Diogenes In Review

The twelfth episode of the Diogenes Club covers the full terrain of topics the club has been circling all season: grief, complicity, consent, accountability, the collapse of media as a public trust, and the ongoing project of building something new out of the rubble. If there is an idea embedded in the title, it is not that the groove has already been found — it is that finding it is the work, and the work is always in progress.

Eric Lullove opens the episode by honoring his grandmother, who passed away last week, and he tells us two stories. In the first, she calls him from Florida during the 2000 election to say she thinks the fix is in because the punch card didn’t align. In the second, she takes a call from a pollster arguing that marriage should be between a man and a woman, considers the pitch, and responds: “That’s okay — I’m a lesbian.” She was in her eighties. She was not joking. She was a staunch Democrat who worked for the Palm Beach Democratic Party her whole life, was put on a Smucker’s jar at 100, and read books on her Kindle until her mobility slowed. “She was a big part of why I turned out on the right side of the grass.” Walter responds by making the case that grief is not a reason to go quiet — it is a reason to speak. His friend lost a son to suicide and told him he wanted to talk about his boy, not around him. “That’s how we keep the memory alive. That’s the opposite of toxic masculinity.” Nick reflects on his own relationship to grandparent loss — one grandfather died when he was four or five, a grandmother developed Alzheimer’s — and expresses genuine gratitude that Eric’s daughter had eighteen years of relationship with her great-grandmother. “Most kids don’t even know their great grandparents.” The episode begins, in other words, not with a topic but with a person — and by doing so, it establishes what this room is before it gets to what this room does.

Eric’s pivot from grandmother to politics is not accidental — it is the same move the group has been making all season, and it lands hard. We live disconnected from each other because of technology, he argues, even as we use technology to try to reconnect. Walter’s candidate interview series — which by this episode has grown to include Shelby Campbell (Michigan), Dr. Melissa Bird (Oregon), Emily Berge, and others through the Courage Candidates network — is named as the counter-model: using the platform not to broadcast but to introduce. And from the disconnection thesis, Eric goes directly to the CNN investigation into motherless.com, a coordinated network in which thousands of men shared pharmaceutical techniques for drugging and raping their wives, livestreamed the assaults for a paying audience, and charged viewers $20 a session. He has been holding this for a week. He is not restrained about it. “You fucking piece of shit. That is not how you treat your best friend and life partner.” Walter, characteristically, moves from the individual to the system: “The guys who have the power to stop these rapes, to hold these men accountable, are deliberately not doing it. I’m assuming malice. I’m straight up assuming malice.” Nick answers the “do you love Israel?” question from the YouTube chat, places himself clearly against the Israeli government’s conduct in Palestine, and then refocuses: “Our society has basically accepted rape culture as culture. We cannot sit by idly.”

The accountability architecture runs through the entire episode and surfaces most clearly when Nick addresses the Congressional Sexual Assault slush fund directly. He has a public challenge: “We need one male Congress member to put his career on the line and go on the floor and name them. Not a female. A male. With the most privilege in the world. Don’t ask for approval. Don’t wait for approval. Just do it.” Frederic invokes Cory Booker breaking the Strom Thurmond filibuster record: “Why can’t Democratic senators just start reading the Epstein files on the floor? You don’t even have to do it alone — you can pass it off to someone else.” Walter’s answer: we have surrendered the media, and even a senator reading those names on the floor would be trashed by every oligarch-owned outlet before the clip finished loading. “That is why you guys being here matters. We have to continue to grow. We are a fledgling. We are a seed.”

The episode ends in something close to joy. Eric shares polling data live: Trump is minus 68 on the economy, Republican approval with their own base has collapsed from 93% to 89% in four months, independents have dropped from 35% approval in August to 25% in December — and this is last year’s data. Frederic takes partial credit for the independent numbers, having recently re-registered. Nick wraps it: “Fred’s being part of the solution.” The Diogenes Club’s twelfth episode doesn’t wrap anything up — the Epstein investigation is ongoing, Evan missed the conversation, Maxwell may get pardoned before the episode posts — but it does something the title promises: it finds the groove. The room knows how to work together now. They know when to hold a hard conversation and when to pass. They know when to call something out and when to call something for. That’s the groove. That’s what twelve episodes builds.

Sources & References

* Motherless.com — Subject of CNN investigative report in April 2026, exposing a coordinated user network sharing pharmaceutical techniques for drugging and assaulting spouses, with livestreamed assaults sold for $20 per viewer

* DOJ Inspector General Investigation — Announced April 2026; targets the handling of Jeffrey Epstein files by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche

* Ghislaine Maxwell — Epstein co-conspirator, convicted 2021; pardon discussions referenced as ongoing in April 2026

* Congressional Sexual Assault Defense Fund — Taxpayer-funded mechanism used to settle and defend sexual misconduct claims by members of Congress

* Alan Dershowitz — Attorney; referenced for reported statements advocating for lowering the age of consent to 14-15

* Cory Booker — U.S. Senator; referenced for breaking Strom Thurmond’s Senate filibuster record

* Courage Candidates — Progressive primary challenger network; operating in approximately a quarter of all U.S. House races in the 2026 cycle

* Shelby Campbell — Courage Candidate running in Michigan; interviewed by Walter Rhein and Eric Lullove

* Dr. Melissa Bird — Candidate running in Oregon; interviewed by Walter Rhein

* Joseph Perez-Caputo — Courage Candidate running for Connecticut 4; scheduled for interview with Nick Paro

* Jasmine Thomas — Senate candidate from Oklahoma; mentioned by a viewer in the live chat

* Joy Reid — Journalist; cited as the one established media figure who has actually elevated independent creators

* Eric Swalwell — U.S. Representative; named as a protected member of the Democratic establishment

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Nick’s Notes

I’m Nick Paro, and I’m sick of the shit going on. So, I’m using poetry, podcasting, and lives to discuss the intersections of chronic illness and mental wellbeing, masculinity, veteran’s issues, politics, and so much more. I am only able to have these conversations, bring visibility to my communities, and fill the void through your support — this is a publication where engagement is encouraged, creativity is a cornerstone, and transparency is key — please consider becoming a paid subscriber today and grow the community!

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