President Joe Biden has officially been the president of the United States for over a month. In this episode, Drew and Alex dive into what the first month of Biden’s administration has looked like. They agree and disagree on a myriad of his policies. They talk about the vaccination program, the relief package, what “unity” means, and what the recent bombings in Syria may foreshadow.

Last Tuesday, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, signed a $7.6 billion coronavirus relief package that plans to provide at least $600 one-time payments to close to six million Californians. It also set aside more than $2 billion in grants for struggling small businesses. In this episode, Alex looks at how states can pass their own relief packages if Congress is stalling on passing any relief. He looks into criticisms that the State of California can’t afford this relief package. He says that the state actually did better than expected through high state taxes, a booming stock market, and high capital gains taxes. He worries that the state is becoming only one of high earners and low earners; but at least the state was able to redistribute some of this revenue to help those in need.

The filibuster is one of those strange features of American democracy that seems to have come to fruition by accident and over centuries of political opportunism. In this episode, Drew and Alex debate whether or not the filibuster should still be a feature in the US Senate. They go into its strange history and why it seems to serve as an apparatus for the minority. Drew and Alex feel that some of the founding fathers were so afraid of "tyranny of the majority" that they left certain safety nets to protect the minority. Has this backfired?

Andrew Cuomo, Ron DeSantis, Gavin Newsom, Greg Abbott, what do they all have in common? Answer - they are all governors of large states. Also, they all have chosen different methods towards dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. They also have dealt with different issues and the coverage has varied. 

In this episode, Drew and Alex look how politics has plagued how we view governors and how states deal with crisis. They also dive into some of the controversies, blatant problems, and mistakes that these governors have made and they think that the last four years has made people blind towards the need for efficient state governance.

The debate over what is acceptable free speech gained a Spanish twist as thousands of protesters took to the streets across cities in Spain starting on Tuesday. These people were demanding the release of Pablo Hasél, a rapper who was arrested by police over a series of tweets and lyrics that criticized the Spanish monarchy and also glorified terrorism and left-wing extremism. In this episode, Alex looks into this case and how there appears to be a glaring double standard in which not all inflammatory speech is treated the same. Hasel was arrested for his statements yet Neo-Nazis and other far-right parties are still allowed to hold rallies. Alex worries this double standard, in a country that had such a turbulent 20th century, could bring up old tensions.

Since the 14th century, there have been disputes over Tibet and whether it is autonomous or part of China (the Qing Dynasty at the time). Since the rise of Maoist China, the Communist Party has continued to lock down ideas and practices that go against a unified, Han China. This has been seen in other regions of China like the Uighur camps in Xinjiang, a lockdown of dissent in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and the exile of the Dalai Lama from Tibet. This ideology has been termed “Sinicization” and it is defined as “bringing people who are not of Chinese descent under the influence of Chinese culture.” 

In this episode, Drew and Alex talk about the complicated situation in Tibet that involves the Chinese government and the suppression (potential manipulation) in picking the next Dalai Lama. Drew and Alex talk about how the Dalai Lama has reincarnated 13 times and is getting to the age where the process of finding his reincarnate is approaching. However, he has been in exile in India and hasn’t returned to his cultural land of Tibet. The Chinese government is muddling the waters and sowing division with the hopes that they can pick the next Dalai Lama. There are also reports that Chinese officials kidnapped the Panchen Lama as a baby and have touted a hand picked one instead.  According to Robbie Barnett, a scholar of Tibetan culture, “it seems these policies are aimed at creating future Tibetans who won’t know about the Dalai Lama as having any role in Tibetan Buddhism except as an enemy.” Could there be two Dalai Lamas? One in India and a Chinese plant in Tibet?

In this episode, Drew and Alex reflect on the impeachment trial. They are angry at the outcome, but not surprised. They go into the politics of the impeachment, issues with how the process happens, and the ramifications for the future. Later, they look into a new Quinnipiac poll that found a majority of Republicans support Trump’s continued hold on the party even as "a majority of Americans believe he incited the Jan. 6 riot." They also worry that the Republican Party will continue to try to hold onto power while being a diminishing minority party; could this authoritarian fringe be growing?

With the issues of misinformation and fake news escalating around the world, Drew and Alex decide to have some fun and rank some of their favorite and least favorite news sources. From S tier (the best) to F tier (the worst) they rank publications such as the Economist, Fox News, the Blaze, the Associated Press, BBC, OANN, and more. Will Info Wars make the top tier or fall to the bottom? Which publication will make the S tier?

The second impeachment of Donald Trump has begun, but other things are happening abroad that could have even more ramifications. In Myanmar, the ruling military junta finally staged what some are calling a coup, to remove the elected state counsellor of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi. In Russia, Putin's managed democracy is failing as protests have followed the jailing of Alexei Navalny. And in India, farmers are protesting Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's, calls to deregulate the agricultural sector. In this episode, Drew and Alex look into these three protest movements and discuss how they could be related. All three countries are trying to masquerade as democracies, while also limiting free speech and fair elections. The lie may be over, what is next?

In this quick episode, Alex looks into the new lawsuit against Fox News filed by the election technology company Smartmatic. The lawsuit targets "stars" like Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, as well as Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The lawsuit is for $2.7 billion and is being ran by a media defamation attorney who brought "pink slime" in meat to the spotlight. Alex talks about how this lawsuit and the recent Dominion voting systems lawsuits may actually help in holding companies like Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax more accountable. He is against deplatforming, but does feel that companies that report to millions of Americans need to be accountable. Could lawsuits be the last defense against misinformation?