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.

Jen and Noam are late again, but that's Noam's fault because he's a Euphoria fan (?) now. But we don't just discuss the season (series?) finale of Euphoria, we discuss the DC based America 250 events that are falling apart in real time because Trump can't keep his hands off the celebrations. And yes, despite the feigned indignation on the topic, it's a little hard to say Trump isn't making this about Trump when there's huge banners of his face on government buildings in DC. And he decides to cancel a concert in lieu of his making a speech.

Primary season has officially started, and we've already got two controversial candidates to talk about; Graham Platner and Ken Paxton. While Paxton's flaws are well known and documented, including stealing money and cheating on his wife, Platner is stacking up new ones by the day. So we ponder the big question - when does it all become too much to support, even in the pursuit of power?

For our WAWC, we do a spoiler free discussion of Backrooms, the new movie based on the viral YouTube videos created by Kane Parsons. We both agree - if you are a fan of A24 horror films, you'll like where they went with this concept. We also discuss the idea of taking a concept that doesn't have a plot, strictly speaking, and translating that into a film. And, as mentioned, we discuss the ending of season three of Euphoria which does look to be the series finale because we're a little confused as to where Levinson would even go from here with the remaining characters.

Noam and Jen make it back a day late. It's ok, that's what a three day weekend means. We did have plenty to talk about though, seeing as Trump settled his lawsuit against his own IRS over something that happened during his last term and that means that there is now $17.76B of taxpayer money that can now be used for….well it's not really been determined what for. What's for certain is that all of the J6 participants think they have a check coming to them.

Thomas Massie lost his primary to some MAGA dude nobody really knows, but he still can't bring himself to say that Trump sucks. He did find time to take a shot at Israel though, despite them having nothing to do with his election loss. We think he might be the newest citizen of the post MAGA Podcastistan soon enough, maybe then he'll criticize the man who cost him his career.

The war with Iran is still on. Or maybe it's off, No, it's still on. Still no deal with the US. Eventually someone is going to have to admit this whole situation is FUBAR and do something to fix it, although it seems like nobody wants to admit that to Trump just yet.

We spend a minute discussing the Trump administration wanting to talk to Hasan Piker and Medea Benjamin about their trip to Cuba. We also wonder what happened to all of those solar panels they brought to the Cuban people (jk we know the Cuban government took them).

For our WAWC, Noam is still making his way through season 3 of Euphoria, and Jen (and Noam) encourage everyone to go to the good Smithsonian Air and Space Museum out in Chantilly, VA.

Surprise! Jen is visiting Boston, so we are podding in person, and we even watched a movie together to discuss (more on that later). We cover Trump's trip to China and his worrying comments on Taiwan, and transition to his domestic conflict with Thomas Massie and now Lauren Boebert. Will the Republican party become a Vancian Post-MAGA party or will Rubio symbolize some gradual retreat from maximalism? People are also still Big Mad about the Odyssey, so we talk some more about that, and about the anger that permeats pop culture debates. This leads us into What Are We Consuming, which was the new horror movie Obsession. We liked it a lot, and are happy that it is part of the trend of tapping horror YouTubers to make indie horror movies.

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.