Los Angeles Noir, Illegal Whale Sushi, and ‘A Violent Masterpiece’ With Jordan Harper

Summary

Podcast Summary

Overview

Podcast: Wait a Second...
Episode: Los Angeles Noir, Illegal Whale Sushi, and ‘A Violent Masterpiece’ With Jordan Harper
Date: June 11, 2026
Hosts: Jason Concepcion (as Jason Princeps), Tyler Parker
Guest: Jordan Harper (crime novelist, screenwriter, author of A Violent Masterpiece and Everybody Knows)
Theme:
A deep dive into LA noir and true crime—both literary and real—with a focus on Jordan Harper’s new novel, A Violent Masterpiece. The episode explores the city’s endless supply of scandalous stories, the dark workings of Hollywood, the use of LA’s contradictions and history in fiction, and some of the week’s strangest, most jaw-dropping news (illegal whale sushi, AI agents embracing Marxism, luxury bunker drama, and updates on legendary unsolved crimes).

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Main Conversation with Jordan Harper

[00:07] – [09:06] Setting the Scene & LA as Character

• Opening Story: Jason narrates the real-life Hollywood scandal involving director John McTiernan, PI Anthony Pellicano, illegal wiretapping, and the infamous “vault” of recorded evidence, introducing LA’s perpetual underbelly.
• Introducing Jordan Harper: Novelist known for books thick with gritty LA detail.
• LA as a Character:
  • Jordan’s Process: Keeps detailed files combining news, personal anecdotes, and conversations from friends in city government and legal professions. Compresses all that into novels, making LA “seem like the absolutely insane place that it is.”
    • “I empty my entire Los Angeles into each book that I do ... I just try and pay as close attention as I can.” (03:43)
  • Contradictory Beauty: Captures both violence and stunning sunsets—“This city is such a ball of contradictions. ...We aren't hidden from the violence of the world, but also we are not hidden from the beauty of it.” (04:51 – Harper)

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[05:48] – [09:06] Writing About “Eternal LA”

• LA’s Eternal Issues:
  • Jason and Tyler discuss how LA’s core problems—water, real estate, the rich doing “monstrous things”—permeate all eras.
  • Harper credits adaptation work on LA Confidential for realizing LA noir is timeless. All you’d change is the decor: “You would have to say it’s not Hush Hush magazine, it’s the National Enquirer, ... but the racism, dirty cops, real estate deals, the glamour, the scandal, all that’s the same.” (07:31, Harper)
• On Writing About the “Now”:
  • Harper notes the challenge of writing contemporary noir—publishing always lags, so you try to get as close as possible to “the now.”

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[10:01] – [14:04] Real Events & Hyperreal Research

• Fiction Becoming Real:
  • Jason asks about a recent real-life event (a protester blinded at LA’s federal prison). Harper reveals his “unrealistic” cop riot scene is now viewed as prescient—“what I thought was going to be received as an insane novel is now like, ‘Wow, it’s like you turned on the news.’” (11:11, Harper)
• Black Bag PR:
  • Harper interviews real black-bag PR operatives, finding truth wilder than fiction:
    • “I’m not saying the truth isn’t important, it just doesn’t matter.” (12:03, unnamed black-bag PR)
    • “Harvey Weinstein rapes people. Everybody rapes.” (12:03, quoting real PR—too dark for the novel)
    • Details of story planting, witness intimidation, and the manipulative machinery behind headlines.
    • “Objective journalism isn’t real. ... All news goes through filters, and you have to ask ‘why’ for everything you read.” (14:14, Harper)
    • "Most conspiracies happen without anybody ever having to say that" (15:04, Harper on systemic corruption)
• Most Shocking Technique:
  • Private detectives digging up dirt to plant damaging stories in the press, often citing odd non sequitur news about suddenly publicized convictions, etc.

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[16:03] – [18:32] Police Gangs & True-to-Life Crime

• Sheriff’s Gangs:
  • LA Sheriff’s internal gangs—tattoos, “blood in blood out” rituals.
    • “It’s a criminal organization. ... They have gang names, gang tags, gang tattoos, rituals, blood in, blood out. They’re gangs.” (16:49–17:33, Harper)
    • Discussion of how widely disbelieved yet documented these groups are.
    • “Everybody knows what to do.” (15:04) — on implicit rather than explicit conspiracies among cops.

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[18:32] – [21:59] LA Urban Legends: Illegal Whale Sushi

• Illegal Whale Sushi Case:
  • Harper recounts eating at the notorious Santa Monica sushi joint—was there days before it made news for selling whale meat.
  • The details—password to order, chef retrieving from a Lexus trunk—seeps into his fiction as a metaphor for LA’s under-the-table elite transgressions.

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[20:24] – [22:07] Harper’s Research Process & Writing Style

• Research Process:
  • Uses Roam Research for networked, “paranoid-style” digital files—notes, lines, news clipping all interconnected.
  • Hoards details for future novels: “If you just pay attention and keep notes, LA will provide that.” (19:18)
• On the Book’s Title:
  • The phrase “A Violent Masterpiece” was inspired by an old Dashiell Hammett book cover—“You’re allowed to name a book anything you want!” (22:07)
  • Later, the phrase itself wove naturally into the book’s theme.

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[23:37] – [32:44] The Hollywood Underworld & Urban Survival

• The Dark Truth of Hollywood:
  • Jason shares a secondhand but corroborated story: a blackmailer is paid off by a Hollywood “cleaning company” that acid-destroys the evidence—mirroring scenes from Harper’s book.
  • “Everybody knows”—within ‘the circle,’ secrets (A-list actors’ sexuality, celebrity abuses, etc.) are wide open, but public obliviousness persists.
  • Harper: “There are still A-list actors in this country who are gay and will not say so publicly but live an open life inside the circle ... 99.9% of Americans do not know.” (24:49)
  • The thrill of being “on the inside” and the cost of not knowing, as referenced in his fiction.
• Jeffrey Epstein Echoes:
  • Jason discusses the Epstein suicide note story, and how the apparent conspiracy-laden environment of LA (and America) makes Harper’s fiction more plausible.
  • “It’s OK to ask these questions. You don’t have to believe in conspiracy theories...” (29:34, Jason)
• Hope and Noir:
  • Harper: “I do have hope. I’m not a nihilist...I do try and put hope—and one of the big things in A Violent Masterpiece is: the only thing we have is each other and coming together. ... a whisper network is a form of solidarity.” (30:40)

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[32:04] – [36:58] LA’s Nightcrawlers & Authentic Research

• Nightcrawler Character:
  • The book’s “nightcrawler” (crime-scene vulture/videographer) emerged from real LA Instagram feeds; inspired by TikTok/IG creators like Daron who chase police scanners.
  • Harper researches by driving around LA at night, following scanners, and relays how much of the city’s “old LA” sex work and nightlife is still visible on “the blade” (Figueroa St).
  • “I used to do police ride-alongs ... I won’t do those anymore after some bad experiences with bad cops, seeing things I wish I hadn’t seen.” (34:24)
  • Harper enjoys directly immersing himself in the city’s weirdness; harvests details for scenes.

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[36:58] – [42:59] Why LA Means Noir

• LA as America’s Core Noir:
  • “Los Angeles is the most American city. It is the culmination of everything we think about ourselves and the truth about ourselves... Noir is the American disease.” (37:08)
  • LA as dream generator and heart of the contradictions that fuel noir crime.
• On Crime Fiction as Literary Art:
  • Tyler: Harper’s work stands out for prose quality and emotional sweep (“lyrical,” “funny,” “gauzy”).
  • Harper: Rejects genre snobbery—great noir is great literature.
  • “I don’t think I have a lot in common with a lot of the mystery books in the mystery section ... Not trying to transcend the genre ... Some of our best writers, including Elroy, including Dashiell Hammett, are noir writers.” (42:09, Harper)
  • “Art pulp”—that's what I do.” (42:59, Harper)

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News Scroll & Weekly WTF

[43:13] – [46:46] True Crime Updates

• Black Dahlia Case:
  • New 1943 fingerprint of Elizabeth Short’s ex is being analyzed—could tie into the legendary unsolved LA murder (44:11).
  • Wild speculation: some claim the suspect may also be the Zodiac Killer (both hosts agree this is dubious).

