TrueAnon
{{short description|American politics podcast}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox podcast
| title = TrueAnon
| image = TrueAnon Logo.jpg
| caption =
| host = Brace Belden
Liz Franczak
| genre = {{hlist | Politics | comedy | true crime}}
| updates = Twice-weekly
| length = 60–90 minutes
| num_episodes =
| production = Yung Chomsky
| composer = Yung Chomsky, Angelo Badalamenti
| opentheme = "You'd Never Guess" by Yung Chomsky
| began = {{Start date and age|df=yes|July 23, 2019}}
| website = {{URL|https://trueanon.com}}
}}
TrueAnon is a left-wing American politics and gossip podcast hosted by Brace Belden and Liz Franczak. The podcast initially focused on deceased financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The title of the podcast is a parody of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
History and content
TrueAnon is hosted by Brace Belden, a left-wing internet personality notable for fighting with the People's Protection Units in the Syrian Civil War, Liz Franczak, a writer for The Baffler and Deadspin, and produced by the pseudonymous Yung Chomsky. Belden and Franczak met in the early 2000s through San Francisco's punk music scene. The hosts, who identify as Marxists, developed an interest in Epstein's case after Gawker published the contents of Epstein's personal address book in 2015, which established Epstein's connections to multiple influential figures in politics, finance, intelligence, academia, and entertainment.
After Epstein's arrest in July 2019, Belden and Franczak noted how many of the details of the Epstein case, such as his connections to U.S. intelligence agencies, were not covered in the mainstream press. TrueAnon was thus conceived to explore how "the fascination with Epstein is part of a larger story about the rot at the heart of the global elite," and how this reveals "larger class antagonisms within the United States."
The first episode of TrueAnon was released on July 23, 2019. Branding itself as "the only non-pedophile podcast,"{{cite web |title=TrueAnon on Apple Podcasts |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trueanon/id1474001390 |website=iTunes |accessdate=30 April 2020 |archive-date=6 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506052139/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trueanon/id1474001390 |url-status=live }} TrueAnon combines elements of the true crime genre and the dirtbag left, the rhetorical style most closely associated with Chapo Trap House defined by "subversive, populist vulgarity." In addition to covering Epstein, TrueAnon devotes analysis and discussion to topics such as human trafficking, Medicare for All, Silicon Valley, academia, finance, and nonprofit organizations. While TrueAnon covers material that has been described as conspiracy theories, Belden and Franczak say it engages in historical materialism, focusing on "the power structures that produced Epstein in the first place" rather than a "fixed theory of Epstein’s death." Notable guests who have appeared on the podcast include Epstein accuser Maria Farmer,{{cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/maria-farmer|date=May 8, 2020|title=TrueAnonPod -- Maria Farmer|access-date=May 10, 2020|archive-date=May 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509145943/https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/maria-farmer|url-status=live}} journalist Ken Klippenstein,{{cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/dh-ass|date=July 20, 2020|title=TrueAnonPod -- D. H. Ass|access-date=May 14, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418112532/https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/dh-ass|url-status=live}} author William T. Vollmann,{{cite web |title=Episode 330: Grief Is A Witch-Hag (Part 1) |url=https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/grief-is-a-witch-hag-part-1 |website=Soundcloud |publisher=TrueAnon |accessdate=18 February 2025 |date=3 November 2023 |archive-date=21 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121115730/https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/grief-is-a-witch-hag-part-1}} and musician Azealia Banks.{{cite web |title=Episode 70: Azealia |url=https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/azealia |website=Soundcloud |publisher=TrueAnon |accessdate=26 May 2020 |date=22 May 2020 |archive-date=28 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228141222/https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/azealia |url-status=live }}
In 2021 the podcast covered the Ghislaine Maxwell trial daily from the courtroom, summarizing and discussing the day's events in an episode for each day of the trial.{{Cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/ghislaine-trial-18|title=👁️ Ghislaine Maxwell Trial: Day 18 👁️|access-date=2021-12-30|archive-date=2021-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230055047/https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/ghislaine-trial-18|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url = https://www.fastcompany.com/90703994/this-is-the-best-way-to-follow-the-elizabeth-holmes-and-ghislane-maxwell-trials?itm_source=parsely-api|title = This is the best way to follow the Elizabeth Holmes and Ghislaine Maxwell trials|date = 9 December 2021|access-date = 5 January 2022|archive-date = 5 January 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220105075824/https://www.fastcompany.com/90703994/this-is-the-best-way-to-follow-the-elizabeth-holmes-and-ghislane-maxwell-trials?itm_source=parsely-api|url-status = live}}
