Behind the Bastards

Robert sits down with David Bell to tell the life story of MBS, the crown prince and ruler behind the scenes of the Saudi Kingdom.

(4 Part Series)

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All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file. 

- AI Robot Slaves and other CES Miracles 

- Best and Worst (non AI) Products at CES

- What’s Happening in Iran?

- What Happened in 2025 with Andrew

- Executive Disorder: Portland Shooting, the FED, Visa Pause & Turtle Island Liberation Front

You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today!

http://apple.co/coolerzone

Sources/Links:

What’s Happening in Iran?

https://www.instagram.com/hengaw_english?igsh=MTZ3Z29qd3h6YzVlMA==

https://www.instagram.com/ali.javanmardi?igsh=ODV2cGZzaXk2Z3dt

https://www.instagram.com/soran.mansournia?igsh=OWFhNDdtMTRtNzl0

https://www.instagram.com/kurdistanipeople?igsh=MTI3Y3kwZ3V0N3Zvag==

What Happened in 2025 with Andrew

https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/2025-set-be-second-or-third-warmest-year-record-continuing-exceptionally-high-warming-trend

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4522124/study-warns-brazilian-food-imports-increasingly-vulnerable-climate-change

https://wmo.int/media/news/fao-and-wmo-report-highlights-extreme-heat-risks-agriculture

https://apnews.com/article/monsoon-rains-nepal-floods-climate-change-india-ef8b703ab93bc310e397d896b032ce8f

https://chimpreports.com/un-warns-as-somalia-drought-crisis-deepens-hunger/

https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-tracks-extreme-july-wildfire-activity-both-sides-atlantic

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/31/weather-tracker-hurricane-melissa-caribbean-jamaica-haiti-cuba

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-switch-gen-z-protests-spread-across-globe-2025-10-02

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/scenting-victory-madagascar-youth-give-scant-thought-whats-next-2025-10-14

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/moroccos-youth-police-clash-fifth-night-protests-demanding-education-health-care-2025-10-01

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/madagascar-military-ruler-randrianirina-sworn-president-reuters-witness-2025-10-17/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5w5nyd5xzo

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/young-anti-corruption-protesters-oust-nepal-pm-oli-2025-09-09/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/25/peru-youth-protesters-state-of-emergency-gen-z

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/gen-z-styled-protests-spread-mexico-fueled-by-mayors-murder-2025-11-16/

https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2025/11/13/politica/marcha-de-la-generacion-z-estrategia-digital-pagada-no-es-genuina-sheinbaum

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/trade-unions-india-stage-nationwide-protests-new-labor-127887286

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/with-ai-on-the-rise-what-will-be-the-environmental-impacts-of-data-centers-180987379/

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/israel-and-palestine

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/power-struggle-sudan

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/03/blood-spilled-sudan-el-fasher-space-rsf-uae-darfur

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/drc-un-report-raises-spectre-war-crimes-and-crimes-against-humanity-north

https://cdn.sida.se/app/uploads/2020/08/15103021/Yemen-HCA-2025.pdf

https://www.stimson.org/2025/too-little-too-late-china-steps-up-military-aid-to-myanmars-junta/

Executive Disorder: Portland Shooting, the FED, Visa Pause & Turtle Island Liberation Front

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdms/pr/madison-man-arrested-arson-beth-israel-and-goldringwoldenberg-institute-southern

https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-synagogue-arson-jewish-south-0e489adc986bfaddd55662075bdb6443

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Indictment-Stephen-Spencer-Pittman.pdf

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26378204-tilf-complaint-signed-redacted/

https://www.foxla.com/news/2-turtle-island-liberation-front-members-plead-not-guilty-new-years-eve-socal-bombing-plot

https://www.syriahr.com/en/376284/ 

https://www.syriahr.com/en/376282/ 

https://www.syriahr.com/en/376266/ 

https://x.com/deborahlipstadt/status/2010387174651490769?s=20 

https://rote-hilfe.de/meldungen/kontokuendigung-wegen-antifa-banken-vollstrecken-us-politik-deutschland 

https://www.landtag.nrw.de/portal/WWW/dokumentenarchiv/Dokument/MMD17-5076.pdf 

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-13/socal-protester-permanently-blinded-by-dhs-agent-family-says

https://www.schmitt.senate.gov/media/press-releases/senator-schmitt-calls-for-the-impeachment-senate-trial-of-judge-boasberg-during-judiciary-hearing/ 

