Ambitious Crossover Attempt

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 - What Higuruma tells us about Japanese courts, human nature, and meaning of justice. 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jen and Noam return after a holiday week where the news did not take a holiday. We've got Hegseth calling to leave no survivors behind during these "kinetic strikes" on boats in the middle of the ocean, Witkoff calling the Kremlin and coaching them on how to best get what they want from Trump, the shooting of two National Guard members in DC, calling their deaths before either was dead, how Comfortably Smug got his comeup, and the death of trust in anyone or anything. Also, because this is now a Pluribus fan pod, we discuss episode 5 and how cinematography ain't dead yet. And, what's under that tarp?

Jen and Noam discuss the new(ish) information about the seedy world of Jeffrey Epstein, his qualifications for judging evil, the MAGA breakup nobody saw coming, and what's going to happen this week when the House finally votes on releasing the full Epstein files. We also travel to China - well, actually, Hasan travelled to China, and we make fun of him for it. Plus, we touch on the end of the government shutdown and how Democrats completely botched the messaging on both the shutdown and the re-opening. To finish, we talk some more about our new favorite show, Pluribus, and how Carol isn't the best human but she's the human we've got. Warning - there are some spoilers for E3 but nothing too consequential.