After Party with Emily Jashinsky - Trump's Push for Peace, Sad Jim Acosta and Howard Stern, and Cringe Millennials, with Michael Malice

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

Emily Jashinsky is joined by Michael Malice, host of "YOUR WELCOME."  The two discuss reporting that President Trump is ready to sit down with Vladimir Putin in an effort to end the war in Ukraine, the two explore the Russian psyche, and why some people may not want the war to end.  The pair also tackles the Texas democrat walkout, they take a look at Jim Acosta’s twisted ‘interview’ with a Parkland shooting victim, the leftwing legacy media’s attempt to rebrand themselves on Substack, and rumors Howard Stern’s show may be ending. They end the discussion with a hilarious look at the WNBA’s dildo problem.  Emily rounds out the show thoughts about how millennial culture became cringe. PreBorn: Help save a baby go to https://PreBorn.com/Emily or call 855-601-2229.Masa Chips: Go to https://MASAChips.com/AFTERPARTY and use code AFTERPARTY for 25% off your first order. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right, welcome to today's edition of tech support for Michael Malice, where we asked the audience live to weigh in on what the fuck is happening with Michael Malice's webcam. If you've ever thought to yourself, I want to hear Michael Malice talk about Putin and the WNBA Dildo Meltdown on live broadcast, on a live broadcast after my bedtime. And you are in luck tonight because the one and only Michael Malice is here with us. He's host of your welcome, of course, and he's the author of. I'm not sick of winning a history of President Trump's first 100 days. Michael, what's up? So for everyone out there in TV land, apparently there's an issue with Zoom,

and it's not unique to me, that when certain people use it on their computers, it just starts glitching like that, like the Matrix. It was really bad when I was in Carolla. We tested it beforehand yesterday. It was fine. So if anyone out there knows what to do for us, boomers, please let us know.

I searched Reddit. I searched the internet. I turned off the HDR, rebooted my computer. No one had any answers. And it's only with Zoom. I like it. I think it reminds us that you are indeed mortal and human. He's so easy to forget.

You're like, this man, he says things that are so, they just ring so true. It's hard to, you're fallible at the end of the day, Michael. This is because I'm mortal doesn't even have fallible. Okay. Well, that's, I guess, a different conversation. That's right. We needn't get into it.

But I did want to start, this is such a fun segue, I did want to start with Vladimir Putin, Michael. We try to generally do the more serious news at the top of the show. And in this case, I do want to go ahead and put up on the screen here, a report from Axios that shows, for example, I'll put it up, Putin proposed summit with Trump at the White House. So news broke today that Donald Trump is going to meet with Vladimir, Putin. Putin actually proposed it, according to this Axios report, to Steve Whitkoff. And it looks like we're expecting this in the coming days. This is a story that was given to Axios. It says Caroline Levitt said that Trump was, quote, opened a meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky and wants this brutal war to end. And this is part of another, I guess, chapter in Donald

Trump's roller coaster relationship with Vladimir Putin. But Michael, Michael, your you know, one of the most interesting voices on this. So what do you make of Donald Trump now talking about actually sitting across the table from Vladimir Putin? Well, I have some insight information on this. A few weeks ago at my house, I hosted the QAnon Shaman. He stayed in my guest bedroom. I thought I owed him one because if it wasn't for him, somebody else would have been in jail. And we were having lunch at an organic restaurant because he eats organic. And he points to the TV where Putin and Trump were talking about their negotiating a ceasefire. I'm sure people remember when this happened a couple of weeks ago,

and he turns to me and he says, I did that. So we could thank him for using his lay lines talents to ensure that this war is being brought to a swift, not as swift as either of us, I think, would like Emily a resolution. I think, as you and I discussed, I think previously, Trump made a blunder because if there's one thing Russians know from years of Soviet oppression, and I speak from, you know, being born there. It's to exploit people's weaknesses, right? So if Trump is on the campaign trail and in the White House bragging,

I'm going to bring peace. Well, Putin knows, okay, this guy's put his reputation in the line. I can extract a lot of concessions from him because otherwise I'm going to play him for a fool, even if I just run the clock out for four years. So he's obviously a very conniving,

intelligent figure. I think Americans have grown to understand that this guy is no dummy. And I'm very hopeful, but I don't know what that deal is going to look like. I mean, it's probably going to look like Zeliansky haven't handover, you know, coupled those provinces in the east. But if Putin knows that that's kind of the starting point, why wouldn't he ask for more? Yeah. Well, this was such a signature campaign promise for Trump.

I mean, he talked all the time about being able to end the war in 24 hours. And I think people in the Beltway sort of underestimate how reds. just his calls to end war in general. I mean, people can call it naive, but his calls for peace. That is really resonant with the American people who were just completely exhausted by the Biden administration, both in the Middle East and in Russia,

what they saw, I think, rightfully, as bungling of both of those conflicts. So what could, I mean, your point about what this deal would look like, I agree, I think that sounds likely, but it also seems like that's something that could have already happened in the last six months. So am I wrong on that? like what could happen now that hasn't already happened if they're face-to-face?

And the other thing is if Trump and Putin get their handshake deal, he still has to sell it to Ukraine and he has to sell it to NATO. And I don't know that that's a given at all. I think NATO, I think, very much has like basically a gun to the back of Zlanski's head telling him don't take a deal. A lot of people are making a lot of money from this war and also giving kind of a sense of gravitas in Europe that I'm kind of strong, confident leader. I'm standing behind the Ukrainian people

even though they're getting butchered. So there's four people and four parties involved here. And five, I guess if you count the UK is separate from NATO in a sense. Well, six, if you count the Q Shaman. Yeah. That's right, the biggest, most important

figure we should always sit down with. So I am, I'm very sad. It's just, you know, I was born there. I was trying to go back and then COVID hit and then the war. so I'd never visited since I left when I was two years old. And your heart breaks also for the Russian people. This isn't fun for anybody, you know, and for what?

So I don't know how he's going to sell this deal, except at a certain point everyone's just going to have to be exhausted. And I don't think the Europeans are. I think they're itching for a fight. Okay, so talk to me more about Putin in that respect, because I think that's part of what Trump may have underestimated or Steve Whitkoff may have underestimated, or actually maybe the broader sort of anti-war movement

in the United States may have underestimated, is that Putin keeps throwing more and more people into a meat grinder. It's an incredible level of death and destruction that has been happening for years now and it feels like there's no light at the end of the tunnel. And it doesn't seem like he feels as though he's being squeezed at this point. I mean, we hear a lot of bluster from more neo-conservative figures in the American right or the American, I guess,

I guess center left too at this point. But in some of it's true. I mean, it is true that things aren't amazing in Russia right now. But whether or not that means people want the war to end and whether or not that means Putin thinks he has some type of political pressure to end the war is a completely different question, isn't it, Michael? Yeah, and also this is how they won World War II. So we don't get to tell this story in American schools,

but I would encourage everyone here to just go to Wikipedia and look at Russian losses during World War II versus American losses. many of whom were preventable because Stalin never thought his good buddy Hitler was going to turn to him like he did. But the losses they suffered in Leningrad, the siege of Leningrad, which is civilians largely and also militarily, it was just astronomical orders of magnitude more than we did. So this is part of the Russian kind of narrative and ethos. So for them, it's kind of like this call to arms, like, you know, we're regaining what we've lost. We can't give up now.

