How Tucker Carlson Lost His Mind: From Fox News Star to Conspiracy King

The Lincoln Project Podcast

Rick sits down with Jason Zengerle to dissect Hated by All the Right People, a scalpel-sharp look at how Tucker Carlson morphed from bow-tied conservative pundit into the high priest of grievance politics. They trace the Iraq War as the inflection point that cracked the old GOP brain, Tucker’s Fox News era where outrage became currency, and his post-Fox glow-up as a free-range chaos entrepreneur feeding the MAGA algorithm. But this isn’t nostalgia — it’s about consequences. As a new war with Iran explodes into missile and drone retaliation this weekend, Rick and Jason connect the dots between right-wing media radicalization, foreign policy brinkmanship, and the profit model that rewards escalation over truth. Tucker didn’t just witness the unraveling of the conservative mind — he built a business on it. And as 2026 approaches, the rage machine he helped engineer isn’t just warping politics — it’s shaping global stakes.