Big News:
Today, The Lever launches its second official podcast, The Audit — with its first season focused on George W. Bush’s Masterclass.
Click one of the links below to find The Audit on your preferred podcast player. Make sure to “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, then enjoy the first episode!
The Audit is an “educational” series in which comedian and WGA-nominated TV writer Dave Anthony and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson audit a variety of online classes, docuseries, and other media products created by noxious political figures and boil them down to the good stuff. By which they mean… the bad stuff.
In this first mini-season, Dave and Josh are joined by the comedian Kate Willett as they audit George W. Bush’s online MasterClass. Today’s first episode covers the first three lessons in Bush’s 12-part series. Dave, Josh, and Kate pick apart Bush’s whitewashing of his own legacy, offer a retrospective on his charmed life in Texas, and mull the disastrous consequences of his presidency.
We hope you enjoy our new podcast. Thanks to your support, we’re now building a powerful independent voice to take on corporate media. We couldn’t have done this without you.
Rock the boat,
Sirota
I am loving their podcast where they deconstruct The West Wing episode by episode. The one thing I hope they stop doing though, is calling every single annoying, nerdy thing a character does "autistic". As a neurotypical living with and among autistics for over 20 years, and actually listening to what they have to say, let me quote many of them: "if you met one autistic person, you met one autistic person". Just because someone is wonky, it doesn't mean they are "on the spectrum". Just because someone has social deficits, it doesn't mean they are "on the spectrum. Annoyance is not a characteristic of autistic people. Being autistic is not inherently bad. After a few episodes where they call every character autistic because they do or say something annoying, it stops being degrading, and becomes embarrassing. They only prove that they know nothing about autism, don't know anyone who is autistic, or don't respect autistic people they might know. It is all stereotyping based on assumptions.
Having said that, I will listen to the new podcast, unless they have learnt nothing since 2019.