"Don't Let Fascists Steal Your Time": Andrea's Tribute to Her Uncle Phil
Gaslit Nation
Gaslit Nation
4.7 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"We're not going to get the liberation we all crave on a soul level without risk."
Andrea reflects on why, now more than ever, we must follow our hearts and refuse to let fear, or Steve Bannon, that Jabba the Hutt of American politics, live rent-free in our heads. Being brave, taking risks: that's how we win.
In this special excerpt from last Monday's Gaslit Nation Salon, Andrea honors her beloved uncle, Phil Bourne. "Uncle Phil" was the founding dean of the University of Virginia School of Data Science, earned more than 100,000 citations on Google Scholar, championed the collaboration between the liberal arts and STEM as essential to the future of education, and served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Computational Biology, where he created the "Ten Simple Rules" series.
Honor Uncle Phil's memory by reaching out to your loved ones and saying what's truly in your heart. We do not have as much time here as we think. Don't let the fascists steal that time from you.
Bethany McKee, founder of the Outreach Committee, a group that meets to discuss how to deal with the MAGA cultists in our lives as they awaken to their own self-destruction, will host today's Gaslit Nation Salon at 4 p.m. ET. You can find the Zoom link at Patreon.com/Gaslit.
Thank you to everyone who supports the show. We could not make Gaslit Nation without you.
Join us for an evening honoring the power of art and defiance at the book launch of Mrs. Orwell, Andrea's inspiring new graphic novel, illustrated by Brahm Revel.
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When: April 13
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Where: PowerHouse Books Arena, DUMBO, Brooklyn
Details here: https://powerhousearena.com/events/book-launch-mrs-orwell-by-andrea-chalupa-in-conversation-with-nomiki-konst/
Patreon Supporters: You and your guests get in free and receive a complimentary book! Just message us through Patreon to claim yours.
Not a member yet? Join our community at Patreon.com/Gaslit. We couldn't make this show without you–see you there!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the March 23rd, 26, Gaslit Nation Salon. I am so honored to be here with you, |
| 0:08.7 | our dear listeners. I wanted to open the conversation up by sharing a deep regret that I have. |
| 0:17.6 | I mentioned on a recent episode that I lost my uncle, my uncle Phil, the best uncle |
| 0:23.7 | ever. He was a Brit who loved driving motorcycles. He was a data scientist. He founded a big |
| 0:30.4 | data science research center at the University of Virginia. He worked with Dr. Fauci and other heavy hitters at NAH as the head of |
| 0:40.5 | data science for NAH for a while. He was absolutely brilliant and cutting edge. And I used to talk |
| 0:47.7 | to him all the time and just pepper him with questions about the future of technology. Where's |
| 0:51.8 | everything going? As a writer, will I still stand a chance in the AI world? |
| 0:56.3 | He assured me, yes, we all will, that AI is going to be tools more than replacements. |
| 1:01.5 | And I think that was reassuring. And he had just a wonderful personality that everyone wanted to be around. |
| 1:08.7 | I really wanted to bring his wealth of knowledge to the show. |
| 1:13.9 | I wanted to do, have him at one of our salons where we can come and ask all of our questions about |
| 1:18.5 | tech, AI, everything, data science, what was it like working with Fauci, just a lot. Like the wealth, |
| 1:24.4 | wealth, wealth of information in that brain. I really wanted to do that. |
| 1:29.3 | And I stopped myself out of an abundance of caution because there was, there's been like |
| 1:36.2 | this Christian nationalist war targeting academics. |
| 1:40.2 | And I just was overthinking it and worried that if we did that, maybe he would lose grant funding. |
| 1:47.4 | Maybe he would be marked a radical. |
| 1:49.2 | Like, who knows what the repercussion could be associating with that Slit Nation? |
| 1:53.9 | You know, I was just really, oh, you know, I was thinking that's a street smart thing to do. |
| 1:59.5 | Abundance of caution always be that way. |
| 2:02.2 | I'm more that way towards other people in my life that I am myself. And now that he's gone, |
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