Ambitious Crossover Attempt
A podcast that ambitiously attempts to crossover various topics from the raw unfiltered feed of the internet. Noam Blum and Jen Monroe break down the past week's madness and explore the intersection points of different areas of online discourse.
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Episode 222 - Beware Geeks Bearing Grifts
07/21/2026
Episode 222 - Beware Geeks Bearing Grifts
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.
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Episode 221 - The Mainechurian Candidate
07/14/2026
Episode 221 - The Mainechurian Candidate
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 against him. Not that he went quietly - he recorded an 11 minute selfie video telling us all how this was not his fault and it’s all because (((they))) don’t want him around. We’re also learning some wild stuff about the duo that found him in the first place, including the usual nepo baby reveal. They are all like this, every damn time. For our WAWC, Noam and Jen can actually talk about the same things again! We both have read and recommend There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, and we both agree it would be a good candidate for the emerging trend of finding buzzy online horror stories to turn into movies. We do a little chatting about this week’s episode of HotD since we recorded on a Monday, and also on the new Ghost In The Shell anime currently airing on Amazon.
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Episode 220 - Real Americans
07/06/2026
Episode 220 - Real Americans
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. Jen recommends Smoking Behind The Supermarket With You, a nice romance anime featuring full grown adults.
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Episode 219 - Wiener Dogged
06/29/2026
Episode 219 - Wiener Dogged
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 season of Witch Hat Atelier, which just finished airing and…well….the less you know going in the better.
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Episode 218 - Reflecting Poorly
06/23/2026
Episode 218 - Reflecting Poorly
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.
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Episode 217 - Happy Birthday To Me
06/15/2026
Episode 217 - Happy Birthday To Me
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 striking within Russia with their drones. We also agree: war without military casualties is both amazing and terrifying. Back to the topic of Trump’s birthday, the saga of the Kennedy Center’s name has picked up again this past weekend. It has been reported that Trump’s name has indeed been removed, but there is an…interesting scaffolding of plastic sheeting obscuring the view of the letting on the front of the building. This conversation leads us to once again lament that Congress refuses to do their job and leaves everything to the courts to clean up. For our WAWC, Noam still really really wants you to watch the Apple TV show Widow’s Bay. He also feels like Apple should be paying him at this point, since they suck at promoting their own content. Jen finally saw The Mandalorian and Grogu, a perfectly fine movie that is really episode 0 of season four of The Mandalorian. Which is a good thing!
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Episode 216 - The Platner Files
06/08/2026
Episode 216 - The Platner Files
Noam and Jen are on time this week, because there’s a lot to talk about. As we somewhat alluded to last week, the NYT dropped a story detailing Graham Platner’s past. While it is being slammed as a soft catch and kill, and the main named accuser Lindsey Fifield has said there was a lot more that wasn’t included in the article, what was included is pretty damning. Damning enough that, 20 years ago, Planer would have needed to drop out to keep his life from being a distraction. Alas, we don’t live in those times anymore. Earlier today, it was announced that Iran has fired missiles into Israel, in response to Israel firing missiles into Beirut, which was in response to Hezbollah firing missiles into Israel. So once again we are left asking - what now? Is Trump going to actually do anything? Will Iran care? To wrap up, we spend some time making fun of Candace Owens and her trip to Russia. Apparently St Petersburg is one big Temu America, down to the Stars coffee chain and the McDonald’s that is not McDonald’s. It’s kind weird how all of the America First people end up in Russia to sing its praises. For our WAWC (I told you, Noam can’t make me add those Ds), Noam recommends the Apple TV show Widow’s Bay. Jen recommends the tiny e-reader XTEINK X4, which is fast becoming the hip new thing in e-readers. We also have a discussion about the success of Obsession, Backrooms, and what it is that puts people in seats at the movie theatre nowadays.
