Ill Conceived

By Josh Boerman & June SternbachSociety & Culture News Politics

Ill Conceived episodes

January 30Peter Thiel: The B-Side (PREVIEW)
THIS IS A PREVIEW OF A BONUS B-SIDE EPISODE. For access to the full length version of this and every other biweekly bonus B-side, go to Patreon.com/illconceived
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Palantir employees are in their feels about their company's complicity with ICE and we're talking about it. We also issue a couple corrections about the Peter Thiel episode (28 is the number of days in a menstrual cycle and it turns out that Thiel does have children), then dig into the world-famous mailbag for your thoughts on:
The way that Ashley St. Clair and other right-wing media figures have influenced children to develop a conservative worldview from a young age, both recently and in the past
The privacy and data tracking implications of period tracking apps
The paradox of the non-identity problem and how it applies to IVF
If you haven't listened to June and Matt's interview with Ashley St. Clair, go check it out!
21 min
January 23Peter Thiel
Big data controls our lives like never before, and few people are more responsible than Peter Thiel, the billionaire cofounder of Palantir who made the bulk of his fortune by investing early in Facebook. But it turns out that beyond his obsession with data, Thiel is equally fixated on the end times, the rise of the Antichrist, and the recent trend of declining birth rates in the West. This week, Josh and June try to figure out why Peter Thiel has the worldview he does and how it bears out in his investments in natalist technology.
CHECK OUT OUR RECENT PODCAST GUEST APPEARANCES!
June on A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein talking with Ashley St. Clair about her history with, and regrets about, the right-wing propaganda machine
Josh on Have You Seen This? talking about the movie Catch My Soul
Josh on Reserved Recommendations talking about the Christian musical group Newsboys
***REMINDER: WE HAVE A PATREON! Every other week, we release B-side supplements to the main episodes where we read your e-mail responses and discuss things further. Come check us out at Patreon.com/illconceived!***
***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to [email protected]***
EPISODE ART: Peter Thiel in a 2016 address to the Republican National Convention. Born in Germany, Thiel spent the bulk of his childhood in an apartheid settlement in South West Africa. After graduating from Stanford and briefly attempting a career in law, Thiel co-founded PayPal, Palantir and numerous venture capital funds, also making a critical early investment in Facebook that now represents the core of his fortune.
AUDIO CLIPS:
59:59 – Peter Thiel talks about the Antichrist in a Mercatus Center interview about political theology
1:24:12 – Peter Thiel talks about demographic collapse in an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience
FURTHER READING:
"The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession" by Laura Bullard (Wired, September 30, 2025)
SOURCES:
"No Death, No Taxes" by George Packer (The New Yorker, November 20, 2011)
"How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa" by Chris McGreal (The Guardian, January 26, 2025)
"South‐West Africa City Remains ‘More German Than Germany’" by Henry Kamm (The New York Times, October 30, 1976)
"Quote of the Day: PayPal Co-Founder on Sullivan & Cromwell Stint" (Bloomberg, May 24, 2016)
"Peter Thiel is totally gay, people" by Owen Thomas (Gawker, December 19, 2007)
"What Does Palantir Actually Do?" by Caroline Haskins (Wired, August 11, 2025)
"‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid" by Joseph Cox (404 Media, January 15, 2026)
"Jeffrey Epstein Invested With Peter Thiel, and His Estate Is Reaping Millions" by Matthew Goldstein (The New York Times, June 4, 2025)
"Concern Grows Around Billionaire Peter Thiel’s Period-Tracking App" by Maggie Harrison Dupré (Futurism, September 11, 2022)
"Surveillance Titan Peter Thiel Invests Millions in New Anti-Feminist Menstrual Tracking App" by Kylie Cheung (Jezebel, September 6, 2022)
"Would You Wear a Period-Tracker Funded by Peter Thiel?" by Jessica Valenti & Kylie Cheung (Abortion Every Day, November 11, 2025)
"With backing from Thiel, Recharge Capital launches $200M women’s health investment vehicle" by Catherine Shu (TechCrunch, June 15, 2023)
"Rhea reaps $10M more led by Thiel" by Kate Park (TechCrunch, May 30, 2024)
FOLLOW THE SHOW:
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Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
Tumblr: @illconceivedpod
FOLLOW JOSH:
Website: joshboerman.com
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Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Stream: Traditional Scrench
FOLLOW JUNE:
Bluesky: @junlper.beer
Other podcast: Kill The Computer
Writing: June's Substack
ILL CONCEIVED THEME SONG BY: Caleb (Linktree / Bluesky)
1 hr 50 min
January 17Masturbation & Pornography: The B-Side (PREVIEW)
THIS IS A PREVIEW OF A BONUS B-SIDE EPISODE. For access to the full length version of this and every other biweekly bonus B-side, go to Patreon.com/illconceived
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is now going to allow young women to go on their mission starting at the age of 18 in the hopes of getting young Mormons married even younger. We're talking about it, plus we read your letters responding to our Masturbation & Pornography episode regarding:
How age verification works for restricted websites in Australia
How anti-pornography action reflects the natalist agenda
Resources and organizations that are fighting online CSAM, including the Canadian Centre for Child Protection's Project Arachnid
The important differences between the Kellogg brothers
From here on out, you can expect Mailbag & Chill episodes every other Friday where we read your letters responding to the previous week's episode. (And we'll eventually get around to doing a dramatic reading of the Zootopia abortion comic.) Thanks as always for being a subscriber!
