The year is 2008. The U.S. presidential election is tied. And the tiebreaking vote comes down to one less-than-average man. That's the ridiculous premise of Kevin Costner's nonpartisan political satire SWING VOTE (2008). PLUS: Mayor Pete, celebs v. bloggers, and the place of the hoi polloi in politics. It's our Unwashed Masses Spectacular!

We dive into what the New York Times has called "the Intellectual Dark Web" by focusing on one of its leading lights: Dave Rubin. We enlist Michael Brooks (host of "The Michael Brooks Show" and contributor to "The Majority Report") to help contextualise Rubin in the continuum of online right-wing commentators.

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Before he was a two-term governor, he was a seven-time Mr. Olympia. We consider Arnold Schwarzenegger through the star-making 1977 documentary PUMPING IRON and discover just how ruthless a self-made man can be. We also explore the wild world of YouTube fitness culture. PLUS: Ilhan Omar and Paul Krugman.

PREMIUM EPISODE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/96-15-minutes-of-25899530

We visit to Judge Judy's courtroom and learn that justice truly is blind. PLUS: we hash out our biggest-ever disagreement.

With the Mueller investigation over, we look back at the one time a president was brought down by dogged investigation into a conspiracy with ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976). PLUS: journalism, Bob Woodward, and the Canadian liberal #Resistance.

"The Deferential Spirit" by Joan Didion - https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1996/09/19/the-deferential-spirit/

"The Real Working Class is Invisible to the Media" by Luke Savage - https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/no-longer-newsworthy-review-working-class-media

Thank You for Smoking (2006)

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On the one hand, you've got the destructive excesses of American foreign policy. On the other, you've got... a bunch of slightly-annoying Hollywood libs. Trey Parker and Matt Stone's TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE (2004)took on both targets -- and like most "equal opportunity offenders," it's built on false equivalences. PLUS: we discuss Beto O'Rourke's shiny new candidacy and the dilettanteish creative pursuits of the idle rich.

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We're going back to The End Of History™, and no filmmaker articulated the ambient despair of the '90s quite like Richard Linklater. We look back at his beloved films SLACKER (1991) and DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) and parse their politics. PLUS: nostalgia, the suburbs, Resistance Twitter, and fiery hot takes on the Oscars.

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