Bald and Bloviating

Mookie Spitz reads Whacking Moki , a short story based on a true story that captures the brutal clarity of nature and the unexpected bonds forged in the face of death. The tale follows Dieter Dunt, a former Alabama radical who reinvented himself as a diner owner in rural Wisconsin, and his friendship with Leo and Tess Tesla, a Jewish couple from Chicago who escape urban sprawl by immersing themsel...

Mookie Spitz rewinds to 2001, when French beauty queen Elodie Gossuin was crowned Miss France—and almost immediately became the subject of a tabloid-fueled smear suggesting she was transgender. What started as a rumor spun by the New York Daily News spiraled into a cultural flashpoint, one that exposed deep veins of transphobia, media sensationalism, and societal discomfort with identity long befo...

Mookie Spitz dives into the world of management archetypes with a mix of humor, hard-earned scars, and unfiltered truth. Drawing on his chaotic years running Chicago nightclubs in the 90s—where powder-fueled nights bled into daylight columns for control-alt-delete op-eds—Mookie revisits lessons that still hit hard in the corporate world today. He breaks down the three types of managers you’ve eith...

In this blistering solo episode, Mookie Spitz rips away the sanitized headlines and drills into the raw truth behind Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Far from the usual media spin, Mookie lays out how the Netanyahu government—propped up by hardline ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir—is systematically turning Gaza into an unlivable wasteland while accelerating settlement expansion in the We...

In this riotously sharp episode of Bald and Bloviating , Mookie Spitz takes listeners back to the wild, sweaty nights of Chicago’s 1990s dance club scene. Drawing from his time as a barback, bartender, and eventually club manager—plus his Nightlines magazine columns—Mookie resurrects a brutally funny and painfully honest list: the Top 10 DJ Pro-Tips, with a focus on Driving Club Managers Insane ....

Mookie Spitz lays out a blisteringly clear thesis: today's AI "creators" are often nothing more than digital-era DJs—bullshit artists hiding behind technology, mistaking curation for creation, and swaggering with a confidence they haven’t earned. Drawing from his lived experience as a 1990s nightclub bar manager, Mookie compares most of the ego-soaked DJs of that era—who stood in bo...

Mookie Spitz tears apart the flimsy fabric of modern etiquette, dragging it through the mud of our digital cesspool. What starts as a deep dive into why Nixon chose to resign—bowing to protocol over narcissism—explodes into a sweeping, honest exploration of how those old norms have been obliterated by the almighty attention economy. Welcome to the age of the troll, where behaving badly isn’t just...

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace — not because he legally had to, but because he bowed to etiquette, tradition, and the unwritten rules of political “decency.” In this episode, Mookie Spitz unpacks that moment in history when decorum outweighed actual law, especially when the law was murky or absent. Nixon didn’t have to quit. He chose to — because back then, the script said he should. But today...

Jewish agnostic Chicagoan Mookie Spitz and Muslim agnostic Canadian Ali A. Rizvi — who grew up bouncing between Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Pakistan — dive headlong into one of the planet’s most radioactive debates: the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. It’s a showdown years in the making. Normally aligned on nearly everything, from atheism to trashing fundamentalists of all stripes, this...

Mookie Spitz brings you the next installment of the unhinged director’s cut you didn’t know you needed. In this series, he takes apart his novel Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine — laying bare the cosmic insanity, twisted characters, and philosophical rabbit holes that drive it. This pod digs into Episode One: The Birth , where we meet Alice — a quadrillion-year-old Boltzmann br...

Mookie Spitz rants about the messy power dynamics that shape our relationships. Inspired by a fiasco where he got kicked off X for flooding timelines with his novel, Mookie pivots to something way deeper: why so many of us are stuck in lopsided connections where one person gives everything and the other barely gives a damn. He introduces the 95/5 principle — a stark look at how one partner ends up...

Mookie Spitz unleashes a cynical, hyperverbal annotation of his new novel Jonnie Fazoolie & The Transfinite Reality Engine through the layers of his latest cosmic fever dream designed to enthrall readers, writers, sci-fi nerds, existential thrill-seekers, or far as this pod goes masochists who want to hear an author lose his mind about his own creation. Expect spoilers galore here, because thi...

Mookie Spitz dives headfirst into his manic creative process — from obsessively shaping his sci-fi novel Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine into rigid three-line paragraphs, to pulling off an audacious stunt: tweeting out the entire damn book, line by line, every hour, for 200 days. This is part confessional, part masterclass in embracing constraints to spark creativity. Mookie b...

