Call It Like I See It

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to the revelation that President Trump made over $2 billion in in his first year back in office and discuss whether the free pass many Trump supporters give him with his obvious self-dealing is a result of Trump giving them “somebody to look down on.”  The guys then take a look at the recently released autopsy report of the 2024 election from the Democratic part...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to some recent research from Emma Harrington and Natalia Emanuel that suggests that in some scenarios, there are some very real social and psychological costs with working from home.  The guys then discuss what at least feels like a drastic uptick in spam calls offering loans of various sorts, and consider how close we are to spam making phones essentially unusa...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the Jay-Z’s deal with Target to exclusively release the 30th anniversary edition of his first album Reasonable Doubt despite (or taking advantage of) efforts from black activists to maintain boycott against Target for its rollback of DEI initiatives.  The guys then consider how this illustrates a consequence of the “Splintering of Black America” Eugene Robinso...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana try to make sense of the recent push to ban Sharia law in the US at the state and national level and discuss why the apparent coordinated use of Sharia law as a strawman by right leaning media seems to be so effective even though there does not seem to be any notable effort going on in the US to enact Sharia law and the US Constitution would operate to prevent it anyw...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recently completed Enhanced Games, which allow athletes using banned performance enhancing drugs and banned equipment to compete, and consider why the performances at the games came up well short of the kind of record breaking feats that the organizers were promising.  Later on, the guys take a look at published advice from Sanjay Bhojraj, an experienced c...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana continue their streaming between the lines series and discuss the 2024 documentary “American Godfathers: The Five Families,” which is currently airing on Netflix and is based on Selwyn Raab’s book “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires,” and consider the vast influence of the Mafia and organized crime had on the 20th...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recent wave of redistricting that has followed the US Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision which allowed for partisan gerrymandering even to the extent it is discriminatory and consider how viewing and fighting this as a racial justice issue can both helpful and a hinderance to those who oppose it.  The guys then discuss the NAACP’s call for Black...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to the report that the US national debt now exceeds the size of the US economy, measured as the gross domestic product, for the first time since right after World War II in 1946 and consider whether all the talk about how bad huge national debts were, which happened when the actual debt was tens of trillions of dollars lower than it is now, was just political po...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the dietary supplement creatine and its growing use by not just athletes but all people, particularly in light of a recent claim by Darryn Peterson, a college basketball star and top NBA draft prospect who suggested that taking creatine caused him major physical issues this past college season. Darryn Peterson says high doses of creatine led to cramping (ESPN)...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss Nir Eyal’s “Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results,” the 2026 book that deep dives into the concept of beliefs, including how they affect how we see and move through the world and how one can use them to better their life.  The guys specifically consider how Eyal defined beliefs, extent to which so much...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the story of the US soldier that is being charged for using confidential insider information to win bets about the capture of Maduro on the prediction market platform Polymarket and consider the risks that society faces as prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi seem to be turning the whole world into a casino.  The guys then react to recent research on...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana continue their Streaming Between the Lines series and take a look at Louis Theroux’s “Inside the Manosphere,” the 2026 documentary that is available to stream on Netflix.  The guys discuss Theroux’s presentation of the manosphere, including the over the top characters that are featured in the documentary, and consider what drives the substantial appetite that there cl...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at the recent Artemis II mission, consider its important from a scientific and a psychological standpoint, and consider whether the US really has the money to be spending money on projects like Artemis II and the upcoming Artemis missions.  The guys then react to recent research involving the repeated cloning of a mouse over tens of generations leading a c...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at Albert Einstein’s 1946 essay “The Negro Question” and discuss how Einstein saw race affecting American society as well as Einstein’s perspective on an issue like that.  The guys then react to a piece from the Christian Century magazine about both longstanding and recent connections between Africa and Judaism which refute many people’s modern conceptions...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the shocking statistics on how little spending power Gen Z has compared to what baby boomers had in their twenties, the reason American society was set up for baby boomers to succeed, and the way it has been reconfigured since the baby boomers in ways that made it harder for subsequent generations to get ahead. Gen Z has 86% less purchasing power than baby boo...

James Keys and Rob Richardson take a look at a recent claim from Goldman Sachs that the ongoing AI boom we are living through, with the hundreds of billions of dollars of investment and endless hype from media and corporate interests, did not actually produce GDP growth in the US in 2025.  The guys also consider whether there is any truth to the narrative that AU development is being held back by...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss willpower and its limitations, and consider whether the common effort by parents to help kids strengthen their willpower in order to prepare their kids to make good choices in life may be misguided or if it actually is just setting one up for failure.  The guys then discuss  the continuing importance of strength training as one ages and take a look at how stre...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to the ongoing efforts in the US government to allow for more toxic chemicals including glyphosate, the ingredient in herbicides like Roundup, and forever chemical based pesticides, to be introduced into people’s food and water and consider whether all the talk about making America healthy was just a scam. Trump angering MAHA with glyphosate order gives Democrat...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss Kyle Chayka’s “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture,” the 2024 book that looks at where the recommendation algorithms that control what we consume on services like Instagram, TikTok, Netflx and Spotify came from, how they work to change us and the trajectory of our culture, what we may be losing from a personal and cultural standpoint as we continue t...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to a surprising study from the Cato Institute, the well-known libertarian think tank, which demonstrates that over the last 30 years, immigrants (counting both legal and illegal) have contributed trillions more in taxes to federal, state, and local governments than they received back in benefits.  The guys also discuss how immigrants have been and remain an effe...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana continue their Streaming Between the Lines series and discuss “Paul Robeson: Here I Stand,” the 1999 documentary that was directed by St. Clair Bourne for the PBS series American Masters and is currently streaming on many platforms. The guys marvel at Robeson’s ability to rise to the top in so many distinct fields, including sports, law, concert artist, Broadway perfo...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to a piece from Emma Frederickson at Popular Mechanics that asserts that humans are naturally telepathic based on the observation of how some people’s brainwaves may synchronize during communication or collaboration.  The guys then discuss an article by Andrew Paul in Popular Science that takes a look at recent research into the role size may play in a man’s app...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the new era that has emerged in college sports with players getting paid, particularly in sports like men’s basketball where marginal professionals are already now flooding in seeking to reestablish eligibility.  The guys also consider what brought about the fall of amateurism and the old order in the revenue sports like football, men’s basketball, and women’s...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana question to motives and objectives of the Minnesota business leaders in their issueing of a statement that calls for a deescalation of tensions and deftly tip toes around any direct condemnation of President Trump’s paramilitary force for killing another American citizen for protesting. Alex Pretti killing: Minnesota CEOs, including UnitedHealth, Target, call for ‘imm...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to reports of voyeur cameras in AirBnB home rentals, discuss whether the problem is a widespread as it may seem, and consider the extent to which technology advancements have hidden cameras have made privacy a thing of the past.  The guys then take a look at some recent research that suggests that people may be beginning to speak more like an AI chatbot. Don't L...