2025 Q&A

Summary

It Could Happen Here – 2025 Q&A (Jan 5, 2026)

Podcast: It Could Happen Here
Host: Robert Evans, Garrison Davis, Mia Wong, James Stout
Producer: Sophie Lichterman
Production: Cool Zone Media & iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This special Q&A episode brings together the full It Could Happen Here team—Robert, Garrison, Mia, James, and producer Sophie—to respond to listener questions sourced from Bluesky, Instagram, and elsewhere. In classic ICHH style, they mix seriousness and irreverent humor, reflecting on collapse, media, politics, and the peculiarities of daily life on a show that chronicles "the burning ruins" and the possibilities of a better future.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Fun, Non-incriminating Youth Stories

• James: Gored by a bull while young, recounts rib injuries and the "karmic justice" of messing with animals (03:13).

  “I was gored by a bull when I was younger... First of all, you shouldn’t be unkind to animals. So I did deserve it... if you do, it’s kind of your fault.” — James [03:26]

• Sophie: Skinny jeans ripped in front of her 8th-grade class, a "millennial trauma" (04:42)
• Robert: Lost his pants to the Ganges river while rafting in India, improvised pants from his shirt to avoid indecency in a holy city (06:48)

  “My pants immediately are gone, like, just instantly as soon as I get in the water, torn off by the Ganges. And then I am... naked from the waist down... I take my shirt off and I put my legs through the armholes and I get to tie the neck hole. And I’m just wearing... my shirt as pants.” — Robert [07:02]

2. Literary and Media Recommendations

• Fiction Books:
  • Mia: Enjoyed Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
  • James: Winter in Madrid – Spanish Civil War fiction
  • Robert: Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut; Warhammer books
  • Mia: The Kate Daniels urban fantasy series, applauding its “magic apocalypse” and werecreatures (12:52)
• Favorite Media of 2025:
  • Robert: Andor (Season 2) [16:00]
  • Mia: Rehearsal (Season 2); “Tim Robinson’s new show Chair Company... gets to the American conspiracy mindset better than almost anything I’ve seen.” [16:41]
  • Sophie: The Pit (medical show); Netflix’s Adolescence miniseries
  • Mia: Hades 2 (game); One of the Boys (Victoria Zeller) – insight into trans, sports, and group chats [17:43]
  • James: Zaragosa Bound and Sons of Night (AK Press historical translations around the Durutti Column and Spanish anarchists) [19:01]

3. Canada Coverage

• The show will continue covering Canada, with a focus on Alberta politics, Conservative Party, and unique figures like the “Queen of Canada” (Romana Didulo). Garrison mentions interest in more field pieces given geographic proximity (09:05).

  “As a general rule, if you’re ever asking, hey, this major thing is happening in another country, are you guys going to cover it? The answer is probably yes... but there are, I believe, 10 countries in the world at least.” — Robert [10:31]

• Sidebar on odd celebrity news: Sophie is upset about rumors of Justin Trudeau dating Katy Perry (09:47).

4. Concerns About Media Censorship Under a Trump Administration

• Sophie and Robert affirm that iHeart has not censored their content and sees no reason for that to change; the financial success and independence of the show buffer them.

  “At the moment... we make them money and they in return say, keep doing what you’re doing, kid. Kiddos. Buckaroos.” — Robert [20:16]

5. Most Impactful Work of 2025

• Garrison: Proud of the Dog Whistle Politics episode, decoding messaging from the Trump administration and DHS (20:55).
• Robert: Zizian episodes and supporting Ed Zitron in exposing OpenAI’s excesses [22:36].
• Mia: Episode on the Elon Musk Nazi salute and media spectacle, and coverage of halted Medicaid cuts to trans healthcare [23:37].
• James: Border reporting, seeing real on-the-ground impacts and audience members engaging in mutual aid as a result [25:06].
• Sophie: Commissioned Anti Vax America series by Steven for its thorough work [26:02].

6. Recent “Jokerification” Moments

Each host reflects on what radicalized or emotionally scarred them most in the last year.

• The DNC experience (2025), especially being shut out of Kamala Harris’s speech, deeply demoralized Sophie and Garrison (27:04).

  “That hurt me so much. Because the DNC was so depressing.” — Sophie [27:05]

• Garrison: Left-wing conspiracism around the Charlie Kirk assassination and the flattening of left/right tactics (29:31)

  “Working on the Democrat left wing conspiracy stuff really did a number on me... seeing the scale of that stuff, especially around the Charlie Kirk assassination... was like, just drilling into my head.” — Garrison [27:39]

• James & Robert: Frustration over the abandonment of fact-checking, the “uniformity of the embrace of counterfactuals” (28:14), and hollow discourse around guns and ICE “guided missiles” conspiracy (31:19).

  “I just find that frustrating. Like, we cannot have a reasonable discourse around guns in this country.” — James [33:04]

• Sophie: Anger at routine transvestigation every time there’s a mass shooting in the news (31:45)

7. Dual Power in the Modern Era

• Mia: The Zapatistas exemplify adaptive, lasting dual power by decentralizing and outlasting state violence (33:37).
• Robert: The PKK, YPG/J in Rojava, and their ability to mimic/replace state function for millions (34:10).
• Garrison: NYC DSA’s recent local dual power initiatives and community mutual aid defense strategies (34:44, 35:09).

