Chapo Trap House

Will and Felix report from their trip to the zoo. We review the woke CIA ad, and then discuss restaurants finding themselves hurting for employees when their lazy, entitled potential workers aren’t “economically coerced” to labor for “poverty wages”. We’re then joined by journalist Zack Kopplin to discuss his new piece on how corrupt mineral mining contracts have played a big part in our 20 year occupation of Afghanistan. Then, more zoos, animals & apes talk. Follow Zack on twitter: @ZackKopplin Check out Zack’s piece here: https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/how-afghanistans-president-helped-his-brother-secure-lucrative-mining-deals-with-a-us-contractor And get tix for our show at the FRQNCY1 streaming festival here: https://frqncy.live/frqncy1

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Grab your tickets to our live appearance at the FRQNCY1 streaming festival this June 5th here: https://frqncy.live/frqncy1 The first part of this show we have an interview with journalist Cerise Castle covering a fairly harrowing story she’s been reporting on the proliferation and criminal activities of white supremacist cop gangs in the LA County Sheriff’s department. Then we turn to the lighter side with some riffs on boats, ghosts, and Andrew Sullivan’s high-T journey. Follow Cerise: @cerisecastle Check out Cerise’s series on LA Sheriff’s gangs in the Knock LA: https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-violence-lasd-gang-history/ And, the article on Bill Gates and vaccines Felix mentions: https://newrepublic.com/article/162000/bill-gates-impeded-global-access-covid-vaccines

Check out the first episode of Season 2 of Blowback. The new season of Blowback is on Stitcher Premium, and you can get a month free if you go to stitcher.com/premium, select a monthly plan and use the promo code: BLOWBACK. Once you sign up you can listen on your browser, or you can download the Stitcher app on your phone

Get tickets to FRQNCY1 Festival here: https://frqncy.live/frqncy1 Some more info about the festival and how it works here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50090694 Brendan and Noah return to the show to discuss BLOWBACK, SEASON 2. We talk about the history of the Cuban revolution and the American response, the involvement of the mafia and U.S. clandestine services, and ongoing tensions in U.S.-Cuban relations. Then, we have classic reading series wherein Thomas Friedman reflects on two decades of being wrong about Afghanistan. Get flat, folks! The new season of Blowback is on Stitcher Premium, and you can get a month free if you go to stitcher.com/premium, select a monthly plan and use the promo code: BLOWBACK. Once you sign up you can listen on your browser, or you can download the Stitcher app on your phone.

Adam McKay stops by the pod to hear Felix’s pitch for a political rom-com, talk presidential animals, and discuss his new podcast Death at the Wing. Death at the Wing uses a series of deaths among NBA players in the 80’s as a lens to discuss the Reagan revolution, the war on drugs, and America’s shifting social and political landscape during that era. We get into all those issues with Adam, plus raccoons, tapirs, and samurai swords. Check out Death at the Wing here: https://www.threeuncannyfour.com/show/death-at-the-wing/

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Will discusses a new documentary on the shockingly successful grassroots effort to expand Medicaid through ballot initiative in Idaho with our friends Jim and Laura Kamoosi. Watch the film through the Santa Barbara International Film Festival at www.sbiff.org Find more information about the film here: www.reclaimidahofilm.com/

We spend the first half of the episode peeling back the many, many weird & gross layers of the whole Matt Gaetz saga. Then, we’re joined by journalist Ken Klippenstein to discuss his reporting on leaked Amazon internal documents detailing their heinous work conditions and baffling anti-union PR campaign. Check out Ken’s Amazon article in The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2021/03/25/amazon-drivers-pee-bottles-union/

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Karina read all 353 pages of Biden’s proposed Immigration bill and joins Will to break down the good, the bad, and the same as it ever was in it. Follow Karina on Twitter: @KaryinBrooklyn

We discuss why everyone loves the big boat whomst stuck in canal, then talk about Joe Biden’s big press conference last week, as well as Biden firing of all his staffers dumb enough to report weed use on their background checks. Finally, we look at the Bessamer, AL Amazon union drive, and Amazon’s extremely ham-fisted public relations push against it.

It’s the Spring sex & relationships issue of Chapo! We’re joined by our Women’s correspondent Katherine Krueger who takes the popular TikTok trend “Questions for Boys” and applies it to the Dry Boys. We then turn to the National Review to ask why conservatives are suddenly so gaga about the Royal Family. Finally, we see if we can find common ground with Boss Ross Douthat about getting Americans horny. SMASH that preorder button for Amber’s new book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250269621 SUBSCRIBE TO DISCOURSE BLOG: get 30% off a new annual subscription to Discourse Blog at discourseblog.com/subscribe with code BIRTHDAY on Tuesday

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We take a look at Stars And Strife, a new Starz documentary by David Smick (“macroeconomic advisor to a select group of prominent global investment funds”). It’s a documentary cautioning against the dangers of populist extremism, featuring the sober, reasonable analysis of James Baker, Leon Panetta, Rahm Emanuel, Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers, among others, and is honestly just as wild and deranged as You Me Madness. This completes a kind of inadvertent trilogy of films exploring inside the dream world from the POV of the middle class (Can’t Get You Out of My Head), the wealthy cultural elites (You Me Madness) and now, economic-political elite (Stars and Strife)

This is a bonus episode of my series with Matt, Time For My Stories. I improperly mixed the audio at the beginning so you can't hear the promo code but it's TIME for a free month at stitcher.com/premium. not my fault btw.

For #InternationalWomensDay we review a film by Hollywood’s newest female auteur, who just happens to be the wife of former Treasury Secretary/Suicide Squad producer Steve Mnuchin. Yes, it’s Louise Linton’s “Me You Madness,” a film that dares ask the question “what if a bisexual woman HAD mental health issues?”

From episode 503, Will catches up with Steven Donziger, the human rights attorney who has been under house arrest for over 500 days as a result of his work suing oil giant Chevron for their reckless polluting of Ecuador. Since we last talked to Steven there’s been some movement in his case, so we’re getting an update and continuing to discuss the fairly obvious collusion between Chevron, private prosecutors, and the New York Judge involved. Catch up on Steven’s first appearance here: https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/418-the-cool-zone-feat-steven-donziger-41119 For more information, go to www.makechevroncleanup.com. To learn more about or get involved with Steven’s case, or even dial in and listen to his hearing on March 10, go to https://www.freedonziger.org. You can follow him on Twitter: @SDonziger.

Amber and Will are joined by author Catherine Liu to discuss her new book Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class. Amber takes us through her shopping guide of “PMC products” and we see what they can teach us about this class and its ideology. Check out Catherine's book here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/virtue-hoarders

Chapo UK correspondent Adam Curtis returns to discuss the limits of individualism, goodies and baddies, conspiracies, manipulation, and dancing, all through the themes and characters of his new film series Can’t Get You Out of My Head.