In this episode, HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews is joined by investigative reporter Lea Fauth. They discuss her reporting for Deutschlandfunk Kultur in two German cities where factories, unions, and workers are responding to the Zeitenwende, the new era of German investment in manufacturing arms.
In this episode, HEIST founding publisher Ben Schuman-Stoler talks to writer Lily Johnston about her experience at TRYP Expo, Berlin's new festival for "human flourishing.” Together they reflect on if the Expo means something bigger for Berlin. They talk about new synthetic drugs, the surprising Nazi history of psychedelics, what happens when subculture is commercialized, and ask, is there such a thing as too much self-optimization?
In this episode, HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews is joined live at Chapters Bookshop in Berlin by historian Quinn Slobodian to discuss his latest book, Muskism, and ideas about the far-right and the AfD from his 2025 Hayek's Bastards.
When an AfD candidate was criticized for referencing a concentration camp badge on a campaign billboard, the party’s defense was immediate: "How dare you accuse us of being homophobic? Our leader, Alice Weidel, is a lesbian." It’s a perfect, toxic blend of strategic provocation and plausible deniability. But it points to a much deeper, more disturbing mutation within European politics.
In this episode, founding HEIST editor Peter Matthews talks with Ben Miller, historian, writer, and co-host of the podcast Bad Gays to talk about right-wing queer politics.
In this episode, HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews sits down with Berlin-based journalist Yossi Bartal to discuss the rise and fall of Hudhaifa Al-Mashhadani - a seemingly pathological liar who became the German media and political establishments’ darling. But this isn't just a story about a single grifter. It’s an indictment of German media’s failures, a patriarchal style of inter-Neukölln governance, and a multi-million-euro antisemitism industry.
In the inaugural episode of the HEIST Podcast, Peter Matthews and Ben Schuman-Stoler sit down with journalist Hebh Jamal to discuss her reporting on what it feels like to live as a Palestinian in Berlin. She details the dystopian reality of building infrastructure in a city that would rather pretend you don't exist.
The HEIST podcast is coming soon. We'll launch on 6 July with three episodes at once: interviews with Ben Miller, Hebh Jamal, and Yossi Bartal. Subscribe to this feed and pass it around - help us spread the word.