Inside the Hive by Vanity Fair

Author James Pogue talks to cohosts Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan about the so-called New Right, the intellectual movement congealing around tech billionaire and MAGA mega-donor Peter Thiel and the Trumpist GOP, which he wrote about for this month’s Vanity Fair. After embedding himself with the vanguard of intellectuals whose reactionary politics, antagonism for democracy and visions of retro-patriarchy inform the agendas of people like Tucker Carlson and JD Vance, Pogue demystifies fringe ideas like the “black pill,” “trad wives,” and “ball tanning."

On this week's episode of Inside the Hive, Nick Bilton--who literally wrote the book on Twitter--returns to dissect why Elon Musk is trying to buy the company, what employees and investors are talking about behind closed doors, and whether or not he thinks the deal will even go through.

Unimaginable secrets. Unyielding power. Devastating rifts and shocking allegiances. With surprising new interviews as well as historic sound, Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY examines the ties that bind the most influential families in the world today, taking you inside their lives for a glimpse at the inner workings of privilege. The DYNASTY debut season goes deep on the modern Windsors with Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent Katie Nicholl and staff writer Erin Vanderhoof, who reexamine the complex, sometimes fiery family dynamics—from the intimate side of the queen’s early reign to Harry and Meghan’s royal split to Prince Andrew’s shameful scandal—with razor-sharp insights, fresh reportage, and exclusive guests. Listen & follow Dynasty here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week's episode of Inside the Hive, Bill Browder joins Emily Jane Fox to talk about how governments around the world can more effectively turn the screws on Russia, and how, if the Russian people begin to see Putin as what Browder calls a "failed, corrupt, tinpot dictator," he could be stripped of his power.

This week, Inside the Hive cohost Joe Hagan talks to Florida Congressman Charlie Crist, former Republican and one-time governor, about the culture wars emanating from his home state and specifically, from Governor Ron DeSantis. As DeSantis passes discriminatory new laws targeting gay and trans people, generating partisan bile for a potential presidential run, Crist is betting DeSantis is a “paper tiger” who is weaker than he appears. "I think he's terribly vulnerable,” he says. “[His] support is a mile wide and an inch deep.” Taking a page from Biden’s playbook against Trump in 2020, Crist thinks voters secretly want civility and not bullying, Disney and not DeSantis, even if current polling shows DeSantis trouncing Crist in a theoretical match up. "I'm an optimist, I'm idealistic, and I believe good will triumph over bad,” Crist says.

This week, cohost Joe Hagan digs into the latest on the Jan. 6 story with CBS New correspondent Robert Costa, who, along with legendary reporter Bob Woodward, broke the news that the House Committee investigating the insurrection discovered a 7 hour and 37 minute gap in Donald Trump’s call logs from that day. Costa explains the importance of that Watergate-like hole in Trump's story — when he was MIA while the Capitol burned — and what it may portend for the investigation. He also defends the Department of Justice against critics who believe AG Merrick Garland isn’t doing enough to probe Trump’s involvement in an attempted coup. “Maybe we just don't know the full story because they work like sharks,” he says. "They're underwater in a way congressional committees are not.”

People were grappling with "fake news" long before it became Donald Trump's favorite term. Fake news might feel new — but the concept has a long twisted history in the United States, as Andie Tucher, a Columbia Journalism School professor and author of the new book "Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History," tells Inside the Hive cohost Emily Jane Fox this week. How did we get to this moment, with its toxic mix of hyperpartisanship, disinformation, and seemingly endless turmoil? What is the role of social media, and of Donald Trump and Fox News in making our understanding of reality feel so dire? Tucher also explains how Democrats and Republicans, as well as liberal media and conservative media, communicate about truth differently, and explores how we can restore faith in our sources of news.

CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance flew to Kyiv in January as Russia began amassing troops on Ukraine's borders, and was in the capital on February 24 when it launched its brutal assault. He tells Inside the Hive cohost Joe Hagan about covering a war that has transformed a country overnight, sending millions fleeing and others into the resistance as Russia targets civilians in its quest to take over the country. Chance describes what he witnessed, and what it’s like to be a journalist on the ground, as fellow reporters lose their lives. He also mulls what the war could mean for the global order, and the hopeless quagmire Vladimir Putin now finds himself in. Now recouping in London, Chase says the Kyiv he last saw was the tragic shell of a formerly vibrant metropolis, a hollowed-out death trap awaiting Russian forces with "a javelin anti-tank missile in every window.”

