Executive Disorder: Three ICE Killings, UAW Investigation, Explosive Diarrhea

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Executive Disorder: Three ICE Killings, UAW Investigation, Explosive Diarrhea"

It Could Happen Here – Cool Zone Media & iHeartPodcasts
Date: July 17, 2026
Hosts: Garrison Davis, Mia Wong, James Stout, with additional commentary from Lauren and Garrett

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Episode Overview

This episode of "It Could Happen Here" delivers a tour-de-force recap of a tumultuous week in U.S. politics and societal unraveling, covering:

• Shocking Senate shake-ups and conspiracy theories around a high-profile death
• Developments in the Trump administration’s policies, including reversals and international posturing
• An explosive segment on U.S.-Iran war escalation
• A harrowing deep dive on three recent ICE killings
• The latest union-busting maneuvers targeting UAW President Sean Fain
• A real outbreak of cyclospora (parasite) in the Midwest and public health system decay
• Brief closes on testosterone in the military and shifting Congressional votes on Israel

The hosts maintain their signature sardonic, darkly humorous tone while dissecting the week’s events.

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Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. Congressional Chaos: Life, Death, and Demonic Pacts

• Lindsey Graham dies suddenly ([02:40]-[07:50])
  • Rumors swirl as his death is described by Trump as, "a certain part of his body literally blew up" ([05:33])
  • Conspiracies follow, fueled in part by Cash Patel’s ambiguous mourning posts
  • Graham’s sister is appointed to his Senate seat; a special election looms amid general befuddlement about the process
  • Hosts snark about the grim political landscape:
    • "Mitch McConnell has entered into a pact with the demon Mephistopheles to extend his life in exchange for the death of another." – Garrison ([02:55])

2. Trump Administration: Policy (and Interview) Disasters

• Permanent Daylight Savings Legislation Passes House ([08:32])

• Hunter Biden Appears on Channel 5 Podcast with Nick Fuentes ([09:18])

  • Hosts highlight allegations and general nightmare lineup

• Gender-Affirming Care Rule Abandoned ([10:06])

  • Administration walks back plans to block funding "[This is good. This is a good thing.]" – Garrison ([10:46])
  • Ongoing subpoenas and targeting of hospitals flagged

• U.S. Targets the International Criminal Court, Led by Mark Rubio ([13:39])

  • U.S. attempts to "dismantle the ICC", citing threats to sovereignty ([14:03])
  • Rubio’s Wall Street Journal op-ed summarized: The administration fears accountability for actions ranging from deportations to military strikes

• Media Complicity: Jake Tapper’s "sniveling" Trump interview ([16:40]-[17:34])

  • "I'm a good little boy, Mr. President, please, please, please like me. I won't challenge you on anything, I swear." – Garrison ([17:27])

3. International Developments & Far-Left "Threats"

• Global Antifa Summit Called (but Confuses Allies) ([12:02])
  • Four senior ministers from 60 countries invited, majority baffled and likely to abstain
• Spain Detains U.S. Communist Heir Fergie Chambers for Extradition ([11:08])
  • Charges of money laundering, support for Hamas; hosts decry political prosecution

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4. Special Report with James Stout:

A. The Iran War Escalates ([22:29]-[25:29])

• Full breakdown of new U.S.-Iran hostilities
  • Four consecutive nights of U.S. strikes inside Iran.
  • Iran closes Strait of Hormuz, hits tankers; U.S. retaliates with “Corsair” surface drones ("picture a remote control boat...the size of a jet ski...laden with explosives" – James, [23:44])
  • Trump boasts publicly of war crimes: "Next week comes the power plants, next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants." ([25:17])

B. ICE Killings of Three Immigrants in the U.S. ([25:29]-[34:49])

• Detailed account of the killing of Juan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Maine:

  • Captured on video: "I clearly heard the victim say 'I tried to stop'..." ([26:58])
  • Family witnessed the killing; child traumatized; hosts emphasize his work authorization while noting "one's status...should not determine if they can survive driving their car." – James ([28:47])
  • ICE agent involved employed by ICE only since this year ([31:26]); officer statements are "bullshit equivocal language" ([31:44])
  • Inspector General's office’s oversight capacity is weakening in the face of rising killings ([32:17])

• Other ICE killings outlined:

  • Second victim struck by vehicle after fleeing ([33:18])
  • Lorenzo Salgado Arujo, resident of 35 years, killed in Texas ([33:33])
  • ICE now largely halting vehicle stops amidst fallout

• James closes:

  • "No three year old girl should see her father shot in the street, much less by people your taxes paid to shoot him." ([29:22])
  • "We are the people who get to decide if we want to keep living like this and we don’t have to..." ([34:28])

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5. UAW Investigation and Union Dynamics ([38:28]-[43:59])

• DOJ investigates UAW President Sean Fain ahead of re-election
  • Charges, circulated by VP Rich Boyer, tie to Gaza ceasefire advocacy
  • Recap of Fain's leftward, militant union direction and alliances with working-class candidates
  • Fain: "Let’s be clear about what’s going on here...this is what happens when you go against Corporate America and their allies." ([41:47])
  • Internal monitor Neil Barofsky allegedly holds grudge over anti-war stance; union politics dissected
  • Overview of union caucuses: "This is the first time a reform caucus had put like straight up one of their guys in charge of a major union." – Lauren ([43:05])

---

6. Public Health Crisis: Cyclospora Outbreak & State Capacity Decay ([44:25]-[53:56])

• Explosive Cyclospora Outbreak in Michigan, Ohio, WV, Kentucky

  • Attributed to salad greens (advice for non-Michigan listeners: "you're probably gonna be okay")
  • Surveillance hampered by RFK Jr's firing of 10,000 public health staff; foodborne disease tracking capabilities decimated ([46:28])
  • "They cut the surveillance tracking on July 1, and one of the pathogens they were tracking was cyclospora." ([46:38])
  • Broader state and scientific incapacitation: weather balloons gone, less regulatory oversight, privatization harms compounding
  • "There are regulations that are written in the ink of lobbyists, and there are regulations that are written in the blood of workers. And the ones that are being cut right now are the ones that are written in blood." – Lauren ([49:37])

• Connection to Reagan/Bush eras:

  • Privatization and deregulation then had a different logic—leave some state capacity to serve capital.
  • Now, even basic systems that benefit the powerful are being destroyed.

