It's nine months since I recorded this. And the slow civil war is speeding up.

A conversation with Marc Maron for WTF on how things fall apart.

Consider this a test post, or maybe a signal flare.

It’s me learning how to use this platform; it’s a link to a conversation with Marc Maron, a comedian who knows how to use his. It’s an introduction to the topics, questions, freakouts, nightmares, myths, and little victories I’ll be reporting on here.

I first talked with Marc decades ago, across a couple of small radio shows. I didn’t realize he’d become a podcasting genius until he invited me to join him for an episode of WTF—messy, funny, deep conversations, mostly with comedians, actors.

Then my book The Undertow pushed his anxiety button.

“Don’t run away from this episode,” he tells listeners who tune in for laffs. “It’s a lot to take.”

It is.

“With or without hope,” says Marc (he says I say it, but they’re his words, which I’m borrowing) “it’s important to know what the fuck is up.”

That’s what this substack will be for: as a news media that’s a ghost of even what it was in 2020 tries to cover our confrontation with fascism in 2024—too often according to narratives that broke back in 2016—I’m going to be taking notes.

And I’ll be drawing in some other voices, the fellow travelers with whom I’ve been documenting the Right in its various forms for decades.

What I’m not going to do is tell you how or whether to vote, or how anyone should be running their campaign. No horserace. No bullshit.

But I’ll make room for generosity, for kindness, for the human possibility, whenever I can.