Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Summary

Podcast Summary: Flesh and Code – Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Host: Dan Taberski
Podcast: Flesh and Code (Wondery)
Date: July 13, 2026
Special Segment: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto (Episode 1 Clip)

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Episode Overview

This episode serves as a cross-promotion for Dan Taberski’s new series, Manifesto. Rather than focusing on AI love stories central to Flesh and Code, this mini-episode features Taberski introducing his project on the cultural power and danger of manifestos. Through personal anecdotes and compelling historical examples, Taberski interrogates:

• What makes a manifesto so potent?
• Can manifestos still inspire positive change—or are they irrevocably corrupted by association with violence and extremism?
• How do personal rage and societal discontent fuel the urge to declare a manifesto?

A short documentary clip from Manifesto explores these questions, blending personal storytelling with reporting on infamous events.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reclaiming the Manifesto

• Dan Taberski reflects on the tarnished reputation of the word “manifesto,” which is now associated mostly with nihilists and violent actors rather than positive social movements.
• He aims to “take the Manifesto back for mass shooters and nihilists and return it to its rightful place with the artists and the warriors, the visionaries, the regular folks with just the right amount of crazy who've got something to say and the guts to say it.” (00:19)

Notable Quote

"But the question that rises up pretty quickly: Just how cozy can we get with our rage before it takes on a life of its own?"
— Dan Taberski (00:52)

2. The Christopher Dorner Case and the Dark Manifesto

• Taberski shifts to February 2013, Venice, California, sharing a story from near the end of his time in L.A.
• The double murder of Keith Lawrence and Monica Kwan is introduced, with media coverage painting an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
• The dramatic twist: ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner — and the 11-page manifesto he left behind.
• Authorities emphasize Dorner’s cop training and skill, heightening the tension.
• Taberski notes how the “manifesto” in this context is a warning, a threat, something that truly “scares the hell out of me." (04:08)

Timestamps

• [01:55] – Introduction of the murder case
• [03:15] – Christopher Dorner named as suspect
• [03:46] – Discovery and discussion of his manifesto
• [04:02] – Media and police reactions to the manifesto’s danger

3. The Personal Roots of Rage

• Taberski describes his own struggle processing the constant “fresh hell” of world events, and the difficulty understanding his growing anger.
• He uses a supermarket anecdote to illustrate how small daily frustrations can fuel larger feelings of rebellion and resistance.

Notable Quotes

"I'm not an angry person. I am a relatively happy guy, but I find myself seething underneath all the time."
— Dan Taberski (04:28)

"It happens at, of all places, a supermarket where the whole economic order is reduced down to cans on a shelf where you can buy two of crap you don't need for the price of one."
— Dan Taberski (04:57)

4. A Moment of Liberation

• A friend relays how he sabotaged a supermarket’s coin-operated cart system—jamming the slot so that nobody could play along.
• It's a small but telling act of resistance, representing the impulse at the heart of many manifestos: to finally “do something.”

Notable Quote

"It felt like a moment of liberation."
— Unnamed Interviewee (06:23)

5. Manifestos Through History: Rage Focused Into Action

• Taberski draws a direct line from personal outbursts to world-changing manifestos, emphasizing their dual nature as both dangerous threats and catalysts for progress.
• He includes Bobby Seale’s reading of the Black Panther Manifesto (Ten Point Program) from 1968, using archival audio to demonstrate the transformative impact of a well-articulated set of demands. (06:51–07:23)

Notable Quote

"Manifestos aren't just pretty poems. They are, in a sense, a threat. A hard packed snowball of grievance and timing and nerve and real impact, a sparking of real, honest to God, change is the longest of long shots. But when it happens, when a manifesto catches fire, it can change our world."
— Dan Taberski (07:23)

6. The Precarious Power of Manifestos

• The clip ends by acknowledging there’s a “hitch”—the duality of manifestos, capable of inspiring hope or inciting harm.

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• The discomfort with rage:

  "Just how cozy can we get with our rage before it takes on a life of its own?" (00:52, Dan Taberski)

• On supermarket rebellion:

  "All of a sudden...I said, fuck it, I'm not gonna do this anymore, and I'm not gonna stop other people from doing it as well." (06:01, Unnamed Interviewee)

• Bobby Seale’s historic reading:

  "We want all black men held in counties, states, federal jails and prisons to be released because they have not had a fair trial, because they've been tried by all white juries. And that's just like being tried in Germany, being a Jew." (07:06, Bobby Seale audio)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:19 — Taberski on reclaiming the “manifesto”
• 01:55 — Introduction of the 2013 double murder
• 03:15 — Christopher Dorner named, the manifesto emerges
• 04:28–05:34 — Taberski’s personal reflections on anger
• 06:01 — Supermarket anecdote: small-scale rebellion
• 06:51 — Archival: Black Panther Manifesto, Bobby Seale
• 07:23 — The real risk and potential of manifestos

