Shows
Weakness for BleaknessEpisode 59 - God Bless Ye Merry GodboyzHappy holidays, Bleakers. This time around we're talking about Victorian Labor and the big rural rail project (but not really) and then about our past experiences of religious faith or lack thereof (or is there a difference!? Yeah.)2020-12-281h 53Weakness for BleaknessEpisode 58 - PresBidentayyy, we're talkin heeyuh! It'sa a me, Maaahrio! Gedda loada these mooks Biden and Fitzgibbon, ya goombah! Ayy, dat's it. Tell Bowzah I said ayyy, I'm WALKIN HEEYUH!2020-11-181h 43Weakness for BleaknessEpisode 57 - The Absolute GoyHey listeners, heard you like megasodes. What's that? Two and a half hours is too long for a podcast episode? Well, on the one hand, you're right. And on the other, here we are.
We got carried away with our first in-person record but there was a lot to talk about: The upcoming US election, the downgoing QLD state election, a li'l Musk Update for ya, and then two meaty and really quite depressing topics: Australian police and state over-reach, with a particular focus on the destruction of Djab Wurrung birthing trees, and the EHRC r...2020-11-022h 31Weakness for BleaknessEpisode 56 - The New Levelersoi oi Bleakers.
More bad audio this time. Bought the wrong batteries. We're talkin' supreme court, we're talkin' Kent border, we're mainly talking the New Libs, the Diggers (not those ones) and the Levellers. Levelers? Levelers.
orright. Take it easy, have a good one.2020-10-021h 42Weakness for BleaknessEpisode 55 - Darcy DavisHey bleakers. The Zoom is running out of battery, I can't find the power supply and there are no fresh 9 volts in the house so you're dealing with the warpy shit audio from Kieran again.
We've got a langurous look at the mental workings of the enemy today. First up, the wonderbrains of the mostly-lib writers over at Unherd - where genius goes to jerk itself off. And then after that, Darcy's adventures in the world of Talking to Racists Online.
Peace, friends.2020-09-2100 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 54 - High IQ BoysYo bleakers, another tardy episode to chew on. This time around we're talking private high schools, Elric Degandre, the Sargon/Warhams nexus, and lifestyles of the rich and the famous! (building obnoxious temples to dizzying excess while drawing from the privatised care sector like a total parasite)
Take it easy, friends.2020-08-0600 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 53 - Statues are SlytherinLong time, bleakers. We're back and we're talkin' bout statues and the Zoomer v Millennial Generation War.2020-06-2800 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 52 - Hell's PellsAnother wonky audio episode this time, hopefully less wonky than last time and I think we're getting closer to something that doesn't sound like pure garbage.
We talk briefly about Dan Andrews' council reforms and the US Democrat primaries, but our main meat this episode is a double dose of injustice: the George Pell High Court decision, and the report into the handling of anti-semitism allegations in the UK Labour Party.
Closing song is a cover of 'Paradise', originally by John Prine.2020-04-2500 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 51 - Bored of the ThingsLiterally just a slow conversation between two friends gradually losing their minds. Darcy has been going back to Lord of the Rings, and Kieran has been going back to videogames and also spends the whole episode fucking around with a latex glove that he doesn't realise is making a super irritating noise. Can't even muster up a title pun that isn't bottom-tier bogshit. 2020-04-0600 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 50 - COVIDIOTSIt's episode 50, what a milestone. To celebrate, we record in separate places, being good little antiviral warriors. That's why the audio for this episode is so resoundingly bad.
We don't want to talk too much about news and politics. We end up doing it anyway but we don't want to, and eventually we manage to transition into our meandering bullshit about books, video games, other podcasts, etc. Not sure when we'll get back to our regular format but for now I think we're just coasting on this chill shit.2020-03-2700 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 49 - CoronaVidenBleaker than before2020-03-2100 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 48 - Choo-Choo-ChoosedayHey Bleakers. We run through the basics of Super Tuesday: what happened, why, fuck, why, all that. Also got a little discussion on the closure of the Australian Associated Press, plus some mindless diversions about Dr Hook and the Welsh Herring Guy.
