Unwashed and Unruly

In this episode, we ask: Is recycling just a scam? For decades, the packaging and oil industries have used recycling as a moral shield, shifting the blame onto consumers so they can keep polluting the environment and producing disposable junk. We’ve been fed the lie that saving the planet is our personal responsibility.  In a different world, recycling could be a beautiful, endless circle: Use an...

“Protect the children” is the rallying cry behind a sweeping new wave of internet regulation, sparking a moral panic to justify censorship and surveillance. Across the globe, governments are advancing social media bans and age-verification laws, often citing a youth mental health crisis popularized by works like The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. These policies claim to reduce harm, yet in...

AI won’t make you stronger, but it might kill you. In Part 2, we discuss how AI is constructing a high-tech infrastructure of control, where every movement and transaction becomes data to be monitored, commodified, and weaponized. We examine the growing fusion between AI companies and militarized state power, using Palantir’s recent manifesto as a case study to show how tech companies are advancin...

Is artificial intelligence an inevitable leap toward superintelligence, or just a high-speed statistical guessing game backed by billions in venture capital? In Part 1, we peel back the marketing blitz to reveal how these hyped-up "God Machines" are merely software built on data theft and corporate speculation. We deconstruct the "booster" vs. "doomer" trap, arguing t...

Why has flying become so crappy? Modern air travel has morphed into a high-altitude endurance test, cramming us into shrinking seats and nickel-and-diming us for every basic necessity. In this episode, we trace the airline industry’s descent from a regulated public utility to a monopoly-driven, irrational oligarchy in the wake of the 1978 Deregulation Act.  We look at the war against airline and a...

The "nuclear threat" narrative against Iran is a smokescreen for a decades-long campaign of imperialist aggression designed to crush Iranian sovereignty. In this episode, we strip away the mainstream propaganda and myths to examine how both wings of the U.S. ruling class, working alongside their Zionist partners in Israel, have used murderous sanctions, direct assassinations, and terror...

The Epstein files offer a raw glimpse into how the U.S. rulers and the entire global capitalist class run society: through sexual and geopolitical violence, criminal exploitation, and legal impunity. The buying and selling of young women, the decadence, and the denigration of all who are not part of their club – this is the “morality” of those in power.  In this episode, we discuss how the Epstein...

In this episode, we break down how anti-immigrant repression, which has been bipartisan for decades, has escalated into open paramilitary terror under Trump 2.0. We examine the daily raids and deportations by ICE and how they’re also an attack on citizenship and political dissent, acting as a warning shot against the entire working class.  We connect the dots between an empire in decline, domestic...

In this episode, we’re joined by a special guest, Hamilton Nolan, a journalist, author on labor and politics, union organizer, and activist. We talk about how journalism survived the death of print only to be swallowed and spit out by Big Tech, private equity, and monopoly capitalism. We trace the rise and fall of online media, digging into Hamilton’s early days at Gawker. We discuss how corporate...

In this episode, we discuss how the latest U.S. assault on Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro are part of a centuries-long project of American imperial domination in Latin America. The goal isn't just to take over Venezuela’s oil reserves. The deeper objective of a new Monroe Doctrine is to control the Western Hemisphere and block China and other rivals from gaining influe...

Why are so many people hungry in the world's richest nation? In this episode, we unpack how food isn’t just something people eat. It’s a tool of power. From food deserts and ultraprocessed diets to collapsing health, we trace how modern food production is organized to maximize corporate profit while punishing the poor, the working class, and the oppressed. We discuss how a handful of giant foo...

In our last episode of 2025, we take a look at the American revolutionary John Brown, who believed slavery was a crime so violent and heinous that it could not be ended through patience, compromise, or moral appeals. Brown’s commitment to Black liberation, which was rooted in faith and a keen understanding of American society, led him from “Bleeding Kansas” to the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, an ac...

In this episode, we speak with Eli Erlick, celebrated author, trans activist, and educator based out of New York City, who recently published the groundbreaking new book Before Gender: Lost Stories from Trans History, 1850-1950 . In a time of moral panic when trans people are being turned into political scapegoats, with hundreds of new bills restricting their rights and visibility, Erlick’s book i...

In this episode, we dig into the origins of the internet as a Cold War surveillance project and trace how Silicon Valley grew up inside the U.S. defense ecosystem. We look at how companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Palantir didn’t just partner with the government and state machinery—they were shaped by it. These tech titans provide the cloud systems, predictive algorithms, and data...

This Halloween, we open the Bible and uncover the stories Sunday School skipped. From vengeful bears and zombie armies to divine wrath, these are just some of the tales that prove the Good Book can double as nightmare fuel. Every story is straight from scripture, complete with citations, but told with a signature mix of dark humor, skeptical commentary, and spooky sound design. It’s the Bible like...

Conspiracies aren’t fringe anymore. They’re at the heart of American politics. In this episode, we explore how conspiracy theories have taken root in everything from social media feeds to White House discourse. Today, the internet acts as a megaphone for conspiracies, from flat earth theory to racist ideology such as the "Great Replacement Theory.” When there’s declining trust in media, scien...

As the world watches the horror unfolding in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli state, the oppression and displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has intensified.  This episode offers a rare and urgent eyewitness account from the ground. We’re joined by Simone Deckard, a NY-based organizer who works with Palestinian women community organizers in the Northern West Bank. Simone recently...

In Part Two of our deep dive on the whitewashing of American slavery, we unpack how right-wing influencers like Candace Owens and Matt Walsh, and platforms like PragerU, are rewriting history to downplay the horrors of American chattel slavery. We explore the false equivalence between U.S. slavery and ancient systems, examine how Nazi Germany borrowed from Jim Crow laws, and discuss how caste, rac...

In Part One of our deep dive into the whitewashing of American slavery, we look at the widespread effort to sanitize the brutal history of Black oppression in the U.S., from Donald Trump's attack on the Smithsonian for being too "woke" to Elon Musk’s casual dismissal of slavery as a universal human experience. We explore how this revisionist narrative is aimed at erasing the central role of slaver...

**Labor Day Special!** Are economic statistics just prosperity propaganda by those in power? The labor market numbers are, indeed, lying to you. Unemployment data has always been presented as rosier than real life. Nearly 1 in 4 workers can be considered functionally unemployed or in poverty-wage jobs. This episode cuts through the “healthy labor market” headlines to expose the real story behind l...

International football is a beloved sport, but beneath the surface lies a legacy shaped by empire, exploitation, and racial hierarchy. In this episode, we explore how major European clubs and leagues benefit from a global system where talent is scouted, commodified, and exploited, and where dark-skinned players face racist abuse. We dive into the political economy of soccer: the role of FIFA, the...

What’s fueling the rise of the online manosphere, and how different is today’s incel culture from historic forms of misogyny? In this episode, we break down the ideologies driving men’s rights activists, red pillers, MGTOWs, alpha males, and pickup artists. We explore how shifting gender roles, economic instability, and backlash to movements like #MeToo have shaped this toxic digital subculture. ...

The P. Diddy sex trial exposed disturbing allegations of abuse, but also revealed how race, celebrity status, and systemic misogyny shield powerful men from consequences. In this episode, we unpack the complexities of the charges: Why did prosecutors struggle to apply sex trafficking laws, and what does that say about how those laws are actually used? We explore how the public discourse around &qu...

U.S. military aid to Israel funds the occupation of the West Bank, the destruction of Gaza, and the genocide of the Palestinian people. The American government's unconditional support for Israel chills free speech and represses pro-Palestinian activism, making open criticism of Zionism taboo.  In our very first episode, we explore the power dynamics in the U.S.-Israel relationship and take a h...