Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boy. Reply All, an excellent podcast, is melting down. What happened? What does it have to do with Bon Apetit? Why does new keep breaking immediately after Jesse and Katie record an episode? Show notes/Links: Jesse on his rejection: https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1361125261220196356 A couple great episodes of Reply All: The Case of the Missing Hit: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2h8bx Shine On You Crazy Goldman...
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Should Gina Carano have been fired from her job on the hit Star Wars show "A Candalabra" for being a dumb conservative with Boomerlike posting tendencies? The whole crew gets together to discuss. Also, Katie talks about her relationship with an old Trump supporter and Jesse looks back fondly on his grad-school trip to Israel and Palestine that solved that conflict once and for all. Show notes/Links: Bret Stephens in the New York... Post???????: https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/read-the-column-the-n...
Feb 13, 2021•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jesse and Katie talk about a disturbing bit of listener feedback and the recent departures from the Times, under questionable circumstances, of Andy Mills and Donald McNeil Jr. Are the worst norms of campus culture seeping into major media institutions? To hear the answer, you'll have to listen. (It's 'yes.') (Correction: At around 8:00 in the recording, Jesse originally referred to Rukmini Callamachi as a "woman of color." She isn't one. The error has been snipped out and free listeners will ne...
Feb 11, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Jesse tells Katie a touching story about shoveling food into his face-hole, and the hosts discuss his latest Twitter-feud -- this one with a noted New Yorker food critic (not staff writer) -- the hosts discuss a Slate article about detransition that seems geared at painting that communtiy in a particularly negative and reactionary light. But Cary Callahan, a detransitioner, therapist, and activist (who, to be fair, Katie and Jesse already knew before this all popped up), doesn't think this...
Feb 06, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Katie tells Jesse about a very disturbing dream she had about him, the hosts perform some valuable service journalism by explaining to listeners the nature of stonks and bons and hedge funs. Then they turn their attention to the story of Lauren Wolfe, a New York Times gig-editor who was fired after tweeting that watching Joe Biden's plane land gave her the 'chills.' Fair? Unfair? Inconsistently applied standards? Lot to unpack. Show notes/Links: STONKS: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/stonk...
Jan 29, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Katie and Jesse bring on Ethan Watters, an author and freelance journalist who helped debunk the recovered-memory craze back in the 1990s, to discuss the most recent development in that area: an article in The Cut that Watters does not think does a good and accurate job relating the (scant) scientific evidence for recovered memories. The hosts and Watters also discuss certain arguable therapeutic parallels between the recovered-memory movement and treatment for youth gender dysphoria, as well as...
Jan 23, 2021•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Jesse addresses the totally baseless rumor that he went to Yale Law School, the best law school in the country, where (in this false scenario) he got very good grades, the hosts talk a bit more about online content moderation and then discuss two recent stories about controversial right-wing media figures: the backfired attempt to deplatform Andy Ngo's book, and the widespread outrage among Politico employees that Ben Shapiro was allowed to author an edition of the Playbook newsletter. Ple...
Jan 17, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast After discussing whether Blocked and Reported led directly to the siege on the Capitol, the hosts discuss that strange, terrifying event. They debate whether it can be safely examined in something of a vaccuum, or should be put in the broader context of what appears to be a rise in political violence in the U.S. They also discuss some of the most unhinged responses. Then they talk about Bean Dad. Remember Bean Dad? We yearn for a world in which Bean Dad is the day's most important story on Twitt...
Jan 09, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast After reflecting on what a great year 2020 was, except for the many serious hardships Katie endured, the hosts start 2021 with a bang: specifically, a bang that sounds a lot like a racial slur neither of them can say. A white teenager in Virginia didn't get the memo, though -- what should the punishment be, if any? Then Jesse and Katie turn their attention to a story that is rather 'picante': Hilaria Baldwin's attempt at identity-forgery. What an estupido time to be alive! Show notes/Links: The ...
Jan 01, 2021•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a very special holiday episode, Jesse relates the story of Hanukkah to Katie, his ignorant Gentile friend, with stunning 100% accuracy. Then Jesse makes a fun announcement and an angry announcement. Then the hosts throw to a lengthy interview they did with Aella ( @aella_girl on Twitter), a sex worker, OnlyFans one-percenter, and occasional rationalist provocateur who has lived a very interesting life. They talk about drugs and sex and life and online controversy. Plus, Julie Bindel pops in t...