---

7. Rapid Fire Closes: Testosterone Therapy and Israel Aid Vote ([54:09]-[55:14])

• Fox’s Pete Hegseth urges testosterone therapy for soldiers over 30 – anticipate bad faith "gender affirming" jokes on left and right. ([54:19])
• Congressional vote:
  • 103 Democrats vote to eliminate aid to Israel; never would have happened a few years ago; "a pretty big change" but fundamentally performative. ([54:38])
  • "Those 93 Democrats who voted against this—that’s a primary list." – Garrison ([54:50])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Mitch McConnell has entered into a pact with the demon Mephistopheles to extend his life in exchange for the death of another." – Garrison Davis ([02:55])
• "His father also had the part of body blows up condition." – Garrison Davis, riffing on Trump’s odd phrasing ([05:43])
• "I'm a good little boy, Mr. President, please, please, please like me. I've been good. I won't challenge you on anything, I swear." – Garrison Davis on Jake Tapper ([17:27])
• "No three year old girl should see her father shot in the street, much less by people your taxes paid to shoot him." – James Stout ([29:22])
• "There are regulations that are written in the ink of lobbyists, and there are regulations that are written in the blood of workers. And the ones that are being cut right now are the ones that are written in blood." – Lauren ([49:37])
• "We are the people who get to decide if we want to keep living like this and we don’t have to." – James Stout ([34:28])

---

Key Timestamps

• [02:40]–[07:50]: Lindsey Graham's death, conspiracies, successor
• [10:06]–[10:48]: Gender-affirming care rule retraction
• [11:08]–[13:39]: Detention/extradition of Fergie Chambers; Antifa summit; ICC confrontation
• [16:40]–[17:34]: Jake Tapper’s Trump interview
• [22:29]–[25:29]: James Stout on Iran war escalation
• [25:29]–[34:49]: James Stout’s ICE killings investigation
• [38:28]–[43:59]: UAW/Sean Fain DOJ investigation
• [44:25]–[53:56]: Cyclospora outbreak; crumbling regulatory capacity
• [54:09]–[55:14]: Testosterone in military; historic Israel aid vote

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Tone

Informal, darkly humorous, critical, and occasionally somber—especially in segments dealing with state violence and systemic decay.

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For Listeners

This episode offers a dense, rapid-fire survey of the American collapse as lived through summer 2026: political farce, militarism, state violence, public health erosion, and a creeping sense that even the absurd is now deadly serious. The hosts blend first-rate reporting with acerbic wit, refusing to turn away from the fury and grief of the week’s events. Anyone seeking context, critique, and camaraderie in a fraught time will find it here.

Transcript

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

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[Juliana]

Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone?

[Bill]

Juliana, maybe we can ask an actual human.

[Juliana]

Yes, because I have questions. And I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green.

[Bill]

We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana, the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

Hey, everybody. I'm Tareka Fosta Brasby.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

What's up, y'?

[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

All?

[Sheryl Swoopes]

I'm your girl, Sheryl Swoopes.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

When you tune in to a new episode of our podcast, Levels to this, you're definitely gonna get some spy CWNBA analysis.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

But we're more than just hoops, and the real conversation is what we actually bring.

[Podcast Co-host or Analyst]

It's been really, really cool seeing kind of these women just really step into their power off the court and understand that they are basketball, right? And they're not asking for permission.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

Listen to levels to this with Sheryl Swoopz and Tareka Foster brasby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Cool Zone Media]

Media.

[Garrison Davis]

This is it could happen Here. Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world, and what it means for You. I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by Mia Wong. This episode we are covering the week of July 8th to July 15th. A totally different war in Iran has started. God and ice has killed two people this week. James Stout will have a segment on that later this episode. But let's start with a few small things. Mitch McConnell has entered into a pact with the demon Mephistopheles to extend his life in exchange for the death of another. In other news, four term Senator Lindsey Graham has died following what his office calls a quote, unquote, brief and sudden illness.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

I want to, I want to take two seconds to speak ill of the ban. So I found this out from Sophie messaging us in the group chat. And I fully read the title of the article and clicked on it and I fully read the words Lindsey Graham. And my brain went, well, Obviously it's Mitch McConnell.

[Garrison Davis]

Someone made a typo or something in the headline.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

It wasn't even like I thought it was a typo. It's like fully. My brain refused to process that it was Lindsey Graham instead of Mitch McConnell.

[Garrison Davis]

What a bait and switch, though. Like an incredible, incredible week in Senate politics.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Garrison Davis]

Completely wild.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

The second thing I want to say ill of him was there's a very funny Axios thing where he's talking about how he's not going to go to the hospital and he can't die because he has to do like tariffs and then also specifically he has to do Israel, Saudi Arabia normalization.

[Garrison Davis]

He has to establish, yeah. Israel's, Israel, Saudi relations.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

This is, I, this, this is, I think how, how he should go out being remembered, which is try trying to broker an alliance between like the world's worst monarchy and like one of the world's worst democracies, two of the most evil countries in the world, like two of the top five, which is really impressive right now.

[Garrison Davis]

We're up there too.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

On Saturday night, EMS responded to a call for quote, unquote, cardiac arrest at Graham's Capitol Hill home, according to police scanner audio. And on Sunday, Graham's office announced the preliminary cause of death was a rupture of his aorta due to a hardening of his arteries. That Same day, Mitch McConnell posted a photo holding today's newspaper. On Monday, Trump went on Newsmax to say that Graham's death actually wasn't related to his artery problems and instead he died of heart complications. Quote, a certain part of his body literally blew up. Let's play the clip. You have any suspicions or worries, do you think we know the whole story about his death.

[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

Well, I think we do. We've had great doctors and they talked about, you know, a certain part of his body literally blew up. And that's a condition I believe his father had also.

[Garrison Davis]

His father also had the part of body blows up condition.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

God, I. Part of me hopes that there is a hell and that Lindsey Graham is looking up, like, in hell and seeing that this is what Donald Trump, the man who he just, like, turned his entire career into backing, is saying about him.

