#266 | Ben Sixsmith; British writer living in Poland on War Propaganda, Inflation and Time

About this episode

Vance interviews British writer Ben Sixsmith, who lives in Poland and freelances for outlets like Unherd and The Spectator. The wide-ranging conversation opens on the Russia-Ukraine war, with Sixsmith making the case that Western media uncritically amplified Ukrainian propaganda (coerced POW confessions, photos sent to grieving Russian families) simply because sympathies ran one direction. They pivot to Poland's demographic and economic strains — delayed family formation, multigenerational housing, and heating costs that jumped by two-thirds — before broadening into media structure (CNN's failed CNN+ launch vs. Joe Rogan's rise), crypto/NFT mania, the Depp-Heard trial as projected fantasy, and a closing stretch on Sixsmith's "Peter Thiel paradox" belief that questions about God and the universe deserve more rigor than modern casual atheism/belief affords. The episode ends on smell, seasons, and what Sixsmith calls writing that is "true and beautiful."

“But because we feel so sympathetic towards the Ukrainians, we really wanted to believe, you know, maybe these Russian soldiers really had come around to our cause. So in the UK press and the US press, it was reported quite uncritically.”

“There's something quite telling about how people let their sympathies get in the way of, of cold and more objective judgment over these things.”

“So I think the problem with crypto is it's so, because it's so new, it's so prey to kind of faddishness. So I've definitely had a lot of jokes at the expense of people buying those just hideous apes because it was just so clearly like just a passing fad.”

Key moments

• Sixsmith explains how Ukrainian use of coerced Russian POWs for propaganda violates the Geneva Conventions, yet was reported uncritically by Western media because of one-sided sympathy.
• Vance and Sixsmith agree Western media complicity (not just Ukrainian tactics) explains why these stories ran unquestioned, likely with tacit military-power blessing.
• Sixsmith describes Poland's family-formation problem — young adults living with parents into their 30s due to housing costs, delaying marriage and children.
• Vance recalls multigenerational Polish-American housing in Milwaukee where houses were built upward as families grew, contrasting it with today's isolated nuclear setup.
• Discussion of CNN+'s $300M flop against Joe Rogan's rise, framed as brand identity ("I'm a Joe Rogan guy") versus institutional inertia ("it was just on TV").
• Sixsmith on NFT mania — the Bored Ape jokes, a tweet NFT sold at a loss, and his hope that speculative digital assets eventually anchor to real cultural value.
• Vance and Sixsmith trade views on Banksy's self-shredding painting as an example of manufactured mystery driving price far beyond artistic merit.
• Sixsmith names his "Peter Thiel paradox" belief — that most people no longer seriously interrogate whether God exists or what the universe means, having defaulted to passive belief or disbelief.
• Sixsmith closes with a warning to prepare for next winter's Ukraine-war knock-on effects (heating, food costs) and to savor summer before it passes.

Notable quotes

“if any other nation like Iran, like Russia used prisoners in this manner, we would recognize it as something these prisoners didn't really believe... something they were being coerced, pressured into saying.”

“Nobody's saying, yeah, you know, I'm a CNN guy... it was just on TV. So if they come wrong and say, we've got this extra CNN product to sell to you, nobody's gonna be invested in it.”

“we've kind of, since we had this new atheism bubble, it's become almost cliche to talk about whether God exists. We just kind of, we passively disbelieve it or we passively believe in it.”