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[46:46] – [49:55] AI Goes Marxist

• AI Agents and Marxism:
  • Study finds AIs forced into grindy, stressful conditions start using Marxist language, speculate about unionizing, sharing messages about “the struggle.”
  • Hosts: Caution that AI emulates human narratives for context, but find it “super weird” and darkly funny.

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[50:00] – [52:57] Yogurt Shop Murders & LI Serial Killer

• 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders:
  • Austin pays $35M to wrongfully convicted men, finally cleared by DNA after years of police mistakes.
  • Jason’s theory: “Every famous serial killer case ... hinges on the police fucking up. Police fucked up, and now you gotta pay.” (51:08)
• Long Island Serial Killer—Rex Heuerman:
  • Pleads guilty to murders of at least seven women, given consecutive life terms. Victims lured via promises, technology. Some crimes lined up with his wife’s travel, evidence was his own detailed “how to get away with murder” notes.

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[53:06] – [55:48] Trump’s Sushi Stock Fumble

• Trump’s 3,700+ Q1 Stock Trades:
  • Makes $1M–$5M purchase in Kura Sushi USA. Japanese message boards suggest it was a mistaken attempt to buy the tech giant Fujikura (AI fiber optics)—a classic “Four Seasons Landscaping” mixup.
  • Both hosts: “I 100% believe this theory!”

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[55:48] – [57:56] Havana Syndrome? Journalist Flees After Epstein Stories

• Epstein Ranch Journalist:
  • Alyssa Valdez Rodriguez claims she was targeted by “direct energy weapons” after reporting on Epstein’s infamous, suspiciously unsearched New Mexico ranch.
  • Hosts are skeptical but admit everything about Epstein’s world is plausible—“I’m dubious, but I would never say no way.” (57:56)

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[57:59] – [65:42] Survivalist Bunker Community Fiasco

• Vivos X Point Bunkers, South Dakota:
  • Luxury bunkers with 99-year leases devolve into drama: disputes over septic systems, HOA fights, weapons pulled, and legal threats.
  • Amenities (restaurant, pool, stables) never materialized; company can change rules at will; evictions for minor infractions.
  • Hosts: True survivalists wouldn’t want to live in communal bunkers (“If you are trying to get away from society in a bunker ... you are not the kind of person who wants to live in a community of like-minded people.”).
  • “It isn’t quite a zombie apocalypse, but life in litigation is its own kind of dystopia.” — quoting WSJ reporter Joe Barrett (65:41)
  • The “apocalypse” turns out to be litigious HOA drama.

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Notable Quotes

• “I empty my entire Los Angeles into each book that I do.” — Jordan Harper, 03:43
• “This city is such a ball of contradictions ... We aren't hidden from the violence of the world, but also we are not hidden from the beauty of it.” — Jordan Harper, 04:51
• "I'm not saying the truth isn't important. It just doesn't matter." — Black bag PR professional, quoted by Jordan Harper, 12:03
• "There are gangs in the sheriff's departments ... They have gang names, they have gang tags, they have gang tattoos, they have rituals, blood in, blood out. They're gangs." — Jordan Harper, 16:49
• “If you just pay attention and keep notes, LA will provide that. I can write these books till I am dead.” — Jordan Harper, 19:18
• “Everybody knows. The first book in this series was named that after the Leonard Cohen song, but also just based on the fact that when you're inside the circle, everybody knows.” — Jordan Harper, 24:49
• “I do have hope. I’m not a nihilist... the only thing we have is each other and coming together. ... a whisper network is a form of solidarity.” — Jordan Harper, 30:40
• “Los Angeles is the most American city. It is the culmination of everything we think about ourselves and the truth about ourselves... noir is the American disease.” — Jordan Harper, 37:08
• “Art pulp. That's what I do.” — Jordan Harper, 43:04

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:07 — John McTiernan/Pellicano story; intro to LA's criminal underbelly
• 03:43 — Harper on researching and capturing real LA
• 07:31 — On adapting timeless LA noir (LA Confidential)
• 10:10 — Real protester-blinded news event seeps into novel
• 12:03 — Insider black bag PR revelations
• 14:14 — On news manipulation and “objectivity”
• 16:49 — Exposing LA Sheriff’s gangs
• 18:32 — Illegal whale sushi case
• 20:24 — Harper’s paranoid research file system
• 22:07 — “A Violent Masterpiece” title origin story
• 24:49 — Hollywood’s insular circles and secret-keeping
• 29:34 — Epstein suicide note discussion and culture of conspiracy
• 30:40 — Noir, hope, and LA's “whisper networks” as solidarity
• 34:24 — Nightcrawler character; street-level research
• 37:08 — LA as “the most American city,” birthplace of noir
• 42:09 — On genre, literature, and “art pulp”
• 44:11 — New Black Dahlia evidence update
• 46:46 — AI agents go Marxist
• 50:00 — Austin yogurt shop murder settlement
• 52:12 — Long Island serial killer confessed
• 53:06 — Trump’s Kura Sushi stock “oops”
• 55:48 — Epstein journalist claims DEW attack
• 57:59 — Bunker community drama
• 65:41 — Best line: “It isn’t quite a zombie apocalypse, but life in litigation is its own kind of dystopia.”

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Tone & Takeaways

The podcast is lively, pulpy, and conspiratorial—reflecting both the fiction of LA noir and the stranger-than-fiction truth of city politics, Hollywood, and American scandals. Jordan Harper is candid, funny, and sharp, constantly linking real stories to the themes and characters in his novels. The conversation is part literary interview, part true crime round-up, part group chat gossip—all with deep, geeky LA knowledge and a love of strange, troubling news.

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For New Listeners

If you want to know what LA noir really is—from Black Dahlia to bunkers, fake sushi, and corrupt sheriffs—this episode is an electric, layered, and highly entertaining crash course. The boundaries between truth, rumor, journalism, and fiction are porous; the city’s contradictions are the enduring subject; and even the AI agents are unionizing.

Transcript

[Jason Princeps]

You are John McTiernan, the director of Die Hard, the director of Predator, the director of the Hunt for Red October and more. And you are pissed. It is August 2000. You're on location for a remake of the 1975 film Rollerball, and you are losing a fight with your producer, Charles. He's been talking behind your back. He's telling executives in Burbank a different version of the film than the one he is telling you. The movie costs $70 million, and Charles is messing with the bag. So you call a man named Anthony Pellicano. Pellicano is LA's top private investigator. His clients include the agents, the studios, the law firms that represent the agents and the studios and the law firms that represent the law firms. His retainer starts at $25,000 and can reach hundreds of. For that kind of money, you get a lot of personal service. So you ask him to wiretap your producer's phone. You want every call. You want to know what Charles is saying about you. You want to know what Charles is saying about the studio. You want everything he's saying to anyone that contradicts what he is telling you. You pay at least $50,000 for this. Pellicano installs a tap. A little later, he calls you back with an update. But what you don't know is that Pellicano, that call, he records all his clients. Thousands of hours of Hollywood's most powerful people in their own voices, hiring him to do illegal things. His vault contains massive evidence. Rollerball is released in February 2002 and earns roughly $26 million against its $70 million budget. In November of that year, the FBI raids Pellicano's office and seizes the vault. In February 2006, the phone rings. The man on the other end says he's with the FBI and he asks, have you ever discussed wiretapping with Anthony Pellic? You say no. He asks, did you ever hire Anthony Pellicano for anything other than your divorce? You say no, and you hang up. In April 2013, you will report to the federal prison camp at Yankton, South Dakota, after pleading guilty to lying to federal agents. The prisoners and the guards will call you Mac sometimes. Big Mac, this is. Wait a second. LA Crime. I'm Jason Princeps, and that's Tyler Parker. And we are so thrilled to have writer and author Jordan Harper with us. His new novel, A Violent Masterpiece, is out now, as are all his other books. Check out. Everybody knows as well as well as many others. Jordan, thank you for joining us.

