Sasha Stone on Politics, Tech, Culture, Art and Yes, the Oscars

Looking at TIME’s 100 Best Podcasts of All Time is like stepping back in time, or at least stepping back inside the bubble of the Left. No one should be surprised that the writer who chose the bulk of the podcasts is this woman: Dockterman chose 61 of the podcasts, with the remaining 100 divided among Rachel Brodsky (10), Shannon Carlin (10), Jake Kring-Schreifels (13), Rachel Sonis (2), Rebecca Schneid (2), and Sean Gregory (2).

I was never much of a Hulk Hogan fan until I saw him speak at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump. He won me over with his speech because he echoed what so many were feeling after watching Trump get shot on live television. Rest in power, Hulk.

Last night, the once and former “kings” of late-night “comedy” rallied around Stephen Colbert to show solidarity for what exactly? A fantasy of their own making. In such a dreamscape, the last ten years never happened. They didn’t destroy themselves trying to destroy Trump. Jon Stewart is still funny and relevant. Jimmy Kimmel remains a voice for America, and Stephen Colbert is a highly rated late-night comedy host who moves the needle in the discourse.

Dear Ms. Maher, You don’t know me, and there is no reason why you should. I am mostly a nobody. If people know me at all, they know me as a former Oscar blogger whose public support for Trump destroyed my so-called “career.” But really, I am not all that different from you. Or at least, I didn’t use to be. I come from your world, more or less.

For those wondering where Tulsi Gabbard has been, she’s come back with a banger of a Friday news dump: I can take this on through the 2020 election and the “well-funded cabal,” which then carries over into the raid of Mar-a-Lago, the indictments and you start to see the complete picture of an administration that refused to relinquish power back to the people and believed they were entitled to decide for us who could and could not serve.

The last few posts of mine have been ratioed. That means they have more comments than likes. And yes, I know that what I’m writing might not align with the majority here, or perhaps people have tuned it out, except for those who are invested. Usually, if the word “Israel” is in the post, I will get the ratio. Either way, I understand. Those of us who run personal Substacks won’t always give you exactly what you want all of the time.

It was a story that moved like wildfire and showed no signs of slowing down. The more Hillary Clinton denied it, downplayed it, and attempted to pivot away from it, the more it was just too salacious to leave alone. And so it will go with the Epstein Files. The Epstein Files are giving me flashbacks. I find myself, as a former “vote blue no matter who” Democrat, wanting to say, Are you all insane? Chasing this non-story when Trump’s presidency is at an all-time high? Don’t you know what this will do?

Things are getting very strange in MAGA world right now, at least on X and in various pockets throughout here and there, and at Turning Point, where Tucker Carlson gave a speech, among others. As you already know, I never thought there was much to the Epstein files. I understand that many in MAGA do, obviously, so much so that they are all saying Trump’s presidency is in jeopardy, as are the midterms. I don’t know how much of this is real or how much is generated by the algorithms.

Some say Trump won a second term one year ago today when his head was almost blown off on live television. Maybe that’s true. Maybe it isn’t. Luck was most certainly on his side that bright, beautiful day in Butler, Pennsylvania. I’d been looking forward to the rally because he was returning to a place made almost famous in MAGA lore by Tucker Carlson, who explained Trump’s appeal better than anyone else ever had. So when Trump was almost assassinated, the first question I had was Why Butler?

In 2015, Trump was promising to deport what he called “rapists and criminals.” People like me, Democrats, sat horrified. We’d never heard anyone talk that way because in our world, you didn’t. As mostly white, mostly educated, mostly upper-middle-class people, we would never dare speak of non-white people that way, much less think of them that way. Trump, we concluded, had to be a racist. That wasn’t the only proof we had. But it became one of the biggest fights for the Democrats.