Men in Charge in Brief(s)

In this episode, Tony and Kevin try to persuade us, unsuccessfully, that they’re not criminals, per se. Since the characters they’ve created are at the very least ethically short-changed by, well, their identities, our co-hosts’ protests of innocence prove the contrary. Giving up, they take us to a few potential sponsors: “Snakes a-Poppin’!” which sells snake samples from a cart (I know! What?) to a couple quarreling about yard work, and “The Indoor Grill” from the All Male Meat Market, and

"If on a winter's night a talk show host outside the town of Malbork, leaning from the steep slope without fear of vertigo or low ratings, looks down into the shadowy faces of the audience, rapt in a network of lines that enlace, in a network of lines that intersect; on the carpet of leaves illuminated by the stage lights, around an empty grave--what interview down there awaits its end?"

As Kevin and Tony wonder why they aren’t pictured more frequently—or at all—and the ontological discomfort that question generates—the episode marches on without them. First, they visit a Man Spa, which means considerable embarrassment for both of them. Next, we return to Cincinnati, U.S.A., for another visit to Disgruntled Belgian Talk Radio, when host Didier Vendage helps Jared Kushner through the rigors of controlling our southern border without venturing outdoors. Then we hear from an old

It’s no joke: pasta mines were perilous places. Just ask your great-great-grandparents if you don’t believe Men in Charge. Fortunately, this episode’s segments are at least conceptually adjacent if not even indirectly related to pasta mining. First, we return to “Heaving Bosoms,” where the treacherous and unGodly Abbott Chugglewit sets the new German dairymaid, Helga von Stricter, on the surveillance track to spy on Bentley Ridgely, the feckless younger son of the manor, to catch him out in

In this full-length episode, fresh mysteries crop up that deliberately neglect the solving of the cliffhanger mysteries of “Rocket to the Future, part 1, Chapter 7!” That’s right, listeners—it’s time to blog your complaints about this narrative treachery, upload them to Instagram with a picture of yourself looking disappointed, and then watch them go unread by Tony and Kevin. Anyway, in this episode, Cadet Acting Lieutenant (j.g.) Billy falsely assumes that he’s really Cadet Acting Captain

For this episode, Men in Charge “Tamper with Success” because there have been complaints from listeners that the show isn’t any better now than it ever was. So, Kevin and Tony decided that meant they should let things deteriorate to give them a chance to improve. And so they try, first with “Hurricane Naming,” where we learn how these names can be both more threatening and more punitive. Next, the return of “Scales of Justice,” in which pre-historic underwater litigation takes place in Night

In this episode, Tony and Kevin at last address the dilemma of suet vs. lard: which one is generally preferable, and why the British prefer suet, much to Kevin’s dismay. Tonight’s segments are obliquely related to this topic, perhaps. First, Stephanie Gardenplaster interviews a man who conducts pet blessings in his van. Theological quandaries abound, such as, must the pet be a believer for the blessing to “take”? Next, Salesdog Spot returns, this time for a job interview! Listen and learn from

What do bottle-brush mustachioed, all-around scientist J.B.S. Haldane; musician and composer, swingin' Artie Shaw; science-fictioneer Arthur C. Clarke; and blurred-visionary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick all have in common? Well, nothing, unless you believe the premise of this episode: that these four mighty minds formed a "Public Investigations Agency" in the 1960s. So let's do that, shall we? We'll follow the mystery to learn whether it's possible for a dog to be turned into a dog biscuit, how the

The Listener will be delighted to learn that at last Men in Charge has begun siding with North Korea. Why should the Chinese government have all the fun? A cold bath in the river is surely a more refreshing way to bathe rather than standing in a shower, right? The Listener will learn to agree even more obediently in this week’s segments. First, Disgruntled Belgian Talk Radio host Didier Vendage takes another call from Jared Kushner, who offers up Ivanka in exchange for ideas on how to meddle in

Who ruins everything? The blogging listeners do, with their oppressive inquiries about Tony and Kevin’s personal lives, which they don’t even have, by the way. Instead, the listeners should ask themselves why Kevin and Tony wear masks as they record the show. And what a show: first, Roger Basement has a a baffling interview with the runner-up for Michigan Man of the Year. Like the rest of us, he’s never heard of this award or what it means to win it. Next, we about The New America Portable