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An Americanist

Carol Marks

937 episodes

2 days ago

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A Friday mood sets the stage: feeling strong, clear-headed, and ready to wade into some thorny stories with humor and heat. We start with the Leslie Jones and Paul Rudd clash and ask harder questions about workplace boundaries, public grudges, and how identity labels get weaponized when tempers run hot. It’s not about picking a celebrity side—it’s about how fast a long workday turns into permanent outrage and what that says about our culture of airing everything online. T...

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All content for An Americanist is the property of Carol Marks and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A Friday mood sets the stage: feeling strong, clear-headed, and ready to wade into some thorny stories with humor and heat. We start with the Leslie Jones and Paul Rudd clash and ask harder questions about workplace boundaries, public grudges, and how identity labels get weaponized when tempers run hot. It’s not about picking a celebrity side—it’s about how fast a long workday turns into permanent outrage and what that says about our culture of airing everything online. T...

Show more...

News Commentary

Episodes (20/937)

An Americanist

From SNL Drama To Glamour UK Backlash And A Restaurant’s Perfect Clapback

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A Friday mood sets the stage: feeling strong, clear-headed, and ready to wade into some thorny stories with humor and heat. We start with the Leslie Jones and Paul Rudd clash and ask harder questions about workplace boundaries, public grudges, and how identity labels get weaponized when tempers run hot. It’s not about picking a celebrity side—it’s about how fast a long workday turns into permanent outrage and what that says about our culture of airing everything online. T...

2 days ago

15 minutes

An Americanist

From Fentanyl Scare To Dating Stunts To A Pop Star Meltdown

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A damp pink flyer that reportedly tests positive for fentanyl. A single guy holding a sign over the 101 to find a date. A backstage birthday cake launched like a prop. Three wildly different stories, one thread: how fear, spectacle, and attention shape what we believe and how we behave. We start with the Texas flyer report and pull apart the timing, the symptoms, and the gap between public fear and practical risk. The question isn’t only whether paper can make you sick; i...

3 days ago

11 minutes

An Americanist

From Border Patrol Overreach To A Bus Disguised As A Flight: What Went Wrong And How To Avoid It

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A children’s Halloween parade turns chaotic, a 67-year-old citizen ends up with broken ribs, and we’re left asking hard questions about power, timing, and proportionality. We walk through what the video shows, what officials say, and the choices that escalated a neighborhood operation into a community flashpoint. Could this arrest have happened differently—earlier, elsewhere, with less risk to bystanders? We don’t settle for outrage or spin; we analyze trade-offs and how e...

4 days ago

15 minutes

An Americanist

Inside DHS Turmoil And A Wave Of Tragedies Among Young Creators

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A wave of devastating headlines sets the tone: young creators with massive followings gone too soon, one a mental health advocate whose death deepens the ache and the questions. We step back from the scroll to look for patterns beneath the shock—what relentless visibility does to fragile minds, how algorithmic pressure turns identity into performance, and why even the most hopeful captions rarely tell the full story. Grief lives in the gap between what an audience sees and...

5 days ago

14 minutes

An Americanist

From USOs To Disney Tragedies: Sorting Fact From Hype

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Headlines don’t slow down to check themselves, so we do. We open with a surge of USO reports near U.S. waterways sourced from a popular UFO tracking app, then pressure-test the claims: how are sightings verified, who filters duplicates, and where are the named Navy officials behind the talk of national security risks? Big numbers feel convincing, but without methodology and corroboration, they can mislead more than they inform. From there, we turn to the hard-to-read stri...

6 days ago

10 minutes

An Americanist

Friday Thoughts And A Shave

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Headlines screamed about a flashy gambling scandal, but we weren’t buying the outrage. Instead, we turned the mic toward something personal and practical: the day we chose to stop hiding hair loss and start living bald on purpose. From the last clumps in the shower to a no-nonsense barbershop shave and an unremarkable lunch in public, this is a grounded look at confidence, not a self-help monologue. No melodrama, no pity—just honest steps, clean lines, and a lighter head. ...

1 week ago

13 minutes

An Americanist

From Loan Forgiveness To A Referee’s Fall And A London Coffee Crackdown

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Three headlines, one thread: how rules shape the lives we actually live. We kick off with the latest twists in student loan forgiveness and income-driven repayment plans, walking through court pauses, acronyms, and the messy reality facing millions of borrowers who just want predictable payments. We ask the hard questions about fairness and affordability while exploring whether targeted relief could free up spending and stabilize household budgets without tipping the scale...

1 week ago

13 minutes

An Americanist

She Tried To Raise A Doll, Someone Hid A Camera, And A $3 Spin Made A Million

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Ever thought about walking away at a perfect round number? We open with a real creative crossroads: pushing to one thousand episodes versus pivoting to a short, live X Space before the morning rush. That question about platform, energy, and purpose sets the tone for a fast, honest run through stories that test our trust, our safety, and our luck. First, we unpack a jaw-dropping hoax: a 22-year-old faked an entire pregnancy and tried to pass a reborn therapy doll off as a ...

1 week ago

12 minutes

An Americanist

From Tone-Deaf Posts To Plastic Surgery Pressure: Culture, Clout, And Consequences

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Headlines can be loud and hollow, but the stakes underneath them are real. We start with a celebrity anniversary post that tried to be edgy and landed squarely in the wrong month, raising hard questions about timing, tone, and how public figures wield influence during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The photo looks staged, the caption tries to shock, and the audience reaction reminds us that jokes about harm don’t exist in a vacuum—especially when thousands of real stor...

