Compact Podcast – "The Bad Bunny Files" (February 11, 2026)

Episode Overview

In this lively episode, Geoff Shullenberger, Ashley Frawley, and Matthew Schmitz (with producer Steven Adubato joining for the first segment) take on two headline-grabbing topics: the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, and the ongoing fallout from the Epstein scandal, focusing particularly on its reverberations in UK politics. The hosts interrogate the cultural, political, and ideological implications of each event, providing context and critique with their trademark blend of dry wit and intellectual rigor.

Segment 1: Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl, and Cultural Politics

Who is Bad Bunny? [01:24–02:02]

• Steven Adubato introduces Bad Bunny, charting his rise from a grocery store bagger in Puerto Rico to an international superstar, dominating Spotify’s global charts.
  • “He went viral on SoundCloud while working as a grocery store bagger...now he's been the number one artist on Spotify's global charts, I think three years in a row. So just in a matter of years, he's gone from grocery store dude to international superstar.” [01:24]
• Geoff Shullenberger frames this ascent as a modern Horatio Alger story, noting the universal appeal of such narratives.

The Halftime Show: Performance and Symbolism [02:02–04:32]

• Steven Adubato recaps the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show:
  • A mix of reggaeton and salsa.
  • Cameos by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
  • The spectacle was infused with “hashtag resistance politics” – messages of love over hate, and inclusivity.
  • “It was all about resisting hate, promoting love. Yeah, very predictable...We're just kind of following a script at this point. Very Baudrillardian...I find his music to be fun, but it’s not revolutionary. It’s just pop music, it’s just for fun, not much more than that.” [03:14]
• A facetious but telling remark is made (by Matthew Schmitz, unnamed in transcript):
  • “Can I point out that seemingly a wedding was performed in the course of the performance...a traditional heterosexual, one man, one woman wedding...Is this, you know, evidence of the...‘trad’ faction of the resistance?” [03:44]
  • Adubato jokes that the far right has "co-opted" diversity politics to push their “trad agenda.” [04:17]

Corporate Strategy & American Identity [04:32–08:56]

• Geoff Shullenberger offers a nuanced analysis:
  • Sees the show as more about the NFL's aspiration to grow its international audience than an ideological “woke” statement.
  • Raises questions about the NFL’s future: “How will the NFL balance its desires to be this international product with its need to maintain a customer base, a very particular kind of customer base in the United States?” [06:00]
  • Draws a striking contrast between Bad Bunny’s message of openness and last year’s halftime show by Kendrick Lamar (“They Not Like Us”), which was about exclusion and otherness, targeting transnational elites and raising antisemitic and anti-globalist tropes.
  • “One is this maybe kind of like resistance, liberal message of openness and we embrace migrants. And the other one is like, we hate the transnational elites who exploit our communities and are destroying the innocence of children. They are colonizers. Pretty distinct messages.” [08:32]

National/Diasporic Identity, the Monroe Doctrine & US Intervention [09:44–16:50]

• Bad Bunny’s performance (including flags from across the Americas and Canada) prompts discussion of American hemispheric identity, the legacy of US expansion (Monroe Doctrine), and their contradictions with today’s conservative “Fortress America” ideology.
  • “As a Puerto Rican, he is a US Citizen. And it’s worth noting here that I think this brings out some of the tensions in the Don Row Doctrine and this kind of new attempts at a more expansionist foreign policy outlook, particularly in this hemisphere...” [10:20]
• Discussion touches on how historical US interventions downstream shape migration and the country’s demographic-cultural makeup.
• There's gentle satire about whether Greenland should be part of this pan-American vision and a running joke about a “Greenlandic Bad Bunny” in 2050. [16:50]

Segment 2: The Epstein Files and the Mandelson Scandal

Mandelson, Starmer & UK Politics [17:47–23:42]

• Ashley Frawley breaks down the controversy surrounding Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US:

