Nicole Hemmer
@pastpunditry.bsky.social
Historian of conservatism, media, and the presidency at Vanderbilt. Author of PARTISANS & MESSENGERS OF THE RIGHT. Cohost of @thisdaypod.com from Radiotopia. Frequently posting on IG stories @pastpundit
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
For those who would like to understand how we got here, might I recommend @pastpunditry.bsky.social 's fantastic "Messengers of the Right"? I'm thinking particularly of her analysis of Human Events and their editorial values rejecting objectivity as a goal in reporting.
January 2, 2026 at 11:24 PM
For those who would like to understand how we got here, might I recommend @pastpunditry.bsky.social 's fantastic "Messengers of the Right"? I'm thinking particularly of her analysis of Human Events and their editorial values rejecting objectivity as a goal in reporting.
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Coming as a shock to zero people, Megyn Kelly thinks Nathan Jessep is the hero of the movie. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o... (h/t @pastpunditry.bsky.social)
December 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Coming as a shock to zero people, Megyn Kelly thinks Nathan Jessep is the hero of the movie. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o... (h/t @pastpunditry.bsky.social)
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Every year, we put together a @bookshop.org list featuring the authors we've had on the show. Here's 2025's -- still time to pick up a gift for the history lover in your life! bookshop.org/wishlists/6a...
December 16, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Every year, we put together a @bookshop.org list featuring the authors we've had on the show. Here's 2025's -- still time to pick up a gift for the history lover in your life! bookshop.org/wishlists/6a...
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Through the disasters of this year, our writers delivered fearless analysis and creative resilience—refusing to compromise on fundamental values of justice and humanity in the face of brazen cruelty and democratic decline.
Revisit the writing readers turned to the most:
Revisit the writing readers turned to the most:
Our Most-Loved Pieces of 2025 - Boston Review
Revisit the writing from this year that readers turned to the most.
www.bostonreview.net
December 14, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Through the disasters of this year, our writers delivered fearless analysis and creative resilience—refusing to compromise on fundamental values of justice and humanity in the face of brazen cruelty and democratic decline.
Revisit the writing readers turned to the most:
Revisit the writing readers turned to the most:
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Hard to identify the best part of this 1964 ad--the obvious headline, the misspelling of Reagan's last name, or the shout out to John Stoemer's blockbuster (and howlingly inaccurate) conspiracy-ridden book "None Dare Call it Treason" about the supposedly "treasonous" thread of the US left.
December 12, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Hard to identify the best part of this 1964 ad--the obvious headline, the misspelling of Reagan's last name, or the shout out to John Stoemer's blockbuster (and howlingly inaccurate) conspiracy-ridden book "None Dare Call it Treason" about the supposedly "treasonous" thread of the US left.
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Trump’s foreign policy isn’t “noninterventionism,” it is a kind of neo neo conservatism devoted to imposing authoritarian ethnonationalism abroad instead of democracy (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 10, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Trump’s foreign policy isn’t “noninterventionism,” it is a kind of neo neo conservatism devoted to imposing authoritarian ethnonationalism abroad instead of democracy (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
5/ In other words, I see very little reason to think that the Court would *allow* Congress to solve significant national problems—at least, when those solutions took a form the majority of justices disliked. And conversely …
December 10, 2025 at 9:49 AM
5/ In other words, I see very little reason to think that the Court would *allow* Congress to solve significant national problems—at least, when those solutions took a form the majority of justices disliked. And conversely …
exactly what my next book is about!
it is incredible that legalizing watergate has been the overriding ideological project of the american right for fifty years
December 8, 2025 at 10:28 PM
exactly what my next book is about!
tucker carlson is now mixing vaccine denialism with his new favorite topic: demons.
December 8, 2025 at 7:52 PM
tucker carlson is now mixing vaccine denialism with his new favorite topic: demons.
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
"It seems to me that America is constantly reinventing what ``America'' means... I think it's really closer to the truth to say that America has assimilated as much as her immigrants have. It's made for a delightful diversity, and it's made us a stronger and a more vital nation." Reagan, 1984
November 21, 2025 at 11:06 PM
"It seems to me that America is constantly reinventing what ``America'' means... I think it's really closer to the truth to say that America has assimilated as much as her immigrants have. It's made for a delightful diversity, and it's made us a stronger and a more vital nation." Reagan, 1984
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
I haven't been able to stop thinking about @pastpunditry.bsky.social's comments last week about the further splintering and radicalization of the m@ga movement and what may be coming down the line. It's chilling but it's a clarity that I find helpful. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
November 18, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I haven't been able to stop thinking about @pastpunditry.bsky.social's comments last week about the further splintering and radicalization of the m@ga movement and what may be coming down the line. It's chilling but it's a clarity that I find helpful. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard University fights to preserve Black newspapers. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/... Last year, during a move, workers found two whole boxes of Frederick Douglass’s’ The North Star’s first year of publication.
