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America First Political Action Conference, a white nationalist event, keeps its location secret, in part to keep the press away. This week’s guest, HuffPost Christopher Mathias, found the location anyway. He joins Fever Dreams to discuss his bizarre conversation with former ICE Director Tom Homan, who was a scheduled AFPAC speaker, but bailed out at the last minute. Elsewhere on the podcast, we check in on Donald Trump and far-right “Boogaloo Boys,” both of which have been daydreaming about conducting bizarre military stunts in Ukraine, like disguising American jets as Chinese and bombing Russia. (Trump’s suggestion.) Later, we visit the right-wing trucker convoy that attempted to encircle D.C. So far, they’re fighting a losing battle against beltway traffic. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Donald Trump is racking up massive Secret Service bills—and hassling those agents about their physical fitness and whether they voted for him. This week on Fever Dreams, we visit wannabe demagogues at home and abroad. In Florida, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at a Hitler-hyping white nationalist conference. Other members of her party, meanwhile, prefer to heap praise on Vladimir Putin, whom they laud as “anti-woke” as he oversees Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That attack is so large that researchers have been sounding alarm bells about Russia’s military buildup for months. This week’s guest, Daily Beast reporter Adam Rawnsley, describes how researchers have tracked Russian troop movements through Google maps and TikTok videos, bursting the Russian military narrative about the reason for the invasion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is back with a wacky new claim, this time about Fever Dreams host Asawin Suebsaeng. It’s not true—but it’s not even the weirdest conspiracy theory on this week’s podcast, where we preview co-host Kelly Weill’s new book about the flat earth movement. We check in on a flat earther who got arrested for trying to hand out flyers at a school playground, and learn why the movement even alienates some QAnon believers. Actress Dylan Gelula joins us to discuss her podcast “Lecture Hall” and why we can blame Mad Cow Disease for the rise of Dr. Phil. Elsewhere, we try to log into Donald Trump’s new social network (which is too glitchy to load) and learn about an upcoming gathering of clout-chasing white supremacists, and the politicians who support them. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Even though the Canadian trucker protesters have been cleared from Ottawa’s border bridge and commerce lanes with the U.S. reopened this past weekend, Canada is still struggling to contain the demonstrators—and as Fever Dreams guest and Vice writer Mack Lamoureux notes, more insidious, and even armed, groups are emerging within the greater protest. What’s more, Canada’s trucker blockade is spawning copycats far and wide. Elsewhere on the pod, co-hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Kelly Weill, and very special guest host David Roth, talk about how Super Bowl 2022 was just one gigantic ad for crypto, and how Ohio Senate primary candidate Josh Mandel—the one whose alleged sex life Trump likes to gossip about—“looks like he just hatched out of something.” The hosts also unpack how QAnon-loving Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has become a prime kingmaker in GOP political endorsements, and follow several disturbing developments in the story of the violent Denver manosphere shooter Lyndon McLeod. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

t’s that time of year again for the Super Bowl halftime show and while the 2022 lineup of Dr. Dre, Snoop, Mary J. Blige and Eminem reads to most fans like a warm and fuzzy 90s nostalgia bath, “to hear certain conservative commentators describe it,” notes Fever Dreams co-host Kelly Weill, “this Super Bowl is ripe for Satanism.” It's all part of the Satanic Panic that’s been brewing in the U.S. for awhile, including the bonkers QAnon conspiracy theories around the deadly Travis Scott concert at Astroworld in December. Meanwhile, Fever Dreams reveals why President Trump has refrained from endorsing a candidate in the Ohio Senate primary race—spoiler, he thinks Josh Mandel is “fucking weird” and has been gossiping about his sex life—and the hosts discuss how Joe Rogan and Spotify have become a proxy for the larger culture wars. And The New Abnormal co-host Andy Levy brings us tales from the crypts of Fox Headquarters, where Fox News once let him host a late-night comedy show with very little supervision. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The first QAnon campaign finance filing is finally here, everybody! And it’s… hilarious how much cash this congressional campaign managed to raise. “His first campaign finance filing came in, and it seems to support the idea that not too many people want Mr. QAnon himself in Congress,” Fever Dreams co-host Kelly Weill reports. Elsewhere on this episode, hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Weill interview Wall Street Journal reporter Byron Tau, who reveals how an ordinary citizen’s phone can suddenly turn its user into an unwitting spy for the U.S. military. Also, the Fever Dreams gang tries to answer one of contemporary popular culture’s most enduring, most annoying mysteries: “Why does Bill Maher laugh so much at his own jokes all the time?” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is Joe Biden just as bad as Donald Trump for calling attention to voting rights? The nation’s whataboutist pundits say yes! This week, Fever Dreams dives into the beltway’s favorite new talking point. Elsewhere in D.C. this weekend, anti-vax celebrity Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that he was more persecuted than teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank because he cannot hide in an attic. (Kennedy currently has a top-selling book, so the persecution analogy falls a little flat.) Later, Jane Coaston, host of the New York Times podcast “The Argument” explains how she broaches tough conversations and forges unlikely agreements with people across the political spectrum. Finally, a hoax about separate restrooms for students who identify as “furries” has sent Michigan Republicans into a weird, anti-trans panic.