Noam and Jen reflect (heh) on the past week, starting with the reflecting pool and moving on to what exactly is going on with the US and Iran and the MOU. It's all a bit murky, nobody is doing their best work, and everyone has someone to blame for the failure.

For our WAWC, it's time for season 3 of House of the Dragon! We finally get our big boat fight, some character deaths, and Jen pointing out that everyone in the show under the age of 30 needs to be locked away somewhere so they stop messing everything up.

Jen and Noam are celebrating the president's birthday! No, we aren't actually! But we are talking about Trump and his on-again, off-again affair with Iran. After we finished recording this week's episode there was an announcement of an alleged deal between the US and Iran, which sounds more like Trump capitulating to try to give himself a birthday win. Needless to say, we've heard this one before so until there is a signed piece of paper we don't believe you.

We do believe, however, that the new era of drone warfare is here thanks to Ukraine and the success they have had striking within Russia with their drones. We also agree: war without military casualties is both amazing and terrifying.

Back to the topic of Trump's birthday, the saga of the Kennedy Center's name has picked up again this past weekend. It has been reported that Trump's name has indeed been removed, but there is an…interesting scaffolding of plastic sheeting obscuring the view of the letting on the front of the building. This conversation leads us to once again lament that Congress refuses to do their job and leaves everything to the courts to clean up.

For our WAWC, Noam still really really wants you to watch the Apple TV show Widow's Bay. He also feels like Apple should be paying him at this point, since they suck at promoting their own content. Jen finally saw The Mandalorian and Grogu, a perfectly fine movie that is really episode 0 of season four of The Mandalorian. Which is a good thing!

Noam and Jen are on time this week, because there's a lot to talk about. As we somewhat alluded to last week, the NYT dropped a story detailing Graham Platner's past. While it is being slammed as a soft catch and kill, and the main named accuser Lindsey Fifield has said there was a lot more that wasn't included in the article, what was included is pretty damning. Damning enough that, 20 years ago, Planer would have needed to drop out to keep his life from being a distraction. Alas, we don't live in those times anymore.

Earlier today, it was announced that Iran has fired missiles into Israel, in response to Israel firing missiles into Beirut, which was in response to Hezbollah firing missiles into Israel. So once again we are left asking - what now? Is Trump going to actually do anything? Will Iran care?

To wrap up, we spend some time making fun of Candace Owens and her trip to Russia. Apparently St Petersburg is one big Temu America, down to the Stars coffee chain and the McDonald's that is not McDonald's. It's kind weird how all of the America First people end up in Russia to sing its praises.

For our WAWC (I told you, Noam can't make me add those Ds), Noam recommends the Apple TV show Widow's Bay. Jen recommends the tiny e-reader XTEINK X4, which is fast becoming the hip new thing in e-readers. We also have a discussion about the success of Obsession, Backrooms, and what it is that puts people in seats at the movie theatre nowadays.