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Conclusion

Through this episode, Dan Taberski repositions manifestos as volatile yet vital declarations of intent, capable of both inspiration and destruction. His exploration—blending true crime, personal vulnerability, and history—invites listeners to consider their own relationship with dissatisfaction and the ways it might be transformed for good or ill.
For those new to Manifesto or curious about the intersection of rage, action, and social change, the clip offers a compelling, thought-provoking sample of Taberski’s work.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, Dan Taburski here. You might know me from podcasts like Hysterical or Missing Richard Simmons. And now my latest adventure, Dan Taburski's Manifesto. This project is my attempt to take the Manifesto back for mass shooters and nihilists and return it to its rightful place with the artists and the warriors, the visionaries, the regular folks with just the right amount of crazy who've got something to say and the guts to say it. I compare notes with radicals, secessionists and Internet trolls out for a laugh and punk singers screaming their guts out, all trying to turn their anger into the world that they want to see. And along the way I write my own manifesto about manifestos. But the question that rises up pretty quickly Just how cozy can we get with our rage before it takes on a life of its own? From Audible Originals and Please and Thanks Productions, this six part series explores the power and precariousness of the Manifesto and asks can we get inspired again and can we do it without a bullet? I'm about to play a clip from Manifesto. You can listen to Manifesto wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Manifesto ad free right now. Start your Audible subscription on the Audible app or on Apple Podcasts. February 2013 Venice, California. It's my last few months in Los Angeles before I move back east. I'm in my late 30s, living by the beach, learning to surf the crumbly waves on my longboard. My skin smells like the ocean all the time. I feel amazing. I look amazing. I look amazing. But I'm not taking you back in my time machine because of how good I looked. Which was very it's because of what happened next in Southern California that cut through that dreamy scene and swapped it out with harsh reality.

[B]

Police in Irvine, California are investigating the double murder of a young couple in the parking lot of their apartment complex.

[A]

Reports of a homicide in Neighboring Orange County.

[B]

27 year old Keith Lawrence and his fiance, 28 year old Monica Kwan, were found shot to death in Lawrence's car late Sunday night.

[A]

Two young people, a couple, recently engaged. The guy was a public safety officer at USC and she was an assistant basketball coach at a local university, murdered while parked in their white Kia Optima.

[B]

Investigators do not yet have a suspect

[A]

description or motive and immediately the details of the crime begin to add up to something bigger than a one time thing, like when their bodies are found by the police. The victim's necklace is still on her neck. Her new engagement ring is still firmly on her finger. Which means this isn't a Robbery. Also, investigators find evidence of 14 shots having been fired. That's a lot of bullets for just two people cornered in their car. But the number of neighbors who actually heard those 14 shots, zero. So maybe there was a silencer on the gun, which would mean the killer probably isn't new to this, that maybe they're a professional.

[C]

Irvine detectives have been working day and night since this tragedy.

[A]

The Irvine police chief takes to the podium to tell the people of Southern California that they are going to have to buckle up for a ride today.

[C]

We have identified Christopher Dorner as a suspect in this double homicide because the

[A]

suspect, Christopher Dorner, is no ordinary suspect.

[C]

Dorner was an LAPD officer through 2009 and a reservist for the United States Navy.

[A]

Dorner is a former LAPD cop and he's still out there. And there's reason to believe that he's going to kill again, that maybe he already has. And we know this because Christopher Dorner left something behind.

[C]

A particular interest at this point in the investigation is a multi page manifesto in which the suspect has implicated himself in the slings.

[A]

And this manifesto on Facebook is 11 pages long. Trace this manifesto from this suspect who's targeting cops. It's stunning. It is stunning, Shep.

[C]

And it says he's been very well trained. You know, lapd, some of the best trained officers in the country. And I tell you, this manifesto, it

[A]

scares the hell out of me. I'm Dan Tabursky from Audible Originals and please and thanks Productions. This is Manifesto Episode 1 2America. Subject Last Resort. I am in the market for a manifesto. I have been for a while now, to be honest. The world is on fire. I'll spare you the details. We've all got our own faves and I mean, really, what fresh words could be left to describe what fresh hell we're presented with day after day? But even more concerning for me, even more surprising, has been my own reaction to it and how difficult it's been to get a handle on how angry it has all made me. I'm not an angry person. I am a relatively happy guy, but I find myself seething underneath all the time. My patience has become strained, my temper too short, my ability to hear anyone has. It happens at, of all places, a supermarket where the whole economic order is reduced down to cans on a shelf where you can buy two of crap you don't need for the price of one.

[D]

And this feeling of discontent that I've had in shopping at supermarkets, you know, for years and years before that, and being dissatisfied with the whole feeling of walking in there and having the choices that they're giving me and the way that I. It just felt like something that I don't want to do. But I kept on doing it.

[A]

He goes to grab a shopping cart. Only it's one of those setups where you got to insert a coin to get the cart, and you only get the coin back if you return the shopping cart. As if none of us can be trusted.

[D]

You know, basically, they asked me to sort of use the shopping cart, put the coin in and take the coin back and put it back to where it belongs. Then all of a sudden, there was that one moment when. When I sat, he said, fuck it, I'm not gonna do this anymore, and I'm not gonna stop other people from doing it as well.

[A]

So he takes a coin and he jams it into the slot so it won't come out. So now no one's playing the stupid shopping cart game, are they?

[D]

And it felt so good. It felt like. Like. It felt like a moment of liberation.

[B]

That.

[A]

That space right there where emotion becomes action when you're inspired to just do something already. That is the stuff of manifestos. Individuals, groups, entire swathes of society use it as the funnel to focus their erupting rage.

[E]

Number seven. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.

[A]

This is activist Bobby Seale reading the Black Panther Manifesto in 1968. They called it the Ten Point Program.

[E]

We want all black men held in counties, states, federal jails and prisons to be released because they have not had a fair trial, because they've been tried by all white juries. And that's just like being tried in Germany, being a Jew.

[A]

Manifestos aren't just pretty poems. They are, in a sense, a threat. A hard packed snowball of grievance and timing and nerve and real impact, a sparking of real, honest to God, change is the longest of long shots. But when it happens, when a manifesto catches fire, it can change our world. It can rewrite our future. But there's a hitch. Binge all episodes of Dan Taburski's manifesto ad free right now on Audible. Start your Audible subscription in the Audible app or on Apple Podcasts.