  “...community safety... to keep their community safe when the state has failed... And like, especially I think it is kind of heartwarming to me to see people who were just like straight up statist liberals. Right. Realizing that actually the cops aren’t going to come and arrest ICE.” — James [35:30]

• Robert: “A downstream change” from 2020’s uprisings: “A huge number of people who hadn’t thought about the cops, realized what the cops are.” [36:52]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On News Fatigue:
  “Now anyone who goes to a party that I am at knows that there’s a gun on the table if anyone asks me how the news is.” — Robert [02:22]
• On US News at Parties:
  “When people just ask you to summarize the fucking news. Yeah. Not good is the answer.” — James [02:08]
• On Canadian Political Gossip:
  “My recent political development in Canada that I would like to talk about is... what’s his name? Dating Katy Perry. Because it makes me upset.” — Sophie [09:42]
• On Fact Checking Culture:
  “The uniformity of the embrace of counterfactuals is like, I don’t even know what to do about it anymore. I don’t feel like fact checking works.” — Robert [28:00]
• On Changes Post-2020:
  “...the most long term positive change from the 2020 uprisings, which is a huge number of people who hadn’t thought about the cops, realized what the cops are.” — Robert [36:52]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Opening Banter & Party Stories: 00:42–07:35
• Book/Media Recommendations: 12:01–13:38, 15:50–19:55
• Canada Segment: 09:00–10:54
• On Media Censorship: 19:55–20:43
• 2025 Proudest Work: 20:55–26:02
• Jokerification Moments: 26:32–33:14
• Dual Power Discussion: 33:19–37:07
• Accents Fun/Closing: 37:12–End

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Overall Tone & Style

Casual, self-deprecating, and darkly humorous. The hosts strike a balance between jaded post-collapse analysis, biting satire, and sincere engagement with activism and mutual aid. The interplay among hosts makes even serious topics lively and approachable.

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Suggested Listens/References

• Dog Whistle Politics episode
• Anti Vax America series
• One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller
• Coverage of the Zapatistas and Rojava

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This summary presents a comprehensive, timestamped guide to the It Could Happen Here 2025 Q&A episode, capturing the team’s wit, media insights, and reflections on the realities of collapse and community resilience without missing their signature personality.

Transcript

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[Robert Evans]

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[Sophie Lichterman]

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[Robert Evans]

This is poetry. You don't edit poetry. Well, you do edit poetry.

[James Robert Evans]

One of the things. Was poetry.

[Robert Evans]

Bad at poetry.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Please stop talking.

[Robert Evans]

Welcome.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Welcome to it could happen here, 2025 Q&A edition. We have the whole team here. Mia Garrison, James Robert Evans. I'm your producer, Sophie Lichterman, and we're going to answer some of your questions. How's everybody feeling?

[Mia Garrison]

Great.

[James Robert Evans]

Trepidatious.

[Mia]

Amazing.

[Robert Evans]

Bad. I just got back from vacation, so anything's going to be bad. That's not me continuing to not look at my phone or computer.

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Great.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah, you should stop looking at the phone.

[Robert Evans]

Have you guys aware what this Trump dude's doing? Jesus Christ.

[Sophie Lichterman]

This is. What a guy.

[Mia Garrison]

Very, very. Yikes. I went to the WJ holiday party this weekend and the, the amount of like 2017 Trump jokes I had to hear.

[James Robert Evans]

Oh, no, that's a crime against humanity.

[Mia Garrison]

God, I love, I love that party. I love that party.

[James Robert Evans]

I'm going to a holiday party tonight with some friends who do insurance for people who live in the US and go to Mexico. So I'm sure I will get lots of fun and exciting anecdotes.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

I am throwing a holiday party and planning it with a four year old, which is exciting. It's gonna be good.

[Sophie Lichterman]

One of my favorite experiences as us having our job is at almost every party I go to, somebody's like, so, how's the news?

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. When people just ask you to summarize the fucking news. Yeah. Not good is the answer.

[Mia]

Listen to executive disorder.

[Mia Garrison]

No, I had to explain 7, 6, 4 to a screenwriter yesterday and they were not happy.

[Robert Evans]

Now anyone who goes to a party that I am at knows that there's a gun on the table. If anyone asks me how the news.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Is, that's, that's just, it's always phrased that way.

[Robert Evans]

Stay the fuck out.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

What's going on over there in Burma?

[Mia Garrison]

Let's, let's, let's answer some questions. All right, let's do it.

[Sophie Lichterman]

All right, so we posted on Blue sky, we posted on Instagram, and we have some of your questions. Let's start out with a fun one. Can we have a fun, non incriminating story from. From your youth? Any and all of you?

[Robert Evans]

No fun, non incriminating story for my youth.

[Mia Garrison]

I mean, for Robert, this is. And James, and maybe Mia. The statute of limitations for. For all of you should be fine.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Mia Garrison]

Garrison, I cannot answer this at all. I have a lot of interesting stories, but I'm trying to think of something from my youth that I can actually share.