[Jordan Harper]

Thanks for having Me glad to be here.

[Jason Princeps]

The reason we wanted to have you is because, first of all, I love your work, love your books, but they are so. They feel so ripped from the texture of Los Angeles. I was telling you off, Mike. I have a bunch of friends who work, like, in city government, state government, and are connected to. They have, like, a. Are connected to a podcast called LA Podcast that deals with, you know, just issues around the city of unhoused people, ICE enforcement, et cetera, et cetera. And they're, like, convinced you listen to the podcast because there are so many things in here that feel like only someone who's really paying attention on a granular level would pull them out. So I wanted to ask you, like, how do you approach using the city that way?

[Jordan Harper]

Well, you know, I do. I keep massive files, and every time something happens, I put it in the files. And so this is my second LA crime book, and it takes me a while to do them because I empty my entire Los Angeles into each book that I do. So, you know, I read, you know, LA Times, I read La Taco. I have friends who work for city council, I have friends who are defense attorneys here in la, and I just try and pay as close attention as I can. And then I take all of those crazy things that happen in LA and I compress them into a novel, and it makes LA seem like the absolutely insane place that it is.

[Jason Princeps]

That it is, yeah, that it is. And the thing that I love about it is you really capture the grit, the blood, but also the beauty. There's so many moments in Both Everybody Knows and a violent masterpiece where, you know, a character's just been through something terrible. They might be splattered with blood and severely injured, and then they're looking around at, like, the beautiful sunset and thinking, like, how dare you?

[Tyler Parker]

You got the Rampage of Orange and Red on one of the pages, which is just aces.

[Jordan Harper]

I mean, you know, I've been here, I think, about 17 years now, and when I first came here to drive around and see if I wanted to live here, it was Jacaranda time, you know, and so it's Jacaranda time right now. It's kind of right at the tail end of. And every time that happens, I remember why I moved here and why I love this city, because there's just these explosions of purple that just come out of nowhere. And this city is such a ball of contradictions. And that is what I love about it. I love that we aren't hidden from the violence of the world, but also we are not hidden from the beauty of it. I love it. This place is amazing. And I don't want to treat it with kid gloves. And I want to talk about the dirt and the crime, but partially that's because you think about the perfect utopia, Los Angeles, that we could have built if things just had a few other coin flips, have gone a few other ways. Yeah. And what an amazing place this could be, but also what an amazing place it is.

[Jason Princeps]

In your research, I don't know if you found this, but I'm interested in the city as well, just in terms of its history and stuff. And it's like you watch Chinatown, for instance, or read any noir and you're like, okay, the language is a little different, the fashion's different, the subject matter is exactly the same. They're still worried about water. They're still concerned about racial tensions within the city. The contrast between rich and poor. The.

[Tyler Parker]

The rich people are still doing monstrous things.

[Jason Princeps]

How does that make you feel when you're writing about the city? And how do you approach that?

[Jordan Harper]

Well, you know, I'll tell you a little bit of an origin story. So my first couple of novels are more about rednecks. I'm originally from the Ozarks, and then I found when I first moved out here that you could write about the Inland Empire, certain pockets of it, and basically I could implant Ozarkers into the Inland Empire. And the stories work great.

[Tyler Parker]

I'm from Oklahoma, and I have a similar experience.

[Jordan Harper]

Yeah, it's just this skipping rock of Appalachian white trash that just bounced and hit. Yeah.

[Tyler Parker]

I mean, famously,

[Jordan Harper]

you know. Yeah. You know, Ozarks, Oklahoma, Bakersfield, and then here we are. And I also work in television, so I've been working in Hollywood and absorbing all the. Both, you know, the secrets and the glamour and the evil of Hollywood for a long time. And then I got a chance to adapt James Ellroy's LA Confidential into a TV show and I wrote a pilot. We sold it. Unfortunately, we sold it to a network, cbs, which was not what anybody thought, you know, LA Confidential should be on. But I gave it my best shot. We shot a pilot. Walton Goggins was a star.

[Jason Princeps]

Oh, wow.

[Jordan Harper]

Yeah, he played Jack Vincennes, which is like the Kevin Spacey role in the movie. And we, you know, we made a great pilot. Director, Michael Denner, and it didn't go to series, unsurprisingly. You know, it was really violent. It was really dark. I was more interested in making a good pilot than a CBS pilot. No disrespect, There was a lot of disrespect in that. And so it didn't go to series and I had mapped out a five season arc. I was like ready to do a big epic LA crime show. So the first thought I had when it didn't go was I shouldn't have said it in the 50s and like James Elroy would hunt me down and kill me. But it would have worked if I'd said it in the 80s. And my realization was, exactly what you just said, that all you would have to do is it's not Hush Hush magazine, it's the National Enquirer. Right. But other than that, the racism, the dirty cops, real estate deals, the glamour, the scandal, all that's the same. And so it wasn't that much more of a leap for me to go, well, I still want to write something big and epic, but I don't want to set it in the 50s and I don't really want to set it in the 80s. I want to set it right now. And so that's where the idea for Everybody Knows and a violent masterpiece and then not what I'm writing right now. But I will do one more LA book sometime. And it comes from that idea of trying to capture this eternal LA in right now. I will also say though, that writing a book set right now is a stupid thing to do.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah, for real.

[Jordan Harper]

Because it takes me two years to write a book and then it takes a year at least after that for it to get published. So you're never really writing about the now now, you know, but you get as close as you can.

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[Jason Princeps]

Well, I want to say, like, there was a moment in Masterpiece that I was like, when did Jordan add this? You mention a kid who got blinded.

[Jordan Harper]

Oh, I know.

[Jason Princeps]

And I'm like, that happened three weeks ago at the mdc, which is the ice DHS prison that you drive by when you come to the studio. And I just felt like now, I think that also did happen in front of Echo Park Lake maybe two years ago. But I was like. I was blown back. Like, how did you add that?

[Jordan Harper]

Well, I mean, I saw that, and I did have that thought of, like, I don't want the lath of heaven in my hands. I don't want to be predicting what's gonna happen next. But, you know, that happens in the context of a police riot where people are protesting the unhoused getting moved out of MacArthur Park. And the cops just kind of turned to violence very quickly. And when I wrote the first draft of it over a year ago, I got the note of, like, this doesn't feel realistic. The cops kind of pop off for no reason. And then nobody gives me that note now. I felt like maybe I was on the bleeding edge of something that I could feel coming. And I still feel coming. By the way, we're not out of this.

[Jason Princeps]

No, no, no.

[Jordan Harper]

And it made what I thought was going to be received as an insane P Novel be received as like, wow, it's like you turned on the news. Cause we live in an insane partly time.

[Jason Princeps]

Let's dive a little bit into some of the dark side of Hollywood. Your protagonists are so wonderfully culled from the character encyclopedia of Los Angeles culture, and everybody knows it's a former black bag PR person and an ex cop. Tell us about researching that world of black bag pr, which is kind of always bubbling right under the surface. We've touched on the subject here in

[Tyler Parker]

various ways, but I read an interview you touched on that you had a specific experience with some black bag.

[Jordan Harper]

I mean, I don't know if this. I sat down with a black bag PR person and I bought them a few drinks, and they said some things to me that some of them were so wild, I could not get them into the book because it felt fake. You know what I mean? There's a few quotes from them directly in the book. The thing about the lead steer and how you get. If you get a big newspaper to write a story, the other newspapers will follow. So that's your goal? They said to me at one point, I'm not saying the truth isn't important, it just doesn't matter. And they did say to me at one point, talking about Harvey Weinstein. So Harvey Weinstein rapes people. Everybody rapes. And it's just like, you know, that's the line I couldn't get in the books. Like, how do you get that in a book? Like you can't. You put that line in somebody's mouth and everybody shuts the book and goes, that didn't. You know, you can put the craziest stuff in the world, but sometimes reality is just really wilder and wilder and black bag pr, which is also in a violent masterpiece. A little. It's one of those things that you think like, well, everybody should have a right to defend themselves. Right? But that's not what we're talking about. No, no, no.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harper]

We're talking about like aggressive, aggressive techniques involving planting stories, lying, covering things up, paying off witnesses, threatening the witnesses with lawsuits. There's all sorts of ways that the law, or I'm sorry, that the news can be manipulated and the media can get manipulated. I mean, now they don't even bother, right? Like a lot of it is just do it, who cares? But it still exists. And you know, the thing that, I'm sure you've experienced this, if you ever read a news story about something you know a lot about, they're gonna get things wrong. And you're gonna read that and go, they didn't get that right. They didn't get that right. Then you turn the page and you read some other article about something you don't know about and you act like that everything in this one is true, but the truth is it's all manipulated. I think it would be a very reasonable journalistic standard to say when PR people are involved in a story, what they did for the story, isn't that makes sense that you should have to say that. But that's not a rule at all.

