Centered From Reality

In this episode, Alex focuses on the tragedy and destruction caused by the multiple fires in the Los Angeles area. Dry conditions, rough terrain, the Santa Ana winds, and infrastructural issues have led to historic fires that have destroyed houses and historical locations in the area. Alex talks about the politics of this issue, first hand accounts from friends, and how climate change is clearly driving this issue even if some politicians want to blame California’s leadership.

In this episode, Alex talks about Mark Zuckerberg doing a complete 180 in regards to how Meta will deal with disinformation and fact checking. It seems like he is also bending the knee to Trump after calculating the situation. Later, Alex talks about the performative rhetoric of Trump entertaining the ideas of buying (or taking) Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Annexing Canada, and taking back the Panama Canal. 

In this episode, Alex reflects on January 6th on its four year anniversary. He truly believes that the “coup makers” have won and that most of Trump’s allies, foreign leaders, and the opposition will need to memory hole J6 because everyone will need to do business with the Commander-In-Chief. Alex talks about how it seems like a lot of people just want their views justified and not challenged through social media. He also talks about how right-wing misinformation perfectly helped retcon a tragic day in US history. He worries that by 2028, Donald Trump will be completely normalized, with J6 retconned into the void. 

In this episode, Alex starts by talking about why he found the movie Anora to be one of the best he’d seen in years. Then he talks about how the country has gone from bowling alone to partying alone. As loneliness has become a public health issue in the United States, it seems like Americans aren’t socializing as much, are partying less, and are doing less risky behavior. Alex thinks this is a unique problem in the US and is troubling. Finally, Alex talks about Spain losing its faith in Latin American markets as the European Union is looking to ratify a large deal with Mercosur that would allow free trade between the two economic blocs. Alex gives the pros and cons. 

In this episode, Alex starts by talking about how he is sold on Peloton after a nice ride through the Dolomites, then he mentions that Anora is the best movie he has seen in years. For the rest of the episode, Alex talks about tragic and insane events that have occurred within the first two days of 2025. He worries that this year may be a wild year with a lot of chaos to come. He talks about the tragic attack in New Orleans and how some Republicans are demagoguing this issue to focus on transforming the FBI and cracking down on immigration. He also talks about the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside of a Trump property in Las Vegas. 

In this 2024 recap episode, Alex decides to highlight why culture clearly leads our society, and politics is clearly downstream from culture. Oxford coined “brain rot” as the word of the year and Alex thinks that this word is a proper way to unpack 2024. He looks at a new conspiracy about fogs spreading diseases (called Fogvid-24), the Hawk Tua phenomenon (and the coin that ruined her 15 minutes of fame), the drone mass hysteria (maybe people just looked at the stars for once), why people are fascinated with the Costco Guys, and more. He also talks about the MAGA circular firing squad between the “tech bros” and nativists, and reflects on how time is moving too fast. 

In second part of his conversation with Martin Benes, Alex asks Martin to help him understand the chaos going on throughout the world. They talk about Ukraine, the feared “Narva Scenario”, the War in Gaza, and why Syria’s next stage could lead to retribution over common ground. Alex also challenges Martin to give his predictions for 2025 and also reflect on 2024. There may also be some New Year’s resolutions involved in this conversation. It also looks like Martin may be coming back fairly soon! 

In this episode, Alex starts by finally delivering his Macaroni Grill rant, after he couldn’t watch the game there last Sunday, he figured it was time to speak out. Next, he talks about the troubling Wall Street Journal piece that helps illustrate the so-called “cover-up” of President Biden’s mental capacities. In reality, it is bad, and Alex thinks that Biden did a disservice to the country and his legacy has been tarnished. He finds the report troubling and thinks that many in Biden’s inner circle have a lot to answer for. Finally, Alex provides an update on Venezuela. Since Venezuela’s president (albiet dictator), Nicolás Maduro, clearly lost the recent presidential election in July of 2025, he has decided to enact revenge on the population. There was always an authoritarian deal in Venezuela, “you don’t speak up and you won’t be bothered.” However, since Maduro has been challenged internally, he is now imposing uncertainty on his population and has directly forced political opponents to get walled up in Argentina’s closed embassy. Alex argues that this uncertainty of fear is the next stage of Maduro’s oppressive revenge on his own people. The ramifications will hault any chance of oppostion for the near future. 

In the first part of their conversation, Alex speaks to his former coach and good friend, Martin Benes. Martin is not only a renowed global coach but is also a student of history and is fascinated/shocked by global affairs. The two spend this episode breaking down the failures of the Kamala Harris campaign, how the left can rebuild, why the Democrats are in the wilderness, and why it sometimes feels like gaslighting is a new hobby for many on the right. 

In this episode, Alex talks about how Fanny Willis, Fulton County’s District Attorney, should have focused on cases involving defendants without resources, instead of botching both the prosecution of Donald Trump and Young Thug. Alex breaks down the details of how Young Thug and his co-defendants mainly were found not guilty and why it seems like ambition clouded Willis’s judgement. Alex also talks about how the Ukrainian military killed a Russian General Igor Kirillov in Moscow on Tuesday. Kirillov was associated with using illegal chemical weapons and was found guilty of war crimes by a Ukrainian court just a day earlier. Alex talks abouw how this event could remind Russian citizens that the war is not as far away as some may hope. He also talks about how involved on Russian soil the Ukrainian intelligence community is.