
On this week’s edition of “Happy Hour,” Emily Jashinsky answers your questions on topics including her thoughts about leaving small towns for a big career and why so many people are longing for a simpler life. She also touches on her recent interviews with Evita Duffy-Alfonso and Matt Taibbi and explains why Matt is such an important voice in journalism. She addresses Mohammed bin Salman’s recent trip to The White House and why U.S. foreign policy is about pragmatism. She also discusses the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, how to get along with family members who don’t share your politics and values, America’s drinking culture, thoughts on her Olivia Nuzzi impression, and she addresses a meaningful message from one listener who says Emily helped her return to her faith.
Loading summary
A
Ondeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team or bridging cash flow gaps, Ondeck's loans up to $250,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five Star Trust pilot reviews, Ondeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes@ondeck.com depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by Ondeck or Celtic Bank. Ondeck does not lend to North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
B
Well, hello After Party listeners. Welcome to another edition of Happy Hour. This is our weekly podcast where I get to talk to you through all the lovely emails and messages you send on Instagram. As a reminder, we are@emilyevilmakeremedia.com I say we, but actually I mean me. I am@emilyvilmakeremedia.com and as always, I go through your emails live while I am reading them here on the show. While I'm taping the show, I'm reading your emails for the first time. We got lots of responses to the Wednesday show. Matt Taibbi, of course, was on After Party and we did a little riff on country music. So I can tell from the subject line of this email from Ashley that it's going to be about that conversation, because the subject line here is leaving the small town. Ashley says, Emily, the segment warmed my heart. I too left my small town in Maryland to build my career. I think so many people. Yeah. And then she says, we moved back to my husband's hometown to a small town in Wisconsin. Oh, I actually know the small town. I won't, I won't dox you, Ashley, but I actually know the small town that you are from. And Ashley says she has two boys who are thriving. My hope for any young women, men who do feel a desire to chase their traveling, to chase their dreams is to do it. But when it's time to build a family, you put their environment, not financial future, as the top priority. I'm so glad that this life is becoming appealing and not poofooed as trad. It aligns with the desire for nostalgia that is growing in other areas of our culture. Thank goodness. Great email here from Ashley, who seems to be really living the experience we talked about on afterparty in that country music segment. If you missed it. Basically I was saying I think there's been a shift where we're seeing more country songs about going back to a small town or longing for simple life where you grew up than people who, you know, when I was growing up, a lot of especially female country artists. I'm specifically really talking about the 90s and early 2000s. They were singing about getting out of their hometown. And there's been songs in both directions. What is the great Graham Parsons didn't write it. I think it's a Bouleau Bryant joint. But streets of Baltimore, I mean, we're going way back. Probably go further back than that. There's always been, you know, because country music is the sound of quote, flyover country. It's the most amazing genre because the banjo is West African, the mandolin is Italian. You have Irish influence from the Scots Irish who made country music what it is. And all of those cultures came from together in the most beautiful, beautiful American sound. It's one of the many reasons I love country music. But that's where there's always been this kind of not tension, but dance, you know, between the big city and the small town. And I just have sensed a shift from songs like the new Kelsey Ballerini, I Sit in Parks, that's being treated as almost conservative, anti feminist. The new Taylor Swift record, not really country, but Taylor, I think counts just as a cultural barometer. The Sam Hunt song Outskirts, the Morgan Wallen song, it's all starting to seem like a trend. And Ashley seems to be an example of somebody who lived this. So I really appreciate the example. Ashley, I appreciate the email. Thank you so much for listening. I love this story. I love it. All right, Corey, emails. Emily, I heard your take last night on Kelsey Ballerini and other singers about going home. It made me think of the song Merle Haggard wrote in the 80s called Big City. Oh, yeah. I wanted to bring it to your attention if you haven't heard of it and wanted to dive deeper into what you talked about last night. Thank you for perspective on all this and all that you do. I really appreciate. Enjoy the work you've done with Megan as well as on Breaking Points. Corey, thank you. I really appreciate that. I really appreciate the email. And Merle Haggard, big City, what a great example. Merle Haggard, I think I actually