[Garrison Davis]

On Tuesday, Trump addressed some whirling conspiracy theories around Graham's death, whether or not he was poisoned by the Russians or other nefarious acts may have taken place. And Trump just said, quote, I know there's all sorts of conspiracy theories going around, and I think the FBI is wasting their time if they are doing that. Unquote. Now, that's in reference to a post made by Cash Patel following Graham's death, which was mostly like an ordinary, like, memorial statement, but curiously, it ended with this sentence, quote, the FBI is assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available, unquote. I think this is Patel just being a. Kind of like a moron. Yeah, I was talking. I was talking with Molly Conger about this earlier this week, and. And she said that Patel often makes kind of posts like this following, like, big national news just because he, like, is still caught in, like, the content creator mindset of just. You have to, like, comment on everything and, like, relate it back to yourself in some way. Now, the FBI did, like, go through, like, Graham's home, and, like, that's. That's pretty ordinary. But. But I think a post like this is. Yeah, I don't think indicating a larger conspiracy or foul play at work and is kind of just a. An oversight made by Patel, not really thinking about the consequences of his actions.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah. And, like, part of the consequences is that, like, a huge portion of the right is convinced that he was killed by some nebulous force. There's like 5,000 different unhinged theories as to who killed him or whatever. But, like, no, he's just old.

[Garrison Davis]

No, his body just literally blew up. Now, following Lindsey Graham's death, his sister, Darlene Graham Norton was appointed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to serve the remainder of Graham's term, which ends in January. I didn't know you could just do that. You can just call if. Oh, yeah, well, I. I know you. I know the governor appoints, but just calling up the dead senator's sister to be like, hey, do you want to

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

fill in There was some election where like Ellen Ashcroft lost an election to a dead guy and I think they put his spouse in office or something afterwards. So like, I guess there is precedent for this. Extremely baffling.

[Garrison Davis]

Pretty remarkable. Lindsey Graham had actually just won the Republican nomination for his fifth term. But now South Carolina will hold a special election next month to select a new nominee. Nancy Mace has thrown her hat into the ring. We'll see if anything comes to that. So week was off to a kind of an okay start, I guess. In other news, in a 308 to 117 vote, the House passed legislation to make daylight savings time permanent nationwide. The bill supported by Trump and if passed by the Senate, it would end the twice a year clock changes. Pack it up, folks. Hunter Biden sat down with Nick Fuentes on Andrew Callahan's Channel 5 podcast this week.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Oh God.

[Garrison Davis]

Legitimate nightmare blunt rotation. Yeah, I've never been on the pro Hunter Biden train.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

No.

[Garrison Davis]

Because he is obviously his interests are in no way related to mine or that of, you know, regular people. But hopefully this will stop the whole Hunter Biden Stan community online.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah. I also just want to mention because I think people don't know who this guy is or remember it, but yeah,

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

there have been a series of sexual

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

assault allegations against Andrew Callahan and also,

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

yeah, part of the nightmare blunt rotation.

[Garrison Davis]

Andrew Callahan is 100% part of Nightmare Blunt Rotation.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I just, I just, I just, I just want to make it clear that he is, this is absolutely his crowd.

[Garrison Davis]

In some better news, the Trump administration is abandoning a proposed rule change to block Medicare and Medicaid funding to hospitals that provide gender affirming care to trans youth. Over 30,000 comments were submitted following the proposal. Last December, medical groups like the American Medical association and the Children's Hospital association pushed back on the proposal. The vast majority of those 30,000 comments were against this proposed rule change. This is good. This is a good thing. This was a big threat that prompted hospitals to comply in advance and they should not have done that. And that is bad. And we still don't know if those hospitals will reinstate care.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

And they should still be pressured. And obviously the administration is still going after trans youth care specifically. They're still trying to go after patient records and are targeting specific hospitals with criminal subpoenas. Not all the subpoenas have been successful, but this is good news about this proposed rule change.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

On Friday, Fergie Chambers, self styled, quote unquote, anti imperialist, communist, multimillion dollar heir to the Cox family fortune was detained in Ibiza, Spain, under requests from the US Justice Department, who is attempting to extradite Chambers back to the States and is being charged with international money laundering with intent to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations, likely Hamas. The past few years. Chambers has donated millions to pro Palestinian causes and has been globetrotting the past few months. This is a political prosecution. Whether or not you like Chambers or disagree with parts of his politics. This is probably a bad thing and a bad sign for pro Palestinian politics across the United States.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Oh, yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Spain has like 40 days to decide if they're going to comply with the extradition request. And Chambers has a bail hearing on Thursday to see if he will remain in detention. Speaking of international far left terrorism, on Thursday, July 16, Marco Rubio will be holding an international meeting at the State Department focused on the threat of antifa and the, quote, resurgence of transnational far left terrorism, according to the Washington Post. For senior ministers from more than 60 countries were invited, though many will be unlikely to attend due to the meeting's vague aims and short notice. One European diplomat told the Washington Post they were confused as to why they were invited. Quote, we don't have antifa. Another said, quote, our law enforcement authorities have not focused on left wing terrorism because that is not considered a high priority threat in our country, unquote. The Washington Post also reported that some U.S. officials will not be attending this meeting out of growing fear that the increased targeting of far left activists may backfire on conservatives once Trump is out of office.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Live in fear, motherfuckers.

[Garrison Davis]

So we, we are recording this before this summit is going to take place. If something comes of it, we may report on it later on.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

In more Mark Rubio news, Secretary of State Mark Rubio announced on Monday that the United States is launching a campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court, which Rubio says threatens American sovereignty.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

We're not even in it. We're not even in the icc. What are we doing here?

[Garrison Davis]

Now, the ICC has, has attracted the ire of conservatives.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Ever since its inception.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Ye.

[Garrison Davis]

But this week, Rubio announced the launch of a whole of government effort that will use, quote, all the tools at our government's disposal to take on the court. Reuters reported that options being considered include travel bans, visa restrictions, increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations, and diplomatic pressure on other nations to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Rubio penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal which is behind a paywall.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Incredible.

[Garrison Davis]

Explaining, quote, why we're dismantling the International Criminal Court. And I'll quote from, from the piece here, quote. Last year major activist groups urged high ranking international officials, quote, to take immediate and meaningful action against the Trump administration's deportation of violent criminals to El Salvador. Months later, a former ICC chief prosecutor declared President Trump's strikes against narco terrorists amounted to a, quote, unquote, crime against humanity and should be treated as such under international law. A line that was echoed by United nations leaders and major leftist non governmental organizations, Democratic Party officials and politicians. In March, the Washington based Democracy for the Arab World now urged the Iranian regime to request an ICC investigation of quote, unquote, apparent war crimes committed by American personnel, unquote.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

War crimes Enjoyer hates the people who every once in a blue moon sort of do something about war crimes guys, huh?

