The Daily Whatever Show started today with its usual mild chaos and quickly turned into something heavier, sharper, and more emotionally grounded.
Lawrence and I were joined by Frederic Poag, back from Florida, where he attended the Central Florida Film Festival. After a few early tech hiccups and jokes about winter weather no one wanted to experience, the conversation settled into a serious examination of power, media, and what happens when imagination fails us.
Frederic raised a question that lingered for much of the show: what happens when the platforms we rely on are no longer neutral pipes, but assets owned by people with political loyalties?
He pointed to Substack’s recent major investment from Venture Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Frederic asked whether anyone truly believes companies like Substack or YouTube would resist pressure in a real political crisis.
We circled around the idea that we’ve repeatedly underestimated how far Trump is willing to go, and how often “that would never happen” has turned out to be wrong. The failure hasn’t been intelligence but a lack of imagination—and once you accept that, very little stays off the table.
From there, the discussion moved into Minneapolis, ICE, and the accelerating collapse of political norms.
Frederic was blunt about what he sees as fascism playing out in real time, criticizing the language of civility and “productive conversations” when people are being detained, brutalized, and killed.
I pushed back thoughtfully in places, especially around local leadership and strategy, but agreed that the moment demands something different from business-as-usual politics.
The tension between pragmatism and moral clarity stayed present throughout the conversation, without ever tipping into caricature.
One of the most affecting parts of the episode came when the focus shifted to masculinity, sparked by the killing of Alex Pretti. Frederick described Pretti as a rare example of positive masculinity who didn’t abandon strength or tenderness, a caregiver who showed up to protect others and paid for it with his life.
That opened a broader critique of the manosphere and the shrinking, brittle definition of manhood it promotes, where fear is mistaken for dominance and cruelty for power.
Frederic traced those dynamics through culture, fitness, online radicalization, and the absence of mentors, arguing that masculinity rooted in service has been deliberately replaced with performance and grievance.
Even as the subject matter stayed dark, the show never lost its human rhythm. There were moments of gallows humor, a bizarre detour into YouTube troll slang, and genuine warmth when I thanked Frederic for the work he does around positive masculinity.
The episode closed without definitive answers, but with clarity about what’s at stake, and why pretending this is normal is no longer an option.
Thank you Nick Paro, Jason Odell, NeuroDivergent Hodgepodge, LeftieProf, Sushipheliac 🍣🍥🍣 Polly Walker Blakemore , and our chat mod Karen Marie Shelton and many others for tuning in.
We’ll be back tomorrow bright and early for The Daily Whatever Show for a Bestie Day where Lawrence and I take time to catch up.
We love you all—truly!—mean it.