mentioned on the Wednesday show. I'm taping this on Thursday. Merle Haggard is a quote, great example of that as well. Even like Okie from Muskogee and all of the layers to that song. All right, let's see what else we have. This is from John. John says no questions, just thoughts. Tonight is the first time I've listened to afterparty, mainly because I'm a big Taibi fan. You and Me both. John I love Matt Taibbi. What I didn't expect, John says, is to find your last segment on Country Song so interesting and hitting so close to home. I have no college education. I come from a protected farming community in the Northeast. I've had to move around to take opportunities which help me up the ladder. I'm a cybersecurity engineer. I love computers and tech. But at 34 I'm really starting to feel the sacrifices I've made to get where I am today. I always wanted fulfilling work and I have after that working for soulless financial companies and other sectors that might as well be financial and contracting. And you say my favorite times are my trips home to visit my parents, brother and sister in law. This is especially I think it hits close to home, no pun intended, but especially during the holidays because people are going back home, thinking about going back home or missing it too. So John says small town living where you and your family are recognized feels right. I'm conflicted and sad that I feel like I've had to pursue this course to achieve something as basic as a salary that will allow me to buy a house and live a comfortable life. The things that make it home may not always be there. John, thank you so much for this email. I've thought about so much of this myself. So we're roughly, it looks like we're roughly the same age and man, it's true. We take for granted because it's so normal, this idea that you move away for college and then you live away for work. I mean it's just totally routine and it's like the strangest experience in human history. It's like something only people have done en masse in a way that wasn't forced or something in post industrial societies. And there's so much good that comes from it, right? Lots of economic opportunity and growth that comes from it. You meet new people, you learn from new people, but you're also really meant to. I have this very hot take. I'm probably going to get emails as soon as I mention it. Just that when we are in a chapter that will soon be over when it comes to nursing homes, taking your parents or your spouse's parents into your own home so that your children can experience senility and care for their elders, learn from their elders. We have gotten so separated from that because people don't live as sort of literal small tribes where you have those really, really close family bonds and ties that 10 tether you together physically, geographically, socially. And that's just one example. And listen, I know those decisions are hard. I'm not judging anybody at all for those decisions. I just think we'll probably shift away from that norm at some point because it causes so much pain. I don't know. Lots of people have thoughts on that and have been through that. I've seen it myself. It's. That can be really tough. That can be really tough. So I think, you know, I'm hoping that more of us are, you know, keeping these things in mind. You know, you don't necessarily need to go off to some big fancy school and start a life in a big fancy city. For some people, it's right. Some people have enormous talents or they have a lot to offer, you know, in a very particular place of the country. But we should also then think about what it means to have community and. And all of that. So. Thanks, John, for the email. This is from Aiden who says, I love watching the full after party show, but sometimes I get distracted when I watch the clips or shorter videos. I always feel like they cut it short. I don't know if anyone really looks at your video lengths and thinks I seem too song, but I don't know. Thanks anyway. P.S. matt Taibbi show is great. I like him on other shows, but he's on with you. I can tell he really likes it. I hope that's true because I'm such a big Taibi fan. I like such a big Taibi fan. It's like embarrassing what a Taibi fan I am. His. His journalism is like. He wrote this piece that we talked about on the show saying, and I don't even agree with him on this, but that the Epstein story is starting to feel like Russiagate. That is a brave take. Basically nobody is on that. Basically nobody is in that camp right now. And so Taibi jumping in is when literally everybody opposes it. You need those people in the media ecosystem because that's how everyone else pauses and thinks twice about Russiagate. Truly, I think that's a good example of just why he's so valuable. So big fan of Taibi. All right, this one is from Robin who says, love the show. You do an amazing job talking with your awesome guests with great content. Like many of your listeners, I too have relatives who have an issue with the way we voted. We tried to have a conversation that turned into an interrogation with them saying, it's not politics, it's about right and wrong. And I guess Trump voters are wrong. But my question is how to deal with them Regarding the celebration of Charlie Kirk's Assassination. It