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April 27, 2026 edition
My guest this week is British journalist and author Brendan O'Neill, chief political writer at Spiked and author of Vibe Shift: The Revolt Against Wokeness, Greenism and Technocracy. We talk about what he sees as a growing “vibe shift” away from elite consensus and toward something like common sense—though not without its own distortions. We discuss the UK’s role in pushing back on gender ideology (aka “TERF Island”), the uneasy state of free speech on both sides of the Atlantic, and why ordinary people seemed to tolerate cultural excesses until they suddenly didn’t. We also touch on the rise of unserious, meme-driven politics, the infantilization of public discourse (with Greta Thunberg as an emblematic if also profoundly dysfunctional figure), and the strange convergence of hectoring moralism on one side and gleeful nihilism on the other. Finally, Brendan reflects on his own journey from revolutionary communist to free speech absolutist, and why he thinks we may be inching slowly back toward a politics grounded less in identity and more in reality.
Guest Bio:
Brendan O'Neill is the chief political writer at Spiked and host of The Brendan O'Neill Show. He's also the author of several books, including Anti-Woke, A Duty to Offend, A Heretic's Manifesto, and most recently, Vibe Shift: The Revolt Against Wokeness, Greenism and Technocracy.
Housekeeping
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Also . . .
📝 I’ve got Personal Essay and Memoir workshops coming up! An 8-week coed Zoom course in June-July and a three-night women’s writing retreat in the Catskills Sept 28-Oct 1. Application deadlines are May 11 for the Zoom course and August 13 for the Catskills retreat. Would love to hear from you.
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