Cartoons, Capitalism & Censorship: Alison Bechdel & Ann Telnaes on Politics in Art

On with Kara Swisher

New York Magazine

Society & Culture

4.2 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do artists hold the powerful to account? Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes have been grappling with that question for decades, in their own very different ways. Bechdel is the creator of the seminal comic strip, “Dykes to Watch out For,” which she self-syndicated for 25 years. She’s also the author and illustrator of four graphic novels, including “Fun Home,” which was adapted into a five-time Tony-winning Broadway musical. She is a professor at Yale, and her latest book is Spent. Telnaes is a two-time Pulitzer winner and the winner of the Herb Block Prize for editorial cartooning in 2023. Earlier this year, she made international headlines after resigning from The Washington Post when her cartoon mocking tech billionaires for bending the knee to President Trump, including Post owner Jezz Bezos, was spiked. She now publishes her work on Substack Kara, Alison and Ann discuss everything from politics and money in art, to South Park, book bans, drawing Kristi Noem's flowing extensions, art making, and AI drawings. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you on that house of yours? I am. I'm so glad my children didn't break it.
0:04.9	I found their fingerprints all over the Eames chair, though. It was kind of funny. Why not?
0:24.1	Hi, everyone, from New York Magazine and the Box Media Podcast Network.
0:26.7	This is on with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher.
0:30.2	My guests today are Alison Bechtel and Anne Telnice,
0:32.8	two artists who are chronicling our nation's political chaos in completely different but equally compelling ways.
0:35.9	Allison is a cartoonist, graphic novelist, and professor at Yale.
0:39.3	She started publishing her comic strip, Dikes to Watch Out for, in 1983.
0:42.3	I've been reading it since then, and then became a graphic novelist and memoirist.
0:47.3	Her book Fun Home was adapted into a Broadway show and won five Tonys, and her latest book is spent.
0:53.3	Anne is a former animator turned editorial
0:56.2	cartoonist who won two Pulitzer prizes, she began working for the Washington Post in 2008, but after
1:02.3	it censored her work, she quit the paper and went viral for a post explaining her reasoning.
1:08.0	These were about tech bros, so I paid a lot of attention. She now
1:12.3	publishes her work on Substack, where she has over 100,000 subscribers. She's the author of three
1:17.8	books, and her latest is Trump's ABC. I'm excited to talk to him because I think I haven't actually
1:23.4	had cartoonists, and I think today, cartoonists, animators, etc., are becoming an incredibly
1:28.8	important part of the political conversation, of the social conversation. And they often distill
1:33.6	things, much the way poets do, although people don't read poetry nearly enough, in ways that are
1:39.0	really important compared to reporters or any of the stuff I do on these podcasts. So I really think they're just a
1:45.1	distilled version of some incredible thoughts and talents and ideas. And I really appreciate
1:50.4	the impact they've had on my life, both Ann and Allison had a huge impact on my life
	...

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