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The latest conspiracy theory to convulse MAGA-land does not involve COVID-19 boosters or deep-state January 6 plots, but a bit of routine construction at dear old 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—which has convinced some on the right that Biden is about to impose martial law. Meanwhile, Trump’s favorite network One America News is in trouble, and the former president is threatening to crush and “destroy” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if he doesn’t fall in line for 2024. And finally, the co-hosts discuss the Ray Epps saga, a rightwing deep-state conspiracy about a January 6 that has made it all the way to the January 6 committee—and that has caused a spate of young rightwingers accusing likeminded boomers of “being feds”—and journalist Jonathan M. Katz joins the podcast to talk about his book, Gangsters of Capitalism, about a man named Smedley Butler who was involved in most of the U.S. invasions and occupations and wars around the turn of the century and who eventually became an antiwar activist and “blew the whistle on a fascist plot to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One surefire way to garner some extreme MAGA-cred nowadays is to get COVID-19, lie about it and say you just have pneumonia, and remain unrepentant as an avowed anti-vaxxer. But there’s at least one MAGA diehard—an associate of Steve Bannon—who has taken things a step farther. This guy has recently been vlogging (yes, vlogging) from his hospital bed—after being admitted for contracting the coronavirus. Of course, he’s talked about how thrilled he is that he never got the COVID vaccine… even though he’s been vlogging lately from a COVID ward about how much trouble he’s had breathing. Join Fever Dreams hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng, as they offer this latest glimpse into a most lethal American culture war. Elsewhere on the episode, Suebsaeng and Fever Dreams producer Jesse Cannon interview Abbie Richards, a TikTok “power user” who’s also a leading expert on how conspiracy theories wildly proliferate on TikTok. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Amanda Moore lost her job, she decided to go undercover in MAGA land, attending QAnon events and CPAC, hanging with Neo-Nazis and “blood-and-soil fascists,” and palling around with Proud Boys at Harry's Bar in the lead-up to the January 6 Capitol Riot. But what her new compatriots didn’t know was that she was often recording them, and the result is a chilling portrait “of what the right looks like from the inside.” Elsewhere on the podcast, co-hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng discuss the results of a Texas election audit that “Republican officials were trying to bury”—namely because “they found basically nothing wrong with the results”—and dissect an increasingly bitter feud between two audit-fanatics that has descended into potty-mouthed doxxing. Sommer recounts his firsthand experience of being at the Capitol during the riot a year ago, and the hosts dissect the newest catchphrase to devour the far-right and the latest chaos roiling the ultra-alpha manosphere. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The year 2021 brought some major grifts in MAGA-land, as Fever Dreams hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer noted in their final podcast of the year—think Melania Trump’s NFT’s and the ‘Freedom phone,’ which was basically a “rebrand of a cheapo Chinese phone” selling at five times the price. But the Qux Box (pronounced “Cucks”) takes the prize as the pair’s “favorite dumb character of 2021.” Months after it was first promoted by its inventors—a former Infowars reporter and her husband—“I’m still trying to figure out what the Qux Box is,” Sommer notes. “Seems to be an off-brand Roku as best as I can tell.” Meanwhile, as the Omicron wave hits the United States with a vengeance, some right-wingers are convinced that the reason they’re sick is not because of the widely transmissible and near-ubiquitous new variant of COVID-19, but because of … anthrax. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Some internet mischief-makers created a fake DHS website purporting to show President Biden’s plan for COVID concentration camps—and rightwing Senate candidate JD Vance fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Elsewhere on the podcast, The Daily Beast discovers the answer to whether character actor Jay Johnston—who voices the villainous Jimmy Pesto on Fox sitcom Bob’s Burgers—really did storm the Capitol on January 6. Meanwhile, the Proud Boys are teaming up with a radical Black nationalist organization called The Black Hammers, who are darlings of right-wing media for doing things like bashing Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Journalist Dick Lehr drops by the pod to discuss his new book, White Hot Hate, on a domestic terror plot to bomb an immigrant mosque in Kansas. And James O’Keefe is entertaining the crowd at rightwing conferences with songs from the musical Oklahoma. As co-host Asawin Suebsaeng notes, further proof that “failed theater kids will destroy us all.