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Episode 215 - Trump 250
06/02/2026
Episode 215 - Trump 250
Jen and Noam are late again, but that’s Noam’s fault because he’s a Euphoria fan (?) now. But we don’t just discuss the season (series?) finale of Euphoria, we discuss the DC based America 250 events that are falling apart in real time because Trump can’t keep his hands off the celebrations. And yes, despite the feigned indignation on the topic, it’s a little hard to say Trump isn’t making this about Trump when there’s huge banners of his face on government buildings in DC. And he decides to cancel a concert in lieu of his making a speech. Primary season has officially started, and we’ve already got two controversial candidates to talk about; Graham Platner and Ken Paxton. While Paxton’s flaws are well known and documented, including stealing money and cheating on his wife, Platner is stacking up new ones by the day. So we ponder the big question - when does it all become too much to support, even in the pursuit of power? For our WAWC, we do a spoiler free discussion of Backrooms, the new movie based on the viral YouTube videos created by Kane Parsons. We both agree - if you are a fan of A24 horror films, you’ll like where they went with this concept. We also discuss the idea of taking a concept that doesn’t have a plot, strictly speaking, and translating that into a film. And, as mentioned, we discuss the ending of season three of Euphoria which does look to be the series finale because we’re a little confused as to where Levinson would even go from here with the remaining characters.
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Episode 214 - Slush Fund Babies
05/26/2026
Episode 214 - Slush Fund Babies
Noam and Jen make it back a day late. It’s ok, that's what a three day weekend means. We did have plenty to talk about though, seeing as Trump settled his lawsuit against his own IRS over something that happened during his last term and that means that there is now $17.76B of taxpayer money that can now be used for….well it’s not really been determined what for. What’s for certain is that all of the J6 participants think they have a check coming to them. Thomas Massie lost his primary to some MAGA dude nobody really knows, but he still can’t bring himself to say that Trump sucks. He did find time to take a shot at Israel though, despite them having nothing to do with his election loss. We think he might be the newest citizen of the post MAGA Podcastistan soon enough, maybe then he’ll criticize the man who cost him his career. The war with Iran is still on. Or maybe it’s off, No, it’s still on. Still no deal with the US. Eventually someone is going to have to admit this whole situation is FUBAR and do something to fix it, although it seems like nobody wants to admit that to Trump just yet. We spend a minute discussing the Trump administration wanting to talk to Hasan Piker and Medea Benjamin about their trip to Cuba. We also wonder what happened to all of those solar panels they brought to the Cuban people (jk we know the Cuban government took them). For our WAWC, Noam is still making his way through season 3 of Euphoria, and Jen (and Noam) encourage everyone to go to the good Smithsonian Air and Space Museum out in Chantilly, VA.
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Episode 213 - Little Trouble in Big China
05/18/2026
Episode 213 - Little Trouble in Big China
Surprise! Jen is visiting Boston, so we are podding in person, and we even watched a movie together to discuss (more on that later). We cover Trump's trip to China and his worrying comments on Taiwan, and transition to his domestic conflict with Thomas Massie and now Lauren Boebert. Will the Republican party become a Vancian Post-MAGA party or will Rubio symbolize some gradual retreat from maximalism? People are also still Big Mad about the Odyssey, so we talk some more about that, and about the anger that permeats pop culture debates. This leads us into What Are We Consuming, which was the new horror movie Obsession. We liked it a lot, and are happy that it is part of the trend of tapping horror YouTubers to make indie horror movies.
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Episode 212 - Hounding Israel
05/13/2026
Episode 212 - Hounding Israel
Jen and Noam make it back after Noam’s illness (not hantavirus, just regular virus) to discuss Nick Kristof’s stupid gullible toxic empathy, how it’s not possible to train a dog to sexually assault anyone, how in the world could anyone question the word of 14 people, and where is all of this antisemitism coming from anyway. We start out, however, talking about The Odyssey (the movie, that’s not a pun) and the controversies about the casting announcements that were just made. Jen tries her best to explain to everyone that The Odyssey isn’t real, and we both agree that Christopher Nolan knows what he's doing. We also get sidetracked into a discussion on translations and how they can go awry. For our WAWC, Noam recommends the show From on MGM+. If you didn't know that MGM has a streaming service, you’re not alone, but somehow this show is on its fourth season. We also discuss the current season of Euphoria some more, Noam explains what vorarephilia is, and Jen wonders if that means there are people watching Attack on Titan for different reasons.
