The Dorx try to understand recent events in the Area Formerly Known As Persia by interrogating animator-cartoonist-painter-comic book creator Zartosht Soltani, who grew up there before moving to New York City. What’s causing the uprisings? What outcomes are possible? What’s it like being jailed in Iran? Zartosht has personal experience with the latter, which he’s channeled into his new comic book DEEV. He also observes that America is becoming more like his former country in alarming ways. Plus: useful vs useless idiots, American vs Iranian communists, “only 3,000,” extremist families, nepotism, learning English in bars, and liberation through painting.

Links:

Zartosht Soltani: https://www.zartoshtsoltani.com/

Deev comic: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKQV4438

Useful Idiots: https://www.reddit.com/r/agedlikemilk/comments/1q3lnko/iranian_students_celebrate_the_victory_of_the/

Rita Panahi savages Whoopee Goldberg

Jo Freeman essay on trashing: https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/trashing.htm

Hanukkah is over, but we still have plenty to say about candles, miracles, and commemorating atrocities. We offer our respective reviews of 2025, and Cori talks more about his joylessness, depression, and identifying with “victim groups.” Nina reports progress on her SSDI Blue Book playing card illustrations, including a transgender Jack (“LadyJack”) and Queen Prostate Cancer. Is Down Syndrome progressive? Does Cori “feel Jewish” yet? What should we watch on TV? Do we have any listeners left? Whatever the question, the answer is increasingly: GO BILLS!

Links:

True Blue Lou sung by Annette Hanshaw:

Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjg22rey0lo

Chuck Schumer: Go Bills!

Rob Reiner murder: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/12/23/rob-reiner-wife-michele-death-certificates-memorial-service/87899544007/

The 12 Days of Christmas: https://www.almanac.com/what-are-12-days-christmas

SF Hillel arson: https://sfdistrictattorney.org/man-charged-with-arson-in-connection-to-fire-at-san-francisco-hillel/

Jewish men attacked on NYC subway

Cori’s pic on X in front of a giant menorah:

Nina’s 2025 Year In review: https://ninapaley.com/2025/12/19/my-2025-year-in-review/

Nina’s SSDI Blue Book illustrations - Queens: https://spinster.xyz/@ninapaley/posts/B1W5HfREevhkTfdyt6

& Jacks: https://spinster.xyz/@ninapaley/posts/B1HQIvEmaTyLQwrNJI

Pluribus: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/

House of Lies: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1797404/?ref_=fn_t_1

Severance: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/?ref_=fn_t_1

Naked Gun: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402138/?ref_=fn_t_1

PHQ9: https://share.google/PO5J3OAtPMRCLGKVJ

After learning about Nina’s inability to whistle and Cori’s interest in Sharia Enthusiast meetups, the Dorx return to the tired old subjects of gender and online drama. That stupid blue dress comes up again, while a cancellation mob forms on “our side”, at least as bad as the old cancellation mobs on “their side” that got “us” here in the first place. Will it ever end? (No.) How do you say ‘b******t’ in French? (‘Connerie,’ according to Google Translate.) What is the #1 most common stupid mistake young people make? (Tell us in the comments!) Plus: incinerated balls, personality-disordered cliques, shopping at Aldi, the virtue of self-awareness, and George & Ira Gershwin. Fascinatin’!

Links:

Nina juggles Cori’s phantom balls: https://x.com/ayeshadequeiroz/status/1995916753050988751

Phil Illy at the Genspect conference: https://shannonthrace.substack.com/p/genspect-and-agpgate

Nina’s Mimi & Eunice comic strip repost: https://x.com/ninapaley/status/1995499736955261412

Sex is Real, People are Weird: https://store.ninapaley.com/product/terf-tranny-alliance-pin/

Cori calls out callouts: https://x.com/heterodorx/status/1995729240877080773

Our Brianna Wu episodes: https://heterodorx.com/podcast/episodes-134-135-is-brianna-wu-based/

The Art Coop (potential site of TERF-n-TrannyCon): https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/jim-dey-terf-battle-in-urbana-averted/article_cdf7ecd4-2e0d-5759-84b7-fbbe653de2a5.html

The music of George & Ira Gershwin

Fascinating Rhythm

Cori is acutely depressed, so we discuss his inner world, psychic bodies, primal wounds, and spiritual maladies. We also answer some Listener Questions: is it OK to be tired of TERFing? What are our favorite cat memories? What is Cori’s latest forecast for the future? It’s a far cry from our energetic gender days, but we’re still surviving, which is sometimes the best we can hope for.

