-
It Came from Something Awful
- How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office
- Narrated by: Dale Beran
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $25.51
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Culture Warlords
- My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy
- By: Talia Lavin
- Narrated by: Talia Lavin
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One reporter takes an immersive dive into white supremacy's explosive online presence, exploring the undercurrents of propaganda, racism, misogyny, and history that led us to where we are now. Shocking, humorous, and merciless in equal measure, Culture Warlords explores some of the vilest subcultures on the web - and shows us how we can fight back.
-
-
I took this book too personally.
- By Will on 10-22-20
By: Talia Lavin
-
The Storm Is upon Us
- How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything
- By: Mike Rothschild
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Its messaging can seem cryptic, even nonsensical, yet for tens of thousands of people, it explains everything: What is QAnon, where did it come from, and is the Capitol insurgency a sign of where it’s going next? Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, has been collecting their stories for years, and through interviews with QAnon converts, apostates, and victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics, he is uniquely equipped to explain the movement and its followers.
-
-
Great book, lousy narrator
- By Denise Lavely on 06-22-21
By: Mike Rothschild
-
Thank You for Your Servitude
- Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
- By: Mark Leibovich
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the number one New York Times best seller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington’s “swamp” into a gold-plated hot tub - and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
-
-
Chef’s kiss
- By Dana K. on 07-13-22
By: Mark Leibovich
-
Cultish
- The Language of Fanaticism
- By: Amanda Montell
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join - and more importantly, stay in - extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has.
-
-
Get this book ASAP
- By chris boutte on 06-17-21
By: Amanda Montell
-
Sandy Hook
- An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
- By: Elizabeth Williamson
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Elizabeth Williamson
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Ten years later, Sandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false conspiracy narratives and malicious misinformation have gained traction in society.
-
-
Excellent!
- By S. Cunningham on 04-11-22
-
Why We Did It
- A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell
- By: Tim Miller
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC “autopsy,” Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy, desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.
-
-
No, Tim!
- By Lori Renard on 06-30-22
By: Tim Miller
-
Culture Warlords
- My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy
- By: Talia Lavin
- Narrated by: Talia Lavin
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One reporter takes an immersive dive into white supremacy's explosive online presence, exploring the undercurrents of propaganda, racism, misogyny, and history that led us to where we are now. Shocking, humorous, and merciless in equal measure, Culture Warlords explores some of the vilest subcultures on the web - and shows us how we can fight back.
-
-
I took this book too personally.
- By Will on 10-22-20
By: Talia Lavin
-
The Storm Is upon Us
- How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything
- By: Mike Rothschild
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Its messaging can seem cryptic, even nonsensical, yet for tens of thousands of people, it explains everything: What is QAnon, where did it come from, and is the Capitol insurgency a sign of where it’s going next? Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, has been collecting their stories for years, and through interviews with QAnon converts, apostates, and victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics, he is uniquely equipped to explain the movement and its followers.
-
-
Great book, lousy narrator
- By Denise Lavely on 06-22-21
By: Mike Rothschild
-
Thank You for Your Servitude
- Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
- By: Mark Leibovich
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the number one New York Times best seller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington’s “swamp” into a gold-plated hot tub - and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
-
-
Chef’s kiss
- By Dana K. on 07-13-22
By: Mark Leibovich
-
Cultish
- The Language of Fanaticism
- By: Amanda Montell
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join - and more importantly, stay in - extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has.
-
-
Get this book ASAP
- By chris boutte on 06-17-21
By: Amanda Montell
-
Sandy Hook
- An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
- By: Elizabeth Williamson
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Elizabeth Williamson
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Ten years later, Sandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false conspiracy narratives and malicious misinformation have gained traction in society.
-
-
Excellent!
- By S. Cunningham on 04-11-22
-
Why We Did It
- A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell
- By: Tim Miller
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC “autopsy,” Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy, desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.
-
-
No, Tim!
- By Lori Renard on 06-30-22
By: Tim Miller
-
Antisocial
- Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation
- By: Andrew Marantz
- Narrated by: Andrew Marantz
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a rising star at The New Yorker, a deeply immersive chronicle of how the optimistic entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley set out to create a free and democratic internet - and how the cynical propagandists of the alt-right exploited that freedom to propel the extreme into the mainstream.
-
-
Amazing read!!!
- By Nick H on 10-23-19
By: Andrew Marantz
-
Republic of Lies
- American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power
- By: Anna Merlan
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar, Anna Merlan - introduction
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American society has always been fertile ground for conspiracy theories, but with the election of Donald Trump, previously outlandish ideas suddenly attained legitimacy. Trump himself is a conspiracy enthusiast: from his claim that global warming is a Chinese hoax to the accusations of “fake news”, he has fanned the flames of suspicion. But it was not by the power of one man alone that these ideas gained new power. Republic of Lies looks beyond the caricatures of conspiracy theorists to explain their tenacity.
