Great episode but your guest's screeching sibilance made this impossible to listen to through headphones.

I think the target audience is rich people. And the message is, you can stop working, if you live like you're middle class.

In other words, it's "bootstraps bullshit."

Nate salary is publicly available on his employers (ActBlue) irs 990 form.  In 2016 he made almost $250,000.

wealth redistribution or other ways? that is so radical. "The millennials make up most of the working class" so what if they do? You work twords bettering yourself. u can't just start taking peoples shit because they're richer than you 

Imagine that, landlords posturing themselves as financial masterminds and the true backbone of the working class because they're completely disconnected from human struggles

implying Chinese land reform was bad, landlords should all be fucking shot

“Jaw Clench Study Takes Tax Dollars,” United Press International cautioned in 1975. “‘Shrimp On A Treadmill’: Rand Paul Mocks National Science Foundation Studies,” Forbes reported in 2021. “Gov't waste report finds $400K spent to give lonely rats cocaine: 'Absurd',” Fox News told viewers in 2024. 

According to these headlines, a wasteful, woke liberal government has been squandering taxpayer money on something wholly undeserving: frivolous scientific studies. Tens of thousands to millions of dollars, we’re told, are being handed out like candy so scientists can sit around watching monkeys clench their jaws, putting shrimp on treadmills, and give cocaine to rats. And who gets to choose which studies are funded? Wasteful ultra woke organizations like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Health and Human Services. 

It’s true that some research doesn’t end up having much practical relevance––indeed this is the nature of scientific inquiry! There are sometimes cul-de-sacs and wrong paths. But the majority of the time, studies that are trivialized in media and on the Senate floor aren’t superfluous at all. 

While soundbites like “shrimp on a treadmill” might paint a ridiculous picture, they’re also taken out of context, obscuring the scientific merit and moral import of the research and researchers, who work for years on often obscure, tedious lines of inquiry only to have their lives’ work reduced to a cheap punchline by bad-faith demagogues playing to the public’s ignorance and lizard brain impulses. 

So, why is this media and political punchline so popular? And what’s the agenda of the lawmakers and media organizations that denigrate and misrepresent research and science more broadly, and the larger current of conspicuous anti-intellectualism that has always been present in American political culture, but in the last ten years has entirely taken over the modern American Right? 

On this episode, we discuss the decades-old, anti-intellectual gambit of mocking and attacking the “frivolous study,” examining how it warps and devalues science and international cooperation in a broader effort to defund public institutions, both scientific and otherwise.

Our guest is Brenda Ekwurzel, Senior Director of Scientific Excellence at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Ep 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism

Ep 223: The Empire Strikes First, Part II — ‘Abundance’ Pablum as Counter to Left Populism

In this public News Brief, we detail how the NYT, Washington Post, and CNN reinforce every faulty premise of Israel's attack and how top Democrats in Congress and former Harris aides either ignore Trump and Israel's massive escalation or openly support it, showing once again the scope of debate in our politics and media ranges all the way from A to B. 

News Brief: US Media, Top Dems Assist Trump and Israel's Unprovoked Attack on Iran

Hundreds of people have been arrested in Los Angeles after days of protests, which are in response to aggressive immigration raids ordered by President Trump. When people took to social media to make sense of the events, they were confronted with fake, AI-generated videos of the protests and real photos that were labelled as out-of-context by AI. Thus breaking new ground in worthless, deceitful slop.

Plus, we speak to Anna Merlan at Mother Jones about her recent reporting on the RFK Jr.-connected “MAHA Institute.” That organization’s head, Leland Lehrman, has pushed extremist ideas for decades, including endorsing the conspiracist fraudulent text "Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” RFK Jr. himself is evidently embracing a genuinely anti-vax agenda in his role as Health Secretary by firing and replacing the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP).
We've seen the future. And the future is an AI chatbot telling you to treat your latest typhus infection with apple cider vinegar.

We've seen the future. And the future is an AI chatbot telling you to treat your latest typhus infection with apple cider vinegar.

Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes:

https://patreon.com/qaa

///

Anna Merlan on Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/annamerlan.bsky.social

The Head of a New RFK-Backing Group Promoted 9/11 Conspiracy Theories and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/06/leland-lehrman-make-america-healthy-again-institute-antisemitism-september-11/

Flaming Hydra

https://flaminghydra.com/



//


Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.


REFERENCES

Bricks from Malaysia and New Jersey misrepresented amid LA unrest
https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.49XW2T2

FACT FOCUS: A Craigslist ad is not proof of paid protesters in LA. It was posted as a prank
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-los-angeles-paid-protesters-prank-48792aa47dcc2d8eeb9547d79d530037

Fake videos and conspiracies fuel falsehoods about Los Angeles protests
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fake-videos-conspiracies-falsehoods-los-angeles-protests/

Los Angeles protests: How AI and chatbots are feeding fake news
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20250610-meet-bob-the-ai-generated-national-guard-soldier-sparking-misinformation

AI Chatbots Are Making LA Protest Disinformation Worse
https://www.wired.com/story/grok-chatgpt-ai-los-angeles-protest-disinformation/



New Disinformation and Old Diseases feat. Anna Merlan (E328)

In this public News Brief, we break down the selling of an unpopular, disastrous war in record speed. 