[James Robert Evans]

I can do one that's, I think, non incriminating. I'm sad about having been part of it, but that's okay. I was gored by a bull when I was younger. That's a Jane's story.

[Robert Evans]

I feel like if we put money on it, like, two of us would have bet a bull was involved.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. I've actually been present at several gorings, various species. I probably have most of the gorings that it's available for a human being to witness because I've seen, like, a water buffalo goring.

[Robert Evans]

Oh, nice. That's gotta be, like, the top goring.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. That was a really unpleasant day for everyone involved. A guy lost the use of his legs for a period. Actually recovered it later, which is nice.

[Robert Evans]

So you can laugh about it. Yeah.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Said funny.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. Now we can have a laugh about it. Yeah. Well, it's a funny story because it's fun. First of all, you shouldn't be unkind to animals. So I did deserve it. Right. I don't think you should taunt animals for human pleasure. I don't think you should make them suffer. And if you do, it's kind of your fault. So in that sense, it's funny.

[Robert Evans]

I. I don't know that I've ever heard of a goring where I wasn't like, well, the animal was in the right clear.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. No.

[Robert Evans]

Hundred percent.

[James Robert Evans]

I'm on the ball team with this. The funny part was that my friend who was staying with me had previously not driven a manual vehicle. And I had broken probably the bulk of my ribs. Right. Like, a lot of rib breaking. And we drove home like that, learning to use a clutch on the way. And that was one of the most painful experiences, I think, that's available to a human being.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Is it bad that the story that popped into my head was when I ripped my pants in front of the entire 8th grade class at our school picnic because I Was wearing way too skinny of jeans, playing basketball, and my pants ripped, and I was wearing TMI red undies and pants ripped. So, like, my entire butt.

[Mia Garrison]

No, that's got to leave some scars.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah, that for me, as. As a person, that I feel like you just. Yeah, but that was my fun, non incriminating story. Story from you the last time I heard.

[Robert Evans]

That's a very millennial trauma from the.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Entire 8th grade class at our, like, graduation picnic.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, I love that you were, like, skinny jeans Icarus. Like, that's something that generation tight.

[Robert Evans]

Why?

[Sophie Lichterman]

Why?

[James Robert Evans]

It was the way things were back then, Sophie.

[Sophie Lichterman]

I know, I know. Robert, you have to have a fun one.

[Robert Evans]

I do. I do. What's the statute of limitations on murder?

[James Robert Evans]

Not very long. Couple weeks.

[Sophie Lichterman]

You're fine, buddy. You're fine.

[Robert Evans]

No, I'll tell a splitting story, too. I got a really good one, Sophie.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Oh, good.

[Robert Evans]

So I'm in. I'm in rural northern India in this town called Rishikesh, which is where, like, it's where, like, the Beatles had their ashram. It's like a holy city. There's a lot of yoga there. You're up in, like, the Himalayan foothills. It's beautiful. The Ganges is actually, like, clean enough to swim in up there, but it's also crazy whitewater rapids. And we're going, like, whitewater rafting one day, and I grab. I buy a pair of, like, pants that are, like. It's like a long set of athletic tights or whatever like that to have on the boat. Cause, like, okay, that'll make sense. They zip. So I can keep some cash or whatever in them. And we're going down the Ganges. We're doing this whitewater raft, and we hit a calm spot, and the guide's like, okay, everybody who wants to get in the water, hop out. And I hop out, and immediately two things become clear. Number one, the quality of textiles that you purchase in a market in India, not necessarily up to the standards of a lot of other countries. Number two, the Ganges mighty river. So my pants immediately are gone, like, just instantly as soon as I get in the water, torn off by the Ganges. And then I am. So I am realizing this, that now I am naked from the waist down. We are surrounded on both sides by a very holy city, and we are heading towards the rocks. So I have to get back in the boat in fairly short order. This presents a problem because, again, as we're getting, like, buffeted around, I have to get, like, pulled up into the boat and wind up showing absolutely everything. Moving the entire side of this sacred city. So now I'm in the boat, naked from the waist down. But I come up with a plan. I do solve it. I take my shirt off and I put my legs through the armholes and I get to tie the neck hole. And I'm just wearing my pants. My shirt is pants.

[James Robert Evans]

What a sight. What a.

[Robert Evans]

We went to lunch that way.

[James Robert Evans]

There's still a restaurant there where they won't let. Robert, still.

[Robert Evans]

James, there's more than one restaurant in India I can't go back to. Yeah, yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

There's a hotel in Bangkok that neither of us can go back to.

[Robert Evans]

But no, they handle you puking in the parking lot like a trooper.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, I puke directly into my Nalgene like a considerable.

[Robert Evans]

Exactly. Like a hero. Like a hero, James.

[James Robert Evans]

And then sent a picture to Sofie.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

That was before I worked here. I sent a picture to Sophie of a Nalgene full of puke. You did?

[Sophie Lichterman]

And I was like, let's hire that guy.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

I feel like it was like 30 seconds into our relationship that I told Sophie a story about me puking. So it's fine.

[Sophie Lichterman]

It was like 15 seconds.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah. It might have been 15.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Anyways, Robert, can we get an update to the sequel of after the Revolution?

