Independent media Simping for CNN, FOX, etc
While listening to the Counterpoints interview with Don Lemon, I couldn’t keep from laughing at the ridiculousness and cringing and the horrific apologist Lemon is for CNN. He claims to be an independent journalist now, but every sentence felt like he was still on CNN. With independent journalists, substacks, podcasts being overwhelmingly more popular than the corporate/legacy media, do you expect to see more people like Lemon claiming to be independent while simping for the same companies that fired him? If so, how can people keep the propagandists from infiltrating the space of reason like they did with the legacy media brands?
Fertility crisis
Most would agree that we’re not having enough babies. But there are different explanations of why, and what to do about it, across the idealogical spectrum. How would you address that (particularly interested to hear from Saagar and Emily)? And is this a topic that could make for an interesting debate or other long form medium? On a personal note, I’ll add that my partner (35F) and I (32M) waited until we paid off our private student loans to buy a house in 2021 and then try and get pregnant. A year of trying led to IVF, and now we’re expecting a baby June 1. We went into it not knowing how we would make the finances work of raising a family, but knowing we wanted to do it and were quickly running out of time. Wish us luck!
US & Israel with Stuxnet vs Iran 2010
How much of today's escalating conflict concerning the partnership with the US & Israel vs Palestine & Iran can be traced back to the fears of Iran's nuclear escalation? How is cyber security playing a role in the modern conflict and what threats are worth concerning (IF ANY LOL) at the homefront (USA)?
Answer to Saagar's question - listening habits
A few weeks ago on AMA Saagar mentioned being confused about episode views going up later on. I am one of those folks who catch up on old episodes. I go weeks at a time without listening to the show, then get withdrawals, and have to catch back up. I used to listen to the shows the day they came out, religiously. But after a previous AMA when a listener asked you guys to ease off the Israel coverage, and your reply was essentially "screw you, don't let the door hit you on the way out", I stopped listening as much. I was so bothered I canceled my yearly subscription (which I'm reconsidering). I trust you guys, and like your delivery and personalities. What I don't like is the reprogramming that it feels you are attempting. Reiterating over and over and over and over, the same things with Israel and Ukraine, is reprogramming. That is some fox news shit right there. I'd rather be informed, inspired, or hopeful, over angry. That's why I backed off on listening to the show as much. I don't want to constantly come away from your show pissed off. I used to come away informed or hopeful. (Incidentally, that's why I stopped listening to JRE. EVERY episode he HAS to bring up covid). Forgot to mention, I know you have the segment bar at the bottom of the episode, but I'm one that listens in the car on my up to 1.5 hour commute to various work sites. I can't be trying to skip through an episode while driving. Also, even during those segments I don't want to hear, there are bits of information I do want to know about. So because of this, FOMO makes me listen to the crappy segments.