Take it easy.2020-03-0700 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 47 - Darcy's Grab Bag!Hey everybody, it's Darcy's Grab Bag! A series of small treats and tidbits from the warm pouch of Melbourne's favourite son. We got a Dutton bite, a Weinstein bite, a Cashless Welfare Card Bite, a Transport Union fracas bite, and I think maybe another small morsel in the bottom of the bag. In the second half of the show we talk about the Nevada caucus results and the monstrous personage currently using the name Mike Bloomberg. Lots of fucking sleep deprivation and fuzzy brains and low mumbly voices in this one, listener. That's how we...2020-02-2700 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 46 - Thoughts on Sports Rorts and Coarse Retorts for the Sort of Wart Who From Their Forts Cavorting Distort the Import of Their Hoard to Exhort the Court to Let Them Extort More-tMoron alert: listening to this during editing made it crystal clear how little we can be trusted with basic arithmetic involving simple rounded numbers. Almost every claim involving simple addition, subtraction or multiplication is an error - see if you can spot them all!
After a very brief touch on the NH primary and Darcy's experience protesting in the stupid opulence of the Crown lobby, we look into the scandal surrounding Bridget McKenzie and the allocation of sport club grants - the most boring dogshit in the world, right? Wrong. It's a tale of twists and turns...2020-02-1600 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 45 - I Wanna Frick You Like An Animal (To Clarify, I Am the Animal and the Animal is a Rat)It's a big look at the absolute disaster that was the Iowa Caucus, the opening moves in the intolerable chess game that constitutes the Democratic Primary in the US. Wanted to gloss over this one but unfortunately it's like a John Le Carre novel if it were written by John Kennedy Toole.2020-02-0800 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 44 - From Russia With FavesNew Year Same Old Us. What we've done here, essentially, dear Bleakers, is accidentally record two episodes instead of one. Our opening "wee chat" constitutes the first episode, where we talk about the US Democrat Party primaries again (I promise, only another interminable several months of this shit) and about the Witcher TV show.
For the "actual" episode, starting about an hour in, we get emotionally distraught talking about the bushfire crisis and then wind things back with a look at the profoundly stupid Rolling Stone article about Russian "trolls". All the best, take it...2020-01-2400 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 43 - 2019 Christmas Bleaktacular!Ay bleakers, sorry we been away. As penance we've put together this interminable 2.5 hour Christmas/Hannukah/Holiday Season special episode to tide you over. It's not, like, Christmas themed or anything, it's just happening at Christmas. Basically we just take a bit of a gander at what's going on in Australia, the UK and the US.
Plus a few little extras like a terrible conversation about our high schools and a game that Darcy's designed to foster peace between the warring generations.2019-12-2400 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 42 - Northern TerrortoryWas gonna do a "Terror Tory" double pun but tbh Labor are fully culpable too in today's topic from Darcy: The Northern Territory "Intervention".
Plus, listen to a sleepy Kieran give a run-down on FBI profile-em-up "Mindhunter".
Happy bleaking.2019-11-0100 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 41 - Whistleblower Crushed by State Powers for Uncovering Rampant War Crimes Goes on Bizarre RantWe've streamlined our format! After a bumbling start of outstanding business and two new peerless and definitely funny characters Kieran's cooked up we dig into the preposterous shit going on with Julian Assange at the moment and then have a semi-directionless rumination on horror movies. Even our episode descriptions are getting more concise.2019-10-2400 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 40 - JoaquerWe have an exclusive, unique thing that no other podcast or media outlet of any sort is offering: Two white dudes talking about Joker. We also talk about the huge child forfeiture crisis happening due to NDIS delays as well, just to cut dumb with harrowing.
In stories, we have Babymarch, Epsteinkin Park, The Incredible Climate Moron and a MUSK UPDATE.2019-10-1500 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 39 - Nothing on the TV, Nothing on the RadioHey bleakers. It's been months! Kieran is back from his quest to find himself in the wasted landscape of America. For an agonising fifty minutes, hear him deliver his field report about conspiracy theory, celebrity sightings, Yosemite mai tais and American Italian cuisine. Then listen to Darcy's breakdown of the Andrews/Hanson family court investigation - it's depressing!
