Links referenced in this episode:

• signal.org
• red-tory.com

Jesse Hirsh's latest episode of Metaviews, titled 'Paulie and Heat', offers a unique blend of personal anecdotes and critical commentary on the current political landscape. As he navigates through the challenges of podcasting, including technical issues and the demands of producing content, Jesse reveals a more intimate side of his creative process. The episode begins with a light-hearted introduction featuring his cat, Paulie, who symbolizes the domestic chaos that often accompanies creative endeavors. This personal touch not only humanizes Jesse but also sets the stage for a deeper exploration of the themes he plans to tackle.

What follows is a thoughtful discourse on the political climate, particularly focusing on the upcoming discussion about Trump and the distinctions between fascism and populism. Jesse thoughtfully draws parallels to historical contexts, urging listeners to reflect on the implications of these comparisons. He emphasizes the necessity of understanding our current socio-political environment, which is characterized by anxiety and uncertainty, and encourages a critical examination of the narratives that are shaping public discourse today. This thematic focus is further enriched by his commitment to radical honesty in future episodes of Metaviews, suggesting a shift towards more direct and unfiltered conversations about pressing societal issues.

In a pivotal moment of the episode, Jesse introduces a commercial for Signal, advocating for the normalization of encryption as a means of safeguarding privacy in a world where personal freedoms are increasingly under threat. This segment reinforces his overarching message about the importance of protecting civil liberties, making it clear that the fight for privacy is not just a niche concern but a fundamental aspect of our collective struggle against authoritarianism. As the episode concludes, Jesse invites listener feedback and participation, fostering a sense of community and collaboration that is central to the Metaviews experience. The episode encapsulates not only the challenges of podcasting but also the pressing need for informed discourse in a rapidly changing world.

Takeaways:

• In this episode, Jesse Hirsch shares updates about Metaviews and discusses the evolution of the podcast.
• Paulie, Jesse's house cat, plays a significant role in the episode's ambiance and theme.
• Jesse reflects on the past 20 episodes, considering the challenges and technical issues faced.
• The podcast aims to explore the political and social climate while remaining honest and radical.
• Listeners are encouraged to engage by providing feedback and sharing their thoughts on episodes.
• Jesse hints at the upcoming Red Tory podcast, which will feature more structured discussions.

Hi, I'm Jesse Hirsch.

Welcome to Metaviews, recorded live in front of an automated audience.

And we're trying out a new theme song today.

Maybe the song should be called Paulie and Heat.

I'm calling this episode Paulie and Heat.

Cause Paulie, our house cat, is just crying all day and all night, and I'm kind of expecting her to be picked up on the mic, but she may be tuning into my voice right now, which is having her calm down just a tad.

And this is the first solo Meta Views episode in a little while.

Yeah, here comes Paulie right here.

No, Paulie's not into it, but maybe she'll hang out.

Yeah, we've.

What is this, episode 36.

It's been quite a few episodes since the last time I did a solo.

Let's check here.

16.

So, yeah, that's 20 episodes in a fortnight, essentially.

It was kind of designed to be a grind.

It was designed to really work out some of the kinks, try to find some of the technical issues.

Haven't found all.

Ran into some audio issues earlier today, but I.

I think we're making good progress.

And so I felt it was time for a check in.

But before we do that, you know, as with every episode of Metaviews, let's get into the news.

And today's news actually isn't published yet, so I'm giving you a preview in that I'm recording this on Wednesday night and Tomorrow, Thursday morning, January 30th.

I'm talking about whether Trump is a fascist or a populist.

Spoiler alert.

Anyone paying attention to Metaviews knows the answer that we're going to be focusing on.

And while on some levels, history does rhyme, the difference, of course now is the size of the state, the capacity of the professional managerial class.

And that's why Trump's executive orders, a great number of them, really focus on instilling terror and compliance within the civil service.

So tomorrow's episode, we sort of get into that now.

You know, of course, our next segment of MetaFuse is WTF or what's the Future?

And, you know, that's where we're coming to meet Jesse.

Hey, what's the future of Metaviews?

As a podcast, you've been doing a crazy pace lately.

Are you going to keep it up for the short term, perhaps.

But this has always been a Kind of warm up for the Red Tory podcast that I'm doing with Alan Gregg.

And I'll mention that a little later in today's episode, but I think Metaview's moving forward.

We're going to be a little more explicitly radical.

I think we're going to be a little more not so much hard edged, but honest about the political economic climate we find ourselves in.

I recorded a couple of episodes in the last three days that I'm just not going to publish.

One was with a young guy who had some interesting perspectives, but in the end it just wasn't something I was comfortable putting out to the Metaviews audience.

And then again today I recorded an episode that quite frankly just wasn't up to snuff.

Just didn't kind of not only repeated content that we've had previously, but even kind of contradicted it without substance, without provocation.

And I would totally publish an episode from someone who disagreed with me, with us, who offered a dissenting view.

But this wasn't even a view really at all.

It was just kind of saying the same old stuff just to say it.

And I'm not trying to be disrespectful, I'm just thinking more about what it is I'm trying to accomplish here with meta views.

And one of the things we are trying to accomplish is anticipate the future, anticipate where we see society going, where we see the politics going.

Because a lot of the concerns that we're hearing from folks are that they're stressed, that they're anxious, and there's always hope, right?

There's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Unfortunately, it does feel as if this tunnel happens to be particularly dark and particularly long.

But I don't think that that should be an obstacle necessarily, although I do recognize it can be pretty intimidating.

So I partly wanted to do tonight's episode to kind of share some news, reflect a little on the past 20 episodes we've done.

But I wanted to try that new intro song we had.

And I've made a commercial because it's about time we had sponsors, even though technically this is not a sponsor, this is just a commercial.

So let me know what you think.

