- Historia is brought to you by Remi. - Erin, have you ever clenched your teeth so hard? You busted a tooth? - No, but you know what? Sometimes you're having trouble falling asleep. I will have, I have to wake up and be like, is your jaw clenching, yes. I do jaw clenching when I'm stressed, but we don't anymore, do we? - No, because we have Remi. - We've got Remi. We trust Remi to protect both of our teeth respectively using their custom night guard, along with over 350,000 Americans. Remi night guards are the only FDA cleared and clinically tested at home impression kit night guards on the market. Not only do they help prevent teeth damage from grinding, they also help reduce jaw tension and facial muscle strain and improve your sleep quality. You'll get the same professional quality and comfort as a night guard from the dentist for 80% less of the cost by taking your own impression from the convenience of your home. Remi saves your impression so you could enjoy the convenience and savings of Remi Club, where they'll ship a new top and bottom night guard right to you every six months. Here's how it works. After purchase, your impression kit comes straight to your door. Follow Remi's step-by-step instructions to get your perfect impression. Then, Remi crafts and ships your custom fit night guard. Get your night guard back and start protecting your teeth. Protect your teeth with Remi by using code hysteria to get 50% off your new night guard with Remi Club, subscribe and save. That's 50% off at shopremi.com/histeria with code hysteria. Thank you, Remi, for sponsoring this episode. (upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to hysteria. I'm Erin Ryan, anomalous and astramanico. Alyssa last week, Bloomberg reported a fun shortage. Are you feeling it? - Every day, every day. - The fun feels like it has been vacuumed out of this universe. - Yeah, fun is not free anymore. And the fun you have to pay for it, paying for fun makes it less fun. - No, no, no, that's less fun. - Yeah, less fun. - I want entirely Chuck E. Cheese bucks. Otherwise, I need alternative forms of money. If I'm going to be paying for something within the fun. Because otherwise, it doesn't feel like real fun. It feels like something I bought. - No, there is one thing that is bringing you and I great joy, but we're saving that for Sany Petty. - We're saving that for Sany Petty. Okay, today we get into the follow-up from the latest Graham Platner allegations. The vital status of Mitch McConnell, who is both alive and dead, Schrodinger's Mitch, if you will, and reflect on the bullshit Americans endured in the name of Freedom 250. Or is that America 250? Or are we supposed to be confused about which it is? Then we talked to the president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health about their exciting new partnership with Olivia Rodrigo's all-female music festival and wrap up with a world cup edition of Sany Petty. Then stay tuned at the end of the show because we have some big news to share. (upbeat music) - You're listening to "History of the Podcast" that is once again reiterating that if the only way to win back young men to the Democratic Party is to run other men with predatory histories, perhaps we shouldn't be trying to win back young men at all. Maybe fuck up. - Let them roam free. - I mean, if that's what they require, I am just kind of like, you okay? You go vote for the person who's gonna, whatever. - Okay, so back to Grand Planner Senate campaign. It turns out where there's smoke. There is in fact fire, Alyssa. If you can believe it, the Planner Senate campaign is the fucked up gift that keeps on giving, even though we're like, please take it back. On Monday, Politico broke a story that Grand Planner had sexually assaulted 41-year-old Maynard Jenny Rassecott five years ago. They'd been dating on and off for two years. When she says one night he entered her home uninvited late at night, intoxicated. He forced himself on her and raped her after she repeatedly told him no. Planner denies the allegations, but Politico reviewed documents, including Rassecott's communications with her therapist, a previous partner and an acquaintance that referenced Planner dating back to years before he ever ran for office. So yeah, the reporting on this, pretty airtight. Pretty airtight. - I mean, it reminds me of, I know this is like an irreverent way to talk about a serious topic, but my brain sometimes turns off when we're talking about something like this. It reminds me of that scene in Austin Powers when he has been unfrozen and he's reclaiming his belongings and they are like a penis pump and like a notarized letter. - Yeah, a notarized letter saying that it's a penis pump and then a book written by him about how much he loves the penis pump and he's like denying it after all this evidence is piling up 'cause he doesn't wanna be embarrassed in front of Elizabeth Hurley, who by the way, what happened to her? Where is she? - I think she's married to someone odd and unexpected. - Okay, well good for her. Regardless, the Planner allegations are starting to pile up like that. You know, we had, first we had the Nazi tattoo where he was like, oh, I didn't know. - I didn't know it was a Nazi and then there was the Reddit posts which were like fairly misogynistic racist and homophobic. - Yeah, and he was like, but I was dumb and it's like, all right, and then there was a New York Times story about his relationship with a woman named Lindsay Feifield and because she is a Republican operative and the New York Times kinda did her dirty. - Yeah. - She got a ton of flack for being the one to have her name appear in the article that was supposed to be the Grand Planner takedown that we were all on tender hooks about a few weeks back. So, Jenny Rassecott had been consulted for the New York Times story. She was mentioned in the New York Times story, but she didn't come forward with all of the details until she spoke with Politico. She told Politico something that made my heart hurt a little bit and that made me think a little bit about the Cesar Chavez accusations and the Eric Swalwell accusations. But Rassecott told Politico, one of the reasons I didn't come forward sooner was the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics but not supporting him as a person. I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person. Yeah. And Feifield came forward with more allegations to the Washington Post, indicating the planner was stealthing during sex, which is secretly - Crossing. - Condoms, well, they're having sex, which is literally why some people are not allowed in certain countries. I believe it's actually illegal in several US states too. It's illegal in several US states. It's a form of sexual assault. It is a sex act that the person having sex is not consenting to. So it's actually illegal in Maine. It's illegal in Maine. Okay, there you go. A close friend of Feifield confirmed that she had confided the incidents at the time. So yeah, so when Platner denied the allegations on Monday, he canceled some upcoming campaign events so that he'd consider the next steps for his campaign. His endorsements dropped like flies and calls for him to drop out of the race. Increased people calling him for him to drop out included Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Rokana and Ruben Gallego. No main law allows Platner to be replaced on the ballot if he withdraws by July 13th. So the clock's a ticking. And it's a ticking. And a replacement candidate must be named by July 27th. Alyssa, what does your main takeaway from this big fucking mess? What's my main takeaway from the main mess? Yeah. There's a lot here, Aaron. One, I am as ever disappointed to see what people are saying on social media about all of this, specifically stuff being stoked by his campaign, calling Jenny and Lindsay people coached by establishment operatives and like that it is stop, stop. You lost. Here is the thing that I wish everyone would simply understand. This guy has been given the benefit of the doubt for months. Insane things that I don't think any other candidate would have been given the sort of chance after chance after chance. He was given Nazi tattoo, says he didn't know about it. OK, all right. Everyone's like, OK, and then people come out. And they're like, me, I dated him. He knew what it was. He told me it was a totem comp. OK, so maybe he's lying. He's lying. Then these allegations come out. The Reddit post where everyone's like where he wrote something to the effect of, and look, I am the first one. Have everything I ever said on social media been pure? No. But I'm also a 50 year old woman who knows the internet's forever. And I think we've known that for quite a while. And you're not trying to run for office. And I'm not asking the Senate in the pursuit of you being acceptable to voters. But the things, I think, the reason in case anyone's curious why a lot of women are just like, times up for him. Because a lot of people were trying to make us have a show him grace when the comments like, well, if women don't want to be raped, they shouldn't dress a certain way, or they shouldn't drink too much. And some of the homophobic and racist things that he said. And it's like, OK, that's a lot of evolution in just a few years if this is a totally different person. But as you and I discussed, ad nauseam for months, not our circus, not our monkeys. Like, it's main, main can pick who they want, right? Well, in that vein. Maine is spoken.