[Robert Evans]

It's done. I'm editing it. I even got edits back from my editor. I'm editing it. It should have been done so much faster. I could like bring up the fact that my dad died last year, but that's really just me trying to make you feel sorry for me and the fact that I am well past the time at which I expected to have this book done. But it is done and I'm finishing it. And you will get to read it soon. I'm sorry.

[Mia Garrison]

Good for you.

[James Robert Evans]

Good for you.

[Mia Garrison]

Robert.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Wow. Incredible. Do you plan to cover recent political developments in Canada? I feel like that's a gayer question.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah, the answer is always yes.

[Robert Evans]

The answer is yes to all of. Like, yes, we will be covering Canada.

[Mia Garrison]

I mean, especially Alberta. I've been wanting to do stuff on. On Alberta and the Conservative Party there and a few of the key figures for a while. I've, you know, we've all been busy. But yes, I should eventually do a dedicated thing again. Like. And I do occasionally. Right. Usually. Usually once or twice a year I try to get some Canada related thing.

[Robert Evans]

We've talked about Canada.

[James Robert Evans]

Garen. I. I feel like did something.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah. I mean like the Canadian election happened this year. Right. Supreme Leader Carney's Yeah. Is still. Still in power and will be for a while. But, yeah, specifically, the Alberta Conservative Party is rife with potential stories.

[Sophie Lichterman]

My recent political development in Canada that I would like to talk about is. What's his name? Dating Katy Perry.

[Mia Garrison]

Oh, God.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Because it makes me upset.

[James Robert Evans]

Wait, who?

[Mia Garrison]

That's not our problem anymore.

[James Robert Evans]

That's one famous Canadian person, is it?

[Sophie Lichterman]

It's Justin. It's just.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, that's the only famous. Jesus Christ.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Not Bieber. Trudeau.

[Mia Garrison]

Trudeau.

[James Robert Evans]

Okay.

[Robert Evans]

Still bad.

[James Robert Evans]

Still weird.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Trudeau and Katy Perry are dating.

[James Robert Evans]

Okay.

[Mia Garrison]

A match made in heaven.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Oh, they're Instagram official and the photos are upsetting.

[Robert Evans]

I do feel like this is the potential. We have a potential for, like, the one ring of couples Halloween costumes situation to happen here. And I'm excited for that.

[Mia Garrison]

But no, I'm living pretty close to Canada now, so I would like to travel up and do more Canadian stuff in the next year.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, you love Canada, Garrison. Great deal.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

As a general rule, people, if you're ever asking, hey, this major thing is happening in another country, are you guys going to cover it? The answer is probably yes, but there are. How many people are on this call? Five people. And there are, I believe, 10 countries in the world at least.

[James Robert Evans]

So many are saying more.

[Mia Garrison]

Well, every once in a while, there's a civil war and one of those splits into two. So I think there's actually 11 countries right now.

[Robert Evans]

Somewhere between five and 11 countries.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, well, ironically, when there is a civil war, there's a decent chance that I'll be traveling there in the next 12 months.

[Robert Evans]

Have a pretty broad remit here, and I do think we cover a lot of ground, but again, there's only so many people on the team and we have so many days in the week. So the answer is generally, if we think we can and have more to tell you than, like, here's an article I read. We'll try to do it, but, you know, world big US small.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

And there are other people who do excellent work on lots of things. So, like, you know, we don't have to cover everything.

[Mia Garrison]

God, I missed the trucker convoy. That was fun.

[Robert Evans]

That was a hoot. That was a goo.

[James Robert Evans]

What about Roma Diadlou? Is she still kicking around?

[Mia Garrison]

The Queen of Canada?

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, Queen of Canada.

[Robert Evans]

She got arrested recently. I don't know if she's out on bail or whatever they call it in poutine bail or whatever in Canada, but.

[James Robert Evans]

They can't arrest her, Robert, because she's the queen.

[Robert Evans]

Anyways, Notes about that. Yeah.

[Sophie Lichterman]

What's a fiction book that y' all have been reading lately? Ooh, my answer is I work too much. I haven't read any good fiction book lately.

[Mia Garrison]

I've been reading a sci fi book called Children of Time.

[Robert Evans]

Oh, good.

[Mia]

Oh, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Great guy.

[Mia Garrison]

Yes.

[James Robert Evans]

I just read Winter in Madrid because even when I'm reading fiction books, it still has to be about a Spanish Civil war.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah, so funny.

[Robert Evans]

That makes sense for you, James.

[James Robert Evans]

Load bearing element of my personality.

[Robert Evans]

I'm restarting Sirens of Titan for the first time since I was a little kid, which is Kurt Vonnegut's sci fi novel. And like everything Kurt Vonnegut wrote, one of the best to ever do it. And then I was on vacation, so I was just rereading some Warhammer books to not think about the news when I needed to look at a device.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah, I'm gonna try to take a little time off around the holidays. So if people have good fiction books to recommend me, message me on blue sky.

[Mia]

I've been listening to. Oh God. Like the entire Kate Daniel series, which is a very fun sort of urban fantasy series where they have a magic apocalypse where sometimes there's these magic waves and magic works and technology stops working, but then they just flip randomly and so technology works and magic doesn't.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, that's basically the plot line to Shadowrun. Yeah.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah.

