The Hanania Show

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comI just did a livestream where I talked about Yarvin’s bizarre thread on German WWII POWs, the Korean incel election, Trump’s war on Elite Human Capital, and what I think about the Big Beautiful Bill. Korea might be a warning of where we are all headed. Check out these age and gender gaps. Right now, Korea has societal traits that we are observing across the developed world but in a more extreme form due to specific characteristics of the population. See my previous articles “The East Asian Package” and “Why Asia Stopped Having Kids.”I finally got access to a magical new technology called an ethernet cable, so look forward to no more choppy video like in previous weeks. I have no idea why this happened. Nothing changed with my internet. There just started to be problems with Substack Live and nothing else. Anyway, I’m glad that we solved the issue.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comJust did a fun livestream with friend of the show Radical Feminist Hitler (X, Substack). I looked back at our last podcast and realized that it was all the way back in 2023. I’m glad that so much of my life is documented online because I have no sense of time at all. Sorry about the video quality on my end. I don’t know what it is, but the last two livestreams have been really bad, even though I’m using the same internet and nothing has changed. I’ll hopefully figure this out. RFH recently facedoxxed herself, and so I thought it would be a good time for us to talk again. Contrary to the wishes of the haters, she’s actually gorgeous, which makes me happy because watching her terrorize the chuds is one of my great pleasures in life, and this only further humiliates them.There are a lot of people who receive hate on Twitter and you can see that it gets to them. With RFH, I never feel that she’s just pretending it doesn’t bother her. She actually has faced much less personal harassment than I would have thought, which drives home the point that internet trolls really do go after the weak. They don’t sense they can hurt her, and they’re right. We reflect on our alt right days near the beginning, talking about what the mood was like back in the mid-2010s. Over time, the racist part of the movement became deemphasized as the sexism and inceldom took over. A handful of us with higher intelligence, openness, and honesty than the norm became disillusioned with the whole thing, while the vast majority of that old crowd slipped seamlessly into their roles as MAGAs in good standing. RFH and I veer off into discussing drugs, dental health, nutrition, her skincare routine, her hatred of JD Vance, and why Mitt Romney is our ideal politician. Finally, we open things up to the audience at the end, which leads to us answering questions about whether men should ask women to kiss them, the benefits and limitations of evolutionary psychology, and whether it’s even theoretically possible for women to have “grape fantasies.”If you listen to this conversation, I think you’ll see why I consider RFH one of the coolest people I’ve met online. Most accounts with a schtick are predictable. There’s the alt right guy, the “based trad,” the ditzy egirl, and so forth. RFH brings a unique perspective, as a former alt righter who hasn’t gone completely woke but at the same time has seen the truth about the misogynists and the chuds. And she trolls them without any fear, shaming the pro-masculinity types who, in a delightful irony, prove daily that they’re less capable than she is of thinking rationally or controlling their emotions. Ok fine, I know what you’re thinking, and yes it’s true. I like her because she reminds me of myself, just more Asian looking. Articles and podcasts mentioned:Me on Mitt Romney, women’s tears, the autism horseshoe, and overcoming anxietyRob Henderson and I on play-by-play pick up artistry, and on dating more generallyRFH, “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Skincare.”

Just did a livestream discussing Trump’s trip to the Middle East, and a new Free Press piece on the influence of Qatar. I go over the differences between campaigns by foreign governments targeting Elite Human Capital and Low Human Capital. Later, I discuss some further thoughts on my article on Yarvin’s case for populism, and whether we can build a decent case for the idea that something like MAGA is needed to check the power of American elites. I note how Yarvin, at this point perhaps the most prominent independent figure still actively defending Trump on broad intellectual grounds, starts from the premise that his movement is made up of people who are stupid and crazy. I played that role a bit before the election, but I think the difference is I had a plausible case of how the stupidity gets us to better outcomes, while now it’s much harder to see the path. Moreover, I didn’t defend authoritarian populism itself; I thought it was a cancer that could be minimized, and we would otherwise get many sensible right-wing policies in a second Trump administration. Yarvin, in contrast, defends MAGA as preferable to normal conservatism. There was a connection problem here unfortunately and the video quality is not very good. The audio appears unaffected. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.richardhanania.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comInspired by Scott Alexander’s piece today on how Moldbug sold out, I discuss my Unified Theory of the Far Right. It explains the transition from Moldbug the Monarchist to Yarvin the Right-Wing Populist, and also why Bronze Age Pervert under all his eccentricities always ends up supporting immigration restrictionist politicians and parties. JD Vance can be seen as someone steeped in this world, who fused white identitarianism with electoral politics by taking the white victimization narrative, dropping the human biodiversity component, and leaning more heavily on anti-capitalist messaging. This really should be an article, but articles are something that takes time away from the book, so I’m trying to write fewer of them.There’s a glitch in the Substack system where I could not see the chat, so there was no ability to interact with the audience. Near the end, I discuss the thumbs up/thumbs down feature that they appear to be rolling out on X, and why that could be what finally drives me off the site. LinksDebate with Jared TaylorMe, “Defeat Racism by Hightening the Contradictions.”Me on Nietzschean Chuddery