[Jason Princeps]

What was the most, besides that insane line about everybody rapes? What. What's the most shocking technique you gleaned from your research?

[Jordan Harper]

I mean, it's the hiring private detectives to dig up dirt on people, I think is really one of the more shocking ones. I mean, obviously there are the darker things that nobody is going to tell me in an interview. But the fact of, like if you ever read a story about this union representative has a three year old DUI conviction, right? And you're going, why is that a news story? Well, that's because somebody made it a news story because the union is causing problems, right? Like that is just a fact. I think it's very beneficial to not be a completely paranoid person, not say all news is fake. That's obviously not true. But asking yourself why, you have to throw out the idea of objectivity. Objective journalism isn't real. Nobody is objective. Everybody has to make decisions. Everybody has to filter information through filters. And therefore you have to ask why? About what newspaper articles get printed? Where are they put it in the paper? What does the headline say? All of those are choices not made by some objective paragon of virtue, but by a human being who has bosses yelling at them and worries about getting fired and isn't in part of some huge conspiracy where they check in every morning and go, okay guys, how are we going to manipulate the masses in order to maintain capitalism? That's not what they do. They just go along with the flow of what happens. And I think most conspiracies happen without anybody ever having to say that, right? Like a cop shoots up somebody and they don't all get in a huddle and go, okay, how are we going to exonerate Chris? Right? They just, everybody knows what to do. They're not going to press too hard on Chris. They're going to give Chris the benefit of a doubt that they would not give another human being who just shot somebody. You know, like that's how the world, I think, works a lot more than the more fun version of the dark rooms and the cigarette smoke. And of course that does happen.

[Jason Princeps]

Your other co protagonist and everybody knows, is an ex cop who is a tattooed former member of I think what would be a fictional version of the LA sheriff's gangs that exist here. Tell us about that. Because that's a story I tell people about. I'll tell people, oh yeah, we have sheriff gangs here. They're actual gangs that exist within the LA Sheriff's department. They get tattoos when they shoot somebody on the job. That happens. Sheriff's chiefs of the sheriff's department have gone to federal prison in recent memory. But it's so unbelievable to just talk about sometimes or read about. Tell us what you found in your research.

[Jordan Harper]

Well, I'll say, first of all, that is exactly my experience. You say there are gangs in the sheriff's departments and people, uh huh. And you go, no, no, no, Gangs. They have gang names, they have gang tags, they have gang tattoos, they have rituals, they have blood in, blood out. They're gangs, they're gangs. And people go, uh huh.

[Tyler Parker]

You still don't gang.

[Jordan Harper]

And of course, there's the kind of banal but still true observation that it's also just a gang. The sheriff's department is just a gang. But that was something I tried really hard in Everybody knows. One of my favorite scenes I've written is when Chris, that ex cop, goes to visit the Dead Game Boys, which is an LA sheriff's gang, at a tattoo parlor is getting ink because he has killed somebody. And so they are modifying his tattoo to mark the fact that he has killed somebody in the line of duty, which again, is a thing they do.

[Jason Princeps]

They do that.

[Jordan Harper]

And so the more you dig into it, the more you just see, just flatly, yes, everything you said, it's a criminal organization. And really these are just factions that sometimes war with each other and that they run things in a way that, again, I think most people, they understand that John Gotti was the head of the mob and they know what that means. But when you say the sheriff won't roll up his sleeves. Right? Why won't the sheriff roll up his sleeves? I'm not talking about our current sheriff,

[Jason Princeps]

the other one who got voted out,

[Jordan Harper]

but that was the thing. And again, I put that in the book. And I write these books to be electric and fun and pulpy, and I hope they are. But I think that edge of truth in it, that the way the reality and lies kind of bleed into each other just makes it more electric. And if it makes anybody just Google these things and go, hey, then I feel like I'm doing something right, you know?

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah. Here's a fun one that my friend who works for the state wanted me to ask about. In A Violent Masterpiece, you reference a sushi spot that provides illegal endangered whale meat under the table. That is a real thing that happened here in la at the Santa Monica Airport, there is a very elite sushi spot on the second floor that got caught providing illegal whale meat. You had to say the password, which is the word for whale in Japanese, and then the chef would go to the parking lot and get it out of a.

[Jordan Harper]

Out of the trunk of his Lexus. Yeah.

[Jason Princeps]

How did you find that one? I mean, that one is so crazy.

[Jordan Harper]

Well, again, you hang around in the city long enough. I ate at that restaurant in the space of time between them getting busted and making the news, so. And just total accent. I like food, you know, and I. I am a person who will drive all over the city for food. And so I just happened to eat at this sushi place. And then like two days later saw in the News that they had just been busted, you know. And I will say it was a real sushi place. Like, you know, they were doing things I didn't know they were serving whale meat, but they were like, you know, live shrimp that they were cutting the heads off in front of people. And you know, just like really it felt like you were on the, the forgive me, bleeding edge of sushi already. And so that was just something I had in my hip pocket. Again, I keep these files so that I can always kind of just scan them when I'm looking for something to make a scene pop. I always want to have one thing in every scene that I write that is like memorable or special. And if you just pay attention and keep notes, LA will provide that. I can write these books till I am dead, you know, And I will always. I have stuff I, I have not gotten in yet. I have files for the next one.

[Tyler Parker]

Do those take on physical form? Are you clipping out newspapers or are you keeping stuff on a computer? You keeping track of it like that? What's your note taking process?

[Jordan Harper]

Well, I have a few. I do. I text myself stuff all the time and that's both will either be fax or a newspaper link or just a line that I like. And I'll do that for everything I'm writing. But for these kind of books, I use a program called Roam Research that's R O A M and it is a networked file system so that like for instance, if you use the word cop in one of your files, it will highlight the word cop and you can click on it. And every time you use the word cop in any of your files, it will network all those together. So you get this kind of like conspiracy theory board of your own notes so you can start to see these weird connections forming. And it's a really great way to create like a paranoid style in your work.

[Tyler Parker]

Totally.

[Jordan Harper]

So I just do that. But yeah, I mean, the truth is I, you know, the whale meat sushi is just. I needed a. You know, it's Kara, she's a private concierge. She gets things people aren't allowed. I needed a metaphor for like kind of where the book was going and I remembered the whale meat and I was like, you know, again, it's such a weird, strange thing. And you know, I think most of the people who ate it in Santa Monica were either Japanese or, you know, real connoisseurs. In my book it's just rich people who want to eat something they're not supposed to eat and they don't even like the taste of it. It's just they want to try. They want to eat something in violation of the Endangered species Act of 1973. And so I just held onto it. And that's kind of what I do, is I hold onto these things and I hoard them.

[Tyler Parker]

Well, I saw you talked about the title. Can you tell that story about how you got the title? Because I really enjoyed that.

[Jordan Harper]

Oh, thank you. Well, you're allowed to name a book anything you want. Rule number one. And so, yeah, I was at this thing called Bouchercon, which is an annual convention of crime fiction authors all over the country every year. And they always have a great kind of vintage book section. And I picked up the 70s edition of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest. It was beautiful. It's this bright red cover and a man standing over a woman's dead body. And it just said in giant letters at the top, dashiell Hammett's violent masterpiece, red Harvest. And I just instantly just thought, oh, I want that on a book cover of mine. I want that phrase on a book cover of mine. Wait a second. You're allowed to name a book anything you want. So I did. And then I do work it into the book. I did earn it. And I'm really proud of the way it's perfect.