And, you know, for a long time, it was to polar world, you know, the Soviet Union, the U.S. that fell away obviously in the end of late 1980s, early 90s, and Putin's now put Russia as a sense of importance. And, you know, the American president is kind of trying to kind of deal with him and treating him with respect. So I think there's a lot of pride for the Russian people as a result of this. And that's a very dangerous thing in this context because I think we could all do with a little less pride,

a little bit more peace. Well, and some of those voices who have been saying, you know, the Russian economy is in shambles, and Putin is under pressure. We'll also, I think we can predict, Michael, freak out if Donald Trump reaches some sort of deal with Putin next week. And maybe even if he gets support or an inkling of support from the Ukrainian camp for something that looks like actually seeding territory in the Donbos, we can predict that there will be hysteria. There will be a freak out, some of which will come from people who are making money off the conflict or benefiting in different ways from the conflict. But that's going to be, I mean, he's going to have to sell that deal to the public.

And that's, I mean, can you just tell me what you think happens if we're sitting here a week from now and they have some type of deal that involves seating territory in the Donbos? What does that pressure look like on Trump, actually, to maybe scuttle a deal that people don't want to see because they're convinced Putin is then going to march into Poland. And not just Putin. I mean, the argument is, and it's not crazy. since World War II, if you allow some kind of strong country

to railroad or just bulldoze another one, where is it going to end? Right? So they can say this with a straight face that you sold out the Ukrainians to Putin who are you going to sell out next? It definitely would embolden our enemies in certain contexts. I'd be worried about Taiwan. I'd be worried about Iran.

So at the same time, it's like, this is the difficulties of geopolitics. Like if the U.S. has its finger in every pie and we're everywhere on earth, you know, at a certain point, you've got to pick your priorities. So I am supportive of, and I think most Americans in this point is supportive,

of President Trump pulling back on the American empire. But at the same time, you know, like, at a certain point, you also do have to draw your line in the sand. So I'm just very, the other thing is, I think I'm very skeptical that the public is well-informed on this issue because both the Ukrainians and the Russians have extremely enormous incentive

to keep their mouths shut and downplay certain things and overplay others. So we don't know what's going on behind closed doors. I mean, I think that's one of the most bizarre myths of American news is that, like, international affairs is basically conducted in public. Like, what are you talking about? Like, we all know all sorts of...

Like, the Cuban missile crisis with the, you know, when there were nuclear missiles in Cuba and JFK set down with Khrushchev. Basically, he got them to pull the missiles from Cuba. But in return, we pulled our missiles from I believe Europe, but we weren't allowed to talk. We didn't talk about that part.

We only talked about the other parts, so JFK looked like a big win, but it was kind of a draw. So these things only come to light many years later. Please look up, double check what I'm saying in this, if I get the facts exactly right. But the point is... Well, Reagan and Gorbachev were back channeling as well. We didn't learn about that until later. Oh, yeah. I mean, all sorts of things.

Like North Korea, there's no official diplomatic relationships to the U.S. and North Korea, but when they capture people or, you know, we go through Sweden or something like that. So there's all sorts of machinations. And I also think foreign policy is the area of American politics that's least receptive to democratic pressures. I mean, the people, the war machine and the military does what it feels like it needs to do or wants to do very independently of the populace at large. And in one sense, you can't really blame them.

And the other sense, you know, it's very unfortunate. Well, but don't you think that's exactly because of what you just said, so much of it is being conducted behind closed doors, the public can never actually have a full, complete perspective. And the Brookings Institute, AEI, people know that. And they can be kind of sneering about it too. But it's not the public's fault that they're not, and rightfully in some cases privy to every little bit of classified information.

Even with Trump, there's almost this illusion because he actually does conduct foreign policy in public often. You know, he's like doing art of the deal. through the media in different cases with Putin. He has been doing a lot of that. Even with Netanyahu, he has done a lot of that. So on the one hand with Trump, there is what he's saying, and it is meant to be part of the negotiating,

but you still have a completely incomplete picture until you know just those little things that we learn decades later are changing what's happening behind the scenes dramatically. And I'm also very concerned. I did a book on North Korea, dear reader, and when he had the summit in Singapore with Kim Jong-un, with Marshall King-Jung-un,

there were so many people like just gitty at the idea that it would fail. And it's just like, can you put aside your hatred of Trump for five minutes? They've concentration camps there. Like the people, they start children of political purposes. Can you just like for five minutes, like stop hating Trump and just hope that something would work out? And obviously it didn't, but it could have. So I'm very concerned that whatever deal he does make,

if this had been like a Biden deal, he'd be like up for the Nobel Prize. But if it's Trump making the deal, it's like we have to stop it at all costs because Trump's an idiot and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, will be the argument. I really wish people had more of a focus on saving lives and less on one-upsmanship. One-up, upmanship, whatever, you know the term. Sorry, English is my second language. I don't.

What-upmanship? There you go. That sounds right to me. We'll go with it. But yeah, that's one of the, let me try this out in you. because I think the last 100 years plus of foreign policy across the entire world have been, it's just been so dramatically and quickly changed by nuclear innovation, period. And it happened so quickly that we were like the frogs in the boiling pot, and we didn't know exactly how dramatic this change was and got used to these strange negotiations.

Like people will always say nuclear technology has been an incredible success and win for peace. and there are all kinds of problems with that claim, but we're a blink of an eye in the course of human history into this experiment. It's like, if this is a 100-day experiment, we're like halfway through the first hour. And that's terrifying in ways I think we just are numb to, not us, but I think a lot of people here in D.C. are completely numb to,

and it's scary sometimes. Like right now, honestly, it's scary. Yeah, and you saw this when Trump was, like, ranting. He's like, I'm trying to prevent, when he was yelling at Zelensky in the Oval Office, but he's like, I'm trying to prevent World War III. Like, I mean, millions of billions of people could die instantly. Putin obviously has a huge nuclear arsenal.

So it's like, what are we doing here? And again, I think discussed this previously at another time, is that Putin's getting away with it because no one is arguing that we're going to go to Moscow and take him out. So he's not having these kind of consequences that like Saddam had for Kuwait or something like that. Years later, they came back to so-called finish the job, which was obviously a huge calamity.

