Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Summary

Podcast Summary: Kill List – Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Podcast: Kill List
Host: Audible | Novel
Episode: Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto
Date: July 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special episode features a preview of Dan Taberski’s new podcast series, Manifesto. Known for his storytelling in podcasts like Hysterical and Missing Richard Simmons, Taberski dives into the power, danger, and transformative potential of manifestos—from radicals and activists to mass shooters. He traces how manifestos can catalyze both personal rebellion and global change, questioning whether society can reclaim the manifesto for inspiration without succumbing to violence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reclaiming the Manifesto

• Purpose of Manifesto: Taberski introduces his project as a mission to take the “manifesto” back from mass shooters and nihilists and restore its place with visionaries and “regular folks with just the right amount of crazy.”
• Method: The series explores personal and collective rage, radical ideas, and the fine line between creative inspiration and destructive action.
  • Dan Taberski (00:14): “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.”

2. Manifestos and Violence: The Dorner Case

• 2013 Double Homicide: Taberski recounts the chilling true story of the Christopher Dorner case in California, where Dorner, a former LAPD cop, went on a killing spree and published an 11-page manifesto on Facebook.

  • Crime details: Dorner targeted fellow officers and their families, introducing manifestos as both confession and justification for violence.
  • Taberski (02:13): “The guy was a public safety officer at USC and she was an assistant basketball coach… murdered while parked in their white Kia Optima.”
  • Professionalism of Crime: The number of bullets, undisturbed valuables, and use of a silencer suggested a calculated, professional killing.

• Repercussions: The Dorner case exemplifies how manifestos can take on a life of their own—broadcasting grievances and catalyzing further violence.

  • Police Chief (03:15): “We have identified Christopher Dorner as a suspect in this double homicide…”

3. Anger, Alienation, and the Everyday Manifesto

• Taberski's Personal Reflections: The episode shifts to Dan Taberski’s personal grapple with simmering rage amid everyday frustrations—like the monotony and bureaucracy of supermarket shopping.
  • Taberski (04:08): “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.”
• The Shopping Cart Rebellion: An anecdote about sabotaging a supermarket cart mechanism becomes a micro-manifesto—a small, defiant act against systems perceived as demeaning or untrustful.
  • (06:01) “He goes to grab a shopping cart… it’s one of those setups where you gotta insert a coin… 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?”
  • Speaker D (06:16): “It felt like a moment of liberation.”

4. Manifestos as Instruments of Change

• Historical Perspective: Black Panther Manifesto
  • Taberski cues a 1968 clip of activist Bobby Seale reading demands from the Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program.
  • Bobby Seale (06:58): “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.”
• Dual Nature of Manifestos: Manifestos are both poetic aspirations and threats—compacted expressions of grievance and intent. When they catch fire, they can “rewrite our future,” but always come with a dangerous edge.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Dan Taberski (01:55): “I’m not taking you back in my time machine because of how good I looked… it’s because of what happened next in Southern California that cut through that dreamy scene and swapped it out with harsh reality.”
• Taberski (04:08): “How cozy can we get with our rage before it takes on a life of its own?”
• Taberski (06:51): “That space right there where emotion becomes action, when you're inspired to just do something already… That is the stuff of manifestos.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–01:15: Introduction to Manifesto—redefining the term and exploring its uses.
• 01:55–03:54: Christopher Dorner case—details of the crime and the role of his manifesto.
• 04:08–05:34: Taberski’s personal reflection on anger and the search for an inspiring manifesto.
• 05:51–06:32: The supermarket act of rebellion—everyday manifestos.
• 06:51–07:23: Historical manifestos—Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program.
• 07:23–end: Reflections on the danger and potential of manifestos.

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Conclusion

Dan Taberski’s Manifesto seeks to re-examine, revitalize, and perhaps detoxify the idea of the manifesto—viewing it not purely as a tool for chaos and violence, but as a means of focusing and transforming dissatisfaction into constructive change. Through recent history, personal anecdotes, and legendary movements, Taberski asks: Can we be inspired again, and can we do it without a bullet?

Note: Listeners can binge all episodes of Manifesto ad-free on Audible or Apple Podcasts. This episode serves as a compelling, provocative introduction to a series that promises to probe the uneasy relationship between anger, action, and the written word.

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.