started on day one with a gross second amendment meme and multi post calling him a hate monger. I don't know how to deal with people okay with a young father sl husband being murdered for his political opinion, even if you don't agree with it. Any thoughts on how to navigate the holidays if we are around each other? Thanks and have a great weekend. Wow, that's a really, really heavy question, Robin, and a very, very good question. I mean, we're, we, we talk a lot about you getting along with people you disagree with on politics or culture or whatever, and the flip side of Jimmy Kimmel's wife saying she can't get along with her family anymore because they're Trump supporters. And those are fundamental values. It's not wrong to be uncomfortable around people who don't share these fundamental values. And one of them, to me, much more than supporting Donald Trump, a fundamental value would be thinking a political assassination is funny. Thinking, you know, the assassination of a husband and father is something to be celebrated or laughed at when the entire country kind of witnessed him be gunned down in cold blood on a college campus for, you know, in the middle of a political event that feels like a really fundamental, fundamental disagreement. I like to keep in mind that nobody really sees themselves as the villain of their story. Some people, of course, do, but nobody really. I mean, it's, it's very. Those people are rare. Those people are exceptions that prove the rule. And so I think my rule for, for Thanksgiving. And we're going to do a whole Thanksgiving show next week, like a special with the great Inez Stepman and Rachel Bovard. So make sure to tune in for that. And we talk a little bit about our advice for holidays and go into some depth about our own experiences on this. We also do recommendations for drinks, wine pairings, recipes, all that. You're going to want to not miss Wednesday's show. It's a good one. And it'll, it'll be good to listen to as well in the background if you're, like, grocery shopping or, you know, doing Thanksgiving cooking on Thursday. But that does feel like such a golf. I mean, it feels like such a golf. But I think clearly there are not, there's not an insignificant number of people in this country who within, you know, 24, 48 hours of what happened to Charlie thought it was funny or thought it was good. And that means we have to live in a country with some of those people, and we can't cast them aside, as hard as it may be to confront head to Head. Such an ugly reaction. But hurt people. Hurt people. Not to sound too woo or too like Dr. Phil, but it's true. It's true. And again, this is where I always default to asking people questions. I mean, and I would genuinely be curious if someone I loved thought that was funny. You'd just be like, why? Why? Okay, so what? You know, tell me more. Oh, you think he's racist? Oh, you think he's a Nazi? Okay, tell me why. And there's your opportunity, if you keep asking questions, to, in good faith, with some humility, say what you believe is opposition to what you believe is support. For example, for segregation, which was a meme that was going around after Charlie was killed, that he was pro Jim Crow. It's not what he was talking about, what he was talking about. And Megan went through every single example. So you might want to be armed with that metaphorically, when you are going into Thanksgiving with anyone. You know, she went through a whole rundown of all of the memes and myths about Charlie being racist and whatnot. So I highly recommend checking out that video. It was from about a month ago. But no, I mean, he was talking about the exact same arguments that black conservatives, Thomas Sowell, Jason Riley, have used for years and arguably are correct. Arguments about the culture that the Democratic Party has fostered of dependency. And again, you needn't be racist. You needn't harbor a single bit of racism in your heart to believe that argument. And having those conversations with people you love and have to see, because it's the holidays who have fallen into this, like many other people have. I really, really believe that. Just asking questions, coming at it with humility, remembering they don't see themselves as the villain that is such a. I think that's your best bet. And some people just can't be reasoned with. I get it. I think that's true. And there are times when you're injecting politics or pushing something that is about to break your family. And without the benefit of changing somebody's mind or helping them be kinder, gentler, more open minded, you don't have to keep pushing. Right? You don't want to actually push your family to the brink and break your family. Nobody wants that. So be careful, be judicious. But if we can't have these conversations with the people we love and the people we trust and people we care about who share family ties with us, nobody's ever going to convince people who are so hardened into thinking that stuff is funny or amusing, except for, you know, people that they can trust and have those conversations with and that they're forced to spend time with. So I think it's a good opportunity. I think it's a good opportunity. But don't go out of your way to force the conversation. Don't