The Snark Factor 3 in 3

The audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 has Congress trying to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, Chevron warning that air travel could get even more expensive, and Little Caesars testing drone delivery in Texas. So, naturally, the most functional institution in America may now be a pizza chain sending breadsticks through the sky. Congress can’t deliver funding. Airlines can barel...

The audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 covers Meta tracking employees at work, SiriusXM taking over YouTube audio ad sales, and a study suggesting gold diggers come in both male and female varieties. If you’re listening regularly and haven’t subscribed yet, that’s how you get this every weekday. Sources: New York Post - Meta workers outraged over software tracking keystrokes and mouse mov...

The audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 has a little housing market drift, a little Vegas nostalgia, and one of those stories that makes you wonder whether mankind has finally started freewheeling into nonsense. First, Zillow says home values are expected to rise just 0.3% by the end of 2026, with existing-home sales also barely moving as mortgage rates keep the housing market stuck in neu...

Evening edition! Audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 has a little bit of everything: a Navy carrier that seems to have been deployed since the invention of indoor plumbing, Walmart trying to make its stores more modern with wider aisles and more digital everything, and a reminder that the future may belong less to the guy in the conference room and more to the one wiring the building that...

The audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 takes a look at three very different reminders that common sense is apparently hanging on by a thread. New York City is pushing ahead with a plan for a city-owned grocery store in Harlem with a reported $30 million price tag, because, naturally, the best way to make food more affordable is to have the government spend a fortune getting into the super...

Three stories, three minutes, let’s go. Today I’m talking about what happens when everything gets a little cheaper, a little sadder, and a lot more ridiculous. Cord-cutters are now cutting back on streaming costs, which is funny because the whole point of streaming was supposed to be saving money in the first place. Then there’s 7-Eleven, closing hundreds of stores while trying to become more of a...

Three stories, three minutes, evening edition — let’s go! Today I’m talking about a federal court striking down a 158-year-old ban on home distilling, scientists arguing that lobsters feel pain, and why IRS staffing cuts suddenly have some people feeling a little too confident at tax time. It’s one of those episodes where every story feels like a different version of the same basic truth: the seco...

Hunter Biden says he’s too broke to pay his lawyer, but apparently still has enough energy to challenge Don Jr. and Eric Trump to a cage match. Then there’s tax season, where the new advice is simple: if you’re mailing your return close to April 15, maybe don’t trust the system to suddenly become efficient just for you. And finally, a semi full of gummy bears caught fire on Interstate 80 in Nebras...

The audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 gets into a CIA tool called Ghost Murmur, which sounds less like covert technology and more like something overpriced and smoky on a cocktail menu. Also in the mix: airline baggage data that somehow makes Allegiant look competent, which may be the most unsettling part of the story, and an Amazon driver accused of cutting out the middleman and startin...

The audio is above. Today’s three stories all had the same basic theme:Modern life is ridiculous, and somehow still getting more ridiculous. A possible two-week ceasefire with Iran is being talked about as if the world just needed a timeout. Lowe’s is putting serious money into training tradespeople, which is probably the clearest sign yet that America is starting to remember who actually fixes th...

Three stories, three minutes, let’s go. Today’s episode is about what CBS is putting in Stephen Colbert’s old time slot, why the Associated Press is offering buyouts as it moves further away from newspaper journalism, and the self-driving car in Austin that managed to turn the future into a dead duck. So, late night gets cheaper, journalism gets smaller, and technology is still out here learning t...

Audio is above. (Note: I got a late start to this one, but I am also experimenting with different release times) Three stories, three minutes, let’s go. Today’s episode is about the possibility of diplomacy with Iran, the FBI admitting a major incident involving a sensitive surveillance system, and sleep experts informing you that the real threat to civilization may be your snooze button. So — war...

Three stories, three minutes, let’s go. Today’s episode is about a jobs report that everybody reads differently, three women who turned a Frontier baggage fee into an arrest, and an Amazon recall that sounds like a great way to set your living room on fire. The audio is above. Sources U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics People New York Post U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission AL.com Thanks for rea...

