MTracey podcast - Live from Ithaca

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mtracey.netMake sure to skip the first little portion with only Richard, I did not sanction that. Sorry if the video quality is not great, I’m on public Wifi at the moment. Perfect weather right now in Ithaca, so that’s something. Here’s a quick little pic from where I’m currently seated:Everyone around me seems to be behaving normally. Which is odd because I thou…

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the live stream. I'm here waiting for Michael Tracy. Michael Tracy went to Ithaca. That's Ithaca, New York. That's the place, that's the location of Cornell University. It's where all this hysteria is going on. I have a little thing in my hair right here. Okay. He went to Ithaca, New York. That's where Cornell University is. He's where Cornell University is. He's a little thing. He's got a funny story to tell that he published in his substack last night. And we're just waiting for Michael. He's going to come in and we are going to talk about it. Before we get started, I'm going to give a word from our sponsor. Mechanize, they are hiring software engineers. They started $300,000 plus generous bonuses and stock options and also looking for other

kinds of workers to changes over time. So the link to find them is going to be in the show notes for this. This is going to be released as a podcast afterwards. So yeah, hit up Mechanize. They make it possible to have as much content on paywalled as possible. So that's a very valuable contribution to the world. And they're a great employer too and they pay well. So check it out if you're interested.

Okay. We are just waiting for Michael Tracy. Let me check the chat. Okay, he's not here yet. this Michael has become quite a celebrity over this.

He's become infamous and he, I believe him when he says he didn't set out to become the ultimate skeptic of sexual assault

allegations in a wide range of scenarios. He's just, I don't know what Michael's is. He's just, he's just a little bit, um, he's,

he's a maverick. He's an actual maverick. Like, he actually gets into an idea, actually cares that people are acting stupidly, and has kind of gloved onto this one issue. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of irrationality out there. So which forms of irrationality,

even those of us who are disagreeable and interested in ideas and interested in truth? Even for us, there's a lot of options as far as what to hold on to. I'm writing a lot about the case against high-scale immigration, which is just really, really bad. So I have two articles on that just this week.

It's what I'm tweeting a lot about. So this bothers me a lot. It's at the intersection of a lot of things I care about. Economic growth, basically good arguments, and caring about the future of the country and scientific progress. So this is the thing that I've been focusing on a lot more than other things lately. With Michael, it is young men or even old men like Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sexual assault, sexual assault or sex crimes.

And he's basically, I mean, he's basically right that I think that people getting things right is more important than what their specific focus happens to be. It's good that people have a diversity of interest. So Michael said he would be in at 1.15 Eastern Time, which is three minutes ago, but I'm just waiting on him. So anyways, I'll take questions. If people want to take questions as we wait for Michael, we can do that. If only he was correct on Lindsay Clancy as well. Yeah, Lindsay Clancy. We did at least one stream on Lindsay Clancy. Just too depressing. This Cornell thing is actually a societal importance. The idea women killing their children is just such a rare event. It really doesn't tell us anything about society. Maybe the reaction to it tells us something. But even that is just a very, very rare event. While these campus sexual assault and rape hysteria, that's a big deal. That is something that has been just roiling.

American college campuses since the Obama administration for something like 20 years now. And the Epstein thing obviously became a big part of our politics and our culture. You have the Houthis and you have the government of Iran talking about they're fighting the Epstein class. So it's become a kind of like global rallying cry. Like Epstein is, you know, this part of the, you know, it's like great Satan and has geopolitical implications. Anyway, here, Michael is here. I'm going to invite him.

Clicking on Michael. Let's see how I can invite him. I put the, see, how do I get Michael? I invite, I guess. Okay. Okay. And now we're abating Michael. Someone says they're both related,

Clancy thing and the Cornell thing. They are both about male female doubles. Yeah, there's male female double standards. But they are, I mean, like, you know, there's no controversy about postpartum, postpartum depression or psychosis for men. because men and women are obviously very different. So it's like, yeah, there's a double standard on that.