Dec 25, 2020•2 hr 50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a true sign that anything is possible in this crazy universe of ours, the hosts note that there were some errors in the previous episode and explain exactly what they were (to see them explained in written form, check out that episode's show notes ). Then they discuss some mental-health-talk from Jesse that rubbed one reader the wrong way and continue on to the show's main event: a major court decision on youth gender dysphoria in England and an incredibly shoddy article in Foreign Policy abo...
Dec 19, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast For thousands of years, a small cabal of middle-aged lesbians known as 'TERFs' has been quietly pulling the strings behind the scenes, dictating the outcomes of major world events. They have one goal, and one goal alone: harming gender-nonconforming people. And unlike other political groups, who express their views with patience, reason, nuance, and logic, and who never harass anyone online, TERFs play dirty -- always. In this episode, Katie and Jesse applaud a brave expose in The Atlantic that ...
Dec 12, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast A major blowup at at Google led to the firing or resignation (depending on who you ask) of Timnit Gebru and accusations that the company's social-justice efforts are performative at best. But behind the scenes, some Googlers are telling a different, slightly more complicated story. Who's right? Katie and Jesse bring on Jon Stokes, an Ars Technica founder who is much better connected in the tech world than they are, to help explain this tangled controversy. (Correction: In the original version of...
Dec 12, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast One would not expect an online community devoted to discussion of dragons, vampires, and teenage heroes to be a cesspool of almost unimaginable toxicity. And yet! In this episode, Jesse walks Katie through a recent history of young adult fiction Twitter, aka "YA Twitter," and attempts to explain how it got to be such a Hobbesian hellscape. The latest scandal involves Jessica Cluess, a YA author falsely accused of racism and violent speech, and the opportunistic authors, consultants, and agents r...
Dec 06, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a very tense intro during which Jesse berates Katie for not being there when he needed her most, the hosts discuss a Vice News story about staffers at Penguin Random House Canada so overwhelmed by the existence of Jordan Peterson's new book that they broke down crying, and Guardian staffers so overwhelmed by the existence of a debate over certain claims about sex and gender that they drove columnist Suzanne Moore out. Show notes/Links: Vice World News: Penguin Random House Staff Confront P...
Nov 28, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast After the hosts celebrate a major achievement and Jesse goes on a little rant that is Super Political, Katie and Jesse delve into three stories of profound internet nonsense involving privileged white people doing antiracism, a Toronto editor VERY mad about a new broth-joint, and some of Twitter's most neurotic people getting super mad about Barack Obama's college conduct. Show notes/Links: The New York Times: G.O.P.-Led Senate Panel Details Ties Between 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia - https://...
Nov 21, 2020•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Katie talks about her new dog-testicles-centered newsletter, the hosts discuss the latest events in the ongoing saga of Helen Lewis's voice getting erased by Ubisoft. Now that Rock Paper Shotgun has sacked a 13-year freelancer for the crime of being sympathetic to Lewis in the site's comments section, it's fair to ask: Does it make sense to fire people for expressing majority opinions? (No. No it doesn't.) Then Katie and Jesse discuss an article in New York Magazine about the internal tumu...
Nov 14, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a very special episode, Katie and Jesse discuss a long, stupid week in which democracy had its way with the American people, vigorously and repeatedly. What should we make of the fact that, while Joe Biden is on the brink of victory, the election was closer than many expected and the Democrats were denied their "blue wave"? Is it because of the patriarchy? White supremacy? Wokeness? Minorities who cling annoyingly to 'agency' and "interpreting the world through their own values, rather than t...
Nov 07, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Jesse tells Katie a harrowing story about his recent journey into the heart of 'Manhattan,' the hosts discuss Glenn Greenwald's departure from The Intercept, an outlet he helped found back in 2014. Was this a case of censorship, as Greenwald argues, or did he overreact to standard editorial input? Then they turn their attention to Section 230, a law that made the internet what it is today (for better and for worse), and which seems to be attracting bipartisan ire of late, especially among ...
Oct 31, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Lotta dicks this week. After addressing some reader reactions to their The 1619 Project segment last week, Katie and Jesse critique the idea of "involuntary conservatives" so enraged by wokeness that they have to vote for Donald Trump. Then the hosts turn their attention to a salacious media story involving a certain New Yorker staff writer and, well, there's no more polite way to put this, but, um, his penis. James Lindsay: "Frankly going to unhappily vote Republican, including Trump, until the...