Links:

Cori interviews Nina when she was depressed: https://heterodorx.substack.com/p/episode-164-ninas-brain-breaks-itself

Tish Hyman at Minnesota prison protest: https://x.com/listen2tish/status/1990310036703478079

Wieiner vs Hyman:

Erin Reed, LOLcow: https://kiwifarms.st/threads/erin-reed-anthony-reed-ii-erininthemorn-erininthemorning-erininthenight-_supernovasky_-beholderseye-realitybias-anonymousrabbit.112364/page-888#post-22970899

Sita Sings the Blues: https://sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html

Seder Masochism: https://sedermasochism.com/download/

Apocalypse Animated: https://apocalypseanimated.com/

Nina’s SSDI Blue Book illustrations-in-progress: https://ninapaley.com/2025/11/28/ssdi-blue-book-cards-in-progress/

This Land Is Mine:

Nina’s store: https://store.ninapaley.com/

You begged us to stop talking about gender, and start talking about economics. So by popular demand we just made up, the Dorx discuss F.A. Hayek’s The Road To Serfdom for an hour. Collectivism! Individualism! Planned economies! Marx! Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism! Power! Competition! If that doesn’t thrill you or make you fall asleep, we also mention fleas and liquid crystals.

Although we answer your not-actually-existent pleas to talk economics, we failed to answer your Listener Questions. Next time, my little turtledoves! Feel free to leave more in the comments.

Links:

The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.46585

Condensed Reader’s Digest version: https://cdn.mises.org/Road%20to%20serfdom.pdf

F.A. Hayek: https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Hayek.html

Cori enters the ranks of the Truly Old by discussing his fascinating medical problems, including depression, vasovagal response, blood tests, and his severely impaired endocrine system. Nina attends a Chloe Cole talk hosted by ISU College Republicans and hears chants for free hormones outside and Christian prayers inside. Is finding Jesus really the solution? Is Cori depressed, or supernatural? Will our podcasts be retarded forever? Plus: Low-Dose Naltrexone, Nina’s body temperature, Christian Nationalism, and KITTENS!

Links:

Chloe Cole ISU talk:

https://www.videtteonline.com/news/campus/illinois-state-university-college-republicans-host-anti-trans-activist-chloe-cole/article_a2391090-fb6d-4ee2-ad01-97f942a062ed.html

Ben Appel — Cis White Gay: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cis-White-Gay/Ben-Appel/9781637586280

Young Republicans leaked chat: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146

Our interview with Katie Herzog: https://heterodorx.substack.com/p/episode-176-katie-herzog-drinks-her

Herzog’s Drink Your Way Sober: https://www.drinkyourwaysober.com/

Recorded during the High Holy Days, after catching up on sensitivity, innocence, hard surfaces, insect bites, and fasting, Cori attempts to school Nina in who is and is not “really Jewish,” obnoxious as only a fresh convert can be. So we get into a long-winded discussion about faith, culture, foundational literature, the Torah, contradictions, G*d’s face vs backside, the Ramayana, and more. Finally we circle back to Genspect’s 2025 conference and how tired Nina is of manipulating people through empathy. Was Nina’s father a Jew? Are atheists really shallow? Why is Cori suddenly trying to be “Good”? And to whom is he referring when he mentions animal control and getting arrested? That’s at least one mystery that won’t be revealed in this vaguecast.