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Episode 211 - Artificial Intelligentsia
05/05/2026
Episode 211 - Artificial Intelligentsia
Noam and Jen make fun of Richard Dawkins finding God in the machine. Ok, not God, but Claude(ia). This kicks off a rambling discussion of AI, consciousness, the Turing Test, if AI is the doom of all humanity, Sam Altman’s house getting firebombed, people being way too het up over data centers, water usage for golfing courses and water features in shopping malls, and how Skynet will still send robots and it will probably be the Pentagon’s fault. On the Iran front, we discuss if it is still a front and what exactly the US Navy’s role will be in guiding ships through said front. Meanwhile, the Trump administration fumbles around for a reason why they don’t need to ask Congress to declare war. Nobody really knows what’s going on still, but Iran seems perfectly happy to continue on as things are right now even though they are hurting financially. Speaking of Middle East financial news, the UAE is leaving OPEC and moving towards a formal relationship with Israel. As always, the Middle East is going through some changes. For our What Are We Consuming, Noam has made it to season 3 of Euphoria and has a theory about how this season is one big subversive joke on conservative values. Jen just rambles on about Euphoria reaction videos, anime, and going shopping at yet another new Japanese life store in the DMV.
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Episode 210 - Shooting And Looting
04/28/2026
Episode 210 - Shooting And Looting
Jen and Noam return a day late, because one of us has emergency podcast duties now. Of course we have to start with the WHCD and the attempted assasination attempt on Trump. Everyone is fine, and nobody much seemed like they felt they were in any real danger, as evidenced by the way everyone involved acted during and after the incident. And of course, it’s not an assasination attempt without people claiming it was staged, but this time around we have a new group of people making the claim. It also wouldn’t be an assasination attempt without people trying to engagement farm and push an unrelated agenda, this time it’s the stalled White House ballroom project. Speaking of people acting out online, the NYT decided to interview nepo babies Hasan Piker and Jia Tolentino about stealing is cool. Jen doubts that either one of them has ever stolen a damn thing ever, because they’re both massive tryhards. Nevertheless, we make fun of them and the idea that stealing from Whole Foods is OK but paying someone to bring you food in the rain is not. As for Iran, things seem to be at an impasse. Trump announced peace talks, Iran quickly pointed they agreed to no such thing, Trump pretended to be the one to call things off. How this saga ends nobody seems to know. Having a plan would be good, but unlike oil tankers in the Strait of Hormutz, that ship has already sailed. For our WAWC, Noam tells us about how he is catching up on Euphoria in order to watch the third season that is now airing. Jen tried to watch that show once, but it was too bleak even for her (and that’s pretty damn bleak). She has been vicariously watching season three through reaction videos on YouTube, and it sure doesn’t seem like it’s gotten any less disturbing.
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Episode 209 - Block Aid?
04/20/2026
Episode 209 - Block Aid?
Noam and Jen are not sure what is going on. We…think the war with Iran is still on? Does Trump know? Does anyone? It’s all very up in the air, which is not great when you’re talking about a hot war. We do know that “Hungarian taxpayers” were funding all of the conferences that CPAC has been holding in Hungary all these years, thanks to Magyar and his anti-corruption tear. We also know certain people were also on the “Hungarian taxpayer” payroll, given their crashout now that the goulash train is stopping. At any rate, this revelation about “Hungarian taxpayer” money sure does explain a lot about the postliberal movement. For our WAWC, Noam recommends Daemons of the Shadow Realm, which definitely has an interesting premise and a lot of potential. Jen explains Go For It, Nakamura-kun and the controversy surrounding it, and how certain Western fans need to calm down.
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Episode 208 - Islamabad Trip
04/13/2026
Episode 208 - Islamabad Trip
Jen and Noam are happy that Iran has not been ended. We are not happy about, well, much of anything else that has happened since Tuesday. Between Iran’s ridiculous ceasefire asks, the failed ceasefire talk (singular), Trump being basically done with the whole war, and the blockade of the blockade it doesn’t seem like much progress is being made. On the topic of progress, Hungary has finally rid itself of Victor Orban! Hooray! Now hopefully Hungary can get on a more stable economic track and the EU can stop having to deal with Hungary being Russia’s proxy vote. In case you missed it, NASA went to the moon again too. OK, we flew by the moon this time, but we will be going to the moon really soon. Why? Because we like the moon, and there are resources there. For our What Are We Consuming, Noam explains how Exit 8 does actually work as a movie, since Jen had her doubts that creepy ick vibes could be turned into an actual movie. Jen explains the Super Mario Galaxy movie and how it’s not as good as the first one, but still pretty decent and enjoyable.
