Excited for this.

This one’s for the record nerds open.substack.com/pub/recordlu...

A peek inside the listening club. open.substack.com/pub/joehagan...

Trump's got himself a situation alright.

Epstein: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump..[VICITM] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there.” Maxwell: “I’ve been thinking about that.” 💥 www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

After 39 years of driving Republicans around the bend, Nancy Pelosi is retiring. I interviewed her a couple years ago in San Francisco for a story on California and she made for a great lede. www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06...

Democracy started getting up off the floor last night, so that’s a start.

Looking back at the Bush/Cheney years, and considering where we're at now--holy cow, this has been one fucked up century!

I recall watching Dick Cheney's convention speech from the nosebleeds at Madison Square Garden in 2004, height of the Iraq War, Republicans roaring with delight, and thinking we were seeing some dark and profound historical nadir in American history. Well, I was young.

It was indeed a perfect day with @willhermes.bsky.social and a fun reading and event at the @goldennotebkbooks.bsky.social in Woodstock. Great to see old friends and meet new ones, including @joehagantv.bsky.social who took the first photo and had blurbed the book!

Has the Trump administration issued any legal justification for using military force domestically? Trump has put himself above the law in every other respect, so not sure why they would bother, but just curious. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/u...

Maybe there’s too much content.

There’s been a thread of doomerism & apocalypse in the right-wing for decades, a panicked threat that society was collapsing if we didn’t reject immigrants, racial & gender equality, and progress. Turns out they actually wanted to hasten apocalypse & now they have their instrument of destruction.

Cameron Crowe defends Jann Wenner from his self-immolating interview comments on female & black artists 2 years ago & then says David Marchese’s questions were of the “When did you last beat your wife?” variety & blames “clickbait” culture for the ensuing furor. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

It’s less the destruction of the East Wing that upsets me as knowing the new edifice will be a hideous and permanent tribute to this abominable era. Best case scenario is the next president (🤞) affixes a giant sign to Trump’s ballroom that says “Never Forget.”

I contributed some commentary for this new RFK Jr. doc from PBS Frontline. The full biography really lays out how Bobby made his own personal nightmare into our national one. www.pbs.org/video/the-ri...

Peace out, Ace. You delivered the goods. ⚡️

“On April 30, 1971, the doctor took me from my mother and carried me down the hallway to a foster care ward. Under the law, my mom had 30 days to change her mind.”

Certainly seems like a LOT of people are being abducted and jailed by ICE without habeas corpus. www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/...

After I published this story, Bari Weiss complained about my describing her as a “contrarian podcaster.” “Contrarian podcaster? I run a company with 20 employees,” she texted. I guess she got the last laugh. www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06...

Finally scored an original for a buddy of mine who loves the latter.

Beethoven sonatas for piano and cello. Mono, 1964. Peak Sunday morning.

RIP to Jane Goodall, who opened the world's eyes to our closest relatives. (Photo by NatGeo's Hugo Van Lawick)

When did this forgetting happen? I missed it.

I wonder how all those career military admirals and generals enjoyed being used as props for a hair-gelled phony tough guy to do his propaganda TV segment?

This is the smartest thing I’ve read on a potential counter narrative to MAGA. “Polling can show the elements for a winning strategy, but it takes political leadership to convert the statistics into a coalition.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/o...

What would “jazz impressions of the USA” sound like in 2025?

I seem to remember a certain Donald Trump inciting a certain violent insurrection called January 6. Or as he called it, “a day of love.”

The time I discovered a cache of rare Rolling Stones studio tapes in a closet in Manhattan. And that was just the beginning of the story. substack.com/@joehagan197...

Trying to understand what Trump sees in this radically unqualified candidate for Eastern District attorney who he wants to prosecute his enemies and who was his personal lawyer in Florida.

Trump to UN: Did I mention I also make the earth rotate around the sun?

Trump calls Christianity the "most persecuted" religion on the planet. Huh.

Trump admits he enforces a euphemism for coal to make it sound like it's clean.

Trump describing weather to leaders of planet earth.

Man who claimed Tylenol causes autism says green energy is a "con job."

Tump accuses China of not building wind farms in its territory. That is incorrect. China’s expansion of wind and solar capacity overtook coal capacity in 2025, according to a recent analysis. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

UN didn't realize they were attending a public reading of a MAGA reddit thread.

Advertisements for Myself: UN Edition

UN didn't know they were attending a MAGA rally.

Trump to World: What did you ever do without me?

Listening to Trump at UN, a self-congratulatory lullaby of lies and exaggerations.

"crisises"

He liked to debate at Austrian colleges.

I guess Robert Iger found his gonads over the weekend. Or else realized that his only legacy as head of Disney was going to be "fascist toady."