In stories, we cover Bernie's health scare and coverage of his campaign more generally, Boris Johnson's unbroken stream of public self-humiliations, the bizarre and disquieting boring of Australia's political elite into the depths of the American arsehole, and our...2019-10-0400 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 38 - Actually His Name is Epstein's MonsterKieran's going away for two months so enjoy this Weakness for Bleakness Megasode(tm) in the interim. We look at the genuinely baffling scope of the Epstein madness and ponder a future where the craziest conspiracy plot out there turns out to be more true than we could have feared. And then we enter into a sort of rambling theological war with our Prime Minister over the shaky spiritual ground of his prosperity gospel bullshit.
Our stories this episode are: sushi pizza restaurant goes tits up because they obeyed the law; turns out recycling isn't some dangerous s...2019-08-0300 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 37 - Wet Bandits v Dry BanditsHoy bleakers, Darcy's back and there's a couple weeks before Kieran's gone. So here's a bit of a megasode, a two hour paean to political monstrosity that orbits around the dark star of the UK Tories. Darcy runs down the origins of the name and the deep legacy of vicious ineptitude that lives on in the current party. He also takes a look at how they differ from our tories and also how the two parties resemble each other. There's kind of a mini B Topic where we gripe about how shit the current Labor party are.
...2019-07-2200 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 36 - Get (politically cor)RektCome hear us congratulate ourselves. Darcy wants to talk about political correctness, specifically how easy it is to say sorry and back off from a shit position, specifically how easy it is for him to walk back his vile racist slurs from last week. We're here, we're white, and we're ready to accept your plaudits for solving the problem. Kieran wants to talk about prison labour. Shouldn't be a controversial position but I guess maybe it is: forced prison labour for sub-minimum wage is bad.
In headlines: Telstra contracts! Dutton saying gross shit! Labour tax s...2019-07-0300 minWeakness for BleaknessSpecial Episode - Debates Are BoringLittle special between-episodes episode here, where Kieran, by himself, talks through the first round of debates in the US Democratic Party primary. Ever wanted to listen to one person stutter through a tedious political evade-a-thon only to come to the conclusion that Bernie Sanders Is Good? Then this is the episode for you.2019-06-3000 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 35 - Iran, Iran So Far AwayMiddle-East heavy episode this week, bleakers. We talk about the looming Iran war, how terrifying and stupid it is, and also about the baffling proportion of UK Tories who think the country is riddled with sharia-law no-go zones.
The stories we're looking at are CFMMEU party donations, Scumbum's "Trumpian" ambitions for the Australian economy, his extraordinarily sinister-sounding Industrial Relations reform, and some stats re: religion, migration ambitions, democracy-opinion-having, etc. from the Arab world. It's good stuff.2019-06-2700 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 34 - Civil Dick Source CodeCiao, bleaklings. Another post-fast feast for you today. Our big topic from Darcy concerns refuting the idea that bigots are experiencing undue prejudice at the hands of bleeding heart leftist hypocrites, when in fact the correct take is that it's good, actually, that they're being shouted down. We talk about tolerance, the Karl Popper's paradox thereof, and the shaky moral ground of reasonable "civil discourse". We also talk about Adrian Cheok, the mad scientist villain from a side-banner porn game who absolutely dares you not to cum in minutes when confronted with his sexy, sexy robots. Oh, also, he's...2019-06-2000 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 33 - Federal EructionHoly hell, bleakers, it's been a spell. We're back, for a few weeks anyway, and we want to talk to you about the results of the election. What went wrong? What were the bad things? Were there any good things? And more importantly, is there a way for us to pivot and rip the piss out of the Labor party? You bet your god damn sweets there is.
And in headlines, some bizarre Caro smearing; some terrible Setka infestation that just won't shift; Netflix and Uber are unprofitable but mostly TV is kind of bad a lot...2019-06-1300 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 32 - Ol VennieGreetings, my tetrachromatids.
Internet and University are to blame for the lack of an episode last week and the late episode this week. But with those problems resolved, we bring you this, our thirty-second episode, a scrabbly thing looking back at the last few weeks.
First up, Venezuela! What can we take from the current clusterfuck and apply to discourse with those folks who use it as a holistic condemnation of socialism? Then Kieran's got a little kicker on there in the form of three juicy climate change nuggets sure to suck the wind...2019-03-0100 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 31 - This Is My Favourite InfographicHey kids, and welcome to, uh, "Season 2" I guess we're calling it.
