#1762 Trump's Imperialistic Shakedown of Venezuela
Air Date: 1-3-2026
Imperialism is best thought of as a "Wealth Pump," extracting wealth from one country and depositing it in another. Since Venezuela has wealth, and wealth is the only thing Trump cares about, his willingness to break his promise of being the peace president and go along with traditional Republican hawks is not a complicated mystery.
Read more#1761 Monthly-ish Mix: The Machine Cracks—Empire, Exploitation, and the Crumbling Facade
Air Date: 12-31-25
The Monthly-ish Mix™ is here to get you caught up on recent news without being overwhelming! This month we start with the infrastructure of imperial violence—from Dick Cheney's legacy to the arms race to Sudan's genocide. Then we expose how power exploits ordinary people through predation and financialized desperation. But here's the thing: resistance is working and the facade is crumbling. From courtroom wins to Mamdani's victory to young Republicans fleeing and conspiracies consuming the right, we end on the insight that authoritarian control is far more fragile than it pretends.
Read more#1760 Hot Mess: Conservative Chaos Below the Surface of Trump's Authoritarian Regime
Air Date: 12-26-2025
Authoritarian governments are always very focused on making it look like they have everything on absolute lock down. Everyone in lockstep, everything proceeding according to plan. But they do this for propaganda purposes, not because it has anything to do with reality. In fact, the opposite is always true. All of which is to say that conservatives are not in chaos because Trump is particularly chaotic, though he is. They're in chaos because that is the natural result of attempting to enforce monolithic thinking and ideological conformity.
Read more#1500 America, A Beginner's Guide (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 7–4-2022
Today, for this milestone episode, I attempted to squeeze in as many clever and interesting ideas as I could and ended up writing a starter guide to understand the United States. Plus, there are jingles!
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#1759 Why Dictators Are Lunatics and Their Followers are Fools
Air Date: 12-22-2025
It's said that mockery is one of the most effective weapons against dictators. I guess it depends on your goal, but still, there's truth there. And the good thing in that regard is that they are so very mockable. No really nice, likable, non-clownish people make themselves dictators and so the people who do are, without exception, absolutely ridiculous lunatics who deserve all the mockery and disdain in the world.
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