Our third and final installment of Over The Borderline stays below the U.S. southern border to look at the economic factors that contribute to mass migration from Central and South American countries specifically. We look at the root economic causes of migration, the U.S. failure to meaningfully partner with LAC nations to promote mutually beneficial economic conditions and the expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Latin America and the geopolitical impact that’s having on...

In today's Show Notes, Max and 99 review Unf*cker feedback from the Over The Borderline series and the recent Phone A Friend with Tad DeLay. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Emails: 00:08:55 Instagram Shout Outs: 00:43:09 Member Shout Outs: 00:46:28 Outro: 00:47:04 Resources Phone A Friend: Tad DeLay. -- If you like the pod version of #UNFTR, make sure to check out the video version on YouTube where Max shows his beautiful face! www.youtube.com/@UNFTR Please leave us a rating and...

Welcome to Phone A Friend. Today we’re speaking with Tad DeLay, the author of the newly released book Future of Denial: The Ideologies of Climate Change. Tad Delay is a philosopher, religion scholar and interdisciplinary critical theorist. His books include Against: What Does the White Evangelical Want?, The Cynic and the Fool, and God is Unconscious. He is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Baltimore. I positively devoured this book and am anxious to dig into his previous titles as...

In today's Show Notes, Max & 99 dive into some headlines, as well as the divisive feedback from the recent UNFTR episode/video on RFK Jr. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Headlines: 00:23:16 Emails + YouTube Comments: 00:43:22 Outro: 01:06:08 UNFTR Episode Resources Video: RFK's Trojan Horse Campaign: What Michigan Ballot Access Means Episode: RFK's Trojan Horse Campaign: What Michigan Ballot Access Means -- If you like the pod version of #UNFTR, make sure to check out the video...

For months we’ve said that RFK Jr. is the biggest threat to Biden’s re-election. Now that he’s gained ballot access in Michigan, it’s time to go beyond the vaccine headlines to examine Kennedy the nascent politician and what his candidacy means to this election cycle. Just as the pollsters missed several important cues during the 2016 election, we might be underestimating the impact Kennedy has beyond his loyal environmental and anti-vaccine followers the media focuses...

Distracted Max reached new heights this week so instead of releasing the third installment of the Over the Borderline series, he mashed up two shorter Topical Creams from YouTube into an episode. Both cover familiar ground to keep a focus on what matters politically. The “silly season” is when narratives harden so sometimes it’s important to reassert certain claims. The first segment is about AOC’s recent decision to fund the Democratic Party in the upcoming election for the first time in her...

In today’s episode, we head to the border and below to examine the root causes and circumstances that factor into immigration patterns, from economic opportunity to asylum. Max speaks with Maureen Meyer from The Washington Office on Latin America, known as WOLA, a D.C. based organization that advocates for human rights in the Americas. Meyer serves as WOLA’s Vice President for Programs, working with senior staff to develop policy priorities and strategies to advance human rights and social...

Max and 99 are back today to talk "SPACtacular Bullsh*t" feedback, catch up with the Unf*ckers and get into numerous tangents, of course. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Emails: 00:07:13 Facebook Shout Outs: 00:52:14 YouTube Shout Outs: 00:59:51 Members + Outro: 01:05:39 Resources Deep Blue Something: Breakfast At Tiffany's Project 2025 YouTube Video Unf*cker Recommendations McFleshman's Brewing Co: Respecting the Beer Podcast UNFTR Episode Resources Immigration Nation: A Crisis...

He did it again. The Donald pulled off yet another miracle by taking his (failing) social media platform public. The deal had been in the works for a while and looked DOA last year. But it was revived recently and when it hit the Nasdaq this week it added billions to Trump's net worth and gave him an immediate cash infusion that will likely prevent him having to sell assets to make the (reduced) bond in his civil fraud case. The wealthy in this country truly operate under different rules. The...

Max and 99 are back together in the studio to discuss Project 2025 Feedback, share Over the Borderline updates, and of course, tell a silly story or two. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Emails: 00:31:51 Instagram Shoutouts: 00:39:19 YouTube Shoutouts: 00:40:05 New Members: 01:02:16 Outro: 01:04:02 Resources Become a UNFTR Member UNFTR Series The Kosh Podcast: Episode 121: Bob Knudsen - County Board Supervisor Candidate District #16 Unf*cker Recommendations  Rutger Bregman:...

Silly season is in full swing so politicians take center stage. But it's important to remember who really pulls the strings and runs the show. This week is an overdue flashback to our Corporate (Ir)Responsibility episodes that have been combined for the first time by the great Manny Faces for your listening pleasure. It's a good refresh on the bad actors that came together to rig the system. We'll be back next week with more original content as we plug away at the border crisis and other...