So someone's cutting a deal with something. point and like what will you know compromise is something that everyone can live with but nobody likes that's what it's going to look like and i mean the ukrainean people are very proud people they despise the russia the russians with good reason i don't blame them one bit but many parts of the eastern ukraine would be more than happy part of russia and at a certain point it's like you know something has to happen yeah i think this will be my last question before we move on to the much more serious topic of Texas Democrats running away from their jobs, but it's that that point about what ultimately had, like you couldn't say that when the war started. And it's not a situation

that anyone's particularly happy about, except for Putin, of course, but it's just reality. And we're kept so, I think, cushioned from reality because exactly what you said earlier, there's just a control over the media narrative on foreign policy by people who are in the know and in the loop that keeps everyone else sort of at an arm's length from the truth. I don't know. I don't know. And I got a shout out to K.T. McFarland. She was a member of Trump's cabinet the first term for a brief period. I was with her in the Fox News Green Room during the Obama years. So this would have been before 2016. And she goes, watch. Putin's going to march in Ukraine. He sees a weakness, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, okay, you crazy old warmonger lady, Neo-Con. And man, she called it.

So credit to KT for calling it way ahead of time. I think we all thought there's not going to be a war in Europe in our lifetimes. Those days are over. Man, we were wrong, the period, and the story, and she saw it. That's interesting because we think of a lot of Cold War people as neo-conservative now, but they weren't at the time. I mean, some of them. But a lot of them were actually like mad at Reagan for negotiating with Gorbachev. It's kind of a funny dynamic if you're on the right to see play out these days. No, certainly. Michael, let's move on to Texas.

You're in Texas, aren't you? You're Texas. Austin, baby. Yes, ma'am. Let's do it. All right. So I'm going to put on the screen this funny headline from Fox News about probably your, I mean, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I'm just going to take a wild guess.

Your hero, Betzo O'Rourke, someone. You know why I love Beto O'Rourke and that you're going to agree with? Beto O'Rourke is the politician of all politicians who's been able to have the lowest ROI in terms of getting investment. He's like a startup which has never produced anything but can still fund round after round after round. He ran for president. He ran for senator. Then he run for governor also. I don't remember what it was.

He went nowhere in any of those things. And he managed, even like he's married to billionaire, he managed to raise so much crazy money. So that guy's doing something right, other than getting elected. Something. It's something. We'll talk about it. Here's the headline. It's Beto O'Rourke asked point blank why he's helping Dems flee Texas rather than helping Texans. This is a question that Beto got actually on CNN. Of all places, CNN asked this because they're assisting with these 500-day per-day fines for people who are, as Fox says, quote-unquote, skipping the legislative session. if people have been following this story, Texas Democrats, and maybe you can even bring us in on this because you are,

you are a Texas correspondent now, Michael Malice. But they've left. You don't just cover North Korea. You cover Texas Dems. They've left. They haven't gone to North Korea, but they have gone to, they've scattered to different places. I think they're in Illinois.

And Beto has a group that's helping assist with it. And I think CNN basically asked him, well, why aren't you? using this to assist people in Texas. So I actually have complicated feelings anytime that we're talking about gerrymandering, Michael, because it's such a stupid political football. I think it is like legitimately a problem that both parties exploit and love to use when it suits their interests and whatever. Nobody has the moral high ground here.

But with the Texas Democrats, this stunt is coming across as so completely sanctimonious. They're trying to leave because Texas Republican, want to redistrict to add five more congressional seats. Trump has spoken out in favor of it. Am I getting something wrong here, or is this just sort of a hilarious stunt? Well, I think it was the governor of Massachusetts. I think it's Kerry Healy, is that if I'm not mistaken, or Mark the Coakley, one of them. She said, well, they're going to do it, we're going to gerrymander, Massachusetts.

So there's no Republican congressman. There aren't any already. It's all democratic legislation. So it's just like, well, you did it. Mission accomplished. There's a campaign promise you fulfilled instantly. They've done this before in other states. And I don't know why these, what the point is.

Frankly, I'm in, you know, I don't if you saw this, but Governor Abbott has like arrest warrants for them, civil arrest warrants. Yeah, the FBI. John Cornyn has actually suggested Senator John Cornyn, who is up for reelection and probably wants to look cool in front of his MAGA friends has suggested that the FBI actually pursue these people for like dereliction of their oath of office essentially. So do you get the sense that Republicans are actually itching to escalate here? I think Republicans have been itching to ask. I think you and I are, I've been at this

for a minute, uh, in like covering politics. Republicans have been itching for a fight for like decades at this point. And the fact that Trump is delivering in any sense is shocking. we saw this with Tulsi and we saw this, you know, with something that that cash is doing in D.C. Like, they're just giddy that for once Republicans are fighting back. That Trump is fighting back at the universities.

That Trump's fighting back in 60 minutes and, you know, the corporate press. So this has not happened in our lifetime. And I'm a bit older than you. This has not been a thing. It's like they talk and talk and talk. When George W. Bush got into the White House in 2001,

the first thing he did, Oh, I'm frozen. The first thing he did is tell the Attorney General, we're not going to pursue the Clinton issues any further. So it's just, I'm just ecstatic that something like this is actually happening. And I don't think the FBI is literally going to arrest them, but you have to punish bad behavior. Right.

So you don't think the FBI is literally going to arrest them. Do you? No. I mean, well, but you just don't know. Because listen, the Trump administration right now has two wars that they wanted to end. They have the Epstein files that still are dividing MAGA. It's not everybody's most important issue, but it's still pissing people off. So particularly with the FBI's involvement and the DOJ's involvement in that,

sometimes those pressures push people into doing crazy things, Michael. I don't know. Yeah, but I mean, it's going to be really hard to make any kind of charges. frankly, I've just been in favor of all politicians being arrested, but I don't really get what I want as an anarchist when it comes to politics. Right. You're very much disenfranchised. That is, well, Le Mougeuse, perfectly said, yes. You're one of our vulnerable, a member of one of our vulnerable populations.

We don't often think about the anarchists. Well, seven, please think of the anarchists. We have all this dynamite and so few targets that we can use them on. So on that note, I actually, you had a good tweet about NPR and all of the posturing, blustering about NPR for years that I want to get to after a quick break. So stick around Michael Malice. Stick around everyone. First just want to say over the years, I have, of course, been clear about this. I'm not just pro-birth.

I am pro-life. And being pro-life means standing with mothers not only before their baby is born, but long after. And that is exactly why I very happily partner with pre-born. Pre-born is great. Preborn doesn't just save babies. They make motherhood abundantly possible. They provide free ultrasounds and share the truth of the gospel with women in crisis. And then they stay with real practical help, including financial support for up to two years after the baby is born. This is what true Christ-centered compassion looks like, not just for the baby, but for the mother too. And here's where you can make a difference. Just $28 provides a free life-saving ultrasound. One chance for a mother to see her baby. And when she does, she's twice as likely to choose life. pre-born is trying to save 70,000 babies this year. So don't just say your polite, live it, help save babies and support mothers today. Go to preborn.com or call 855-601-229.

