The gang celebrates July 4th by barely mentioning it. Instead, Jesse and Katie talk about Blocked and Reported's arguably FIRST EVER beef, which involves a very sensitive staffer at The New Republic. Then they relay two real corrections and one fake one from previous episodes, talk about the increasing possibility, in light of a new court decision, that at least one contributor to the Shitty Media Men list will be 'unmasked,' and discuss a thoughtful essay on what it feels like to be at the bott...
Jul 04, 2020•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jesse interviews Yascha Mounk about the threats liberalism is facing from both the left and the right, and Yascha introduces a new platform he is launching to help stem the tide. The duo also discuss Yascha's great but infuriating article in The Atlantic, "Stop Firing the Innocent," the origins of the gender wage gap, antifa, the racial politics of police reform, and more. Make sure to check out persuasion.community , which should be live by the time you read this. This is a public episode. If y...
Jul 02, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast A reckoning is afoot, as Jesse finally confronts Katie over her abusive managerial style. After the hosts get that out of the way, they proceed into a discussion about The New York Times' decision to publish the famed rationalist blogger Scott Alexander's full name -- and the rather effective-seeming countermeasure Alexander pulled in response. Then they move onto a broader conversation about journalistic ethics with regard to naming subjects against their will, and Katie talks about the time sh...
Jun 27, 2020•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you develop severe physical symptoms whenever you go more than a day without hearing fresh content that includes Katie's and Jesse's voices, you're in luck: Here's an interview the hosts did with Jeremiah Johnson of The Neoliberal Project ( here's his Twitter account) which Johnson generously shared (it's also up on his own organization's Patreon page). It was a pretty wide-ranging discussion -- in addition to covering the David Shor firing and Washington Post blackface article , the trio als...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast If hearing Jesse and Katie dig around in the strange innards of "White Fragility" wasn't enough Robin DiAngelo for you, have we got the thing: an interview Katie conducted with a woman whose former company, throw into disarray by a racial microaggression, brought in DiAngelo to conduct a full year's worth of antiracism training, complete with (unpaid) homework. It went.... strangely, and at one point involved allegations of subconscious swastikas. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discu...
Jun 20, 2020•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast (UPDATE, 6/21/2020: Replaced the original file with one that has a new intro from Katie about some violence that took place in the CHAZ. This is the version we'll be posting on the free feed tomorrow, but everything is otherwise identical. -Jesse) In the intro, Katie regales Jesse with tales from the CHAZ. Then, in part because Jesse is obsessed and desperately needs to get a lot of vitriol surrounding this subject out of his system, the deeply masochistic hosts devote the entire rest of the epi...
Jun 20, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast The roiling tremors on the left continue, as a young progressive data analyst gets fired for... it's honestly too ridiculous to even type, and the Poetry Foundation shows us what a truly hysterical meltdown looks like. The hosts use their intellect and savvy to try to understand the difference between two 'violent' acts: "kneeling on someone's neck until they die horrifically" and "issuing a statement that isn't quite strong enough." Everything is insane right now. And violent. NOTE: Since you a...
Jun 14, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bari Weiss did some tweets about how there is a generational divide at The New York Times that is, in her view, hampering the paper's ability to publish quality commentary and journalism. In response, a sizable cohort of her colleagues LITERALLY devoured her (metaphorically, on Twitter). In their most frustrated episode yet, Katie and Jesse explain why Bari was fundamentally right. That doesn't mean her framing was perfect ('safetyism' isn't exactly the problem here), but, as the hosts argue, th...
Jun 08, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast For this, the first-ever patrons-only Blocked and Reported interview, Jesse interviewed Ben Burgis, a philosopher, prolific writer for Jacobin and other outlets, and the author of Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left . Among other subjects, the duo discussed self-sabotaging messaging on the left, the flaws in Jordan Peterson's conception of 'post-modernism,' and the class element missing from the police-reform discussion. At the end, Jesse tried to get Ben to turn him into a socialist. Did ...
Jun 06, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast In today's episode, the hosts zero in on an obscure, under-covered newspaper known as "The New York Times." Specifically, they discuss an explosion of employee anger over the paper's decision to publish a column by Sen. Tom Cotton, and what it can (maybe) tell everyone about internal dynamics in some media companies at the moment. Then, they shift gears to a Times article about a nonbinary 7-year-old and discuss the ways in which a certain subgenre of storytelling could be obscuring the nature o...
Jun 05, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast There's so much going on that Katie and Jesse are back again, already. In this episode they discuss the protests and riots popping off all over the country in response to George Floyd's horrific death, the media's predictably sloppy handling of some of the complexities of police reform, and the difference between meaningful and performative activism. Should they appoint themselves leaders of the nationwide movement for criminal justice reform? Hard to say. In the patrons-only segment starting at...
Jun 02, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode, Katie and Jesse discuss the Amy Cooper/Christian Cooper incident in Central Park. Is this different from other instances of online shaming? Do we lose something when, in trying to understand a complicated problem like police shootings and other abuses, we focus in on individuals rather than institutions and structures? Why are white women so often pilloried these days when white men, like Jesse in particular, are obviously so much worse? Program notes/links: - "White Peop...
May 31, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Before jumping into a truly brutal week for media news involving journalists who are younger and more attractive and successful than they are, Jesse and Katie are interrupted by their newly installed Alison Roman Controversy Alarm, forcing them to briefly update listeners on the latest twist in that eternal tale. Then they turn their attention to a PinkNews article positing a global conspiracy of lesbians who are sexual abusers and human traffickers and explain how that ties into the broader, wh...