-
-
This book is a public service
- By David Batcher on 08-04-19
By: Anna Merlan
-
Red Pill, Blue Pill
- How to Counteract the Conspiracy Theories That Are Killing Us
- By: David Neiwert
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conspiracy theories are killing us. Once confined to the fringes of society, this worldview now has adherents numbering in the millions - extending right into the White House. This disturbing look at this alt-right threat to our democratic institutions offers guidance for counteracting the personal toll this destructive mindset can have on relationships and families. Author David Neiwert examines the growing appeal of conspiracy theories and the kind of personalities that are attracted to such paranoid, sociopathic messages.
-
-
little basis in logic and reality
- By Alex Martin on 08-27-21
By: David Neiwert
-
Kill All Normies
- Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right
- By: Angela Nagle
- Narrated by: Mary Sarah
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Recent years have seen a revival of the heated culture wars of the 1990s, but this time its battleground is the Internet. On one side the alt-right ranges from the once obscure neo-reactionary and white separatist movements, to geeky subcultures like 4chan, to more mainstream manifestations such as the Trump-supporting gay libertarian Milo Yiannopolous. On the other side, struggle sessions and virtue signaling lurk behind a therapeutic language of trigger warnings and safe spaces. The feminist side of the online culture wars has its equally geeky subcultures.
-
-
Nuanced and Even-handed, But Still Lacking
- By Mercury Starlight on 05-15-18
By: Angela Nagle
-
Everything You Love Will Burn
- By: Vegas Tenold
- Narrated by: Vegas Tenold
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six years ago, Vegas Tenold embedded himself among the members of three of America's most ideologically extreme white nationalist groups - the KKK, the National Socialist Movement, and the Traditionalist Workers Party. At the time, these groups were part of a disorganized counterculture that felt far from the mainstream. But since then, all that has changed. Racially-motivated violence has been on open display at rallies in Charlottesville and elsewhere. Everything You Love Will Burn offers a terrifying, sobering inside look at these newly empowered movements.
-
-
an achievement
- By Ingibjörg Kolbeins on 07-28-18
By: Vegas Tenold
-
QAnon and On
- A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults
- By: Van Badham
- Narrated by: Van Badham
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In QAnon and On, Guardian columnist Van Badham delves headfirst into the QAnon conspiracy theory, unpicking the why, how and who behind this century’s most dangerous and far-fetched internet cult. From Gamergate to Pizzagate and beyond to QAnon, internet manipulation and disinformation campaigns have grown to a geopolitical scale and spilled into real life with devastating consequences, entangling everyone from politicians to Hollywood celebrities.
-
-
Informative and Scary
- By Sherry Melvin on 06-19-22
By: Van Badham
-
Sisters in Hate
- American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism
- By: Seyward Darby
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist Seyward Darby's "masterfully reported and incisive" (Nell Irvin Painter) exposé pulls back the curtain on modern racial and political extremism in America by telling the "eye-opening and unforgettable" (Ibram X. Kendi) account of three women immersed in the White-nationalist movement.
-
-
Listen to this book! (But maybe alone?)
- By Aimee on 07-31-20
By: Seyward Darby
-
Guns, Germs and Steel
- The Fate of Human Societies
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Doug Ordunio
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology.
-
-
Great book, poor narration
- By Nick M. on 03-27-16
By: Jared Diamond
-
1491
- New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus' landing had crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago; existed mainly in small nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas were, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last 30 years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.
-
-
Exposes Non-Academic Audience to The Debate Between Ideas of Pre-Colombian America's
- By Christopher on 01-19-17
By: Charles C. Mann
-
Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate
- How the Alt-Right Is Warping the American Imagination
- By: Alexandra Minna Stern
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a loose movement that lurked in the shadows in the early 2000s, the alt-right has achieved a level of visibility that has allowed it to expand significantly throughout America’s cultural, political, and digital landscapes. Racist, sexist, and homophobic beliefs that were previously unspeakable have become commonplace, normalized, and accepted - endangering American democracy and society as a whole. Yet in order to dismantle the destructive movement that has invaded our public consciousness, we must first understand the core beliefs that drive the alt-right.
-
-
A good summary of the alt-right
- By JoePro on 09-18-19
-
Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 24 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
-
-
Not as good as Jones' other works.
- By Tom Marshall on 12-20-21
By: Dan Jones
-
The Chapo Guide to Revolution
- A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason
- By: Chapo Trap House
- Narrated by: Felix Biederman, Virgil Texas, Brendan James, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a manifesto that renders all previous attempts at political satire obsolete, The Chapo Guide to Revolution shows you that you don’t have to side with either the pear-shaped vampires of the right or the craven, lanyard-wearing wonks of contemporary liberalism. These self-described “assholes from the Internet” offer a fully ironic ideology for all who feel politically hopeless and prefer broadsides and tirades to reasoned debate.
-
-
As a centrist...
- By S. O'Mary on 12-05-19
By: Chapo Trap House
Publisher's Summary
This program is read by the author.
An insider's history of the website at the end of the world, which burst into politics and memed Donald Trump into the White House.
