I had a fun and free-flowing conversation with Ben Dreyfuss — journalist, commentator, social media gadfly and yes, son of Richard Dreyfuss — who has become one of the most interesting voices on the state of our culture. We spoke about Ben’s long journey from political science education to acting to optimizing social media for Mother Jones magazine to finding his voice ultimately both on his Substack, Calm Down, and on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
We dove into the big topic of “What the hell is wrong with everybody?” before digging in on Ben’s major preoccupation: the annoying tropes of the left and how you balance the excesses and blind spots of your own side with the emergency unfolding on the larger stage. It was a fascinating conversation with one of the great commentators of this era, who came to the chat vape-equipped. Give it a listen.
Join us live on Wednesday, May 14 at 11 a.m. PT for the next edition of The Rushfield Lunch, when my lunch guest will be someone amazing!
My earlier episodes have featured Lena Dunham, Amazon Studios founder Roy Price, Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie, longtime film producer and exec Ted Hope, and the authors Matthew Specktor, Meghan Daum and Olga Khazan. All episodes are archived on our YouTube page.
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