If a man killed his kids, he'd be less likely to be able to complain about some kind of postpartive issue. But that's natural. Hey, Michael, looking badass, looking the part as a warrior for true. I mean, it's just me with my trusty green fleece and the sunglasses because I'm outside. If that comes across as badass, that's incidental. So where are you right now? You're still in, Ithaca? Yeah, I should probably whisper, keep my voice down.

But yes, yeah, I'm right outside the campus, and you can probably see it. That's the campus back there. I'm just like a little cafe here right at the front of the campus. You can see everything. Do people know you? Are people coming up to you and saying you are the rape apologists we've been hearing about?

Uh, not yet. It's not yet, but I only really sat down. I know people seem to be minding their own business. They're chatting. They're studying for midterms, whatever. So I don't have all eyes on me yet. I'm also like slightly in disguise with the sunglasses. So I don't know. That's not much of a disguise. I think I would, I think I would notice to you. Is there, is there, um, like, you know, you do dream that you dream about me all day and night. I don't know if that applies to every student. I mean, looking at TikTok and the women messaging you, it seems. You know, you, it seems. You know, you dream about me. It seems. You know. You do. You dream about me. You dream about me. You. I mean, you. You do. I mean, look, it. I mean, it like I have a lot of, a lot of company there. They have a little bit, they, I mean, they probably have roughly equally

graphic dreams about me as you do. Yeah, probably. Se sexually explicit. That girl was cute, the one you, uh, docks and then apologized.

She apologized. That was, that was a nice looking girl. Will you stop? I did not docks her. I know. You didn't dox her. You dox her picture.

Well, I mean, with facial recognition. The connection is great right now. I don't know. Can people hear me? I can hear you. Um, the, uh, I just post, I mean, if somebody, if somebody sends you a, if somebody sends you a threat of, a brutal rape threat.

Can people, can people hear me? The connection is not great. I can, I mean, I can hear you fine. You can ask the audience, but I assume so. Um, there's a delay. Can you hear you? So I'm looking, trying to look in the comments now to see if people can hear me. Just assume they can hear me. Just assume they can hear you. Hold on. Let me see. There's no reason only I would hear you. They probably hear you. No, but you're, you're, yeah, and then what you're breaking up when you're, when you're speaking. Okay. Well, you sound fine. It's better now, actually. Okay, it's fine.

It's fine. Is it, okay, let me ask you this. Is it noticeable? Anyway, no, I did not. And is, it seems fine right now. Is it not noticeable? I'm looking at TV and they're having all these, like, protests on Cornell.

Like, are there protesters walking around? Is there any sign that this is happening? Not, not right here as I'm gazing out on things. It looks like it's a normal day, pretty much. I went to, the first thing I went to, the first thing I went to,

though, was like a scheduled event that they had, like the groups had announced on their Instagram and whatever, where they were holding a seven-hour sit-in slash boycott

that was held at, like the dining hall, or what, like the main dining hall. And, you know, it was seven hours because that's how long

the purported incidents with Jane O, lasted. So it was in, it was in commemoration of the length of the, of the, you know, the gang, rape or bang. And, yeah, but even when I was in the, even when I was in that, uh, dining hall, it was, I mean, it's an amazing dining hall, by the way. I had the best overnight strawberry oats. Um, mm-hmm. And it's open to the public, actually. Uh, but even when I was in that dining hall, it seems like, you know, the, the vast majority in there of the people in there were not like involved in any sort of protesting.

It was, you know, just a segment, like not a small segment necessarily, but not enough to overwhelm, not enough to overwhelm like the normies just going about their day. So they were just like taking up the space of like a few tables and sitting there? Yeah, you know, I arrived toward the tail end of it. So maybe they were doing more boisterous stuff earlier. But what I saw was just like some speeches outside the speeches were being delivered outside be dining hall. There were people inside the dining hall,

which kind of like gathered together. I don't even know what they were doing exactly. And there were a bunch of like cameras set up. They have like signage outside the dining halls, like giving instructions to TV crews and stuff as to where they're supposed to set up if they're there. So obviously they're dealing with indoors and amounts of like outside media showing up. But no, I mean, I just have a, I think.

