Ambitious Crossover Attempt

Noam and Jen spend most of the episode discussing the current escalation of the Israel—Iran conflict and our various thoughts about it. Noam also teaches you how to make a nuclear bomb, kind of. Neither of us is sure where things will go from here, since so far, this attack and counterattack have not gone the way everyone expected.  We also discuss Trump's comments on immigrants and the new direct...

Jen and Noam discuss…all of the things. We unpack the Trump - Musk breakup (for now), Terry Moran being suspended over a tweet that was correct but not nice, the Trump administration getting involved in places it shouldn't, Alex Thompson outing a source for lying to him in the past, Karine Jean-Pierre's new book (and political affiliation), and of course the LA riots and not believing everything y...

Noam and Jen start out by discussing the Glenn Greenwald sex tape, because those are words that go together now. From there we move into discussing the Western media uncritically repeating a Hamas lie that Israel attacked Gazans who were in line for humanitarian aid, since the connective tissue between the stories is Israel being accused of things it did not do.  We take some time to nerd out over...

Jen and Noam discuss Biden's big cancer announcement, the timing, the susness, how people can be very weird when it comes to cancer, and some of the revelations in the book Original Sin . We also talk about the tragic murder of two Israeli embassy employees outside of the Capital Jewish Museum and the difficulty of extending grace to those who never return the favor. Jen also gives her Grand Theor...

Noam and Jen discuss the mind numbing amount of stupid that took place last week, like people pretending to be very upset about James Comey's dumb 86 47 post,  the umpteenth news cycle about Joe Biden's mental state (not his cancer diagnosis thought, that was announced after the recording), and Sam Seder running into the brick wall that is Ezra Klein and the Abundance plan for making housing more...

Jean and Noam discuss the audacity of Trump accepting a "gift" of a luxury jet from Qatar, how we still have no idea what is going on with the tariffs, the ongoing saga of the media vs John Fetterman, staking one's reputation on defending someone you don't personally know, the flare up in tensions between India and Pakistan, and whos ceasefire is it anyway. 

Noam and Jen discuss a politician with alleged mental impairments that would keep him from being able to do his job. No, not Trump, John Fetterman. Also, the tariffs are coming, but the first rule is you don't talk about the tariffs. To wrap up the politics part of the pod, we spend some time talking about the Karmelo Anthony - Shiloh Hendrix dueling GiveSendGo campaigns and the new fad of taking...

Jen and Noam are not certain what is going on. Businesses are not certain what is going on. The president seems certain about what is going on but is he really? All of this uncertainty is certainly not making the market or voters happy. We do our best to try to figure it out, from tariffs to immigration policy to the bizarre Time interview with Trump.  In keeping with the spirit of the show (and b...

Noam and Jen the ongoing immigration saga involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration's refusal to bring him back to the US despite a unanimous SCOTUS ruling to do so, Senator Van Hollen's very odd trip to check in on Garcia, the virtues of just doing things correctly the first time, another SCOTUS ruling against Trump's immigration policy, and what happens from here.  We also spend a...

Jen and Noam talk about tariffs some more because we're not off that roller coaster yet, and who knows when we will be. Who has tariffs, who doesn't, how much, and what is being subject to tariffs…well, that may all change by the time you listen to this episode.  We also talk about the brewing fight / constitutional crisis over the Kilmar Abrego-Garcia case. SCOTUS says he needs to come back, but...

Jen and Noam talk about tariffs. Not just a stream of expletives though, we have a thoughtful discussion about the concepts of tariffs as a policy, their inherent drawbacks, whether any of this is a good idea, how does one measure success when a goal is not defined, Israeli dairy farmers, cronyism, child labor, America's post-industrial economy, what manufacturing should be reshored, and a rant ab...

Noam and Jen return from an unplanned break just in time to discuss a titanically bad week in American politics. We have Cabinet members inadvertently sharing classified information with the editor in chief of The Atlantic, a president who is out of the loop on important matters of national security, pardons and commutations for sale, and and the debate around due process for potential deportees. ...

