# MELANIA: “A piece of handsomely mounted crypto‑fascist propaganda” + Riz Ahmed

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kermode-mayo-s-take-5310583/melania-a-piece-of-handsomely-mounted-crypto-fascist-propaganda-riz-ahmed
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kermode-mayo-s-take-5310583/melania-a-piece-of-handsomely-mounted-crypto-fascist-propaganda-riz-ahmed.md
Podcast: [Kermode & Mayo’s Take](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kermode-mayo-s-take-5310583)
Published: 2026-02-05T16:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/pdrl.fm/a16f7d/mgln.ai/e/143/tracking.swap.fm/track/Vjambo9ifGBwbaCTlDBD/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/SONY1299152295.mp3?updated=1770308449
Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/pdrl.fm/a16f7d/mgln.ai/e/143/tracking.swap.fm/track/Vjambo9ifGBwbaCTlDBD/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/SONY1299152295.mp3?updated=1770308449
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kermode-mayo-s-take-5310583/episodes/melania-a-piece-of-handsomely-mounted-crypto-fascist-propaganda-riz-ahmed
Duration seconds: 5003

## Resource

Some exciting news—The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo. Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member‑only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind‑the‑scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show—a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time. It’s the take you’ve all been waiting for... Mark’s Melania review. Did he enjoy this, er, ‘documentary’ about the FLOTUS? Obviously not. Will you enjoy listening to him slate it? We think so. Buckle up. Our guest this week is Riz Ahmed—actor, musician, writer and all-round creative force—joining Simon to talk about his bold new film adaptation of Hamlet. Reimagining Shakespeare’s most introspective tragedy for the screen, Ahmed takes on the iconic role of the Prince of Denmark in a version that fuses classic text with contemporary urgency. He tells Simon what it means to wrestle with “to be or not to be” in the modern world. Mark also reviews Hamlet, plus three more of this week’s notable releases. There’s Send Help, Sam Raimi’s survival thriller that strands its characters in a fight against both nature and themselves; The Chronology of Water, a visceral adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, and Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut; and It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary portrait of the elusive, mythic musician whose influence still reverberates decades on. All this, plus the box office top 10, the lofty pleasures of the Laughter Lift, and the usual conversational twists, turns, and small-hill-pedantry you’ve come to expect. Timecodes…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kermode-mayo-s-take-5310583/episodes/melania-a-piece-of-handsomely-mounted-crypto-fascist-propaganda-riz-ahmed/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/kermode-mayo-s-take-5310583/melania-a-piece-of-handsomely-mounted-crypto-fascist-propaganda-riz-ahmed.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.