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.229.1.pdf

https://georgetown.app.box.com/v/AO-CaseAssignments-061825 

https://georgetown.app.box.com/v/AO-NDOs-120125 

https://x.com/StateDept/status/2011478657680757214?s=20 

https://x.com/StateDept/status/2010740549469557010?s=20

https://www.wired.com/story/trump-warned-of-a-tren-de-aragua-invasion-us-intel-told-a-different-story/

https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2009427948541993323

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/01/09/dhs-provides-update-us-border-patrol-portland-who-attempted-arrest-tren-de-aragua

https://newrepublic.com/post/205284/trump-administration-targets-senator-elissa-slotkin-illegal-orders-jeanine-pirro-doj

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/01/12/congress/mark-kelly-pete-hegseth-lawsuit-00722382

https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20260111a.htm

https://apnews.com/article/trump-powell-federal-reserve-d87eedf1e35195957f903f9963aeaf99

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2026/html/ecb.pr260113~ec4630b9fa.en.html

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert and Sophie continue to answer listener questions.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy New Year, Robert and Sophie sit down and answer listener questions.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file. 

- 2025 Q&A

- 2026 Predictions

- Trump Kidnaps Venezuelan President Maduro

- Inside Our AI Future: Report from CES

- Executive Disorder: Minneapolis ICE Shooting, Maduro, Iran & Aleppo Update

You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today!

http://apple.co/coolerzone

Sources/Links:

Executive Disorder: Minneapolis ICE Shooting, Maduro, Iran & Aleppo Update

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115850817778602689 

https://t.me/s/Operasyon1 

https://x.com/war_noir/status/2008927274326761631?s=20 

https://x.com/vvanwilgenburg 

https://hengaw.net/ 

Https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/our-response-israel-gaza-war

https://files.constantcontact.com/7fef1c1f901/78a97f42-d0ad-4077-94b0-1e3300697e20.pdf?rdr=true 

https://www.defendrojava.org/news/ecr-statement-on-the-situation-in-aleppo

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/what-bombing-means-for-freedom-in-286094596/ 

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/trump-kidnaps-venezuelan-president-maduro-315837818/

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/minneapolis-ice-shooting-franklin-park-marimar-martinez-operation-midway-blitz/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/21/us/marimar-martinez-shooting-case-what-we-know

https://mprnews.org/story/2026/01/07/shooting-south-minneapolis-ice-agents-federal-operation

https://pbs.org/newshour/politics/2000-federal-agents-sent-to-minneapolis-area-to-carry-out-largest-immigration-operation-ever-ice-says

https://www.defendrojava.org/news/call-in-campaign-urge-congress-to-take-action-in-support-of-syrian-kurds

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert is joined again by James Stout to continue to discuss the Tobacco Industry.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert is joined by James Stout to discuss the Tobacco Industry.

(2 part series)

1. https://daily.jstor.org/a-brief-history-of-tobacco-in-america/
2. https://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/james-buchananduke-father-of-the-modern-cigarette-by-william-kremer/comment-page-1/
3.   https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/eaa/tobacco.html
4. https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/eaa/duke-doc.html
5. https://sites.middlebury.edu/smokingkills/forms-of-tobacco-advertisement/ https://csts.ua.edu/files/2016/09/A-History-of-Tobacco-Trading
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5402187/
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490543/?report=classic#bib3 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40469740
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470496/?report=classic
9. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cigarette/JX6mDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
10. http://www.cigarettecentury.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part Three: Robert tells David about Ziz's glorious plan to take to the sea and sever the right and left brains of her followers in order to make them psychopaths god that sentence was weird to write trust us the episode is weirder.

Part Four: Robert concludes the story of the Zizians with a spree of horrific violent crimes and deaths, culminating in a shoot out with the Border Patrol in Vermont of all places.