The internet has transformed the ways we think and act, and by consequence, our politics. The most impactful recent political movements on the far left and right started with massive online collectives of teenagers. Strangely, both movements began on the same website: an anime imageboard called 4chan.org. It Came from Something Awful is the fascinating and bizarre story of 4chan and its profound effect on youth counterculture.
Dale Beran has observed the website's shifting activities and interests since the beginning. 4chan is a microcosm of the internet itself - simultaneously at the vanguard of contemporary culture, politics, comedy, and language, and a new low for all of the above. It was the original meme machine, mostly frequented by socially awkward and disenfranchised young men in search of a place to be alone together.
During the recession of the late 2000s, the memes became political. 4chan was the online hub of a leftist hacker collective known as Anonymous and a prominent supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But within a few short years, the site’s ideology spun on its axis; it became the birthplace and breeding ground of the alt-right. In It Came from Something Awful, Beran uses his insider’s knowledge and natural storytelling ability to chronicle 4chan's strange journey from creating rage-comics to inciting riots to - according to some - memeing Donald Trump into the White House.
What listeners say about It Came from Something Awful
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Samuel T.
- 10-13-19
This book was way better than it needed to be.
All I was hoping for was a breakdown of what happened. What I got was some of the most astute cultural commentary I've read in years.
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Craig M.
- 10-23-19
Fantastic
Excellent break down of such a nebulous and incomprehensible faction of our culture that I’m aware of but knew absolutely nothing about. This is important information about a these times when the pace is so quick that history blurrs with the present.
I’m a late 30’s millennial and am more equipped to live a life in the 1500’s. I designed that way. The sensationalism and spectacle of the internet isn’t for me but it being for most effects me every day in ways that can’t be ignored. This book opened my eyes to the posturing that surrounds me, and the ways it effects me, affects my mood, safety and future.
Well written. Easy on the ears. Agreeable in every way.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Enthoosed
- 02-23-22
Brilliantly captures the dingiest roots of the alt-right movement; will not disappoint!
Absolutely jam-packed with fascinating info and offshoots about internet counterculture, while remaining simultaneously eloquent and borderline poetic. Highly recommend if the earlier inter-workings of internet discourse (spanning to apt-right vitriol) are remotely interesting to you. Highly recommend!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carey
- 01-15-21
Should be required reading in the US
So informative. I don't know what the answer for this country is, but a good place to start is understanding how we got here. This book helps with that.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brooklynite
- 06-01-22
Probably a better book to read.
It's an important story. Where did all this come from? The Alt-Right, Pizzagate, QAnon, Gamergate. How did these all come about? What part did the White House Chief Strategist play into it? If you looking at American politics and the culture the last 10 years and didn't spend your time in nihilistic online message boards dedicated to Japanese anime?
However, it's not a great audio book. The story is buried under a dense framework of the philosophy/sociology Marcuse and Baudrillard. It's read by the author and every sentence is delivering in an "above all this" voice that makes the listening a chore.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 03-28-22
Must listen!
Great reporting, analysis, storytelling from researcher Dale Beran. Highly recommended listen and I'll probably get the book to read again. Whole new historical perspectives and rabbit holes you didn't know existed. Wonderful book!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tamiko Rothhorn
- 12-31-21
excellent book!
So much information, but written and read in a way that is understandable and riveting. I really appreciated the author's writing style and use of metaphor and simile. I feel like a window to a whole different way of seeing the events of recent history has been opened.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam Young
- 10-23-21
Written by a user of the boards and you can tell
Written by a self-professed user of SA and you can tell. Good, useful, valuable perspective, but solipsistic without realising just how much exists beyond his perspective (at least that fits the subject matter?).
Would be better if he replaced the pop psychology and self-loathing with research and context instead of wry sarcasm.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Richard R. Kaminski
- 10-22-21
Fine Until the Tumblr Chapter
A very interesting historical analysis until the tumble chapter fairly late in the book. I was confused why it came so late in the relative chronological arrangement of the book (it comes after chapters around 2016 when tumble was much less popular at this time), but the chapter itself is very condescending, myopic, and historical. It gestures towards but glosses over the academic, queer, critical, etc. work that informed the trends he describes seeing in tumblr. Because of this, it seems like tumblr’s ideas are randomly made up by teens vs. an extension of broader philosophical and academic ideas and theories. So they sound ridiculous. This then makes me much more skeptical of his analyses in early chapters. I thought I sensed a strain of somewhat conservative thought early on (e.g. the frequent deadnaming of trans figures) but I have the author the benefit of the doubt. But now I’m not so certain. And I don’t think that then leads to an objective analysis of the main focus of the book.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jswizz1991
- 04-05-21
A Flash In the Pan!
This book started off great, with the gritty origin story of message boards and obscure internet culture. But it end unceremoniously once the uninteresting stories of Milo and Bannon start taking up the majority of the story. A story of two people as dull as playdough.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kevin Winston
- 06-21-22
Excellent book
Absolutely brilliant, an amazing telling of contemporary internet history. Can't recommend this book enough