That's preborn.com slash Emily. We are joined by former baby Michael Malice. That is the only way I've discovered to transition from those ads back to a guest at this point. I did just poop myself. I want to talk a bit about that ad because I think it's terrific. let's hear it and I don't know if you I'm sure you probably've seen this

but what they just talked about in the UK they just passed a bill basically legalizing abortion until birth and all the media over there covered it in terms like

oh you know women's health care rights are being enforced by the Starmer Parliament and it's just like if you read it you would think yesterday it was like

you know if you got trying to get a condom you go to jail It's hard to keep up. And today, women have abortion in the first trimest kind of policy, even if you're pro-choice. Yeah. I mean, their culture war can sometimes be even more interesting than the American culture war. I feel like we get all the credit for having the great culture war, but sometimes they're competitive with our culture war. But, I mean, as you know, there's several states where abortion until birth is legal.

And we're told this is not a thing. And it's just like, you're gaslighting us. Like, what are you talking about? And how do you defend this? Exactly. It's completely crazy. You have a governor in Virginia, what this was Trump's first term. You had governor in New York, so that's Ralph Northam, Andrew Cuomo, who were doing the thing.

And they were proudly doing the thing. And the media was telling you, either, A, they're not doing it. This is a right-wing conspiracy theory being spread by people who don't have teeth. Or the other option is, yes, they're doing it, but it's actually good. and anybody who tells you otherwise hates women, which I don't know when did that become an insult hating women. But on the other hand, it's also just stupid and patently wrong to be against this. That was a joke, Michael, about hating women. That's, it's, of course, wrong. I hate women, but I still don't think it should be allowed to kill their babies. Yeah. Or them as babies.

Right, yes. Which is what happens when you do things like legalize abortion up to birth. Guess which babies start suffering the most. They're girls and their minorities. So well done everyone. Here's the other thing that the pro-life people got right. They started, they were very much ahead of the game talking about a physician-assisted suicide. Yep. Right?

And we saw this happening. It got legalized in Europe and in Canada. And the argument from pro-life people, which was spot on is like once you devalue the sanctity of life, it's not a slippery slope, it's an elevator shaft. And now we see teenagers who are depressed. People from ex-military with PTSD

being encouraged to take fatal choices. This is demonic and shameless. And I'm shocked that more people, I'm not religious, but like I can't look at this and not be like, this is as low as it gets to encourage someone who is not, you know, maybe end of days you got stage four, you got six months, like you're on a machine. You're like, all right, it's a rap.

I get it. That's not what this is at all. And it's just shocking to me how this isn't like the biggest issue. Well, and I tease this by saying we were going to segue into NPR, but actually what we're going to do here is roll this clip of Jim Acosta interviewing the AI. Yeah, you've been on this, Michael, and it's exactly tied in to what you were just talking about. And I think it's something, you said the pro-life people were right. Well, the core of the pro-life argument is that at the moment of conception, and people can disagree in the science, but at the moment of conception, you have a

unique, a new piece of unique human DNA that is alive. Therefore, you have a human life, in other words. And so anything that happens after that point, this is my perspective, is ending a human life. And the reason that's important as technology increases, I shouldn't say increases, but as technology shifts, is that you actually end up devaluing the sanctity of a unique human life. So let's roll S1 and just, buckle up if you haven't seen this yet. Joaquin, I would like to know what your solution

would be for gun violence. Great question. I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health support, and community engagement. We need to create safe spaces for conversations and connections making sure everyone feels seen and heard. It's about building a culture

of kindness and understanding. What do you think about that? I think that's a great idea, Joaquin. So that was an AI render of Joaquin, one of the kids who was killed, I believe, when he was 17 in the Parkland school shooting. Now, the parents of Joaquin are gun control activists and gave Jim Acosta permission to interview. I won't say their son, though some in media have said their son, because that is not their son. That's not fully human, and it's deeply uncomfortable to watch.

Michael, we can, of course, put ourselves in the shoes of the parents to the best of our ability and say, you know, they're looking for comfort. People don't always look for comfort in the right places. And this seems pretty obviously to be an example of that. They're not looking for comfort at all. I mean, they're waving their son's corpse around for political purposes. A couple of things. Let me go off on this because this really bothered me.

First of all, why is anyone listening to a teenager's opinions about gun rights at all? Well, we don't even know that they would have been as opinions. But even if they are his opinions. That's what's so messed up. Even if they aren't his opinions, who cares? Some high schooler has opinions about gun issues? I don't care. Why should I care?

That makes no sense. Number one. Number two is if there's one thing teenage boys like, it's repeating what their parents told them to say. Like, what? What are you talking about? I animated, I did the same thing. I took the son and it's on my Twitter. I animated him and he said, mom, dad, please let me rest.

Propaganda doesn't come from heaven and comes from hell. I'm going to start going darker with it because to exploit your dead son for political purposes in such a stupid way is so horrific. It's almost like Munchausen's with a corpse. And for Jim, the idea that, here's the other thing that's crazy. If you and I kind of interviewed Siri, maybe, we didn't know what she'd say,

but this script is programmed. So it's not an interview if you know what the person is going to even say. It would make more sense for him to interview GROC, because GROC, at least, generates it spontaneously. This was a script. And Acosta, Glenn Greenwald pointed this out. Acosta has gotten basically across the board, like, bipartisan revulsion in reaction to his stunt. And I think that's interesting.

I don't know if you've seen something similar. It's always hard to tell because we're all in our own little bubbles. But have you seen something similar to that? And do you think it's important that it was at least ostensibly sort of bipartisan revolution at what happened here? So, Akka, I mean, can I, I'm going to use a slightly vulgar word. by all means. You know how much of a bad person you have to be to be the biggest prick at CNN?

Like, look who you're compared to, and he was. And they drove him out of town in a rail. They tried to move him to L.A., even though he's like the politics correspondent, and they gave him like a morning slot, and they basically forced him to quit because they were just sick of his BS. People here watching this might remember

they're in the first term when Acosta's in the Oval Office, I think Trump was president of Turkmenistan, one of the stands. I'm sorry, but I don't know the guys. He's Beckistan on them. And Acosta goes, oh, do you want more immigrants? He goes, I want to come from everywhere. And he's like, you mean the white country, sir?

And Trump just goes out. And it's like, you're humiliating the president in front of a foreign leader for what? For your own like, like, asses and giggles? Like, you're a bad, bad person. And the thing that's hilarious about

Acosta, you and I both, I'm sure, probably me more than you because I'm not as nice as you, have to do with a lot of crap on social media. You put yourself out there, people are going to go after you. Acosta locks all his comments because he's so stupid,

he thinks he could transfer his CNN show to the internet and social media and have it go over. It's like it's not. The dynamic is very different because what we have to deal with this is back and forth. Now people feel involved.