Links:

Greta Thunburg forced to sit on hard surfaces: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/04/greta-thunberg-israel-gaza-sweden

Book of Job: https://www.amazon.com/Job-Translation-Edward-L-Greenstein/dp/0300162340

Many Ramayanas: https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.5973087

Dennis Praeger debate clip: https://x.com/WyattCatarina/status/1974632909777838560

Cori’s pinned tweet: https://x.com/heterodorx/status/1947895012253175984

On the subject of the Ramayana, here’s Nina’s feature film based on it: https://sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html

…and her second film about Exodus and the Torah: https://sedermasochism.com/download/

In this weeks-late release (blame Mr. Flounce) we ask: Is it ever a good idea to fire someone for saying crazy, wrong, and/or threatening things in public? Nina would like to always say no, but even she admits that in some occupations, such as medical care, stating you want certain ethnic groups to die is grounds for dismissal. But most canceling is motivated by a lust for revenge, not safety, despite protestations of “accountability” and “consequences”. We also discuss a very bad spider bite, distracting kittens, taglines, Groypers, Jimmy Kimmel, misinformation, moral outrage, Schadenfreude, gay vs homosexual vs queer, and Hey Zeus!

Links:

Little Britain “I’m a Laydee!”: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qahpm

Did Jimmy Kimmel fire his announcer for not getting a covid vaccine? https://www.facebook.com/terrencekwilliams/posts/jimmy-kimmel-fired-dicky-barrett-after-almost-20-years-of-announcing-the-show-be/1403479137804487/

Nick Fuentes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Fuentes

Log Cabin Republicans: https://logcabin.org/

GOProud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOProud

Cori calls Nina’s cats gay on X: https://x.com/heterodorx/status/1960836018359427549

Nina’s wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Paley

Stop Antisemitism X account: https://x.com/StopAntisemites

Accused Rapist Shot by Alleged Victim: https://fox59.com/news/accused-rapist-shot-by-alleged-victim-and-arrested-an-hour-later-in-speedway/

The Dorx record the day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which happens to be the 24th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. We reminisce about 9-11-01: where we were, how we felt, how we’ve changed since. Then we discuss the current climate of political violence, comparing the reaction to Kirk’s death to that of George Floyd’s. Then Cori edits out 18 minutes about people denouncing him online, because it’s Rosh Hashanah and why carry resentments into the new year? So suddenly you’ll hear both of us talking about kittens.

The Dorx discuss Robin/Robert Westman, the psychotic Minneapolis Catholic school shooter. Was he left-wing or right-wing? Does trans ideology cause psychosis, or is it just coincidental? What is the difference between racism and white nationalism? Do women owe the world reproductive labor? What might happen to Cori as the political wrecking-ball pendulum keeps swinging rightward? Was the Unicorn Ranch llamas or alpacas? Plus: Cori insists trannies are a class but TERFs are not, because he doesn’t get intersectionality. Why didn’t we just talk about kittens?

Links:

Robert/Robin Westman: https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/robert-westman-trans-name-change-manifesto-mary-family-bfhps6kkf

Westman’s Manifesto transcription: https://x.com/FrancisAaronUK/status/1961085415445660009

Westman journal excerpt about racism, Native Americans: https://x.com/FrancisAaronUK/status/1961149304053125196

Matt Walsh says women owe children to the world: https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1951280351784907005

Christopher Rufo: “we should now put to rest the libertarian delusion…” https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1960769904258469938

Free Press: Robin Westman and the Rise of American Nihilism: https://www.thefp.com/p/robin-westman-and-the-rise-of-american-nihilism-minneapolis-shooting

Unicorn Ranch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenacious_Unicorn_Ranch

Agents of HAG & Compliance Comix: https://store.ninapaley.com/product/compliance-comix/

Protect Trans Kids weapons tshirt: https://www.amazon.com/Protect-Trans-Knife-Pride-T-Shirt/dp/B0BZBHJ4TQ

confirmation bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Andrea James website: https://www.transgendermap.com/

Knife-wielding Scottish lass

WDI Convention: https://womensdeclarationusa.com/wdi-usa-2025-national-convention/

The Naked Gun: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402138/