17 min
January 12Masturbation & Pornography
Moral panic about masturbation and pornography is nothing new, but in the wake of Donald Trump's re-election, numerous conservative groups—many of whom have deep ties to the natalist movement—have started to ring the alarm bell once again. This week, June and Josh take a look at the early history of fear of masturbation, then jump forward to the present day to see how the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) reflects many of these paranoias and introduces problems of its own.
There's also a pretty significant detour into talking about the Zootopia abortion comic, if that's your thing.
***REMINDER: WE HAVE A PATREON NOW! We record bonus mailbag episodes and release them at the beginning of each week. Come check us out at Patreon.com/illconceived!***
***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to [email protected]***
EPISODE ART: John Harvey Kellogg, a physician who founded the Kellogg Company with his brother Will in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1906. Kellogg believed that bland food such as unsweetened corn flakes could aid in reducing the urge to masturbate. He also was a notable eugenicist and co-founded the Race Betterment Foundation in 1914 to discourage interracial relationships.
AUDIO CLIPS:
16:07 – Tucker Carlson talks to Milo Yiannopolous about homosexuality
FURTHER READING/LISTENING:
The Worst of All Possible Worlds episode about Every Young Man's Battle (Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube)
The Zootopia abortion comic
SOURCES:
The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the US. Activists Are Fighting Back
The far right’s crusade against porn is a red herring – it’s actually a crusade against progress
Re-Victimized: When Sexual Assault Gets Uploaded to Porn Platforms
The Disturbing True Story of Kellogg’s Anti-Masturbation Cereal
How Project 2025 Tries to Demonize LGBTQI+ People—and Why It’ll Fail
Nick Kristof and the Holy War on Pornhub
Delete history: Pornhub changed the world, but its empire faces a reckoning
Internet Censorship Bills Wouldn’t Help Catch Sex Traffickers
Project 2025 Tracker
Age verification regulations in the United States of America
Hack of Age Verification Company Shows Privacy Danger of Social Media Laws
Press release about the passage of KOSA from the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-MD)
IHOPKC founder committed sexual abuse, misconduct against 17 women, investigation finds
Melissa McCarthy Apologizes for Supporting Charity with Anti-LGBTQ Past
FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
Tumblr: @illconceivedpod
FOLLOW JOSH:
Website: joshboerman.com
Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Stream: Traditional Scrench
FOLLOW JUNE:
Bluesky: @junlper.beer
Other podcast: Kill The Computer
Writing: June's Substack
ILL CONCEIVED THEME SONG BY: Caleb (Linktree / Bluesky)
1 hr 32 min
December 23, 2025I'll Be Mailbag For Christmas
Josh was really sick the past couple weeks so we haven't been able to get new episodes out. But we wanted to get you something before the end of the year, so we talked about sperm racing and read some more mail.
New episodes in the standard format will resume on a biweekly schedule starting Friday, January 2. Thank you for being our wonderful babies and we'll see you in the new year.
***REMINDER: WE HAVE A PATREON NOW! We record bonus mailbag episodes and release them every other week. Come check us out at Patreon.com/illconceived!***
EPISODE ART: A charming LEGO mailman who is holding a brick of mail.
