False Idols: How Diversion is Destroying Democracy Gains Wide Attention Through Podcasts, Press, and Reviews

Vernon Press is proud to share the growing recognition of Kurt Warner’s book, False Idols: How Diversion is Destroying Democracy (January 2025), which delivers a powerful critique of how modern “bread and circuses” undermine democratic life and civic engagement.

Featured Podcasts and Broadcasts

Warner has been invited to discuss the themes of False Idols across multiple platforms, reaching listeners nationwide:

• Womanhood and International Relations Podcast – Kurt Warner on How Idol Worship Undermines Democracy (Episode 202, Pocket Casts).

• Tell Me Your Story Podcast – Hosted by Richard Dugan, running since 2007 (episode available on Podbean).

• America at Night with Rich Valdés – False Idols, Gaza on the Brink… (Apple Podcasts, NYC-based).

• Michigan’s Big Show with Michael Patrick Shiels – Interview segment featured on JioSaavn.

Press Coverage

• The New York Trend Magazine featured Warner’s work in the article Are ‘Bread and Circuses’ Dismantling Democracy? New Book Warns of the Hidden Cost of Modern Distractions (September 15, 2025). Read here.

Scholarly and Critical Reviews

• Michael Maiello, in his review False Idols, The Image, The Future (Middlebrow Musings, August 22, 2025), offered a thoughtful engagement with Warner’s exploration of media, distraction, and civic neglect. Read here.

About the Book

In False Idols: How Diversion is Destroying Democracy, Warner examines how celebrity worship, sports, politics, media, art, and technology function as modern diversions that erode critical thinking and civic responsibility. Drawing inspiration from Juvenal’s critique of Roman “bread and circuses,” Warner demonstrates how these cultural distractions threaten democracy today.

False Idols: How Diversion is Destroying Democracy is available now in hardback, paperback, and e-book editions from Vernon Press.

Learn more about the book and order your copy here.

Title False Idols: How Diversion is Destroying Democracy [Hardback]
Edition 1st
ISBN 979-8-8819-0084-7
Published in January 2025