Pete Hegseth’s résumé maps the trajectory of a man who failed upward from Fox News host to Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense. As Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court hearings proved, sexual assault allegations are rarely a roadblock to a powerful job in the Trump administration. In fact, Donald Trump has consistently rewarded Hegseth for years of documented bad behavior—from financial mismanagement of veterans organizations to the relentless promotion of toxic masculinity.

Hegseth presents himself as the prototypical "man’s man," seemingly more invested in a pull-up challenge with a shirtless Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. than with abiding by the rules of war or the gravity of the Pentagon.

This week, Kill the Computer podcaster June Sternbach joins Katelyn and Christine to unpack Pete Hegseth’s pathetic masculinity complex. We dissect how mainstream media sanitized his record, and how rewarding his fragile masculinity both reflects and reinforces the darkest corners of U.S. political culture.

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Episode Links:

• Follow June Sternbach on Bluesky, @junlper.beer
• Nick Schwartz for USA Today: Fox News host hits man with an axe on live TV
• Gabriel Sherman for Vanity Fair: Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Pete Hegseth Said to Face Previous Sexual Misconduct Allegation
• Sharon LaFraniere and Julie Tate for The New York Times: Pete Hegseth’s Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years
• Jane Mayer for The New Yorker: Pete Hegseth’s Secret History
• Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube and Sarah Fitzpatrick for NBC News: Pete Hegseth's drinking worried colleagues at Fox News, sources tell NBC News
• Julie Tsirkin, Sarah Fitzpatrick and Courtney Kube for NBC News: Senators receive affidavit containing new allegations against Pete Hegseth, who denies the claims
• Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
• Calum Marsh for The New York Times: 100 Push-Ups and 50 Pull-Ups in Under 10 Minutes. What Could Go Wrong?
• Watch Pattie Gonia’s pull-up challenge
• Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima for The Washington Post: Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill Them All
• Graham Smith for Morning Edition: Pentagon shifts toward maintaining ties to Scouting
• Michael Liedtke and David Klepper for the Associated Press: What to know about the clash between the Pentagon and Anthropic over military’s AI use

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How deep does the media’s complicity go? In this episode of Cancel Me, Daddy, Katelyn Burns and Christine Grimaldi unpack the disturbing connection between the "Shitty Media Men" list, the MeToo movement, and the recently released Epstein files.

While the world focuses on the spectacle, we dig into the systems that allowed abuse to thrive. We explore how names on the infamous 2017 "Shitty Media Men" spreadsheet—originally created to warn women about harassment and assault—surfaced years later in the Department of Justice's redacted Epstein list.

In this episode we cover:

-Why the Epstein survivors still haven't found justice

-Lyz's own harrowing story of sexual harassment from a man who ended up in the Epstein files

-What happens to women who become known for being victims of the men who they speak up against

Featuring Guest: Lyz Lenz, author and host of the “Dingus of the Week” newsletter, joins us to discuss the bleak reality of seeking justice and why we need to stop asking "why didn't they speak up?" and start asking "why didn't we listen?"

Support Cancel Me, Daddy:

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About Cancel Me, Daddy: What isn’t the media telling you about politics, power, and marginalized people? Cancel Me, Daddy is a progressive media criticism show digging into how newsrooms, pundits, and platforms shape what we think is normal. We unpack the stories mainstream outlets ignore or sanitize, then talk about what that means for real people.

#EpsteinFiles #MeToo #MediaCriticism #LyzLenz #CancelMeDaddy #ShittyMediaMen

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It is Cancel Me, Daddy’s fifth anniversary! This week, former co-host Oliver joins Katelyn and Christine to discuss all the panic around cancel culture. Oliver and Katelyn pinpoint how they defined cancellation when the podcast started in 2021 and what has and hasn’t changed about it over the past five years.