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comLast week I shared a five-minute video on X of a woman hitting on various men around a university campus that has now received nearly four million views. It’s such a beautiful social experiment because you see a series of young men put in the exact same situation and watch their reactions. You can observe the gradations in how confident men are and their readiness to capitalize on opportunities that come before them. We see everything from a guy freezing to one treating the situation as something that happens all the time. I thought the video was so interesting that I suggested to Rob that we watch it and do a play-by-play. Watch the video here rather than listen to the audio alone in order to get the full experience. We critique what the men say, their facial expressions, and body language. What I love about the video is you get at least one of each of various types of guys you see in the world: confident black guys, the completely frozen guy, the nervous guy who just wants the situation to end, the boring guy, and even the guy who seems to be doing most things right but has something about himself that’s just off. Men should watch this while asking themselves which prototype they’re closest to. I made the mistake of looking at the comments to my original post and saw a stream of incels making excuses for failure, which I then responded to. I don’t begrudge the men who lacked confidence or were unprepared. What I hate is the twitter guys who don’t see anything wrong with it. This culture of inceldom needs to be destroyed. Back in my day we had guys who couldn’t find women to have sex with them. What was less common was this sense of dejection, which is reflected in misogyny and the belief that looks matter for women anywhere near as much as they do for men. I noticed that a lot of them were MAGAs and one elsewhere complained about Hunter’s laptop. To be an incel is Low Human Capital. The pieces all fit together. I don’t think being shy around women, or most people really, is something any man should accept. It’s fundamentally a reflection of a feeling of inferiority. You don’t become nervous around those you see yourself as above or equal to. I dislike people brushing aside shyness like it’s some harmless trait that is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a failure and should be treated as such. Knowing exactly what to do in social situations is less important than having the right attitude. Every interaction with others – from the direction of one’s eyes to the speed and cadence of speech to how one smiles or walks – speaks volumes about an individual’s beliefs about himself and the situation he finds himself in. Understanding the subtleties and nuances that create one frame or another is the first step towards building better relationships with other people. After we’re done watching the video, Rob and I share some general thoughts on self-improvement and meeting women, and why we disagree with Bryan’s advice that you should ask a girl to hold hands. I explain why it’s not a coincidence that the two best performing men in the video were black, which you would have expected if you read my article “Black Guy Hitting on Girls.” Finally, I put forward a view that I think might be an unpopular position, which is that developing social skills is one of those things where someone may be able to go from the 10th percentile to the 90th percentile. Most other areas of life, like athletics or intelligence, don’t work like this. If you want more on these topics, see the previous conversation between Rob and me under the title “The Sexual Marketplace as the Last Vestige of Our Darwinian Past”, and me on “How I Overcame Anxiety,” and “The Autism Horseshoe.”

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comMichael Tracey wasn’t around today, so I went solo. I start by discussing this video of Pam Bondi claiming that Trump has saved 258 million lives, a day after she put the number at 119 million. We can chalk this up to stupidity, but there’s actually something more complex going on. The nation is now living under a regime that operates in a space where it knows that it’s completely unrestrained regarding what it can say and still hold on to its base of support. I discuss how there is no incentive for anyone in the administration like Vance to push back on the craziness. If I were advising him in terms of his political future, I’d say he should just glue his lips to Trump’s ass for the next four years. This serves as a launching pad to discuss the future of the conservative movement. I explain why Vance will likely be the 2028 nominee, why Trump won’t go away, and why we’re in a terrible equilibrium where there isn’t anyone with the tools or motivation to fix things. The problem at its core is the Republican base, by which I partly mean the voters, but much more so the influencer class – the Loomers and Posobiecs of the world with massive followings and their audiences, which are simply insane people who will demand Trump-like qualities from any politician they might support. In the second half of the podcast, I take some questions from the audience, including on whether I’m worried about a left-wing populist faction hijacking the Democratic Party in the same way that MAGA took over the right.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comThis morning I noticed that Christina Buttons of the Manhattan Institute posted about the troubled teen industry, and so I happened to mention I had been sent to a rehabilitation center when I was 15. I always considered it a beneficial experience, but had noticed that Paris Hilton was leading a crusade against such facilities. After asking my X followers for help, I got on the Notable Alumni section of the Wikipedia page of the now shuttered Casa by the Sea in Baja California. So far, it’s just me and a guy who was executed for a triple murder in Texas. It looks like we might have been there around the same time. As it turns out, Christina is also a veteran of these programs, and has done some reporting on the topic. She asked if I wanted to do a livestream today, so here it is. One thing I have to note is that in earlier tweets today I said that Casa by the Sea was in Tijuana, but I misremembered and it was actually in Ensenada.Anyway, all of this made me realize that I’ve had an interesting life, and I should write more about experiences like this. I’ll publish an article on my stay at Casa by the Sea at some point. For now, enjoy this conversation with Christina.