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Seeking a Fren: Episode 7 - The Old Man's Back Again

On a special postscript for Seeking a Fren for the End of the World, Felix, Josh, and Spencer discuss what the 2024 election signifies for the future of Con Inc., including the tech right's money machine, splits in the Daily Wire world post 10/7, and Terry Schilling's "Kamala is for they/them" ad.

For a full list of sou...

901 - VI-Day feat. Mohammad Alsaafin (1/20/25)

Journalist Mohammad Alsaafin returns to the show to discuss the temporary ceasefire & hostage exchange deal reached in Gaza. We discuss why and how this came about during the Biden-Trump transition, what the actual terms of the deal are, how it leaves the political situation in Israel, Palestine and the rest of the region...

900 - IT’S OVER 900!!!! (1/16/25)

For our nonacentennial episode, we take a slew of listener questions, from what Canadians can do to prepare for their imminent annexation, to essential media of the Biden era, the future of Liberalism, dating across political divides, and of course, which animals are the cutest. Thanks for listening, friends, much more to com...

Seeking a Fren: Episode 6 - Groyper’s Delight

When a midterm blowout leaves the Trump White House in disarray, his fans turn towards unusual sources for comfort; things only get worse as Trump loses and the same people who rallied around him scramble for an answer. Meanwhile, the real legacy of the Trump administration sends a tidal wave crashing down on the American pub...

BONUS: Y2K feat. Colette Shade

Author Colette Shade joins us to discuss her new book “Y2K” on the millennial era of ~1997-2008. Will and Colette review how the boundless optimism of ‘the end of history’ curdled into the permanent pessimism of the 21st century, how computer doomed everything even if the specific prediction of the “Y2K bug” maybe...

899 - Nut Up feat. Yasha Levine & Rowan Wernham (1/13/25)

We’re joined by journalist Yasha Levine & filmmaker Rowan Wernham of the new documentary “Pistachio Wars” join us to look at water in the state of California in light of last week’s L.A. wildfires. We discuss California’s water history, the network of real estate developers and agribusiness concerns that effecti...

898 - Bragg and Tag feat. Seth Harp (1/10/25)

We’re joined by investigative journalist Seth Harp to look at the two New Years terror incidents. Both involving military personnel associated with Fort Bragg, Seth helps us unpack the bizarre details around the attacks & attackers, their connections with the infamous fort, and the sprawling network of crime and conspir...

Seeking a Fren: Episode 5 - Persecution and the Art of the Deal

The 2016 primary and presidential elections turns the right into a state of outright civil war as only a handful realize the vessel they’ve been looking for is right in front of them. Unfortunately, a shock victory would teach them all the wrong lessons.

This episode draws from Max Chafkin’s The Contrarian and Joshu...

897 - Urquellization (1/6/25)

We catch up with news over our long week off, including brief hits on the two new years truck attacks (more on that Thursday), MAGA civil war over immigration & visas, various instances of Musk buffoonery, Biden’s presidential medal of freedom recipients, and Semafor’s survey of what people in the media ‘got wrong�...

Seeking a Fren: Episode 4 - Vidya Killed the Radio Star

Another brutal defeat leaves the right angrier than ever, and both the successes and failures of the left drive them to even darker places as the question of who is in charge of the party becomes much murkier.

This episode draws from William H. Tucker’s The Funding of Scientific Racism, Joshua Green’s Devil’s Barg...

896 - Merry Christman (12/25/24)

For our final news episode of the year, we give Felix a little Christmas gift and let him go in on some actual fighter jet news. Then, just as the year grows old, we look at the increasingly aging & dying members of our government, from representatives found in dementia homes and seen yelling at reporters as they’re whe...

Seeking a Fren: Episode 3 - Matty Goes to Hollywood

After a generational collapse, the various factions of the right find themselves scrambling to pick up the pieces of the wreckage they wrought. They decide to break from the establishment Republican Party to pursue new strategies involving new technologies—one that’s short-term successes would be matched by its long-term ...

Bonus: The Postman Always Is Nice

We’re discussing the ongoing labor disputes with the United States Postal Service with Tyler Vasseur, a shop steward with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). We discuss the BFN rank and file movement to transform the postal unions, fighting for transparency in bargaining on the long-stalled new contract for ...

Movie Mindset Bonus - Interview With Director Brian Yuzna

Will & Hesse are joined by Brian Yuzna, legendary horror writer/director/producer behind such films as Re-Animator, Society, From Beyond, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, and many more. We discuss adapting Lovecraft, all-nude Peter Pan, Clown Theory, copypastas, uniquely American ghouls, the i...

895 - Meat Cube feat. Seeking Derangements (12/19/24)

Hesse, Jacques and Max join us for some holiday fun on today’s episode. After some fruitful discussion of Mr. Beast’s plan to rent out the Great Pyramids of Giza, we turn to a perennial favorite: Dear Prudie. What to do when a busty neighbor jogs lustily in front of your children? What if your wife shits too much? Your ho...