War in Iran may be “nearing completion,” according to President Trump. Which is a phrase that sounds less like military strategy and more like a guy standing in your kitchen saying the cabinets should be in by Thursday. Also, Americans now say they need $1.46 million to retire comfortably. Not to live like a king. Not to buy a yacht. Just to stop working without feeling like you’re one prescriptio...

The audio is above. Some days, the news really does most of the work for you. President Trump says the U.S. could end the war with Iran in two to three weeks. Two to three weeks. That is an incredible way to describe a war. It sounds less like geopolitics and more like a guy telling you when the kitchen counters might finally be installed. Then there’s Tiger Woods stepping away to seek treatment a...

The audio is above. Today’s episode is about three things America now does exceptionally well: making basic life more expensive, making normal human interaction feel weirdly transactional, and taking places that used to be fun and optimizing the fun right out of them. We start with gas prices climbing past four dollars a gallon again, because apparently, even leaving your house now requires a smal...

Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 is up. And it’s one of those episodes where the three stories don’t seem connected until you realize they all point to the same conclusion: We are not running a country anymore. We are just reacting to things. Today starts with a report that the Pentagon is preparing for the possibility of weeks of ground operations in Iran. That phrase alone is enough to make “no final...

The audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 is about the modern American squeeze. TSA agents are stuck in the middle of the Homeland Security funding mess, with airport delays growing while Washington keeps doing Washington things. Netflix is raising prices again, because apparently staying home comfortably now requires a premium tier. And United is rolling out “Relax Row,” which is just a ver...

The audio is above. Today’s episode is a quick tour through the modern American mood. First, a warning that summer airfare could keep climbing, because apparently, even vacation now comes with financial trauma. Then there’s the rise of the Death Cafe, where people gather over tea and cake to talk openly about dying. Which is either healthy emotional processing or the saddest bakery concept ever cr...

Today’s episode has a little bit of everything: A new warning about Chinese-made routers and national security. A look at how much electricity AI and data centers are chewing through. And one gloriously strange story out of France involving pinot noir and a medieval hospital toilet. So yes, the future may be spying on you, overloading the grid, and somehow still losing to old-world wine culture. T...

The audio is above. Today’s The Snark Factor 3 in 3 starts with the market doing what it does best: reacting to one hopeful headline like a dog hearing a treat bag open. Stocks rallied, and oil prices fell on Monday after President Trump hinted the war with Iran could end, even as Iran denied negotiations were happening. From there, we get into a new survey showing teens now feel more pressure to...

The audio is above. Today’s episode starts with a worldwide caution from the State Department, detours through the return of cigarette culture, and ends with young people embracing old-school hobbies like needlepoint and mahjong. Three stories. Three minutes. Global tension, fake cool, and crochet. Sources: U.S. Department of StateTruth InitiativeAssociated Press Thanks for reading! Subscribe for...

The 50th episode of The Snark Factor 3 in 3 is up. And somehow that feels very on-brand. We made it to 50 by doing what this show does best: taking the news, squinting at it, and asking whether America is okay. Today’s episode gets into why so many people feel like retirement keeps moving farther away, the wonderfully ridiculous Afroman courtroom victory, and the story of a 78-year-old DoorDash dr...

The audio is above. Today’s three stories: The Fed held rates steady, Tinder wants AI poking through your camera roll, and Hollywood is now casting the dead. So, you know, another perfectly normal day in America. We start with the Federal Reserve trying to look calm while standing in the middle of inflation worries, war jitters, and gas-price anxiety. Then Tinder shows up with a feature that says,...

The audio is above. Today’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 begins with the cheerful news that Gen X and older millennials may be aging like a carton of milk left in a hot car, moves to a strike that could make beef even more expensive, and wraps up with Amazon deciding that even waiting three hours for deodorant is now beneath us as a people. So today’s themes are simple: We’re falling apart, steak is becomi...