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah. So I mean this shows that there is at least some level of fear in the Trump administration or the State Department that strikes some boats off the coast of Venezuela, disappearing immigrants into an El Salvadorian prison and strikes on civilian infrastructure and civilians in Iran could result in at least some sort of pressure being applied on the US from the icc. Rubio wants to get ahead of that in some way. Yeah, I don't think this will be very successful. The US doesn't really hold much diplomatic power right now. This is kind of posturing. This is posturing that we've seen from Republican administrations before, especially in the 2000 and tens. But I think this is interesting and worth noting. Lastly, one more small news item. Jake Tapper is a sniveling weasel, coward and fraud. On Sunday, Jake Tapper interviewed President Trump and let's take a look at his hard hitting questions.

[Jake Tapper]

Iran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. Is that true, Mr. President?

[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

It's open as far as we're concerned. Don't talk about it. Talk about the reason that you asked me to speak.

[Jake Tapper]

Okay. We appreciate your time, sir.

[Garrison Davis]

Okay.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Oh boy.

[Garrison Davis]

Incredible journalism on display at cnn. Tapper finished this quote, unquote, interview by sucking off the President just a little bit more.

[Jake Tapper]

Well, I know you don't want to talk about any other issues out of respect for Lindsey Graham, but we would love to have you back sometime because I do have a lot of other questions for you, sir.

[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

Sure, we'll do that, we'll do that. Thank you for calling to have CNN go in a normal path and we'll do that.

[Jake Tapper]

Well, I'm on a normal path right here, sir. And I appreciate your time and thank you for calling in.

[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

Okay, thanks a lot, so much.

[Garrison Davis]

I'm a good little boy. Mr. President, please, please, please like me. I've been good. I won't challenge you on anything, I swear.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

The most astonishing part of this is like, all of this, like, like sniveling, like boot licking. Didn't even get him an in person interview. This is a phone call. Like, come on.

[Garrison Davis]

I'm no fan of the man, but recently he has been appealing to Trump a lot more. And to me, it kind of seems like he's trying out for David Ellison in case the Paramount WB deal goes through and that results in Bari Weiss or someone of that ilk being put in charge of cnn. So I think that in part, Tapper is trying to demonstrate to those people that he will play ball. Whereas Cooper, Anderson Cooper has, has said if that happens, he will not work for someone like Barry Weiss. As he is left 60 minutes, which has been put under Barry Weiss's control. So he remains at cnn. That's all for our first segment. We will come back with a special report from James Stout on two ice killings and the new ish war with Iran.

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[Tareka Foster Brasby]

Hey, everybody. I'm Tareka Foster Brasby.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

What's up, y'?

[Perry Wilson]

All?

[Sheryl Swoopes]

I'm your girl, Sheryl Swoooops when you

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

tune in to a new episode of our podcast Levels to this. You're definitely gonna get some spy CWNBA analysis.

[Podcast Host or Narrator (Drilled Carbon Cowboys)]

I see a lot of men who get into the space because now it's a hot product and that grinds my gears to dust.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

But then the conversation goes on and levels up beyond basketball.

[Podcast Co-host or Analyst]

It's been really really cool seeing kind of these women just really step into their power off the court and understand that they are basketball. Right? And they're not asking for permission because

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

on Levels to this, the game is always the starting point.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

But we're more than just hoops, and the real conversation is what we actually bring.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

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[Juliana]

Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult adhd. I need to look this up. Where's my phone?

[Bill]

Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break.

[Juliana]

You know what? Maybe I should just ask ChatGPT.

[Bill]

Or maybe we can ask an actual human.

[Juliana]

Yes, like a couple sex therapist.

[Bill]

Whoa, that escalated quickly.

[Juliana]

But okay, because I have questions.

[Bill]

We have questions.

[Juliana]

And I bet everyone has questions like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that.

[Bill]

How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating?

[Juliana]

Oh, and I still do need to know, why was my poop green that one time?

[Bill]

Hypothetically. Right. Okay, well, instead of letting the Internet guess, we've got actual people answering these

[Juliana]

exact questions and laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online.

[Bill]

Listen to Bill and Juliana, the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[Garrison Davis]

Okay, we are back. Here's our segment from James Stout.

[James Stout]

Hi, everyone. It's me, James. I am calling in from Front Range in Colorado. Apologies if I sound tired. I have slept approximately three hours in the last 24. But I am joining you today to talk about two things, which you can probably guess if you follow the news at all. I want to start out with Iran, and then we're going to talk about ice. Hostilities between the USA and Iran have resumed in a new and of course totally different war that in no way requires congressional authorization. The USA carried out four consecutive nights of strikes on the day of recording, which is Wednesday. They carried those out inside Iran while Iran once again attempted to close the Strait of Hormuz, firing on ships in the strait. In addition, the Iranians have struck Qatar, which has been a mediator in talks between them and the United States as well as other countries in the region and what it perceives to be U.S. allies and assets. At the time of recording on Wednesday night, we have gone from sporadic strike to the full on beating of the drums of war. Again, the United States has returned to its previous blockade of Iran. According to centcom. CENTCOM Central Command is the the military command that covers that region. CENTCOM also used one way surface drones to strike Iranian port facilities. This is the first documented use of these Corsair drones in this capacity. If you're thinking about how to picture this in your mind, think about a remote control boat, much bigger than your average toy boat, but much smaller than a warship. Size of a jet ski maybe. And these are laden with explosives, piloted to a target and then they, they detonate, Right? That's why they're called one way. I don't prefer the term suicide drone. It's not the drone that's dying, it's people. I don't like to try to muddy the waters with that. CENTCOM and the United States are still insisting that the Strait of Hormuz is open and they've claimed that they've shot down Iranian drones. But in the past week, Iran has hit Saudi flagged tankers in a Singaporean ship, hitting at least four vessels in the strait since last week. Iran has also claimed to have sunk a St. Kitts and Nebis flagged vessel on Tuesday. And they have once again returned with full ferocity to their campaign of attacks against southern Kurdistan. And I just heard from friends in Southern Kurdistan today. I got dozens of messages of pictures of drones going overhead, drones being shot down, drones being intercepted, fires, etc. The United States, for its part, has also begun firing on ships. Today it hit the motor tanker Belma with a Hellfire missile. They claimed that they warned the vessel and it was heading in the direction of Khaeg Island. It didn't comply, so they disabled it by firing the missile into the smokestack. And for his part, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has returned to making threats of war crimes. Here's A clip.