We're talking global poverty numbers this week, and why you shouldn't trust your friends when they tell you that, contrary to all reason, only 10% of the world's population are poor. We're also talking about the Gilette ad, and yes, you're right, it's not exactly timely, but somebody wrote about it in the Spectator and far be it from us to deny you all.
In headlines, we've got the miserable ghost of Tony Abbott's onion fiasco, we've got some criminal charges maybe coming down...2019-02-1200 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 30 - Get Me Fingerhut!This time it's for real - the arbitrarily chosen endpoint for the meaningless designation of "season 1"!
We're talking Fingerhut, the Washington guy with an amoral recommendation for left-of-centre parties. Here's a surprise: it's what we kind of want them to be doing anyway. Also, we run through the contenders announced so far for the Democratic Primary for the 2020 US election, and it's: largely uninspiring!
In this week's stories, we got another Craig Kelly-related balls-up, an absolutely baffling Clarks Shoes proposal from the UK tories, capitalism's "identity crisis" as described by a disingenuous ghoul, and Hildebrand's...2019-02-0500 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 29 - More Like PootriotismIt's that time of year when Australians everywhere start debating the wisdom of codifying nationalism, the world's worst political mindset, in a Purge-style day of divisive hatred. Find out whether or not we support it in the episode!
And in headlines: Wavves & the Slumlord Fiasco; Morrison & the Mundine Dream Team; Victorian Liberals & the Revisionist Sexuality Takes; Morrison & the Anguish of his Ancestors.2019-01-2900 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 28 - Auld Lang TiredWe're back, folks, and Darcy has an only slightly untimely 2018 wrapup/2019 speculation rundown for us. And Kieran wants to talk dead fish, and the cotton irrigation that likely caused the deadness of said fish.
In headlines, we got Peta Credlin and Right Power; we got the Bob Katter toad gambit; we got Macedoniae of varying legitimacy; we got the Australia Day citizenship power move. It's a big old return show, get on it.2019-01-1400 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode No Episode 3 - A Christmas MessageHey everyone, we were gonna have a Christmas episode but it just didn't work out. Kieran's away for a couple of weeks now so we'll be rejoining you in the second half of January where, without the vicious monstrosity of the holiday season, we will be able to maintain a more sensible release schedule.
Take it easy, listeners.2018-12-2700 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 27 - Backdoor AccessWe're back! And it's a good thing too, because we have to talk to you about this execrable encryption bill that the Labor party have gently guided through the parliamentary process instead of opposing like sane people. Pretty soon downloading this podcast will be a vector for Peter Dutton's Home Security malware. And our B topic is this: the Labor party conference. But it's so dull, so uninspiring, so potentially enchanted with ancient glamours that we spend most of the time discussing sausage rolls.
In headlines, sort of: A tale of beans, heartbreaking and complex; S...2018-12-1800 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode No Episode 2 - Apology from the Plague PitsKieran got sick. So here's a pointless five minute episode if you feel like listening to him apologise in person.2018-12-1100 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 26 - Darcy DESTROYS Feminist! Must Listen!!!Just kidding, all you chuddy boys. Sorry to disappoint. We're talking about Kelly O'Dwyer's valiant effort to eat her cake and still have it tomorrow, by taking her place as a feminist hero within the inherently misogynistic apparatus of the Liberal Party. And in other news, the climate strike. Get yer clarinets out for the environment, kids.
Headlines! A socialist hero, whip-and-chain queen Mistress Rebecca, who breaks down Tories for the good of the public. Abbott claims he's not a miserable ghost, but a real, meaty boy, who could too be king once more. Craig K...2018-12-0300 minWeakness for BleaknessMINISODE - Victorian State ElectionHello weaklings,
As we mentioned last week, no full episode this week as Kieran's away. But, since the Victorian State Election just resulted in a crazy bloodbath win for Labor, we thought we'd throw up a very short episode talking it over.
Plus, Michael Lamb had a hysterically funny interview and we want you to hear it.
That's all, take it easy.2018-11-2600 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 25 - Don't Do as Don Dale DoesJust a total hate-in today, a real bleaker. Darcy's recovering from a literal blow to the head and Kieran's going through some weird McDonald's-induced vagueness episode, so marvel as they stumble over their own attention spans in order to talk about: the Don Dale facility, notorious hellhole where human decency goes to die. Oh, and it's a youth detention facility, so it's twice as vile. Kieran runs through some of its history and a couple of the latest developments. Spoiler: fuck all has changed in the last two years.
