"America's 50 best cities to live in," reveals USA Today. "These rising U.S. cities could become the top places to live and work from home," reports CNBC. "The best U.S. cities to raise a family," lists MarketWatch.

Over and over again in American media we hear stories centered around ranking, judging and analyzing the rather vague concept of  a city. But who is being discussed when we talk about "cities"? How are "cities" a meaningful unit to understand a given space, especially in a country marked by runaway inequality and segregation?

When we’re told Johns Creek, Georgia, is the best city for "young people," or Carmel, Indiana, is the most "livable," whose lives and experiences are the media really talking about? Who is the audience for these reports about the best cities for families, for nightlife, for safety, for education, for happiness?

The criteria most U.S. corporate media uses centers a very particular constituent: Your average homeowner or prospective homeowner, usually white, upwardly mobile, namely, those who marketers, investors and real estate agents most want to reach.

Cities then, aren't deemed livable for their fair labor practices, but for their business-friendly policies. They're not worth moving to for their abundance of free public space in low-income neighborhoods, but for their charming boutiques and chic restaurants. They don't rank high for their strong rent-control laws, but for their ability to attract tech companies and they capture attention not for their excellent mental-health statistics, but for their "booming economies".

On this episode, we parse the ways in which media coverage of cities and urban living — often crafted by white professional-class writers for white professional-class audiences, and funded by faceless parent companies and corporate advertisers — centers the most powerful while ignoring the needs of the working class, the homeless, people with disabilities, and the vast majority of Black and brown residents.

Our guest is VOCAL-NY's Jawanza James Williams.

Episode 141: How "Most Livable Cities" Lists Center Upwardly Mobile White Professionals

To hear the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/TrueAnonPod.
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We take a long look at the rough life and weird death of Elliott Smith. 

Autopsy report here: justiceforelliottsmithcom.wordpress.com/autopsy-report/

Episode 171: Either/Or (teaser)

High Shaman Bloor (@necrobranson), Henderson (@intellegint), and Rand O'Nally (@charlesraustin) gather at Goofer's Glen to perform the ceremony of Pluckman's Grummet in front of the Okey-Dokey Tree.

Check out the new E1 merch store: https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/e1-podcast
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188 - The Goblin's Leg

Trump appeared on jumbotrons at a 9/11 event on the National Mall — a revivalist Christian political rally and concert organized by musician and would-be politician Sean Feucht. Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri attended in person, imploring God to help with the reversing of Roe V Wade. We spoke to Donie O'Sullivan, repeat guest and correspondent for CNN, about his path covering MAGA, QAnon, and other right wing events this year; as well as why he ended up at this specific 9/11 event on the National Mall.

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Episode music by Matthew Delatorre (http://implantcreative.com)

Episode 159: Fear & Worship in Washington DC feat Donie O'Sullivan

This week the boys sit down with John F. O'Donnell to chat about O.G. (Old German) Klaus Schwab. You heard of DAVOS? Dat's dis dude. If you thought we talked a big conspiracy game in our last episode dear listeners, then buckle up. We're about to drop some red hot William Gibson shit in your lap today. Oh and Greta Thunberg says hi! She's not on the show, she just seems nice so I imagine she would say hi to you, as she distracts you from the assimilation. 

We use this article as a really great reference in the episode, so here is the hot sauce.
https://winteroak.org.uk/2020/10/05/klaus-schwab-and-his-great-fascist-reset/

You can find John on Instagram or Twitter @therealjfod
You can also check out his podcast "Take Your Pills, Psychopath!" http://takeyourpillspod.com

Ep 251 Klaus Schwab And The World Economic Forum Featuring John F. O'Donnell

“The eviction moratorium is killing small landlords” CNBC cautions. "Some small landlords struggle under eviction moratoriums,” declares The Washington Post. “Economic Pressures Are Rising On Mom And Pop Rental Owners,” laments NPR. ”[Landlords] can’t hold on much longer,” cries an LA Times headline.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen a spate of media coverage highlighting the plight of the small or so-called “mom-and-pop landlord” struggling to make ends meet. The story usually goes something like this: A modest, down-on-their-luck owner of two or three properties — say, a elderly grandmother or hardworking medical professional — hopes to keep them long enough to hand them down to their kids, but fears financial ruin in the face of radical tenant-protection laws.