Like, once again, Graham's not totally understanding consent. Like his volunteers are leaving him. The state party has told him to get out, and I'm not talking about the national party. I don't care if DSS said the state, the people who he pretends to care about have said, "Bro, we got bigger fish to fry." And so I hope that he can understand how important it is that he gives Maine the time to either do the mini convention or the abbreviated state caucus for voting and let Maine decide. The worst outcome here is for him to be a petulant twat and to force Maine into another horrible version of Biden-Harris in 2024. It is so. It is just like if you are somebody, I don't think that people have to be Sunday school teachers in order to run for office. But I do think that if there are serious flaws in your character that you knew could come out and endanger the race, not just you, but what the race means to the country. If you had character flaws that you were like, "Okay, you know what, I've got this thing in my past. I don't think that people would be comfortable voting for somebody with that in their past if we were to come out. There go my being a candidate in danger of the race, there go I should not run for office. I should not run for this office. The stakes are too high. The stakes are too high and I'm frankly really angry with Graham Platner because the book stops with him. He's the one that made the decisions to do, the things that he did. But I also angry with those sort of consultant class people who couldn't do this. And we're like, "This is what Maineers want. Sammy Sage sent me." Again, mention of Sammy Sage isn't enough. Sammy's been on the beat. We love talking to Sammy. But Sammy made a video about the interview that these consultants did with the Wall Street Journal. It was rain-busting watch. It was a brain-busting watch, 100%. I don't think I could have watched it without her commentary, to be honest, because I was feeling the same things that she was saying. It's just this need for the consultant class to be like, "Oh, we know what this state wants. We want a guy who looks like he bought a Maine costume from a Halloween store." And here's their problem. Here was it because I watched several interviews with a smattering of his consultants. Here's the thing. They rail against the establishment, but the structure they have set up is literally no different than the establishment. It is a core group of people who are picking the candidates that they want and deciding that a deep vetting is something the other establishment does. All these things equal, the tattoo, the Reddit posts, you know what he could have done? Out of the gate. Declare's he's going to run. First interview goes to the belly of the beast, talks about all this stuff. Look, I've got this tattoo. Not the rape, though. I feel like-- No, not the rape. I feel like that's just a quote. The rape wouldn't have come up. Right, right. But if he had come clean about all the other things that have been a drip, drip, drip, like I just think I would have a different impression of him now, a little bit. I don't know, but it is the fact that none of this was handled in a way that felt forthcoming. All of it felt like things that were meant to remain hidden and then they weren't. And that's not a plan or a strategy for winning anything. Mm-hmm. To totally agree, I also think some of the shock that I'm seeing from leftists and other people who supported him or who were excited by him. I think when the drip, drip, drip was happening, you know, and I'm being a little bit ungenerous where I was like, oh yeah, wow, it turns out there's fire, where there's smoke. When you are taken in by somebody who is a-- I'm not going to say sociopath, but somebody who is a liar, somebody who is charming and is engolish. Yeah, and has been able to get away with things for a long time. And they truly take you for a ride. It's hard to admit that that's happened to you. It's hard to be like, holy shit. It's true. I got-- I saw that too. I saw that too. Yeah, it was, you know, very, you know, humble and she was like, I'm so sorry, I really fucked up. Of all the meocalpas, I found her the most self-reflective. Yeah. Absolutely. And the thing that is the takeaway from this, once all this fucking mess is settled, which once Maine has decided who's running for Senate as a Democrat, if it's determined whether or not they can even get a campaign together fast enough in order to win a state that I think voted for Kamala and Biden and Clinton, like if they can't get their shit together enough to win and it might endanger the Senate. So that is like the on the ground concerns. But I also think after this, we really need to consider the fact that some elements of the way that they established-- I'm not pro-establishment, but some elements of the way that it conducts itself are necessary and needed, like vetting, deep professional staff, professional staff, deep vetting, like this is not-- campaigns should not be run like Silicon Valley. Like we've seen what happens when Silicon Valley is so move fast, break stuff that it's like, whoops, I accidentally destroyed a whole city, whoops, I accidentally ruined the housing market, whoops, I accidentally took away cab driving as a viable livelihood and now it was just as expensive or if not more expensive. It's like we have to consider that politics is building. We're supposed to be building something and we need to be looking for candidates, even if you are a notes that consultant, I'm not saying it's all the way bad because I think some of these people would have won if they weren't encouraged by people who are professionals at this. I think that insurgent candidates need to understand or people that are seeking insurgent candidates need to understand the politics needs to be building something and yeah, it's really-- it's very disappointing. I feel like also we're so-- the establishment was so charmed by this version of like main masculinity that they had in their minds that they were willing to kind of overlook some pretty serious red flags. They were. And the thing about professional-- and I will say this, it's not even the establishment. There are professional campaign staffers out there. I mean, Aaron, do you know how many vets I led over my 20 years in politics? And you know what? The point was not to be a fucking dickhead. The point was to guard against unforeseen outcomes, you know? And like there are things that have happened in people's lives that they don't think are a big deal. And then all of a sudden, you're like, right, you built the addition. And they gave you a loan, but did you pay it back? And was it documented? And it's like, no, those are just things. And a lot of times, those things can be handled before you even announce that you're going to run. We all have things that we should clean up and be careful about. But like to just the thing around him that up into this point has felt a bit noxious to me is just this, well, we don't want candidates who are grown in a Petri dish. And therefore, sometimes these things happen. Actually, let me talk about some really authentic candidates that you and I love, who were vetted, fucking killed it, got elected, Jasmine Crockett, okay, authentic represents is different than most of the people in her committee hearings and brings a like vivaciousness to that that makes people pay attention, which is what we need. Like there are people that work within the system and take running seriously, who are still authentic and true reflections of the people in their communities. I mean, AOC, like they're AOC who did not endorse him. I just think that there's something, I think we really need to vet men, especially hard. And I'm sorry if that's unfair, but men who are running for office need to be vetted harder than women who are running for office. Yes. And here is just one other point, just to the vetting, is that when Jennifer Rosicott tells the story of the night in her house when she tells him not to come over, he comes over. This is the most disturbing, I think thing. He comes over, breaks into her house, like enters her house without an invitation, then breaks her, she's afraid for his safety. So she doesn't put his drunk ass in the car to drive home. So he wakes up the next morning, she tells him something terrible happened. Aaron, that would weigh on me for the rest of my fucking life. There is no way someone, if I were him, and someone said to me, is there anything in your history that you feel like a little funky, I'd be like, you know what? I think you should talk to this woman, Jennifer. Something bad happened and I'm not sure what it was. And you know what? If he had claimed to remembering it, his team had talked to her. She might have felt like respected or something, but there is no way, no way.
