Happy 2021! Welcome to Krystal Kyle & Friends

Episode 1: Marianne Williamson

Surprise!

We’re doing a podcast together! After enduring Kyle’s relentless teasing, you now know the secret! (Next year maybe Kyle will finally give people what they really want and start an OnlyFans.) In the meantime, every week on Friday the two of us will be releasing a new episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends featuring our thoughts on whatever is happening plus interviews with the people we think are the most honest and the most interesting about the state of the world.

Here’s How it Works

So the audio of the podcast is not only free but we are also 100% committed to keeping it ad free forever. That audio will be released on Saturdays on all of the normal Podcast platforms plus here on Substack. You’ll be able to find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Pandora, TuneIn + Alexa, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Pocket Casts, Deezer, Listen Notes, PlayerFM, Podcast Index. We are still waiting on approval from Apple Podcasts however so it will be a couple weeks before you can find it there.

The video portion will be available to paid Substack subscribers only and it will post on Fridays, a day before the audio will show up on the podcast directories. But for the first few weeks, we’re going to post the video on Kyle’s YouTube channel so that people have a chance to check it out before there’s any paywall. We’re also going to send out a newsletter on Tuesdays with some thoughts on the week so far and a preview of that week’s newsletter.

So to recap

Tuesday we will send out a newsletter to all Substack subscribers

Friday we will drop the video for that week’s episode to paying Substack subscribers only

Saturday we drop the audio to all Substack subscribers and make it available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all of the other podcast directories with zero ads

Episode 1: Marianne Williamson!!!

When we were considering who to have on our very first episode, Marianne seemed like the obvious choice. Why? Well she’s maybe uniquely positioned to help make sense of the hell we just lived through in 2020 and situate it in the broader sweep of American history, the current political moment and our own deeply personal experiences with the universe and the human experience. We both also felt like the events of 2020 had brought us closer to some of Marianne’s views, making us more compelled to explore her synthesis of politics with deeper questions about health, happiness, and meaning. She did not disappoint.

Krystal Ball @krystalball

Here's @marwilliamson on how the biggest mistake she made in her campaign was underestimating the viciousness of the Democratic Party.

In this (first!) episode, Marianne discusses her intellectual influences, her opposition to the status quo of the Democratic Party, and her views on the populist energy bubbling up around Medicare for All and COVID stimulus checks. Bringing all of these topics together, of course, is Marianne's fierce advocacy for the value of humanity and the promise of a more just world.

What you may find striking is that Marianne transcends the "new-age" spiritual label that is often ascribed to her. Given her attentiveness to the current issues that Americans are facing -- from unaffordable healthcare to hostile elites in power -- Marianne is clearly sensitive to modern struggles. Yet she's also drawing upon a greater tradition of humanitarians and philosophers, those who have argued for generations that human beings inherently deserve opportunities to flourish intellectually, spiritually, and socially. In this way, Marianne offers a perspective that you can't get anywhere else. Hers is a vision that marries pressing demands for justice with profound intellectual considerations of happiness, peace, and the things that give life meaning. After listening to our conversation with her, we think you’ll agree: Marianne Williamson is someone to take very, very seriously.