They like to talk. They like to comment back. It's not always nice. Acosta locks his comments. It's just a broadcast. And it's like, that would make sense on a TV because you can't really talk back to the TV.

Sorry, boomers. But on social media, that's not a thing. And I think he's dug himself into a hole, but he's too arrogant and stupid to understand it. And one more thing. I've always said their corporate journalists are literal demons, which are entities that are only human in a biological sense.

And this is what I mean. Like, you look at this and like, this is not human behavior. This is something far more pernicious and sinister. because like five years ago, if I told you this was going to happen, you would think I was trolling you. Right. But that's, I mean, what worries me is that the temptation, we can all be really uncomfortable. Like we see this and we're like, dude, that's messed up. You shouldn't have done it. It doesn't matter if you're like Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, anarchist, whatever.

You watch that and you're like, dude, stop. And then we just keep marching towards. towards quote-unquote progress and letting this stuff happen because the temptation is like so seductive. There are people who are in chat box conversations with their deceased loved ones whose stuff was fed into the AI, emails, text messages, voices, video fed into an AI. And it's going to get so much more advanced so quickly. I just don't know if we can kind of withstand the temptations. Well, I am also very concerned as I'm sure you are and most people to know this, I think it's very underreported and underrated as an issue, how many people are very alone and lonely. I can't speak the rest of the world. There's a lot of people in this country

who, if someone in their family died, wouldn't have one person to call to have comfort. And I think social media furthers that, that sense of isolation. Plus, when you're a guy and you're completely alone, it's a joke. Ha ha, you're a loser. Oh, you can't get laid. Oh, by God, you're pathetic. you know, end yourself. And it's like, there's a lot of quality guys and women who are very alone and they don't know why and they're not doing anything wrong. And if they're like, why am I feel this way? I'm not hurting anyone.

I'm not a jerk. You know, they want to make that connection desperately. They don't know how. And it's kind of just swept on the rug. And I think this is kind of like lefty talk, but like, you know, the corporate media and social media has this false sense of relationships. but if you don't talk to a single person during the day that you have any kind of relationship with,

human beings are social animals that messes with your head. And that's, I think, part of this, are you going to become friends with like an avatar of Siri or whatever the analogous version of that is? That's what I'm very worried about. And it doesn't end well. No, and it's just happening really quickly and nobody's really okay with it.

Nobody's super stoked about it, but it's happening really quickly. You mentioned something. I want to put this essay from, from Glenn Kessler up on the screen. Glenn Kessler is one of the many people who have since taken buyouts at the Washington Post or have recently taken buyouts at the Washington Post. They're losing their celebrity masthead so quickly.

Michael, quicker than you can say democracy dies in darkness, which also, by the way, he includes in the subheading of his piece, of course. But he talks about over and over again in this essay how Will Lewis, publisher of the Post, asks him at one point, how can we get more Fox News viewers to read the Washington Post? And Kessler talks over and over again in this essay about how that's gnawed at him for years because, you know, he thinks he responded to Will Lewis, something like, well, we have to tell

the truth and they're not going to like that. And it's like, bro, you think you're going to make it on substack? Like maybe you can make enough to feed yourself, you know, the, As Tucker says, journalists see that of vending machines. Maybe you can continue to do that on substack or whatever else. But continuing to believe, I mean, this is Acosta is a substacker. Glenn Kessler's a substacker. Terry Moran is now a substacker, bloviating about how Donald Trump has such an ugly ego.

And it's like conversations from literally 2015 that everybody has moved beyond. hashed out, and you may still disagree with them, but they're no longer salient to the average voters' mind or the political conversation. He would say that's kind of my point. How are we still not talking about why Donald Trump is such an ugly, evil, egotomaniacal man? It's like, because people can't feed their children, bro. And that's just like the crazy thing that they don't get. They move to these new media platforms, and they bring this old mentality with them, Michael. It drives me completely crazy. Are you serious? This should be your Christmas.

You're right. You're right. They're living their Greek tragedy. This is beautiful. I mean, the supply of shit-lib journalists far outweighs the demand. These people are completely interchangeable and replaceable. They don't have the capacity. I'm not a nice person. But they don't even have my crappy level of charisma to hold an audience because they're horrible. and they're despicable people

and it's hilarious to think that you know what this building won't stand when I'm gone and they leave and everyone's like Taylor ends left no one cared she's you know now she's doing

live streams with like 50 viewers let's have one's name the feminist frequency she's on the side of a milk cart now remember her she was a big thing in 20 there was this girl freaking out about there's not enough men

women in video games oh wow huge thing with Gamergate. B can't even get arrested now. So these people come, what about, what's her name? Who was the one with the Arab one?

From, I don't even remember her name. She was everywhere and then they just dropped them. Cindy Sheehan during the Iraq war. So these people don't have a good shelf life because here's the thing. Any business has to have a competitive advantage. So what am I doing differently than you, Emily?

What is Emily doing differently from this other streamer or so on and so forth, right? It's not just like, if we have the same ideas, that idea's already on the market. Why am I listening to Glenn Kessler when I could be listening to any of a dozen other people? It never enters his head because these people have been told and believe

that they're so unique and special. To talk about, they think Trump's an egomaniac? Who is, I honestly think, I swear don't you, everything I own, that Trump is far more humble than Jim Acosta. Trump is self-effacing. He jokes. about himself. We've all seen it. I've never seen Jim Acosta in any sense make a joke where he's the

butt. It's not a thing. And these people have already had the rude awakening. And I am just ecstatic that they're being kind of driven out into the streets. So I want to use this to talk a little bit about Howard Stern. And I think we have a clip of Trump. So we're in another 10-year cycle where there are leaks to tabloids about Howard Stern potentially leaving Sirius XM, which obviously he was instrumental in blowing up and Les MoonVez at CBS at the time was furious because Stern on his way out promoted Sirius XM on Terrestrial, which was horrifying to Terrestrial at the time. They didn't really take Sirius XM seriously. But here we are, Howard Stern himself is someone who didn't take podcast seriously. Back in 2015, he told Bloomberg in a big profiles, he was renegotiating

his contract then that podcast. were losers. And I guess this is an enormously biased conversation because here we have two podcasters talking about it. But Brian Glenn of Real America's voice actually asked Donald Trump about the rumors that Howard Stern might be hanging it up, might be done over at Sirius XM. Bear in mind, Howard Trump has become proudly woke. He calls himself woke. He did softball interviews with Joe Biden with Colin Harris. He talks about begging Hillary to come on. And so here we go. I'm going to go ahead here and roll this clip of Donald Trump in the White House just this evening being asked by Brian Glenn about Howard Stern.

