Normal Men

Normal Men

By George PearkesNewsNews Commentary
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Normal Men episodes

  • Episode 49 - No Apologies For The Dutch ft. Aaron Kleinman

    Episode 49: Texas primaries, North Carolina's political shake-ups, oil prices and the Strait of Hormuz, and EV battery drama with very special guest Aaron Kleinman (@kleinman.bsky.social) from Heartland Signal.  check out his more formal work at https://radio-free-america.beehiiv.com/

    1 hr 26 min
  • Episode 48 - We Aren’t That Kind Of Norwegians ft. Theophite

    Anthropic vs DoD, Iran strikes, Graham Platner's podcast tour, and the gnome bag. Featuring the return of Theophite to talk shrimp.  

    Chapters:

    0:00 Intro: Anthropic vs. DoD

    10:00 Claude's Ethical AI Training
    20:00 DoD's Ultimatum & Anthropic's Red Lines
    31:00 Anthropic's Rationalist Roots
    47:00 Hot War with Iran
    1:04:00 Graham Platner & Antisemitism
    1:25:00 Public Virtue & AI in Government
    1:33:00 Outro

    1 hr 35 min
  • Episode 47 - Domestication and its Discontents

    Propter's smart home journey goes sideways. Dogs: better evolved than us? The AI chip crisis hits gaming. The Jones Act and the art of the subsidy. Iran, oil, and who benefits. East Coast braces for snow. State shapes are wrong. And maybe log off for a bit.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Smart Home Tech & APIs

    4:00 Dogs: Evolution, Senses, & Meds
    14:00 AI, Chip Crisis & Hardware Prices
    24:00 Economics of Supply & Demand
    30:00 The Jones Act: Policy Failure
    33:00 Biofuels & Commodity Cycles
    40:00 Geopolitics: US & Iran
    52:00 Blizzard, Weather & Regional Differences
    1:03:00 Online Discourse & Context Window

    1 hr 11 min
  • Episode 46 - Only One Mention of Cheese

    Just desserts, DHS shutdown and caucus integrity, the future of B2B and internal tooling, and the Yakuza games.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Yakuza & Video Game Franchises

    5:30 Dessert Discourse & Social Media
    12:30 Canned Cheese & Weekly News
    17:30 DHS, Noem, and El Paso Lasers
    31:15 DHS Shutdown Analysis
    45:00 Shutdown Impacts & Democratic Strategy
    56:15 AI & Stock Market Winners/Losers
    1:02:20 AI's Practicality & Limitations
    1:16:50 Outro

    1 hr 19 min
  • Episode 45 - We Are All Made of Starmusk

    Normal Astrophysicist Mike Boylan-Kolchin (@mbkplus.bsky.social) joins us to talk about the terrible secret of space and the Lone Star State.  Also:  black olives on tacos, Love Da Seahawks, and Jeff Bezos has some explaining to do.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Intro and Gooning Culture

    2:40 Elon's Space Data Centers
    5:00 Astronomy & Compute
    13:00 Challenges of Space Data Centers
    20:00 Economics of Orbital Compute
    38:00 Taco Discourse & Burrito Bonds
    54:00 Texas Democratic Primary
    1:10:00 Republican Primary & Senate Control
    1:24:00 Universe's End & Super Bowl
    1:31:00 Outro and Final Thoughts

    1 hr 33 min
  • Episode 44 - Coffee, Cigarette, Croissant ft. skelly

    Normal Woman skelly (@iid.bsky.social) joins us from France to talk about- well, the plan was to talk about the American expat experience in Europe during Trump II but actually it wound up being mostly about comparative educational structure.  we hope you like it.


    also: Texas Toast (Republican State Senate edition), handicapping 2026, Fed Warsh, Epstein and the shallow bench of evil.

    ED NOTE: we are unbleeped compared to our usual because Ed is working very hard and is gassed this week.  please be nice to Ed if you see him.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Intro & Winter Woes

    7:06 Skelly: Life in France
    16:15 Academia: US vs. Europe
    26:30 College Admissions & Prestige
    45:46 Admissions: Success & Diversity
    1:08:40 American Expat Life & Culture
    1:33:57 Texas Special Election Analysis

    1 hr 45 min
  • Episode 43 - (Game) Mastering the Apocalypse ft. Theophite

    Speculative fiction, moderation at scale, radicalization at scale, parenting at low-scale, and turophile priorities with Theophite.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Intro & Guest Theophyte

    4:17 Minneapolis ICE Shooting Fallout
    21:25 Theophyte's RPG & AI Art
    34:17 RPG World's Moral Dilemmas
    44:02 Scale of Civilization & Internet
    55:42 Parenting in Trump's Second Age
    1:06:25 Oreo Debate & Losing Control
    1:09:38 Cougar Gold Cheese & WSU

    1 hr 16 min
  • Episode 42 - A Bit Crap, Really

    On dogs, football, Blorth Carolina, the spirit of the cities, Chipotle, why you should care about Claude Code, adventures in transatlanticism, and the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Intro & Poop Talk

    5:31 NFL & College Football Review
    16:53 Indiana Coach's Chipotle Habit
    26:53 North Carolina Political Landscape
    43:24 ICE Occupation in Minneapolis
    53:46 Adventures in AI: Claude Code
    1:09:36 Trump, Greenland, and NATO

    1 hr 23 min
  • Episode 41 - True Crime ft. Normal Wives

    Ms. Malone and Ms. Speedrun-Enjoyer stop by to explain the appeal of murder.  Also, we talk about the Horrors foreign and domestic.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Intro & Guest Welcome

    10:06 Defining True Crime & Adnan Syed
    20:12 Personal Appeal & Favorite Podcasts
    35:21 Unsolved Cases & Killer Psychology
    50:30 True Crime's Gender Gap & Safety
    1:05:39 Guest Farewell & Renee Good Murder
    1:15:45 Authoritarianism & Public Backlash
    1:25:51 Greenland Invasion Rumors & Geopolitics

    1 hr 42 min
  • Episode 40 - Model Failstates

    The Normal Men talk college football, Venezuelan stabs, and what genAI won't do for you.

    Chapters:

    0:00 Woodworking & Ice Bath Project

    4:38 Gaming Controversies: FF7 & Animal Crossing
    13:51 College Football & Ole Miss Racism
    27:46 Venezuela Regime Change Operation
    58:29 US-Mexico Cartel War Speculation
    1:17:09 AI & Grok's Pornography Problem
    1:31:09 Understanding and Using LLMs

    1 hr 48 min

About Normal Men

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Normal Men is four guys talking about the news. We want to help explain what's happening in the world around us and have some laughs along the way. And we think you might enjoy hearing what we have to…