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Episode 207 - Lifelines and Deadlines
04/07/2026
Episode 207 - Lifelines and Deadlines
Noam and Jen return, a day late but things do happen. Or maybe they don’t, which is a running theme of our coverage of the Iran war. This time, maybe Trump is going to bomb all of the infrastructure if Iran doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz. Or not. Who can say really. Speaking of dropping bombs, Nate Silver somehow ragebaited Hasan Piker into posting his follower stats on Twitter, where everyone noticed a suspiciously large number of unverified accounts follow him. Not the kind of information one releases about oneself but hey, Hasan has been under a lot of scrutiny lately. In happy Iran news, the US rescued an Air Force officer whose plane was shot down deep in the Iranian mountains. Hooray us! Well, at least we’re happy about it. I mean, Israel can’t have all the insane movie plot missions. For our WAWC, Noam recommends the very weird sounding game Crimson Desert, which somehow has both magic and robots. Jen gives a round of applause to the Winter 2025 season of anime that just wrapped up, and talks about how it’s really nice that two vastly different shows are getting love from audiences.
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Episode 206 - Holiday In Havana
03/30/2026
Episode 206 - Holiday In Havana
Jen and Noam are finally back! Not that much has changed - we still don’t know what the game plan in Iran is, nor when the Strait of Hormutz will be open again. Now the conversation is about if we will be sending troops to the Middle East, again to do what we don’t know exactly. Whatever it is we’re doing, it’s because Israel tricked Trump somehow. Not much logic to be found in that argument, but people sure are willing to make it publicly. We also discuss the big state sponsored holiday / human safari trip to Havana that all of the cool progressive influencers went on to “highlight the struggles of the Cuban people.” Oddly, no suffering was documented, but everyone seemed to have a really good time. For our WAWC, we finally both watched the same thing; Project Hail Mary, which we both recommend. It’s a nice, not dark movie about a man and a spider rock in space.
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Episode 205 - Dire Strait
03/16/2026
Episode 205 - Dire Strait
Noam and Jen return to the war in Iran, after a detour into discussing if Tucker is lying or telling the truth about the CIA getting ready to bring a case against him. This of curse leads to a conversation about foreign influence in the right wing griftosphere, how Twitter isn’t a reliable place to make a living, and how those two things intersect. Moving back to Iran, we discuss the reporting that the Trump administration did not plan for Iran to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. We agree that there is a distinction to be made between if the closure was unexpected, or was assumed to work itself out somehow. Whichever it is, it's clear that this is a situation that is certainly not going to give Americans the warm fuzzies about continuing this war. We also discuss the attack on Temple Israel in Michigan, and how the word “Israel” seems to be very confusing to anti-Zionists. There is also the issue of calling attacks like this blowback for the war in Iran, which obviously makes no sense outside of excusing terrorism. For our WAWC, Noam has nothing but Jen has a YouTube video - . In essence, it’s a good primer on the Japanese court / criminal justice system, which is important for understanding a story arc in Jujitsu Kaisen.
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Episode 204 - Hit The BRICS
03/09/2026
Episode 204 - Hit The BRICS
Jen and Noam return to the war (it’s a war now, the president said so) in Iran, including the additional strikes completed by Israel on the Assembly of Experts. What they are experts in we’re not sure, obviously not in Zoom. We also talk about how we still don’t have an explanation for why the US attacked Iran, let alone an idea of what all of this is supposed to accomplish or what the endpoint is. Not ideal for a situation where the president is flippantly discussing how people die in war. Speaking of war, TwitX has decided to declare war on AI slop war videos. Naturally, some people think this is some nefarious plot to hide from the world that Israel is destroyed, because surely the internet wouldn’t lie to them. Then again, Trump is posting that Iran is destroyed, so there is that. For our WAWC, Noam recommends Slay The Spire II which is finally out on early release on Steam. It has already consumed hours of his life, and we may not see him for a while. Jen recommends the anime Oshi No Ko and wonders about what makes a story ending bad vs just not what you wanted it to be.