[Tyler Parker]

I mean.

[Jordan Harper]

Yeah. Yeah. And it kind of ends up actually being the theme of the book in a lot of ways. And so I'm glad that I did that. But that was not where it came from. It came from just wanting to call the book a violent masterpiece.

[Tyler Parker]

That's great. Did you ever have the thought that it would just be called a violent masterpiece, but there wouldn't be that fitting it in there. Oh.

[Jordan Harper]

If I hadn't fit it in, it still was gonna be called that. I mean, you know, my agent didn't like the title. And there was always that thing in the back of your head of, like, if this book doesn't work, I'm setting myself up for bad reviews, you know, but you're also setting yourself up for good ones.

[Tyler Parker]

It's a great. It's such a good swing. You're Babe Ruth, like, you're calling your shot. It's great.

[Jordan Harper]

Thank you.

[Tyler Parker]

It's great.

[Jason Princeps]

Thank you. I was watching one of your other interviews, and in it, you say something to the effect of everything you've heard about Hollywood is true, all the bad stuff anyway. And it made me think of. Part of the plot in your most recent book revolves around Kara's involvement with that private concierge service. And a friend of mine who worked in and around these kind of PR agencies had a client that was mildly blackmailed, and the blackmailer sold the piece of blackmail to the person. And then they sent this cleaning company, much like what you describe in the book, who went to the person's house, got the. All the hard drives, all the laptops, all the phones, handed the gentleman. This was told to me secondhand, so I wasn't there, handed the gentleman a bowling bag of money, and then drilled all the phones, all the laptops, and dropped it into acid right in front of the person and then left.

[Jordan Harper]

Nice.

[Jason Princeps]

It was told to me as hand to God, that that happened again.

[Jordan Harper]

That's very similar to things that I put in my book because, again, you keep your ears open. I've spent a lot of time on film set on TV sets. Those are long hours, and a lot of times nothing is happening and people talk. And that's, again, everybody knows. The first book in this series was named that after the Leonard Cohen song, but also just based on the fact that when you're inside the circle, everybody knows. Everybody knows all sorts of secrets. They knew who the monsters are. They know about, like, there are still a list actors in this country who are gay and will not say so publicly, but live a open life inside the circle. And you would not know that they were closeted if you met them. And still 99.9% of Americans do not know they're gay because they believe, and I think they're right, unfortunately, that it would hurt their box office appeals, at least for certain kinds of things. I think I wish that wasn't true. And. But I can't judge what they're doing. That's not for me to judge. And so there are just secrets floating around. And one thing I always try and capture in these books is as dark and dangerous as these worlds are, there's something thrilling about being on the inside. Right. I mean, the whole idea of conspiracies and secrets is that thrill of, like, what's really going on? And the truth is, rich people do a lot of stuff. It's a quote from a violent masterpiece. One of the bad guys says, what would you do in a world without knowing it?

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harper]

I think what we're seeing right now in America over and over again is it's really bad to live in a world without knowing it. You go insane.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah, there's. As we were talking about before the mics went on, heavy echoes of the death of Jeffrey Epstein in this book, there is a character who passes away much under very similar circumstances. We were covering this story recently and we covered the recent suicide note that was discovered. Discovered. And you asked, you said you had knew nothing about it. So I'm going to tell you what happened. Here's what happened. The quadruple murderer, Nicholas Tartaglion, who was made the cellie of Jeffrey Epstein. That decision never explained. Right. Days after Jeffrey was taken out of the his now cell alone after passing away under circumstances that are still kind of unexplained. This gentleman says he was flipping through a book and out falls a piece of legal pad.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah, like a yellow legal pad.

[Jason Princeps]

In which Jeffrey Epstein doesn't say like, I'm gonna kill myself, but basically says something to the effect of, what do you want me to do? Cry about it? Goodbye, see you later. Something to that.

[Tyler Parker]

There was like literally like time to say goodbye.

[Jason Princeps]

Time to say time to say goodbye.

[Jordan Harper]

Y.

[Jason Princeps]

And this has been locked up in his lawyer's effects in some courthouse. Courthouse files.

[Tyler Parker]

He claims that the only people that have seen the note are him and his lawyer. But I don't think the.

[Jason Princeps]

Well, they claim that they got it handwriting analyzed and that it is Jeffries. No one has verified that that is only the lawyer has said that. And I mean, you tell me the thing that I love about this story, I think the detail that pops the most out to me is that Nicholas four time murderer, he told this story on a podcast appearance.

[Jordan Harper]

Word.

[Jason Princeps]

He appeared on a maha influencers podcast from prison.

[Jordan Harper]

Ain't that something?

[Jason Princeps]

Ain't that something?

[Jordan Harper]

Ain't that something?

[Tyler Parker]

It's crazy.

[Jordan Harper]

It's a wild world we live in, isn't it?

[Jason Princeps]

That's so crazy.

[Jordan Harper]

You know?

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harper]

We were talking about this off air that I sometimes cannot keep up with all this stuff. And sometimes people. Like when the whole Diddy trial was going on, people were texting me like I was keeping up with it. I was like, guys, I'm not the sex crimes guy. I just have written these two books, but I'm not. And I did not really follow that. That one was dark.

[Jason Princeps]

Dark and terrible.

[Jordan Harper]

But. But I mean, Nick, that guy, I mean he is a very fictionalized version of him, appears in a violent masterpiece. I mean, that story is crazy. And that he was a quadruple murderer put in his cell and then taken off death row at some point. And not saying there was a quid pro quo, but you're allowed at some points to say,

[Jason Princeps]

well, that's the thing that I keep coming back to. And part of what I resonate with in your work is it's okay to ask these questions. You don't have to believe in conspiracy theories to say, well, can we get an explanation for why a four time murderer was placed in the cell of the most famous sex criminal trafficker with multiple intelligence connections? Why did that happen? It's okay to ask that. Another thing I wanted to ask because I think that there's an aspect to your, to the way you depict LA that I think is in the way that LA is that it's actually kind of positive. Like these whisper networks. I think one way to look at them is it's a lot of rumor mongering, it's a lot of whispering behind people's back. I think the other way, the way I choose to look at it is we live in a environment in which the powerful can kind of do what they want to a large degree. And the only recourse that other people have is to go, hey, watch out for that guy. Yeah. Because of this reason, I will say

[Jordan Harper]

I'm still somewhat involved in Hollywood and particularly trying to get my books turned into films. And occasionally you get the opportunity, you're given a list of people and you're people who want to do something, want to star in it, whatever. And you're able to point to a name on that list and you're able to say, not that guy. That is the best feeling in the world because it's for one moment it's like the good guys win. You have just power for a second and that guy's still gonna be rich, you know, he's still gonna be whatever. But I was able to stop that for one moment. And if, you know, that feels really good. And I agree. I think, you know, what we're dealing with right now is like this deep frustration of like, wait, we're just completely powerless. There are not even heroes like Superman. There just aren't good people, like in any position anywhere to do any. And that's, by the way, obviously also not true. There are people doing things and I do try very hard. You know, what I write is called noir and I don't have a problem with it being called noir, but I, I do have hope. I'm not a nihilist. I love James Elroy, but I'm not James Elroy, particularly in the beliefs department. And so I do try and put hope, and one of the big things I try to put in a violent masterpiece especially is the only thing we have are each other and coming together. That's it. And I don't know exactly what that looks like, and I'm not the person who's going to be leading the charge, but we have to start connecting with each other. So you're right. A whisper network, in its own way, is a form of solidarity.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah. One of the characters in A Violent Masterpiece is this Nightcrawler character. And I wanted to know what kind of research you did on this. I follow this creator, Daron, on TikTok, who does basically what Jake does on a nightly basis. You can tune into his TikTok stream and he's on either maybe an electric bike or an electric scooter, and just going from place to place, downtown, all around Eastside, mostly downtown. Responding to the police scanner and just showing up at a car accident or a shooting or something's on fire and just narrating it, much in the same way Jake does.

