Today my guest is Robert Evans: journalist and host of the “Behind the Bastards” podcast. I first noticed Robert’s work in 2013 when he was writing for Cracked.com, a comedy site that did a surprising amount of important reporting and political commentary. The piece was entitled “6 Myths About Drone Warfare You Probably Believe”, and it kicked off a long running series that came to be known as Cracked’s “Personal Experience” articles. They ran the gamut from Sex Workers (both voluntary and involuntary), Ukrainian rebels, drug dealers and undercover agents, and eventually evolved into a podcast.
In 2018 Evans kicked off a new show, Behind the Bastards, where he profiles the worst people in history, accompanied with a comedian to lighten the mood. Robert has also done extensive reporting for Bellingcat.com, a relatively new but important journalistic outfit. He penned an in depth report on radicalization through online subcultures, a topic became incredibly important since I recorded this interview on March 10th. Just five days later, the Christchurch New Zealand mosque massacre occurred. The following day, Evans published a follow up piece on Bellingcat, and was quoted in a Washington Post piece covering the attack.
The subject of Robert’s podcast on the week leading up to the shooting was eerily prescient. He profiled George Lincoln Rockwell, a man Evans calls “the grandfather of all modern fascists”. Over the course of three episodes, Evans lays out how Rockwell is the original holocaust denier, coined the term “white power”, and devised tactics that fascists and their sympathizers continue to use this day. It is highly relevant, and highly essential.
Be sure to follow Robert on Twitter @IwriteOK and consider supporting his GoFundme campaign, “The War on Everyone“