# A Requiem for America This Week

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501/a-requiem-for-america-this-week
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501/a-requiem-for-america-this-week.md
Podcast: [Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone](https://stenobird.com/podcast/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501)
Published: 2026-02-11T23:55:18+00:00
Episode link: https://www.sashastone.com/p/a-requiem-for-america-this-week
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/187654607/1eef71a537fbddfb671ea2b31d33a93d.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/free-thinking-through-the-fourth-turning-with-sasha-stone-5501501/episodes/a-requiem-for-america-this-week
Duration seconds: 1632

## Resource

The novel for the week was Brave New World. Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn were preparing to lead us through it. It was more disturbing and more timely than 1984, another novel in the outsider book club that many of us had become part of over the last few years with two of the greatest teachers alive. How lucky we were, I always thought, every time they dug into a new book. Culture has dramatically changed. It has become exclusive rather than inclusive, despite how they would describe themselves. Matt and Walter, on America This Week, filled a deep, dark, and dry well for thirsty people in need of the kind of observations of human behavior, fearlessness, and wit we used to get from great writers of the past. You can partake of the culture now, but you have to be a true believer if you want in. You have to love Big Brother, or at least have learned how to keep silent enough that no one ever notices. Matt and Walter, two dissidents from the decaying dystopia our culture has become, were never going to play that game. They gave us so much just by taking us back to a time when writing was brilliant, and thinking was essential. I start with the books because that is what really made America This Week something unique and valuable, not just to people like me who found it so pleasurable just to listen to them talk about books, but to the broader culture, so in need of not just education but enlightenment. Two great writers, two great readers, two great thinkers - how did we ever have it so good? Both Walter and Matt had already been “canceled” by lesser beings who had no idea what kind of genius they’d given up. Or maybe they did know. Maybe they burned with jealousy that these two hadn’t sold themselves out for conformity or acceptance. Maybe they burned with jealousy because t…

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## Transcript

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