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Episode 203 - Bye-atollah
03/03/2026
Episode 203 - Bye-atollah
Noam and Jen discuss a little attack on Iran you might have heard about over the weekend, now that Noam is not on Emergency Pod duty for Commentary. Much like our discussion in the wake of the Maduro extraction, we talk about how you can be happy that something happened but have concerns about how it happened and what exactly will happen next. Obviously, this situation is both more extreme and more volatile than Venezuela, so we really hope someone knows what they’re doing (we don’t have much hope of that however) We also talk about the fight between the DOD and Anthropic over the DOD (allegedly) wanting to make killbots and spy on everyone effortlessly. There is a discussion to be had not just on the metis of this case, but on the use of AI in a battlefield or a criminal investigation. For our WAWC, Noam has two Korean reality shows produced by Jeong Jong-yeon, Devil’s Plan and Agents of Mystery. Jen recommends the anime Ninja Scroll (which, to settle a discussion on the pod, the movie came out in 1993 and the show was released in 2003).
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Episode 202 - An Idiot Abroad
02/23/2026
Episode 202 - An Idiot Abroad
Jen and Noam return to discuss the Supreme Court shooting down Trump’s “national emergency” tariffs, Jen’s hope for a restructuring of executive power, Tucker lying about his trip to Israel (well at least to the airport), lying for clout, America’s new figure skating darling Alysa Liu, journalists asking athletes dumb political questions, and being proud to be an American. For our WAWC, Jen recommends the new Sam Raimi film Send Help, and Noam (probably because he got tired of Jen badgering him to watch more anime) starts watching Hell’s Paradise.
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Episode 201 - White Culture War
02/17/2026
Episode 201 - White Culture War
Noam and Jen record a special Presidents’ Day episode where we discuss important things, like Olympic controversies around fingering and penile enhancements. OK, we also discuss actual important things, like the fact that Jeremy Carl is for some reason nominated to a position in the State Department and how he can’t define white culture despite having written a whole book on the topic. This of course kicked off a whole debate on the internet about “white culture”, which in Carl’s defense nobody else can define either. At any rate, it’s a dumb concept that makes no sense. We spend a little time discussing ICE being pulled out of Minneapolis, but we got sidetracked by the WSJ article on the chaos within Kristi Noem’s DHS. And of course, we had to spend some time talking about how everyone hates Hasan Piker now, after his comments that Democrats are not better than Republicans on the topic of trans rights. Progressives overall are having a fit over the idea of Newsom being the candidate in 2028, but we agree he could totally mog Vance in a debate. Foe our WAWC, Noam pitches everyone on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms again (really he just wants Jen to start watching it), and Jen explains how everyone is trashing the new BookTok’d version of Wuthering Heights.
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Episode 200 - Superbol
02/10/2026
Episode 200 - Superbol
Jen and Noam made it to episode 200! Hooray! We have another Super Bowl to talk about, one in which people are angry at the halftime show. Again. Certain people just really like to be angry at halftime shows. We also go over the Trump tweet - y’know, THAT tweet - and when does it all become too much to gloss over. And why does Trump get a pass at all, seeing as he’s the president. For our WAWC, Jen went and saw the Melania documentary. Yeah, that was an adventure. A weirdly foot focused view of the leadup to the second inauguration of Trump. Make of that what you will.
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Episode 199 - Everyone Emailed Epstein
02/02/2026
Episode 199 - Everyone Emailed Epstein
Jen and Noam discuss a little bit of everything, since we recorded later than usual last week. We got another Epstein files drop, unqualified people in the Trump administration, Pretti’s prior run in with ICE / Border Patrol, Don Lemon getting arrested over the protest at a Minneapolis church, revelations about how Twitter works, and other random topics that come up as they do. For our WAWC, Jen contemplates seeing the Melania movie, and Noam recommends MIO: Memories in Orbit.
