Episode 226 - Harp Attack
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen are back to discuss navigating DC during Freedom 250 events, Trump’s continuing ballroom saga, if we will see a constitutional amendment in our lifetimes, the very weird case of Natalie Harp and her obsession with being close to Trump, Jen’s big theory as to who leaked all these stories, and the never-ending Arday apologia. For our WAWC, Noam assures us that the new HBO Plus series Lanterns is actually good, and Jen pitches you on going through the trouble of seeing The Odyssey in IMAX. Programming note - we will be taking a few weeks off, since Noam has moving chores...
info_outline
Episode 225 - Arday of Reckoning
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam discuss a little Francesca Hong and the general woes of the DSA crowd before getting into the end of the Jason Arday saga. On that topic there is a lot to unpack; where Cambridge went wrong, the responsibility Arday holds for his own actions, blaming “online mobs” for repeating factual information, and the consequences Arday was not going to face for his many egregious lies. In all of that we also discuss Luigi Mangione’s guilty plea and the case of Lindsay Clancy. For our WAWC, Noam is re-reading the novel Neuromancer in anticipation of the upcoming Apple TV...
info_outline
Episode 224 - Gaming The System
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen know that 2026 is hard and scary and that everyone wants to return to 2020. But alas, we do have to discuss the things happening in 2026, like El-Sayed’s very slim win in the Michigan Democrat primary for Senate. As per usual the polling was wrong. The problem is, the polling was very, very wrong and people are starting to ask questions about if that happens for less than honest purposes. Speaking of manipulation, Twitter announced that they will be rolling out a new content creator payment system that seems designed to demonetize those who aren’t providing anything of...
info_outline
Episode 223 - The Web Of AI
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam take a (slight) break from discussing the depressing political news to talk about important things, like the controversies surrounding data centers and generative AI and the new Spider-Man movie. Important things. We get a bit into the drama surrounding the YouTube content creator Hank Green, who has for some reason self canceled over his sin of….using ChatGPT to do his grunt work so that he can have more time to make more content. Yeah, we don’t understand either. We also get into the thornier issue of authors allegedly using genAI in their writing, which has become a...
info_outline
Episode 222 - Beware Geeks Bearing Grifts
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen spend a little time talking about things like Iran and what’s going on now before getting into the most important topic of the year: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Spoiler alert - it’s a good movie and will win many awards. We discuss the movie itself and, of course, the extremely weird online reactions to the movie and its success. Just a good, old fashioned Ambitious Crossover Attempt episode, like we used to be able to make before everything went pear shaped.
info_outline
Episode 221 - The Mainechurian Candidate
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam record a day late because they were busy mourning the loss of Lindsey Graham. OK not really, but we did have to push back recording to make sure we could get a full headcount on current GOP leadership and their health status. Luckily Mitch McConnell also made an appearance (kinda) after being MIA for a month, but it’s fair to say we have a bit of an old man problem going on. As for the other Graham that left us last week, Graham Platner’s Senate run finally came down in flames after Politico ran the story the NYT wouldn’t detailing the sexual assault allegations...
info_outline
Episode 220 - Real Americans
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen finish up their America250 celebrations in time to record an episode this week, because woo boy last week was a doozy. SCOTUS handed down their long waited but predictable (kinda?) decision upholding birthright citizenship, along with a few other notable decisions involving executive power and campaign finance. Speaking of campaigns, Platner’s isn’t going so well now that he’s out of the primary, and the knives are starting to come out. For this week’s WAWC, Noam recommends the video game Cairn, which does a great job of simulating the stress of actual rock climbing....
info_outline
Episode 219 - Wiener Dogged
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam check in to discuss Scott Wiener’s bad week of being hounded in public over his very tepid support of Israel, the primary win of Darializa Chevalier in the NY-13 district and should we care, and what exactly is going on with the “ceasefire” with Iran and why it is that the US is needing bomb the same places we bombed back in April. For our WAWC, we go back to our roots and tell you to watch anime! Noam finished up Dr. Stone (and Dr. Stone finished up producing new episodes) and he gives a few thoughts on the series as a whole now that it’s over. Jen recommends the first...
info_outline
Episode 218 - Reflecting Poorly
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Noam and Jen reflect (heh) on the past week, starting with the reflecting pool and moving on to what exactly is going on with the US and Iran and the MOU. It’s all a bit murky, nobody is doing their best work, and everyone has someone to blame for the failure. For our WAWC, it’s time for season 3 of House of the Dragon! We finally get our big boat fight, some character deaths, and Jen pointing out that everyone in the show under the age of 30 needs to be locked away somewhere so they stop messing everything up.
info_outline
Episode 217 - Happy Birthday To Me
Ambitious Crossover Attempt
Jen and Noam are celebrating the president’s birthday! No, we aren’t actually! But we are talking about Trump and his on-again, off-again affair with Iran. After we finished recording this week’s episode there was an announcement of an alleged deal between the US and Iran, which sounds more like Trump capitulating to try to give himself a birthday win. Needless to say, we’ve heard this one before so until there is a signed piece of paper we don’t believe you. We do believe, however, that the new era of drone warfare is here thanks to Ukraine and the success they have had...
info_outlineJen and Noam check in to discuss Scott Wiener’s bad week of being hounded in public over his very tepid support of Israel, the primary win of Darializa Chevalier in the NY-13 district and should we care, and what exactly is going on with the “ceasefire” with Iran and why it is that the US is needing bomb the same places we bombed back in April.
For our WAWC, we go back to our roots and tell you to watch anime! Noam finished up Dr. Stone (and Dr. Stone finished up producing new episodes) and he gives a few thoughts on the series as a whole now that it’s over. Jen recommends the first season of Witch Hat Atelier, which just finished airing and…well….the less you know going in the better.