be, you know, don't push your family to the brink over it or anything like that. That's just my advice. Just my advice. Love this note here from Christine. Really loved the podcast. I'm 57, but between really love the podcast. I'm 57 but between Charlie Kirk's assassination and your Christianity, I've returned to church after a long time. I know you aren't Catholic, but I want to thank you for helping me reconnect with my faith through your words and positive energy and your own devotion to Christianity. Christine, I could cry. Thank you so much for sending that in. I appreciate it. I appreciate you for listening and I'm so happy to hear that you're going back to church. My dad's Catholic so I have a lot of experience going to Mass and I'm sort of, you know, I, I, I very much understand. What Andrew Colvette has said is true of, of Charlie Kirk is that he had deep appreciation for Catholic architecture and for the liturgy and the rituals of Mass. And I think it's almost impossible for any Christian to not be moved by traditional Mass and not have a deep appreciation for the Catholic tradition when you go to Mass. And I think actually there are a lot of things, you know, that people in non denominational churches and others could do that could build on what evokes such strong emotion. I mean just, I think part of building rituals into your life is super, super important and not just being kind of loose. That that's building rituals into your, into your prayer life and scripture reading into your life. Those sorts of things are very, very helpful. And I really appreciate, you know, some of my, my friends from more high church world who I've learned from on that. But, but I think we all just need that right now. And it's amazing how just out of curiosity for some people, just exhaustion, emotional exhaustion. I have a really good friend in my own life who's actually one of my friend's husbands who I think made both of us just a lot better. Just made both of us a lot stronger in our faith. Just by example, didn't harp on anything at all but just we saw the life that he was leading and it was, it was virtuous and it was, you know, organized and I mean that in sort of the, his his faith was organized and it comported. He was just so decent. And watching that example, I think was very helpful for me, for both of us. It made us both stronger. And this was, you know, probably 10 years ago at this point, but I feel like just out of emotional exhaustion, people are throwing their hands up in the air and, you know, say, jesus, take the wheel, going to church and just hoping to feel that connection and to be a part of that connection. And it's really, really powerful right now. We all feel it. We all feel it. So I love that. I love that. Thank you, Christine. Thank you for the note and God bless you. This is from sgreaser34. Matt Taibbi talks of if true style of journalism with Russiagate and now Epstein trust with media is so low already and only getting worse. Even if bias was I acknowledged, standards don't seem to exist. How can average people stay informed without going crazy? Yeah, I mean, that's like the question of the decade, maybe of the century. I think you just have to put more work in now, and you have to be. You have to approach all of this stuff from a posture of suspicion, sadly, a posture of skepticism, which you kind of always should. I mean, one of the reasons I'm in journalism is that I'm just skeptical of concentrated power is basically my politics. I'm just skeptical of concentrated power. And Christian, you put those two things together, that's how you would describe me. And so I think you always just have to be skeptical of media because there are concentrations of power in media. And that means in this day and age, you have to put in a lot of work. You got to read a lot of different sources, and you have to read media critics like Matt, who kind of give us the language to think about these things. Like the quote, if true style of journalism which he talks about is you have pieces of conventional wisdom that grow out of a kernel, the if true kernel, and then build and become consensus, become conventional wisdom. So if you go back and look at media coverage in 2016, 2017, 2018, during the Mueller report, it was like that, if true, Trump colluded with Russia if true, it spawned a million different stories based on that little conventional wisdom. Kind of assuming. Assuming the predicate, assuming that it was true and got the media into a lot of danger. I think you could argue that happened with trans. The trans agenda as well. And it happened with Charlie, to be honest, when. When Charlie died, it was just like. Because there were so many memes about him being anti Jim Crow or him being. I'M sorry, pro Jim Crow. Which was not true at all. Not true at all. Again, I would commend everybody to go watch Megan's video. You can disagree with him completely and you could disagree with the way he talks. That's not at all TR. True. It just built into, baked into, you know, Charlie Kirk and media coverage. He was always listed as, you know, someone who was accused of racism or whatever. And it just builds and builds and it's too good to check out if it fits your narrative and. And that's what happens. Here