This week’s Fucked Up Friday on The Daily Whatever Show was one for the ages — or maybe for the end times.
and I were joined by the incomparable , author of on Substack, who absolutely lit up the show with her intellect, wit, and deep moral clarity. Zuri didn’t just come to talk—she came to teach, and we were there for every word.Zuri started by grounding us in history and humanity. Her recent piece about Trump’s destruction of the White House East Wing reframed the story in the only way it truly can be understood: as another act of erasure. She reminded us that Black people built the White House—enslaved laborers, skilled artisans, and underpaid workers whose legacy still stands in every marble line and brick. To watch that building desecrated for a “Trump Ballroom” is, as Zuri put it, trauma. It’s not a renovation. It’s an obliteration of history.
From there, we dropped straight into the Fucked Up Friday stories—and wow, did this week deliver.
Zuri’s pick: Steve Bannon’s chilling statement that “Trump will have a third term.” Delivered with smug confidence in The Economist, it’s not just rhetoric—it’s a strategy. As Zuri explained, this is how authoritarians normalize the unthinkable. Float it, repeat it, make it familiar. By 2028, it doesn’t sound outrageous—it sounds inevitable. And as she put it, “If we don’t stop it now, we’re complicit.” Preach.
Dana’s pick: Mosquitoes. In Iceland. Yes, really. NPR confirmed that climate change has finally pushed mosquitoes into one of the last insect-free zones on Earth. The purest ecosystem on the planet just got a new pest, and it’s a metaphor for all of us—living with the consequences of ignoring science. “Iceland now has mosquitoes because we elected Trump,” Dana deadpanned. Hard to argue.
My pick: The horror story of the week—a chimeric bird flu created by U.S. and South Korean scientists that kills 100% of mammals. Every single one. I wish I were kidding. They built it “for research.” Because apparently “Oops, we ended civilization” is now a viable lab report conclusion.
We laughed to keep from screaming, debated who’d survive (spoiler: frogs, maybe), and ended with Zuri’s perfect rally cry: “We can’t normalize cruelty.” The bird flu story won, but Zuri’s third-term story was a close second.
This episode reminded us that outrage and laughter are both survival skills—and that Zuri Stevens deserves every flower we can give her. She embodies grace, resistance, and fierce truth-telling in an era that desperately needs all three.
Thank you
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