In this expansive solo episode, Mookie Spitz takes listeners on a hallucinatory, high-concept journey through the philosophical backbone of his new novel, Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine . The focal point? A chapter titled “ Hating Mondays ," featuring an object so conceptually loaded it makes Borges’ Library of Babel  look like a cozy bookshelf. Mookie starts with litera...

In this brutally honest episode, Mookie Spitz unleashes a full-throttle rant on why he walked away from the city he once loved — New York Fucking City.  From the dopamine-drenched highs of Broadway and late-night oyster bars to the rat-infested, overpriced dumps and subway stench, Mookie pulls zero punches in recounting his 13-year romance, souring, and eventual divorce from the so-called Greatest...

Mookie Spitz dives headfirst into why work so often feels like a slow-motion train wreck — and why the people around you are usually the ones going off the rails. Drawing from decades of personal experience to create a satirical expose worthy of The Office, Mookie breaks down what he describes as the four types of asshole bosses: The Evil Superstar — a top performer promoted into leadership and dr...

In this unapologetic, no-holds-barred solo episode, Mookie Spitz reflects on his surreal brush with presidential politics — a behind-the-scenes strategy session with Andrew Yang during his 2020 campaign. Armed with decades of marketing and branding expertise, Mookie tried (and failed) to show Yang how emotional storytelling, clear messaging, and unabashed provocation win elections — not endless po...

Mookie Spitz opens up about the thin line between science and mysticism, between reason and wonder, and concludes we need to embrace both.  Through vivid stories of premonitions, near-misses, and life-or-death moments, Mookie explores the mysterious threads that seem to connect us across time, space, and even reality itself. From a mother’s prophecy to a son’s narrow escape, from a teenage acid tr...

In this fiery and provocative episode, Mookie Spitz dives deep into the growing civil war within the Jewish American community. Drawing inspiration from Chris Rock’s iconic “Civil War” routine, Mookie offers a no-holds-barred stand-up-style rant about the fierce generational and ideological divide that's exploded post-October 7th. He explores how younger, liberal Jews rally behind Palestinian...

In this powerful follow-up, Mookie Spitz returns to the raging civil war within American Jewry — a battle that’s only deepened post-October 7th. Moving beyond satire, Mookie delivers a heartfelt, provocative message: a call for Jewish Americans to reclaim their critical thinking, compassion, and humanity amid the chaos. With sharp analysis, personal stories, and biting wit, he breaks down the two...

On this hilarious and brutally honest episode of Bald and Bloviating , Mookie Spitz ruminates on three — count 'em, three — epic bike crashes that all share one common thread: his stubborn refusal to admit he needs help. From a bloody Manhattan bike-lane disaster (that cost him $12K and a surgically rebuilt elbow) to two more wipeouts on California bike paths, Mookie serves up wild storytelli...

In this solo episode, Mookie Spitz reflects deeply and humorously on the paradoxical power of adversity and existential dread as catalysts for creativity. Sharing his colorful journey from nightclub manager to accidental father and executive to aspiring writer and musician — and eventually, an artist fueled by life's harsh realities — Mookie illustrates how the "fertility of shittiness&q...

Welcome to an in-depth discussion about The Null Set , just ∅, the void, the OG empty group. But don't be fooled—this mathematical bad boy is actually deep as deep can get... In this show, Mookie dives into the mystical, minimalistic beauty of the null set: where it came from (spoiler: ancient Greek mathematicians side-eyed it into existence), how it's used in modern mathematics (spoiler...

Mookie Spitz dives into the dark heart of authoritarian allure, drawing creative parallels between Abel Ferrara’s cult classic Bad Lieutenant and the current political landscape. Why are millions of Americans rooting for vigilante-style justice over due process? What does it say about our collective psyche when a leader's chaos feels like catharsis? From El Salvador’s Bukele to Trump’s MAGA m...

Mookie Spitz turns the tables on Ali Rizvi, and invites the Canadian podcaster, tweeter, and author onto his own show. They dive into the swirling chaos of modern masculinity, media madness, and midlife musings -- from praising Mick Jagger as the bisexual apex predator of rock, to wondering WTF happened to dude-bro billionaires including Musk and Zuckerberg. Along the way, they toast and roast Tru...