Omnishambles

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On Feb. 28, a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, was struck three times during school hours. The roof collapsed, killing between 175 and 180 people—most of them girls aged 7 to 12. The U.S. eventually confirmed it had hit the site. This week, Cy takes Virginia (and you) deep inside Project Maven—the Pentagon’s AI-powered targeting system, how it was built, who built it, and why the school was just the...

In this episode, Virginia and Cy explore the power of propaganda, the psychology behind war, and the cultural narratives shaping American and Iranian perspectives. They analyze recent propaganda videos, the role of culture in conflict, and the societal impact of patriarchal violence. Subscribe to receive new episodes at omnishamblespod.substack.com! This is a public episode. If you would like to d...

In 2025, Nate Cavanaugh—a 27-year-old college dropout and tech entrepreneur—was handed control of the U.S. Institute of Peace and told to cut it apart. He had no government experience, no expertise in diplomacy or foreign affairs, and by his own account in a now-viral deposition , nothing informed his judgment except his judgment. Within days, a man named Mohammad Halimi lost his job , his name wa...

Welcome to Omnishambles! Subscribing is free! On this episode, Virginia and Cy discuss why Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney just gave a eulogy for neoliberal capitalism at Davos, and what comes after the fiction falls apart. We discuss: * Why Carney’s Davos speech was the diplomatic equivalent of taking down the communist party slogan from the greengrocer’s wall (Václav Havel would be proud) *...

Welcome to Omnishambles! Please subscribe (it’s free!) She’s in the Epstein files. It’s fine. She’s fine. This week, Virginia and Cy are back together to dig into Virginia’s latest piece for The Nerve —Carol Cadwalladr’s new media venture—and it drops some bombs. Virginia recently discovered she appears in the Epstein files, thanks to her time as a client of literary agent John Brockman and his or...

You’re listening to Omnishambles! A free weekly podcast just for you. Subscribe now! This week, Cy and Virginia talk with Giorgio Angelini , award-winning filmmaker and architectural designer whose documentaries have a way of making you feel like you’ve been staring into the abyss, and then somehow leaving you with a little hope anyway. Angelini is the director and producer of OWNED: A Tale of Two...

This is Omnishambles. A new and free weekly podcast where we take on one shamble each week and then untangle it. Subscribe now and never miss an episode! Federal prosecutors alleged internally that the state attorney’s office colluded with Epstein’s defense team to engineer the 2007–08 plea deal — and we have the emails. When Congressman Thomas Massie stood on the floor of Congress and said the do...

This is Omnishambles! A free, weekly podcast of slightly deranged ways of seeing. Virginia and Cy discuss fractured realities, fascism’s fatal flaw, and why keeping a diary might be the most radical act you can do right now. We discuss: * How the Renee Good murder revealed that motivated reasoning—not actual ambiguity—is fracturing American reality * Why the paradox of tolerance matters now: what...