Posting Through It

115: I'm Worried the Baby Thinks Graham Platner Can't Change [Preview]

Listen to the full episode on Patreon: patreon.com/postingthroughit~~~Jared and Mike finally sit down to talk about the embattled political campaign of Graham Platner, who won his primary election in Maine last week and will attempt to dethrone the state's longtime Republican incumbent, Sen. Susan Collins, this fall.This episode reviews Platner's political career and the cascading personal scandals that have threatened to destroy it, from the problematic Reddit posts to the tattoo that looked awfully similar to a Nazi symbol to the allegations of mistreatment toward women. But despite everything that's been said about Platner — and much certainly has been said — recent pollsstill favor him to win.To debate what Platner's campaign means for this year's midterm elections, the guys slicked back their hair and sat down over some "sloppy steaks" at Truffoni's. ("It's a steak with water dumped on it. It's really, really good.") Graham Platner used to be a real piece of shit. Do Maine voters think people can change?

114: All My Apes Gone to DC feat. Molly White

Maybe you've seen the president of the United States promoting what seems like obvious cryptocurrency scams. Or perhaps you've been frustrated lately with the amount of AI-generated "slop" polluting social media lately. What you may not know is that the industries behind both of those things have been working hard (sometimes together) to forcefully ingrain themselves in our nation's government -- spending hundreds of millions of dollars in political campaigns and helping to inflate Trump's personal net worth in obviously corrupt ways. That affects all of our lives, whether you're excited about these technologies or deeply skeptical of them.Jared and Mike are joined by Molly White, a researcher and writer who has spent years chronicling the sector of so-called "Web 3.0" tech and the cryptocurrency industry's growing influence on US politics. Together, they talk about Trump's bizarre cryptocurrency gambits, the regulatory favors his administration has handed out to crypto, and why so many of the same people who became notable for selling the public sleazy NFTs and meme coins are now selling us artificial intelligence.This one's for all the apes we lost along the way.Links for Molly:Tech Influence WatchWeb3 is Going Just Great"Citation Needed" newsletterBluesky: @molly.wikiTransition Music: "Prelude" by Crystal Joy

113: Garden of Sleepen [Preview]

Listen to the full episode by signing up for our Patreon: patreon.com/postingthroughit---Welcome to the official basketball podcast of New York City, where the hosts occasionally dip their toes into political discourse. We're your hosts Mike "Dunk'em Donuts" Hayden and Jared "Bench Toaster" Holt.The guys discuss Orange Cheeto Drumpf's appearance at the third game of the 2026 NBA Finals, where he almost certainly caused our beloved New York Knicks to lose to the San Antonio Spurs. Depending what new channel you watch, you either heard that our decaying president was met with chants of "USA!" or an arena-shaking cacophony of boos.After that, Jared and Mike turn their focus to recent reporting in Politico detailing under-the-table payments that Polymarket, an online "prediction market" where users gamble on the outcomes of world events, made to a host of social media personalities over the last year. The characters getting rich off the quiet promotional campaign included a transphobic swimmer, a (alleged) drug-addled bigot, and the single-dumbest conservative influencer who's crossed our timelines.When it comes to news, Posting Through It is on its ass like back pockets.

112: AI and the Future of Radicalization feat. Luke Barnes

Turns out AI chatbots can do more than create pornographic images of Miss Piggy...Jared and Mike are joined by Luke Barnes, a senior research scientist at NYU who explores issues related to tech and democracy, to talk about cases where AI chatbots have radicalized people and encouraged them to harm themselves and others. But before that, the guys discuss how the landscape of extremism has changed since Trump returned to power and why an attempted terror attack in San Diego seemed to evaporate from the public consciousness so quickly. But before we can nail any of that down, we need to start at the beginning: “The White House was our primordial soup, a base of evolution…”Links for Luke​How AI Chatbots Are Supercharging Digital Radicalization​The AI Industry Is Discovering That the Public Hates It​AI Chatbots Are Unleashing Violence Among KidsTransition Music: "You Can't Have Everything" by Mad Drunken Americans

111: Vanilla Ice in Valhalla [Preview]

Listen to the full episode on Patreon: patreon.com/postingthroughitThings are going badly in Iran and at home. Tensions are erupting with Israel. MAGA pundits like Jack Posobiec and Dave Rubin are getting bodied online by trolls. There is only man who can heal our divided country: Vanilla Ice. Jared and Mike review the impact the Iran War has had on MAGA before turning to America’s 250th birthday celebrations. The White House announced a cluster of has-been musicians as the lineup for America’s party, including Manilli Vanilli. Nearly all of them backed away from the event. But not Robert Matthew Van Winkle, aka "Vanilla Ice." Van Winkle has lived a life of relentless humiliation, as you will learn. And it set him up perfectly for a career as a MAGA grifter. Alright stop, collaborate and listen. Posting Through It is back with a brand new edition.