Hey Nerve subscribers,

It’s Sarah here bringing you a bumper Nerve weekend edition, including a read on the Oscar-tipped Gaza film everyone is talking about, a hilarious Recommender slot with Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson (you’ll love his fashion choice) and Stewart Lee somehow joining the dots between Reform, Greenland and Elon Musk’s platform’s pivot to child porn.

A big welcome to the hundreds of new subscribers who have signed up since Thursday, when our co-founder Carole appeared on Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s excellent podcast, Bold Politics. We are so delighted to have you with us - do reply to this email with any feedback / greetings / questions. 

As Carole says, part of the appeal of Bold Politics is that it shows a politician doing something that politicians are rarely seen doing - listening! This week’s is a great episode, covering Russia and Reform, surveillance capitalism, the Nerve and more. Here’s the link, definitely worth a listen.

Can it only be two weeks since the Christmas break? It feels like the world has shifted on its axis about five times since then. This week, the authoritarian madness that is ICE versus the American people has been escalating in real time in our social media feeds. In Minneapolis, following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, ICE has increased its presence and an informal counter-force of citizen journalists are documenting every arrest and skirmish (and shooting) on their phones. To paraphrase the mighty Gil Scott-Heron, the suppression is being televised.

We asked our advisor John Mulholland (former editor of the Observer and Guardian US, now based in California), to write an explainer on all this, link below. Oh, and don’t miss our Nan Goldin review and a shroomy veggie stew recipe which looks warming, healthy and simple - everything a January recipe should be. I will be taking time off from the doomscroll to make it this weekend. Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might like it!

“January has got off to such a great start where political double standards are concerned,” writes Stewart Lee in his weekly Nerve column, adding “that if we all pull together we can make 2026 the International Year of Cognitive Dissonance or, as the Chinese calendar would have it, the “Year of the Duck Rabbit.” In a world where it seems that everywhere we look there are two fiercely competing narratives, Stewart suggests we turn to the renowned Anglo-German philosopher for help: “the Wittgenstein Duck Rabbit theory which shows how something can be two different things at once”. Read it here.

Since the shooting last week in Minneapolis of Renée Good by an ICE agent, a new battle has erupted on social media between government agencies and the growing number of citizen journalists filming ICE’s every move. As Nerve advisor and US resident expert John Mulholland writes: “The narrative/counter-narrative battle has accelerated. Footage of ICE agents on the street, or in parking lots, shops and building sites, are flooding social media, and racking up millions of views. A cottage industry has arisen out of the rush to document their activities.” John rounds up the most shocking viral videos and observes how the department of Homeland Security is responding with its own, highly-produced video content (some with a distinctly Nazi flavour). Read his report here.

When The Voice of Hind Rajab premiered at Venice last autumn, it won the Grand Jury prize. The powerful docudrama, which tells the story of the aftermath of an Israeli tank attack on the car five-year-old Hind was travelling in with her family, opens in UK and Irish cinemas today. James Wilson, one of its producers, tells Jonathan Romney the story behind the film. “We wanted the film not to be niched as an Israel-bashing polemic or a protest film, but to feel like a universal anti-war humanist film, whilst not shying away from the specificity of what it was.” Read the interview with James here.

Since forming in Nottingham in 2007, electronic punk music duo Sleaford Mods have grown a huge following for their unique brand of biting social commentary about everything from pub culture to inept politicians. When Imogen met their witty frontman Jason Williamson in a Soho record shop last week to interview him for our cultural recommendations slot, he did not disappoint. Read about his passion for interiors shows and the music accompanying his night-time stretches – and why he's "not worn boxer shorts for about two months" here. And - exciting news - look out for our inaugural video version of the Recommender next week (and big thanks to Jason and Rough Trade’s Jamie. 🙏)

Some of you may know the American artist and activist Nan Goldin for taking on the billionaire Sackler family who fuelled the opioid epidemic (as documented in the film, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed). But it was the hugely influential photography series The Ballad of Sexual Dependency that made her name 40 years ago: 126 raw and intimate portraits of her friends and lovers, often in downtown New York, described by Nan as “the diary I let people read.” To mark the anniversary, the entire series has gone on show for the first time in the UK in a free exhibition. Read Nerve art critic Emily LaBarge on why Goldin's images have so powerfully stood the test of time.

Irish chef and campaigner Ali Honour believes that food can fix our broken world. “There’s no single silver-bullet solution”, she says, “but beans come pretty close.” We love that sentiment and we’re delighted to bring you Ali’s recipe for her “beany, shroomy stew with dumplings” which is perfect for a chilly January. "Every bean dish you cook is a small, silent protest against a broken food system" Ali argues, "a fart in the face of industrial agriculture." Here here! Read the recipe here.

Thanks for reading!

Sarah, co-founder