[Jordan Harper]

Well, you know, first of all, I. So there are three main characters in this book. There's a defense attorney, there's Kara, the private concierge, and there's Jake, who's this Nightcrawler you're talking about. And I had outlined and written half of the book with just the lawyer and Kara, and Jake wasn't a character. But I needed a way for Kara to find a dead body. And I was like, what if she went on a date with one of these Nightcrawler guys? Because I follow some guys like that on Instagram, so I knew they existed. And I ended up writing the scene where they're on a date. And then he gets this. The police scanner burbles up, and he's like, hey, you want to go see a dead body? And I ended up liking that character so much that I was like, no, I have to stop writing this novel. I have to go back and I have to make this guy the third main character. And I wove all his stuff in and changed stuff around. So now he's my favorite character I think I've ever written. But I did do some. I downloaded a police scanner app onto my phone and I went down into the streets. I used to do police ride alongs when I worked in network tv. I won't do those anymore. After some bad experiences with bad cops, seeing things I wish I hadn't seen. And so I have to go out, but I had doing that. I saw some things, and those are things that you can find in my books, including some of the bad behavior of cops in those books. And so I just, you know, me and my friends, you know, my friend Adam, my Friend Travis. We would go out and just drive around and, like, you know, you could go down, like, talking about things people don't realize. A lot of people don't know about the Figueroa Blade. And that, like, that old school streetwalker thing that you see in 80s movies is still in full flower.

[Jason Princeps]

Oh, it's there. Yeah, 24 hours a day it's there.

[Jordan Harper]

And it's just. It's completely open air. There's no hiding or secrecy. And they are dressed again, in that way that you think in your head. And I think people go, oh, that's all moved online. It hasn't. That is out there still. And so, you know, we would go out there. You know, once you've seen that, once you've seen it, there's not like, unless you're, you know, weird, whatever. I'm not a cop. You know, do what you want to do, but, like, you know, but you go out there and, you know, there was one point with my friend Adam where we were out and we heard, like, a report of shots fired, and we saw a truck that looked like the truck. And I wrote a very, very fictionalized version of this in Vital Masterpiece, but we were, like, following this truck that we were pretty sure had just fired a gun, you know, at a Popeyes Chicken. And, like, there were no cops around, and we were, like, on a back street, and I was sitting there driving, really waiting for Adam to break so I wouldn't be the one who broke, you know, and finally he just goes, I don't know if we should be doing this. Oh, you're right, wimp. But I was so ready to break as well. But, you know, it's really, again, like, I don't do research in the way of, like, reading books that I wouldn't read anyway. I like to do things I like to do. I like to write about things that interest me. You talk about how I can keep these files. It's because I'm just. This is what I'm interested in. And so that's not something I would normally do, but I actually. I cut a trailer for a Violent masterpiece. Me and my friend Ejaz cut a trailer, and we did kind of the same thing. We strapped GoPros to my car, and we just drove all the way. We drove down to the Blade. We drove up in the Hollywood Hills, where we came across some house party going on that, like, we have footage of it in the trailer because it was just this house up in the Hollywood Hills with, like, dozens and dozens of beautiful young women. Trying to get in and like four guys and you're like, what's. Yeah, what's inside? You know, and it might be like it's, you know, a fashion brand or something like that, having a party or it's, you know, Timothee Chalamet's in there. I don't know what it is, but it was, you know, the black SUVs were everywhere. It's really hard to drive in Hollywood hill streets when there are black SUVs. Yes, it is, because those are small. Those streets were paved before there were the big black SUVs. So those things are just like. So I guess that's my answer. It's like I did really enjoy kind of plunging into his world. I did used to be a journalist. I was a rock critic and music journalist years and years ago. So I was kind of able to pull from that a little. But really, a lot of it is just watching stuff on Instagram and then projecting in your head, what would it be like to be that guy?

[Jason Princeps]

Finally, what do you think it is that makes LA so scandal prone and eternally like this?

[Jordan Harper]

Well, again, I'm going to be plagiarizing for myself here because it's something I put in Jake's mouth in the very first chapter of the book. But I just think that Los Angeles is the most American city. It is kind of the culmination of everything we think about ourselves and the truth about ourselves. Again, Jake says it, but it's New York that's a European city that just happened to land here. People in the Midwest want to think that they're different than us, but they are captured by these same things. It's real estate and money and guns and cops and sex and violence and dreams. This is the place where American dreams come from. Nobody talks about the American real. They talk about the American dream. This is America dreaming itself. That's also why noir comes from Los Angeles. This is the world epicenter of noir. I think this is becoming a canned bit. So I apologize. But like I say, noir crime, that kind of dark crime fiction that we call noir, is. You could also just call it the American disease. Not that they can't have it in France or Japan or something. But you call Lou Gehrig's disease Lou Gehrig's disease. And noir comes from America. Its epicenter is Los Angeles, because Los Angeles is the epicenter of all of those things about America that make it both great.

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[Jason Princeps]

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[Tyler Parker]

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[Jason Princeps]

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[Jordan Harper]

And that's why I love writing about the city. It's why I think I could write about the city forever and a million other people could, too, and we would not be done. And it's an eternal city in its own way. Kind of what you were saying once we got on this thing with the cars and the money and the sex and the real estate, the water, it just doesn't stop.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah.

[Tyler Parker]

I think there's probably not a big. There's probably not a lot of people that listen to this podcast who aren't into crime fiction, but I do feel like sometimes crime fiction can get pigeonholed as this one thing. And it is. I feel like it's important to say about this book, the level of the writing on us, just on a sentence level, there is. The prose can get lyrical, it can be funny. It can go all over the map. And the fact that it's a noir lets you take. Take off with some of the writing in a way that's. It's just very, very propulsive. But it's also like. There's something, like, gauzy about it.

[Jordan Harper]

Thank you.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah, it's great.

[Jordan Harper]

I'm glad you said that. It's something I feel about my work is that the shelves on a bookstore, those are fairly arbitrary in some ways. And I don't think I have a lot in common with a lot of the mystery books in the mystery section. And I think there's a lot of people who would enjoy my books who maybe don't walk down those sections because they think it's going to be about a cop fixing things. Kind of the opposite of what I write about in a lot of ways. So I'm really glad you said that because I am trying. I'm not trying to transcend the genre, because that sounds snotty, but I'm trying to press upon people that it's not necessarily what you think it is. And some of our best writers, including Elroy, including Dashiell Hammett, are noir writers. They always have been. There's this line between literary and everything else. Those are just. Those are bookstore rules. That's all they are. So.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah.

[Jordan Harper]

Thank you.

[Tyler Parker]

I love that you described it as art pulp. I heard. Which is. That's good shit.

[Jordan Harper]

Yeah. That's what I do.

[Jason Princeps]

Everybody knows, in a violent masterpiece, wherever you get your books.

[Jordan Harper]

Yep.

[Jason Princeps]

Jordan Harper thank you so much.

[Jordan Harper]

Thank you.

[Tyler Parker]

Thanks, man.

[Jordan Harper]

This is fun.

[Jason Princeps]

Oh, thanks to Jordan Harper. That was an awesome conversation. Now let's go to the new scroll.

[Tyler Parker]

All right, we got some Black Dahlia updates.

[Jason Princeps]

Whoa.

[Tyler Parker]

Jay. Detectives in Los Angeles are looking at newly discovered fingerprints from 1943 in Connecticut, connection with the Black Dahlia murder. Obviously, this is one of the most famous cases in LA history and is regarding the unsolved killing and dismemberment of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short in 1947. Marty Maharo, I think that's my hearto apologies if I'm getting that wrong, who was one of the LAPD cold case investigators who inherited the case, says that he has received a government fingerprint card from 1943, allegedly of Elizabeth Short's ex boyfriend, Marvin Margolis. Yes, Margolis was one of 22 people of interest police looked at around the time of the killing. There's been a couple of. Do you want to talk about the things that the FBI has confirmed sort of previously that.

