Pol and Pop (Politics/Pop Culture)
Episodes
118 episodes
POP CULTURE: Disclosure Day
Full spoilers for Spielberg's Disclosure Day. Relevant real-world context: The PURSUE UAP file releases beginning May 8, 2026, and the Disclosure Forum 2026 held June 25th in the Kennedy Caucus Room.Episode Overview
Same Lacks, New Knacks
Robert Downey Jr. is going to play Doctor Doom. New mask, same task-- different costume, same actor doing the work underneath it.This episode is about a week that kept handing me the same lesson wearing different disguises. A FISCAM audi...
More Than Meets the AI
In 1987, Transformers introduced a line of toys called Headmasters — giant alien robots, already sentient, already powerful, who needed a smaller human-equivalent partner to become their head and direct them. It's a strange premise if you stop ...
Layers Breeding Lawyers
This one starts with a game of Clue.You've done the deduction. The logic is sound. The conclusion is clear. And nobody will let you open the envelope — while telling you that until you've seen inside it, you haven't proven anything.<...
POP CULTURE: The Mandalorian and Grogu
Full spoilers for The Mandalorian and Grogu. Slight spoilers for The Last of Us. Relevant background: The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3 on Disney+.Episode OverviewA special episode covering the first Star Wars theatrical...
Purging the Premise
There's a move that keeps showing up in places you wouldn't expect to find it together — a Star Trek film, a Star Wars movie, a legal strategy that just passed 24 to 0 in the Hawaii State Senate, and a text thread with my brothers about food al...
Truth in the Tamed
There's an idea that physical reality works something like a mirror — that what you see reflected in the world around you is a function of what you're projecting from within. Change yourself, and the reflection changes. But the mirror doesn't u...
SPECIAL: Pol and Pop Episode 100!
A three-part celebration of 100 episodes of Pol and Pop.Part 1 brings Woody back for a milestone conversation — truth versus social consensus, political tribalism and brand loyalty, Citizens United, the wealth gap, the pressure co...
POLITICS: Unpredictably, It's the Yearly Predictions Episode!
Anthony and Woody finally get around to reviewing their 2025 predictions — recorded in late May, better late than never. The verdict: Woody's cynicism won the day almost across the board. Nobody died, nobody got fired on schedule, no recession ...
Escalation Isn't Aggression: Rule Folklore, Broken Loops, and the Case for Good Trouble (3/18/26)
(originally released 3/18/26)What happens when the rules people follow don't actually match the rules that are written down?In this episode, Anthony examines "rule folklore" — the process by which organizational norms drift from ...
The System and the Self – Autism, Bureaucracy, and the Collapse of Empathy (10/22/25)
(originally released 10/22/25)The System and the Self – Autism, Bureaucracy, and the Collapse of EmpathyWhat happens when a system built on procedure forgets the people inside it?In this deeply personal episode, Ant...
POP CULTURE: Punisher: One Last Kill
Full spoilers for Punisher: One Last Kill. Relevant comic book source material: The Punisher Vol. 5 (Welcome Back, Frank) by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, and Jimmy Palmiotti (2000-2001).Episode OverviewA special epis...
POP CULTURE: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Ep 8 (Part 5)
Full spoilers for all Daredevil series including Born Again Season 2 Episodes 1-8.Episode OverviewI'm joined again by Claude, an AI from Anthropic, for the final part of the Born Again Season 2 coverage. "The South...
POP CULTURE: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Ep 7 (Part 4)
Full spoilers for all Daredevil series including Born Again Season 2 Episodes 1-7.Episode OverviewI'm joined again by Claude, an AI from Anthropic, for Part 4 of the Born Again Season 2 coverage. "The Hateful Darkn...
POP CULTURE: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Eps 5&6 (Part 3)
Full spoilers for all Daredevil series including Born Again Season 2 Episodes 1-6. Episode Overview I'm joined again by Claude, an AI from Anthropic, for Part 3 of the Born Again Season 2 coverage. This ...
POP CULTURE: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Eps 1-4 (Part 2)
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episodes 1-4 Analysis (Part 2)Full spoilers for all Daredevil series including Born Again Season 2 Episodes 1-4.Episode OverviewI'm joined again by Claude, an AI from A...
POP CULTURE: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Eps 1-3 (Part 1)
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episodes 1-3 Analysis (Part 1)Full spoilers for all Daredevil series including Born Again Season 2 Episodes 1-3.Episode OverviewI'm joined by a special co-host this epi...
POLITICS: And... We're Back!
The weather is warming up, so Woody and I took an opportunity to hang outside and catch up on the political situation in a broad, freeform manner. We touch on a range of current issues while circling an underlying theme: how the desire for powe...
Did Obama just say aliens are real??? Let's discuss...
Former President Barack Obama recently sat down for an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, and during a lightning round at the end of their conversation, the topic unexpectedly turned to aliens. Obama’s response -- suggesting that extraterrestria...
"Release the Files" Aftermath Thoughts
So much has happened politically even in the past couple weeks! I didn't feel inspired over the course of this past month to work on an essay episode with ChatGPT. But it's probably for the best that I didn't, since there was so muc...
Belief & Belonging — Why Truth Loses to Tribe
This is a slightly shorter, more focused episode on why people believe what they do. We unpack the Overton Window, how autistic and neurotypical wiring approach truth differently, the social power of narrative, and why belief often reflects bel...
Overtrump: The Collapse of an Illusion
Donald Trump’s rise was built on illusion — inevitability, fear, and myth. But illusions don’t last forever. In this episode of Pol and Pop, Anthony unpacks the breaking point: from the stolen 2024 election to the Epstein revelations, ...