[Mia]

And it's. It's fun. I got absolutely flashbang jump scared by one of the characters in one of the spin offs. Doing a full analysis of the whole translation debacle. If the old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters, which I was not expecting the author of.

[James Robert Evans]

This fantasy book to know about.

[Mia]

So it's a fun time. Yeah. There's were lions, there's were hyenas. It's. It's good.

[Robert Evans]

We.

[Mia]

We like to see it.

[James Robert Evans]

Cool.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Well, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll come back and continue answering some questions.

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[Sophie Lichterman]

We're back. So on that note, there's a broader question and it's favorite media from 2025 can be books, shows, movies, games, etc.

[Robert Evans]

I mean Andor is going to be up there for Me Andor Season 2.

[Mia Garrison]

Is definitely going to be hard to beat.

[Sophie Lichterman]

I really enjoyed that, that new show, the Pit, the medical show.

[Robert Evans]

Oh yeah. I've heard good things.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah. You would like.

[Sophie Lichterman]

I liked it. It made me dizzy. But. But I liked it. It was interesting. I mean we'll see how it does it in season two. But the first season I was like huh?

[Robert Evans]

I finally started watching that Smiling Friends show and that's fun. Oh cool.

[Mia Garrison]

For, for TV shows for me besides like Andorch's which is good. I, I think rehearsal season two and the. The Paramount Nazi episode.

[Robert Evans]

Season two.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mia Garrison]

Is more and more after every single day.

[Robert Evans]

Nominal.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Mia Garrison]

As well as Tim Robinson's new show Chair company which I think gets to the American conspiracy mindset better than almost anything I've seen. You know parts of that are like rival like in film.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Mia Garrison]

I still think, I still think Eddington is pretty good. It doesn't have as much like depth or humanity as like one Battle after another, which I quite enjoyed.

[Robert Evans]

I liked that a lot too. I watched the first two episodes of Chair Company and then was like, I need to wait until they are all out so I can derange myself and like stay up until dawn watching.

[Mia Garrison]

Oh, it's so good.

[Robert Evans]

That's the way I need to encounter this. But I'm excited for that.

[Mia Garrison]

I finished Chair Company now and it consistently keeps hitting.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, I don't think Tim Robinson is capable of not pleasing me at this point.

[Mia Garrison]

That's good. That's a, that's a healthy relationship.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Sophie Lichterman]

I liked on, on Netflix Adolescence that, that miniseries. That was pretty good. The acting was incredible. There's just so many things this year that were pretty decent.

[Robert Evans]

TV's been good.

[Sophie Lichterman]

TV's been good.

[Robert Evans]

Tv's been good.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah.

[Mia]

I haven't watched. I just watch. I watched Andor and nothing else. So Hades 2, great game, very fun. Yeah. Death to Kronos, et cetera, et cetera. Also, I want to talk about One of the Boys, which is a book from like the beginning of this year that we talked about in the show that's a really, really interesting, basically like sort of like a coming of age story about a trans girl who's trying to go. Who goes back to her football team. And there's a lot of really interesting stuff there about the relationship between trans femininity and masculinity and you know, the sort of like politics of sports. And it's, it's also just really fun. Has the, the best written group chats I've ever seen in any piece of media. So shit rocks. Yeah, it's, it's great. One of the Boys, Victoria Zeller.

[James Robert Evans]

It's.

[Mia]

It's fun.

[Robert Evans]

I also watched Paradise. The ostensible focus on the show is that like a Secret Service agent goes to live with a president who is retired after like, you know, how the, the detail that they stay with. And it becomes clear over the course of episode one, this isn't really a spoiler, that the President is living in an underground bunker with all of the other survivors of a catastrophe that ended the world. And so it's like all of the leadership cadre of the United States living underground in a bunker after the world has ended and then it turns into a murder mystery. It's pretty good. It's fun.

[James Robert Evans]

Nice. I don't watch much tv, but I have been enjoying sticking to the theme. I guess AK Press have a translation now of a two books that I very much enjoyed reading in other languages. One is called Zaragosa Bound, which is exclusively about the Daruti column. I think it's probably the best book I've read on the Daruti column. And Sons of Night by Antoine Jimenez, who was actually, that was not his. His birth name, but he was an Italian anarchist who fought with the international group of the Daruti column. And it's his diary. And then he later, like, in later life, was a groundskeeper at, like, the Libertarian People's Club in Marseille. And after his passing, the young people at the club found his diaries, published them, and then have these, like, incredible series of annotations. Like two thirds of the book is annotations, but it's really well done. So I like that one a lot.

[Sophie Lichterman]

I think I can answer this next one. Given how we see media companies from Disney to Conde Nast purge or otherwise censor anyone dissenting against Trump, do you fear iheartradio doing something to Cool Zone? My answer is they've never censored us in the past, so I don't see it happening in the future. But you never know.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, I mean, anything can happen. It's media. I'm on my third or fourth industry, depending on how you count it, within the digital media space. But what I'll tell you right now is that at the moment, and this has been true for almost a decade, we make them money and they in return say, keep doing what you're doing, kid. Kiddos. Buckaroos. Yeah, so, yeah, that's about as good as it ever gets in media, in journalism. So, you know, let's keep our fingers crossed.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yep. What was a piece or series Cool Zone Media put together in the past year, 2025, that you were most proud or happy to be part of? What about you, Gar?