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Her name is Trevian Kutti. Is that the name of the lamest Bond villains of the Pierce Brosnan era? Or is she a Kanye West publicist who fumbled her way into a Coen Brothers-style mission to shred the democratic order and keep Donald Trump in power? On this week’s Fever Dreams, hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer are joined by Daily Beast colleague Adam Rawnsley to bring you a new deep-dive into the life and bizarre world of Kutti. Later on, our hosts welcome Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes, the hosts of the excellent Knowledge Fight podcast, wherein “each episode, Dan and Jordan take a look at some clips from that day's Alex Jones Show and struggle to make sense of what they find.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Trump fanatics Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn had a secret falling-out—and it’s just the latest revelation in the ongoing civil strife that’s been engulfing some of MAGAworld’s top election deniers. On this episode of FEVER DREAMS, hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng dig deeper on some of the unreported aspects of the backstabbing and high-school-style melodramas that are throttling the once tight-knit community of far-right luminaries who tried to nuke American democracy to make Donald Trump happy. Elsewhere on this episode, writer and “Know Your Enemy” podcast co-host Sam Adler-Bell talks about his article in The New Republic on the latest “New Right” and upstart young conservative intellectuals talking up “counterrevolution.” Sommer and Suebsaeng also get into the apparently out-of-shape neo-Nazis marching around in Washington, DC, and also take a look at the latest on former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ world-historically shambolic book tour. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

‘Seinfeld’ writer Dan O’Keefe is the man who gave us the holiday of Festivus—and as he reveals for the first time on Fever Dreams, its origins are pretty dark. Elsewhere on the podcast, the big MAGA civil war between Trump-loving attorney Lin Wood and former national security advisor Michael Flynn went nuclear this week and has turned into a circular MAGA firing squad. The co-hosts identify the next anti-vaxxer trend to sweep the far right internet, and it involves black sharpies. Finally, O’Keefe—who also worked on ‘Veep’—talks about how Trump’s awful presidency totally changed Selina Meyer’s story arc. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the aftermath of the contested 2020 vote, Trump’s biggest election-fraud cheerleaders—Lin Wood, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn—were a tight crew. But the MAGA clique’s now in trouble as they turn on each other over wild accusations and petty infighting. Elsewhere on the podcast, the hosts discuss how Trump’s hand-picked candidate in a Pennsylvania election has flamed out (possibly to be replaced by Dr. Oz), and eagerly await an upcoming Hunter Biden biopic. And scholar and activist Abdur-Rahman Muhammad joins the show to discuss the exoneration of two men accused of Malcolm X's murder—and why the FBI is “guilty as hell.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One-man YouTube brand and far-right darling Tim Pool came down with a nasty case of COVID-19—and with Joe Rogan’s help, became the latest posterboy for the dubious treatment of the virus with ivermectin. Meanwhile, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is waging war on Insider for an article that detailed his allegedly brutal sexual encounters with women. Bari Weiss’ unaccredited University of Austin is already bleeding staff members. Alex Jones lost big in court to the Sandy Hook parents. And a new, wacky Jan. 6 documentary, by character actor Nick Searcy, is coming to America just in time for Thanksgiving. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Congressional dentist Paul Gosar is tweeting anime beheading videos of his colleagues and the hosts of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams have some questions. Namely, “who on Gosar’s staff is the meme Lord?” As host Will Sommer notes, “Not a good sign for the state of the country, or the right, to be tweeting your anime assassination fantasies.” Elsewhere on the podcast, Sommer and host Kelly Weill discuss the FBI raid on Project Veritas, and the proliferation of TikTok Satanist conspiracies around the deadly Travis Scott concert. And The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona appears on the pod to talk about Tucker Carlson’s new Jan. 6 documentary, in which he warns the leftover the prospect of more violence from what he sickeningly calls “legacy Americans.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Will JFK Jr. rise from the dead and proclaim himself QAnon King in a Dallas press conference this week? Probably not. But that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists from gathering in Texas to meet the long-departed lawyer. This week on Fever Dreams, Will Sommer and guest host Kelly Weill discuss the nuttiest legal battles on the far right, from conspiratorial attorney Lin Wood accusing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of stiffing him $5,000, to neo-Nazis representing themselves in a trial over the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. NPR correspondent Tim Mak joins the podcast to discuss his new book MISFIRE: Inside the Downfall of the NRA, which delves into the secrets of the powerful gun lobbying group and its downright weird leader. Plus, Will gives a harrowing cautionary tale from the metaverse. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jesus—aka actor Jim Caviezel—has “emerged from his chrysalis as a QAnon butterfly” and is now spending his days making videos about adrenochrome and appearing at Q conferences to quote from Braveheart. Meanwhile, Sean Hannity and other right-wing types are in a gleeful tizzy over MAGA rap songs, while Gen Z is falling in love with some pretty crazy conspiracies—5G, Scientology, and old-school Pizzagate—over on TikTok. And a civil court case against the deadly organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville could have big implications for the January 6 rioter trials.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.