Jen and Noam make it back after Noam's illness (not hantavirus, just regular virus) to discuss Nick Kristof's stupid gullible toxic empathy, how it's not possible to train a dog to sexually assault anyone, how in the world could anyone question the word of 14 people, and where is all of this antisemitism coming from anyway.

We start out, however, talking about The Odyssey (the movie, that's not a pun) and the controversies about the casting announcements that were just made. Jen tries her best to explain to everyone that The Odyssey isn't real, and we both agree that Christopher Nolan knows what he's doing. We also get sidetracked into a discussion on translations and how they can go awry.

For our WAWC, Noam recommends the show From on MGM+. If you didn't know that MGM has a streaming service, you're not alone, but somehow this show is on its fourth season. We also discuss the current season of Euphoria some more, Noam explains what vorarephilia is, and Jen wonders if that means there are people watching Attack on Titan for different reasons.

Noam and Jen make fun of Richard Dawkins finding God in the machine. Ok, not God, but Claude(ia). This kicks off a rambling discussion of AI, consciousness, the Turing Test, if AI is the doom of all humanity, Sam Altman's house getting firebombed, people being way too het up over data centers, water usage for golfing courses and water features in shopping malls, and how Skynet will still send robots and it will probably be the Pentagon's fault.

On the Iran front, we discuss if it is still a front and what exactly the US Navy's role will be in guiding ships through said front. Meanwhile, the Trump administration fumbles around for a reason why they don't need to ask Congress to declare war. Nobody really knows what's going on still, but Iran seems perfectly happy to continue on as things are right now even though they are hurting financially. Speaking of Middle East financial news, the UAE is leaving OPEC and moving towards a formal relationship with Israel. As always, the Middle East is going through some changes.

For our What Are We Consuming, Noam has made it to season 3 of Euphoria and has a theory about how this season is one big subversive joke on conservative values. Jen just rambles on about Euphoria reaction videos, anime, and going shopping at yet another new Japanese life store in the DMV.

Jen and Noam return a day late, because one of us has emergency podcast duties now. Of course we have to start with the WHCD and the attempted assasination attempt on Trump. Everyone is fine, and nobody much seemed like they felt they were in any real danger, as evidenced by the way everyone involved acted during and after the incident. And of course, it's not an assasination attempt without people claiming it was staged, but this time around we have a new group of people making the claim. It also wouldn't be an assasination attempt without people trying to engagement farm and push an unrelated agenda, this time it's the stalled White House ballroom project.

Speaking of people acting out online, the NYT decided to interview nepo babies Hasan Piker and Jia Tolentino about stealing is cool. Jen doubts that either one of them has ever stolen a damn thing ever, because they're both massive tryhards. Nevertheless, we make fun of them and the idea that stealing from Whole Foods is OK but paying someone to bring you food in the rain is not.

As for Iran, things seem to be at an impasse. Trump announced peace talks, Iran quickly pointed they agreed to no such thing, Trump pretended to be the one to call things off. How this saga ends nobody seems to know. Having a plan would be good, but unlike oil tankers in the Strait of Hormutz, that ship has already sailed.

For our WAWC, Noam tells us about how he is catching up on Euphoria in order to watch the third season that is now airing. Jen tried to watch that show once, but it was too bleak even for her (and that's pretty damn bleak). She has been vicariously watching season three through reaction videos on YouTube, and it sure doesn't seem like it's gotten any less disturbing.

Noam and Jen are not sure what is going on. We…think the war with Iran is still on? Does Trump know? Does anyone? It's all very up in the air, which is not great when you're talking about a hot war.

We do know that "Hungarian taxpayers" were funding all of the conferences that CPAC has been holding in Hungary all these years, thanks to Magyar and his anti-corruption tear. We also know certain people were also on the "Hungarian taxpayer" payroll, given their crashout now that the goulash train is stopping. At any rate, this revelation about "Hungarian taxpayer" money sure does explain a lot about the postliberal movement.