Jen and Noam work their way through another week of news; the tariff rollercoaster, another Ukraine - Russia policy fail, and the case of Mahmoud Khaili. We will be back on Twitch this week, discussing all of the TV we've been watching over the past few weeks. Click below to subscribe!  https://www.twitch.tv/ambitiousxover  

Noam and Jen muster the strength to talk about the week that was, as crappy as it was. We go over the ongoing saga of the Tate brothers and those who feel the need to platform them, Jen finally gives her rant on the right-wing podcast sphere and how fake it all is, how antisemitism is the new cool thing, Europe getting it together, the insanity of the US's new policy of turning off military tech w...

Jen and Noam spend her birthday breaking down an extremely chaotic week in news. We discuss the new Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper book about Biden, the botched release of the Epstein Files, the Tate Brothers returning to the US, and the blowup at the White House between Zelensky and Trump and Vance. At the end of the episode we give an ode to the S2E7 episode of Severance, which is just a beautifu...

Noam and Jen go over Elon's not so great week and his not so great reactions to his personal dramas. Specifically, his decision to send out an email to every federal employee asking them to give a five point summary of what they did on the job last week or else. Since he decided to send this email on a Saturday night the reactions from various government agencies are still coming in but the FBI an...

Jen and Noam once again try to shove a week's worth of events into one pod episode, which is getting harder and harder because everyone refuses to just be normal. We start off by discussing the unexpected news that Elon Musk has indeed welcomed (?) his 13th child, this time with tradgirl influencer Ashley St. Clair. Question mark because Elon does not seem to want to acknowledge the child or its m...

Noam and Jen talk too much again this week and still don't cover everything that happened. What didn't happen are the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, because…well trade wars are not fun and easy to win after all. At least not where there is way more fun stuff to do, like threaten to have the US annex Gaza and turn it into the Las Vegas of the Middle East. Speaking of, Jen and Noam don't agree on Tru...

Jen and Noam cannot fit all of the events of this past week into one episode so we decide to focus on the upcoming slate of tariffs and the horrible American Airlines / Blackhawk collision. We discuss what tariffs may or may not mean for you and your grocery bill and try to figure out what exactly the tariffs are supposed to accomplish in the first place. Is Trump trying to stem the stream of fent...

Noam and Jen try their best to ride the wave of news from Trump's first week back in his old office. We try to decipher what Musk's, er, heartfelt wave to the crowd / possible Nazi salute means and why he can't just apologize for being weird in public.  We then move into discussing the J6 pardon bonanza and our theories about whether the Trump camp was lying when it said each case would be evaluat...

Jen and Noam kick off the Trump presidency by discussing their first thoughts on his inaugural performance, Melania's choice of head and face covering, if either of them was happy to be there, and the missed opportunity for a beautiful inauguration picture. We also spend a little time on Biden's pardon frenzy and why it does (or does not) matter. From there we spend a little time not discussing th...

Noam and Jen are back for 2025! While it feels like it has been a few months since we last recorded it has only been a few weeks, we can't help that the internet had no chill over the holidays.  We get back into the groove by discussing the current SCOTUS case that will decide if TikTok US will be allowed to continue after 1/19, the legal arguments on both sides of the case, the viability of China...

Jen and Noam sit down one last time in 2024 to talk about how old people are just the worst. This past week gave us a Wall Street Journal piece detailing how Biden's term has been marked by good days and bad days, the disappearance of Congresswoman Kay Granger and how it was discovered that she has been in an assisted care facility since July, if Trump really cares that Elon stepped into Congressi...

Noam and Jen try very hard to fit the past week into an hour and….we did pretty well! We discuss Luigi Mangione and how he is not qualified to make final decisions on anyone in the healthcare industry, Biden's mass pardon / commutation of prisoners on house arrest since COVID and how some non violent offender really do belong in prison, the silliness of prison abolitionists being mad that a guy wh...

Jen and Noam do their very best to tackle all of the important news stories from last week. We have everyone's favorite segment the Taylor Lorenz Minute where she has given us the concept of rawdogging air and a charming meme celebrating the murder of UHC's CEO Brian Thompson. From there we talk about the aforementioned murder of Thompson, the vile cheering on of his death due to his job title, ho...