way that he did not remember that interaction. And if he didn't, that's even more damaged. Yeah. And there's also something, there's also something here. And this is like zooming out even further about how awful and toxic the political media is in the media at large is in the age of social media is. But our enemies are to people who put themselves out there and run for office. They make it such a toxic sludge that I think a lot of people women, especially, would not want to subject their families to it. There's, there is an overlap between what sort of person would want to run for office? Well, the sort of person who isn't, isn't actually upset when terrible things happen to them or when they do terrible things. And it's like the environment that we've created and the way that social media functions and the way that Washington is way too online has built this atmosphere that is going to keep producing fucking grim partners and Tony Gonzalez is. And like these people who have the audacity to not be at all swayed by having done something bad or having something bad happen to them. And I don't know what the solution is, but it seems like we're in a pretty bad spot. Yeah. Just hope he drops out. So mayners get the chance to pick someone they might also really want. Yeah. Can we just talk about women for a second? Because I'm not sure if you saw this. But mayners were trying to draft Heather Cox Richardson, the writer historian and that icon just takes to social media and she's like, listen, I've seen everything. I'm not doing it. There's nothing on this planet that would make me do it and let me tell you why. And she talked about like, but it's just such an amazing thing like how a woman so many, so many dudes would have been so flattered and would actually start thinking about it if someone was like trying to draft them. And she was like, that's not what my body was made for. Like God bless you, girl. Yeah. Okay. Um, now let's move on to another important news story, Mitch McConnell alive. Question mark. TBD. Okay. Aaron Senator Mitch McConnell was hospitalized on June 14th. A little bit of a birthday Donald Trump. Yeah. And his office has been tight lift about the condition ever since. But the day before he was hospitalized, emergency dispatch records show that an unconscious individual received CPR at the Senators Washington Address. Some outlets reported the individual was the Senator, but his office did not confirm. Okay. All I have to say is these were the same people who got all up and arms when Sec Deff Lloyd Austin was going and treating his cancer just a few miles down the road and just saying what's good for the goose good for the gander. So the day after the hospitalization, Republican Senators John Thune and John Barrasso told reporters they'd spoken to the Senator. Okay. Here's where it gets good. Laura Lumer's on the beat. Hell yeah. And Aaron, she's got Lumer rumors. Lumer rumors. She got the Lumer rumor. You came up with that. We're using it till it makes no more sense. Or Lumer Mill. It's the it's the Lumer mail has added again. She's saying a high level source in the White House has reported that the Senators brain dead. Okay. Laura Lumer rumor. But John Thune and John Barrasso and Scott Jennings shared on Monday and Tuesday that they'd spoken to the Senator about topical issues. Here's where they went too far. So do I believe that John Thune has talked to Mitch McConnell on the phone for a minute or two? Absolutely. Now Scott Jennings took to CNN to said that he had a 40-minute robust conversation spanning all issues that needed to be addressed across the globe. Scott, my boy. No, you never you're smoking. Please, just stop. You know, I didn't I was like, why would he talk to Scott Jennings? Like that little twerp and then I was like, Oh, Scott Jennings worked for him. I didn't. Yeah, he worked for him. I didn't know that that's why he got wasted. Yes, Scott Jennings. This is our his like raison d'être. He worked for Mitch McConnell. It's some a couple other people, but Mitch McConnell's his big one. So that's that's the steady state on that. One thing I'd like to flag Mitch McConnell's wife Elaine Chao in China. She went to China like immediately after the incident hospitalized him. Yeah, she had an emergency trip to China. Don't know what's going on there, but I don't know if she's back, but I know she was there for quite a while. McConnell is set to retire in January and the seat is up for election in November, but in a recent change in the law, it may complicate the succession to the seat if he's unable to finish out his term. Now, look, it's July. I feel like if he can't finish out his term, they may just leave the seat vacant. But in 2024, Kentucky changed its Senate vacancy law, eliminating the governors who happens to be a Democrat ability to appoint a replacement and calling for a special election. The new law, however, does not have a protocol for when a seat opens close to the end of the term. So we don't really have any idea what could happen if Mitch were actually to go for croaked as my mother would say. Can I just say Senator Thomas Massey? Oh, Senator Thomas Massey is saying Senator Thomas Massey. I love that guy. I'm sorry. We disagree on like maybe 15% of things and those 15% are like the most important 15% of things. Yeah, but he's been really entertaining. He's really entertaining. He he in response to these officials and Scott Jennings saying they'd spoken with McConnell. He put up a tweet that I think he reposted to his Instagram that was like I talked to him to and he said yes and the war in Iran and it was all of like his pet issues and it was it was Chef's kiss. I know Thomas Massey would never would never have me at one of his rallies. He'd be like, Oh, I can't let people know. I don't think that's true. I don't know. I true. I would have to decide the tent. Look at my broad appeal. Maybe. But as it stands right now, Mitch is possibly a former person. Possibly a good way. Hold on. Just wait. Can I give you my can I give you? Oh, yeah. What's my okay. So Aaron, I'm coming to you. Fresh off my training. I have rewatched two seasons of the pit and I am here to say that I think that Mitch McConnell is alive on a respirator, but maybe not intubated. Okay. Why do you think that? Because I just made it up. Okay. Because it would it would it would explain that he could say some words. It would be like, you know, here's the one thing. If he were remotely like adjacently fine, we would have gotten a Mitch McConnell in a robe waving from a hospital window. Like I worked for John Kerry when he got diagnosed with prostate cancer. And we were basically like, look, bro, the minute you can stand on two feet, you got to go wave to the reporters, show him you're still like up and kicking. Like it's just the easy thing to do. And he hasn't done it. I mean, Casey Hunt kind of called out Scott Jennings on her show on CNN. She did. She's like, okay, let's call him right now. What if we call him? What if we give him a call? What if he did it? Because he was just being he's little too over his ski tips with the 40 minutes on Iran, Ukraine, and I heard it was like 20 minutes, but regardless, it is like the length of the length of a nut. Doesn't matter. You can't chit chat for the length of a network sitcom. If you recently, or if you're that old in that frail, and you've recently had a serious medical event, if you are still alive, brain wise, but we'll see TBD. I know we're acting like it's, you know, we're taking this lightly and we're laughing at him, but he really fucked America up. Well, also, if someone just came out, look, I think you and I operate in the same way. If someone just came out and told us the truth, we wouldn't do a skit about it, but we wouldn't do a goof, we wouldn't be goofing on it, but it does seem like very, it's very, that's very weekend at Bernie's, it's very, I don't know, have you ever seen that movie? It was called Goodbye Lennon? No. It was like an independent movie. It's really good, but it's about this family who lives in East Germany and their mother is an important government official in like the Communist Party, but the kids are like young adults and they're both like skeptics of the Communist Party, but they kind of let their mom do their thing and then there's like this demonstration and their mother gets hit by a projectile and she goes into a coma and by the time she wakes up, the wall has fallen and oh shit. She's in such a fragile state of health that her kids have to pretend like it's still East Germany and it still exists and it's like, so they're like going into these vacant stores and finding like things with food with labels that she will remember and stuff. It's really good, but there's a part of me that's like, maybe if something crazy happens, well Mitch is underneath, it'll be like a while you're sleeping goodbye Lennon type situation where they have to, he's welcome to join us on the show and tell us what it was like to wake up. Absolutely. Call in Mitch. See what happens. Just call in. We'd love to talk to you. All right, we're going to take a quick break when we we come back, we're going to talk about Freedom 250 and the great selling.
