TRASHFUTURE – UNLOCKED Ingest Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

Date: February 17, 2026
Hosts: @raaleh, @HKesvani, @milo_edwards, @inthesedeserts, @postoctobrist

Episode Overview

This bonus episode takes a typically irreverent and critical look at the psychic and physical fallout of late capitalism’s excesses. The crew begins with the discovery of heavy metals (specifically lead) in health supplements, dives into the performatively broken state of Anglophone politics, returns to their nemesis OpenAI and the AI investment bubble, and ends with a scathing and hilarious look at what it means to own a Tesla Cybertruck in 2026. All of it is done in true TRASHFUTURE fashion: absurdist, sharp, deeply internet-poisoned, and very, very funny.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Is Everyone So Stupid and Angry? (00:15–06:28)

• The hosts riff on a Consumer Reports story about high lead content in protein powders and health supplements.

  • Matt: “So it’s all lead. Apparently. It’s...just lead.” (00:15)
  • Charlie jokingly blames heavy metals for societal stupidity and anger, especially among fitness-obsessed “chuds”.
  • The idea that “being stupid and angry correlates with being obsessed with health” sets up a recurring joke about wellness culture being not just bad but toxic—literally.

• Discussion on regulatory standards:

  • California’s ultra-strict standards are mocked as “insanely woken” but also, it’s “funny and therefore I think it’s a good bit to build the opening of a comedy podcast out into.” (Charlie, 05:15)

2. The Collapse of Food & Health Regulation (06:28–08:34)

• With neoliberal cuts, food and product safety are being systematically gutted in both the US and UK.
  • Matt: “You basically just accept a certain level horrifying chemicals in all your food.”
• Riffing on the idea of the FDA as a militarized force—culminating with jokes about British Food Inspectors wielding heavy weapons.
  • Charlie: “If the British Transport police can have a mortar platoon, why can't the FDA have a weapons company? Answer me that.” (07:38)

3. “It’s All Desserts” – Skipping the Serious News (09:37–10:00)

• The hosts explain this bonus episode will sidestep the week’s “serious news” in favor of lighter, absurd material.
  • Charlie: “That’s why it’s a bonus episode—you get to feel good about something happening in the world for once, maybe.” (09:54)

4. OpenAI and the AI Bubble (10:00–21:39)

• Targets OpenAI’s business model, funding, and cultural impact.

  • Matt: “You know how we are at the center of several trillions of dollars worth of broadly worthless, rapidly depreciating energy infrastructure, data center infrastructure, excuse me, build out...”
  • Charlie: “Anything that AI says, I already know what [Ed] Zitron’s going to say about it, because he is in my head yelling at full volume.” (10:25)
  • OpenAI: 800 million users, 5% pay, $3 spent for every $1 earned.
  • Charlie: “The wrongest you can run a business, but it doesn’t matter because you’ve convinced a handful of people you’re going to make God with it.” (11:53)

• Mocking OpenAI’s desperate pivots (AI TikTok, “AI girlfriends”, soon-to-be-implemented adult content, etc.).

  • Zoe: “The OpenAI strategy has largely just been every month is sort of posting big things coming soon and then just sort of just repeating that just every month. Yeah, it's just like a SoundCloud rapper who's kind of convinced that they will get the deal one day.” (13:08)

• Criticism on tech’s failure to “deliver” miracles (curing cancer, economic growth).

  • Matt: “Now that we've been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues our product causes, Please put it in everything, by the way. Please put it in schools, please. Like, base the government on it, base the whole economy on it.” (15:14)

Notable Quote

• Charlie: “I'm gonna start sex shaming. I'm actually gonna become a sex negative feminist now. I think this shouldn't happen. Don't do that. That's wrong, actually.” (16:42)

5. The “American Century of Humiliation” & UK Political Absurdity (22:41–41:50)

• Extends the metaphor of China’s “century of humiliation” to a new “American century of humiliation”, now mirrored in the UK.

  • Matt describes a viral video where Trump humiliates Keir Starmer:
    “United Kingdom. Where's United Kingdom? Where's my friend?... Everything going good? Very good. That's very nice that you're here. These people all came on like 20, 20 minute notice and I think it's fantastic.” (24:42–24:59)

• Labour’s woes and general UK party dysfunction get lampooned, including the Greens, Reform, and the media’s complicity.

  • Charlie (re Greens): “For the longest time, I had an instinctual aversion to it because I'm a Red, I'm a communist. But maybe ... do at this point.” (26:46)

• Discussion on right-wing grievance tactics—how "being called far-right" is spun as violence/incitement.

