Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Summary

Podcast Summary: Scam Factory

Episode: Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto
Host: Dan Taberski
Date: July 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode serves as an introduction to Dan Taberski’s new series, Manifesto. Taberski sets out to reclaim the concept of the "manifesto" from its recent association with violence and extremism—returning it to its roots as a tool for artists, visionaries, and everyday people driven to demand change. Through personal reflection and gripping true-crime storytelling, Taberski explores what fuels rage and how that anger, when articulated in manifestos, can shape history for better—or for much worse.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reclaiming the Manifesto

• Purpose: Taberski wants to explore how manifestos—now often associated with shooters and extremists—can have redemptive power and inspire positive action.
• Broader question: How close can we get to our own rage and sense of injustice before it consumes us?
  • "Just how cozy can we get with our rage before it takes on a life of its own?" (00:42, Taberski)

2. Personal Context and Vulnerability

• Venice, California, 2013: Taberski reminisces about his beachside lifestyle—a vivid contrast to the imminent violence discussed.
  • “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..." (01:34, Taberski)

3. The Dorner Case and the Power of the Manifesto

• Double Homicide: The focus shifts to a harrowing real-life crime: the killing of Keith Lawrence and Monica Kwan in Irvine, CA. Details are shared that highlight the precision and intent behind the act—not a random robbery but a targeted killing.
• The Manifesto: The suspect, Christopher Dorner, a former LAPD officer, leaves behind a detailed and chilling manifesto that changes the course of the police investigation and the public’s perception.
  • "Christopher Dorner… is no ordinary suspect." (03:21, Taberski)
  • “A multi page manifesto in which the suspect has implicated himself in the slayings.” (03:46, News report)
  • “It scares the hell out of me.” (04:08, News report)
• Theme: This true crime story exemplifies the dangerous transformation of rage, when articulated as a manifesto and weaponized.

4. The Rage Within

• Taberski reflects on his own growing anger in response to the chaotic state of the world, describing how everyday frustrations can simmer beneath the surface until they erupt at unexpected moments.
  • “My patience has become strained, my temper too short, my ability to hear anyone has. It happens at, of all places, a supermarket...” (04:55, Taberski)

5. The Smallest Rebellions

• Supermarket Story: A story is shared about a man rebelling against the "shopping cart coin" system—jamming the machine out of frustration with being treated like a potential thief.
  • “There was that one moment when I said, fuck it, I'm not gonna do this anymore, and I'm not gonna stop other people from doing it as well.” (06:02, Guest D)
  • “It felt like a moment of liberation.” (06:23, Guest D)
• Insight: Even small acts of defiance are rooted in manifesto-like moments—a channeling of simmering emotion into action.

6. Historical Significance of Manifestos

• Black Panther Manifesto: Archival audio features Bobby Seale reading from the 1968 Black Panther Ten Point Program—a positive, historical example of a manifesto articulated to address social injustice.
  • “Number seven. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.” (06:51, Bobby Seale)
  • “That's just like being tried in Germany, being a Jew.” (07:15, Bobby Seale)
• Reflection: Manifestos can be both beauty and threat—potent tools for declaring liberation or articulating destruction.

7. The Double-Edged Sword

• Conclusion: Taberski emphasizes the paradoxical nature of manifestos. They focus rage and articulate demands, and, when they “catch fire,” can change the world. But, when misused, they can incite tragedy.
  • “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...” (07:23, Taberski)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "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..." (00:10, Taberski)
• “The suspect, Christopher Dorner, is no ordinary suspect. Dorner was an LAPD officer..." (03:21, Taberski)
• “Manifestos aren't just pretty poems. They are, in a sense, a threat... But when it happens, when a manifesto catches fire, it can change our world.” (07:23, Taberski)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00-00:42: Introduction to the manifesto as a cultural tool
• 01:34-02:13: Personal reflection and set-up of the Dorner story
• 02:13-04:08: Details of the double homicide and investigation; discovery of Dorner’s manifesto
• 04:55-06:23: Taberski's reflections on anger and the "shopping cart" rebellion story
• 06:51-07:15: Bobby Seale reads Black Panther Ten Point Program
• 07:23-end: Manifestos as threats and agents of change

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Summary Tone and Takeaway

Dan Taberski’s Manifesto launches as a provocative exploration of anger, rebellion, and how we articulate rage in ways that can both heal and harm. Through personal anecdotes, true crime, and historical context, Taberski asks listeners to reconsider the manifesto as a powerful but precarious force for change. The episode sets up a series that will examine whether we can harness inspiration and outrage without succumbing to the violence that so often follows its most infamous forms.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, Dan Tabursky 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.