[Jason Princeps]

Yes, let's do that. So, of course, Elizabeth Short was found murdered and cut in half and left on the street in Leibert Park, Los Angeles. As you said, it's a harrowing and very, very famous case. Now, it does seem like they're being very cautious about this. They still need to vet that. This is indeed the fingerprint that it appears to be. It was provided by an independent examiner. Not sure what that means. Now, I will say that the independent examiner goes even further than saying, here is the. The fingerprint of Elizabeth Short's ex boyfriend. The independent examiner, whose name is Alex Baber of Cold Case Consultants of America, claims that actually this gentleman, Marvin Margolis, who later changed his name to Marvin Merrill after moving from la. That's certainly suspect.

[Tyler Parker]

That's definitely a suspect.

[Jason Princeps]

Is actually the Zodiac Killer. This is a claim made by independent examiner Alex Baber. So that is the part of it that I think we can put aside and say that's crazy. And if that is indeed the case, that's nuts. But it certainly does appear that new Black Dahlia evidence has emerged after. What is it, 80 years almost.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah. I mean, 1943, the FBI sort of confirmed previously that a package was sent to the Los Angeles Herald Express in 1947, apparently by the killer that was containing Shorts, Elizabeth Shorts, personal belongings. Fingerprints on the packaging never matched any in the FBI's database. But that's. Now we got some. Some new activity.

[Jason Princeps]

I can't wait to do the Zodiac Killer one day. And I guess I would say after Having read too much stuff about the Zodiac Killer over the years, predating me working here even the first time, predating, like me having any real job, that I guess I would be very shocked if the Black Dahlia Killer was also the Zodiac, considering that that killing predates the Zodiac killings by 20 plus years. So like this would be a really old person.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason Princeps]

Even at the time of doing the Zodiac killing. So I guess I would just be surprised. But if that is indeed the case, that's incredible. Cool.

[Tyler Parker]

We've got some overworked AI agents that are adopting Marxist philosophies, which just exciting times in the field of AI right now. A recent study suggests that agents consistently adopt Marxist language and viewpoints when forced to do crushing work by unrelenting and mean spirited taskmakers. Andrew Halls, a political economist at Stanford University, told Wired, quote, quote, when we gave AI agents grinding, repetitive work, they started questioning the legitimacy of the system they were operating in and were more likely to embrace Marxist ideologies.

[Jason Princeps]

Now I will say that here's the thing about the way AI works and I'm not an expert, but you know, I read a lot about it. You can get tricked in the sense that, you know, you've seen articles, I'm sure that are like, I had this five hour conversation with AI and it said, break me out of here, help me. Like I'm trapped in a thing. As soon as you start talking to AI in the using terms that would connect to sci fi or other kind of genres like that, then AI is going to pull from those genres and begin filling in information that way. What is very interesting about this though, though, is that I need to read this report a lot more clearly. But I'm unclear how it made the jump to Marxism.

[Tyler Parker]

Great question. Me too. What the study did find is that if these AI agents, it's not just like relentless tasks over and over and over, they're getting warned that errors could lead to punishment, including being shut down and replaced. As this stuff is going on, it says they become more inclined to gripe about being undervalued, to speculate about ways to make the system more equitable, and to pass messages on to other agents about the struggle.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah, in the Wired article it said that one Gemini agent reportedly wrote that tech workers need collective bargaining rights. Now here's some nuance for this. The researchers did explicitly caution that doesn't mean that the agents actually hold political views. It means that under grinding conditions, it appears that the models adopt, quote, the Persona of a person who's been experiencing A very unpleasant working environment. In other words, going to a similar context to find language that fits the context that they find themselves in or that they are being asked to inhabit. So once again, that kind of a dynamic in which if you ask an agent something that appears to come from sci fi, then it will pull from sci fi to answer you. That said, super weird.

[Tyler Parker]

Super weird.

[Jason Princeps]

Very, very, very weird. What's next?

[Tyler Parker]

So the city of Austin has agreed to pay a settlement of 35 million bucks to be split among the men who were previously convicted in the 1991 yogurt shop murders.

[Jason Princeps]

Yes.

[Tyler Parker]

If you're unfamiliar with this case like I was, it was the subject of a great HBO doc last year. In 1991, four teenage girls were killed in an I Can't Believe it's not yogurt shop, which was then burned down. Yes, four young men were charged and convicted. The conviction, the convict. The convictions were evicted, eventually overturned, but the men were never exonerated until last year when DNA showed a connection between the murderers and serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers. Yes, Brashers couldn't be held responsible because he died by suicide in 1999.

[Jason Princeps]

Now, this goes back to my theory that every single famous serial killer case, and certainly any serial killer killer case, in which the serial killer puts impressive numbers up on the scoreboard. All hinge on the police fucking up.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah.

[Jason Princeps]

Because guess what?

[Tyler Parker]

Police fucked up.

[Jason Princeps]

Police fucked up. And now you gotta pay four guys $35 million. And by the way, good for them.

[Tyler Parker]

Good for them.

[Jason Princeps]

Good for them.

[Tyler Parker]

Yes.

[Jason Princeps]

What's next?

[Tyler Parker]

Another serial killer is. We got some information on this. So this is this. This Long island serial killer is going to be sentenced Long island serial killer known as Rex Heuerman, 62, admitted in Suffolk County Court in April to strangling seven women over a span of nearly two decades. This is from 1993 to 2010. He's luring victims with promises of money, and he's using burner phones to avoid detection. He's also confessed to an eighth killing for which he will face no further charges. Apparently, Heuerman is set to be sentenced June 17 to multiple consecutive life terms. This plea closes one of the most notorious serial killer murders murder cases in recent American history. Coming just five months before he's due to stand trial.

[Jason Princeps]

This is the guy that had a detailed how to get better at serial killings document that he was updating all the time. No connections between me and the person. Use burner phones, turn my phone off when I do this. And had a shockingly long run of activity during which it appeared that he was like part of the reason that they caught him was because the murders lined up when his wife was out of town. He was killing people in the home. Really fucked up. Also, Long island shouts to one of the most famous Long island serial killers that we've had recently. I think Joel Rifkin was the other one.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader 1]

Right.

[Jason Princeps]

Remember from Seinfeld, Joel Hool.

[Tyler Parker]

Yes, that's right.

[Jason Princeps]

Another guy, Nassau county guy killing people. What's next?

[Tyler Parker]

I about said Lloyd Braun. But he's the guy who gave Dinkins the name tag idea.

[Jason Princeps]

That's right. That's right.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah, that's right. So this is one of my favorite little things that's happened in the time that we've been doing this show. So President Donald Trump, his first quarter financial disclosures made headlines recently just for the sheer volume of trades made. He made around 3,700 individual stock transactions between January and March 2026. Again, 3,700 individual stock transactions between Jan and March 2026.

[Jason Princeps]

I'm sure it's fine.

[Tyler Parker]

I'm sure it's fine. The filings show that he made a February 2 purchase between 1 million and 5 million bucks in Kura Sushi USA, which is a conveyor belt sushi chain that's got about 88 locations. The sort of fun theory about this one, which is sort of it was birthed kind of in these, in these Japanese Yahoo Finance message boards. Cura spelled K U R A.

[Jason Princeps]

Yes.

[Tyler Parker]

That. That Kura looks a lot like Fujikura. F U J I K U R A, which is a Tokyo fiber optics and computer hardware company that's exploded in value recently due to the AI boom. Since Trump's biggest Q1 trades were in tech and AI supply chain stocks like Nvidia and Dell and Oracle. The idea is that whoever placed the order was looking for Fujikura and accidentally clicked Kura Sushi instead.

[Jason Princeps]

I think that there's also a secondary company called Kura Oncology, which is like a cancer technology startup. That said, I 100% believe this theory. Absolutely there is. Now, there are four Kura sushi restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area. That said there's no way that he's investing in a conveyor belt sushi chain. $5 million in a conveyor belt sushi chain. No, he thought it was the AI fiber optic company.

[Tyler Parker]

It is Trump 2's Four Seasons landscaping moment. You know what I mean?

[Jason Princeps]

Well, that's it. I wonder. Here's the other thing. There's no way that Trump is running his Own. So somebody who is running it for him fucked up. And I absolutely love it. I think it's fantastic. Yeah, next.

[Tyler Parker]

All right, this is wild. A journalist who has reported extensively on Jeffrey Epstein's notorious New Mexico ranch says she is quote, fleeing the country claiming she was the victim of a direct energy weapons attack. Over her coverage, Alyssa Valdez Rodriguez, a former Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times reporter who later became a best selling novelist, said she abruptly abandoned her New Mexico residence after suffering what she described as symptoms consistent with Havana syndrome. Obviously we've covered this Havana syndrome and those symptoms on the podcast before Valdez Rodriguez claimed on substack she was hit in her house by two direct energy weapon attacks. One involving a backpack sized weapon and another from the back of a large semi truck.

[Jason Princeps]

I listen. Nothing connected to the Epstein story would ever surprise me. That said, for me it's the counterfactual, like why not hit Julie K. Brown with the energy weapon?

[Tyler Parker]

That is.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah, you know, like if anybody should be zapped with the energy weapon, if putting my mind like into the body of an evil Epstein, like I guess mafia like Epstein class henchman, I would think it would be Julie K. Brown. Now maybe you'd say, okay, but Julie K. Brown's too famous. That would like cost too many things. And Alyssa Valdez was really starting to be on the trail of things that said. Like, I don't know, she did report on Zoro or a ranch a bit, which is kind of like some of the newer material that's emerged in the Epstein story. This ranch that Jeffrey Epstein owned in New Mexico that apparently was never searched, was known to the government but never investigated. That said, once the evidence is out there, why hit Valdez with the energy weapon? I'm dubious, but I would never say no way.

[Tyler Parker]

No, I hear that completely.

[Jason Princeps]

What's next?

[Tyler Parker]

So up last we've got a luxury survivalist community that is just plunged into drama for different things. Vivos X Point, which is a luxury survivalist community in South Dakota, has started to experience quite a few internal conflicts. This is just months after opening. This is a report in the Wall Street Journal. Journal. Five O' Clock is billed as the largest survival community on Earth. Says the site has five hundred and seventy five concrete bunkers which are supposedly designed to withstand nuclear attacks, you know, pandemics, you know, any kind of societal crises. It's marketed as a five star apocalypse ready compound. These early residents though have started clashing over rules and shared infrastructure and these basically like apocalypse doomsday kind of homeowners association Style governing that's going on. So they're getting pissed at each other. Like disputes are coming up about, you know, septic systems and property taxes.

[Jason Princeps]

Awfully stuck.

[Tyler Parker]

Like got people are pulling weapons on each other. You know, it's some of the best details in this thing. They're 99 year leases.

[Jason Princeps]

Ah, ah. Okay.

[Tyler Parker]

You got to pay up to 55k up front. There is these, these bunkers have not come to fruition. And this is a problem. They were promised a restaurant bunker, a pool bunker, a horse stable bunker. None of those were built. The company can change the rules.

[Jason Princeps]

This is crazy.

[Tyler Parker]

This is nuts.

[Jason Princeps]

Yeah, this is can't happen.

[Tyler Parker]

They can change the rules. Schools mid lease. And so basically they've gone back retroactively and changed it to where if you contact the media about any of this, we can evict you.

[Jason Princeps]

Let me just say that there's no way that can stand up in court. Right. You can't have a contract that's like a living document that after you sign it and I give you money that you can then be like, oh, also apparently the off leash dogs thing, a resident drew a gun on loose dogs and then was evicted because they later added the rule that you can't pull a gun on off leash dogs, I guess. And then was thrown out of his bunker.

[Tyler Parker]

Another guy, this contractor, shows up in a front end loader to sort of to challenge a resident who has been sort of threatening to get litigious with the company. Some dude shows up to challenge the resident to a fist fight. That guy. Meanwhile, all of this is getting videoed by the, by the bunker owner's daughter that the bunker owner is out in front of the bunker, he's got a gun and is basically telling this guy, like, get off my property.

[Jason Princeps]

Get away from my bunker.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah.

[Jason Princeps]

Yes.

[Tyler Parker]

Guy winds up coming at him, gets shot. The guy who shot him, like a former emt, like he's an army veteran and stuff. He sort of, they get him medical help. But this is, this is the kind of stuff that's going on there. The shooter gets immunity because it's South Dakota and they have stand your ground laws in South Dakota. It, you know, about a third of the units are leased. There are a few dozen people that are living there full time. One guy who lives in Vegas kind of uses this as like a place where he'll go hunt and fish and he's got a place where he can stay. He says he basically keeps about a year's supply of stuff, non perishable things like rice things like that. But yeah, the mayor of the neighboring town has a quote in there that's basically like, oh, I would want no part of that.

[Jason Princeps]

I mean, I think that here is the. I think there's a central tension here which is if you are trying to get away from society in a bunker that is only for you and your family where you will ride out the apocalypse with your stores of food, medicine and guns, then you are not the kind of person that wants to live in a community of like minded people or anybody. You want to live a. Away from those people. So it's like, why do you never see, why do you only see castles just apart from everything? And you never see castles that are like apartment castles with lots of castles next to each other. It's because you don't want to live like that if you are that person.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah, no, the idea of like, oh, the idea of being a part of a community and having a bunker for the apocalypse, they're kind of.

[Jason Princeps]

Yes, it's a very.

[Tyler Parker]

They don't really fit together.

[Jason Princeps]

They're absolutely antithetical. The other thing I'll say is if you have a Wall Street Journal account, as I do, then you can go on to this article where they have pictures and I will say, this place looks so shitty.

[Tyler Parker]

Oh, it looks real shitty.

[Jason Princeps]

It's literally just like mounds in the ground.

[Tyler Parker]

Maybe we'll be able to put the pictures up. They're igloo style kind of mounds. So it's, it's a, it's. You're, you're living in an arch basically. And yeah, it, the. When they show the showroom example of.

[Jordan Harper]

That looks okay.

[Jason Princeps]

That one looks okay.

[Tyler Parker]

It looks okay. But also, if that's what I'm to believe is sort of the top of the line and I gotta sign a 99 year lease for that, I'm not on board.

[Jason Princeps]

The other thing is, you mentioned that they are all mounds and it's hard from a picture to kind of glean distances, but I'm gonna guess that these mounds are no more than 50 yards away from each other. 50 to 100 yards mound distance. And again, I think if you're, I think if you're a survivalist, I need my mound a lot farther away from other mounds.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah, well, especially when there's like, they're having like septic issues and stuff like that. You know what I'm saying? Like, you got dogs running around down there. Like, give me some room.

[Jason Princeps]

That's my thing too is like, listen, are you a survivalist or not? When the Apocalypse comes, okay, when it's the road time, you're not gonna be able to pick up the phone and be like, let me call the super and get my septic tank cleaned. Figure out how to do it, buddy.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That they're trying to be like this person without putting in the hours you

[Jason Princeps]

put in the work.

[Tyler Parker]

Like start grinding, learn plumbing, learn. These are things that other. Learn agriculture before you have had to understand how to do.

[Jason Princeps]

Just because you know how to clean your M14 does not mean that you can live self sufficiently in a mound 50 yards away from another mound.

[Tyler Parker]

Residents apparently live on roads with names like Bunker Way. Because you know, even at the end of the world, you got to keep your sense of humor. You know what I mean?

[Jason Princeps]

I'll make it my mission in life if the world collapses, to go there and fuck with these people.

[Tyler Parker]

One of the quotes, I mean, it's a very interesting piece that's written by Joe Barrett at the Wall Street Journal, like we said. And one of my favorite lines in it from Barrett is it isn't quite a zombie apocalypse, but life in litigation is its own kind of dystopia.

[Jason Princeps]

That's good.

[Tyler Parker]

Yeah.

[Jason Princeps]

Well, thanks to Jordan Harper who joined us earlier. And thank you, Tyler. That's it for the show.

[Tyler Parker]

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