Podcast Episodes

In Praise of Cowardice

There’s a power in holding your tongue. A dignity in not showing your hand. We live in an age that mistakes visibility for virtue and volume for valor. But cowardice—real, deliberate, strategic cowar…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

Red Hat, Red Herring

Why the base isn't breaking, the scandal doesn't land, and the real crisis is still being misunderstood.

A viral tweet claimed the beginning of the end — 67% of Americans, including half of Republican…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

Wag the Vanguard

There is a curious bravery in staying quiet. A paradox of power in invisibility. In the theater of reform, those who script the act are rarely the ones who survive its performance. We have, on one si…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

Il n’y a pas de hors-texte

There Is Nothing Outside the Text: Poppy, Derrida, and the White Cube Where I’ve Lived My Entire Working Life

I am 55 years old, and I was today years old when I finally grasped what should have been …

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

FAFO: When the Speech Stops Saving You

Real Violence Waits for No One’s Speech

People raised in safe places believe every fight has a referee. They think there will be time to puff up, to circle, to monologue like a Bond villain or a prote…

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Live Free or Zoo

A meme flickered across feeds this week: South Carolina stacked up against California like a balance sheet for how well you can cage chaos. Homicide rates, GDP, life expectancy — by each measure Cali…

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Remember the DC Madam? Rhymes with Epstein

Season 9 Episode 222

Same Swamp, Different BroodThe DC Madam & the Secret That Still Hums

Close your eyes: DC, late ‘90s into the 2000s. Suits at the Mayflower, steakhouse hush-hush deals on K Street, the kind of power th…

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago

American Welfare Fatigue

It is often said that every modern welfare system, from the Roman grain dole to the SNAP card at the grocery store, carries the seeds of its own discontent. These systems promise that the collective …

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago

When the Board Turns Red

Season 9 Episode 200

Why Surrender Is Still the Only Endgame

There’s a brutal truth people forget when they throw around words like genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing. Those words do mean something — but they lose mea…

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Flushing Grouse: The Machine Doesn’t Care Who You Are

Season 9 Episode 177

A quiet bird can’t be shot. A hidden fish can’t be netted. A calm suspect cannot be tagged and fed into the system. This is older than any badge or slogan. Force survives by flushing what hides, tagg…

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago