# The Odyssey Proves Woke Is a Feature, Not a Bug

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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: 2026-05-17T20:07:25+00:00
Episode link: https://www.sashastone.com/p/the-odyssey-proves-woke-is-a-feature
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/198028051/69b0d6f8c9746267e86e79dc712e2487.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1352

## Resource

[A crosspost with Hollywood Woketopia , my other Substack] Every so often, a moment in culture arrives, a Sydney Sweeney ad, or Project Hail Mary. Every time, we hear that the Woke fever has finally broken. Hollywood cares about the people again. Right? The same reason Kamala Harris is likely to be the nominee in 2028, the same reason the Democrats are still selling the lie that any kind of attempt by Republicans to even out the redistricting is “Jim Crow 2.0,” is proof enough that on the Left, Woke is not going anywhere. It is who they are now. Not all of them, but the most powerful among them. Early on, when Mark Halperin and others were insisting Gavin Newsom would be the nominee in 2028, I said there was no way the Democrats would get behind a white guy, no matter how passionately he genuflects to the Woke (“Anti-woke is anti-black!”). I know the Democrats. I was one. I helped build the modern-day party of the Great Feminization and the Great Awokening. I know what fires them up every day, and it isn’t just taking back power; it’s foisting their religion upon the rest of us. They think it’s the opposite, that it’s the Right that is foisting their “Christian Nationalism” upon them. While it’s true that a faction of the Right has unmasked to become the very thing Rob Reiner warned about in his movie, God and Country, they aren’t the majority. Perhaps that’s true on the Left. But look around. Their religion is the dominant culture in America. When news got out that Christopher Nolan had cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, the “most beautiful woman in the world,” whose face launched a thousand ships, it ignited yet another culture war. How you reacted was like whether or not you wore a mask outside in 2020. It was a test. You’re on one side, or you’re on the other. N…

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