On this week's episode of Inside the Hive, Emily Jane Fox talks to The Hive's editor and resident Russia-Ukraine expert Miriam Elderabout what is happening on the ground in Ukraine. As Russia escalates its war in Ukraine, including its bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, Elder talks through the human toll of this war: the impossible choices families are having to make, the horrors children are living through, the impact on a pediatric cancer hospital, and what Russian families are facing at the same time. Then, author Rebecca Fox Starr stops by to discuss how we talk about hard things with children, teach kids to take in events with empathy and how we process our own feelings about what is happening in this world.

This week, Inside the Hive cohosts Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan talk to an expert on the ultrarich oligarchs behind Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Dartmouth sociologist and author Brooke Harrington. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has implicated Putin’s feudal system of corrupt oligarchs, rallying the West to trying to seize their offshore bank accounts and superyachts. Taking their stuff could weaken them, but Harrington says tarnishing and destroying their social status in London and New York, where they’ve built opulent fiefdoms, may be just as effective. Also, Harrington tells of her efforts to join the White House’s new anti-oligarch task force, KleptoCapture—with distressing results. Follow our guest, Brooke Harrington: https://twitter.com/EBHarrington Follow Emily and Joe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilyjanefox https://twitter.com/joehagansays

Russia expert Nina Khrushcheva and Trump impeachment hero Alexander Vindman explain what is driving Putin's assault on Ukraine — and how Republicans also have blood on their hands. Cohosts Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan interview two leading experts about Russia's invasion of Ukraine — how it happened and how it could reshape the world as we know it. First, Nina Krushcheva, a Russia expert and professor at the New School in New York, takes us inside the mind of Vladimir Putin, how he was underestimated and whether the cold, calculated ex-KGB man has finally succumbed to a world-historic megalomania. Next, Hagan talks to Alexander Vindman, the former Army Lt. Colonel and outspoken participant in Trump's first impeachment trial that revolved around the then president's attempts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine. Vindman reserves his harshest criticism for Putin sympathizers in the GOP: “These folks have blood on their hands. They're going to own this.”

This week, cohost Joe Hagan talks to renowned writer, culture critic, and scholar Lucy Sante, whose essay in the February issue of Vanity Fair describes her transition at age 67. Sante expands on her many stages of personal revelation—how the “egg” was cracked—and the relief and liberation she experienced in embracing her long-denied gender as well as the challenges she still faces, personally, socially, and romantically. While she works on a new book about her self discovery, the author of nonfiction classics like Low Life and Factory of Facts is navigating the misunderstood nexus of gender and sexuality with her signature erudition, wit and curiosity.

This week, Inside the Hive cohosts Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan examine potential cracks in the American ice. On one side of the aisle, Republicans Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell appear to have distanced themselves from the Jan. 6 insurrection. On the other, Democrats have begun backing away from COVID restrictions. Are these maneuvers for political advantage in advance of the 2022 midterms, or signs of something more? Plus: Fox and Hagan weigh in on this year's Oscar nominations.

This week, cohost Joe Hagan talks to Hive media correspondent Joe Pompeo, who helps unwind the Succession-worthy melodrama around the departure of CNN president Jeff Zucker in the wake of the ouster of anchor Chris Cuomo, which itself came in the wake of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation following accusations of sexual harassment. How does one ouster connect to the other? And was the reason Zucker gave for his exit — failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a top CNN executive — the true reason he left or is there something more at work? Pompeo explores the possibilities and reveals new details. All this and the drama surrounding Joe Rogan too on the latest episode of Inside the Hive.

The week’s episode of Inside the Hive gets to the heart of this puzzling economic moment—with inflation on the rise and the supply chain a mess but the rest of the fundamentals stronger than they have been in years. Economist Beth Ann Bovino breaks it down and looks ahead to what comes next.