[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

And then next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants, next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all their power plants.

[James Stout]

All right. And now we're going to move on to another really heartbreaking story. ICE has killed three Americans this week. And I'm going to start and go most in depth with the story of a 26 year old Mainer named Juan Sebastian Duran Guerrero. He was killed by ICE on Monday. Durang Guerrero was a Colombian citizen. He was in his car when agents seemed to have tried to stop him. A video released by the Portland Press Herald and shot on the scene shows Durang Guerrero's car slowly circling with agents standing on either side of the vehicle and not in its path. It appears that later ICE agents rammed the vehicle with their SUV and then shot Durang Guerrero. Further video which I just, I know I say this a lot, but like, you don't have to watch this to care. It's not a mark of how much you care or you don't care how much you traumatize yourself. You, you don't have to watch this to care with your whole heart. But video shows him pulling his body from the vehicle, throwing it on the floor and handcuffing him. There was not in the video what I perceive to be evidence of any immediate attempt to render aid. One witness has said she heard the agent yell weapon, according to Bangor Daily News. The Daily News reported that, quote, the witness said that one officer had walked away after the shooting and started to cry, but returned to the man and started administering CPR when the other officers said he has a pulse. Another witness related Guerrero saying, I tried

[Eyewitness or Reporter]

to stop and then the SUV hit him again. He tried to and then that's when he stopped. ICE agent got out, tried to open the door and had a difficult time, but eventually opened it and pulled the guy out. His face was bloody, his head was bloody. And I clearly heard the victim, him say I tried to stop. Clearly heard him say that the ICE agent that shot him walked right in front of me and of course I had emo. I was emotional and I just let him have it. And he looked at me and he said he tried to run me over or something to that effect. I don't remember his exact words. There was another ICE agent with him that was trying to comfort him and they walked away.

[James Stout]

It appears Durang Guerrero's family witnessed a shooting which is heartbreaking. Reporting in the Portland Press Herald said a woman and a young girl were holding hands and crying at the scene. She couldn't have been older than 3 said witness Portland Press Herald spoke to this. This person who spoke to them has a two year old son. I'm going to quote here from the press Herald. She was still in her bluey pajamas just minutes after a man was shot and killed reportedly by federal immigration officials who missed in that's the name of their source saw who she believes was the victim's daughter. She said the older of the two women yelled to law enforcement you took her dad. You took her dad. Durang Guerrero's father talking to noticias caracol in Colombia said el tenier mucho suenos porcomplir no se por que le y siero neso. He had so many dreams to Jace I don't know why they did this. The Maine Immigrants Rights Commission and Presente migrant advocacy organization issued a statement confirming that Durang Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. I want to be clear about this and I want to be clear about why I'm being clear about this. I guess one status or lack thereof does not matter. The agents did not know Durang Guerrero's status, it seems. Main senator Angus King, who is an independent senator, told the associate press that Durango Araro was not the target of an enforcement operation which was a revision to a statement to the contrary he'd made earlier that day. One status or lack of status should not determine if they can survive driving their car around should not determine if a little girl grows up with or without a father. But if we're going to make claims about that status, as I have seen many people do on their monetized Twitter accounts, then we should try and make them correct. So let's be clear about this. He was authorized to work in the United States and he was issued a Social Security number according to the Maine Immigrants Rights Commission and presente. That does not mean he was a resident of the United States necessarily. It does not mean he was a citizen. This can happen during the asylum process, right? We've spoken about the work permit clock. We've spoken about how problematic the work permit clock is. We've spoken about how hard it is for people to get work permits. There are other processes to which you can get a work permit in the process. But I want to be clear about this because it's important that we tell the truth and all of the truth. Right? But I also want to be clear that anybody making the claim that he was a resident is going about this wrong because his legal Status is not what you're protecting. Being a human being is what you're protecting. No three year old girl should see her father shot in the street, much less by people who your taxes paid to shoot him. And so I want to be clear about that and I guess I hope I've been clear about why I'm being clear about that. King also confirmed the agents were not wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting. With this and the killing in Houston, which I'll get to a little bit, CNN is reporting that ICE is largely stopping vehicle stops for now. The Atlantic reporting on this added quote, the officer involved in fatal shooting in Maine was hired by ICE this year from the Department of Veterans Affairs Police. According to a senior official, the officer has worked in federal law enforcement since 2017. The official said DHS issued the following statement. It's using the sort of like bullshit equivocal language that I would straight up fail someone in 100 level writing course for. But I'll read it out so you can hear what they said. On July 13, 2026 at approximately 7:00am Eastern Time, ICE was conducting a targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal. An illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle. ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon. The driver of the vehicle was struck and emergency services were immediately contacted. He passed away from his injuries. The Biddeford Police Department FBI responded to a scene. DHS OIG has been notified and like all discharge of firearms, this will be investigated. A developing situation. We will update the public when more information is available. A couple of things I want to note. They didn't say that the officer feared for his life. They did say he feared for public safety. I think we should be wary of reading too much into these statements. So they're always so vague, wishy washy and equivocal and it's just like cop speak has become almost its own language, especially in the statements that cops make after they kill someone. I do want to note that the Office of the Inspector General, right, dhs, OIG that's referred to there is one of very few DHS assets that is not getting a huge budget bump. And as the agency grows, the OIG will very much struggle to keep up, especially if ICE continues killing Americans at this rate. Indeed, the White House last month in its proposed budget proposed cutting the OIG budget so it wouldn't hold your breath for a thorough investigation if you want to learn more about the DHS OIG and how we came to have it and the long history that the DHS has, of course, preventing meaningful investigations into shootings by DHS officers. I did an episode with Jen Budd probably three years ago, and I would suggest going back and listening to that. You can buy Jen's book, too. I think she covers it there. The day after this, another young man was killed by ICE. The man was 28 years old. He was killed after ICE agents attempted to detain him. He fled and he was struck by a vehicle. This week, ICE also killed Lorenzo Salgado Arujo, a father of three who had been in the United States for 35 years. One of his sons, in a press conference said that he was aware that this was his dad when he saw a video on Facebook, which is heartbreaking, claiming in this shooting, as I have falsely in almost every shooting, that he tried to weaponize his vehicle. The agent shot him in Texas. This week, CBS reported from the Harris county attorney that he is filing for visas for witnesses in the case unless they'd be deported before they can give evidence in the case. I don't want to go into a great deal more depth about this. I guess I've seen a lot of speculation in all of these, and I might do a whole episode on it soon. I just want to take some time at the moment, I guess, for us all to. To process more grief. I did a book talk yesterday in Oakland, and we just read their names out loud and had a little moment with Edis Moranti. It was Edith's idea. It's a wonderful idea. Had a little moment to think about them at the start of the book talk there. And that was a nice thing to do. But I guess I just want to say, like, we are the people who get to decide if we want to keep living like this and we don't have to. And it's up to all of us to decide if this is the way we want to live and the way we want things to be. Yeah, I hope you can all take some time to process this and deal with it however you can.