Some of the very same “cancellation grifters”—Bari Weiss, Dave Chappelle, and J.K. Rowling—from the show’s earlier days are still profiting from their so-called cancellation[s]. They’ve evolved into what Katelyn and Christine call “media villains,” which exist within the show’s increasingly focused media and politics lens. Oliver, Katelyn, and Christine scrutinize the cancellation-to-grift pipeline with the show’s trademark wit. Come celebrate five years of thoughtful analysis and verbal shitposting! Thank you, listeners, for five years of support!

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Listen to our Dave Chapelle episodes: Cancel Me, Daddy Classics: Shame on Chappelle and Netflix Part 2
• Catch up on Bari Weiss (again) and the rest of the Harper’s Letter crew: They Screamed “Cancel Culture” — Then Went Silent While Trump Gutted Free Speech (ft. Parker Molloy)
• Tune into J.K. Rowling’s cancellation: Canncel-o Wizard Game-o (ft. Ana Valens)
• 
  

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You can’t log onto social media or otherwise tune into the news without witnessing extremely disturbing images of masked federal agents assaulting and arresting people in Minneapolis. We’re talking bystanders, legal observers, passerbys, immigrants, citizens—everyone in ICE’s wake.

This week, Katelyn and Christine welcome New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie to the pod. Jamelle’s work centers on history and racial politics. From the George Floyd uprisings to today’s violent campaign against undocumented immigrants and anyone who happens to get caught up in an assault or arrest, he brings moral clarity into focus. Katelyn, Christine, and Jamelle discuss how 19th century slave patrols became modern-day policing and the military-industrial complex led to the militarization of modern-day police—with the intent of suppressing free speech. It’s time to cancel—and abolish—ICE.

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Follow Jamelle Bouie on Bluesky: @jamellebouie.net + TikTok: @jamellebouie + Instagram: @jbouie
• Subscribe to Jamelle’s YouTube channel, Takes™
• Listen to Jamelle’s podcast, Unclear and Present Danger
• Katelyn Burns for Xtra: Renee Nicole Good’s queerness isn’t an aside—it’s a key part of her story
• Laura Jedeed for Slate: The Trump Administration Is Calling My Viral Story a Lie. Good Thing I Kept the Receipts.
• Nick Miroff for The Atlantic: ICE’s ‘Athletically Allergic’ Recruits
• Jeremy Barr for The Guardian: CBS News report on ICE officer’s injuries drew ‘huge internal concern’
• Rishika Dugyala for Politico: NYT opinion editor resigns after outrage over Tom Cotton op-ed
• Jamelle Bouie for Takes™: Donald Trump Wants to Cancel the Midterm Elections

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Was the Harper’s “free speech” letter really about defending open debate—or about protecting powerful media elites from criticism and consequences? In this episode, we expose how the Harper’s letter, its transphobic signers, and the larger “cancel culture” panic helped shield figures like J.K. Rowling and Bari Weiss while the real threats to free speech exploded under Trump.

More than 150 journalists, authors, and academics signed the infamous “Harper’s letter” in 2020. Published in Harper’s Magazine amid the George Floyd racial justice protests, the letter argued that the more serious threat to the nation was “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty”—aka “cancel culture.” At the time, trans people were some of the letter’s biggest critics, highlighting its bigoted dog whistles. The letter’s signatories include a who’s who of transphobia, from Bari Weiss to J.K. Rowling.

This week, writer Parker Molloy joins Katelyn and Christine to discuss how this so-called free speech crisis transformed how elite media covers—and protects—itself, from 2020 to today.

Tell us your out of context cancellation in the comments and we'll read the best ones on our next episode Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Leave us a voicemail with your out of context cancellation at https://www.memo.fm/cancelmedaddy

Links:

Follow Parker Molloy on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/parkermolloy.com

Subscribe to Parker Molloy’s newsletter, The Present Age: https://www.readtpa.com/

David Klion for The Nation: They All Signed the Harper’s Letter. Where Are They Now?, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/harpers-letter-free-speech-trump/

The Objective: A More Specific Letter on Justice and Open Debate, https://objectivejournalism.org/2020/07/a-more-specific-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/

Emily St. James

Zach Beauchamp for Vox: The “free speech debate” isn’t really about free speech, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/22/21325942/free-speech-harpers-letter-bari-weiss-andrew-sullivan

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Think cancel culture is new? The Catholic Church invented it in the Middle Ages.