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And so I trust them with my multivitamin. I trust them with my magnesium. Ritual selected a bioavailable form of magnesium that's gentle on the stomach. It's clinically steady to support stress and mind relaxation. Ease like cramps during pregnancy. And it's also great for supporting period cramping and providing PMS support. So sit back and raise a glass to your new evening ritual with magnesium plus. Save 25% on your first month at ritual.com/histeria. That's ritual.com/histeria for 25% off your first month. Histeria is brought to you by Babel. Aaron, I kicked off my summer with a wonderful little trip to Sicily. And thank God I'd been practicing my Italian on Babel. Because with a name like Master Monaco, people expect me to be able to whip out something a little bit more than Bungeorno, which was, which was where we were headed. I was so proud to be able to order for myself at a restaurant and even help out other people in my group. 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Getting primed to be able to listen to World Cup broadcasts in Spanish. They are better. They are better. They're just better. The announcers are happier. It's more exciting. It's just better in Spanish and I feel like brushing up on Spanish if you have a basis of understanding. Or if you don't, it's a great way for you to really maximize the fun of this world cup. And it has been fun. It has been a really fun world cup. And Babel is a great way to be able to enjoy a Univision's coverage of it. Right? Excellent. If you've got summer travel coming up, now is the time to start, so you can actually use what you learn on the trip. Right now, Babel is offering listeners up to 60% off. Go to Babel.com/Asteria that's Babel. B-A-B-B-E-L.com/Asteria for up to 60% off. Rules and restrictions may apply. And welcome back. You're listening to hysteria, the podcast that can't decide if we should have called it Freedom 2 Gryffty or America 2 Wimpy. I think two Gryffty. I think two Gryffty is that Freedom 2 Gryffty. Okay. So it was America's 250th birthday and it sort of, it kind of was a bust. I didn't really feel that festive. There was no, but there were no, I mean, look where I live in Los Angeles. There is fireworks galore usually. And this year it was just very subdued. People were not that excited. You know up here in the woods, it's usually pretty viby. Like we have a parade for flag day, memorial day. It's like nobody was feeling it. People put their flags out. All the people. There were a lot of flags. All the different kinds of neighbors had out all their flags. And they were nice American flags. They weren't Trump flags. I was at, I went to Disneyland like a week before the celebration. And I, with my kid, I took my child and they had decorated it for America's 250th, but a lot of bunks. They were, they were very subtle. Like, like they were not nearly as like out there. I've been there during like the holiday season. I've been there during, they had their 70th anniversary celebration that like went from last year until now feels like it's been going on forever. And those decorations were like huge and really like changed the whole vibe of the park. The Halloween decorations, the Christmas decorations, usually the holiday stuff really. And even like Lunar New Year. They really go out for Lunar New Year. But this was very like subtle subdued. They had some like little merch kind of in like patriotic merch kind of tucked away in the corner of some of the stores. But it definitely was not how I would have pictured things to be in like 1976 for the bicentennial when everybody was all in on celebrating America. People had outfits. There was TV programming. There were products, you know, like they came out with their 200th, you know, edition Oreos or whatever the fuck they were. But no, it was, but people really talked about it. It was like like even in, I don't know, I might have told you this, but DK told me that in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania in 1976, if you're born, you got to like bicentennial baby special blanket that had like the freedom bell. And it said 1976. And it was just like really special and cute. And like having been born in 1976, like it's like I obviously have no memories from 76. But like I do remember like the stuff that came on in the years that followed like looking back on it, you know, it was very like like just kids dressed up. I mean, a lot of like it was vibes. It was like vibes that were like built to be looked back on nostalgicly. It felt yeah, it felt very, people were excited. And you know, I guess it was a moment in history when, you know, what you would be, they would have been like eight years removed from 1968. So things finally felt like they were maybe coming down a little bit. Yeah, like neighbor neighbor for neighbor. And you know, it's just it's kind of like, you know, how we've talked about, you know, the FIFA is like the great American sleepover. And it's just like everybody's got the vibes. That's that is what I envisioned 1976 felt like people to tell them people having a good time making mistakes and hot dogs. We're going to have to do a redo of this. The next time we have a president who doesn't like infuriate people and doesn't live by making people mad and owning the lips. The next time we have a president who acts like an adult and a statesman, maybe they can just be like, we're redoing the 250th birthday. It's right. It's like getting an appendicitis on your 50th birthday. You're like, you know what? Just going to redo this at some point. Yeah. Yeah, it's like having COVID canceled my big wedding. I'm like, we're exactly. I'll be like 70 years old by the time we do it. But you're going to do it. We're going to do it. We got to redo the 250th. Okay. So here's why. Not only is like Donald Trump like a terrible president and a terrible figure and the absolute opposite of somebody who unifies and makes everybody excited about being hopeful about the future of the country. He's also like a grifter. Everything he does. And people are like, whoa, why? Why was this construction happening? It's because he's stealing money. Oh, why? Why does the reflecting pool look like shit? It's because they were stealing money. Why does it? It's because he steals money. Okay. That's my opinion. That's how he like conducted himself as a businessman. It is why construction is such a great way for people to launder funds. That is what he does. He is somebody who takes money. Go in question mark, question mark, question mark, something come out where all money. You know, like it is not. It is it is always showing us we're not being witches here. He continues to show us. I mean, put a pin in the 250. We only need our recent memory to recall that the East Wing beautification destruction demolition Derby was supposed to be funded by all outside funds. But then he said, well, now I'm doing some security stuff underneath. And now the money's coming from secret service. And where's that money? Where's those hundreds of millions of dollars Aaron? None of us know. No, none of us know. He's he's diverted funds from secret service question mark, question mark, where money go? Because the thing that comes out the other side of what you put money into with Donald Trump is always not worth what the money was. Like it is always a mystery, the crypto thing, whatever. Okay. So the same thing happened with freedom 250 slash America 250 back in 2016, President Obama had signed a bipartisan initiative into law, designating the America 250 organization, which is officially known as United States, semi-Quincentennial commission just
spearheads. You got that out. Thank you. But when Trump took office again in 2025, he signed an executive order to create Freedom 250, a White House task force housed in the Department of Defense and partnering with a private foundation called Freedom 250 LLC. I'm like America 250, the task force lacked congressional oversight, which is weird because why can you put something in the DOD and just not have it have anything to do with Congress? Was Pete had set in charge of this? I wonder if it feels he was. No wonder it sucked. Okay. Last year when Trump signed his one big beautiful bill on the 4th of July, he rerouted $150 million in funding from America 250 to Freedom 250 through the Department of Interior. I feel like I'm learning a lot about money laundering right now with the use of the cabinet agencies. That is like crazy. That is like final boss of money laundering. Two days before the holiday Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee published a 55 page report titled From Vanity to Insanity. How the White House. Pretty good. Cheated the American people out of their 250th birthday. The report is based on interviews with unnamed whistleblowers, sworn congressional testimony and internal Freedom 250 documents. Okay. So the report includes accusations that donors were told they were supporting America 250, but they were actually giving banking information to Freedom 250, which would be wire fraud. Indeed. Indeed. Among other shady opaque funding moves, our president is a Nigerian prince from the emails. Freedom 250 was behind the UFC match, the floppulous Great American State Fair, an event that at Mount Rushmore and a salute to America Firework show in DC that was so violently over the top. It was unfodegraffable. I don't know if you saw footage of it. Yes. I did. It also polluted DC. It made DC have the worst air quality of any image in the world in the world the next day. Yeah. And you couldn't even see the fucking fireworks. They're also holding the Patriot Games. I hate school athletic competition scheduled for August. How many kids are going to die in August in DC in the heat? What a dumb thing to do. America 250 held several events for the Fourth of July celebration, including a feeding America benefit show in LA, a unity concert in Philadelphia and its own fireworks on the national mall. Okay. Listen, with the coverage you've seen of these events, do you think what do you think the money? Where's the money? What happened? Where's the money? Well, Aaron, I'm going to say that the Freedom 250 has turned into a slush fund. At some point, its name is going to change to something that it is adjacent to his library or something, because this is like the whole point, like people might be curious, like, why did