I've got an entertainment-based question for you. A few weeks ago, Stephen Colbert announced he was leaving his show. Howard Stern announced that he had been serious XM radio or parting ways. Do you think the hate Trump business model that's been in the entertainment business is going out of business because it's not popular with the American people? Well, it hasn't worked and it hasn't worked really for a long time. And I would say pretty much from the beginning, Colbert has no talent. I mean, I could take anybody here. I could go outside and the beautiful streets and pick a couple of people that do just as well or better.

They get higher ratings than he did. He's got no talent. Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has talent. They're next. They're going to be going. I hear they're going going. I don't know, but I would imagine because they'd get, you know,

Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon. You know that. Howard Stern, it's the name I haven't heard. I used to do a show, used to have fun, but I haven't heard that name in a long time. What happened? He got terminated? Yeah, they're in a separate way because I think often salary-wise is real low

than what he was getting down. Whenever you want. You know when he went down? No, before. When he endorsed Hillary Clinton, he lost his audience. People said, give me a break. He went down when he endorsed Hillary Clinton. So that's actually kind of an interesting point, Michael.

What did you make of that? Howard Stern is by far the most disappointing figure in our culture, in terms of how much of a badass he was to what he's become. Number two is Penn Gillette. for people who don't know what Howard Stern used to be like here's one of his jokes and this is very offensive but doesn't have vulgar language when he was starting on the radio

he had a bit where he was talking to God and he tells God that we call my wife's miscarriage Aquaman because he lives in the toilet this is what the level of his discourse was when he had rejected book covers for one of his books one of them is Mind Conf The other one is the My Lai Massacre and there's arms buried waving at him. On the back cover of one of his books, it's him and OJ putting Howard's wife into a meat grinder.

And O.J. gave him the thumbs up. So he was by far the edgiest. He sent one of his minions to interview Jennifer Flowers at her press conference when she revealed her affair with Bill Clinton, 92. And he asked her if Clinton used a condom and if she's planned to sleep with any other presidential candidates. This is what Howard Stern used to be. So to watch him on his knees genuflecting in front of Hillary Clinton, if you watch Hillary Clinton with Zach Galfanakus in between two firms, two ferns, that was edgier than Stern's interview of her.

And Hillary Clinton, by all accounts, off camera, people might not know this, actually has a very good sense of humor. And because it's very kind of sarcastic, she has to hide it. And that's what she comes off is so stilted and robotic. That's the perfect place to see that side of Hillary. How do you know that? So none of that. Oh, she jokes about killing Vince Foster.

Like this, you would never see. But if she doesn't probably forget it, it's a rap. That's edgy. Right. She walks around and sweats at home that just say Clinton body count on the back. Right, right. Right. So for Stern, what a disgrace.

What a horror. He's just, it makes me so, so sad because so much of me and people my age were raised on him and his e-show. In fact, there's a book written about me by Harvey Peacar called Ego. versus a graphic novel. And the only reason it happened was Harvey got invited to a Stern show. And then the producer of the movie said, Harvey didn't tell him nothing to do if you want to hang out with him. This is your chance.

And that was because of Stern. So I looked up to him a lot in his complete take no prisoner's approach. And now it's just, my God, like what has become of him? It's so sad and disgusting. And for what? Like, how much money do you need? Right. Well, that's the thing.

I mean, it's so interesting. I don't know if he's actually going to leave this time. He always does this when he's in the middle of contract negotiations, or at least he always seems to do this when he's in the middle of contract negotiations. It's kind of haggle through the press. It's what we were talking about with foreign policy, actually, earlier, Michael. We conduct all kinds of business through the press. But if he does leave, I mean, the Daily Mail in their report from their sources

that he had at least been telling people he's considering leaving, they said his listenership has gone down dramatically. They had a figure, I think they were saying, like, 120,000 people listening to a Stern show. And that means it's similar to Colbert that you're going to, I mean, you might still be popular with this niche of people, but does that justify to the company the overhead that you carried with you from the old media era where Colbert's overhead was so high that they were losing, according to Puck, like $40 million a year on the number one show,

the number one network, broadcast network show in late night. So Stern, I mean, in this weird way, he's almost the very very, victim of his own success. He made the country Courser. He destroyed the gatekeepers and now he's like pissing on the podcasters on his way out as he's like not even able to like

muster his edginess anymore and has been kind of outflanked by them. It's weirdly like Shakespearean. He's a sad old man in a shitty wig and this is exactly what he feared becoming his own dad and he has. And I'm going to correct Trump. Stephen Colbert is very talented.

If people watch his old show Strange with Candy. Strangers with candy! I have autographed pictures right above me in my living room of Amy Sedaris as Jerry where she signed my ovaries are diseased. That show was extremely hilarious. He paid her teacher Mr. Knoblet and he sits

her down. He says, Jerry, I know you think that I hate you, but I want you to know that I hate you. And she goes, I probably shouldn't hug. He's like, that's right. It was a hilarious show. So Stephen Colbert, I feel bad for his priest because he's apparently a practicing Catholic. because when he sits down after the show ends

and asks for forgiveness and his confession for all the things he's done over these years that priest is going to be like, good Lord, like I'm just going to take off the collar. To become someone who literally does a song and dance for pharmaceutical companies, how do you look in the mirror? He knows better.

Kimmel is not, just whatever, he's a lefty, but Colbert knows what he's doing. And that to me is far more sinister than anything, you know, some Samantha B might have to do. That's an interesting comparison

between Kimmel and Colbert. What do you think? Colbert's much smarter? Yeah, probably. I mean, imagine having to confess everything about strangers with candy to a priest. Father, forgive me. I was on the Comedy Central show in the Midots

where I joked about molesting high school students. I mean, of course he is forgiven, but oh my goodness. that show was the weirdest thing probably that's ever been on cable television on that's saying a lot. It's up there for sure. It's up there. Before you run, Michael, I did, I teased the NPR post.

So I just want to put this on the screen. This is a four. It does tie in with what we're talking about, the Texas Republicans. You posted in 2021, the Republican Party votes to spend money in NPR and doesn't even make a fuss about it. So true, King. And then you did all caps a few days ago. this age poorly, I feel so dumb. But don't you think this is all, like, I'm weaving like Trump right here, but this is all the same thing. It's Republicans have realized that nobody, everyone has

seen the emperor has no clothes, the gatekeepers have no clothes, sometimes literally, unfortunately, in the case of, what's his name over at, he's back at CNN, Jeffrey Tubin. Sometimes they literally have no clothes, but Republicans have realized that and they don't know where it's going. In Jeffrey Tubin's honor, I'm not wearing any pants right now. Okay. That's, I mean, that's, if if that's how you celebrate Jeffrey Tubin's legacy. Yes. It's on you. I don't know what you anarchists get up to.