[Emily Oster]

I'm Emily Oster. I'm an economist and data expert.

[Perry Wilson]

And I'm Perry Wilson. I'm a medical doctor.

[Emily Oster]

And this is our new podcast, Wellness

[Perry Wilson]

Actual, because you're getting a staggering amount of health and wellness information nowadays. And some of it is awesome and

[Emily Oster]

some of it is, well, actually, bull. Fortunately, we're both people who know how to read studies, parse data, and can tell you what's worth trying out and what you can safely ignore.

[Perry Wilson]

Each episode, we tackle the health news of the week and then take a deeper dive into a misunderstood health and wellness topic.

[Emily Oster]

Like what's the deal with peptide?

[Garrison Davis]

What?

[Perry Wilson]

What's the deal with GLP1s?

[Emily Oster]

What's the deal with creatine?

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

What's the deal with cupping?

[Emily Oster]

What's the deal with sleep?

[Perry Wilson]

So join us for a weekly dose of sanity. Might actually be just what the doctor

[Emily Oster]

or the economist ordered.

[Perry Wilson]

Listen to wellness actually on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

Hey, everybody. I'm Tareka Foster Brasby.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

What's up, y'?

[Sherwin Williams Sponsor]

All?

[Sheryl Swoopes]

I'm your girl, Sheryl.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Swoooo.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

When you tun to a new episode of our podcast, Levels to this, you're definitely gonna get some spy CWNBA analysis.

[Podcast Host or Narrator (Drilled Carbon Cowboys)]

I see a lot of men who get into the space because now it's a hot product, and that grinds my gears to dust.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

But then the conversation goes on and levels up beyond basketball.

[Podcast Co-host or Analyst]

It's been really, really cool seeing kind of these women just really step into their power off the court and understand that they are basketball, right? And they're not asking for permission because

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

on levels to this, the game is always the starting point.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

But we're more than just hoops, and the real conversation is what we actually bring.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

This is Levels to this, the podcast about all the levels of stuff that women go through. Listen to Levels to this with Sheryl Swoopes and Tareka Foster brasby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ad Council Narrator]

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[Sherwin Williams Sponsor]

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[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

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[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

We're so excited for tonight. Before we come over, though, may I ask if there are any unlocked guns in your home? Our guns are stored securely locked in

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

a safe that the kids can't access.

[Ad Council Narrator]

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[Juliana]

Bill. Why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult adhd. I need to look this up. Where's my phone?

[Bill]

Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break.

[Juliana]

You know what? Maybe I should just ask ChatGPT.

[Bill]

Or maybe we can Ask an actual human?

[Juliana]

Yes, like a couple sex therapist.

[Bill]

Whoa, that escalated quickly.

[Juliana]

But okay, because I have questions.

[Bill]

We have questions.

[Juliana]

And I bet everyone has questions like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that.

[Bill]

How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating?

[Juliana]

Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time?

[Bill]

Hypothetically, Right? Okay, well, instead of letting the Internet guess, we've got actual people answering these

[Juliana]

exact questions and laughing with us. This has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online.

[Bill]

Listen to Bill and Juliana, the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[Garrison Davis]

Okay, we are back. Ahead of an upcoming union election, the Department of Justice has opened a grand jury investigation into UAW President Sean Fain. Sean Fain is currently facing a challenge from UAW Vice President Rich Boyer, who years ago told the court appointed Independent Monitor that Fein, quote, acted improperly to obtain financial benefits for his fiance, unquote. Fane said in a statement, quote, let's be clear about what's going on here. Rich Boyer has fed the Monitor false allegations about me and is now trying to weaponize these bogus allegations to steal the upcoming UAW election. He knows he can't win a fair fight because he has no real platform to run on, unquote. The court appointed monitor for uaw, Neil Borofski, has clashed with Fain the past few years, ever since Fain pushed for the OAW to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, which they then did way back in 2023. At the time, the UAW was the largest union to do so, and In December of 2023, Fain gave a speech in D.C. alongside Congresswoman Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib, calling for a ceasefire and for aid to enter Gaza. Barofsky called Fain to express dissatisfaction with this resolution, and Fein claims that Barofsky called him an anti Semite. Barofsky also forwarded a letter to the union from the ADL claiming that a UAW local was anti Semitic for supporting the ceasefire. Detroit News reported that Barofsky, quote, acknowledged the matter was outside the Monitor's jurisdiction, but said he was forwarding it, quote, given the serious concerns raised here, unquote. To quote an article in the American Prospect, quote, At the UAW executive board's February 2024 meeting, members asked why Barofsky was involving himself in the union's politics, while Barofsky protested he was not really seeking a policy Change from them. Infuriated by both Barofsky's charges and his denials, Fain said, quote, for anyone to ever fucking say I'm anti Semitic, brother, I'll fight your ass in front of this building in a heartbeat. Unquote. Within weeks of that meeting, Barofsky initiated an investigation of Fein's interactions with several UAW leaders, Unquote. In Sean Fain's recent statement regarding the DOJ's investigation, he claimed, quote, neil Barofsky has a political grudge against me because the UAW took an anti war stance about what was happening in Gaza. Under Sinn Fein, the UAW has moved in a much more militant direction and has backed DSA candidates running on working class platforms in multiple states, going against some other union coalitions who were backing progressive or establishment Dems, like in New York with Claire Valdez where the UAW backed Clare and a coalition of other unions backed Antonio Reynoso. Fain has been a very effective union president who has won a lot of big contract victories. And in his statement addressing the investigation, he wrote, quote, we've accomplished more in the past three years and three months than in the previous decades. This is what happens when you go against Corporate America and their allies. And I'm not going to be intimidated or harassed out of serving our membership. Our election is in six weeks. Neil Barofsky will not run our union no matter how hard he tries. And no company sellout like Boyer is going to dictate our elections, unquote.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