For our WAWC, Noam recommends Daemons of the Shadow Realm, which definitely has an interesting premise and a lot of potential. Jen explains Go For It, Nakamura-kun and the controversy surrounding it, and how certain Western fans need to calm down.

Jen and Noam are happy that Iran has not been ended. We are not happy about, well, much of anything else that has happened since Tuesday. Between Iran's ridiculous ceasefire asks, the failed ceasefire talk (singular), Trump being basically done with the whole war, and the blockade of the blockade it doesn't seem like much progress is being made.

On the topic of progress, Hungary has finally rid itself of Victor Orban! Hooray! Now hopefully Hungary can get on a more stable economic track and the EU can stop having to deal with Hungary being Russia's proxy vote.

In case you missed it, NASA went to the moon again too. OK, we flew by the moon this time, but we will be going to the moon really soon. Why? Because we like the moon, and there are resources there.

For our What Are We Consuming, Noam explains how Exit 8 does actually work as a movie, since Jen had her doubts that creepy ick vibes could be turned into an actual movie. Jen explains the Super Mario Galaxy movie and how it's not as good as the first one, but still pretty decent and enjoyable.

Noam and Jen return, a day late but things do happen. Or maybe they don't, which is a running theme of our coverage of the Iran war. This time, maybe Trump is going to bomb all of the infrastructure if Iran doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz. Or not. Who can say really.

Speaking of dropping bombs, Nate Silver somehow ragebaited Hasan Piker into posting his follower stats on Twitter, where everyone noticed a suspiciously large number of unverified accounts follow him. Not the kind of information one releases about oneself but hey, Hasan has been under a lot of scrutiny lately.

In happy Iran news, the US rescued an Air Force officer whose plane was shot down deep in the Iranian mountains. Hooray us! Well, at least we're happy about it. I mean, Israel can't have all the insane movie plot missions.

For our WAWC, Noam recommends the very weird sounding game Crimson Desert, which somehow has both magic and robots. Jen gives a round of applause to the Winter 2025 season of anime that just wrapped up, and talks about how it's really nice that two vastly different shows are getting love from audiences.

Jen and Noam are finally back! Not that much has changed - we still don't know what the game plan in Iran is, nor when the Strait of Hormutz will be open again. Now the conversation is about if we will be sending troops to the Middle East, again to do what we don't know exactly. Whatever it is we're doing, it's because Israel tricked Trump somehow. Not much logic to be found in that argument, but people sure are willing to make it publicly.

We also discuss the big state sponsored holiday / human safari trip to Havana that all of the cool progressive influencers went on to "highlight the struggles of the Cuban people." Oddly, no suffering was documented, but everyone seemed to have a really good time.

For our WAWC, we finally both watched the same thing; Project Hail Mary, which we both recommend. It's a nice, not dark movie about a man and a spider rock in space.

Noam and Jen return to the war in Iran, after a detour into discussing if Tucker is lying or telling the truth about the CIA getting ready to bring a case against him. This of curse leads to a conversation about foreign influence in the right wing griftosphere, how Twitter isn't a reliable place to make a living, and how those two things intersect.

Moving back to Iran, we discuss the reporting that the Trump administration did not plan for Iran to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. We agree that there is a distinction to be made between if the closure was unexpected, or was assumed to work itself out somehow. Whichever it is, it's clear that this is a situation that is certainly not going to give Americans the warm fuzzies about continuing this war.

We also discuss the attack on Temple Israel in Michigan, and how the word "Israel" seems to be very confusing to anti-Zionists. There is also the issue of calling attacks like this blowback for the war in Iran, which obviously makes no sense outside of excusing terrorism.

For our WAWC, Noam has nothing but Jen has a YouTube video - What Higuruma tells us about Japanese courts, human nature, and meaning of justice. In essence, it's a good primer on the Japanese court / criminal justice system, which is important for understanding a story arc in Jujitsu Kaisen.