he change? Why would he do that? Like there was money in the America 250. Why do this one? Well, because the America 250 was meant to be a nonpartisan, bipartisan, true celebration of America that like everyone could enjoy and was going to be super good vibes and that's that. Trump turned it into, by diverting funds, wire fraud, turned it into a tax payer paid, I mean like, or donor paid, but under mysterious circumstances, political rally that's no different, that's the thing. For something that could have been a special day, he turned it into nothing more than one of his absolutely trite, boring, pathetic, filled rallies. There was nothing about his freedom 250 that had anything to do with patriotism, America, like it's disgusting. And I wish he's pathetic. Well, the speech wasn't even good. That's the thing. And I haven't been since he took office again. He can barely, he can barely get through anything. I mean, I know that this is a comparison that has been claimed and reserved by Chinese people who have problems with their president. But Donald Trump really is morphing into Winnie the Poo. His voice has become more and more Winnie the Poo like, as he's become more and more feeble. And for some reason, hearing, I just can't unhear him speaking, you know, kind of Winnie the Poo meets Garrison Keeler. Yep, yep, yep. I know that's like he's getting bored in the middle of it. And he's like, given us the announcement like, well, but what they're doing it like well, but gone is like rounding up the Mexicans and putting them on trucks. You know, it's right. It is right. It is like a, he's not a compelling speaker in the way that he was in 2016 or even in 2020. He is somebody whose health is failing. He is not nearly as robust as he used to be. And so the speech that he gave this event that he hijacked wasn't even for some like iconic, I say iconic meaning like something that we'll mention in history books, something that will be remembered as noteworthy. It was even totally fucking not noteworthy. It was just more of the same boring snooze patty grievances. And it's like, I think you could even tell from the coverage that these little tricks that used to work, he would go boo. And like the mainstream media would clutch their pearls and jump. And then his followers would be like, yeah, he's pissing off all the right people. That doesn't even work anymore because everybody's just kind of like, oh, we're doing this again. All right, right. Go on, Mr. President. But yeah, so it wasn't a good event. And I'm sure he took the money and maybe he will get his slush fund for the January 6th defendants after all, but just in a quiet way. I hope that most, I hope that like the Washington Post or other publications that have haven't been ruined in recent years have somebody just keeping an ego eye on the Freedom 250 fund because what happens to it is probably not going to be on the up and up. Let's talk a little bit about something that I've wanted to bring up on the show for a while. And that is the sexual insanity of MAGA hardcore supporting women. There is something wrong with them. And we need to talk about it. Well, Aaron, here's a little something that'll wet your whistle. Jonathan Swan, sorry. Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, they have a new book regime change inside the Imperial presidency of Donald Trump. And it brings to light a trove of details about what goes on behind the scenes in Trump's administration, including what's going on with Trump's executive assistant, who we've talked about before. They call her the human printer. Her real name is Natalie Harp. She got her start in broadcasting capturing Trump's attention in 2019 during a Fox news appearance. He invited her to speak. Can you please just imagine this? The human printer has spoken at the convention to speak at the RNC in August of 2020 around the same time she joined the advisory board of his campaign in 2022. She left her job as an anchor at a far right news network to join Trump's staff. So, Aaron, everyone, including, I think, Secret Service calls her the human printer girl from her role following Trump around and printing out positive news stories and social media posts for him to read. For him to read. Okay. Okay. So it's like if you're a baby and you're going on a plane and you know the baby is going to lose their shit about something, you're like, okay, I've got the go get I have got those little yogurt way for things like and I've and I've got you've got to have like lines of defense. You've got the go get you got snacks. You got the iPad. You've got new toys because you've got no rules on planes. You've got everything. Yeah. This is what she is. She just there's you know, there are kids at my daughter's school that need some extra help like managing their emotions and regulating their behaviors. And so they have like sometimes they'll have like a minder like come in and with them one-on-one to make sure that they're like not becoming dysregulated and hurting themselves and hurting the other kids. Super functional like it's it works. It's a system that works for children for children with difficult time managing their emotions and their physical response and regulating themselves. So yeah, it really sounds like he's got like a minder like this state went through his file and was like, you know what? We have funding for this. We're going to bring this any one-on-one supervision. Here's the thing. Little funny aside. So Maggie reports that Natalie leaves uplifting notes in personal spaces, including one that read, you are all that matters to me. When Trump took office again in 2025, he told staffers, Harp was the only one who loved him as much as his wife and kids. I mean, well, that's a simple one. I don't do this. I mean, okay. That's but so when we got into the White House in 2009, Secret Service briefed me on threats. And I said, you know, I'm hearing all this stuff in the news. I go, I don't know where the news is getting it from because Secret Service doesn't talk about it, but they're saying that Barack Obama has more threats than any other president. And Secret Service was like, that's true. And I was like, is it Kazy's black? And they're like, um, girl, it explained to me that the one of the major sort of like, one of the major issues that we had, the reason we had more threats.
is because there were a lot of ladies who said they wanted to do it with him. And when you say any action towards a president, it's considered a threat. So these articles about Secret Service being concerned about her and her proximity, 100% ring true because, like, for us, the big thing was, like, ladies on Facebook being, like, watch out, Michelle, I love him. Like, that was considered an actual threat, you know, that had to be just, like, mind it. But that's just true. We were the first ones for whom that was true because of social media, Instagram and Twitter and all that kind of stuff. So I mean, I'm assuming it's the same for Trump, but she actually, she is, she is aini. Like, like, like, I'm not saying she's not like a Netflix true crime. There's more, like, low grade lifetime when lifetime really leans into their cray. And they're like, we're going to make, have we got a Saturday night 8 p.m. movie for you. We're calling it the human printer, the human printer. Okay. So I was think this, this story that came out a couple of weeks ago was top of mind when I was, like, seeing clips from this Jubilee round table. So there's this liberal influencer named Dean Withers, who did a Jubilee round table surrounded by like Maga women. And there's this moment that really stuck out to me. I don't know. Let's play it. They had to make things up to get Trump. Trump doesn't have to be a sexual predator. Any woman would love to be with Trump. All right. Listen, put your hand up. If you would have sex with Donald Trump. Ew. That's crazy. We need strong alpha males, like Donald Day Trump, Spencer Pratt and our loved Charlie Kirk. We will have secure borders, who will not let criminals on the side, chronically say strong alpha males. Get a grip. Stand up. You never get a grip. You want a man slaying to me? Well, I mean, actually, you just said that men are better at leading than women. I do. So you should listen everywhere that comes out of our own from your perspective, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. What chaos. It really bums me out and stresses me out. Yeah. That was--but anyway, the point is, these women are like, that is like sexual insanity to me. Like Donald Trump is a gross old man. That's disgusting. That's disgusting. It's disgusting. But you know he smells. I mean, you know that like his whole body, he's never done a day of hard work in his life. He is probably like softer than butter. No muscle tone. Absolutely. No muscle tone. No muscle tone. No, but like, it's just--you don't--like, he's repellent. He is repellent. He is repellent and disgusting and these women are just raising their hands that they would do it. I mean, it's so--that to me was like, oh, they're fully in a cult. Yes. Because I think that a really bad sign, just generally speaking, if you're ever going to do a temp check on yourself, a really bad sign is like, if you want to sleep with a politician. I think you need to-- That should never-- The gross your mind. There's no one. I mean, if it does, if it does, like some of them have Riz, you know. But like, that's not what they're there for. Senator Ossof has Riz. I guess. But regardless, like, I'm not--I'm not--I'm not--I'm not--like, do you know what I'm saying? Like, Gavin, do I know what you're saying? No, I know what you're saying. It's like, our handsome demon in charge of California. Yeah. Okay. Like, there's--like, you can acknowledge that somebody is like--Alexander Ocasio-Cortez. It's a beautiful woman. Like, that's not what they're there for. And-- It's so funny. It's easier for me to see the point with women. I'm like, you're right. You're beautiful. You were the--you were the gayest straight woman. I know. I know. I know. We know this about me. You guys are saying this because I showed her with my bike, my new bike rack on my Subaru. And you were like--we were texting nostalgicly about Lilith Fair this week. Yeah. And I was like, look. Okay. That's the straightest gay--or the gayest straight person. Yes. I love that about myself. I think it's great. I'm not mad. I'm seeing it with respect, with