Being burned at the stake was the ultimate deplatforming. In the 15th and 16th centuries, figures like Joan of Arc, Giordano Bruno, and Jan Hus faced the stake for the crime of heresy. But was heresy actually just a way to crush dissent?

This week, medievalist and historian Eleanor Janega (@GoingMedieval) joins Katelyn and Christine to unpack history’s original cancel culture. From the Vatican's "Community Guidelines" to the trial of Galileo, we look at how institutions have always used moral panic to maintain power.

Scheduling Note: Cancel Me, Daddy will return in January 2026. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! Thank you for tuning in—we appreciate you so much. 

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links for Apple:

• Subscribe to the Gone Medieval podcast via History Hit, Apple, or Spotify  
• Follow Eleanor Janega on Bluesky: @goingmedieval
• Buy Eleanor’s book, The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society, via The Flytrap Media’s Bookshop.org storefront 

Cancellation List Patreon Supporters:

Megg, I Beuregard, Alison, Siobhan Green, Maggi Joseph, Leslie Zavisca, Summer Lark, Amy Veeres, Matt

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Olivia Nuzzi is in the headlines again for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a source. Nuzzi’s former partner, Ryan Lizza, is using his newsletter to make the claims about Nuzzi and…former Republican presidential candidate Mark Sanford in 2020. Lizza’s ongoing, multi-part series about Nuzzi amid her book launch is an uncomfortable read for its florid prose and revenge porn vibes. Never forget: The New Yorker fired Lizza for unspecified sexual misconduct allegations in 2017, at the height of the #MeToo movement. Meanwhile, Lizza continues to target Nuzzi, who committed one of the most serious public ethical breaches in journalism with former Democratic-turned-independent presidential candidate and current Trump administration Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

This week, Katelyn and Christine discuss the mess with Marisa Kabas, the acclaimed independent journalist who founded The Handbasket. As Kabas says, moral rot in elite journalism is killing the whole field.

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Marisa Kabas for The Handbasket: https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/moral-rot-elite-journalism-nuzzi-lizza-rfk-jr-trump
• Katelyn Burns for Burns Notice: https://www.burnsnotice.com/olivia-nuzzi-is-an-embarrassment-to-journalism/
• The Guardian on Mark Sanford's Argentina scandal: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/24/mark-sanford-infidelity-south-carolina
• Olivia Nuzzi on Joe Biden's fitness: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/conspiracy-of-silence-to-protect-joe-biden.html
• Katelyn Burns for Vox on Biden/Sanders LGBTQ record: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/6/21167777/sanders-biden-lgbtq-voters

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Democrats’ recent, high-profile gubernatorial and mayoral victories across the country proved the value in candidates sticking to their pro-equality values. Whereas former presidential candidate Kamala Harris dodged Republicans’ notorious, bigoted anti-transgender playbook from the 2024 presidential election cycle, Virginia’s governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger, and New Jersey’s governor-elect, Mikie Sherrill, confronted pronoun panic and proved that Democrats are, indeed, for you in being there for everyone. New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani produced extra credit with his ad highlighting legendary trans and gay rights activist Sylvia Rivera. Mamdani highlighted trans people’s essential role in NYC history and how he’ll help trans people in the future as part of his official mayoral platform.

This week, Katelyn and Christine cancel anti-trans political ads with help from friend of the pod Laurel Powell, director of communications for the Human Rights Campaign and an advocate in her own right.