Seeking a Fren: Episode 2 - The Eighteenth Brumaire of James Dobson

With a narrowly stolen election by George Bush, the religious right finds themselves in a greater position of power and influence than ever, as does an ascendant media empire by the former political operative Roger Ailes. They’d both find out, however, that power doesn’t necessarily mean success.

This episode draws ...

894 - Drone Bore feat. David J. Roth (12/16/24)

Defector’s David Roth is back on the pod. We start with his write up of the recent drone scare over New Jersey, and how our ever-skittish suburbanites are discovering new ways to be scared of the lights in the night sky. Then, a review of recent media reactions to Luigi-mania, including the Atlantic tut-tutting over “deci...

893 - We Left The Percs With Maher feat. Derek Davison (12/12/24)

Chapo senior Foreign Policy analyst Derek Davison returns to the show as time continues to progress and events continue to occur. Today we turn to Syria, where the Assad regime suddenly collapsed over the last week. We discuss how Assad finally must go’d, the new groups filling the power vacuum, their relations to various r...

Seeking a Fren for the End of the World: Episode 1 - This is Really Just the Beginning

In a new series by Felix, Josh (@ettingermentum), and Spencer, we ask: how did the Republican Party, once the dominant force in American culture for almost a generation, become a group of bowtied cosplayers and rapist streamers yelling about Litterboxes? We trace this development back to the empires built by two men—Paul We...

892 - Talking Points Memo feat. Jael Holzman (12/10/24)

We catch up briefly on news around the arrest of the alleged UHC CEO assassin. Then, journalist and musician Jael Holzman returns to the show to discuss a new piece she has for Rolling Stone on the potential threats to trans people in the coming Trump administration. We look at the rather grim potential of massively undermini...

891 - Open Enrollment Season feat. Pendejo Time (12/5/24)

The Pendejo boys are back to look at the abhorrent, misguided, COMPLETELY reprehensible...health insurance CEO gunned down by an assassin in midtown Manhattan this week. We also check out some IDF rap, a new home security tech start up called “Sauron” (please read another book!), and check in how Pete Hegseth's Secretary ...

Introducing SEEKING A FREN FOR THE END OF THE WORLD // Matt Book Update

Felix is proud to bring you his new mini-series Seeking a Fren for the End of the World, an exploration of the evolution of Conservative media institutions over the last 50 years. Starting from the or...

890 - Spare Us, Cutter (12/2/24)

We do the work of having conversations and connecting to people by reviewing last week’s Pod Save America episode featuring Kamala Harris’ top campaign staff. Through their telling, it was an amazing feat of data, precision and triangulation that somehow came up just slightly short, but we look at some different “storie...

889 - Citations Bleeding feat. Adam Johnson & Othman Ali (11/27/24)

We’re joined by Adam Johnson of the Citations Needed podcast and his co-author Othman Ali to discuss their series of articles for The Nation investigating the various ways the media has covered for the Biden administration in regards to the war in Gaza. Adam & Othman dismantle the various tropes and obfuscations deploye...

888 - Bustin’ Out feat. Moe Tkacik (11/25/24)

Journalist Moe Tkacik joins us to look at a number of issues she’s reported on recently. Starting with the alarming prevalence of sexual assault allegations among Trump’s new cabinet picks, we follow the trail of backlash to accountability among the ultra-rich to College campuses and of course, Israel. We then turn to Moe...

887 - General Dynamics feat. Bryan Quinby (11/22/24)

Master of Guys Bryan Quinby joins us to break down the conclusion of Tulsa King Season 2. We examine the frictionless and always-triumphant world of Dwight "The General" Manfredi, his rainbow coalition of criminal miscreants, easily vanquished villains, and discuss why Tulsa King is indeed the perfect show for the Second Trum...

886 - Cabinet Curiosity feat. Alex Nichols (11/18/24)

We review the various freaks, toadies, goons, and TV personalities that Trump has tapped to build his second cabinet, and speculate how much damage Vivek & Elon can actually do with their kids-table DOGE advisory board. We also discuss the coalescing view among the pundit class that the Democrats need to abandon their var...

MM32 - Vincent Price 2 feat. Theda Hammel

Boo!👻

Not only is that the classic thing a ghost says, it’s also what you’re all probably saying because Movie Mindset’s second Spooky Season is officially over! Apologies for this one being late, but we go out with a scary good episode, bringing back Certified Vincent Price Expert Thedeath Damnel to review the...

885 - Don’t Cry In Front of the Mexicans feat. Alexander Aviña (11/14/24)

Surely there’s no way a country in the rightward turning west could elect a woman…leftist…member of an incumbent party…in 2024? We turn our eyes to our neighbors to the south to look at Claudia Sheinbaum’s recent election as president of Mexico, and the phenomenal success of her party there. Professor Alex Aviña jo...

884 - Pool Boys (11/11/24)

We start off with some Monkey News, then continue our post-mortem on the 2024 election. Does America have a Boy Crisis? Was $450k a day to put Kamala’s name on the Sphere worth it? How many votes did Queen Latifah swing? Are there sharks in the pool? Can Rebecca Solnit construct a metaphor to save her life? Will anyone lear...