is a question from Thomas. I subscribe to your audio podcast and YouTube, but I can never find the Happy hour edition on YouTube. Am I looking in the wrong place or do you not publish it with video? If the latter, why Thomas actually might not hear this one if he doesn't listen to Happy Hour. But Happy Hour is just on the podcast feed. And this is actually also Nicole says we need the Megyn Kelly Wrap up show in podcast form. Megan Kelly wrap up show 2 to 3pm live. You can probably tell I love doing live content, but that is if you have SiriusXM. If you have a Sirius subscription, you don't have to listen to it live. You can click on it any time of day. It'll be there. You can go back and listen to it. That's how the Sirius app works. It's super, super cool. I love that. But happy we do it as a podcast, honestly, because we have a lot of YouTube momentum. But know there are probably a lot of people who think of it as a YouTube show because it's live and like late night. We think of it as kind of late night TV, right? It's on at 10pm so if you're looking for that late night content, we want to be there for you live with that live energy. But Happy Hour is just for podcast listeners for now. I mean, that easily could change. But it's just for podcast listeners for now as a reminder that we also are here on the podcast format. I'm a big podcast listener. I probably listen to more than I watch. And so yeah, we thought it was a, a good way to just be more and more in the podcast space. So then your podcast also people like if you're, if you're a big listener, a lot of people like to have something that's more than two days a week as a podcast listener. Again, you can kind of bake it into your routine. So that's one of the reasons that we do it on podcast, because it lets us be in your feed more often and remind you that we're also a podcast, which is very fun, too. Again, I'm a podcast. Big podcast listener. Okay. Dunn sends in a message here about Trump and Muhammad bin Salman, who's obviously at the White House this week. Dunn says it is not favorable defending Salman regarding the death slash killing of a journalist. It is not defensible from a humanitarian standpoint. It is sadly, however, practical. Thanks for the email. Done. I think the point you just made is important. Important because the pretense was always. And the Biden administration did this, too. The pretense was always that, you know, the. The US Foreign policy is not about pragmatism. And it's, of course, almost always about pragmatism more than it's about the. The humanitarian ideology. Right to act, for example, like all of our foreign policies, just in the interest of human rights and freedom. Sometimes that's true, but to act like all of it is that and not purely practical. I think it's one of the reasons people find Trump refreshing. The Khashoggi killing. Horrible, obviously. Gruesome, horrible. It was absolutely used, absolutely exploited by the foreign policy establishment who will gladly look the other way on human rights, on, for example, religious freedom, treatment of prisoners, treatment of. Like, they will look the other way on human rights when it serves their practical, pragmatic goals. But with Khashoggi, they blew it up into a whole thing that was so big, you know, you had all of these lobbying interests who shouldn't be representing. Sorry, I don't even. I think it's unethical. I'm sure I'll go to emails about that anyway. But I just. Like Farah Foreign Agents Registration Act. I've covered it for a long time. I think so much of that actually should just be illegal. Like, I'm glad that it's illegal not to tell us you're doing it, but it should just be illegal to do something. I don't know the right way to write that law. But, you know, the. The entire moral panic over Khashoggi was insincere, referring to him as a journalist or just a mere dissident. I mean, he was a dissident. He did have a column in the Washington Post, but he was a political operative that was, you know, Andy McCarthy had a good piece on this in National Review, sticking around the Muslim Brotherhood and advocating for the Muslim Brotherhood for quite some time. And you just wouldn't even know that if you read the headlines and you watched, you know, a bit of the coverage. So I think it is one of the things people do like about Trump's foreign policy is that he often doesn't even put the pretense in front of it. He's not even like acting as though it's anything other than practical. You kind of know with him, he might say, oh, but you're like, okay, he's just being a deal maker and it's always defensible. But I think it is at least refreshing. All right, let's get to some more emails. Tiffany says just finished afterparty for Monday night. Evita was a great guest. I think she's smart and has so much wisdom, as do you. Thank you. You say I also listened to you on Megan's show Tuesday. Great job. Well, I understand what Scott Galloway was saying. I don't agree with the drinking part. My mom's side of the family struggles with alcoholism. My only first cousin died last year at 43 from a alcoholism. I'm so sorry, Tiffany. So I'm more sensitive than most. Also being raised Baptist, drinking was a no, no. I see different perspectives but still choose to