AUDIO CLIPS:
13:09 – The official Sperm Racing trailer, as posted to the brand's X account on December 12
SOURCES:
"I Watched Sperm Race With Hundreds of Teens. It Was a Total Sh*t Show." by Jason Rogers (Men's Health, May 7, 2025)
FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
Tumblr: @illconceivedpod
FOLLOW JOSH:
Website: joshboerman.com
Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Stream: Traditional Scrench
FOLLOW JUNE:
Bluesky: @junlper.beer
Other podcast: Kill The Computer
Writing: June's Substack
ILL CONCEIVED THEME SONG BY: Caleb (Linktree / Bluesky)
55 min
December 05, 2025Eugenics, IQ, and The Bell Curve
Charles Murray & Richard Herrnstein's 1994 book The Bell Curve caused tremendous controversy on its publication by positing a link between intelligence and race. But this certainly wasn't the first time someone had made this argument, nor would it be the last. This week, Josh and June take a look at the foundation of the eugenics movement in North America, track its close relationship with the development of IQ testing, and discover some surprising links to German, Italian, and American fascism.
***REMINDER: WE HAVE A PATREON NOW! We record bonus mailbag episodes and release them at the beginning of each week. Come check us out at Patreon.com/illconceived!***
***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to [email protected]***
EPISODE ART: Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve. Murray, a Harvard and MIT-trained political scientist, is strongly opposed to social welfare programs and has made dismantling the welfare state a central goal of his project. He has been in residence at the American Enterpise Institute since 1990 and currently holds the F. A. Hayek Chair Emeritus in Cultural Studies there.
SOURCES:
“Christianity and Eugenics: The Place of Religion in the British Eugenics Education Society and the American Eugenics Society, c.1907–1940” by Graham J. Baker (Social History of Medicine, 2014)
“The Pioneer Fund: Financier of Fascist Research” by Steven J. Rosenthal (American Behavioral Scientist,1995)
“The Pioneer Fund: Bankrolling the Professors of Hate” by Adam Miller (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1994)
“Revealed: International ‘race science’ network secretly funded by US tech boss” by David Pegg, Tom Burgis, Hannah Devlin and Jason Wilson (The Guardian, October 16, 2024)
“A Company Says It Can Predict Your Baby’s IQ Before Birth. But Where’s the Science?” by Darren Orf (Popular Mechanics, August 7, 2025)
The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life by Charles A. Murray and Richard Herrnstein (Free Press, 1994)
Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and our Fight for an Independent Future by Anita Say Chan (University of California Press, 2025)
“The Pronatalism of Silicon Valley” by Emma Waters (The Heritage Foundation, August 22, 2024)
“The influencers who want the world to have more babies - and say the White House is on their side” by Stephanie Hegarty (BBC, April 1, 2025)
“The Education of a Libertarian” by Peter Thiel (Cato Unbound, April 13, 2009)
FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
Tumblr: @illconceivedpod
FOLLOW JOSH:
Website: joshboerman.com
Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Stream: Traditional Scrench
FOLLOW JUNE:
Bluesky: @junlper.beer
Other podcast: Kill The Computer
Writing: June's Substack
ILL CONCEIVED THEME SONG BY: Caleb (Linktree / Bluesky)
1 hr 52 min
November 26, 2025Balaji Srinivasan: The B-Side (PREVIEW)
THIS IS A PREVIEW OF A BONUS B-SIDE EPISODE. For access to the full length version of this and every other weekly bonus B-side, go to Patreon.com/illconceived
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NYC Subway's Broadway-Lafayette station is now full of apparently eugenicist ads for an IVF and genetic testing company called Nucleus. We're talking about it, plus:
The parallels between Balaji Srinivasan's ideas and the novels of Neal Stephenson
Other sci-fi that predicts other futures
Electrical engineers and why they're Like That
A screenshot of the embryo selection grid on Nucleus's website: https://imgur.com/a/bfV9Hay
21 min
November 23, 2025What is Childhood?
The White House will likely soon release a large set of documents about convicted pedophile and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein further detailing the depths of his crimes. Alongside this, a line of rhetoric seems to be developing in certain right-wing circles: although what Epstein did was morally abominable, not all of it was criminal, and it's certainly categorically different from preying on "real children." But what exactly is childhood, and why are certain reactionaries making this argument now? This week, June and Josh look into the history of the concept of childhood in the United States to try and figure out why.
***REMINDER: WE HAVE A PATREON NOW! We record bonus mailbag episodes and release them at the beginning of each week. Come check us out at Patreon.com/illconceived!***
***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to [email protected]***
EPISODE ART: Richard Hanania, a writer and online right-wing personality whose work includes 2023's The Origins of Woke, published by HarperCollins under their Broadside Books imprint. Hanania is a co-author of Project 2025, previously wrote for white supremacists publications under the pen name Richard Hoste, and recently wrote about how pedophilia is a moral panic.