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.
Across the United States, scholars are working to preserve the history of the Black press before the brittle pages are lost forever. In a basement at Howard University, uncovered treasures have includ...
www.csmonitor.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard University fights to preserve Black newspapers. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/... Last year, during a move, workers found two whole boxes of Frederick Douglass’s’ The North Star’s first year of publication.
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Republicans are trying to project unity on dismissing Trump-Epstein, and some media is trying to help, but as @pastpunditry.bsky.social and @gregsargent.bsky.social explain, some Trump voters really do care about Epstein—not a majority, but not zero either—creating real splits in the MAGA coalition.
Trump Press Sec’s Epstein Spin Implodes as New Info Rattles Him Deeply
As Karoline Leavitt struggles to explain away Trump’s growing panic over new Jeffrey Epstein revelations, a sharp observer of the right explains why MAGA is cracking up over the scandal—and what to ex...
newrepublic.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Republicans are trying to project unity on dismissing Trump-Epstein, and some media is trying to help, but as @pastpunditry.bsky.social and @gregsargent.bsky.social explain, some Trump voters really do care about Epstein—not a majority, but not zero either—creating real splits in the MAGA coalition.
Had a great conversation with @gregsargent.bsky.social about the latest Epstein emails and their implications for the current MAGA civil war.
Really unnerving point from Nicole Hemmer, historian of the right: Trump's Epstein fiasco could drive MAGA to push him to go even fuller authoritarian, because the whole project is now in such serious doubt. She's so good on MAGA's future.
Check out this exchange:
newrepublic.com/article/2031...
Check out this exchange:
newrepublic.com/article/2031...
November 13, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Had a great conversation with @gregsargent.bsky.social about the latest Epstein emails and their implications for the current MAGA civil war.
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
New Epstein emails "seem to show Trump understood who Epstein was, how he and Maxwell were acting, and the kinds of crimes they were committing. He was adjacent to, if not involved in, those crimes."
On the pod Nicole Hemmer is brilliant on bigger Epstein-MAGA story:
newrepublic.com/article/2031...
On the pod Nicole Hemmer is brilliant on bigger Epstein-MAGA story:
newrepublic.com/article/2031...
Trump Press Sec’s Epstein Spin Implodes as New Info Rattles Him Deeply
As Karoline Leavitt struggles to explain away Trump’s growing panic over new Jeffrey Epstein revelations, a sharp observer of the right explains why MAGA is cracking up over the scandal—and what to ex...
newrepublic.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:42 PM
New Epstein emails "seem to show Trump understood who Epstein was, how he and Maxwell were acting, and the kinds of crimes they were committing. He was adjacent to, if not involved in, those crimes."
On the pod Nicole Hemmer is brilliant on bigger Epstein-MAGA story:
newrepublic.com/article/2031...
On the pod Nicole Hemmer is brilliant on bigger Epstein-MAGA story:
newrepublic.com/article/2031...
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Excellent commentary on power and the "right" and the Epstein files over on The Daily Blast from @thedsrnetwork.bsky.social with @gregsargent.bsky.social and @pastpunditry.bsky.social (wherever you get your podcasts).
(Even if Greg still has that terrible guitar lead-in.)
(Even if Greg still has that terrible guitar lead-in.)
November 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Excellent commentary on power and the "right" and the Epstein files over on The Daily Blast from @thedsrnetwork.bsky.social with @gregsargent.bsky.social and @pastpunditry.bsky.social (wherever you get your podcasts).
(Even if Greg still has that terrible guitar lead-in.)
(Even if Greg still has that terrible guitar lead-in.)
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
NOW AVAILABLE! The recording of the first (and probably only) edition of TGS Live: The Worst Wing, featuring professional president-knowers Nicole Hemmer @pastpunditry.bsky.social and Kevin Schultz. What a way to mark a year since The Day That Shall Not Be Named.