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Follow Laurel Powell on Bluesky at @laurelpowell.net and check out her website, www.laurelpowell.net
• Katelyn Burns for MSNBC: Democrats’ big election wins showed they don’t need to hide their support for trans rights
• Amanda Becker for The 19th: Democrats responded to anti-trans attacks this year — and won
• Lyz Lenz for Men Yell at Me: You can run a Mamdani in Iowa and win
• Katelyn Burns for Burns Notice, You Have to See This Mamdani Ad
• Katelyn Burns for Burns Notice, He Doesn't Even Go Here - Sick Burns 10/17/2025
• Cancel Me, Daddy: Democrats Were Banned From Saying These Progressive Words?? (aka Canceling Centrist Language Nannies)
• German Lopez for Vox: HB2, North Carolina’s sweeping anti-LGBTQ law, explained

Christine Grimaldi for The Atavist Magazine: The Shadow and The Ghost

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There’s a lot of overlap between cancel culture and cultural panics in which the anti-hero of the week profits off their notoriety. This week, Kate and Christine co-host a very special crossover episode with Panic World, journalist Ryan Broderick’s podcast about how the internet warps our minds, our culture, and eventually reality. As we like to say at Cancel Me, Daddy, “all the panic around cancel culture” can result in even more notoriety—and visibility—for our favorite canceled people. From Dave Chappelle, to disgraced Maine Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner, to, alas, Donald Trump, none seem poised to exit the national stage anytime soon.

Stream Cancel Me, Daddy on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Links:

• Follow Katelyn on Bluesky: @katelynburns.com
• Follow Christine on Bluesky: @yourombudsmom
• Follow Ryan on Bluesky: @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social/
• Katelyn Burns for Burns Notice: You Can't Run the Nazi Tattoo Guy Against Susan from "The County"
• Jamelle Bouie, Gene Demby, Aisha Harris, and Tressie McMillan Cottom for Slate: I'm Not Your Racial Confessor
• Merch Me, Daddy—Cancel Me, Daddy’s merch store!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Cancel Culture Grift Economy™ has once again rewarded Bari Weiss.

Support CMD on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cancelmedaddy

CBS News anointed Weiss—the former New York Times op-ed columnist turned so-called Free Press founder—as the broadcast network’s editor-in-chief.

What was once a mainstream media mainstay is poised to transform into a reactionary mouthpiece. Weiss will report directly to parent company Paramount CEO David Ellison, a billionaire aligned with Donald Trump.

Join Katelyn, Christine, and “Cancellation Guncle” Michael Hobbes, journalist and co-host of the popular podcasts Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill, to discuss how the imminent media transformation threatens free speech and rigorous journalism.

Stream on our YouTube channel—remember to ring the bell! Listen via Apple or Spotify. Be sure to check out the merch store—Merch Me, Daddy!

Follow Katelyn on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/katelynburns.com

Follow Christine on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/yourombudsmom.bsky.social

Follow Michael on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/michaelhobbes.bsky.social

If Books Could Kill Bari Weiss episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/cg/podcast/a-bari-special-bonus-episode-teaser/id1651876897?i=1000589386352

CMD episode about Jimmy Kimmel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE3ERIoEQwE&pp=ygUPY2FuY2VsIG1lIGRhZGR5

CMD episode with Smith College professor: https://podcasts.apple.com/cg/podcast/america-uncancelled/id1550508625?i=1000511540271

Media Matters: https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-health-care-reporter-has-history-spreading-misinformation-about-abortion

Katelyn Burns for Xtra: https://xtramagazine.com/power/politics/bari-weiss-cbs-the-free-press-media-277156

Merch Me, Daddy—Cancel Me, Daddy’s merch store, https://cancelmedaddy-shop.fourthwall.com/

Links:

Merch Store: https://cancelmedaddy-shop.fourthwall.com/

CMD Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cancelmedaddy

CMD TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cancelmedaddypod

CMD Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cancelme_daddy/

CMD BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/cancelmedaddy.bsky.social

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/CancelMe_Daddy

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