You Can't Win

Apologies to subscribers as technical problems destroyed a fun episode with AgileTablet we had recorded. Tom spent hours trying to fix it to no avail. We're flying into a wild rage about how annoying this is, trust us. We decided to release a Premium episode from the Patreon for the public feed. We expect the Thursday Premium episode will proceed normally.

It's a fun one, though! John V and Leo joined us for a discussion of a small selection of the strange experiences we had on Something Awful. It originally came out on October 15, 2020.

Beloved guest 'Ed Buck' returns to dump on astrology as a microcosm of contemporary insanity. Professional astrologer Don and mystic wanderer Tom try to pinpoint whether irrationality is really the problem or if there is more to the story.

Mentioned: Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, The Stars Down to Earth by Theodor Adorno, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno.

Intro music by auntie004. Outro by reiyashi.

Our choombata Jerel returns to talk about Cyberpunk and computer hardware in this purestrain nerd episode to inaugurate the New Year. We talk about contrasting attitudes towards juegos, from Don's casual enjoyment of cyberpunk lore to Tom's love for optimization and new technology and Jerel somewhere in between.

Intro music by auntie004. Outro by reiyashi.

Our friend Mike returns to help us wade through some of the more controversial claims made about the new vaccines and try to come to grips about what the next few years will look like. While Don wishes he could get a shot and be done with it, Mike's take suggests we are getting closer to Tom's Thousand Year Quarantine.

Mentioned: Medical Nihilism by Jacob Stegenga, Formations of the Secular by Talal Asad.

Mike provided some notes for his more salacious claims:

Potential COVID vax antibody dependent enhancement: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00789-5

Simulated effects of time-limited COVID vax immunity: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/06/29/2020.06.28.20142141.full.pdf

Meta analysis of repeat flu vax effects: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14760584.2017.1334554

Reduced antibody maturation in repeat flu vaccination: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11296-5.pdf?origin=ppub

Ritalin doesnt work: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3063150/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=r360

Paxil kills kids: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/glaxosmithkline-plead-guilty-and-pay-3-billion-resolve-fraud-allegations-and-failure-report

Intro music by auntie004. Outro by reiyashi.

Tom, Don and AgileTablet gather together to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Can Muslims even celebrate Christmas? Don also reports back from a viewing of Mel's The Passion of the Christ and other traditions. Plus general holiday goofing off and the Q&A.

Intro music by auntie004. Outro by reiyashi.

Beloved third mic AgileTablet returns to chat about plans for the next year. As the Thousand Year Quarantine rolls on, we think of what we have accomplished and what we expect of the future. Marriage, work, health... all that good stuff.

Intro by auntie004. Outro by reiyashi.

Do Muslims worship the moon? And other great anonymous questions from our audience. Topics include the C.I.Gay, AOC on Twitch, getting salafi-pilled, Chechens, Ireland and so much more.

Mentioned: Treatise For The Seekers: Risalah al-Mustarshideen by Imam al-Harith al-Muhasibi and translated by Zaid Shakir, The Book of Assistance by Imam al-Haddad and translated by Dr. Mostafa al-Badawi, The Path of Muhammad: A Book on Islamic Morals & Ethics by Imam Birgivi and translated by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak.

The ex.haust podcast boys John and Emmet join us to discuss their take on Christopher Lasch and some of his criticisms of the American activist left. We work through some of the alienating aspects of modern left culture while trying to negotiate with constructive alternatives.

Mentioned: Revolt of the Elites by Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch, The True and Only Heaven by Christopher Lasch, The Yankee and Cowboy War by Carl Oglesby, Timur Mucuraev - Jerusalem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Phr3ucJwxo)

Intro by auntie004. Outro by reiyashi.

The concept of personal responsibility is often championed by right-wingers and dismissed by the left, but the reality is more complicated. We discuss some of the problems of taking initiative to better our own situations and the difficulty of doing so while accepting that a lot is beyond our own control.

Mentioned: 'Jocko Motivation "GOOD" (From Jocko Podcast)' on Youtube, 'Bob Newhart-OCD' on Youtube, GA Cohen, Jacques Lacan.

Intro music by auntie004. Outro by reiyashi.

Our friends Jerel and Ahk return to discuss Islam and the Black Community in America - Jerel from the perspective of revert to Islam in Texas and Akh as a first-generation immigrant. We talk frictions of living as a Muslim in America and also the opportunities it presents for the future, as well as address common topics like Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam.

Mentioned: Siraj Wahhaj, Sherman Jackson, Warith Deen Muhammed, Zaytuna College, Yaqeen Institute, Islamberg, Dar al-Islam, Iman Chicago, Muslim Mosque Inc, Organization of Afro-American Unity, Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims by Dawud Walid, Dr. Jonathan Brown, Khaled Abou el Fadl, Amina Wadud, Imran Hossein.