The Nerd Reich Redux with Gil Durán

About this episode

Trying to explain American politics without the radicalized billionaires behind it is like trying to explain 9/11 without mentioning Al-Qaeda. Gil Duran first joined us in March 2025, while he was still writing "The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy." The book debuted at number three on the New York Times bestseller list in August and is still there. Along the way he was permanently banned from X for two words - "TLDR: fascism" - and reviewed by a fellow of the very think tank his book investigates. We talk about what fascism means in 2026, and why the tech version promises not a return to a mythical past but an acceleration into a mythical future: Peter Thiel's…