  • Starmer appointed Mandelson despite knowing of his ties to Epstein.
  • Mandelson’s skills (networking, connections) arguably made him a good fit, but he’s now under investigation for possibly leaking sensitive material to Epstein.
    • “He was actually a great choice to act as ambassador to the United States because if you are going to deal with people like Donald Trump, if you’re going to deal with people who swim in these kinds of waters, you need somebody who knows how to swim in these kinds of waters.” [17:53]
  • Frawley critiques the optics-obsessed, responsibility-dodging nature of contemporary British politics:
    • “There’s no sense with these politicians. There’s no sense of responsibility to the role. There’s no sense of something being involved in a project that is greater than them. It is purely functional...You have these sort of like career politicians who have no passion, no ideology and no purpose.” [21:44]
  • Notes the rising trend of rapid turnover in UK prime ministers: each scandal brings fresh demands for resignations, furthering instability.

• Starmer refuses to quit, his chief of staff resigns as scapegoat.

Epstein as a Symptom of National Drift [23:42–27:47]

• Unnamed Male Commentator offers a “wistful” theory:

  • Epstein’s talents at connecting people were wasted because there was no “meaningful national project”; he became “this kind of dissolute playboy” in the globalized, directionless era [23:42].

• Ashley Frawley extends this:

  • Identifies a broader “ethos of presentism” in Western political and personal life:
    • “Our life becomes a project of the self, of self management, of identity formation...even the project of a country becomes something like identity, something soul searching, a project of the self...It all flattens out because there’s nothing, there’s no purpose, there’s no sense of world building anymore.” [26:00]

• Geoff Shullenberger closes the segment, noting the apparent irony that the Epstein/Mandelson issue is the closest to seriously troubling Starmer, and questioning whether it’s the gravest flaw in his record [27:47].

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “He went viral on SoundCloud while working as a grocery store bagger...so just in a matter of years, he's gone from grocery store dude to international superstar.”
  — Steven Adubato [01:24]

• “It was all about resisting hate, promoting love...all very predictable...just pop music, just for fun, not much more than that.”
  — Steven Adubato [03:14]

• “How will the NFL balance its desires to be this international product with its need to maintain a...customer base in the US? ...This is very far from a kind of Bud Light moment...but...it’s not inconceivable.”
  — Geoff Shullenberger [06:00]

• “One is this maybe kind of like resistance, liberal message of openness and we embrace migrants. And the other one is like, we hate the transnational elites who exploit our communities and are destroying the innocence of children. They are colonizers.”
  — Geoff Shullenberger [08:32]

• “The reason that Bad Bunny is an American citizen is because of previous American leaders pursuing a sort of Monroe Doctrine vision...”
  — Unnamed Male Commentator [10:20]

• “There's no sense with these politicians. There's no sense of responsibility to the role. There's no sense of something being involved in a project that is greater than them. It is purely functional.”
  — Ashley Frawley [21:44]

• “Perhaps the tragedy of this whole affair is that...he came of age in a moment when the national project of America had...dissipated into this vague...directionless...growth for its own sake sort of vision.”
  — Unnamed Male Commentator [23:42]

• “Our life becomes a project of the self...this is writ large in our political structures...it all flattens out because there's nothing, there's no purpose, there's no sense of world building anymore.”
  — Ashley Frawley [26:00]

Key Timestamps

• [01:24] — Introduction to Bad Bunny & his career.
• [03:00] — Halftime show's “resistance” messaging analyzed.
• [04:32] — Corporate imperatives behind halftime show discussed.
• [08:32] — Comparison of this and last year’s halftime show cultural messages.
• [10:20] — Bad Bunny, Puerto Rican citizenship, and US hemispheric politics.
• [17:47] — The Mandelson–Epstein scandal in UK politics.
• [21:44] — Critique of political careerism and lack of purpose.
• [23:42] — Epstein as a symptom of national drift.
• [26:00] — “Presentism” in politics and personal identity.

Tone and Style

The episode is marked by intellectual debate, dry humor, and a skeptical—sometimes satirical—take on “pop” political and cultural narratives. The hosts balance informed analysis with moments of playful irony, never shying from pointing out contradictions both in mainstream discourse and within their own ranks.

This summary captures the nuanced discussion and pointed commentary of the episode, making it accessible to listeners who haven't tuned in but want depth on these timely topics.