utmost respect. Oh, I know. But that's why I'm saying the AOC example. I'm like, okay, I see it now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, the point--the point that I'm making is, like, politicians, like, any politician that expects or demands sexual adoration is, like, that's not good. That's a--that's bad. It's creepy. It's creepy and bad. And then on that note, did you see that? Uh, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Senate--how many--Ken Paxton--spent the Fourth of July overseas with his mistress? America's 250? Yeah. He was in London with his mistress who was, for some reason, wearing a prom dress in the middle of London. That was wild. It was so weird. But, like, this woman is sort of, you know, there are pictures of them circulating and stuff. And it's just, like, we--as a--as a gender, as cis straight women, we need to have a council. We need to have a union. Like, we are not fucking Ken Paxton. He is strut. Truly. He is on the strike list. You cannot be in the union. Here's the thing. I'm sure Ken Paxton took the exact wrong lesson from being seen in London. But Ken Paxton was recognized because he is so hated. The people were like, "Oh, my God, someone in the UK was, like, that mother--that guy from fucking Texas. He's been impeached. He--his wife divorced him from biblical grounds, like, he is--like, Ken, it wasn't a compliment. It's not because you're so famous. It's because you're infamous. Yeah. It's so--I just do not understand this desire of women on the right to be like, "Yeah, and I'd fuck him too." It's like, "No girls, you don't have to." This is--it is--it is--it is--your vote is bad enough. Yeah. [laughs] Okay, we're going to take a break when we come back and interview with the president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. We're talking about the Daisy Chain Field Music Festival. Any Lilith Fairfan wouldn't miss it. "History is brought to you by fast-growing trees. Did you know fast-growing trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands of trees and plants and over two million happy customers?" I did. I did too, because we've read this ad before. They all--they have all the plants, your yard, or home needs, including fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and house plants all grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy." It's like your local nursery, but anywhere you live with more plants than you'll find anywhere else. Whatever you're looking for, fast-growing trees helps you find options that actually work for your climate, space, and lifestyle. Fast-growing trees makes it easy to get your dream yard. 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But the thing I love the most about fast-growing trees is that it gives you the information you need to enter in confidently so that the next time you and I are at a party together, we can start talking about plants. Aaron, we don't need to talk to anybody else. I'm going to be like, "Girl, did I tell you about my seed arrest on my rose bushes?" I mean, that's a job. Nothing a little neem oil doesn't fix. Yeah, neem oil is really the Vaseline of the plant world, isn't it? I was going to say it was the peptopism, but yes. Like Vaseline or like the Benadryl, maybe. Anyway, you would know all these things if you were a student of plants, be a fast-growing trees. Right now, they have great deals on spring planting essentials up to half off select plants and listeners to our show get 20% off their first purchase when using the code hysteria at checkout. That's an additional 20% off, better plants and better growing at fastgrowingtrees.com. Using code hysteria at checkout, fastgrowingtrees.com, code hysteria, now's the perfect time to plant. Together, use hysteria to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Hysteria is brought to you by IndyCloud. Aaron, people are getting more and more intentional about how they decompress lately. And you know what? IndyCloud has a proven solution. IndyCloud is a fully legal online cannabis dispensary for gummies, exotic flower premium rules, zero sugar THC sodas, energy gummies, and extra strength sleep gummies. Everything is federally legal, hemp THC lab tested and shipped discreetly to your door because staying informed is important. But feeling like you're on call for every single headline, probably less important, you know? Lately, it feels like there's always another update, another alert, another headline, another reason somebody wants your attention right now. At some point, I realized I didn't actually need to know everything immediately. 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That's indecloud dot-co, code hysteria for 30% off, delivered routinely and discreetly to your door, plus free gifts and free shipping unqualifying orders. And don't forget to build the quick survey when you order to support this show. Enjoy responsibly and huge thanks to Indecloud for helping everybody stay informed without carrying the entire news cycle around all summer. Welcome back to hysteria, the podcast that's been praying for a Lilith Fair Revival. Joining us today, we have the president of the National Institute of Reproductive Health to talk about the organization's work and exciting partnership with Olivia Rodrigo for her Daisy chain fields music festival. Christian Lobo, welcome to hysteria. Hi, Alyssa. Thank you so much for having me. Okay, Christian, we're just gonna get into it. We're so excited to read this news. First off, we heard that both you and your daughter are big fans of Olivia. So can you tell us how this partnership came to be? Yeah, absolutely. Again, thanks for having me. So we reached out from the National Institute of Reproductive Health to Olivia a few months ago, wanting to honor her incredible commitment to reproductive freedom. She let us know that she was planning this at this festival, and we are thrilled to be a part of it, my 12 year old in particular. Can't imagine. Yeah, I had to keep the news from her for a couple of days. And when I told her the year's splitting screams, I think probably woke lots of folks, but we are excited to be one of the organizations who's benefiting their 10 orgs that are gonna benefit from the proceeds of the festival. None of the artists are taking any cash. And so we're really excited to be able to sort of talk more about our work with, you know, a group of folks who are really primed to be moved to action, right? And as someone who tried to go into the original little fair, I got sick on the way there. Yeah, we're same age. I feel like we're same age. We are the same age. This feels like a real do-over for me in many ways. Okay, so Olivia, from what I have seen, again, I'm a woman in her 50s, my music, excuse a little older, I still listen to Janice Joplin. So I am just curious about sort of the younger up-and-comers. And Olivia seems to be one of the only or one of the few young artists who's using their tour to help advocate for reproductive rights. Is that accurate assessment and why do you think that is? You know, I think Olivia has certainly been an outspoken advocate on reproductive freedom and sort of other larger issues of social justice. And, you know, obviously the list of artists that are going to be participating are also, you know, pretty vocal. I think that it really matters that someone with her profile is choosing to use it in this way. She's a brand new album out. And anyone with her platform has a real responsibility in this moment. And in many ways, it's like a bit of counter-programming, right, to the opposition who would like us to be quiet and sort of hunker down and sort of pretend that all of this chaos isn't going on. And so there is something to like surfacing it, bringing folks into community, and really providing a counter-signal for folks that you can be vocal, that there is power in this kind of naming the thing that we are seeing. And also that there are opportunities to be a part of this, that you don't have to just sit at home, that sort of being in community is one step. And then all of the organizations, like ours are going to give folks lots of other ways that they can take action and start to be a part of this movement to really reclaim our country. So I want to talk a little bit about your organization and IRH. So can you explain to listeners how an IRH will play a role in the festival, both leading up to it and then sort of on game day? Yeah. So the National Institute for Reproductive Health, we are a campaign hub and we partner with state and local repro organizations around the country. We really focus our work on proactive policy because we believe that we have to sort of set the standard and really demonstrate to folks what the world looks like when we win. And we have to do that by focusing on the highest leverage policies and really demanding the kind of policies that we know really enable reproductive freedom. So we focus our work on abortion affordability, birth justice and maternal health, equity, repro data privacy and combating effort criminalization. And the difference in our work is that we are incredibly proactive and that we really focus on where the laws get made on the ground, like the folks closest to the pain, closest to the power as many wise folks continue to say. And so, you know, we are taking sort of that spirit and our connection to the work on the ground to the festival and we're excited to be a part of what I believe we're going to call some sort of like activist village where folks will be able to both sort of enjoy the music but then come and connect with all of the groups, learn how to become involved and really understand both what the laws are in their state and how they might be a part of danger. Oh, that's so incredible. So back in the day, 1990s, the religious right famously tried to fuck with Lilith Fair. Jerry Falwell really went after the work that Planned Parenthood was doing. And I'm curious, are you one? You are also Planned Parenthood is also a partner in this festival. But are you worried about the same thing here? Not really, you know why? Because the majority of folks are with us and actually understand that reproductive freedom is basic freedom and a big right right. And so, you know, we really welcome both the attention that this will bring mostly because we are always looking to bring more folks into our work and into this movement. But I also believe that we have