I think, I mean, you wouldn't really, if you were just, you just parachuted in here, you wouldn't, and we're walking around, nothing would immediately seem amiss. I mean, with the, with the exception I imagine of this past Monday where there was like a big, you know, protest held. But I don't know. I'm going to walk around. Actually, I didn't come out yesterday because I was working on other stuff. And so I only really have done so far, the one thing where I showed up to that of boycott or

whatever when I first got here. and then to the city hall for the municipal government meeting, you know, and then I've, you know, walked around the town a little bit and stuff. But like, again, first blush impression, if you're looking around right now, I mean, it just seems like pretty much, pretty much normal.

So there you go. That's how things ordinarily are. Like, even when I was going around and covering, like, the George Floyd protests slash riots in 2020, like sometimes the, sometimes the only major riotous activity, or protest activity was concentrated in a relatively small portion of the city. So if you were like, I don't know, a half a mile away or something, it just seemed like everything was pretty much normal, right?

So sometimes people like get the scale of these things a little bit confused in their heads where they think that because there's some controversy somewhere that like the incident you show up, there's going to be like obvious markers of that controversy. Yeah. Hold on. I don't think I even, I don't think I even tweeted this out of you. Hold on a second.

Yeah. So did you go on campuses? Did you tweet it? I tweeted it, yeah. Did you, so Gaza was kind of, this is no Gaza. Gaza, I think,

had bigger protests, right? I think they were more noticeable at their peak than this is, right? Well, hold on, I'm just trying to tweet out the thing.

Um, yeah, the rape stuff is never, where do I get, where do I get to, how do I get the link again? Oh, copy like,

okay, got it. Got it. Got it got it. Gaza, um, Gaza is a, Gaza was bigger, right? Like, Gaza was, I think, noticeable.

Like, at least from the pictures I saw in the videos. They were more noticeable. Were you on any campuses during the height of Gaza protests? Yeah, yeah. I went to Columbia. I went to Princeton one day. But that was like a nationwide, almost like coordinated or quasi-coordinated thing, right, in relation to a national or international issue.

And there were physical encampments set up. So that was like the whole sort of conceit of the protest, where you'd have to some quasi-permanent presence on the campus, right? So, yeah, I mean, you couldn't walk through the green of Columbia without seeing this giant conspicuous encampment. That's not what's going on here. I mean, this was generated here by a local incident, right? Now, there have been protests elsewhere.

I mean, I saw one at, like, maybe University of Texas Austin yesterday or something. And, but, you know, I think it's a little bit different in that. So the people who would be almost like running the gauze of protest, right? They're more almost, I don't want to say professional activists, although some of them are, but more a little bit radically minded in terms of how they would organize or conceive of a protest, right? Whereas an issue like this, it's more like almost even like a little bit maybe apolitical in a way where it's, you know, opposing rape and stuff. It's like bureaucratic, right? Even at the fight of like the Title IX tribunals, like 15 years ago,

I don't remember them being like protest. This is not an issue. Like, I guess the women's march was a great protest like involving women, right? But like it's never been like campus rape has never been like something that has, it disrupts campus and like through bureaucratic means, not through like people taking over public spaces. I mean, all of corporate America pretty much would have had no problem co-signing the rally that they held here in, in it in itica on Monday to oppose you know rape or whatever right and the Trump

administration they're not going to co-sign they're not going to co-sign a Gaza encamp it yeah the Trump administration too I saw your substack the other day which is kind of I thought that was a kind of last night yeah I thought that was kind of a I don't know a cheap point like probably like if somebody

in the Trump administration saw that website there's probably just like tons of websites how is it a cheap point it's on the it's on the women's health dot go in the department of health and human services and during the Trump administration. But there's a lot of government websites. So what should I have said? The Obama administration?