Darcy's got a much nicer theoretical musing on...2018-11-1900 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 24 - One Latham PartyI love Philip Seymour Hoffman. One interesting thing he said, which I heard today during fifteen minutes of half-arsedly listening to an interview for some completely non-podcast related research, is "I'm not good at accents, you know, mimicking people." Just an interesting factoid!
Our big topic today is the Armistice Day Centennial and the surrounding nationalistic blood worship of military and war that has risen to accompany it. Darcy's rightfully skeptical of how we took the only opportunity we'll ever have to mark the Centennial and mostly used it to beat a war drum for, a...2018-11-1200 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 23 - Git 'errorism DoneAmerica sucks, friends. This week's topic is the three high profile domestic terror attacks carried out by shapeless white boomers with massive chips on their shoulders, as the US of A continues to slide comfortably into its old white supremacist jeans. Darcy lightens the mood, though - he hates your human rights, and he wants to take away Putin, Jinping, and Bin Salman's power to uphold those rights.
In headlines: Centrelink failing 48 million times, Scummo Underground, Birmbrain thinks he has a bigbrain, and Matthew Guy's got nothin'.2018-10-2900 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 22 - The Polymoronic SpreeThis week the boys allow themselves to flirt with dangerous levels of optimism as Darcy poses the question: Is the Libs' experimentation with political extremity possibly winding down? And Kieran continues to parse the world through the only lens he has available: stylised fiction, in this case The Man in the High Castle, which he suggests might be worth watching.
In headlines: Scott Morrison's apology to children abused by institutions, provided the abuse happened under somebody else's authority; Pauline Hanson is impossibly not the biggest idiot involved in her "OK to be white" motion; the Sh...2018-10-2300 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 21 - I Can't Believe It's Not Hell!I've got some good news and some bad news. Bad news first? Makes sense, take the band-aid off and then soften the sting. Well, all right. The bad news is the IPCC have let us know that we've got until 2030 to get our shit together and there's no chance of that happening, especially when the debate is always framed in terms of what you as an individual can do in the face of widespread corporate negligence. Ha ha! Well, you asked for it. The good news is that Darcy had a nice old time doorknocking for the Victorian Socialists...2018-10-1500 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 20 - Story Not StoryIt's an extremely hungover/generally exhausted episode this week folks! Darcy's got a missive from Alex Rosenberg (not Greenberg) about the role that narrative plays in our understanding of history. The long and the short of it: we reckon yeah, probably, but like, what can we do about it? And Kieran takes a quick look at the extremely incompetent Sokal Squared hoax.
In headlines: Labor's FGAP, Kavanaugh's in, Christians still not persecuted, and gambling ads on the Opera House.
Wowee. Plus a long overdue shout-out to our closing act, Leonardo's Robot.2018-10-0900 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 19 - What a KavanarseholeIt's back across the ocean for this week as we take a squiz at the strange US national-psychic rupture over Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court candidacy. Will they elect a likely sexual assaulter and compulsive perjurer to the highest legal office in the land? Probably! Those crazy kids. And Darcy wants to talk about representative democracy. Something new maybe? What could it look like, and what roadblocks do we face? Who knows, and many, respectively.
In headlines, we got a Trumpish love affair, a think-piece on smug politics, some reef science misbehaviour, and an ABC catastrophe a...2018-10-0200 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 18 - Our House, Well, We're Sleeping on the StreetsThis week we're talking homelessness and housing, as the nation's disenfranchised begin to sprawl out to the suburbs. Then we have a trip report from the second "State of the Union" panel, which leads to a conversation about social movement unionism.
In the headlines: Cop powers pumped! Farmers gazumped! Housing market slumped! Abbott nearly bumped!2018-09-1800 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 17 - Bannon, And On, And OnYo what's up? For your main course, Kieran will be taking you through the Steve Bannon/New Yorker Festival shit-show and inarticulately trying to explain why it has nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with trying not to be in Mad Max world before 2025. He also ties in that lazy Jazz Twemlow video that's doing the rounds. Meanwhile, Darcy offers a look at Morrison's "gender whisperer" gaffe and the very real villainy that underpins it.