In January 2024, TrueAnon released a board game satirizing the January 6 United States Capitol attack.{{cite magazine|title='Storm the Capitol's Board Board Game Lets People Fight Police, Steal Artifacts|url= https://www.newsweek.com/storm-capitol-board-game-celebrates-jan-6-rioters-1857192|date=January 2, 2024|author=Fung, Katherine|magazine=Newsweek}} A now-retracted article in The Independent erroneously called the podcast "right-wing".{{cite web|author=Neath, Amelia|title=New 'Storm the Capitol' board game celebrates Jan 6 riot|work=The Independent|date=January 3, 2024|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/storm-the-capitol-board-game-jan-6-b2472561.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/storm-the-capitol-board-game-jan-6-b2472561.html|archive-date=January 3, 2024|url-status=dead}}
Reception
TrueAnon has been positively received by critics. GQ wrote that it has a "one-of-a-kind flair you won't get anywhere else," praising the quality of the podcast's research. Journalist Jeet Heer cited TrueAnon as one of the few left-wing outlets to discuss the Epstein case in detail, compared to "the reluctance of the mainstream media to tackle the topic for fear of seeming conspiratorial." Journalist Glenn Greenwald has also praised the podcast and its coverage of the 2016 Nevada caucus.
As of June of 2025, TrueAnon is the 10th-ranked creator on Patreon as measured by number of paid subscribers.{{Cite web |title=Top Patreon Creators |url=https://graphtreon.com/top-patreon-creators}}
See also
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite web |last1=Groundwater |first1=Colin |last2=Schultz |first2=Zlex |title=The Best Podcasts to Listen to During Self-Isolation |url=https://www.gq.com/story/the-best-podcasts-to-listen-to-during-self-isolation |website=GQ |accessdate=30 April 2020 |date=29 April 2020 |archive-date=30 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200430204710/https://www.gq.com/story/the-best-podcasts-to-listen-to-during-self-isolation |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |last1=Goldstein |first1=Sam Jaffe |title=Jeffrey Epstein Is a Feature of Our System: A Conversation with Liz Franczak and Brace Belden, Hosts of 'Trueanon' |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/jeffrey-epstein-is-a-feature-of-our-system-a-conversation-with-liz-franczak-and-brace-belden-hosts-of-trueanon/ |website=The Los Angeles Review of Books |accessdate=19 March 2020 |date=30 January 2020 |archive-date=19 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200319031202/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/jeffrey-epstein-is-a-feature-of-our-system-a-conversation-with-liz-franczak-and-brace-belden-hosts-of-trueanon/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |last1=Heer |first1=Jeet |authorlink1=Jeet Heer |title=Jeffrey Epstein Isn't Going Away |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/epstein-prince-andrew-conspiracy/ |website=The Nation |accessdate=30 April 2020 |date=18 November 2019 |archive-date=21 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521132036/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/epstein-prince-andrew-conspiracy/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite magazine |last1=Amato |first1=Natalli |title=Useful Idiots: TrueAnon's Liz Franczak on Epstein Saga |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/matt-taibbi-epstein-conspiracy-truanon-liz-franczak-909675/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |accessdate=30 April 2020 |date=9 November 2019 |archive-date=4 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200404150122/https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/matt-taibbi-epstein-conspiracy-truanon-liz-franczak-909675/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |last1=Beckwith |first1=Caleb |title=Epstein Brain is for the People |url=https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2020/03/epstein-brain-is-for-the-people/ |website=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |accessdate=30 April 2020 |date=3 March 2020 |archive-date=4 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604104208/https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2020/03/epstein-brain-is-for-the-people/ |url-status=live }}
}}
External links
- [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trueanon/id1474001390 TrueAnon] on iTunes
- {{SoundCloud|trueanonpod|TrueAnon}}
- {{Twitter | id=TrueAnonPod|name=TrueAnon}}
- {{Official website|https://trueanon.com}}
Category:Socialism in the United States
Category:2019 establishments in California