Greetings! Jane here, introducing the Tuesday newsletter.

Today's top offerings include two powerful columns from regular Nerve writers Natasha Walter and John Sweeney, plus this week’s culture hotlist. 

Plus, plus, plus, we have exciting news on the lineup for our morning at the Vision Festival (The Nerve Live), on 27 September, aka a week on Sunday 😱 (10.30am to 2pm). The festival will be a chance to celebrate our first birthday, to quiz the team, and to hear special guest stars including the satirist and ‘newsfluencer’ Cody Dahler – who, as announced on Friday, will be on a panel, “Fighting Hate with Humour”, with the Nerve’s own Carole Cadwalladr. Plus John Sweeney, author of The Real Nigel Farage, will be in conversation with our political columnist Sangita Myska. But now we can also reveal that the brilliant Kiell Smith-Bynoe – actor, comedian and star of TV’s Ghosts and Stath Lets Flats – is the latest name to join our lineup. Kiell will be interviewed on stage for a live version of our Recommender slot, talking about his favourite cultural highlights. Be there! Tickets are a bargain £3 for our members (full price £12) and totally free for founders. Codes below, and there’s more info here.

But now back to this week … 

First to Natasha, who writes in response to End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World, the new book by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, published today and hot off the press. Klein and Taylor argue that religious fundamentalists, billionaire tech bros and ethno-nationalists are in alliance in peddling the idea (i) that the world is ending and (ii) they will keep pressing the accelerator rather than the brake. Whoa! 

Natasha says: “Klein and Taylor shine new light on the behaviour of these men, and the dangers they pose to people and the planet. They enable us to see they are not only careless people, but cruel.”

Natasha (like Klein and Taylor) argues for fighting back. After speaking at a number of events around her own new book, Feminism for a World on Fire, Natasha sees the mood in audiences changing. “There is a growing hunger and impatience now everywhere not just to understand the crises that are rocking our world, but also to take action against them.” 

Please read Natasha’s inspiring column for an answer to that often-heard question: “what can I do?”

Here are the links to today’s pieces:

A new apocalyptic alliance of religious fundamentalists, billionaire Silicon Valley tech bros and ethno-nationalists is on the move, argue authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in End Times Fascism. After reading the book, Natasha Walter argues that we must work together from the ground up to ensure that “the multiple positive aspects of places and communities are celebrated and strengthened”. Read Natasha’s column here.

Nigel Farage and Reform UK continue to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, but will that have an effect on what their base think? John Sweeney is the Nerve’s Reform correspondent and in that role he traipsed off to party conference in Birmingham at the start of the month. Basing himself in the Wetherspoons just outside the security zone, he vox-popped supporters and even got the chance to throw a question to a thirsty Farage. Read his column here.

“It’s an extraordinary thing to see…” writes Nerve theatre critic Dorian Lynskey of Tilda Swinton’s return to the stage, playing a woman in Nazi Germany who adopts her late husband’s identity in Man to Man at the Royal Court. But his opening line could just as easily apply to several other tips in this week’s culture hotlist: there’s 70 Up: The Final Chapter on ITVX, the poignant climax to the groundbreaking documentary series that has followed a group of seven-year-olds since 1964; and Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy, the latest from rising-star playwright Ava Pickett, who follows 1536, her feisty Tudor hit, with this furious and ferociously funny spin on Greek mythology. There’s also a brilliant new album, a sultry novel, a must-see photography exhibition and more. Read this week’s hotlist here.

That’s all for today! If you are reading this newsletter as a free subscriber do please consider upgrading here. And please forward this email to anyone you think might enjoy the Nerve. We’ll see you on Friday.

Jane