulted every day.And on the liberal side of the aisle, you’re more likely to hear that the problem is that these agents aren’t “trained” to “follow the law.”This conversation examines how media has traditionally been used to manufacture consent, and where new media might be used to undermine its efficacy; where individual identity does and does not matter when it comes to state violence; and what “public safety” and “order” really mean, and what these concepts serve to justify.Strap in.
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