We’re back! After taking a week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, producer Sam steps out from behind the curtain to be our third chair this week and boy do we cover a lot! Including:

* Elf on the Shelf culture

* Wicked: For Good and Oz’s opaque political system and the lack of sexual chemistry between a gay guy and a green lesbian

* The Olivia Nuzzi-Ryan Lizza feud getting really dark

* A wild story about a University of Oklahoma student writing a bad essay, getting a zero, and using it as the latest flashpoint in the anti-trans culture war

* The absolutely cursed and definitely made-up “FIFA Peace Prize” Trump got that is giving Pacific Rim Emmy

Also: We finally figured out our closing segment! And it only took seven episodes. It’s everyone’s cultural recommendations for the week:

* Jack recommends Traitors UK Series 3, all-celebrity edition, now on Peacock for U.S. viewers

* Sam recommends The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion and the wonky 4K remaster on Mad Men on HBO Max

* Aleks recommends Heated Rivalry on HBO Max

Until next week!

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Discourse Blogger and absolute newshound Rafi Schwartz is third chair this week to chat Trump going absolutely googly-eyes meeting Zohran Mamdani; what it means (and doesn’t) about his forthcoming tenure as mayor; and the Olivia Nuzzi-Ryan Lizza drama continuing apace with increasingly bleak missives (Cros’ blog about this is a must-read). And MOST IMPORTANTLY: Producer Sam hops on to give her official, professional producer stamp of approval to only the production (NOT!!! the lyrics) of “Jailbait,” from Nuzzi’s failed attempt to be a pop star.

(And wouldn’t you know it, right as we finished recording, the New York Times reported that Vanity Fair is “reviewing its ties” to Nuzzi as their west coast editor.)

PROGRAMMING NOTE: There will be no new episode next week for the holiday, but we’ll be back the following week!

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Preeminent podcaster, Discourse Blog legend, and Intercept editor Katherine Krueger is third chair this week as we grimace through the newest cache of Jeffrey Epstein files, fume at the Democrats’ caving on the government shutdown, and wince at the return of former RFK Jr. paramore (and disgraced political reporter) Olivia Nuzzi. This episode was recorded before Nuzzi’s ex-fiancé—Ryan Lizza—published his atrocious “part 1” (shudder) telling of his side of the story, which has a fun (read: cursed) twist ending!

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Today on Discourse Pod, we veer away from the news of the day. Instead, we bring you this very special edition: our THIRD ANNUAL GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF SEASON—SORRY, SERIES—RECAP!!!!

That’s right. Everyone’s most beloved baking-themed soothing machine has just wrapped, and we are here to get into every nook and cranny of the past 10 weeks. EXTREME SPOILERS DUH.

Topics discussed include:

—Is Tom a hero or a villain?

—The JASMINE of it all

—Who are our enemies of the year?

—Can we even remember what most of the bakers did?

—Does Toby have Cros energy?

—Can Alison or Noel do anything wrong? (Spoiler: no)

—AARON OMG

and MUCH, MUCH MORE.

We’ll be back next week to discuss, sigh, the real world. But enjoy this fleeting moment of joy while you can.

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I will be honest: This was supposed to be a “mini-sode”—a short, quick little pod to unpack election night’s results. But we libbed out too hard and now it’s just a full ‘sode! We got Cros back in the third chair to tell us about his experience covering the absolutely cursed Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa would-be victory parties (be sure to read his story in Slate!); Dick Cheney’s death being part of God’s grand design; and to go long on how Zohran Mamdani’s historic win will shape the Democratic Party heading into the midterms.

REMINDER: Next week’s episode will be Jack and Caitlin’s annual Great British Bake Off recap. We’ll back the following week with a regular episode.

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Elections Knower, all-around genius, and OG Discourse Blogger (IYKYK) Paul Blest is third chair this week to give us an early rundown of what will definitely be a very chill 2025 off-year cycle on Tuesday. Then we talk the 2026 midterms. Topics include: New York state (and city!), New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, California, Maine, and Michigan. Plus: Halloween—a children’s holiday? And how the misattributed quotes from Bill de Blasio about Zohran Mamdani lead back to…Bari Weiss.

NEXT WEEK: Caitlin joins Jack for our annual Great British Bake Off special edition pod! Don’t worry, we’ll have a mini-sode with Regular News drop beforehand, too.

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After the rapturous reception of our first episode (read: three positive/positive-ish comments, including, “this isn’t terrible!”), we’re back. If you like this document of accelerating mental decline, please tell a friend; we need reply guys, the true proof of a podcast that’s “made it.” This week: Jack “Cros” Crosbie jumps into the third chair to help us decipher how exactly Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner got away with having a Nazi tattoo on his chest for so long; the LOUVRE HEIST; and an important aside about how there are too many types of cords that led to Cros saying he wishes he could “shoot his house with a gun.”

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Well! Who saw this coming? Because what the world needs now is another video podcast (is this technically an oxymoron? don’t tell me). Welcome to an exciting, innovative, and iconoclastic experiment in the form. Honestly, we've joked about doing something like this for years, and now we're giving it a shot. If we're going to humiliate ourselves, why not have have fun going down in flames? This week: Bari's chaotic early tenure atop CBS News; Zohran slaying the mayoral debate stage; Kamala flopping her press tour; and producer Sam finding out in real time that Gavin DeGraw (that one!) sang at Trump's second inauguration. Also we need to figure out a fun segment to end the pods, any ideas???

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WE’RE BACK BABY.

The Oscars are upon us, and because we treat the Oscars with the respect they deserve around here, your Discourse Bloggers got together to chew over this year’s 10 Best Picture nominees the best way we know how: an extra-special episode of Discourse Pod! We’re calling it the Discourse Blog Oscars Conclave, for obvious reasons.

But that’s not all: for our second annual Oscars pod, we managed to convince none other than Aleks to get in front of the mic. This is a big deal, people. Also Caitlin Katherine and Jack were there too. And we had a freaking BLAST.

Topics discussed in this mega-blockbuster-arthouse-prestige-podstravaganza include:

—Was this a mid year at the movies?

—Are we getting sick of Timmy Chalamet?

—Bob Dylan: anything really going on there?

—Europeans committing cinematic crimes

—Europeans being racist

—Tiny humans

—Greta Gerwig’s bad choices

—Perfect airplane movies

—Bad twist endings

—Endings that take 150 hours

—Is Conclave the best movie ever made?

—IF YOUR MOVIE IS LONG THERE BETTER BE A DAMN GOOD REASON

—Blood cannons

—Intermissions

—Are we sick of Jeff Goldblum?

—Can you call a movie a musical if there are zero things that could be objectively described as songs in it?

—Selena Gomez: hmmm

—Poor Elle Fanning

AND MORE.

Happy listening, and happy Oscars!!!

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