[Mia Garrison]

Probably the piece that I'm most proud of in like, a reflective sense is the dog whistle politics episode I did. I still think that's really relevant and a useful addition to, like, our cultural dialogue around understanding dog whistles coming out of the Trump administration. And like, even still now I will see see posts with people decoding false messages in overtly like, nationalistic communications from the DHS again. And then this whole focus on, like, dog whistles versus the actual implementation of their policy, which they're already doing a few times this year. DHS has posted just very, very blatant, like, flash wave stuff. They posted a Moon man meme earlier this year. Right. And if you, if you told that to, like, me or Robber five years ago, we would have, like, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what we would.

[Robert Evans]

Have, I would have had, I would have 5150'd you like. Yeah, yeah, I would have put your ass on a 72 hour hold.

[Mia Garrison]

So like there's obvious stuff like that. Like. Yeah, no, they're, they're clearly clearly doing like intentional nods towards like online fascist memes. And then they are also just posting regular, regular sentiments of like nationalist policy that people are then reading in coded statements to. And I don't think that whole practice is super useful when they're actually implementing this stuff. And I think the sort of like anti ICE protests you see in Chicago and like in, in New York on Canal street is a way more useful way to channel frustration at the administration and like a frustration around like this nationalist immigration stuff rather than trying to, you know, look for these maybe real, maybe not coded messages on X, the everything app.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, I, I'm proud of the, the Zizian episodes that I did earlier this year. I think those were my best episodes of the year. You know, I, I'm, I'm particularly this year have done a lot more backend supporting work, but I'm continue to be extremely proud of how Ed Zitron's both show and influence in the industry that he covers has grown, especially as he's been really on the ball ahead of some of the breaking of open AI's irrational exuberance. Been really happy to play a small role in that. It's just really satisfying to stumble onto somebody and be like, oh, I think this person has some good things to say. I'm gonna try to get that out to more people and then really feel like, yeah, that was the right call. Turns out this was exactly the voice that needed to be louder in space. That just feels good. It's the kind of good feeling that you only really get in this business and it really makes up for all of the bad feelings that you also only get in this business.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah, Mia.

[Mia]

Yeah. I think I have two things. One, on sort of just a personal level, I'm really proud of the episode that I did that was sort of about Elon Musk Nazi salute, but was mostly about the way that all of our reality has been consumed by spectacle and the way that we relate to each other through, you know, through screens and through like images of media in a very, you know, this was, this was a very guided board citeacle episode. But I'm really proud of how that episode played out and how I think in a lot of ways it kind of, it kind of predicted some of what's been Happening in terms of, you know, if you look at the sort of decrease in use to social media over the last sort of year and the turn away from these social relationships that are purely mediated by images that suck and make you miserable all the time. And then the other thing that I'm really proud of is some coverage we did about the Republicans attempt in one of the previous budget fights to impose a rule that would have blocked Medicaid from covering trans healthcare. And we covered it and we helped blow it up and we helped get that killed. And that rocks.

[Mia Garrison]

I don't know.

[Mia]

It's awesome. I'm really proud of it. I'm also really proud of the Trans News Network people. Yeah. Particularly like Medicast again. And Mira Levine, who did a really great job covering that and helping stop it. And it rocks. Love to see it.

[James Robert Evans]

I think for me, still, the border stuff really, it made me really happy that last year AI went to the jungle and made a podcast. And now one of the people I met has a place to live. That's really cool. And it really makes me happy. Not just when we can shift the discourse that's cool. But also when people listen to that and then change the things that they do every day or sometimes. That's always what you want. What I want as a journalist is for people to listen and care. That's why I go to places. And so it's been really cool to see people and just to run into people engaging in, like, mutual aid at the border and then then, like them slowly realize that I'm the person that they listened to on a podcast a year ago or two years ago, whatever, is kind of funny. But, yeah, I think I'm really proud of that. And I'm proud of all the people in the second series for all the stuff that they've done.

[Sophie Lichterman]

I'm super proud of the Anti Vax America series that I commissioned Steven to do. I think it was a really good, complete project that covered the story in depth more than anyone else. So if you haven't checked that out, check it out. We're going to go to another quick break and then we'll answer a couple more questions. Sound good? Cool.

[James Robert Evans]

Yep.

[Sophie Lichterman]

We're back. All right, this question says, as we become Joker Ified. Sure.

[Mia Garrison]

As we all become Joker Ified eventually.

[Sophie Lichterman]

What did it for each of you? I mean, let's just say.

[Robert Evans]

Let's.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Let's just answer in, like, the last, like, year.

[Mia Garrison]

Sure.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Not. Not overall.

[Mia Garrison]

A recent Joker vacation inciting incident.

[Sophie Lichterman]

I can answer that. And that might also Be Carrison's. It's when we couldn't get into the DNC for Kamala Harris's speech.

[Mia Garrison]

Oh, no, that was nothing.