But Emily, this is something I don't understand. Because Trump pulled back a lot of this DII, DEI, excuse me, and LBJ era like affirmative action executive orders. And this is actually striking at the heart of some progressive quote-unquote accomplishments, right? And they're just sitting on their hands. I'm like, this is a reason to actually freak out.

He's really doing things that strike at things that you have put into place taking things away that are valuable to you. It wasn't that long ago when Republicans are trying to cut a corporation public broadcasting. You're killing Big Bird. You don't want kids to learn. And now it's crickets.

I don't understand this disconnect because this is something you would think it would be easy for them to fight for. It's just like the Republicans hate free education. That's something, it's not true, but they can still yell it with some element of emotional validity to it, but they're not saying anything. I don't understand this. And also I don't understand

how, this, the point of my original tweet, 2021, for decades, the Republicans would just aggressive propaganda. And I'm just shocked how quickly got defeated. Yeah. No, I mean, it did. It fell so quickly. That's a great point. Like, it just, it changed on a dime almost, it was almost like the presidential election in 2024, which people saw as this unlikely comeback from Donald Trump finally convinced, but not fully. I mean, it's not as though, you know, I'm here in D.C. It's all as though you walk around and everyone's like, you know, the public hates us and they distrust us and all of our, you know, I think they're almost like Trumpian

in thinking all of those polls are wrong, like that the fact that we were tied at another record low for trust in mass media, according to Gallup, like, I don't think they truly believe that or internalized that. So it's actually kind of strange because if they had internalized, that. I mean, the Washington Post story we talked about is the perfect symbol. You have Glenn Kessler, on the one hand, leaving for Substack after being upset because his boss asked him how the paper could broaden their audience. And then you have somebody at the Washington Post finally saying, we need to broaden our audience. Like, it's probably too late. I don't know. I don't know that's

too late because they've got a great brand name, right? The Washington Post and your Times are always going to have a little and lots of money. And lots of money. So there's something to be said for that. up in Sinclair in 1934 when he ran for California governor he had been a lifelong socialist he ran as a Democrat because he goes people will vote for parties

that the grandparents voted for so those brand names really carry a lot of weight I'm sure people watch this remember the Old Spice ads when Old Spice was like kind of your grandfather's brand and they brought it back

in those funny commercials and revitalized it but it's the name everyone is familiar with so I wouldn't count out the Washington Post at times in the near future but yeah

like all he's saying is all Fox News does is it doesn't tell conservatives that they should jump up a cliff and that they're like basically should be in the Special Olympics. That's all they do. And it's a bridge too far for these like jihadis.

I always say corporate journalists or jihadis about the testosterone. And Glenn Kessler is the perfect example of this. You've used demons, jihadis. I don't know. You want to go for trifecta? Literal demons, jihadis. What else? What else you got for them? Well, a lot of them seem to like kids.

And let's just leave it at that. Another, that happened at the Washington Post, again, recently, actually. Yes. It's just a coincidence all the time. Now, finally, last question. I've kept you long, Michael, but I'm just having so much fun. A second dildo, sir, has hit the WNBA. No, it's a third.

It's a third. Yeah. I kind of wanted to do the meme, but I also didn't want to spread fake news. It was kind of a conundrum in my own mind. But this echoes your own posts about NPR. We could put the Sophie Cunningham. ex-posts on the screen. Stephanie Cunningham of the great Indiana fever posted,

just sort of like you did with NPR, Michael. On August 1st, posted, stop throwing dildos on the court, you're going to hurt one of us. And then on August 6th, so literally just today, because she was hit in the leg by a dildo at the last game posted,

this did not age well. So this is the third WNBA, Dildo on the court. Is this funny or is it dangerous, Michael, or is it maybe a little bit of both? I think women playing sports is always dangerous because the broads are going to get hurt, because they shouldn't be there, they don't know what they're doing, they should be

baking. I thought we'd finally agree as a nation that there wouldn't be any more male genitalia in women's sports, and here we go. Yet another broken campaign promise from President Donald Drumpf. Who's doing nothing about it, my dad? Hasn't said a damn word

about Sophie Cunningham getting hit in the leg by a bellbell. It's horrible. At least it wasn't in the eye, if you know what I mean. Now I got to let you go. Michael Malice is the most of your welcome, and he is the author of Not Sick of Winning a History of President Trump's First 100 Days. Michael, I hope this is the first of many appearances you will bless us with here on After Party. You use the word blessed a little loosely, but yes, I would be delighted.

Thank you so much. All right. Thanks to Michael Malice for joining us on today's show. I hope everyone enjoyed that as much as I did. Now, let's get to Massa Chips. Did you know all chips and fries used to be cooked in tallow up until the 1990s when big corporations switched to cheap processed seed oils? Today's seed oils make up 20% of the average Americans' daily calories and recent studies have linked seed oils to metabolic health issues and inflammation. But Massa did something about it.

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All right. We're going to close the show out today. I mean, I can't possibly follow Michael Malice on the WNBA. That would not even be a good idea to try to compete with Michael Malice on WNBA. But I do have to say, I want to, if you're on X or if you're on social media, you may have seen this viral post. This is F7 we can put on the screen. There's a, someone was passing around this SOT and maybe we can play it while I talk. So what you're looking at here is a post from Nick Carter on X. I don't think the Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys fame, but talking about, you know, what happened in 20, 10 to 2015 man. This is the quote from the post. We were seized by some kind of faux

frontiersman cult for urbanites, probably the worst cultural era in history as definitely the peak millennial moment. So in the interest of getting to the bottom of this, I actually do have some interesting thoughts on what it says about our culture, but let's go ahead and roll this sot. Maybe I'll react to it as we're playing it. This is the Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zero's song. I can't believe I'm even saying Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zero's in the year of our Lord 2025. You'll remember it right away. Stop, clap, home. This is S-6. Takes it right back. I feel like I'm watching an episode of girls. Oh my, holy, moly, me, oh my eye, girl, the apple of my eye.

Girl, I'll never love another one like you. Do I see a manned bus? Man oh man, you're my best man, I'm dreaming to. I see a fedora. desk. Cotton candy, just as wonderful. Okay, so is Nick Carter correct that this is probably the worst cultural era in history?

Nick Carter made that post in response to this, Edward Sharp and Exenic Zero's song clip going viral and said, added, you know, this is stomp, clap, hey music, luminaries, Mumford and Sons, imagine dragons, et cetera, awful, no redeeming qualities whatsoever, slipped down, exposed brick burger halls with science. saying eat, unreclaimed barmwood, dim Edison bulbs served out of a mason jar, facial hair, and flannel, I can keep going on apothecary core, every brand became a tweet. God, I hadn't seen that word in forever, heritage, liquor, and accoutrements, whiskey as a personality trait, elaborate glassware setups. What the hell was this? Why did everyone collectively lose their minds?