In the headlines: Responsible Adults who Worked Hard For Their Fortune tell you to shut up and get...2018-09-1100 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 16 - A Golli-what!?Guest Description by Mark Latham:
These two stuck-up wankers virtue signal over the supposedly "racist" tradition of golliwogs. Let me get this straight - they're not even accurate depictions of black people and yet somehow they're "racist" because of how they depict black people? Another great example of consistency from the Left. Golliwogs are fine! Not one of them ever used memetic Twitter voodoo to incite a jihad or even once hurt my feelings. And I would know it if they had! My skin, while notoriously thick, has been described by more than one doctor as "singularly...2018-09-0300 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 15 - Broken_Political_Scene--Lovers_Spill.mp3This is getting repetitive: What a week for the Liberal party! We go into some of the wild business surrounding the leadership spill that saw us with Morrison in the Lodge - it's all voting records, WhatsApp controversies and mystifying Cronulla profiles this week.
To lead softly into the topic we have some headlines about Derek, Newspolls, John McCain and planted churches. It's good stuff, folks. Keep your chins up.
2018-08-2900 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 14 - Love Me, I'm a Liberal (Whatever That Means)Wow, what a week for the Liberal party. The Libs' relentless battle with their own sense of ideological identity is confusing, so we talk about it. We also talk about complete non-issue 'Insatiable', the sound and the fury surrounding it, and whether or not any of it is justified (basically not).
In headlines: Fraser Anning is a Nazi for the modern era, Charles Blackman has died, old mate Trumble's getting the hungry eyes from sunbathing-and-insect enthusiast Peter Dutton, and a Musk update! (he's sad :( ). 2018-08-2100 minWeakness for BleaknessSpecial Episode 1 - From ComedyKieran is away so here it is - a special two-topic non-political episode where we try to make things more complicated than they need to be!
Kieran talks about storytelling in video games, specifically the From Software games Dark Souls and Bloodborne, atrocious nerds' favourite media to get insufferable about. And Darcy talks about comedy as the social conscience of the times and how that whole thing came to pass plus its different visages, from the alt-comedy stuff in 80s UK to now. Don't let that trick you into thinking the boys are funny though! Comedy is...2018-08-1400 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 13 - One Stop Co-Op ShopThe Big Question: What is a socialism? Darcy's frustrated by the implication that he's been avoiding taking a firm position, so he takes one and provides a barebones definition for his vision of socialism. Kieran appends to this a doomed attack on the concept of productivity.
In headlines, we talk about the racialisation of violent crime by Australian media, the character-assassination of the Gatwick Hotel, the Nine/Fairfax merger, and a Hot Hildebrand Take on the Super Saturday elections.2018-08-0100 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 12 - MalcomtentsShifting sands! Malcolm Turnbull has decided that he has to be a bit more like 2013-era Tony Abbott and Fairfax Media has decided that it needs to be more like 2008-era Malcolm Turnbull. Truly, are we not witnessing the march of progress?
And in headlines, we have a Musk Update; we have a vast governmental system of data collection and management pushed by the Liberal party, of course; we have news from Israel too bleak to make a joke about here; and we have the revelation that, according to the brains in Canberra, all Melbournians a...2018-07-2400 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 11 - Headelon MuskstravaganzaNo time for our usual topic format this time - there are too many headlines! We got Liberal party infighting, renewable energy, prison villainy, Trump update, Brexit/Boris woes, a baffling child gang story, Daisy on Apu, and the piece de resistance; Elon Musk has melted down in the most satisfying, hilarious way possible - we run through the timeline of rescue dive/pedo-gate.
Opening audio courtesy of some tragic on Youtube.2018-07-1700 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 10 - Into the Lion's HelmOn this week's episode, we discuss two ways in which the info-pipe is doing you wrong. First, Darcy walks us through the latest senator Leyonhjelm debacle and how the media keeps bouncing off the man's absurdity. Also, Kieran gets on his high horse to talk about the latest Apple ads and their abuse of Daniel Johnston's 'Story of an Artist'.
In headlines this week: Outsourcing gambling and NBN solutions to you, the atomised subject! Local papers are dying in the US and it might hasten the death of society at large! And monsters compete to t...2018-07-1000 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 9 - We Must Imagine Sisyphus HappyBleakness indeed! Kieran decides to use his topic slot to drop some omni-directional economic, environmental and existential misery on the podcast for no good reason, then Darcy gives us another Tiny Primer on government debt.