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Episode 198 - ICE Storm
01/28/2026
Episode 198 - ICE Storm
Noam and Jen discuss another shooting death in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE / Border Patrol (we can’t tell the difference anymore), the intense fallout from both the shooting itself and the Trump administration's reaction to it, who will or will not keep their job, does it even matter, bringing a gun to a protest, and how bragging about lying can backfire. We also discuss what we know about the situation in Iran, since it is still hard to get information on what is happening inside the country with protests and how many have been killed. However many it is, it is too many for the world to be this silent about it. There is a bit of good news to report - for the first time in over a decade, there are no Israeli hostages in Gaza. The last body was returned home this week, which was a relief given everything that has happened over the past few years. For our WAWC, Noam pitches you on watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and Jen finishes up the MAPPA trifecta by watching Hell’s Paradise.
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Episode 197 - Give Me Greenland
01/19/2026
Episode 197 - Give Me Greenland
Jen and Noam return to some of the topics from last week, since things keep going from bad to worse. The situation in Iran has gotten worse, Trump seems really insistent that the US should own Greenland, and ICE is ramping up in Minneapolis for no good reason. And so we wonder, where the hell is Congress and is anyone going to stop the insanity. For our What Are We Consuming, Noam explains how playing The Roottrees Are Dead made his online investigative skills better and Jen explains why you should watch Gachiakuta.
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Episode 196 - ICE And Fire
01/12/2026
Episode 196 - ICE And Fire
Noam and Jen…well they try to keep this pod from going on for hours, so they had to be a little selective with there was a baker’s dozen topics to discuss from the past week. We start by checking in on Iran and the latest series of uprisings taking place. While this is certainly not the first time we’ve discussed an uprising in Iran, this one feels a little different. Then we have to move on to the ICE shooting that took place in Minneapolis this past week. There is quite a lot to discuss, from the legality of the shooting itself to the reactions, which we both agree are the worst we’ve ever seen on social media. On a brighter note, Noam explains why you should be watching the Korean cooking competition show Culinary Class Wars, and Jen celebrates the return of Jujitsu Kaisen for its third season.
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Episode 195 - Maduro's Last Dance
01/05/2026
Episode 195 - Maduro's Last Dance
Jen and Noam were going to discuss the Somali Medicaid fraud story coming out of Minnesota and CBS News spiking a story about the US sending people to CECOT, but Trump ruined all of that by arresting Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Since nobody anywhere is talking about that, we tackle the topic of What Does It Mean and What Will Happen Next now that Maduro is in a jail cell in Brooklyn (yeah we don’t get that one either really). And we also have to talk about the season finale of Pluribus, if it did hold up for the whole season, and when season 2 will air (a long time from now, unfortunately). Noam watched the final half season of Stranger Things, so we talk about that and the merits of shows that are written with a specific ending point from the beginning.
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Episode 194 - Heritage Unamerican
12/22/2025
Episode 194 - Heritage Unamerican
Noam and Jen unfortunately had to cancel their special podcast plans due to the death of Noam’s grandfather, but we still recorded an episode nonetheless. We certainly had plenty to discuss; the solved yet unsolved mystery of the Brown University - MIT shooter, the TPUSA conference, how the USS Liberty incident is indeed irrelevant to any conversation in 2025, Ben Shapiro, how the Heritage American conversation is heading to some dark places, and how America is pretty damn cool. On the Pluribus front, there’s the reveal of what the Big Plan is for the hivemind, Carol struggling with how everything is perfect but also completely wrong, and Manousos still making his way to Carol’s doorstep.
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Episode 193 - Intifada Down Under
12/15/2025
Episode 193 - Intifada Down Under
Jen and Noam discuss the depressing news out of Australia - a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach was targeted by shooters, leaving (as of this writing) 16 dead and over 20 injured. We talk about the alarming rise of antisemitism in both the US and abroad, what globalizing the intifada means, and how every attack on Jews brings a wave of conspiracy theories. We also spend some time talking about how Candace Owens and Tim Pool are pleading poverty over having to “hire security” to deal with “threats” they receive, how everyone is getting tired of Candace, and if MAGA influencers are realizing that 2026 may well be the end of the line for them. And Pluribus. Of course. This episode was a little different though, more of a meditation on what loneliness is and how nobody is truly an island unto themselves. Even incredibly stubborn, dickish people.
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