sort of the righteousness of being right. And so why would be afraid of any scrutiny because we actually are building the world that we want to say? Has NIRH seen more or less opportunities for high profile partnerships during Trump 2.0? That's a really interesting question. I think that we have seen fewer opportunities certainly for higher profile moments like this, which is why this is such an incredible opportunity. Right. It's a moment for us to sort of reclaim the joy that is inherent in our side of the work and really provide such a counterpoint to what we're seeing on the other side. And so, you know, I hope that this opens the door for other artists and other sort of folks and people with large platforms to lean in instead of doing, you know, frankly, what we've seen other folks do, which is lean out or remain silent, which is largely about fear, we know. But there is so much joy, community, and protectiveness in community. And so we're trying to open it up right and bring folks in. I have to say, so we talked about it for a hot second, but I am old enough, you are old enough to have attended Lilith Fair. But for those who aren't, just to get hyped up for this festival, I really, really suggest watching the Hulu documentary about Lilith Fair, Lilith famously the brainchild of Sarah McLaughlin, who decided to prove labels wrong in the 1990s when they told her, no one, repeat, no one will come to a female fronted festival. And Lilith became this incredibly safe and also like at the time, a counter programming to Appalala Paloza and some of the other festivals that had like the mosh pits and didn't weren't especially safe for women necessarily. So anyone, listeners, Daisy Chain is in August, right? Yes, it's August 29th in Irvine, California. The website is daisychainfield.com. Perfect. So you have time to watch Lilith Fair and see if you can't imagine how groovy it will be. This will give you a sense of how groovy it is and speaking of Sarah McLaughlin. I saw that she will be, I don't know, is she a co-host or is she performing at daisychain? It's unclear. I think they're trying to keep some of the surprises for those who are involved as well. But I do know that she and Olivia have been in touch and that she sort of has given her stamp of approval for this. And so I as a huge Sarah McLaughlin fan have been to a number of concerts. I am very excited and kind of holding my breath to see what they what they have in store for us because it will be incredible no matter what. Of the bands and acts that have confirmed who are some of your biggest pinch me's like who you cannot believe so excited that they've signed up to do this. I mean, I have, you know, my 12 year old will scream at me again if I didn't say Olivia. We have been, you know, we've been hitting that album very hard. I am a massive doachy fan. Oh yeah. Yeah, I, you know,
No one else is doing it the way that she does. And Stevie Nicks, you know, I am. Can you, the whole icon. I'm excited. I know. And there are all sorts of rumors about what, you know, what she's going to do and be up to. And so it just feels like every generation, every type of something for everybody. Listener, yeah, there's something for everyone. There's really, you know, my mom is hoping to come. Like it's really going to be a huge party. OK, Christian, we are so excited about nothing. We have been talking about the fact that there is a fun shortage happening right now. And even with the very serious, sometimes depressing things that are going on in this country, we do need some fun. We have fun goes a really long way. But before I let you go, this is not like your first gig, you know, you have been in leadership at Neyroll, which is now, now I think reproductive freedom for all. You were at Planned Parenthood, and now you're at the National Institute of Reproductive Health. Yes. You have seen the best and the worst. Tell us why we should be hopeful right now. You know, my grandmother used to say, Joy, come in from the morning, right? And it's something that I hold on to in my career and in my life. And it's because we cannot afford to lose the humanity at the center of this work. And we have to stay connected to it. And so I just believe that there is such an opportunity for NIRH, but there's really such an opportunity for all of us to come together and redesign what is possible and really anchor our work in the spirit of abundance and impossibility. And I believe that when we do that, we will only be able to win. And that, you know, the mark of that moral universal bend will bend in the ways we need it to. Just need to put our hands on it. We just got to start bending, yeah, yeah. Christian, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you'll come back after the festival and tell us how it went. Yes, I hope you're there. We will be right back with Sunny Petty. Thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hysteria is brought to you by "I Restore." Alyssa, why aren't you wearing your "I Restore" hat right now? It's charging. It's charging. Do you wear it every night? I wear it just about every night. Yeah. I have the mask. I do the "I Restore" mask, aluminum face mask. I do it every night, almost. OK. You're glowing. I love it. Thank you so much. You can see my hair's growing back. It is. This is new hair. This is something new hair. We're big fans of "I Restore." I was very skeptical of red light therapy before I started using the "I Restore" Illumina face mask. Yeah, I was very skeptical because I was like, come on. This looks like some sort of turn of the 19th century contraption, but I have noticed not only is it really relaxing to wear-- Is it so relaxing? --with the light feels great. Yeah. The effects start after using it regularly after only a couple of weeks. I can see and feel a difference in my skin. 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[email protected]. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Give your hair and skin the upgrade they deserve so you can feel confident and refreshed. - I'm Nate Silver, I'm Gailan Drook. - And I'm Claire Malone. - We're back. This time with our friends at Crooked Media for a new show called Still Counting. - Yeah, numbers are hard, take ser easy. And frankly, numbers have only gotten harder. - What does the data actually say? How do we reconcile that with the other things that we're seeing in American politics and around the world? And how do we use that data to understand or maybe even dare to predict the future of American politics? - New episodes every Wednesday, starting September 9th. Subscribe to Still Counting on YouTube.com/@SillcountingPodcast. Or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - And welcome back. You're listening to "History of the Podcast" that is 100% convinced that the men of Love Island are fully red-pilled. Why are they calling Kenzie lustful? - You don't watch this show. - You don't watch Kenzie. What's lustful? - They're using the word lustful a lot on this season. And it's real. - But how? - Like in a Sunday school way. - Oh. - Like lustful. Because Kenzie is this sort of like Goldie Han like charming, Southern, surprising young woman. Who, you know, when she first came in it was like, oh yeah, she's maga, like which I think is true. But she keeps like winning audiences back. But every once in a while, you know that episode of Sex and the City when Charlotte says something really smart and then carries like every once in a while, Charlotte says something really smart. And then yeah, Charlotte goes, but you're too shiny today. - Yeah, yeah, like that's Kenzie. She's, she'll do something really endearing to the audience and then she'll do something that really like puts people off and she's been doing that the whole season and she's very watchable. But she also made out with a lot of guys and she was constantly doing the like back and forth I'm trying to pick which guy is the right guy for me. The Islanders were like weirdly militant, not militant but like rigid about enforcing the sort of like monogamy of coupling up with somebody right away and just sticking with the couple. - That's a whole game show, isn't it? - I know, the whole point is it's love Island. It's not like nerd Island. - That's the one you're talking about is love is blind. Love Island feels like there should just be no rules. - It should be a free for all. But there's too many, there's so many feelings on this season and so many like really, I don't know, like rigid couplings and they're using the word lustful and I'm just kinda like that's not it. All right, before we get to Sandy Petty, some announcements for the class at Crooked, we believe the answer to right wing authoritarianism is a big, welcoming, fun, pro-democracy movement. So join us at CrookedCon on November 5th through 7th and DC just after the midterms. It's gonna either be really fun or really fun. We think you'll wanna meet all the like-minded folks there to commiserate, learn from each other politely enthusiastically agree, laugh at JD Vance, laugh at ourselves, have a drink or two and see if we can get a functional winning party out of the deal. Join us for more panels across bigger stages, candidate forums, live shows and interviews, organizing events and fun social stuff too. Sounds just crazy enough to work. Friends of the pod subscribers get an exclusive discount on the all day event on November 7th. In addition to other perks, we can't wait to tell you about go to CrookedCon.com for more details and to grab your tickets. All right, now let's get to Sandy Petty. We have been waiting to talk about this all episodes. It's our joy. We're watching the World Cup. It's our joy and our- - It's perfect. - It's been perfect for the most part. A lot of heart and breaking games though. I like- - Yes. - Did you watch the Argentina game on Tuesday? - With Egypt? - Yeah. - Yeah, it was fucked. It was heartbreaking. - I mean, there was a little heart-breaking games. - It's right, there are tough calls. It felt like a tough call. - Yeah, but like I, it was like Argentina was down to nil. And then I was like, I ducked out 'cause I was not feeling well, so I went to lay down. And then I came back and they had won. I was like, Argentina had won. I was like, what the fuck? - I'm like, how the hell happened? - Yeah, how was it? I'm glad I didn't watch that, 'cause that would have really upset me. Also, the Mexico loss. - Very upsetting.