Oct 23, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Well? Is he? Katie and Jesse discuss The Bone Man's recent, controversial tweet, revisit his glorious recent internet-history, talk about their own experiences with left- versus-right-wing haters and obsessives, and -- God help us all -- revisit certain aspects of GamerGate. Ken Bone: "All morning the Trump supporters have been nice to me even though I don't like Trump. The Biden camp has been shitting all over me because I don't like Biden. Do these people really not see how much this behavior ...
Oct 19, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Katie and Jesse discuss the recent and not-so-recent controversy over The 1619 project, the reputational perils of getting in constant fights with idiots on Twitter, and the tangled story of Hunter Biden, a blind guy at a laptop-repair shop, and a controversial New York Post story. Along the way, Jesse engages in some shockingly casual anti-Ukrainianism. The New York Times: The 1619 Project - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html The New York Times: Th...
Oct 17, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast [Update, 12:10 a.m.: For some reason the version I initially uploaded cut off before the actual ending. Apologies, but everything is fixed now. -J] The hosts discuss the Katie Hill revenge-porn/throuple scandal, which has gotten yet more scandalous in light of a tweetstorm supposedly authored by her former staffers (who are not fans), as well as Facebook's decision to ban QAnon from that platform and Instagram. The tweetstorm: https://twitter.com/RepKatieHill/status/1313703826646466562 Politico:...
Oct 09, 2020•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a brief and sober discussion about President Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, the hosts devote most of the episode to two stories: a controversy surrounding a partially anonymous Arc Digital review of Kate Manne's new book Entitled that has led to accusations of obsession and WAR, and the blowup that ensued -- complete with a gleeful threat of mass executions in the streets! -- after the head of Coinbase took the radical stance that his company's purpose is to make money, not do progressive ...
Oct 03, 2020•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Katie tells the story of her 12-hour banishment from Twitter for a biting piece of political commentary, the hosts discus "TFW No GF," a controversial documentary about losers who post too much online, some of whom are so-called incels, or involuntary celibates. When should we have empathy for people who disgust us (like podcasters)? Then they turn their attention to the controversy over J.K. Rowling's newest mystery novel, which, depending on who you ask, is either horrifically transphobi...
Sep 26, 2020•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Katie and Jesse discuss the online outrage surrounding the French film 'Cuties,' which has slightly more underage twerking than most 2020 cinematic releases. How did this film come to unite such a broad swath of people in disgust? What is Ted Cruz's strategy for getting the American government to investigate a French filmmaker? Then the hosts speak with Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown about the broader American sex-trafficking panic that seems to partly explain the reaction to 'Cuties.' Plus: the...
Sep 19, 2020•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast The hosts discuss Donald Trump's sudden fixation on ostensibly "un-American" critical race theory in government diversity trainings. What does a good-faith critique of these trainings look like that doesn't slide into fearmongering or red-scare-esque grandstanding and witch-hunting? Will the politicization of everything prevent people from focusing on what matters, which is whether these trainings work or cause harm? Also: A Vice story about an allegedly satanic Airbnb is super, duper racist, or...
Sep 12, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast After Jesse reveals yet another shocking secret about his mysterious life, the hosts discuss the case of Jessica Krug, a George Washington University professor who appears to have admitted to pulling a Rachel Dolezal: she pretended to be black. What a mess! But perhaps not all that shocking in our identity-obsessed age. Then the hosts respond, in depth, to an email from a reader who wants to be talked out of voting for Donald Trump, sparking an uncharacteristically earnest discussion about the u...
Sep 04, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In today's patrons-only episode, Jesse interviews Justin Tosi, a philosopher at Texas Tech University and the author, with Brandon Warmke, of the new book Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk . After discussing the book, Jesse and Justin move on to a broader conversation about the current, precarious moment for open inquiry in academia, as well as the turn toward activism in philosophy that has Justin worried about his field. Show notes/Links: Amazon: Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse o...
Sep 03, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast After an intro in which Jesse impresses Katie deeply with a brilliant, cutting-edge character he has clearly put a lot of time into developing, the hosts discuss a hellish few days in Kenosha, Wisconsin: first, the police shooting of Jacob Blake, and then Kyle Rittenhouse's killing of two protesters. Doesn't there have to be a better way for police to resolve altercations like the one that ensued with Blake? And will the unrest in Kenosha increase the chances Donald Trump is elected (Katie's vie...
Aug 29, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