In headlines, we have the slow march of authoritarianism via anti-protest legislation; we have farmers, selfishly whipping Darcy into ceaseless apoplexy; we have the latest overture to GFC 2.0 in the form of the McDouble Mortgage; and we have the NBN, screwing up again, wow, what a surprise.2018-07-0300 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode No Episode - Darcy is Sick!While we were trying to work out the logistics of remote recording to accommodate Darcy's illness this week, he said "I'll be back in a minute", then came back more than ten minutes later saying "I just had to vomit". We decided to postpone. Return next week, for more bleakness and hopefully a little less bodily weakness.2018-06-2500 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 8 - Not My-insteinOh no! Einstein was a racist! We discuss the implications of the revelation that a German man in the 20s held racist opinions and the dangers of sacralising heroes, but it turns into a narcissistic contemplation of the ramifications of our own inevitable fame. Also, a little primer and debunk of the arse-backwards theory behind trickle-down economics.
And in headlines: We got a political witch hunt, only the witch is a monster, and real, and worth hunting, and Peter Dutton. We got the ABC privatisation vote cockup from the Liberal party peak council. We got more microparty...2018-06-2000 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 7 - Art is Dead (Or Alive, and Moreso, but Bad)What happens to art under socialism? There are scraps of murky conversation across the internet and a body of old theory, but people aren't talking about it a lot, so we do. Then we talk about co-ops, what they are, what they do, and how they might help industry to navigate late stage capitalism.
And in headlines: Victoria has socialists, the Libs have failed to launch their anti-charity sedition law Trojan horse, Paul Dacre's been hidden in the attic after several unchecked years of coating the kitchen walls in poo, and good news for s'wits e...2018-06-1200 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 6 - Cryme TymeIt's all about crime, criminality, criminals and criminy this week, as seen through the lens of the Andrews government's "tough on crime" posturing.
And in headlines: recycling is futile, superannuation is impoverishing us, Melania is missing, and the ways in which pro-small business rhetoric from banks might just be an attempt to sell a million-dollar dress-ups costume.2018-06-0500 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 5 - ICE to Meet You, Lose You, and Find You on an Egg Farm in OhioPlagued by technical difficulties, the boys nevertheless manage to discuss the US's attempts to one-up Australian villainy in the immigration department before Darcy brings us another brief on language clarity.
In headlines: the Labor part conference standstill, the inner-city housing market dip, the starved public medical system and the prospect of getting a personal call from a man who once acted in a creamed corn commercial in 1987.2018-05-2900 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 4 - Walk RhymesIt's all market horror from an ill Kieran and gross sexual misconduct from a less ill but no less beleaguered Darcy in the headlines this week. But don't worry, because we wash that bitter pill down with a circuitous, despairing discussion of the Gaza massacre. All this bleakness is making me thirsty.
Also at one point Kieran calls Roger Ailes "Bill Ailes" by accident. It's not a big deal.
2018-05-2200 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 3 - A Flat Tax for Fat StacksIt's the most exciting thing in the world: a budget episode! We cover some of the most egregious grab-hands of the latest Coalition budget and take a look at Shortman's reply; how it sought to whelm us, the whelming methods it employs and how a little more whelming could've gone a long way.
In headlines, there's a 200-year-old man touching the kids, an invisible hand touching China, a desperate party failing to touch the polls, and an American Hero exhorting us to touch the beehive of international tension.2018-05-1500 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 2 - Now That's What I Call TermworkThis week, Darcy's trying to curtail your religious freedom to wage death upon the public and Kieran's as typically feckless and work-shy as any other self-entitled millenial. We go deep on some terminology so that any accusations of intellectual laxity are confined to our morality and work ethic, and we take a squiz at the circus surrounding the latest missives from the Prophet Kanye West.
Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra2018-05-0800 minWeakness for BleaknessEpisode 1 - Lyca FoxNow with all baffling pitch issues fixed! Kieran is staggeringly ignorant about the state of piscine gastronomy in the USA and Darcy brings troubling portents from Godzilla's pelagic kingdom. We talk about Lyca Mobile's involvement in governmental corruption so naked it'll make you blush, then check in on the vitals of the alt-right. 2018-05-0200 min