I think it's worth going over here, sort of the general dynamics of union elections, which is that for, for basically every major union, largely what elections come down to, this is how the UAW was run for decades. There is usually something that's called like the administrative Caucus or the admin caucus, which tends to be the long term sort of ruling clique, I guess, of the union that it usually has held power continuously. There kind of hasn't filled power for decades. The Teamsters were like this. The UAW was like this until Sean Fane won. Shawn Fain is from. There's usually something called a reform faction who are a further left faction. And then there's also usually like a Trotskyite one that gets seven votes.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

But yeah, and you know, the sort

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

of important thing as Garrett was talking about was that this is the first time that a reform caucus had put like straight up one of their guys in charge of a major union. You can look at the Teamsters too, but like Teamsters for a Democratic union always kind of had A tenuous relationship. Ish. With their new president. And he kind of sucks in a way that Sean Fein doesn't.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Largely does not.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yeah.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

He has been the most militant of the major union leaders in the U.S. you know, like there was the strike a few years ago that we covered on the show.

[Garrison Davis]

I mean, and this is another example of DOJ weaponization.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

The Trump administration is, is going after someone who is not only securing big wins for the union, but is also involving himself in these other elections, these other social causes, like, you know, Palestine.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah. It also has been a really outspoken voice in favor of immigration.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yeah.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

And against. Yeah. The oppression of migrant workers.

[Garrison Davis]

So this is absolutely in part targeting Thane because of his opposition to a lot of the things the Trump administration is, is doing. And that opposition and support of the UAW has been helping working class candidates get into office to then oppose these things in Congress. I don't know how to segue.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Okay, I got this.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

I got this. Garrison. Don't worry, I'm a professional.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Speaking. Speaking of bowel movements in Michigan.

[Garrison Davis]

Oh, God.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Let's talk explosive diarrhea.

[Garrison Davis]

Oh, yeah, The UAW is also supporting Al Said. You're right. You're right. That is a good segue. And speaking of Michigan.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Oh, God.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Okay, so there has been a large

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

outbreak centered in Michigan of a parasite

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

called Silospora that appears to be spreading through something like fresh salad greens, although

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

the CDC is still not sure.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yes. And we'll get to, we'll, we'll get to more on why they're not sure.

[Garrison Davis]

My 4 year old diet continues to reign supreme.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

God. So I, I think it's worth noting

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

that, you know, this is something that a lot of writers have pointed out.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

There's always like small outbreaks of Silospora during the summer.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

So you'll see documents of, you know, like cases in other states that are not in the sort of group we're going to talk about in a second. And that's fairly normal. That's just, that's just sort of the, you know, that's just sort of the disease cycle.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

However, comma, there's been over 2,000 cases in Michigan and that is not normal at all. Now, this specific outbreak, from what we

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

know so far from the cdc, it seems like there is an outbreak in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. And these ones seem to actually be connected to each other, unlike the sort of disparate cases elsewhere in the country, which are just seem to kind of right now look like a little bit higher than the normal background noise of what, what you would expect in a very large country.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

If you're like in Michigan, it's maybe

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

worth not buying like bag salads. And if you're gonna buy lettuce, buy like a head of lettuce and like throw away the outside of it. If you're not in Michigan, like, don't really worry about this. Like, you're probably gonna be okay.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

But the reason I wanna talk about

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

this outbreak is that specifically it's been exacerbated at least in part, by RFK Jr's firing of 10,000 health and human services workers.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Now as a result of these cuts, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance network went

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

from tracking six pathogens to only tracking two.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

And lo and behold, okay, so this timing is genuinely a coincidence, but they cut the surveillance tracking on July 1, and one of the pathogens they were tracking was cyclospora. So this is going great. And obviously this outbreak would have happened anyways. It's not responsible to draw a direct

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

causal link from these cuts to, oh, there's this outbreak now.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

But what it has done is slow the response to it because what was

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

one of the world's best surveillance systems

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

has been absolutely gutted because they fired 10,000 people or. Well, okay, it's a combination of fired

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

and forced out and people taking like, you know, people taking some of the packages that they've been offered.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah, yeah, those, those deferred resignation Doge offers.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah, this is a very explosive example of this. But what's happening here is one manifestation of the slow crumbling of general state capacity. Right. There are a lot of regulatory agencies and a lot of scientific agencies whose, you know, budgets and staffs have been cut massively and the systems that they run are well designed enough, and the people who actually do them care about them enough that they tend not to collapse immediately. Right. That's not the sort of model of state collapse that we're sort of dealing with here. Right. It's not that everything just suddenly stops working. What happens is slowly, over time, things that we used to have, we simply don't have anymore. Along these sort of lines, one of the other slow acting symptoms of this sort of carving out of the American scientific state and its regulatory capacity is that weather predictions have gotten less accurate. And the reason they've gotten less accurate

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

is because there is a large number

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

of weather balloons that used to be deployed every single day to collect weather information that you can't get any other way that have been shut down because they just don't have the staff to run them.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

And so this is a thing we're

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

going to be seeing more and more of over the next, honestly, probably the

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

rest of our lives is that the

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

pieces of the state that were torn apart by Doge and were torn apart by RFK Jr going through, there's just going to be things that we don't think about that suddenly get worse. Right. And it's also worth noting, Right. Like, you know, something that I think you can to some extent point to for this specific outbreak is that there's been damage done to food testing that dates back to, like, the first Trump administration. Right. And when we're talking about something like food safety standards. Right. Or we're talking about workplace safety standards, it's important to understand that there are two kinds of regulations in this world. There are regulations that are written in the ink of lobbyists, and there are regulations that are written in the blood of workers. And the ones that are being cut right now are the ones that are written in blood. And so right now, we have a story that sucks, but is at least kind of silly in a bunch of explosive diarrhea. But as the state capacity continues to degrade, it's going to get more and more grim. As, you know, basic scientific and regulatory functions that we all have just come to rely on, to not eat poison every day crumble and start to fall apart.