But this doesn’t reflect the reality of rental housing ownership in the United States. Over the last couple decades, corporate entities, from Wall Street firms to an opaque network of LLCs, have increasingly seized ownership of the rental housing stock, intensifying the asymmetry of landlord-tenant power relations and rendering housing ever more precarious for renters. In the meantime, the character of the “mom-and-pop landlord” has been evoked nonstop — much like that of the romantic “small business owner” — in order to sanitize the image of property ownership and gin up opposition to legislation that would protect tenants from eviction moratoria to rent control.

On this episode, we explore the overrepresentation of the “mom-and-pop landlord” in media, contrasting it with the actual makeup of rental housing ownership. We’ll also examine how the media-burnished image of the beleaguered, barely-scraping-by landlord puts a human face on policies that further enrich a property-owning class while justifying the forceful removal of renters from their homes.

Our guest is Alexander Ferrer of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE).

Ep 145: How Real Estate-Curated 'Mom & Pop Landlord' Sob Stories Are Used to Gut Tenant Protections

Sports gambling prognosticators Rocco Cantone (@necrobranson) and Dave the Indian (@exMalwa) welcome Montana Sorbet (@intellegint) and Ace Spades (@charlesraustin) to share their gambling tips and predictions.
Get tickets for E1 Live in Chicago on Nov. 8: bit.ly/e1-live-sv
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199 - Down to the Wire

New Age and Hippie culture is giving way to a strange version of "sovereign citizenship" in France. We explore how this led to a mother kidnapping her own child with the help of several accomplices who impersonated social services. Our guest (and guest writer) this week is Anthony Mansuy, a reporter for Society Magazine in Paris. He attended a workshop with one of the main influencers in the scene and has brought us some original reporting on this weird on- and offline phenomenon. Numerology, rap, and butterfly masks are involved. We cover Guylaine Lanctôt, the godmother of the new age "sovereign" movement in France, and we also chat a bit about the rise of far-right pundit and would-be French Presidential candidate Eric Zemmour.

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Episode music by Episode music by Doom Chakra Tapes (http://doomchakratapes.bandcamp.com) & Pontus Berghe

Premium Episode 144: French Sovereign Citizens feat Anthony Mansuy (Sample)

Red-pillings, demon cats and anti-vaxx anthems. Listener stories read by Jake.

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Episode music by Episode music by Pontus Berghe

Premium Episode 145: Listener Stories Volume 6 (Sample)

Jim Caviezel on stage acting out Ronald Reagan and Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Two different JFK Jr impersonators. Ron Watkins trolling the media by running for congress and scoring interviews with major outlets. His father Jim dressed as a candycane. Adrenochrome, the great awakening, the seventeenth letter in the alphabet and Michael Flynn. We cover two multi-day conferences that occurred on the same weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Our first QAA records release: 'Hikikomori Lake' by Nick Sena is available to listen for free at http://qaarecords.bandcamp.com (12 original tracks)

QAA Merch / Join the Discord Community / Find the Lost Episodes / Etc: https://qanonanonymous.com

Episode music by Lake Radio (https://lakeradio.bandcamp.com)

Episode 164: Double QAnon Conference Weekend (2X JFK Jr)

Beyond the History Channel: we explore the streaming platform Gaia TV, which is popular in new age, disclosure and conspiracy theory circles. After checking who founded it and how it became so insanely pilled, we choose a show or movie each and report our experiences.

Travis picked 'Buzzsaw with Sean Stone' (Oliver Stone's son), Julian chose 'Super Human: The Invisible Made Visible' and Jake selected 'Backstage Pass to the Flipside: Conversations with Bill Paxton'.

Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week: http://www.patreon.com/QAnonAnonymous

Episode music by Max Weber (http://doomchakratapes.bandcamp.com)

Premium Episode 147: Voyage to the Center of Gaia TV (Sample)

Conspiracy theories, melted online communities and cursed media — we pry open the cracks in consensus reality and journey into the hidden worlds below. The QAA Podcast is a mix of reporting, comedy, and history hosted by Jake Rockatansky, Travis View, and Julian Feeld along with co-hosts Annie Kelly, Liv Agar and Brad Abrahams. Formerly known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

Premium Episode 147: Voyage to the Center of Gaia TV (Sample)

QAA Podcast

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