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comMichael Tracey and I discuss the reported peace plan the Trump administration has been selling to Russia and Ukraine. If you take what Putin and Zelensky say publicly at face value, there really isn’t much hope of settling this conflict any time soon. If, on the other hand, they are just putting forward maximalist demands as negotiating ploys or for political reasons, there may be some hope. The Trump plan is basically trying to recreate the process that ended the Korean War. The idea is for everyone to go, look, the line is stuck, let’s just all stay where we are and call it a day, as both sides get to claim that they gained something. We discuss the indicators regarding whether either Zelensky or Putin is willing to bend for the sake of achieving peace, along with ambiguities in the agreement and what happens to US support to Ukraine if negotiations don’t go anywhere. I come up with an optimistic best case scenario of how the current proposal could lead to an outcome that is acceptable for both sides.We then go on to talk about the chaos at the Pentagon. This Politico article and this Tucker interview both come up. I find Hegseth to be an extremely disturbing figure. See here and here for some previous takes. Michael and I agree that this seems to be a clash of personalities within the Pentagon that Tucker and others are trying to spin as being about ideology.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comI just did a livestream with Nicholas Decker (X, Substack), a PhD student at George Mason University. I met Nick last year at Manifest, and encouraged him to write more, as I thought he had a lot of interesting ideas. I believe I might’ve also told him to not be afraid of being provocative. He apparently took that advice to heart! For the last few days, he’s become a major villain among MAGAs for his article “When Must We Kill Them?” His tweet promoting the essay has as of this writing gotten over 10 million views. Nick has been receiving nonstop threats through email and twitter, and even had a visit from the Secret Service. I ask him what that’s been like, and also how he thinks the recent controversy will affect his future job prospects. Surprisingly, he thinks it will actually help. I disagree with Nick that this is something we should even be discussing at this point. See my article on why political assassinations are bad. But I do have to admit that there’s nothing wrong with saying that there can be a time when government crosses a line, at which point violence is acceptable. And he’s been extremely brave throughout this whole thing, even posting the address he was living at before his landlord kicked him out. Prior to this incident, his biggest brush with attention was over his argument that he wants to have children that are not genetically his own. I ask Nick whether he’s found the people whose offspring he would like to raise, how he selected them, and what his timeline is for becoming a parent. You’ll find that Nick isn’t exactly what you might expect. He is a kind of über nerd whose eyes light up when discussing dense economics papers. We talk about one of my favorite articles he has written, on how consulting can make firms more efficient. Nick is someone I have been reading and would’ve been happy to stream with at some point anyway, so this controversy mostly just provided an excuse to chat. I don’t think we should be talking about political violence at this point, but I am an admirer of intellect and courage, and Nick has unquestionably shown a high degree of both. Admittedly, I also love a good anti-MAGA troll, probably to a fault. It seems likely that Nick has the same weakness.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.comMichael joins me for a spirited conversation about recent events. We start with the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which I think is the most important thing going on in government right now for its civil liberties and rule of law implications. We discuss the Orwellian nature of the way the administration lies about everything, including things like JD Vance posting a long tweet about the case and not even mentioning the main issue, which is that Abrego Garcia was sent to a labor camp, as have been others who appear to have no criminal record or known gang ties. There is at least good news in the case involving the Venezuelans shipped to El Salvador, which is that Judge Boasberg has found probable cause to declare the administration in contempt. Note that in the podcast we say that it has already been held in contempt, which is wrong, as we found out after we were done. While we’re discussing all this, I read a tweet from a DHS spokeswoman claiming that Abrego Garcia was arrested “wearing what is effectively MS-13’s uniform.” You can judge for yourself I guess. See here and here for the kind of slop Fox News is going with to justify what is happening.We also talked about how the Based Ritual that I recently wrote about explains Trump administration policy. I do think that it is possible that some officials are considering the deterrent effects of shipping migrants off to a labor camp, but honestly that probably gives the administration too much credit for forward thinking. Michael wonders whether Trump is trying to ally with Bukele to form a “based empire” and if this fits into his obsession with expansion and President McKinley.I joke to Michael that I’m becoming a civil libertarian crank like he is, having been radicalized by the claims that the Trump administration is making and its nonstop lies.Michael brings up the recent NYT article that features me and others as regretful Trump supporters, and we discuss whether it is documenting a real trend or trying to create one. We also talk about the Trump administration cutting off funds to Harvard. See these NYT pieces for reference. I explain my views on the Harvard situation here. I’ve always advocated pushing back on civil rights law as traditionally practiced and using it to go after DEI, but instead of doing that we’ve got an administration that is demanding affirmative action for MAGAs and the establishment of a regime for monitoring the thoughts of international students. Serves me right for making smart arguments to a Low Human Capital movement. Best case scenario, the attack on DEI does lasting damage to race and sex preferences while the other crazy stuff Trump is trying to do gets rolled back by the courts and a future Democratic administration.We answer some questions from the audience at the end, including on whether Republicans moving in this direction was inevitable. I take the opportunity to plug my recent review of a biography of the life of Roger Ailes for some thoughts on the long-standing culture of the American right and how it opened the door to the Trump cult.