- No, no hosts, all the hosts are out. - All the hosts are out, but you know what? I wasn't that upset about America losing when it lost. - No, well, the game was kind of shitty. - The game was shitty, but also like Donald Trump did the thing that he does, and he fucking ruined it. - He did ruin it. - By reaching into the, by trying to interfere with the red card and get it overturned, and it was just, yeah. - It's like stop, stop, get your nose out of it. It's, you know what, he saw something that was taking over, God knows what he looks at all day. But the vibes of the World Cup are taking over all the cities that they're in. People are loving it. Joy is overflowing, camaraderie is the name of the game. And Trump, who has never experienced any one of the things that I just talked about, was like, I want some for me. And he like made that stupid fucking phone call that made everybody look at us and be like, fuck, we love your country, but like, he also suck. - Yeah. - It's like, why, why? I think he just gets jealous when other things get attention. Like, always, I mean, this is not the same as the World Cup, but when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, he like made himself front and center in announcing his death on Fox and Friends, or like that they'd caught somebody. He was like, that's exactly what happened. He was like breaking news. - I mean, it just, and the joy with which he was like, yeah, I made the call was like, those, okay. I don't know anything about most of the players for Team USA, but it was very interesting that Donald Trump was intervening on the part of a person who had birthright citizenship to the US. - Only by being, by virtue of being born here because his mom wasn't allowed to born a board of plane on the way back. - Right, she was too pregnant to go back. - Yeah, it's like, oh, okay. So you only like some immigrants. You only like immigrants if they're like winning soccer games. - No, but that's his whole thing. That is a correct, yes, that is a yes. He only wants the people who don't actually need to be here. If you're fleeing from some gangs in your village, he's like, um, you need to stop, stay where you are, but if you're a very fancy attractive soccer player, it's like, don't you worry, you're pretty little head about that. We'll figure it out one way or another. - Yeah, it was a disappointing turn, but I think now that the US is out, it's hopefully there's not gonna be so many controversies around officiating 'cause the one thing that like ruined sports is when it becomes about officiating or about like angling for things or whatever. But anyway, we're going to continue to enjoy the World Cup and then next year, the Women's World Cup happens. AKA the World Cup. - I know. The Real Cup. - Where is the, where is the Women's World Cup? - So the Women's World Cup next year is in Brazil. So that's gonna be fun too. - Okay, well, that's good. But like, I don't know what I do between now and then with my Instagram feed, which is all Irling Holland and women pretending to be him like these blonde tall women who braid their hair like him and have learned how to walk like him and are doing these hilarious things where they're like, I actually do move faster when I stick my chin out and do his weird walk and just like his sister did it. It's like all of these girls are teaching each other how to braid their hair online to be like him. - Oh. - I can't get enough. I can't get enough. We're having our neighbors over. We invited our neighbors over like a couple weeks ago to come over this Saturday and I've been waiting because cocktail, our little cocktail get together starts at like five and that's when the Norway UK matches. And I was waiting and I finally got the text. Hey, do you think, you know the game is on? I was like, get a game will be on. We don't even talk to each other. We can just watch the game. It'll be great. - I love that for you. That sounds like it's gonna be so fun. - All right. - Yeah. - Well, that about wraps up the episode, but we have an announcement to make. - We have an announcement. Well, Aaron, guys, I'm pregnant. - Nope. - Just kidding. (laughing) Just kidding. Just kidding. I'm not. I'm not. My perimenopause won't make this easy. I am going to be leaving the show at the end of the month. The 23rd will be my last official episode. As our girl, Kelly Finn Glass from the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders would always like to make the point. It's better to go out when you're on top. And so, better to leave too soon than to leave too late and make room for someone, make room for someone new to have the opportunity to do this incredible show. When I turned 50, I started to think about what was next. I have no idea what is next. But what I do know is that I have had the best luck and having done the show with you, Aaron. And I've had the best time through some of the shittiest times over the last eight years. And listeners, I hope I've helped in some way to make the shitty times less shitty. Okay, that's it for now. I'm not dead yet. Okay. I just, I want our listeners to know. Alyssa, like, you are not allowed to make me cry until the 20th, 20th century. I did it so hard. This was hard. Yeah, yeah, I'm sweet. I'm struggling. I'll write a big speech for that show and we'll both be bawling. I just want our listeners to know, Alyssa will be still around. She'll still come back whenever she wants. Like this is just, this just means that your every week co-host is going to be me plus somebody else. We are, we'll be awesome. They'll be awesome. We're in the process of finding who that person is now. We're deep into it. And so we're gonna bring you somebody amazing. Alyssa's gonna be around still. She's still gonna come back sometimes. And then the same people that you love in the hysteria universe are still gonna be around as well. It's a sad change and eight years is a really long time to be doing a show with somebody like every week. But yeah, so that wraps up this week's episode. I need you to know, I need you to know when I was thinking about doing this. I was like, what should I do? And so I watched Jane Paulie saying goodbye to the today show. And then I watched Katy Kirk sing, goodbye to the today show. And I was like, no, I gotta keep it together more. (laughs) Okay, well, so there's still a couple more weeks with Alyssa. You can really squeeze all the juice out of it. And if you wanna get in touch with us, hysteriaacricka.com is the way to do that. We would like to say good riddance. Just don't say good riddance, that'd be super mean. Thank you, Alyssa. And thank you to Christian Lobu of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. And thank you listeners. There will be more hysteria for you next week. hysteria is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Caroline Reston, Claire Fogarty, Kendra James, Adrian Hill, Alyssa Master Monaco, and me, Erin Ryan. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Rachel Gayesky, Dylan Villanueva, Claudia Shang, Mia Kelman, Jay Banks, Charlotte Landis, and Jordan Cantor. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's gale of America East. (upbeat music) - I'm Nate Silver, I'm Galen Drewke. - We're back, this time with our friends at crooked media for a new show called Still Counting. - Yeah. - Numbers are hard, it takes very easy. - And frankly, numbers have only gotten harder. Subscribe to Still Counting on YouTube.com/atS Still Counting podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
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