Fascism on the Rise Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show · Burt Cohen

The Trashing of Tastes: When Did It Begin?

·56 min·3 clips

Reality TV and The Apprentice helped turn Donald Trump into a national star.

1. KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show uses “The Trashing of Tastes: When Did It Begin?” to connect 1999 culture to Donald Trump’s politics. 2. Host Burt Cohen interviews Ross Benesch, a journalist, market research analyst, and author whose previous books include Rural Rebellion and Turned On. 3. The episode asks whether low culture, celebrity, and spectacle in 1999 helped shape “our bizarre times.” 4. Benesch says WWF and WCW were watched by about 30 million Americans every week in 1998 and 1999. 5. He says Donald Trump is a pro wrestling hall of famer and notes that wrestling helped normalize “kayfabe.” 6. Benesch defines kayfabe through Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and the idea of treating a storyline as if it were real. 7. He applies that term to a Trump press secretary claiming “the biggest inauguration ever” despite contrary reality. 8. The conversation turns to MTV, which was still a youth-culture station in 1999 and mattered for breakouts. 9. Benesch says MTV opened New Year’s Eve 1999 with Limp Bizkit covering Prince’s “1999,” not Prince himself. 10. He describes that choice as part of a broader shift in what counted as mainstream taste at the turn of the millennium. 11. Benesch says Trump announced his first presidential run in 1999 under the Reform Party. 12. He notes Trump wanted Oprah Winfrey as his running mate, treating celebrity pairing as politics. 13. He compares Trump’s trajectory with Jeffrey Fieger and Jerry Springer, who also mixed legal, political, and TV personas. 14. Benesch says Jerry Springer’s producers learned to keep viewers by making the show so visual that it worked with the sound off. 15. He says the show featured fights, blurred nudity, incest storylines, and guests who came mainly from the Bible Belt and Appalachia. 16. He also says the Springer show’s ratings fell when networks toned down the nudity, swearing, and fights. 17. The tone is conversational and retrospective, with Cohen repeatedly interrupting to connect examples to current politics. 18. Benesch speaks in a measured explanatory style, while Cohen pushes toward direct claims about Trump, elitism, and ratings. 19. Listeners interested in media history, Trump, and 1990s pop culture will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly focused policy discussion may skip it.

As heard by us

A blunt look at how spectacle displaced issues and reshaped American politics.

This episode frames low culture as a political signal, showing how image, ratings, and spectacle came to matter more than issues in American life.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a serious read on how spectacle beat substance, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Fascism on the Rise Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show