Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Summary

Summary: Scamfluencers – Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto

Podcast: Scamfluencers
Host: Audible
Episode: Listen Now: Dan Taberski’s Manifesto
Date: July 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special episode introduces listeners to Dan Taberski’s Manifesto, an investigative series from Audible that examines the complicated power and enduring danger of the “manifesto.” Dan Taberski, known for his probing storytelling in podcasts like Missing Richard Simmons, sets out to reclaim the term “manifesto” from its modern association with violence and destruction—returning it to its roots as a bold statement from visionaries, dissidents, and agents of change. Through personal stories, high-profile case studies (including ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner), and reflections on collective societal anger, Taberski explores whether our rage can spark positive change rather than destruction.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Redefining the Manifesto

• Taberski’s Mission:
  • "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." (Dan Taberski, 00:13)
• Taberski sets out to examine how manifestos act as vehicles for both societal destruction and creative, radical transformation.

2. Personal Context and Precipitating Incident

• Taberski describes a personal vignette from his life in Venice, California, establishing both setting and his personal state of well-being before a disruptive event.
  • "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." (Dan Taberski, 01:10)

3. The Christopher Dorner Case

• Case Recap:
  • The brutal February 2013 murder of a young couple in Irvine, California by a former LAPD officer, Christopher Dorner.
  • "Two young people, a couple, recently engaged. The guy was a public safety officer at USC and she was an assistant basketball coach…murdered while parked in their white Kia Optima." (Dan Taberski, 02:13)
• Why It Stood Out:
  • The nature of the crime dismisses the notion of a robbery: valuables are left untouched.
  • The excessive violence and silence point toward a professional hit—drawing a chilling contrast between the crime’s brutality and its clinical execution.
  • "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…" (Dan Taberski, 02:49)
• The Manifesto as an Artifact:
  • Dorner leaves behind an 11-page “manifesto” on Facebook, directly implicating himself and warning of further violence.
  • "A particular interest at this point in the investigation is a multi page manifesto in which the suspect has implicated himself in the slings." (Law enforcement, 03:46)
  • "This manifesto, it scares the hell out of me." (Dan Taberski, 04:08)

4. A Search for Meaning and Control Amidst Anger

• Taberski’s rumination on how manifestos arise from personal and collective frustration, anger, and helplessness.
  • "The world is on fire. I'll spare you the details...even more concerning for me...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." (Dan Taberski, 04:25)
  • He recounts feeling out of control, even in mundane locations like supermarkets, where imposed systems become metaphors for larger societal aggravation.

5. Everyday Acts of Defiance

• Anecdote from Everyday Life:
  • A small personal rebellion—jamming the shopping cart coin mechanism—serves as an example of how everyday annoyances can push people toward subversive, manifesto-like gestures.
  • "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." (Interviewee, 06:01)
  • "It felt like a moment of liberation." (Interviewee, 06:23)

6. The Broader Power and Peril of Manifestos

• Taberski describes the manifesto’s duality—both as a poetic statement and as a threat.
  • "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…" (Dan Taberski, 07:23)

7. Historical Context: Black Panther Manifesto

• Includes audio of Bobby Seale reading the 1968 Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program, exemplifying how manifestos channel anger into demands for justice and sweeping social change.
  • "We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people." (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…" (Bobby Seale, 07:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dan Taberski on reclaiming the Manifesto:

  • "How cozy can we get with our rage before it takes on a life of its own?" (00:31)

• On Dorner’s chilling legacy:

  • "This manifesto, it scares the hell out of me." (Taberski, 04:08)

• Personal anger in mundane locations:

  • "My patience has become strained, my temper too short, my ability to hear anyone has." (Taberski, 05:21)

• Everyday rebellion:

  • "It felt so good. Like a moment of liberation." (Interviewee describing jamming the shopping cart coin mechanism, 06:23)

• On the manifesto’s double-edged potential:

  • "When a manifesto catches fire, it can change our world. It can rewrite our future. But there's a hitch." (Taberski, 07:37)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• 00:00–01:10: Taberski introduces Manifesto and its purpose.
• 01:55–03:32: Coverage of the Dorner case and the power/aura of his manifesto.
• 04:08–05:34: Taberski’s musings on personal anger and helplessness.
• 05:34–06:32: Anecdote of shopping cart rebellion as micro-manifesto.
• 06:51–07:23: The Black Panther Manifesto and its role in social change.

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Tone and Style

Taberski’s approach is investigative yet deeply personal, blending journalistic narration with candid admissions of personal vulnerability and frustration. The episode moves fluidly from large-scale societal issues to granular, everyday moments, tying together historical and contemporary examples while raising critical questions about the role of anger, the purpose of manifestos, and the dangers of unchecked rage.

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Conclusion

In this compelling preview of Dan Taberski’s Manifesto, listeners are invited to reflect on the potent intersection between personal anger, public change, and the dangerous seduction of manifestos. Through gripping true crime and historical context, Taberski challenges us to reconsider what it means to demand radical change—and whether we can do so without inflicting harm. The series promises an exploration of manifestos that is at once urgent, nuanced, and deeply relevant for our time.

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.