abstain. Keep up the great work. Well, thank you for that, Tiffany, because I think it's there's some Gen Z I I fully understand why why Gen Z finds millennial drinking culture cringe. I found it to be really cringe even when we were in the middle of it, like 2012, 2013, 2014. It's a little strange for me because culturally I'm from Wisconsin where it's like a const. But at the same time, I mean, I can't always laugh at these jokes in Wisconsin because of the so many lives that are lost to drunk driving in our state. It's a shame and it's not funny at all. And so I think some people lose sight. We've just been really accustomed. We've been really this is also a post industrial thing when you're able to man who writes about this. Someone wrote a wonderful has written wonderful research on this how with industrialism we were able to preserve liquor and certain types of booze. You just, you can keep it all over, you can make it cheaper, you can ship it around cheaper and it's just so much more available. And that leads to of course the temperance movement. We had prohibition in this country. It didn't come from nowhere. It wasn't like suddenly everyone went crazy and decided to make liquor illegal. It was because people were like men in this really rough industrial environment were struggling enormously and abusing women. And that's where the movement came from. It was A very serious thing. And now we just kind of of get over it. You should Google Lyman Stone. I think he's written a bit about where Prohibition came from, the history, the research of it, but also people on the evolution of drinking culture and technology that comes with preserving alcohol and all of that. All right, let's see, what else do we have in the inbox? This one is from Christopher, who says this question might be a bit outside your wheelhouse, but I wondered if you have ever given your thoughts on the prospect of Irish reunification. As I am a semi regular, regular reader of Irish newspapers, the consensus seems to hold that a referendum on Irish reunification could be held within the next 10 to 20 years, given the changes in Northern Ireland's demographics and the emergence of nationalist Sinn Fein as the province's largest political party. Specifically, I'm curious to you, would the absorption of Northern Ireland into a united Irish Republic be seen as you by a blow to Protestantism as well as the loss for conservatism in general? That's funny. Good question, Christopher. I have tried to go deep into not necessarily the question of reunification, but the kind of original divorce and the Troubles and all of that. And I haven't latched onto a really good book or documentary. I mean, I've watched documentaries, wrote about it in books, but I just, with me, I don't know if it's my memory or something, but I just have to get that. I have to get that right medium, I have to get that right piece of information and then I will pick up on the narrative just starts to make sense to me and I can kind of dive into the history more easily. So it wouldn't surprise me if Irish reunification happened within the next 10 to 20 years. I don't know that I would see it as a blow to Protestantism. I feel like actually the religiosity in general in Ireland is probably, I'm assuming I haven't looked into it, but given the politics of Ireland recently, I'm assuming religiosity is declining as it is in other places in the West. We're seeing a little bump right now in places like it appears like it's going to happen in the UK among younger people, in the US among younger people. I don't know how durable it'll be. I hope it's durable, but I wonder what effect that would even have on Protestantism and religiosity in a kind of big, big picture sense. But that is a good question. That is an interesting question, for sure. Let's see, what else do we have here lots and lots of good ones. This is Peter, who says, you must be getting tons of emails about this, but I too need to address it. Loved your opening for yesterday's episode of Afterparty. It's referring to Monday when I did the dramatic reason reading of Olivia Nezzi and Ryan Lizza's competing narratives about their her relationship and her affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Allegedly. Peter says, I'm a silly boy and love when youtubers I watch feel comfortable being goofballs. I think my surprise and chagrin at watching you vape kept me from actually cracking up while I was in the moment. But what finally got me laughing loud was the transition to Masa Chips. Probably your greatest opening thus far. Please feel free to do more silly stuff, especially while covering real world silly stuff. And I like to think that you were tapping into that part of you that once wanted to be a stand up comedian. Yeah, that's right. I thought that too. You said maybe you should add. Peter says, maybe you should add American Kanto to the bookshelf in the background. I think it'd be great. Yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe I should get like a big blow up poster of it. That would be funny. Peter, thanks for this email. This is absolutely hilarious. And I had too much fun with the Olivia Nezzy thing on Monday's show and it like ended up going viral and Megan played it on her show, which