We started Tuesday with a bang—or maybe a nervous laugh.
and I were both feeling that weird mix of existential dread and gallows humor that defines being alive in 2025. It’s the kind of morning where you joke about “a day that will live in infamy” and then realize… yeah, that might actually happen. But the caffeine was strong, the chat was lively, and Tycho the cat was already stealing the show, so off we went.Our guest today was the incomparable
, fresh off his new morning gig on the Mayday Network with Julie Roginsky and Michelle Kinney. We were supposed to talk about the CDC and Department of Education mass firings over the weekend—and we did—but as usual, we went deep. Like, “we’re probably watching the slow-motion collapse of civilization” deep.Frederic called it what it was: an act of national self-sabotage. The CDC fired more than 1,300 people—including actual “disease detectives,” the folks who identify and track new pandemics. Then the administration tried to play it off as a “glitch” when 700 of them were quietly rehired. Sure, just a glitch. Nothing to see here, except maybe the dismantling of public health in the middle of climate chaos.
We hit the economic side too: the crypto crash that looked a whole lot like 1929 with better graphics, the AI bubble that’s about to pop, and the realization that when fascists run government, they don’t just break norms—they break the systems that keep us alive. Frederic summed it up perfectly: “They’re firing the smart people and leaving the idiots in charge.”
And yet, amid all that darkness, there was this thread of humor and defiance that always creeps into our show. Dana talked about the frog protester in Portland—the one in the inflatable costume that’s somehow become a symbol of hope. We laughed about reclaiming the frog from QAnon’s grubby little hands. “Pepe who?” I joked. The frog is ours now. The Resistance has amphibians.
Somewhere between laughing about Party City saving democracy and worrying about FEMA being dismantled, we found ourselves talking about what happens next—how to build mutual aid networks, how to rely on each other when the government won’t. It was bleak, yes, but also kind of beautiful. Because if we’ve learned anything from living through this slow-motion apocalypse, it’s that community is the antidote to despair.
We wrapped on a note that could only come from The Daily Whatever Show: Dana’s dog, Kira, suddenly turned into an emotional support mystic, sensing earthquakes and offering comfort. It was oddly perfect. Because maybe the dogs do know. Maybe the earth does too.
Tomorrow, we pivot from doom to advice. Dana and I will become your friendly neighborhood agony aunts, dishing out GenX-flavored wisdom for this wildly unstable world. Send us your questions—juicy, existential, or just plain weird. Because if the CDC can glitch, maybe we all deserve a little help debugging our lives.
Thank you
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