Unf*cking The Republic

Max and 99 kick things off revisiting old predictions and check how they're holding up. They hit the headlines: billionaires breaking records, geopolitical conflict threatening economic stability, and monopoly concerns in the music industry. Listener emails cover politics, financial industry backdoors, and navigating complicity. They rank their Top 5 historical figures to reclaim, do some movie talk, and member shoutouts round it out. Enjoy!
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:18
Housekeeping: 00:00:34
Headlines: 00:21:13
Emails: 00:48:54
Top 5: 01:00:23
Beyond the Bullshit: 01:19:35
Outro: 01:43:27
Resources
Acquired: Epic Systems (MyChart)
Bloomberg: Europe Rushes to Contain Price Fallout From War in Middle East
Foreign Policy: The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy
Forbes: World’s Billionaires List
The Cut: ‘My Friends Live in a Bubble. Should I Dump Them?’
NPR: Live Nation and Justice Department reach settlement in antitrust case
Reuters: Judge tells Live Nation, state AGs to negotiate potential deal
Straight White American Jesus Podcast
John Fugelsang: Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists
Margin Call
Inside Job
Forbes: AI Minted More Than 50 New Billionaires In 2025
Matt Taibbi: Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History
Kanopy
UNFTR Resources
The End of the American Experiment.
The Clinton Series.
Phone A Friend: Zohran Mamdani.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
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Not a soul on this planet knows what comes next in the war theater. Because that’s war. But we can anticipate what comes next for the U.S. and global economy, or at least game out certain scenarios. This isn’t just another discretionary “police action” on the other side of the world or a simple regime change. This war is wired directly into the global energy, food, and financial systems. But a proper analysis must acknowledge how the circumstances of the U.S. economy and our monetary and fiscal policies have changed. There is no direct antecedent to the situation in which we find ourselves, which makes the folly of this war all the more absurd. We didn’t just launch a war. We may have just pulled the fire alarm on the entire world economy.
Resources
John J. Mearsheimer: Big Trouble Ahead in Iran
U.S. Energy Information Administration: Amid regional conflict, the Strait of Hormuz remains critical oil chokepoint
EnergyNow: CHARTED: Oil Trade Through the Strait of Hormuz by Country
Reuters: Asia’s oil and LNG dependence on the Middle East
Institute for Economics & Peace: Economic Consequences of War on the U.S. Economy
Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity: Modern Money and the War Treasury
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland: Fiscal Dominance and US Monetary: 1940–1975
UNFTR Resources
Video: Iran War Could Wreck the Entire World Economy
Essay: The Iran War Could Wreck the Global Economy.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Markwayne Mullin fails his first test. Lindsey Graham wants to blow the Iranian people. The markets are getting Blackrocked. OpenAI and Oracle have a bit of a cash crunch. Dario Amodei is full of shit. What Crude markets tell us about the war. Truth bombs from the House of El. Actual journalism on Iran from American Prestige and Dissent Magazine. ProPublica doin’ the lord’s work and Persopolis.
Chapters
Quick Takes: 00:00:36
Max Notes: 00:06:44
KLTW: 00:15:02
Headlines: 00:17:04
Pod Love: 00:18:26
Book Love: 00:19:27
Outro: 00:20:04
Resources
Bloomberg: BlackRock $26 Billion Private Credit Fund Limits Withdrawals
Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time: Charles Merrill and the Democratization of Stock Ownership
IRA Financial: Trump, Alternatives, and the Solo 401(k): The Retirement Plan That Paved the Way for Alts in 401(k)s
Bloomberg: BlackRock’s Retail Private-Credit Hopes Run Into Market’s Angst
House of El: DOLLAR COLLAPSE: Japan to DUMP $1.2T in US Treasuries After Trump Cuts 95% Oil Supply
Dissent Magazine: War, Revolt, and Iran's Unfinished Struggle
Grist: Kristi Noem all but killed FEMA. Will her departure save it?
ProPublica: Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees
ProPublica: Event: How to Use Our News App of Disclosures From Political Appointees
Pod Love
American Prestige: War in the Gulf and the Global Economy w/ Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
Book Love
Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis
UNFTR Resources
Video: On The Record (3-9-26).
Video: MTN Macro Take (3-7-26).
Episode: Trump Accounts.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the first-ever Omnibus—the show finally has a name! Max and 99 open with the weight of the moment, addressing the U.S.-backed strikes on Iran before diving into the AI-military pipeline. Off-topic headlines hit on small business closures in NYC and fighter pay in the streaming era. Listener emails cover everything from financial anxiety to the mechanics of shadow banking, and Trump finding time to pump crypto mid-war. They rank their Top 5 everyday products they can’t live without, plus fit in some movie talk and member shoutouts to close it out. Enjoy!
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:19
Housekeeping: 00:10:06
Headlines: 00:14:33
Top 5: 00:58:28
Beyond the Bullshit: 01:12:18
Memberships: 01:23:32
Outro: 01:24:07
Resources
Fast Company: Bitcoin, XRP, and other crypto prices are rising today. What Trump said on Truth Social to boost digital assets
The Verge: How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance
The Hill: OpenAI goes on defense as Anthropic surges after Pentagon fallout
The Baffler: A Fighting Chance: Going up against the UFC
Brooklyn Vegan: Long-running NYC vegan restaurant Red Bamboo is closing
Acquired: Google Part III: The AI Company
UNFTR Resources
Video: Iran War, US Empire and What The Media is Hiding
Episode: War in Iran and the Decline of the U.S. Empire.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Senator John Kennedy is a bad caricature of a southern gentleman and he masquerades around Capitol Hill as a folksy “just asking questions” kind of fella. In reality, he’s a wealthy, elite, fraud with a $20 million net worth who attended Oxford. Despite representing the poorest state in America, this Louisiana senator took his allotted time at a hearing with the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to review how poverty is calculated and take issue with it. So this is our response.
Resources
Senator John Kennedy: Kennedy questions Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on poverty data in Senate Banking Committee
USAFacts: What is the poverty rate in Louisiana?
World Population Review: Poorest U.S. States 2026
The Data Center: Health as resilience capacity in New Orleans: The critical role of community-based collaborations
Prison Gerrymandering Project: Federal Census policy harms Louisiana’s democracy — but state lawmakers can fix it
Wikipedia: John Kennedy (Louisiana politician)
Buzzfeed News: John Kennedy Is America’s Folksiest Senator. Some People Who Know Him Say It’s An Act.
Quiver Quantitative: Senator John Kennedy has filed a new financial disclosure - here’s what we see
UNFTR Resources
Video: Senator Questions Poverty Calculations | Here's Why That's INSANE
Essay: John Goober Kennedy: The Louisiana Senator Thinks Poor People Are Faking It.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.