Replacement Level Morality

After your hosts came across a disquieting list of DEI jobs at a state university, they talk over the advent of make-work employment for people with useless educations, how it helps enable unjustifiable 'loan forgiveness', and what - if anything - can be done to reverse the trend.

Your hosts discuss the recent school shooting in Nashville, and the uncomfortable inflection point it brings to the surface in finally dealing with 'trans' related topics as a serious concern. We also discuss Trump's return to rallies and the prospects for DeSantis in 2024 in overcoming the elephant in the room.

When SVB got closed, the hosts knew it would be the topic for the show. But can Joseph convince Andrew that state intervention can be a good thing? No? Probably not? Yeah, probably not.

When Andrew shares that she tried to listen to Nikki Haley, we wind up talking about Nikki Haley for 45 minutes without talking about Nikki Haley.

Listen and find out how right that sentence is!

The New York Times was better late than never when it finally started covering the 'trans' issue with some objectivity, and boy oh boy did the ideologues not like that at all. Joseph and Andrew share their positions on controversy, and in ding so remind the audience...this was all Tumblr's fault.

Andrew explains his fundamental theory of political conservatism, while Joseph reviews the life story of 'Eliza Bleu' and the fundamental failure of right wing creators to vet their bookings.

A topic manages to float itself into our arms as your hosts discuss balloons, China, SIGINT, and more great power competition. Then we switch gears to the Memphis police scandal, and what we can take away from it's lack of presence in the news.

This week, we discuss Masterpiece Cakeshop, the right to free association, the need for a civil truce, realism, and why we are Replacement Level Morality to begin with!

We can't avoid some inevitable conversation about two major current events - the sudden influx of classified documents seemingly everywhere Joe Biden has ever gone, combined with the upcoming debt ceiling struggle. We talk over how these stories both are and are not the big deal the media has framed them as before we meander into Joseph's favorite business school memory.

The hidden story of this year is the competing political interests of the nation's two most powerful governors. How does fate, timing, and geography define the shadow war between Newsom and DeSantis? Then we get into the economic theories of inflation, and how each can tell us something important about the way forward.

Andrew poses a question this week about the failure of 'Year Zero' movements. No matter if it is a French Revolution, a Russian Civil War, or the fever dreams of weirdo NatCons, there is belief that simply disposing of all the 'bad people' and institutions they inhabit will being utopia. And yet, history has shown it a failure each time. Your hosts discuss the why and how of this phenomenon. Give it a listen!

Your hosts have a sprawling conversation on the biggest news event of our lives, and discuss a range of topics on the lingering effects of the choices made by the expert class. From the lab leak theory , to investigations into the vaccines, to the state of 'public health' writ large, your hosts survey the landscape and try and determine what the impact of all this will be in the years to come.

After a brief ode to one Robert Francis O'Rourke and the coming crisis of millennial generational leadership, we slip into a bunch bigger and better topic - the right-wing case for fixing the US healthcare system. With Democrats unlikely to ever offer anything but a big-government solution, what does the free market, price transparent case for healthcare reform look like?

Your hosts have a big conversation about rights this week as we discuss the first revelations of the Twitter Files and the consequences of suppressed speech before shifting gears into talking about recent protest movements. With Iranian and Chinese citizens willing to risk it all to speak, we reflect on how much harder it is to oppress a population with wide access to lethal force themselves.

As the consequences of 'Zero COVID' come home to roost, your hosts discuss not only China's oppressive response to protests, but the consequences of COVID hawkishness overall. Then we shift gears to Joseph telling the grand tale of the extreme right's biggest clowns, and how they somehow wound up at dinner with Donald Trump.

Your hosts take a step back from election takes to talk about the the state of two important civic institutions - the press and SCOTUS. In the case of both, we discuss their current states and the potential damage that could be done to civic society if they continue to degrade.

Intro/Outro Music - "The Last Light" (TNO: Last Days of Europe Soundtrack)

In the wake of an unexpected turn of the vibes, Joseph and Andrew break down the major lessons from the midterms. In the back half we talk Ukraine, and what the reclaiming of Kherson might mean for ending the war.

Intro/Outro Music - "The Last Light" (TNO: Last Days of Europe Soundtrack)

It's all about the vibes as we run through our thoughts on the pending 2022 midterms, some light predictions, and some thoughts on how polls can both be useless and useful at the same time.

Intro/Outro Music - "The Last Light" (TNO: Last Days of Europe Soundtrack)