May 23, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast In their first-ever edition of "🥱 or 🔥," a game in which one cohost tries to convince the other that a given internet controversy is interesting, Jesse regales Katie with the tale of a leftist African-American studies professor who decides to kick off his new lecturer gig at Auburn University by insulting one of the university's football traditions over Twitter . Spoiler alert: His opinions are not well-received! Also in this episode: Jesse's touts the efficacy of "Irish goodbyes" and Katie gi...
May 22, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Here's Blocked and Reported, Episode 9: Layoffs And Teigen And Roman And Kondo And Feel-Bad Liberalism. Our week-to-week schedule varies a great deal. Sometimes the free weekly episode isn't ready until Sunday night. Sometimes, like this week, it's ready significantly earlier. As an extra perk to you, our trusty patrons, we're going to give you early access to the weekly free episodes when our schedules and other obligations allow us to. Enjoy! Summary: Katie leads off the show by discussing her...
May 16, 2020•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast In our first-ever Patrons-only episode, we break down an NBC News Article about the latest diversity brouhaha at Google, which leads into a broader discussion about what we expect of diversity programs, whether conservative complaints about the wackier ones have some merit, and the media's coverage of James Damore's memo (which argued, if memory serves, that female employees at Google should be kept in pens like livestock). Plus: What to do when your in-laws think you're hellbound, and a promisi...
May 15, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Jesse gets things off to a fantastic start with an uplifting story about dog feces, the hosts finally relent and discuss the Joe Biden/Tara Reade situation. Does this case reveal the limits of "believe women"? Of trying to pretend long-ago accusations can be hashed out apolitically? Is anyone acting in good faith here? Then the hosts move on to Candace Owens and her censored-by-Twitter tweet calling for her Michigan followers to defy the government. What is the proper role for a private bu...
May 11, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast During an emergency session of Blocked and Reported, Katie and Jesse discuss the controversy sparked by Alison Roman's decision to go hard at Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo. Just how racist is Alison Roman? Just how woman-of-color is Chrissy Teigen? Is the phrase "please to buy" anti-Asian or anti-Eastern-European? These and other highly sensitive questions, answered definitively! Plus: Katie and Jesse reveal their favorite appropriated foods. Show notes: What Alison Roman wants ( https://newcon...
May 10, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The show gets off to what feels like its 100th consecutive turbulent start, with Katie seeking solace over a super-personal medical issue. Then the hosts discuss Bill de Blasio's tweet about the Jewish community not following social-distancing rules: Just how meshuga was it? After that, they move on to a conversation over a popular narrative about Boomers and coronavirus, and finish things up by addressing the question on everyone's mind: Is it racist to portray orcs (the fantasy creatures, whic...
May 04, 2020•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast After the pod gets off to yet another rough start thanks to a vicious anti-bread tirade Katie levels at Jesse, the cohosts heat up some leftovers from the last episode by disentangling Karens and Beckys (sorry, Karens and Beckys!) and further explaining their views on expertise. Then they discuss "Why Won't Woke Boys Pay For Sex?," the MEL Magazine article that lit Twitter on fire last week: Is Progressive Sex-Worker Discourse in line with most people's intuitions about the nature of prostitutio...
Apr 27, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast In a shocking moment that definitely wasn't scripted, Katie almost singlehandedly immolates the podcast by dropping a horrific slur just seconds into the episode. After the cohosts recover their composure, they discuss an outrage story about Canadian military pronouns, Alex Berenson's coronavirus contrarianism, and the fairly nonsensical process people follow to decide what they believe. Jesse then tries to unpack Online Validity Discourse, leading the cohosts to discuss fascinating and provocat...
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Jesse tries to gaslight Katie into believing she's Jewish. After he succeeds, the cohosts move on to the meat of the show: a discussion of three Problematic Men. First they talk about Joe Rogan, who has been found guilty of having offensive opinions. What does the controversy over his endorsement of Bernie Sanders, and his more recent turn toward Trump-curiousness, tell us about how pundits misunderstand the average voter? Then they move on to noted masturbator Louis C.K. Has he been punished en...
Apr 13, 2020•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jesse has a bad cough. Is it coronavirus, or just Jewishness? Katie, meanwhile, isn't quite sure what plant she turned into tea last week. Will either cohost outlive April? We'll see soon enough. In the meantime, the hosts debate whether coronavirus will kill the online culture wars, then segue accidentally into a discussion of gender identity and the complicated ways in which attempts to reduce misgendering can lead, as Katie has experienced, to yet more misgendering. Then Jesse complains about...
Apr 06, 2020•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Less than a week post-launch, Blocked and Reported faces a profoundly serious threat to its existence: an accusation of Grand Theft Audio from one of the hosts of Blocked Party, an obscure upstart podcast that may have copied Blocked and Reported's name. After reflecting on their transgressions, looking deeply inward, and promising to do better (not really), Katie and Jesse move to on a discussion about Katie's pandemic shotgun wedding. Then they talk about right-wing coronavirus misinformation ...
Mar 30, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast IT'S HERE. In the pilot episode of Blocked and Reported, hosts Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal explain what the podcast is, and Katie reveals a very special Pandemic Announcement. The hosts also discuss the "Why I Am Leaving The Left" subgenre, debate whether insanely irresponsible pandemic behavior has changed their views on internet shaming, and offer some suggestions of wonderful Old Internet relics that can help listeners ride out the end of the world in an entertaining manner. Show notes: -I'...
Mar 24, 2020•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