News Brief: Pundits Speed-run 15 months of Iraq War Propaganda for Iran in Five Days

For this special bonus episode we're joined by Jason P. Woodbury from Aquarian Drunkard's Transmissions podcast, to talk about everything from Christian music, to the Michael Tait allegations, to the mystic/freak-folk scene of the mid-2000s, to the crossovers between Ufology and Christianity

Please go check out Jason's podcast on iTunes or Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ErL7gvZD6v3HJ4Nx5oexm

And support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Too Much Goodness Is A Sin Today (w/ special guest Jason P. Woodbury)

In this News Brief, we are joined by Ashley Bohrer and Ben Teller of Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago to discuss media indifference to the US and Israel-imposed starvation of Palestinians, how sectarianism is central to the ADL's strategy, and why six JVP activists have decided to hunger strike to draw more attention to the Israeli and US-made famine in Gaza.

News Brief: Natural Disaster-izing the Deliberate US-Israeli Starvation Campaign in Gaza

Covering everything from the Big Beautiful Bill, to Ted Cruz's interview with Tucker Carlson, to Israel's latest attempts to pull the United States into another war(s), to Trump's potential nuking of Iran

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 397: You Did Not Seek This Moment, This Moment Sought You

In this News Brief we break down recent bad faith attacks on the Democratic nominee for New York mayor, the ADL's DO YOU CONDEMN extortion racket and the broader "antisemitism scandal" playbook to derail moderate social democratic politics and any criticism of Israel.

News Brief: ADL, Corporate Media, Dem Elites Manufature "Antisemitism" Scandal to Discipline Mamdani

Many Trump voters were under the naive impression that his administration would release information about Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators in his child trafficking operation. So it came as a shock when the DOJ released a memo claiming that they couldn’t find any “client list,” there is no evidence of Epstein blackmail activities, and they did not find “evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” 

Not even MAGA loyalists are buying this.

Jake, Julian, and Travis try to make sense of the DOJ’s blundering attempt to put an end to Epstein chatter, discuss how the memo contradicts previous statements by FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and explore whether this is scandalous enough to fracture Trump’s base for good.

Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes: www.patreon.com/qaa


///

We’ve launched a new podcast miniseries network: Cursed Media. The very first Cursed Media miniseries is Science in Transition. 

Science in Transition is an investigation into the intellectual origins of the contemporary right wing backlash against transgender acceptance. Through six deeply-researched episodes, hosts Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows unearth a bizarre coalition of well-meaning clinicians, aristocratic sexologists, militant feminists, right-wing culture warriors, headline-chasing journalists, and conservative politicians.

Listen to the first two episodes of Science In Transition and the rest of the six episodes as they are released weekly by subscribing through this link.

www.cursedmedia.net/

Subscribers to Cursed Media get access to three new podcast series per year, plus every episode of QAA’s existing mini-series (properly organized!)

////


REFERENCES

DOJ Epstein Memo
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline

Metadata Shows the FBI’s ‘Raw’ Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Was Likely Modified
https://www.wired.com/story/metadata-shows-the-dojs-raw-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-was-likely-modified/

Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Custody, Care, and Supervision of Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, New York
https://oig.justice.gov/reports/investigation-and-review-federal-bureau-prisons-custody-care-and-supervision-jeffrey

Deputy FBI Director Bongino has told people he is considering resigning amid Epstein files fallout, sources say
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/11/politics/bongino-consider-resigning-epstein-files


The Great Epstein Backstab (E332)

“How this millennial saved $1 million by age 30,” The Washington Post writes. “A Millennial Saved $100,000 With This Simple Habit,” CNBC insists. “How to save for retirement when you're living paycheck to paycheck,” CNN confides in us. Everywhere in American media we are told, if only we engaged in simple, no nonsense discipline we can retire at 35.

But what is the political objective of this popular mode of journalism? More than just generating clicks to sell investment instruments to the credulous, this genre has a distinct ideological purpose: to obscure generational poverty, largely brought on by the legacy of racism and Jim Crow, and make being poor the result of a series of moral failings rather than a deliberate political regime decided on by powerful actors.

This week, we explore the “personal finance” media industry and the corollary, so-called FIRE movement—and how their poor shaming, libertarian ethos has increasingly seeped into our mainstream click-happy online press.

Our guest is writer and editor Miles Howard.

Episode 77: Frugality Fables and the Poor-Shaming Grift of Financial Advice Journalism

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Episode 77: Frugality Fables and the Poor-Shaming Grift of Financial Advice Journalism

Citations Needed Podcast

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