Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Summary

Podcast Summary: “Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto”

Hysterical | Wondery | Pineapple Street Studios
Release Date: July 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this captivating preview, Dan Taberski introduces his new series, “Manifesto,” a deep dive into the provocative, sometimes dangerous, power of the manifesto across history and culture. The episode begins with Taberski’s personal reflection on reclaiming the “manifesto” from its modern association with violence and extremism, tracing its roots back to artistry, activism, and visionaries seeking change. This episode blends true crime—centered around the chilling case of Christopher Dorner and his notorious manifesto—with broader questions about rage, social transformation, and the fine line between inspiration and destruction.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Redefining the Manifesto

• Purpose: Taberski frames the series as an attempt to take the Manifesto back from "mass shooters and nihilists," instead celebrating those with the courage to challenge the status quo.
• Quote:

  “This project is my attempt to take the Manifesto back for mass shooters and nihilists and return it to its rightful place with 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.” – Dan Taberski [00:15]

2. Catalyst: The Christopher Dorner Case

• Backdrop: Taberski paints a vivid picture of his life in Venice, CA, before the world-shattering events involving Dorner, a disgraced LAPD officer turned fugitive.
• Case Recap:
  • 27-year-old Keith Lawrence and 28-year-old Monica Kwan are murdered in their car.
  • Clues suggest a larger motive—“not a robbery, but a silencer, many rounds fired, no witnesses” [02:25–03:04].
  • Dorner leaves behind an 11-page manifesto implicating himself and targeting police.
• Quote:

  "Christopher Dorner is no ordinary suspect." – News excerpt [03:21]
  "He was an LAPD officer through 2009 and a reservist for the United States Navy." – [03:25]

3. The Manifesto as Weapon—and Warning

• Manifesto Details:
  • The manifesto was posted publicly, directly implicating Dorner and outlining a vendetta against cops.
  • Analysis: It’s both chilling and powerful–evidence of the “precariousness” of language when used as a vessel for rage and justice.
• Quote:

  “A particular interest at this point in the investigation is a multi page manifesto in which the suspect has implicated himself in the slings.” – News excerpt [03:46]
  “This manifesto…it scares the hell out of me.” – News Anchor [04:08]

4. Personal Reflection: The Everyday Manifesto

• Taberski’s Frustration:
  • Confession of his own simmering anger and difficulty processing the “world on fire.”
  • Example: A simple but infuriating supermarket trip, “where the whole economic order is reduced down to cans on a shelf...” [05:15].
• Manifesto Moment:
  • The story of refusing to participate in the shopping cart/coin-return system—small, purposeful rebellion as a "micro-manifesto."
• Quote:

  "I am in the market for a manifesto. I have been for a while now, to be honest." – Dan Taberski [04:27]

5. Historical Context: The Black Panther Manifesto

• Archival Audio:
  • Bobby Seale reading from the Black Panther’s Ten Point Program—a classic example of the manifesto as a tool for organized activism and systemic challenge.
• Quotes:

  “Number seven. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.” – Bobby Seale [06:51]
  “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.” – Bobby Seale [07:06]

6. The Double-Edged Power of Manifestos

• Analysis:
  • Manifestos “aren’t just pretty poems”—they are threats, catalysts, and gambles toward real change.
  • When they ignite, they have radical consequences—for good or ill.
• Quote:

  “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.” – Dan Taberski [07:23]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “How cozy can we get with our rage before it takes on a life of its own?” – Dan Taberski [00:50]
• “That space right there where emotion becomes action... That is the stuff of manifestos.” – Dan Taberski [06:33]
• “Manifestos aren’t just pretty poems. They are, in a sense, a threat.” – Dan Taberski [07:23]

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Notable Timestamps

• 00:15: Introduction and Taberski’s vision for reclaiming the manifesto
• 01:55–03:21: Recap of the Christopher Dorner murders and initial police reaction
• 03:46–04:08: Emergence of Dorner’s manifesto; reactions from authorities and press
• 04:27–05:34: Taberski’s personal struggle with anger and the search for his own “manifesto moment”
• 05:51–06:23: Supermarket anecdote as a metaphor for small-scale rebellion
• 06:51–07:06: Bobby Seale reads from the Black Panther Ten Point Program
• 07:23: Taberski analyzes the transformative, volatile nature of manifestos

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Conclusion

Dan Taberski’s “Manifesto” is set up as a provocative exploration of how collective rage, whether processed through violence, art, or activism, can be channeled for radical change—or devastation. This first look fuses true crime, personal memoir, social commentary, and historical perspective, challenging listeners to consider: How can we get inspired again, and do it without a bullet?

To listen to the full series, find “Manifesto” on Audible and major podcast platforms.

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.