was really funny, kind of embarrassing because I was the guest on that show and I to like watch myself perform. And there's a reason that I never actually was a standup comedian. I thought it would be a great job for like a year when I was graduating high school. But yeah, I just, I'm not a. I'm not a performer really. I just, you know, I took acting classes in college. I just don't have it in me. But it's also a little tough to balance being a new show with wanting to do more comedy and bring levity into a new show. Because that's the whole point of After Party. It's like it's after the news cycle and, and we want to not take ourselves as seriously as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel do on their alleged comedy shows, their quote unquote comedy shows. But I find that it is kind of a balance because right now there's so much bad content, bad political content, bad comedy content. And when you're in both lanes, or you're kind of in both lanes, I mean, we're more in the politics than the comedy lane. That's for sure. But when you're trying to do both lanes and bring levity into politics, it's really hard not to be cringy. Is really like hard not to, you know, fall into like, dumb shticks. So I think we're. One of the good ways to do that is to have funny guests on Taibbi's a Funny Guy. And like we had Adam Carolla on. We've had a lot of funny people on. I think we're gonna have more going forward too. Would love to have like some, some big comedians like Adam Carollo types on the show more and more in the future, but also just, just getting more creative. I mean, we've been doing the show for, you know, since what, late June. So we've been going long enough now that I think it's, we're getting to a good rhythm and we can start finding those opportunities for creativity. And I'm looking forward to that. I always like to say that I wasted tens of thousands of dollars of my parents money on a creative writing degree. So anytime I can write an opener like the one I wrote for the American Kanto, dramatic read, probably should do it. I feel as though I have a moral obligation to do it because, you know, that was, that was a lot of money for a creative writing degree. All right, I will wrap it up here because I'm actually going to save some of this week's questions that were Thanksgiving related for the Thanksgiving week edition of Happy Hour here in the afterparty feed. So thanks. Thanks everyone. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you don't hear from me until you celebrate Thanksgiving, some of you might be celebrating this weekend. I'm doing a little family celebration out here on the east coast this weekend with some of my family out here. And I'm looking forward to it. God bless you all. Have a great weekend. We'll see you back on Monday with more after party.
Date: November 21, 2025
Host: Emily Jashinsky (MK Media)
In this interactive “Happy Hour” edition of After Party, Emily Jashinsky dives into listeners' emails and questions, responding live as she reads them. The episode explores major cultural and political themes: shifts in country music nostalgia, the complexities of moving away from one's hometown, navigating political divides during the holidays, U.S. foreign policy pragmatism, media trust issues, and balancing news with humor. Throughout, Emily provides heartfelt, big-picture commentary and personal reflection in her trademark accessible and thoughtful tone.
Timestamps: 01:10–12:40
Listener Reflections:
Emily’s Analysis:
Historical Context:
Timestamps: 12:40–20:00
Listener Stories:
Societal Reflection:
Timestamps: 20:00–25:00
Praise for Independent Media:
Value of Dissent:
Timestamps: 25:00–39:15
Listener Dilemmas:
Emily’s Advice:
Tough Boundaries:
Timestamps: 39:15–44:50
Listener Revival:
Emily on Ritual and Faith:
Timestamps: 44:50–49:00
Growing Distrust in Media:
Advice for Listeners:
Timestamps: 49:00–51:30
Timestamps: 51:30–56:40
Realpolitik with Saudi Arabia:
Broader Point:
Timestamps: 56:40–59:40
Listener’s Personal Story:
Cultural Reflection:
Timestamps: 59:40–1:02:30
Timestamps: 1:02:30–1:08:50
Audience Cheers for Comedy:
On Content Growth:
On the Modern Mobility Norm:
On Having Hard Conversations:
On Faith & Ritual:
On Media Skepticism:
On Comedy & News Saturation:
| Segment | Start Time | |------------------------------------------------|------------| | Country music nostalgia & cultural shift | 01:10 | | Family, mobility, and generational reflection | 12:40 | | Matt Taibbi & media criticism | 20:00 | | Navigating holidays with political divisions | 25:00 | | Listener faith journeys and rituals | 39:15 | | Media trust and information overload | 44:50 | | Podcast logistics and episode format | 49:00 | | US-Saudi relations & foreign policy | 51:30 | | Cultural drinking attitudes | 56:40 | | Irish reunification discussion | 59:40 | | Oliva Nuzzi impression & blending humor/news | 1:02:30 |
Emily closes by teasing the upcoming Thanksgiving special with Inez Stepman and Rachel Bovard, encouraging listeners to seek connection, curiosity, and humility—even in tough political climates. She expresses deep gratitude for her audience and their honesty, wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and inviting them back for the next After Party.