AUDIO CLIPS:
3:11 – Megyn Kelly speaking about Jeffrey Epstein in a recent episode of The Megyn Kelly Show
1:05:01 – "Jailbait," a song released by Olivia Nuzzi under the pseudonym "Livvy" in 2009 when she was 16 years old
1:14:32 – Neil Sedaka performs "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" on American Bandstand in 1963
FURTHER LISTENING:
The Worst of All Possible Worlds episode about Fireproof (Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Pocket Casts)
SOURCES:
Republican Wants to Loosen Child Labor Laws
Why is the teen birth rate falling?
Child Labor Laws - Facts and Misconceptions
Injuries, death and abuse: The disturbing reality behind Ohio’s rollback child labor laws
A Brief History of Education in the United States
Epstein files: Who else was mentioned?
Hulk Hogan Awarded $115 Million in Privacy Suit Against Gawker
The U.S. Fertility Decline Is Not Due to the Drop in Teen Pregnancies
Age of Consent Through the Years in the United States.
Hitler, Demi Moore, and Other "Pedophiles"
FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
Tumblr: @illconceivedpod
FOLLOW JOSH:
Website: joshboerman.com
Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Stream: Traditional Scrench
FOLLOW JUNE:
Bluesky: @junlper.beer
Other podcast: Kill The Computer
Writing: June's Substack
ILL CONCEIVED THEME SONG BY: Caleb (Linktree / Bluesky)
1 hr 31 min
November 18, 2025Matthew Yglesias: One Billion Americans: The B-Side (PREVIEW)
THIS IS A PREVIEW OF A BONUS B-SIDE EPISODE. For access to the full length version of this and every other biweekly bonus B-side, go to Patreon.com/illconceived
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Dr. Oz expects a Trump baby boom in 2026. We're talking about it.
Plus, we read your mail from the Matt Yglesias episode, including:
Regional visas in Australia and how they compare to Matt Yglesias's city visa concept
The U.S. economy's shift toward health care as a core industry in response to an aging population
Large families as a status signifier
The difference between a Park & Ride and a Kiss & Ride
10 min
November 15, 2025Balaji Srinivasan & Network Natalism
Natalcon 2025 featured a number of high profile speakers whose speeches weren't recorded. One of these speakers was Balaji Srinivasan, a technologist who made his fortune in pre-pregnancy genetic testing and now preaches the gospel of cryptocurrency and decentralized "Network States" to anyone who will listen. This week, Josh and June discover what Balaji's whole deal is and end up deeply confused and repulsed by it.
***REMINDER: WE HAVE A PATREON NOW! We record bonus mailbag episodes and release them at the beginning of each week. Come check us out at Patreon.com/illconceived!***
***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to [email protected]***
EPISODE ART: Balaji Srinavasan at TechCrunch Disrupt. After graduating from Stanford and co-founding genetic testing company Counsyl, Srinivasan joined the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and later worked at Coinbase. In 2024 he founded Network School, an incubator in Malaysia that seeks to develop applications for his concept of the Network State.
AUDIO CLIPS:
48:23 – Balaji Srinivasan's "Ultimate Exit" talk at Y Combinator Startup School in 2013
51:56 – ibid.
1:04:11 – Balaji Srinivasan's talk at Natal Conference 2023
1:10:45 – Balaji Srinivasan at Token2049 in Dubai, 2025
1:20:29 – ibid.
1:22:17 – ibid.
SOURCES:
SAAWA 2013 Honorees profile of Dr. Bhavani Srinivasan
"NY Physician is Fellow of Royal College of Physicians in London" (The Indian Panorama, July 23, 2016)
PDF of the March 2006 issue of State Magazine
Balaji Srinivasan's LinkedIn profile
Crunchbase profile of Counsyl
MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 profile of Balaji Srinivasan
"The Blockchain is the Internet of Money" by Tunku Varadarajan (The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2017)
"The Turnaround" by Balaji Srinivasan (Medium, April 16, 2018)
Network School website
Praxis Nation website
FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
Tumblr: @illconceivedpod
FOLLOW JOSH:
Website: joshboerman.com
Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Stream: Traditional Scrench
FOLLOW JUNE:
Bluesky: @junlper.beer
Other podcast: Kill The Computer
Writing: June's Substack
ILL CONCEIVED THEME SONG BY: Caleb (Linktree / Bluesky)
1 hr 43 min

About Ill Conceived

From the publisher's feed

A podcast about natalism. Hosted by Josh Boerman (The Worst of All Possible Worlds, Traditional Scrench) and June Sternbach (Kill The Computer, The Onion).