Working for the Weekend #4: All of Megyn, Kennedy’s Vox, Kmele’s Helicopter, Moynihan’s Meta
Also: What’s on Moynihan’s hat?
Wait, is it already our fourth weekend since pivoting to Substack? By crikey, it is. That can only mean one thing: Your doomsday clock’s about seven days from going tick-tick-tick-tick-BOOM! For those former Patreon subscribers who have foolishly dallied in pulling the Substack trigger, even though you git yer 30 days free no matter when you enter them credit-card digits, the Members Only episodes, the priority access to live shows, the commenting privileges—they all stand to disappear come June 3. You know what to do.
* Before we go much further, there was some talk on Episode #359 about experiencing a bewildering, allegedly racist kerf(l)uffle at Yankee Stadium Saturday, while enjoying a few hundred tequila drinks with our great pal Kennedy. I wrote (and read out) a long piece Friday about the odd journalistic certainty about the racism in question. But more importantly, here’s a snippet of Kennedalian patriotism, and either a Moynihan reaction-blush, or just a booze-sunburn.
* Just after wrapping the episode, Kmele indeed walked crosstown to a helipad, and did this:
* As also mentioned on the pod, we took our monthly turn on The Megyn Kelly Show, a full two hours, talking about journalists against free speech, Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard, and whether Megyn is a narc, plus updates about the Central Park Karen case (which you can also hear some discussion about on #308, #321, and SD #78):
* Other items referenced on #359 include: David French’s good post-Uvalde piece advocating Red Flag laws (listen to French on #191 & #325). The 2015 Glenn Kessler Washington Post fact-check about whether recent mass shootings would have been prevented with various gun laws. Craig R. Whitney’s 2012 Living With Guns: A Liberal’s Case for the Second Amendment. Christopher R. Browning’s 1992 Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. And my 2005 noodling about the Bad News Bears remake (“maybe we're just not that nasty a country anymore”).
Oh, and Charlton Heston’s super not-dated ad for the Reason Foundation:
* A cupla times on the live show you could hear us make some rare non-disparaging remarks about old colleague (and Miami live show superstar!) Nick Gillespie. Nick returned the favor on this week’s Reason Roundtable podcast, making our Village Underground event his cultural pick of the week (“It was like a Who concert”), beginning at around the 47:20 mark. Thanks, Nick! And do check out The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.
* Moynihan’s latest Vice News piece, on the Metaverse, was broadcast Thursday. There are Oculus masks involved. Here’s a segment ripped by Busty Wimsatt:
And here’s the whole Busty-snagged Vimeo, though we’ll see if stays up (I’ll replace w/ a Vice YouTube should one surface).
* Oh hey I was nominated for Best Sports Commentary by the Los Angeles Press Club’s annual Southern California Journalism Awards, for a piece called "How Government Devastated Minor League Baseball." It was one of eight Reason noms.
* Speaking of self-promo, getta load of what the podcast-newsletter types are saying about us!
OK! This has run long enough. Have a relaxing and restorative Memorial Day, and we’ll see you soon.
Going to tell my kids that first pic is of the Beastie Boys
I started reading Revolt of the Public this weekend (it’s amazing) and am listening to the Martin Gurri episode 🤘🏼 https://wethefifth.substack.com/p/225-w-martin-gurri-the-revolt-of-d89