Ambitious Crossover Attempt

Jen and Noam have a nice long chat about the FlyDubai airplane hijacking, Jacob Geller's weird Title IX admission, the whole mess at Cornell, and Eric Schmitt's publicity stunt gone awry.

For our WAWC, Noam talks about Lanterns again now that the season is over, specifically about how the internet is wrong about the show (but what's new). Jen is happy that The Apothecary Diaries is back (so is Noam), and we both explain that the show isn't just for the ladies but is in fact a pretty hefty drama.

Noam and Jen get to have the conversation about the upcoming AI apocalypse that they were going to have last week until Nikole Hannah-Jones ruined everything. We discuss AI doomerism, AI CEOs warning of impending doom yet doing nothing to stop it, how AI isn't a sentient being, and how we're not all going to die from AI.

For our WAWC, Jen doesn't have anything because we're in the dead time between anime seasons, but Noam has two fun puzzle games for you - Dimhaven and Penelope Pendrick and the Art of Deceit. We also have a little discussion about if it's finally time to upgrade to the Switch 2, now that there are games coming out for it that we want to play.

Jen and Noam are finally back! Just in time to discuss Nikole Hannah-Jones' big piece on how she was an inattentive parent who left her kid in a bad school because reasons. OK, that's our interpretation of what happened, not hers, not that she seems to have learned anything from the experience either. Nevertheless, she is persisting, along with some of her supporters.

Since it has been so long since we recorded we have a bit of a grab bag of WAWC - Noam is still watching Lanterns and ignoring the online discourse, and Jen went and saw Akira in IMAX when it was showing. Jen sidetracked the conversation by asking Noam about Sidney Sweeney's big naked sports betting ad, which accidentally led to another discussion of Euphoria. We do learn that Noam knows about Gaylor Swift though, of all things.

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 and then it's Labor Day and then after all that is done we'll be back.

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 adaptation. Jen is watching the Netflix anime Chainsmoker Cat, which she freely admits is only going to be appealing to a certain age cohort but if you're versed in 90s alt animation you'll get it.

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 use to the platform. The requirements for both content type and metrics will be much higher than they are currently, and it sounds like the platform will be keeping a tight lid on who will qualify for payouts. Will we finally see the end of engagement slop? Will influencers who no longer meet monetization criteria stop posting? We'll find out next month!

For our WAWC, we discuss season three of House of the Dragon, which aired it's season finale this past Sunday. Overall the season is a mixed bag, but we do love that Aegon is now comic relief. And that Aemond's fiancee may turn him into a toad if he tried to take Aemond from her.

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 flashpoint in the anti-AI space. The issue is, who is to say if an author used genAI, the AI? Readers? Publishing houses? And at the end of the day, does it really matter to consumers, or is this the latest cause as identity?

And of course we do a fairly in depth discussion of the new Spider-Man movie Brand New Day, which brings us all the way back to episode 0 of this podcast when we talked about No Way Home. Ah, the nostalgia. Warning - we do spoilers so if you don't want any of that (and have somehow managed to miss spoilers elsewhere) then save the back half of this episode for after you've seen the movie.

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.

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.

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.