  • Matt: “They are very clearly aiming at doing the same thing [...] they're going to justify it by saying, oh, there is a left wing terroristic threat brewing.”

• Satirical character creation riff: “Massive Bollocks” and British political media tropes. (33:09 onward)

6. Neoliberal Meltdown: Industrial Policy vs Fantasy Economics (35:07–44:40)

• Host explainer on the industrial decay of the US/UK vs China’s rise.

  • Financialization replaces real productive capacity; data centers and speculative assets stand in for factories.
  • Neoliberal logic facing material reality; fiction can no longer mask relative decline.
  • Matt: “If all of your productive capacity is directed towards fine tuning [...] imaginary things that have imaginary relationships with actual production, then ultimately the guy who makes the battery wins.” (38:19)

• The global order post-China’s WTO entry, the end of cheap labor arbitrage, and the looming impossibility of “infinite growth.”

  • Matt: “Guess what? It doesn't work anymore. That's gone.” (40:38)

7. Cybertruck Owner Interviews: The Culture War as Personal Vehicle (46:43–56:47)

• Matt reads/interprets from a recent WIRED article on what it’s like to be a Cybertruck owner.
  • Owners recount being heckled, leaving threatening notes, and in one case, tracking down a note-leaver using the truck’s cameras.
    • Charlie: “She didn’t know that my car actually has a built-in stalker mode. That means that if anyone within 50ft of it frowns, you get their Social Security number.” (48:07)
  • The most “politically homeless” Cybertruck owner turns out to be a January 6th rioter.
  • Debates about whether owning a Cybertruck is performative and if these owners secretly love the reaction.
    • Zoe: “Anyone who drives it can’t actually see anyone beneath them, which is also part of the design. It’s just, like, really sort of garish and obnoxious. It is like the thing you buy if you have loads of money and you just want to tell people to go fuck themselves.” (52:46)
  • Riffs on therapy conversations with the Cybertruck’s AI ("Aura"), and owners achieving “the presence of God” after offroading—via either stroke or climax.

Notable Quote

• Charlie: “If I see you in the cybertruck and we enter into the chess battle of the mind of, I give you a thumbs down and you start jerking off, you have bested me, you have won in that environment. You’ve beaten me in the marketplace of ideas.” (52:09)

8. Closing and Meme Explanations (56:47–End)

• Brief moment where the hosts explain the “three finger” meme from Inglourious Basterds.
  • Charlie: “We brighten your day a bit, I hope, and also teach any of you who didn’t know what that one meme from Inglourious Basterds was about.” (57:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with timestamps)

• "Lead is very dense. How do you expect me to pack on mass otherwise?" — Matt, 00:57
• "Turns out that the level of Jay Z collabs in a lot of weight gain powders is higher than anyone previously recognized." — Charlie, 02:51
• "You know, and is ultimately at the end of the movie is taken down by like a guy with an M240 on a bipod." — Charlie, 07:57
• "The wrongest you can run a business, but it doesn’t matter because you’ve convinced a handful of people you’re going to make God with it." — Charlie, 11:53
• "It’s like, guess what? We pivoted to TikTok, but that wasn’t quite hitting. So now we’re pivoting to AO3 and we’re going to cure cancer after that." — Matt, 17:22
• "Nobody must allow the creation of a British big balls." — Charlie, 32:55
• "China doesn’t have a Massive Bollocks." — Charlie, 35:07
• "If you haven’t seen the movie, you haven’t seen the movie, you know?" — Charlie, 49:06
• "You gotta ask if he’s doing what Sam Altman calls ‘a rotica’ with the truck." — Charlie, 54:36
• "If I see you in the cybertruck and we enter into the chess battle of the mind of, I give you a thumbs down and you start jerking off, you have bested me..." — Charlie, 52:09

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:15–06:28: Heavy metals and health supplements; social/mental consequences
• 10:00–21:39: The AI bubble (OpenAI, investment, “AI girlfriend” pivot)
• 22:41–41:50: UK/US humiliation, political spectacle, media figures
• 35:07–44:40: Neoliberal economic collapse, China vs the global North
• 46:43–56:47: “WIRED” Cybertruck Owner interviews
• 56:47–End: Closing jokes, meme explanations

Tone & Style

The entire episode is suffused with TRASHFUTURE’s signature blend of absurdist comedy, leftist skepticism, and satirical diagnostics of late capitalism and declining empires. Comedic exaggeration, quick-fire references, and meta-commentary abound. The hosts’ chemistry is sharp and the jokes relentless, but the critiques land with clarity for anyone tuned to 2020s business, tech, or political discourse.

For listeners: If you want a savage, surreal digest of why the Anglosphere feels so unhinged right now—this episode’s for you.