This week we take a look at a few different reactions to the Jason Arday story and try to sort out the reasons why fabulism is treated differently by different cultural tribes, and what that might have to do with shame and belonging. That and our usual assortment of other nonsense and complaining, of course. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown
Open — Sometimes you start the show talking to the robit about theoretical birthday distributions
3:10 — Kitty litter as an appliance in the CONNECTED HOME
14:00 — $220 to watch the big game on a big TV
22:46 — Are we allies with North Korea now?
31:39 — Actual News About Fake Polls in Fake News
46:04 — Many takes on the Jason Arday story
1:26:40 — Did CBS News’ Senior National Correspondent Mark Strassmann Get Off a Good One?
1:37:38 — Wrap-up! The End of Oak Street; Spiderman: Far From Home
1:50:54 — Sometimes you end the show by asking “Did Nietzsche or Kelly Clarkson do a better job popularizing ‘what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger’”

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

Cast Iron Brains returns from a week at the beach and having survived an attempted electrocution by a household appliance to discuss the news and our lives and whatever else we feel like complaining about, in keeping with our idiom. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown
Open — Barack Hussein Obama infringing on BrainIron Multinational Media Empire turf
12:28 — Abe [fails to be] In the World, goes to Asheville instead; Bob family time at the Jersey Shore
49:43 — Reflecting Pool-Gate gets even Trumpier
1:07:34 — Molly Jong-Fast on her plastic surgery
1:31:21 — Did Mark Strassmann, CBS News’ Senior National Correspondent, Get Off a Good One?
1:37:34 — Wrap-up! Spiderman 11; various Avengers movies; Dungeon Crawler Carl

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

Is there actually more of a “crisis of meaning” in the smartphone AI age? Is it more likely the case that the vast majority of humans always been perfectly happy to accept whatever meager meaning happens to come their way, with a small, hand-wringing set of elites always freaking out that the latest thing is bad? If everyone is content to watch individualized content on their solipsism machines, is it just kinda rude of Rowdy Roddy Piper to come barging in trying to wake everybody up? Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown
Open — Last Out the Door, Like a Hero
16:03 — Cat arsonists in Italy
20:51 — AI content taking over
1:03:10 — Psychos are travelling the world with giant television mugs
1:11:46 — Did Mark Strassmann, CBS News’ Senior National Correspondent, Get off A Good One?
1:18:26 — Wrap-up! Hadestown; The Hunger Games; Airport; The Tommyknockers

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

We’re here with a rundown of the various things our insane clown president is getting up to this summer, checking in on Mark Strassmann after a few weeks away, and Abe endorses polytheism. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown

Open — World Cup wrap-up, fixing global sport with Fuck Island

19:18 — The Last Trump Summer Vacation

1:10:50 — Did CBS News’ Senior National Correspondent Mark Strassmann Get Off a Good One? And the Iran war continues apace

1:21:08 — Wrap-up! Abe sees The Odyssey; Incest Dragons; The Sheep Detectives

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

It’s state tournament recap time! Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown
Open — Abe vs. The Peachtree Road Race
9:17 — Youth Beisbol Tournament Extravaganza
1:31:15 — Lindsey Graham is dead
1:42:42 — The Iran war is back, baby!
1:47:52 — AccuWeather Push Notifications of the Week
1:51:28 — Wrap-up! The Invite; King Sorrow

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

We’re finally popping back into your podcast feeds after nearly a month with a special(?) America at 250 episode of Cast Iron Brains. We’ve got patriotism, patriotic complaining about soccer, patriotic complaining about youth sport, and other patriotisms! Listen patriotically, as you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown

Open — What Makes America Great, 250 Years On

9:15 — Abe in America

20:50 — How to Watch Soccer

41:32 — On what’s wrong with youth beisbol

59:49 — Did anyone win the war in Iran?

1:14:01 — Trump’s crypto income, it’s quite substantial!

1:27:12 — Disclosure Day; Incest Dragons; interminable swim meets; youth trumpeter plays the national anthem, a review

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

Youth beisbol obligations have kept us from our podcasting responsibilities the last couple of weeks, but we’re finally back with our usual assortment of news, culture, and interpersonal complaints. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown

Open — Abe Live Bets the Games, NBA Finals Edition

20:09 — Trump walks out on Meet the Press

37:32 — Dismantling of 60 Minutes

42:42 — Why we love youth sport

1:37:01 — Wrap-up! Backrooms; Power Ballad

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

CIB returns, soggy and spent, to your podcast feeds with a look at the news of the week and a bit of rambling about the discomfort and anxiety of sharing the real world with a bunch of people who spend the vast majority of their time in a bespoke false creation that is not in conversation with reality. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown
Open — Connectivity issues, the weather, and stabbings
8:20 — Iran deal imminent, and Trump’s ongoing influence in the GOP, Trump IRS settlement
46:54 — Are we collectively losing a grip on reality? Probably!
1:29:26 — Wrap-up! Obsession; LotR: The Return of the King; Too much James Webb, too much space

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

On the eve of Abe’s Big Detroit Adventure we’re here to discuss a bad New York Times opinion piece, bad food products for children being marketed to adults, bad movies, and other bad things, probably. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown
Open — The Biffler refuses to release the files
11:49 — The New York Times tells the world that the Jews are eating the cats, doing other things with the dogs
46:08 — Uncrustables being advertised to so-called grown-ups
58:50 — Did CBS News’ Senior National Correspondent Mark Strassmann Get Off A Good One?
1:03:47 — Fuck Ole Miss Week
1:06:09 — Wrap-up! I Love Boosters, Mortal Kombat 2, Postseason youth baseball decisions

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.

Maybe it used to be the case that everyone believed a bunch of wild and crazy and reality-denying stuff, but at least we mostly shared those reality-challenged beliefs. Now it feels like everybody has their own bespoke insane reality-denying belief system, largely defined by the rejection of any institutional authority or shared truth. It’s great, and we talk about it! Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show Rundown

Open — Packed theaters, rainy ballfields, and the NFL draft

18:33 — Another foiled assassination attempt

1:04:45 — Give me the baby teeth and I will show you the man

1:11:34 — Did CBS News’s Senior National Correspondent Mark Strassmann Get Off a Good One?

1:20:38 — Wrap-up! Michael, Ben Sasse is Dying, and youth beisbol is child harm

Relevant Linkage can be found by visiting https://brainiron.substack.com/, where, if you would like to support this and the other podcasting and blogging endeavors of the Brain Iron dot com media empire, you can also become a paying subscriber.

The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Brains were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.