Rats will free a trapped cagemate even when chocolate is the alternative — no reward, just relief for another's distress. Elephants mourn their dead. But chimps, oddly, don't punish other chimps for stealing from someone else — only when they're the ones robbed. This episode digs into what these mixed results actually tell us about the roots of empathy, fairness, and revenge across species. Is morality a human invention, or a patchwork that evolved wherever cooperation mattered? And what does it mean for how we see ourselves if the line isn't as clean as we thought?

This week we discuss the recent Florida primaries, from the "carpetbagger" scramble in FL-19 after Byron Donalds left to run for governor, to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's contested win in a redrawn, majority-minority FL-20, to Jared Moskowitz fending off a hard-left challenge from Oliver Larkin in FL-25. A state where redistricting, partisanship, and outsider ambition collided in nearly every major race.

We watched the entirety of Christopher Nolan’s 3.5 hour “The Odyssey” and lived to tell the tale!

Word on the street is that people don’t and increasingly can’t read. What does this mean for education, for society, for entertainment, for the schism between the read and unread? We’re on it.

Friend of the show and author Evan Barker joins us to discuss her new book (and New York Times Bestseller!) “Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative.”

Buy the book here:

#evanbarker #nothingleft #woke #newyorktimes #dei

This week we deign to question the legacy of one of America’s most mythic and well-known presidents: Abraham Lincoln. What does it mean to interrogate such well trodden territory as Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and Reconstruction? When men become myths, what historical assumptions follow?

This week: America turns 250! 🎉 …or was that too enthusiastic? We dig into the numbers on where patriotism actually stands from a recent Gallop poll: who’s waving the flag, who’s proud, and who thinks the whole thing is deeply sus.

Are we all just performing anti-American subversion for our social media followings? Is true blue pride possible in such a cynical environment? Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of cringe.

This week, we dig into history-literally. Author Kurt Deion joins us to talk about his quest to visit every presidential gravesite, the book it inspired, and why cemeteries might be America’s most underrated history museums.

For more on Kurt’s work, visit his YouTube channel:

It’s June 16th — Bloomsday — and Johnny just finished one of the most legendary challenges in all of literature. In this episode, the crew celebrates his completion of James Joyce’s Ulysses, unpacking who Leopold Bloom really is, what it’s like to surrender to Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness prose, and how emerging from the other side of this 265,000-word masterpiece quietly changes you. A perfect listen for anyone who’s read it, abandoned it, or is still summoning the courage.

This week, Jess emerges from the strange and exhausting world of California politics after helping run a campaign for Nancy Pelosi’s open congressional seat. We unpack the consultants, cash, dirty tricks, viral moments, manufactured narratives, and genuine human connections that define modern campaigns. What happens when months of effort, hope, and adrenaline all culminate in a single election night and what’s left behind when the signs come down and everyone goes home?