November 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM
NOW AVAILABLE! The recording of the first (and probably only) edition of TGS Live: The Worst Wing, featuring professional president-knowers Nicole Hemmer @pastpunditry.bsky.social and Kevin Schultz. What a way to mark a year since The Day That Shall Not Be Named.
our only dick cheney episode is also the only dick cheney episode you need podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
November 4, 2025 at 1:38 PM
our only dick cheney episode is also the only dick cheney episode you need podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
THIS THURSDAY ON TGS: it’s the live show recording you’ve all been clamoring for! I invented a sadistic game to make Prof. Nicole Hemmer @pastpunditry.bsky.social and Prof. Kevin Schultz discuss rubbing Vaseline on presidents. There is a winner but really we all lose in the end. 😌
November 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM
THIS THURSDAY ON TGS: it’s the live show recording you’ve all been clamoring for! I invented a sadistic game to make Prof. Nicole Hemmer @pastpunditry.bsky.social and Prof. Kevin Schultz discuss rubbing Vaseline on presidents. There is a winner but really we all lose in the end. 😌
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
New #RaceClass episode is out. We chat abt last week’s amazing #Smithsonian #teach-in organized by @kcarterjackson.bsky.social @pastpunditry.bsky.social @natedimeo.bsky.social @jodyavirgan.com @thisdaypod.com & #TheMemoryPalace.
on.soundcloud.com/u8xuwuudobZL...
on.soundcloud.com/u8xuwuudobZL...
November 2, 2025 at 4:04 PM
New #RaceClass episode is out. We chat abt last week’s amazing #Smithsonian #teach-in organized by @kcarterjackson.bsky.social @pastpunditry.bsky.social @natedimeo.bsky.social @jodyavirgan.com @thisdaypod.com & #TheMemoryPalace.
on.soundcloud.com/u8xuwuudobZL...
on.soundcloud.com/u8xuwuudobZL...
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Awesome thread. Great work, everyone!
sharing some photos from yesterday’s incredible teach-in in dc. such a privilege to organize with @natedimeo.bsky.social, @jodyavirgan.com, and @kcarterjackson.bsky.social. Pictured: early morning brilliance from @jpygold.bsky.social, @joshuablevin.bsky.social & @elyssafeder.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Awesome thread. Great work, everyone!
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
dickerson is one of the best broadcast journalists in the game, and someone who would clearly be a real asset to a new leader interested in strengthening the network's journalism. but, of course, we know weiss isn't actually interested in journalism as such.
John Dickerson To Depart CBS News In First Major Talent Exit Under New Paramount Owners
John Dickerson, co-anchor of CBS Evening News who has been with the network since 2009, said that he is exiting at the end of this year.
deadline.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:43 PM
dickerson is one of the best broadcast journalists in the game, and someone who would clearly be a real asset to a new leader interested in strengthening the network's journalism. but, of course, we know weiss isn't actually interested in journalism as such.
sharing some photos from yesterday’s incredible teach-in in dc. such a privilege to organize with @natedimeo.bsky.social, @jodyavirgan.com, and @kcarterjackson.bsky.social. Pictured: early morning brilliance from @jpygold.bsky.social, @joshuablevin.bsky.social & @elyssafeder.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 8:28 PM
sharing some photos from yesterday’s incredible teach-in in dc. such a privilege to organize with @natedimeo.bsky.social, @jodyavirgan.com, and @kcarterjackson.bsky.social. Pictured: early morning brilliance from @jpygold.bsky.social, @joshuablevin.bsky.social & @elyssafeder.bsky.social
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
“…the work to strengthen American democracy cannot succeed unless it is rooted in a real understanding of the country’s contentious past – its joys and its sorrows, its benefits and its harms, its brilliant promise and its unrealized dreams.”
In today’s Guardian with @kcarterjackson.bsky.social, explaining why teach-ins (like the one we’re holding Sunday!) are a vital part of activism.
Why we’re holding a teach-in about American history at the Smithsonian | Kellie Carter Jackson and Nicole Hemmer
Podcasters, professors, journalists and ordinary citizens will gather in Washington as the Trump regime wages war on history
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 2:21 PM
“…the work to strengthen American democracy cannot succeed unless it is rooted in a real understanding of the country’s contentious past – its joys and its sorrows, its benefits and its harms, its brilliant promise and its unrealized dreams.”
Reposted by Nicole Hemmer
Got to hear part of this creative event -- and grateful for it!
In today’s Guardian with @kcarterjackson.bsky.social, explaining why teach-ins (like the one we’re holding Sunday!) are a vital part of activism.
Why we’re holding a teach-in about American history at the Smithsonian | Kellie Carter Jackson and Nicole Hemmer
Podcasters, professors, journalists and ordinary citizens will gather in Washington as the Trump regime wages war on history
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Got to hear part of this creative event -- and grateful for it!