You shouldn't have to say it. You should have said, women's health.com, you know, the federal government. I don't know. It makes it sound like the Trump administration went through like a rule. I apologize to our favorite president. Yes. The based people in the administration will get around to changing that this year. I think the reason that before that you didn't really see disruptive protests is

that they said that there is one. It's not just like about a general, you know, discontent around the prevalence of campus rape or something. It's going to be spurred by a particular incident. So when the UVA thing happened in 2014 with the Rolling Stone story that turned it out to be, you know, a hoax. There was a similar outburst of protests initially where they, you know, they confronted the college president or whatever or the dean or something and they, you know, the more radical activist types, you know, through rocks at the fraternity and the college buildings. But that was. like that was

precipit that was catalyzed by a particular incident, right? And this is similar, similar with this, where it's not just like, overall concern about maybe they're not, uh,

punishing perpetrators of some kind of sexual propriety enough as though it was like a lurid, sensational, gang, gang rape for seven hours, okay, that they think of, they're saying that there's a cover up and all this, right?

So it's just kind of a different, different sort of impetus. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh, someone says, watch out for a stone cold stunner. Are you living in fear of

Jamil Bowie? Is that how you say? Oh, yeah. Jamel Bowie's going to burst out of the bushes right now. He's going to stun you into the concrete. His ass would actually be the one going into the concrete. We're actually wrestling. Okay. Let's clarify what he was referring to there, I think. Because if he said he wanted to get

deliver, he wanted us to get a stone cold stunter into the concrete. Now, there's no sense in which you can deliver a stone cold stunter and have somebody going into the concrete. except for the shoulder being the concrete in the in the the the the metaphor or whatever the right so he's the idea is that stone cold is doing the stunter where you're the the the concrete is the shoulder that you're stunned into you know what you're paralyzed you might be thinking of the page the diamond cutter diamond Dallas page where I don't I think you could go I think it's

a similar move you could do a DDT a DDT would be the head directly to the concrete you can pile driver I think he might have met a pile driver uh-huh either way, the whole point is to have the head crash into the concrete. I know, yes. And then he said, and then he said, and then he said, he was, like, why would he say stole closed under the concrete if the idea was just get stunned and then just like flop under the concrete? Like, that wouldn't be a huge injury. Hmm.

He just doesn't know what the, he probably doesn't know what the stone cult stunner is. Okay, so I'm not, I'm not, I'm not one to go to go around, to claimant anybody be fired from a job, right? But, like, are there any standards at all of the New York Times anymore? Like, you could just call for some, there people to just be, like, brutally, you know, attacked and smashed it to concrete and then claim it was a joke. Again, I'm not offended by it. I'm not claiming I'm a martyr because of it or whatever. I just think, I mean, nobody would have ever got at the New York Times who would have

ever even thought of getting away with that in the relatively recent past. And he could just say whatever he wants, I guess. I mean, is he that amazing of a calm that's complaining about the same Trump thing every three days that they just like can't do without him? Yeah, he's got, I mean, he's got some status. He is like the main black writer at the near. You know, there's like a conservative spot. Charles Blow.

Charles Blow, okay. Well, I guess he's the one most beloved by the loud. Charles Blow is from a previous generation. Jamil Bowie is like a big deal on like Blue Sky. He has like a zillion followers there. He's, you know, he's beloved by the youth. You know, there's like a black spot. There's like a black spot.

And then there's like Ross Douth that was like the conservative. And he went away and people were talking about he was going to be replaced. But yeah, Jamil was like the first big accountant. Wasn't he, like, one of the first big Twitter accounts to migrate to blue sky and, like, urge everybody to join him? I wouldn't be surprised. That's probably how he got so many followers. But, yeah, he's, he is kind of untouchable for just kind of political reasons. But it was worth, it's worth kind of pointing out.

That's why I, I feel people are like, oh, you're such a whim, like, oh, you're threat. I'm not threatened. No. I'm not calling the HR office. But, yeah. But if a New York Times column this threatens to crash my skull into the concrete. Okay. Let's like, he didn't threaten.

I think. No, I think we should distinguish. He didn't threaten it. No, he did. Holt it. He wished it. Okay, okay, I'll rephrase. Sorry, don't sue me.

Don't sue me. I'll rephrase. He ideated how just it would be, meaning in furtherance of justice for somebody to come along and perform either the stunner. He says a stunner. He says a stunner. Either way, the whole, the end, the end result would be smashed head into the concrete, okay? Yeah. So that's what you.

And then he says he was joking. I don't agree that he was joking about what his concept of like.