How to Be a Dissident

Gaslit Nation

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.7 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this hopeful Gaslit Nation, we confront the MAGA fascist takeover with a look at the ultimate antidote: how to be a dissident. Andrea talks with The Atlantic's Gal Beckerman about his inspiring new book, How to Be a Dissident. While the establishment chooses conformity to protect their wealth, we explore the rare, stubborn individuals—from the abolitionists to the neighbors in Minnesota forming mutual care networks—who ask themselves the only question that matters: Can I live with myself if I obey in advance?

As the toppling of Kremlin allies Assad and Orban, and soon Trump, have reminded us: the human spirit's desire for expression is the one thing a dictatorship can never defeat.

Join us this Thursday for part two of our discussion on the Gaslit Nation Bonus Show–how to survive the stomach ache of fear and build an unrelenting culture of resistance. To listen to the full episode, subscribe to our Patreon at the Truth-Teller level ($5/month) or higher. And don't forget to save the date: we are opening our May 11th Gaslit Nation Salon at 4 p.m. ET to celebrate Andrea's birthday with an exclusive reading of a smutty screenplay in progress. Every bit of support gives us the freedom to tell the truth, so thank you for making this show possible–we could not make Gaslit Nation without you.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gaslit Nation. I am your host, Andrea Chalupa, a journalist and filmmaker, and the writer and producer of the journalistic thriller Mr. Jones about Stalin's
0:22.1	genocide famine and Ukraine. The film The Kremlin doesn't want you to see, so be sure to watch it.
0:27.3	And this is Gaslit Nation, a show about corruption in America and rising autocracy worldwide.
0:34.3	This week, we are joined by the Atlantic Scow Beckerman, and we're discussing one of the
0:41.0	most important books to come out this year, how to be a dissident, okay? Everyone needs to read it
0:47.6	and study it, because that is what we need right now. So, Gail, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
0:54.8	thank you, thank you for writing this book. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
0:58.0	I am obsessed with the George Elliott quote on Hidden Lives, how all of us are here thanks to
1:05.9	the extraordinary people who did extraordinary things, and they may have been seen by society as
1:13.7	ordinary or not seen by society at all or hated by society. And yet they rose up and did what
1:19.9	they had to do, what their spirit compelled them to do. And that is what a dissident is.
1:26.6	Could you talk about that in terms of these remarkable hidden lives that you unearthed in your book?
1:32.8	And the key there is the word hidden, right?
1:35.0	So that often these are people who we don't know exactly, you know, we don't remember as, as, you know,
1:42.0	the Martin Luther King juniors of our history, but people who stood up for, you know the martin luther king juniors of our of our history but people who who stood up
1:46.7	for uh in moments where they felt that something about um human dignity was being violated that a line
1:55.6	was being crossed uh and these were the rare people and i want to emphasize that they're rare, and we can talk about
2:02.0	sort of why I think they're so rare, who decided to sit apart, who took a stand and other people
2:10.6	willing to conform. Yeah, no, absolutely. Who were some of the people on the American side?
2:19.7	Because I know your book looks throughout history across time, space, religion, spirituality.
2:25.4	It's really fascinating.
2:26.3	But in terms of our own twisted story of American history, the centuries of authoritarianism that built America, of course, slavery,
	...

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