My theory on this is pretty obvious. You can point to one very obvious thing here, and it was the recession. So the early aughts, the Bush era, was a lot of gloss, bubblegum pop, Britney Spears. That's, you know, it was TRL. That's what it felt like. And kind of sci-fi, Matrix, all of that stuff. And I think when the recession hit, millennial culture was being forged. And irony was becoming a defense mechanism during the recession because it was this sort of balm for the class resentment that people started to feel towards boomers, towards their parents. And, you know, if you can't buy a home, for example,

you can ironically dress like your dad, or you could take up the banjo, get really into whiskey, you can, like, start drinking Papp's Blue Ribbon. That was a thing. Do we remember when that was a thing? I mean, I remember when I first moved here to D.C., going to a college with a bunch of people from the East Coast. and like a bunch of, you know, hibster people drinking PBR.

And I was like, really? We're doing this? Like, I'm from Wisconsin. I'm for drinking PBR. But if that's where we're going to spend our money, sure. But it really blended seamlessly into what the popular culture is today now that I think about it. And I hadn't really thought about it until this post started to go viral and I started to consider the point. But the big difference.

I mean, this is a huge distinction is the irony. got dropped. And I think this really became clear in 2024. It was becoming clear if you weren't in elite media bubbles before. But I think 2024 is where everyone woke up and realized, yes, this trad thing has legs. This maha thing has legs. People are actually looking back and kind of yearning for something simpler. And they have this instinct to rebel against tech. Now, Again, that was sort of ironic in the millennial era because people were posting pictures of their flannels and banjos on what? Facebook, a big tech company's platform that started to mine our data and become really Orwellian. So it's what's happened since has been the departure of the ironic note in all of it.

And I think, you know, if you go back and look at the Edward Sharp video for that song, Home, which again, if you're you were, you know, my age from 2010 to 2015, it's like the Charlie X, X, X, X, X, X, song, I don't care. I love it. That one, I think that was like the millennial anthem to this day. That song is just, is the anthem of those years, probably. And if you're, you're thinking back on it, I don't care, I love it, right? Like, there's something about it that's, it's like this ironic nihilism. It's like the idea of saying, I don't care, but I I am at Occupy Wall Street. I don't care, but I am stoked about Barack Obama. That's what these years were kind of like. And it's interesting to look back on it and see when the irony was dropped,

people ended up sort of rebelling against the left and kind of deciding that they liked, you know, SUVs or stagecoach or the Americana aesthetic, not because it felt like, you know, you were wearing a flannel with a man bun, right? There was this kind of ironic juxtaposition that was and was really popular in vogue with millennials. And it just started to feel for some people like, hey, if this is, maybe we don't need to do this ironically. Maybe there is something really wrong with this world. And that's where I think the left has lost some support from Gen Z and from millennials. Like Gen Z makes fun of millennials all the time, just like millennials made fun of Gen X and Gen X made fun of boomers.

Like this is the tale is all this time, or at least as all this mass media made. our generations so much darker and more distinct, because the mass media you consume when you're of a certain age really is distinct. So I think it's millennial cringe is like looking at Taylor Swift saying things like, you know, I don't care, I love it. And she didn't sing that song, but it's, it was the kind of vibe that like, you know, I'm just, what was the song, Mean? She was like, you're alone in life and mean.

You know, ultimately, I'm going to get over this, but you're just mean, if you remember that. And it's like these, the Edward Sharp video is filmed this kind of vintage way for that song, Home. But it's like you had these people with like mustaches and flannels and skinny jeans who were super into coffee and craft beer, who would, you know, write poetry but say, I don't really care, right? because that ironic detachment was a way to cope with what happened during the recession when, I mean, a lot of people ended up in grad school and law school because they couldn't find jobs, taking out massive loans if they graduated in, like, if they graduated from college in 2008, 2009, 2010, people were still having a hard time getting jobs. And they had been told that college was their ticket into the middle class.

And there they were looking around and saying, well, when does that start for me? And so I think ironic detachment became pretty, that kind of became the, that was the driving force behind this millennial culture. I don't know that it was the worst cultural era in history. And I'm not just saying that for self-interested reasons. I think there was something that paved the way to where we are now. I remember when when Mumford and Sons and the Lumineers first started getting really popular, there's something about that that I think was a reminder implicitly to everyone that, I mean, that was also when like Avici was really popular, right?

And they were happening at the same time. And it was this, people were listening to them at the same time. It wasn't like anyone was choosing one or the other, like Dylan goes electric and you're on one side or the other. You're on Avichy or you're either with Avichy or everyone. Edward Sharp. No, it wasn't like that, but it was, I think, a reminder to people that there's a lot of truth in beauty, in things beyond the kind of gloss of the world. And companies like of the tech, the higher, let's say the high tech world. And that was a lot of the aesthetic of pop music and culture and the aughts in the Bush era.

And I think that's what was being reacted to by people in this era. And I do think it actually paved the way. I mean, the irony was absolutely objectionable and obnoxious. And yes, I don't take any of that back. I think that all remains true. But as I look back on it now, I think it was a pretty interesting stepping stone to people. I mean, it ultimately culminates in peak woke, capital P, capital, capital W. Because all of these people who were like on Reddit checking out of the world were also.

creating their own little bubbles. But they were also like helping take down the gatekeepers unintentionally and ending up in these positions where we're looking around now and saying we've been told so many and true things about the world. And there's beauty and truth and simplicity and in nature and all of that. So that makes me sound a little bit like I'm doing a sort of Marxist analysis. the sort of a dialectical analysis of millennial culture, creating Gen Z culture. But a little, we'll maybe re-explore that at a later date, whether or not it really is dialectical materialism.

But I think that's kind of what we saw happen. That's why millennial culture feels cringe because it was ironic and dishonest. And Gen Z culture is all about authenticity and irony. authenticity and honesty, which is why looking back at millennial culture, even though they share some aesthetics, feels cringe to Gen Z. And I think that's accurate. So anyway, that does it for for us on today's edition of After Party. I always say this, but Wednesdays are the saddest days because I shut down all the equipment and I know that I'm going to have to keep all of these rants in my head or in my notes app until Monday, which is just such a long time to wait.

If you want to get in touch, my email is Emily at devil makecaremedia.com. I am aware that I have a bad habit of foul language, so feel free. Like, I actually do try to work on it. I think I dropped one swear, and it was like right at the top of the show. So my apologies for that. I try. I really do try my best. Nobody can be perfect.

That's one of the bad habits that I've had for a long time. Emily, Double Makeer Media, though, if you have any questions, concerns, feedback. I try to answer every email. Thank you so much for watching. We will be here again on Monday at 10 p.m. Live. Thank you, thank you for watching the show for subscribing. It's incredibly helpful. Can't wait to see you all next week.