Matt Taibbi, America's Top Gonzo Journalist, on How the Media Lost Its Mind

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Josh Szeps

Education, Comedy, Comedy Interviews, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.5 • 905 Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Get 30% OFF an Annual Uncomfortable Conversations Subscription at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe/sanity What happened to the news media? What does it have to do with why Hillary Clinton couldn’t fill a room, while Trump filled stadiums? Did diversity kill objective journalism? And what does a journalist who lived in the Soviet Union think of free speech in the West today? Matt Taibbi became a rockstar reporter covering Trump’s first election campaign for Rolling Stone. He went on to cover huge stories like Twitter’s pre-Elon censorship regime and the misinformation around Trump’s ties to Russia. Matt joins Josh in New York City for this in-the-flesh livestream about American politics, algorithms and why, despite it all, he’s optimistic about what comes next.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good-day, humans.
0:04.5	Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas.
0:06.5	Broadcasting live from, well, you called it Soho, Matt.
0:09.8	It's technically Soho.
0:11.0	Yeah, I guess it is.
0:12.4	Right?
0:12.6	Right.
0:12.7	Between Mercer and...
0:14.0	South of Houston.
0:15.0	Yes, south of Houston.
0:16.9	Yeah.
0:17.4	So.
0:18.5	Ho.
0:19.2	Right.
0:19.7	So, South. Houston, why did the Londoners have a Soho? I do not know. Actually, that's a very good question. Yeah. Matt Taibi is with us. So ladies and gentlemen, if you're not aware, journalist extraordinaire. I'm a long time fan. time long time. I'm honored that you came into the city.
0:40.6	So how are things in the United States?
0:43.4	So the visiting foreigner, it seems like maybe the political situation and the media
0:47.8	situation could be suboptimal.
0:50.5	Is that the tactful way of putting it?
0:51.9	I think suboptimal is a good starting point.
0:55.5	Okay.
0:56.4	Like when you were writing hate ink and you were talking about how like the media is basically
	...

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