Jen and Noam kick off this week with a tradlife PSA - don’t cheat on your spouse, and don’t have meaningless sex. Also, don’t let a handler ruin your big chance at connecting with Emma Stone.

Next we explore the not-so-curious case of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert getting the axe (well, in 10 months from now) and how, despite this all being fairly SOP for a company getting ready for a merger, media folks want to make this about Trump. 

And, of course, we can’t not talk about Trump’s big week in Epstein news, from his telling his base he doesn’t want their support if they refuse to believe the Epstein story is a hoax to the Wall Street Journal reporting on a letter that Trump signed (we are trying to not get sued here) for Epstein’s 50th birthday book. Haters say it’s fake, but we highly doubt that so what now? 

Noam and Jen tackle one of the more insane weeks in internet discourse. First, we have Grok going a little off the rails and becoming MechaHitler for 16 hours. Does its meltdown say more about AI, or the humans that it learns from? 

Then we have the Man Who Never Dies, Jeffrey Epstein, who did not make any lists or files and did indeed kill himself. At least according to the DOJ and the FBI, members of which assured all of us for years that there was indeed a list, files, and that Epstein did not kill himself. We talk about how MAGA is right to be mad, how everyone involved deserves what is happening, and why anyone offered up a definitive answer in the first place. 

Last, we discussed the very controversial movie Superman. Not controversial because it’s James Gunn’s first outing for DC (but that too) but because people on the internet cannot just let things be. 

Jen and Noam take a (slight) break from discussing politics to talk about internet drama. We go over the reveal that everyone’s favorite topic of discussion, Zohran Mamdani, identified as African on his application to Columbia, the Ethan Klein lawsuits and if they will set a precedent for what counts as fair use, Robert O’Neil’s grifter heel turn, the latest Pixar flop, and the value of just letting quirky characters be quirky without tying it to a trendy identity. 

Noam and Jen finally record this week’s episode! We talk about the big NYC Democratic primary upset of Andrew Cuomo by Zohran Mamdani, what is going on with the Iran-Israel conflict and Syria possibly joining the Abraham Accords chat, the Trump v. CASA that was not about birthright citizenship but nationwide injunctions, and the Fresh Prince of Ipswich deciding that being antisemetic is a easy way to fame. 

Jen and Noam discuss the war thing that happened last week, including (well, mostly) the US strike on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities. Was it a good idea? What is the state of the Iranian nuclear program now? What happens next? Are we getting a ceasefire? Will Trump get his coveted Nobel Peace Prize? What really happened in the lead-up to the US strike? Is MAGA going to forgive and forget if this all turns out to be a success? 

Noam and Jen spend most of the episode discussing the current escalation of the Israel—Iran conflict and our various thoughts about it. Noam also teaches you how to make a nuclear bomb, kind of. Neither of us is sure where things will go from here, since so far, this attack and counterattack have not gone the way everyone expected. 

We also discuss Trump’s comments on immigrants and the new directive not to perform workplace raids in specific well-connected industries. To finish it up, we discuss what we know about the assassination and attempted assassination of two Democratic members of the Minnesota state Congress. As of the time of the recording, the suspect was still at large, but was arrested Sunday night. 

Jen and Noam discuss…all of the things. We unpack the Trump - Musk breakup (for now), Terry Moran being suspended over a tweet that was correct but not nice, the Trump administration getting involved in places it shouldn’t, Alex Thompson outing a source for lying to him in the past, Karine Jean-Pierre’s new book (and political affiliation), and of course the LA riots and not believing everything you see on social media. 

Noam and Jen start out by discussing the Glenn Greenwald sex tape, because those are words that go together now. From there we move into discussing the Western media uncritically repeating a Hamas lie that Israel attacked Gazans who were in line for humanitarian aid, since the connective tissue between the stories is Israel being accused of things it did not do. 

We take some time to nerd out over Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russian airfields using Trojan trucks full of cheap drones, and how the war is showing the next phase of warfare will not rely on money and brute force but tech and skill.

To wrap up on a lighter note, we try to figure out what the hell the second season of The Last Of Us is leading to and the annoyance of creators retconning their original plot to make sure you get who the bad guy is. 

Jen and Noam discuss Biden’s big cancer announcement, the timing, the susness, how people can be very weird when it comes to cancer, and some of the revelations in the book Original Sin. We also talk about the tragic murder of two Israeli embassy employees outside of the Capital Jewish Museum and the difficulty of extending grace to those who never return the favor. Jen also gives her Grand Theory Of Engagement Slop and how it is driving political violence, and Noam gushes about The Rehearsal (again).

Noam and Jen discuss the mind numbing amount of stupid that took place last week, like people pretending to be very upset about James Comey’s dumb 86 47 post,  the umpteenth news cycle about Joe Biden’s mental state (not his cancer diagnosis thought, that was announced after the recording), and Sam Seder running into the brick wall that is Ezra Klein and the Abundance plan for making housing more affordable. 

Not everything is stupid, though! We give our final thoughts on Andor and the portrayal of the Empire as a soul sucking bureaucratic grind that is both evil and banal. Also, the Israeli contestant in this year’s Eurovision contest, Nova attack survivor Yuval Raphael, came in second place overall and first in public voting.