Sources: 

1. https://medium.com/@sefashapiro/a-community-warning-about-ziz-76c100180509
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
3. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/infohazard
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
5. Wayback Machine
6. The Zizians
7. Spectral Sight
8. True Hero Contract
9. Schelling Orders – Sinceriously
10. Glossary – Sinceriously
11.  https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130330/https://sinceriously.fyi/my-journey-to-the-dark-side/
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130302/https://sinceriously.fyi/glossary/#zentraidon
13. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130259/https://sinceriously.fyi/vampires-and-more-undeath/
14. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
15. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
16. https://x.com/orellanin?s=21&t=F-n6cTZFsKgvr1yQ7oHXRg
17. https://zizians.info/
18. according to The Boston Globe
19. Inside the ‘Zizians’: How a cultish crew of radical vegans became linked to killings across the United States | The Independent
20. Silicon Valley ‘Rationalists’ Linked to 6 Deaths
21. The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians | WIRED
22. Good Group and Pasek’s Doom – Sinceriously
23. Glossary – Sinceriously
24. Mana – Sinceriously
25. Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
26. The Zizian Facts - Google Docs
27. Several free CFAR summer programs on rationality and AI safety - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
28. This guy thinks killing video game characters is immoral | Vox
29. Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck
30. Eliezer Yudkowsky comments on On Terminal Goals and Virtue Ethics - LessWrong 2.0 viewer                                                                                                   
31. Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
32. SquirrelInHell: Happiness Is a Chore
33. PLUM OF DISCORD — I Became a Full-time Internet Pest and May Not...
34. Roko Harassment of PlumOfDiscord Composited – Sinceriously
35. Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
36. Infohazardous Glossary – Sinceriously
37. SquirrelInHell-Decision-Theory-and-Suicide.pdf - Google Drive
38. The Matrix is a System – Sinceriously
39. A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
40. Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
41. A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
42. PLUM OF DISCORD (Posts tagged cw-abuse)
43. Timeline: Violence surrounding the Zizians leading to Border Patrol agent shooting

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part One: Earlier this year a Border Patrol officer was killed in a shoot-out with people who have been described as members of a trans vegan AI death cult. But who are the Zizians, really? Robert sits down with David Gborie to trace their development, from part of the Bay Area Rationalist subculture to killers.

Part Two: Robert tells David Gborie about the early life of Ziz LaSota, a bright young girl from Alaska who came to the Bay Area with dreams of saving the cosmos or destroying it, all based on her obsession with Rationalist blogs and fanfic.

Sources: 

1. https://medium.com/@sefashapiro/a-community-warning-about-ziz-76c100180509
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
3. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/infohazard
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
5. Wayback Machine
6. The Zizians
7. Spectral Sight
8. True Hero Contract
9. Schelling Orders – Sinceriously
10. Glossary – Sinceriously
11.  https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130330/https://sinceriously.fyi/my-journey-to-the-dark-side/
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130302/https://sinceriously.fyi/glossary/#zentraidon
13. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130259/https://sinceriously.fyi/vampires-and-more-undeath/
14. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
15. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
16. https://x.com/orellanin?s=21&t=F-n6cTZFsKgvr1yQ7oHXRg
17. https://zizians.info/
18. according to The Boston Globe
19. Inside the ‘Zizians’: How a cultish crew of radical vegans became linked to killings across the United States | The Independent
20. Silicon Valley ‘Rationalists’ Linked to 6 Deaths
21. The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians | WIRED
22. Good Group and Pasek’s Doom – Sinceriously
23. Glossary – Sinceriously
24. Mana – Sinceriously
25. Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
26. The Zizian Facts - Google Docs
27. Several free CFAR summer programs on rationality and AI safety - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
28. This guy thinks killing video game characters is immoral | Vox
29. Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck
30. Eliezer Yudkowsky comments on On Terminal Goals and Virtue Ethics - LessWrong 2.0 viewer                                                                                                   
31. Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
32. SquirrelInHell: Happiness Is a Chore
33. PLUM OF DISCORD — I Became a Full-time Internet Pest and May Not...
34. Roko Harassment of PlumOfDiscord Composited – Sinceriously
35. Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
36. Infohazardous Glossary – Sinceriously
37. SquirrelInHell-Decision-Theory-and-Suicide.pdf - Google Drive
38. The Matrix is a System – Sinceriously
39. A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
40. Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
41. A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
42. PLUM OF DISCORD (Posts tagged cw-abuse)
43. Timeline: Violence surrounding the Zizians leading to Border Patrol agent shooting

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We conclude the story of how Britain ended its role in the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Against the State by James Stout available for preorder here: https://www.akpress.org/against-the-state.html 

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