As of midnight on New Year’s Day, a democratic socialist is the mayor of New York City, and Bernie Sanders, Zohran’s self-proclaimed political inspiration, swore him in yesterday in an unforgettable inauguration ceremony. Zohran’s already hitting the ground running on Day 1, adding institutional bodies to the city government to protect tenants, address the housing crisis, and hold landlords accountable. This podcast turns five years old as this is happening, and in those five years we’ve talked to a broad slate of organizers, politicians, and commentators who were mobilized by the Sanders ‘16 and ‘20 campaigns and have continued to carry the torch, expanding that movement and taking it further in all kinds of directions. (We talked to Bernie, too.) We think many of you can relate to what feels like another, extremely major revival and reaffirmation of how important that movement was, is, and will continue to be, and how it was never just about Bernie himself but about millions of people being moved to action by a message of class struggle.

Taylor Lorenz is our guest on this very first conversation of the new year. Happy 2026! We’re digging into insane, sinister manifestations of right-wing ideology in our culture (hello looksmaxxing! We never want to type that again) and taking a broader view of how those conservative cultural trends are shaping younger generations. Check it out below:

Taylor Lorenz, a leading journalist tackling contemporary issues in internet culture, has been on the show before, and we’re so glad to have her back! So, there’s this guy. Clavicular is a streamer who’s used his platform to advance aesthetic standards for men based on reactionary, profoundly superficial and often dangerous ideals of masculinity. Many such cases. Clavicular is getting a lot of notice lately because of some comments he’s made about supporting Gavin Newsom over JD Vance, applying those standards in ways that capitalize on ideas of physical dominance and superiority. Clavicular’s own dad was a bodybuilder, and that’s shaped his foregrounding of “looksmaxxing,” encouraging young men to pick up on toxic ideas that define worth through conforming to unhealthy physical criteria. This is the realm of the groypers, and from what Taylor’s seeing through her work on the subject, it’s a terrifyingly dominant ideology spreading online and affecting young men.

This also provides us with an opportunity to think critically about the faults of JD Vance and Gavin Newsom, thinking about how each represents meaningful trends in their respective parties. Newsom is being picked up as a standard-bearer and probably popular candidate for national (presidential?) elections going forward, and that’s cause for concern: his backing of the billionaire class — refusing to support a wealth tax that would likely garner support among California’s more progressive voters — is breeding nihilism and an increasing sense of the party’s commitment to uninspired and profoundly disappointing establishment politics. And we don’t have time to get into everything that’s wrong with JD Vance as a political figure. But here’s what we picked out for our discussion: He’s an incredible hypocrite who has sold old anti-Trump political commitments down the river. Vance has proven himself willing to say and do anything, putting down his own family members, to grab at power and latch on to what the MAGA base wants to see from him if they’re willing to vote him into higher office. (Yikes!)

It’s a jam-packed episode, one that takes on contemporary political and cultural trends we’re going to have to contend with seriously to make sure that younger generations of voters are not radicalized to profoundly conservative and inhumane ideas about what masculinity means and who should run our country. Even if it’s not the most lighthearted conversation, we think there’s a lot to learn here, and we hope you enjoy! This episode will be available to everyone via major streaming platforms tomorrow evening.