1 week ago

12 minutes

An Americanist

A Landmark Weed Lawsuit, Sticker Shock At Restaurants, And Southwest’s New Boarding Rules Explained

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A quiet weekend winds into a not-so-quiet question: what happens when your neighbor’s choices flood your home? We unpack a striking D.C. case where a 76-year-old resident won a court order stopping secondhand cannabis smoke from seeping into her space. She wasn’t chasing a payout; she wanted breathable air. The ruling affirms a growing legal view that your right to enjoy your home can trump your neighbor’s right to light up, and it offers a blueprint for anyone dealing wit...

1 week ago

11 minutes

An Americanist

Airports, Cold Cases, and AirTags

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A loudspeaker blares propaganda through a busy terminal. Screens flash messages no one authorized. People freeze, look up, and wonder who’s actually in control. That’s where we begin—at the intersection of public trust, connected systems, and the unnerving ease of digital disruption. We walk through the airport hacks in Harrisburg and Kelowna, unpacking how modern PA systems and flight information displays ride on cloud infrastructure and vendor chains that aren’t always ...

2 weeks ago

13 minutes

An Americanist

Peace plans, pancakes, and pricey pout—what could go wrong?

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT The morning starts heavy and honest. We confront reports of Hamas carrying out public executions in Gaza mere hours after a high-profile peace plan was signed—an unsettling collision of ceremony and reality. I don’t linger on gore, but I refuse to downplay what public violence is designed to do: project control, breed fear, and turn crowds into witnesses. It’s a stark reminder that documents can be signed in one room while power is performed in another. From there, the to...

2 weeks ago

9 minutes

An Americanist

Cheese, Chickens, and a Jackpot

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Your cheese might be hiding more than flavor. We dig into new research showing widespread microplastics in dairy—why aged cheeses often carry higher particle counts than fresh, how packaging and processing contribute, and a few low-effort habits (like switching to glass for hot foods) that meaningfully shrink daily exposure without forcing you to give up the foods you love. This isn’t alarmism; it’s practical steps to reduce a dose we’re all already getting. Then we pivot...

2 weeks ago

11 minutes

An Americanist

From Houston to Heteropessimism: What could go wrong?

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A city reels, leaders insist on calm, and the numbers won’t stop echoing: sixteen bodies discovered in Houston’s bayous this year. We walk straight into the tension between fear and fact—what officials mean by “no evidence,” what communities hear, and how rumors surge when updates feel thin. Instead of settling for a binary—serial killer or nothing to see—we break down the practical signals that matter: time-of-disappearance windows, case-linkage criteria, toxicology reali...

3 weeks ago

9 minutes

An Americanist

Hollywood sequels, messy comebacks, and a coaching cliffhanger

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Sequels, scandals, and sideline drama meet at the crossroads of second chances. We dive into reports that Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ follow-up is moving ahead in Rome with a completely new cast, unpacking why a clean slate might be the boldest—and riskiest—choice. From the challenge of recasting Jesus to the tightrope between artistry and controversy, we explore what it would take for a sacred story to feel fresh without losing its gravity. We also tackle the liste...

3 weeks ago

10 minutes

An Americanist

Half the Day, Gone to Emails: A Rant on Burnout, Tech, and What Work Should Feel Like

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A parking spot standoff sets the tone for a blunt look at a headline that won’t die: half of our workday is supposedly swallowed by “busy work.” We unpack what that really means, where the numbers feel inflated, and where the pain is absolutely real—think login mazes, clunky forms, scattered files, and tools that don’t talk to each other. We push past the hot takes to ask a better question: which tasks are truly waste, which are necessary scaffolding, and how do we make th...

3 weeks ago

11 minutes

An Americanist

Cocaine, chatbots, and crunchy yogurt walk into a bar

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Grief, heat, and a plate of ants—today’s conversation pulls no punches. We open with a disturbing report from Brazil about a couple found dead in a motel bathtub, where alleged 122°F water and a space heater, combined with alcohol and cocaine, led investigators to call it heat stroke. The facts are gutting, and the framing invites scrutiny: what evidence supports the temperature claim after the fact, and why was a child’s birthday used as a narrative hook? We talk about ho...

3 weeks ago

12 minutes

An Americanist

From NFL Scandal to Ambulance Birth to an Unlikely Love Story

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Headlines can turn a life into a single sentence—until you slow down and hear the human story inside. We open with the Indianapolis alley confrontation involving former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez: a late-night bar scene, a 69-year-old grease truck driver on shift, an alleged drunken approach, and a sudden escalation that ends with injuries, hospitalization, and charges. We walk through the affidavit details and the hard questions about alcohol, blackout memory, and publi...

3 weeks ago

16 minutes

An Americanist

Scent Alarm, Side-Eye, and Dear Abby

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Coffee-scented wake-up calls? We start with a quirky hotel experiment rolling out across Asia Pacific: an alarm clock that swaps buzzers for breakfast aromas like coffee, bacon, blueberry muffins, and regional picks. It’s playful and a little provocative—can a smell actually make mornings better, or is it just smart hospitality designed to nudge us toward the free buffet? We unpack the psychology of scent, the realities of travel routines, and why gentle cues can shift a m...

1 month ago

13 minutes

An Americanist

From “married my brother” to “Professor Vajastan” to “Ryder Cup Rambo”—today’s tour of weird

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT Shock can be a shortcut, but it’s also a compass—pointing us toward the places where institutions, media, and public trust collide. Today we pull on three threads that lit up our feeds: sweeping claims of immigration fraud in Minneapolis tied to Somali migration, the long-circulating allegations around Ilhan Omar’s marriage history, and a jarring pivot to Harvard’s visiting professor whose drag persona doubles as pedagogy. Then we land on a story that’s equal parts farce a...

1 month ago

11 minutes