[Robert Evans]

To me.

[Sophie Lichterman]

That hurt. That hurt me so much. Because the DNC was so depressing. It was so depressing.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. The DNC was way worse than the RNC post.

[Mia Garrison]

DNC certainly was a joker ifying moment for me.

[Robert Evans]

It hurt Garrison. I had people reaching out to me in Portland who were worried about you after the fucking dnc.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah, no, the DNC was a joker ifying moment. I guess to piggyback off that, though, in terms of, like, a recent joker moment. Working on the, like, Democrat left wing conspiracy stuff really did a number on me.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Mia Garrison]

And just like, seeing the scale of that stuff, especially around, like, the Charlie Kirk assassination and just that whole moment definitely was like, just drilling into my head.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. Those truce tunnels that people went down.

[Mia Garrison]

The whole team could attest to this. I was getting pretty out there.

[James Robert Evans]

Garrison sustained damage.

[Robert Evans]

The uniformity of the embrace of counterfactuals is like, I don't even know what to do about it anymore. I don't feel like fact checking works.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

I feel like positing alternate facts feels bad too, because then you're just saying, well, I guess we're just openly having a lie fight. Let's all have a big lie fight. Let's see whose lies win.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah. No. And when you're trying to be the only one holding on to a life raft of truth as everyone. As everyone else is drowning and mad at you, it's like, I don't know. I don't know how to handle that.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Whenever I encounter someone who's like, you think Trump got shot in the ear? Yes, Yes, I do. Yes. In fact, I do think he got shot in the ear.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

And also, can we not. It's a year ago. Like, we're here now.

[Robert Evans]

That one is so comprehensively disappointing to me because one of the little things it reveals is that there's even among progressives on the left, this belief that, like, someone can't be injured by a gun and handle it reasonably well and not be a good person. Right.

[James Robert Evans]

So it has to have been fake.

[Robert Evans]

It had the fact that he didn't, like, panic and piss himself. It has to be fake. And it's like, no, he just, like, didn't freak out or whatever.

[Mia Garrison]

Fucking huge mind.

[Robert Evans]

She was a huge adrenaline. Have you ever been shot at it? Like, when you get. When you realize you didn't get hit, it feels awesome. Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

You Are living. You are surfing a cloud for a while there. So you're not anymore.

[Mia Garrison]

I think the insights I got from this like, left wing conspiracism like, like seizure, right? This like, is like the seizure of the left embracing this. I got one of the biggest points of clarity I was on. Like, what's happening right now? Is this like tactical flattening of. Especially after the Charlie Kirk stuff as well. Like with the right wing embracing this like, cultural cancellation strategy of trying to get people fired for saying things online, which they've tried to do before, but was done way more successfully that month. And like directed by the administration. And then the left embracing a style of conspiratorial thinking that previously was really only embraced as fully on the right. So like this, this, this flattening of tactics across the left and the right, I think has been a useful way to look at our current situation for me.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

The ICE guided missiles.

[Robert Evans]

Shit, man.

[James Robert Evans]

That fully fucking sent me. Like, as someone who's been a journalist for a while, just these outlets that you were previously kind of like. The first time I had a byline in Mother Jones, I was pumped.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

And then here they are just being like, love to know more about these missiles.

[Robert Evans]

We have it up, man. Do your job. Do your job.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Look at.

[Robert Evans]

I literally did that while I was.

[James Robert Evans]

Like waiting for a coffee or having a shit or something. Like, it took me that much time on my telephone to find that contract. Like, what is wrong with you people Again?

[Robert Evans]

It's all just fucking shibboleths and virtue signaling. Why would that be worse if ICE had guided missiles? Do you know how guided missiles work? Do you know the kind of tail that's required to make them function? Do you know the kind of like mechanical like experts that you have to have in order to like keep these things working and keep them usable? Why would ICE be more dangerous with these? It's just going to distract them from doing the thing they're already doing to hurt people. Like guided missiles do not do any. It would be just like extra trash for them to carry around.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. And they'd be as bad at using them as they are at everything else.

[Robert Evans]

And to be quite frank, the government is already using guided missiles to do war crimes via the military.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Yep.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

People who know how to use them.

[Sophie Lichterman]

The. The other. The other thing that really just. Wow. Every single time that there's a mass shooting event, which is often in this country, the fact that they have to transvestigate the person every single time.

[Robert Evans]

Oh, yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

Holy.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Is it Unnecessary. Annoying. It makes me very angry.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Very angry. Fuck me.

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God.

[Robert Evans]

Man. Just. I don't know.

[James Robert Evans]

Recently there was a wired piece about like in range tv, Carl Casado, he's had on before and the matches, the matches he hosts and like the brutality matches. Yeah. Probably 30% of the piece was reflecting on the killing of Charlie Kirk. And like nobody who goes to Karl's matches has been accused of shooting Charlie Kirk.

[Robert Evans]

No again. And the guy who shot Charlie Kirk didn't shoot him because he trained doing matches. He shot deer. And then he shot a guy in a similar way to how he'd shot deer.

[James Robert Evans]

Nor is he a trans person.