There are few things in this world as dangerous as Republicans with time on their hands. When Republicans find themselves out of office, they stay busy hatching evil plans in undisclosed lairs somewhere. Actually, they do it in think tanks. What’s impressive is how many plans they concoct during these periods that actually wind up as legislative public policy when they’re re-elected. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 playbook is one of the more devastating handbooks ever written and it’s...

Today is a Max solo adventure; join him as he covers feedback from the new Over the Borderline series, as well as some Unf*cker comments from the recent Phone A Friends. Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Emails: 00:02:31 Outro: 00:42:34 Resources Over the Borderline: Part One. Phone A Friend: George Laws García, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council. Phone A Friend: ​Briahna Joy Gray of the Bad Faith Podcast. -- If you like the pod version of #UNFTR, make sure to check out...

We kick off the first installment in our series “Over the Borderline” where we examine the plight of immigrant families, the socioeconomic and political conditions that drive people to migrate to the United States and the current crisis that has become a central talking point in the 2024 election. This first episode is a spotlight on New York City, which has been overwhelmed by a surge in migrant families being bused from border states as part of a political maneuver to deposit the...

Max and 99 are apart this week but meet up ~virtually~ to discuss feedback from the two recent Phone A Friends! Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Email: 00:10:43 Outro: 00:33:19 Resources Phone A Friend: George Laws García, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council. Phone A Friend: ​Briahna Joy Gray of the Bad Faith Podcast. -- If you like the pod version of #UNFTR, make sure to check out the video version on YouTube where Max shows his beautiful face!...

This is the brief introduction to our series “Over the Borderline” where we update our reporting on immigration and the border crisis to examine the myriad moving parts of this hot button topic. The series kicks off this weekend with a look at the current crisis facing New York City with busloads of migrants continually flowing into the city on a daily basis and stretching city services to their limits. Then we’ll head south of the border to examine the root causes of mass migration from...

Our guest this week is George Laws-García, the Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council. A longtime policy advocate and consultant and native of San Juan, Laws-García was tapped to be the organization’s first executive director to increase the engagement of Puerto Rico statehood supporters. George and I have a great conversation about the hows and whys of statehood, roadblocks and resistance the movement faces and the tension between advocates for statehood versus full...

On this week’s UNFTR Phone a Friend we’re speaking with the incomparable Briahna Joy Gray. Briahna is the host of the popular politics podcast and YouTube channel Bad Faith and co-host of The Hill’s Rising. Prior to this she was the National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign, was senior politics editor at The Intercept and has written for The Guardian, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and for our friends over at Current Affairs Magazine. She has a B.A. and a law degree from...

In today's Show Notes Max and 99 catch up on the last few weeks, discussing 'The Banality of Violence,' 'Unf*cking Healthcare,' the 'Palestine' series + more. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:40 Housekeeping: 00:08:07 Emails: 00:38:18 Memberships: 01:24:10 Outro: 01:27:23 Resources Become a UNFTR Member Bobby McD's new book: The Occulting Light Manny Faces Online -- If you like the pod version of #UNFTR, make sure to check out the video version on YouTube where Max shows his beautiful...

This week is a flashback. Yes, that means re-run but there’s a good reason for it as we covered in Show Notes. We’re bringing back our episode titled Immigration Nation to refresh crucial misconceptions around migration so we can update certain data points and troubling trends. In the weeks to come we’re digging back into the border crisis as it has become one of the central talking points in the upcoming election. Plus, a great deal has changed south of the U.S. border that needs to be...

Watching Sean Hannity casually ask Curtis Sliwa to turn the cameras toward Sliwa’s Guardian Angels crew “taking down” a person they perceived to be an undocumented migrant in the streets of New York stuck with me. This particular moment falls so far down on the list of horrifying takes from Hannity and Fox News but for some reason it hit a nerve. The detached indifference of the brief affair prompted me to revisit the writings of Hannah Arendt, one of the great 20th Century philosophers who...

Today we get to all live tuition free inside the head of one of the most prominent intellectuals on the left, Ben Burgis. Ben is a Jacobin columnist, an adjunct philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and the host of the YouTube show and podcast Give Them An Argument. He’s also the author of several books including Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left, Canceling Comedians While the World Burns, and Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why it Matters. Ben...

In today's episode of Show Notes, Max & 99 talk 'Don't Sweat The Election' + 'Mental Health Care in America' feedback, and spend plenty of time lightening the mood with pop culture tangents. Enjoy! Resources To access the Premium Newsletter, become a member today! The Ringer: Dewey Cox Ain’t Dead: An Oral History of ‘Walk Hard’ -- If you like the pod version of #UNFTR, make sure to check out the video version on YouTube where Max shows his beautiful face!...

Some of you are upset that I’ve targeted Biden so much lately given the threat of another Trump term. We’ve hashed and rehashed this on Show Notes but I did a little soul searching on my own to address this situation. We’re off to a strong start this year in terms of our editorial calendar but I’ve been finding it difficult to dig further into several topics knowing that there’s a growing sense of frustration with my intransigence. So I thought this was as good a time as any to work through...