[Garrison Davis]

Your point about there being two different types of regulations, I think is really important because people often just think of regulation as just like just this singular kind of mechanism that. That the state can deploy and.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

No, yeah, it is.

[Garrison Davis]

It is not. It's. There is regulations that will protect workers, that are achieved by workers, and there's regulations that only serve corporate interests or make things more difficult or cumbersome for workers to go about their daily lives and enjoy the public services and, like, the public goods and the infrastructure that we have, and this, this sort of like hacking away at state capacities you're talking about, which is, like, very obviously on display in. In Trump's second administration through stuff like Doge. Right. This is kind of the main project of conservatism since, like, the 70s and 80s.

[Bill]

Yeah.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Well, I think what I would also say about that, though, that there is. I think there is an important distinction between what's happening here and what's what. You know, if you look at, like Reagan, for example.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Which is like a lot of what

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

those states were doing was, you know, in an attempt to transition from the state sort of having a welfare capacity to a state just Being a purely military entity. Right.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

But those people also weren't doing this

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

kind of stuff in the sense that they weren't just like shutting down the

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

weather balloons, because even George W. Bush

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

isn't just shutting down every weather balloon he can find. Because there used to be an understanding

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

that there was supposed to be state

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

capacity in place or expanded that would help the ruling class stay in power. This is why you see the expansion of the police through this period, this massive increase in police and military budgets

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

and also why you would see, in

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

a lot of cases, you would see expansions of scientific budgets and why you wouldn't, for example, just start doing this.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

The Reagan administration did a lot of

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

replacing regulations written in blood with regulations written in ink, but they didn't just

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

gut basic scientific capacity that was useful to capital in the way that's happening here.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Look like another part of this, right. Is like it was, it was strategically important to someone like Bush and someone like Reagan that the US would maintain like a large scale scientific advantage. Right.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

So if you, if you want to do that, you don't go through and

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

just start annihilating the grant process by which all American science has done.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Right. Stuff that like those people didn't do

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

because they had a better understanding of how the American empire works.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

And these people are doing it because

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

they have bought the propaganda line about

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

what their ideology is supposed to be instead of actually executing their ideology, like

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

you know, having the sort of scientific state capacity to like fuel the corporations that their power relies on.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah. The contradictions of their project are more clearly manifest in something like this.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Whereas you know, the sort of like privatization and like the removal of like social services under Reagan still allowed, you know, government funds and involvement towards things that would help like infuse the economy in some ways in a trickle down way.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Something that really did not help a lot of, a lot of workers in the moment.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Well, they help the economy meeting corporation make more money every year. Yes.

[Garrison Davis]

Versus the sort of expansion of this privatization towards things like, yeah, we should not have the government be funding weather balloons that can be privatized instead. All these things that the private sector cannot do as well as a central government body cannot do without the backing of the central government body and scientific funding is another example of this. You know, sometimes the RFK forces or whatever will like realize that what they're doing is actually going to hurt their core driving factor, which is, which is serving capital. And they will like backtrack on some things. But it follows the sort of silicon Valley mindset as, like, move fast and break things. Then you'll learn that maybe you broke something you shouldn't have broken. But the consequence of that is that in the meantime, you have thousands of people shitting themselves.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Or worse. Or worse.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

Yeah. Amaz.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Amazing country that we've designed here. It's. It's going great. And no, no bad things are going to happen and are happening now.

[Garrison Davis]

Before we go, there's. There's two pieces of news that have dropped since recording.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Oh, boy.

[Garrison Davis]

Pete Hagseth is recommending, quote, unquote, testosterone replacement therapy.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Oh, God.

[Garrison Davis]

For soldiers age 30 and older in a video titled the High T. Department of War. So prepare for an onslaught of really bad, like, liberal jokes about how the Department of War is doing gender affirming therapy now.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Jesus Christ.

[Garrison Davis]

And about 30 minutes ago, 103 Democrats voted to eliminate aid to Israel. 96 voted against this. 10 voted present. This is a pretty big change from what a vote like this would have been a few years ago. This is still like a performative vote ultimately. Like, there's no way that this is going to pass.

[Cool Zone Media]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

But those 93 Democrats who voted against this, that is a primary list. That is a list of targets to go after anyway. I think that's the news that we reported today.

[Guest or Interviewee (possibly Donald Trump)]

Yeah.

[Juliana]

Put it.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Put a transcurl on your couch.

[Garrison Davis]

We reported the news.

[Jake Tapper]

We reported.

[Sherwin Williams Sponsor]

Reported the news.

[Cool Zone Media]

It could happen. 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 where it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening,

[Juliana]

Bill. Why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone?

[Bill]

Juliana, Maybe we can ask an actual human.

[Juliana]

Yes, because I have questions, and I bet you do, too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green.

[Bill]

We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana, the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

Hey, everybody. I'm Tareka Foster Brasby.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

What's up, y'? All? I'm your girl, Sheryl Swoops.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

When you tune in to a new episode of our podcast levels to this, you're definitely gonna get some stuff. Spy, cw, NBA analysis.

[Sheryl Swoopes]

But we're more than just hoops. And the real conversation is what we actually bring.

[Podcast Co-host or Analyst]

It's been really, really cool seeing kind of these women just really step into their power off the court and understand that they are basketball right? And they're not asking for permission.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

Listen to levels to this with Sheryl Swoopes and Tareka Foster brasby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Host or Narrator (Drilled Carbon Cowboys)]

I've been hearing for decades that the markets can solve climate change. Today, we have more incentives for market solutions than ever. And emissions are rising on this season of drilled carbon cowboys, the story of three market solutions colliding in one multinational boondoggle.

[Bill]

Got to give Bruce and the guys credit.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Garrett)]

They're Republicans. They don't give a shit about him.

[Podcast Host or Narrator (Drilled Carbon Cowboys)]

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dr. Laurie Santos]

Here at the Happiness Lab, we're serving up some hot takes for the summer. Big ideas that just might reshape how you think about your well being. Like the radical notion that we should get rid of small talk completely.

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

We talk about current events. We talk about what you do for a living.

[Garrison Davis]

But not do you love what you

[Emily Oster]

do for a living?

[Commentator or Analyst (possibly Lauren)]

Is this your dream job?

[Dr. Laurie Santos]

For more surprising ideas backed by psychological science, check out our new series, Happiness Hot Takes. Listen to the Happiness lab with me, Dr. Laurie Santos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tareka Foster Brasby]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.