[Robert Evans]

You know what's a better practice if you're going to shoot someone at 100 something yards distance than a tactical shooting match? Shooting deer.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. Like the whole thing is just like. I know. Yeah. The discourse around mass shootings has become less helpful and more toxic.

[Robert Evans]

No, part of it's because I think there's a decent chunk of like, progressives in the left for whom, like it's immoral to actually know anything about how guns work or how shooting works or gun culture works. So you can't actually like understand what you're talking about. Which is another problem. There's a lot of problems. It's not high on the list of problems, but it annoys me.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. Maybe it pisses me off irrationally more than it should, but like, I just find that frustrating. Like, we cannot have a reasonable discourse around guns in this country.

[Robert Evans]

No, no. That ship sailed with some bullet holes in the hull.

[Sophie Lichterman]

One last serious one. What's everyone's opinion on the best implementation of dual power in the modern era? That's a MIA question.

[Mia]

I mean, how are you defining modern era?

[Mia Garrison]

I guess how are you defining dual power?

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

And how long do you have?

[Mia]

The people who've objectively done the best job of it is the Zapatistas. And they've done the best job of it in large part because they've been willing to change the structure of their systems over time as things have worked and things have not worked and as the systems that they've been using have decentralized. I don't know. And the fact that they were able to even, even under massive attack, they were able to do a massive expansion a few years ago.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah.

[Mia]

They've held out against, you know, the wrath of the Mexican state, which is one of the most violent in the world.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. I mean, I would in a similar veins talk about like the PKK and then the YPG and J In Rojava. Right. Where you had these non state groups that had connections and that had some experience doing what we might call mutual aid prior to the government's collapse and then kind of expanded that into these networks that began to mimic and replace state function in an area that about 3 million people lived in. I think that's a really, that's certainly a more important story in terms of how that kind of thing might work on a larger scale than anything that's happened up to the present point in the United States. Right.

[Mia Garrison]

Yeah, sure. I guess in less of a militaristic way, but more in like a party capacity or like political proposal capacity. Probably some of the stuff coming out of the New York City chapter of DSA the past year, which is not reflective of DSA as an entire like national organization, but specifically the New York chapter has been very, very provocative in actually doing like more like party oriented dual power.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

And obviously I think probably we should also talk some about like the different immigration defense hotlines and immigration defense reaction forces around the country that have really ramping up and doing a lot of really good and really difficult work under duress and under fire, so to speak.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. Like people have built a means, community safety.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Robert Evans]

To keep their community safe when the state has failed to keep their communities safe. Right. And sometimes it's put their communities in danger. And like, especially I think it is kind of heartwarming to me to see people who were just like straight up statist liberals. Right. Realizing that actually the cops aren't going to come and arrest ice. That's not going to fucking happen. And then being like, okay, well how do we organize the strategy that will maintain safety in our community given that this load bearing part of reality for me that cops are good has seemingly collapsed?

[Robert Evans]

And I'd say in general, James, the fact that there's a whole lot of normie people who would have. You certainly would have described them as normies a year or two ago that are now like, yeah, we gotta get rid of ice. Maybe we gotta get rid of all these cops.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah. Bill Crystal.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, Bill Crystal being on the anti ICE train, Right.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

It's not bad. I do get the first. I'm not saying like we should invite Bill Crystal to the party or whatever. I'm saying that like the fact that.

[James Robert Evans]

Blocked me on Blue sky so I can't invite him. Sad.

[Mia Garrison]

Bill Crystal's coming to the Anarchist Book Fair and it's gonna be serving vegan slop.

[Robert Evans]

Is that even a joke, Garrison? Or is that real? That could be real. Okay. But it's just in general good that a lot of people who are like where my parents were politically 20 years ago are looking out at what's happening and being like, we gotta get rid of these fucking people. Yeah, that's good. That's positive.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

I would say that that's kind of like a downstream change from what I think will be the most long term positive change from the 2020 uprisings, which is a huge number of people who hadn't thought about the cops, realized what the cops are.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Sophie Lichterman]

And to wrap it up, Robert, we got, like, multiple requests for you to do various accents.

[James Robert Evans]

Are you me?

[Robert Evans]

Various what accents?

[Sophie Lichterman]

Since so many requests for you to do various accents.

[Mia Garrison]

Okay, some Australian ones, some Boston ones. But, like, the specific areas of Boston, I think they were asking about, like. Like different, like, regional accents.

[Robert Evans]

Sure, sure.

[Mia Garrison]

And I'm sure you can just do those. Like, one, one, one.

[Robert Evans]

Oy, Evan. Sealed, boys.

[Mia Garrison]

All right, that's enough of that.

[Robert Evans]

See, is that. Thank you for listening.

[James Robert Evans]

Are we good?

[Mia Garrison]

Our Q and A episode.

[James Robert Evans]

Okay. Yeah.

[Mia Garrison]

Of It Could Happen Here.

[Robert Evans]

Nailed it.

[James Robert Evans]

Perfect. Yeah. No notes.

[Robert Evans]

I'd say we reported the news, but this was definitively not the news.

[James Robert Evans]

Yeah, we didn't do that. Yeah.

[Sophie Lichterman]

Goodbye. It Could Happen.

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[Sophie Lichterman]

Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website, coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts you can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.