Oh, I forgot to.

I forgot to.

I have to start that again.

Sorry.

And I'm not even going to edit this.

I had that muted.

So when I do it again, I got to start it.

This time I'll have the audio playing isn't just a relic of the past, it's creeping into our present.

Surveillance Censorship and control thrive when we give up our right to privacy and the first step in fighting back.

Normalizing encryption.

Enter Signal.

It's not just for whistleblowers or journalists.

It's for you.

For texting your mom, for sharing memes with your friends, for planning the revolution or just dinner.

Because here's the thing.

The more we all use encryption, the harder it is for authoritarian forces to target the vulnerable.

Privacy isn't just for those with something to hide.

It's for everyone.

All the time.

Signal makes it simple.

It looks and feels like any messaging app, but under the hood, it's built to protect your conversations.

End to end encryption.

No data mining, no creepy tracking.

So whether you're chatting about your weekend plans or organizing mutual aid, do it on Signal.

Because making encryption normal is how we push back against those who want to control us.

Download Signal today@signal.org Talk to your friends, talk to your family, talk about anything.

Just make sure it's encrypted.

So I hope that came across.

I certainly won't know until I listen to this, after I throw it up into the feed.

But I thought that that was a very relevant commercial.

You know, if you're not using Signal to chat with your mom or chat with your kids, what kind of revolutionary are you?

So, you know, maybe we'll get the Metaview Signal group back going again.

But first we need to do some propaganda to prime our audience to start thinking about encryption as a basic in life rather than just an anti fascist tool.

The other thing that I've been thinking about is doing more history.

Of course we had the David Fingroot History of the media Collective episode and I'm happy to say we've got Anna Melnikoff coming up with another angle on the history of the media collective as well as her own analysis on the spiritual and political crisis that we find ourselves in contemporaneous.

But I've been thinking about some other history of sharing it and doing these kind of monologue issues.

So this is where I ask you, Dear audience, post a comment, send an email.

Let me know if you like episodes like this or episodes like the one I did on the history of meta views where there's no guest, it's just me just rambling at the end of the night.

And I think the opportunity here is there's a lot of stories, a lot of business stories that I've never really shared anywhere.

And I don't know, I think it would be good for me to figure out if I still have those memories.

But I think it could be entertaining in and of itself.

So this is me polling you, the handful of listeners, including my parents, whether or not you think this would be valuable in terms of the huge grind of episodes and volume that I intend to put out.

And that really is the last point I want to make about history, that I don't know how long any of us are going to be alive.

Hopefully it's a long time from now.

But under fascism, you really can't make any assumptions.

And that's kind of why I think being prolific at this moment of history makes sense, because you never know what's going to be erased, you never know what's going to be saved.

You never know when it's going to end.

So this seems like a good moment to be documenting history in a radical, in a unfiltered, in an unapologetic way.

So maybe you, listener, have some stories to tell.

Want to be part of this history?

Hit me up if you want to be a guest on Metaviews.

But as I alluded to at the start, Metaviews really is kind of just a warm up.

My real motivation here is a podcast I'm hoping to launch imminently with my good friend and in many respects mentor, Alan Gregg.

And this is a podcast called redtory.

I've started initially working on the website, which you can check out@red-tory.com and I spell that out so that the AI listening and transcribing to my words might get it correct.

But we're also going to be doing a podcast that combines interviews, combines overviews, underviews, you know, both looking at the substacks that I and he will be producing.

But what I like about Redtory compared to Metaviews is, you know, there are times when I'm interviewing people in which I kind of wish I had someone to help, in which I could play the bad cop and they could play the good cop, or I could play the radical and they could play the straight person, or vice versa.

Or I could just be as incoherent as the guests sometimes are, for fuck's sake, just to kind of throw a wrench in it all.

And I think that's where Alan and I share two relevant overlaps.

One is a desire to make sense of this moment in history, of where we are.

But the other is to just kind of fuck with people and respectfully troll, politically troll, but really try to counter some of the stupidity and rigid ideology that is preventing us from getting through this tunnel to the light that's at the end of It.

So this is me giving it another little preview, another little ramping up the hype for Red Tori, as in really Red Tori.

So, yeah, keep an eye on that on your metaviews feeds and the other metaview stuff, you know, which I guess brings us to the end.

Brings us the shout outs, I guess.

I have to be true to the episode and shout out Paulie.

Paulie took off.

I haven't yet been able to bring her on camera.

Harriet often comes on camera just because she wants to get a T R E a T, you know, and shout out to Jeanette, my partner who keeps the farm going and who's probably waiting for me now.

So we'll watch the last episode of Slow Horses, or at least of this season.

So, yeah, those are my shoutouts for tonight.

A relatively quick episode.

Wanted to try some things, including a new outro.

Yeah, I dig it.

You know, I.

I think I'm gonna keep.

I'm not sure I'm ever gonna stick to a solid intro or outro song here on Meta Views.

I think, you know, fundamentally part of the goal, part of what I'm trying to do is this is the experimental podcast, the, you know, late, late night podcast and Red Tories, more of the prime time.

Right.

The, you know, where I'll put a lot of the polish versus, I think the experimentation, the iteration.

It has a place like Metafuse.

So let me know what you think about the last 20 episodes.

If you've heard more than one.

If you've only heard one, listen to another before you give any feedback just so you can get a little bit of contrast.

Yeah.

Any other feedback?

Any other thoughts?

If you want to be a guest, hit me up.

Otherwise, you know, will you.

See you soon.

Eh, Have a good night.

Talk to you soon.

Oh, and I got another sound effect.

Oh, wait, I gotta turn the music off.

Okay, here's the last sound effect.

Oh, yeah, you're gonna love it.

You gotta love it.

All right, thanks, everybody.

Good night.