After a lightning first round, Mike and Erol recap the most significant stories from 2022, covering everything from Ukraine to Elon Musk to the World Cup. And of course, we finish off the last episode of the year with some delightfully spicy nuggets.  

Mike's drinking: Wandering Bear Cold Brew 

Erol's drinking: Great Lakes Brewing Company Christmas Ale 

Richard Fontaine on the Lawfare podcast discussing the National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy, and Nuclear Posture Review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biden-administrations-grand-strategy-in-three/id498897343?i=1000584625114 

Spicy Nuggets: 

Erol: Morocco FTW https://twitter.com/JazzAntics/status/1605409312196763648?s=20&t=V2LqwqWqbC4LYZq1yR09vg 

Mike: GOP congressman-elect George Santos made up his entire life story: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/nyregion/george-santos-ny-republicans.html

War crimes and winter weather in Ukraine. Elon unable to get out of Elon's way. A dinner party for the (dark, super anti Semitic) ages. And, for our main story, do you hear the people Xi? Well they're in the streets, singing a song of angry men. 

Mike's drinking: Austin Eastciders Original Dry Cider

Spicy Nuggets: 

Erol: Christian Pulisic goes beast mode https://twitter.com/foxsoccer/status/1597677266330329089?s=46&t=azTPDEK7AkzjfFe_nt7zHg

Show Links: 

Link to the Post social network, to save you from googling "post" then "post social" then "post social network" then "post news" without being able to find it, and also use this link to help Mike skip to the front of the wait list: https://post.news/?r=2hh0R

Click here if you speak Georgian and want to know about Russia forcibly removing people from Ukraine https://www.amerikiskhma.com/a/view-from-washington-interview-with-erol-yayboke/6835336.html

China is watching a different World Cup https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63735923

Mike and Erol are back talking all things democracy. Mike ponders the angles of democratic (and Democratic) slippery slopes while Erol wonders why it seems to be either jail or the presidency for leaders in Brazil and Israel. And both break down a good night* for Democrats (and democracy).

*NOTE: Whenever Democrats are celebrating, an asterisk is required.

Erol's drinking: ANXO District Dry Cider

Mike’s drinking: ANXO Transcontinental Dry Cider

Erol's spicy nugget: Dr. Jen Sciubba, me, and 7,999,999,998 of our closest friends https://twitter.com/NewsandBrewspod/status/1501926072870391816?s=20&t=vq1c3W3R1gRIrJcF3BiJYg

Mike’s spicy nugget: Voting As Fire Extinguisher by Kyle Tran Myhre https://daviddark.substack.com/p/voting-as-fire-extinguisher?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

Show Links:

Election deniers lose https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/

538 whoops on WA-3 https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/house/washington/3/

John Bisognano trolling pundits https://twitter.com/johnbisognano/status/1592161150913122305

Isaac Chotiner interviews Don Bolduc about his loss in NH and election denialism: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/don-bolduc-explains-his-defeat

There was SO. MUCH. NEWS. in the last 2 weeks that Mike and Erol decide to go a bit rogue. The focus is all in the first round today, from Biden and Dems getting their groove back to a really bad couple of weeks for some really bad people.

Erol's drinking: Green tea with honey, squeezed lemon, and freshly picked mint

Show Links:

Spicy Nuggets:

Kamala Harris celebrates passing the Inflation Reduction Act by going to see Lady Gaga: [No link, this hasn't been reported from what I can tell. Did we just break news on this show?? VERY spicy.”]

In this special episode of News & Brews, Mike goes deep on the January 6th hearings, piecing together all the shocks, twists, and turns into a ready-for-prestige-tv script. You won't want to miss it. And by you, we of course mean Netflix (our DMs are open).

Mike's drinking: Wandering Bear Coffee

Spicy Nuggets 

Erol: Mike's impeccable skin care regime https://twitter.com/fran_eremeeva/status/1552673248952844290?s=20&t=SDzD9TOxK92GR9LOhdi1cg

Mike's spicy nugget: Something strange is happening with the attack on Republican nominee for NY Gov Lee Zeldin: https://twitter.com/allinwithchris/status/1552094570808238080?s=21&t=Y78AHJSrj-mf9siHWxnqGw

We talk a lot about conflict on this show, whether it's in Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, or the US Capitol Building. But why do some conflicts turn into all-out war, while others fade away? University of Chicago professor Chris Blattman joins us to talk about his findings in his new book Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace. We talk about how the insights from the book apply to two stories we've been tracking specifically — the Russia-Ukraine War and the so-called Cold Civil War in America. And we close with spicy nuggets that tease our next episode, to be released later this week!

Show Links:

Chris in USA Today on July 3: Is America on the bring of civil war? Such predictions are overblown and dangerous. https://news.yahoo.com/america-brink-civil-war-predictions-100037432.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

Chris in RealClear Defense on July 9: America's Path to War with Russia https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2022/07/09/americas_path_to_war_with_russia_841534.html

Spicy Nuggets: 

Mike's spicy nugget: The 6 pettiest revelations of the January 6 Committee: 

https://twitter.com/mheslin/status/1552331543514959880?s=20&t=MV-cpcIKx9HcwYdO9okcuA

Erol's spicy nugget: The many ways an AI caption generator can interpret "Pat Cipollone" https://twitter.com/Merrillmarkoe/status/1541873391119921153?s=20&t=037ezlAX1I3e_ub1gTNsfg

It's been a month since the last episode... and sh*t got weird. Inflation is at a 40 year high but also not that high (?) depending on how you look at it. BoJo finally rode off screaming into the sunset, a President broke up with his country over email, and somehow there were not one but two Super Marios on this week's episode.

PLUS a new episode next week: Jan 6th Hearings Season 1 recap & interview with author and academic, Chris Blattman, on his new book: Why We Fight.

Show Links:

The Daily episode on Sri Lanka https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/podcasts/the-daily/sri-lanka.html

Michelle Ye Hee Lee on Abe Assasination https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/21/japan-mass-shootings-shinzo-abe-gun-violence/

The Everything-Is-Weird Economy by Derek Thompson https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/07/us-economy-inflation-recession-employment/670543/

Spicy Nuggets

Erol: Freya ftw https://twitter.com/steinkobbe/status/1549470090030202885?s=20&t=7SEk_lBwUvtAhd9mHlzJEA 

Colombia makes all sorts of history but tbd how history will remember what happens next in Ukraine or whether the Jan 6 commission hearings will result in anything more than good ratings. Meanwhile, Mike walks us through how the economy simultaneously sucks and doesn't suck... spoiler alert: it's all clear as mud. Lastly, listen to this episode on the way to our first IRL happy hour, this Thursday June 23rd at 430p at Sauf Haus near Dupont Circle, DC!

Show links: 

Spicy Nuggets

Mike and Erol are back after a short mid-season break. They catch up on the queen's platinum jubilee, the first public hearing from the January 6 Committee, and the Summit of the Americas, which for Biden is shaping up to be…whatever the opposite of a banger is. Then they unpack the most recent series of horrific mass shootings and prospects for something (anything?) to change. And of course, they have some spicy nuggets.

Erol's drinking: San Pellegrino Limonata

Show Links:

Paul Poast thread on the historical context of the 2nd Amendment: https://twitter.com/ProfPaulPoast/status/1529427811429122049

Tucker Carlson cuts away from the hearing when the day-of footage starts to show violence: https://twitter.com/mannyfidel/status/1535091397614870539

Spicy Nuggets:

Mike's spicy nugget: Man throws cake at the Mona Lisa: https://twitter.com/ProfPaulPoast/status/1529427811429122049