This episode speaks for itself.

We decided to pull together a Year in Review episode, but first had to address some pressing Nopes, like GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who is quite possibly a Russian agent. Also: the woman who breastfed a hairless cat on a Delta flight. The fancy building in Tribeca infested with rats because it has no fire-proofing in the walls, which might be an even bigger problem. And finally, an online magazine published an article with the following headline: “Joan Didion didn’t play golf, but her writing had qualities for which all golfers should strive.”

This week we shut down Mark Meadows and his run-out-the-clock hail Mary strategy to evade accountability for his role in Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the government. Former Senate candidate Max Linn, the first person to get COVID in Maine, died in a hot tub following a dispute over (what else?) cryptocurrency. Our roving Australian correspondent, playwright Glace Chase, explains why “Throat Goat” was trending on Twitter and what this all has to do with former first lady Nancy Reagan. And finally, 40 camels in Saudi Arabia were disqualified from a beauty pageant after it was revealed that they took performance-enhancing drugs: Botox and fillers.

This week, just in time for Thanksgiving, we review the bountiful cornucopia of unusual characters running for governor next year, including Dr. Mehmet Oz (Pennsylvania) and Matthew McConaughey (Texas). We also shut down a sociological study that revealed why men resist recycling: because they are afraid people will think they are gay.

This week, we shut down heiress Ivy Getty’s San Francisco wedding, featuring a Galliano dress made of shards of glass, IV bags for guests and a City Hall ceremony officiated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Meanwhile in New Zealand, the winner of an annual Bird of the Year competition was a bat, and a couple discovered the world’s largest potato in their backyard. Two new Manhattan buildings–30 Hudson Yards and One Vanderbilt–are fighting to see which edifice’s observation deck reigns supreme.

We’re reeling and retching after watching the internal Facebook music video about health insurance open enrollment. But we attempt to collect ourselves and shut down anti-goverment militia members who happen to work for the government as well as anti-mask/anti-vaxx NYC police officers marching for “freedom of choice.” Also: we discuss why guns are ever allowed on movie sets amid the golden age of CGI.

This week, we shut down the Bad Art Friends Sonya Larson and Dawn Dorland. We’ve got the latest on the scandal involving Ozy Media and its founder Carlos Watson. Also, a passel of feral hogs attacked Shakira in a park and took her mobile phone, and a zeal of zebras continues to run amok in Maryland.

This week, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham revealed in her memoir that a staffer known as The Music Man would blast show tunes to soothe Donald Trump’s nerves when he was going nuclear. An executive at a media company we never heard of called Ozy Media impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’s new father-in-law, hotelier Bill Evans, went undercover as a automotive-enthusiast-turned-media-watchdog named Hanson at her trial. Finally, we explore a highly unusual $14 million real estate listing in Maryland. bop!

This week, we shut down Kraken lawyer John Pierce, who resurfaced following a mysterious two-week absence from court, and issued a statement that raised even more questions than it answered. Headlines from the annual Met Gala were stolen by someone who wasn’t even there: rapper Nicki Minaj, whose cousin’s friend in Trinidad was left by his fianceé because he has swollen testicles. Kim Jong Un has emerged as a fashion icon as journalists kvell over his new svelte look. And a pack of zebras is still running loose in Maryland as officials attempt to slowly gain their confidence.

Rudy Giuliani shaved his beard in a restaurant. Matt Gaetz got married. Dr. Tenpenny believes that Covid vaccines magnetize people. Mike Richards, who is not the guy who played Kramer on “Seinfeld,” resigned as the new host of “Jeopardy!” after holding the job for less than one day. A San Francisco chef created $72 fried rice as a joke, only to that demand for the dish eclipsed everything else on the menu. Also: special guest Josh Rofé joins us to talk about his fascinating new documentary, “Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed,” now streaming on Netflix.

This week, we shut down former assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, a Trump appointee who believes that votes in the 2020 election were changed by Chinese thermostats. Also, Ed Solomon, the “mathematician” who told OAN that there aren’t enough atoms in the universe to explain Joe Biden’s victory isn’t so much a mathematician as he is former drug dealer now employed as a swing-set installer. Meanwhile, pharmacists are fending off Covid truthers who are requesting a poisonous anti-parasite medication for horses instead of the vaccine. And we met for the first time in person since last March–in Babylon, Long Island–so we could go to see Daryl Hall & John Oates rock Jones Beach.

This week we discuss all things Olympics, ranging from the series of scandals plaguing Japan’s Olympic organizing committee to the pictogram pantomime performance at the opening ceremony. Also, Jeff Bezos had an environmental epiphany while in orbit: let’s pollute space. For the Summer Music Series, we examine Michael Jackson’s understandably forgotten “Liberian Girl.”

This week, we have gone super niche, covering a controversial episode of an obscure fashion podcast, The Cutting Room Floor, featuring a former fashion-blogger-turned-CEO, Leandra Medine aka Man Repeller. Meanwhile, a SoftBank-funded humanoid robot named Pepper is slacking on the job and getting fired all over Japan, but may nevertheless be called upon to represent the country at the Tokyo Olympics. Finally, we turn our attention to the worst song-video combination ever to hit No. 1: the Steve Miller Band’s 1982 abomination, “Abracadabra.”

As New York City’s Board of Elections struggled with tabulating ranked-choice votes, we shut down Bill Barr’s attempts at a reputational glow up and “pastel Qanon,” aka California yoga instructors who are embracing bonkers right-wing conspiracy theories. Sea snot is taking over the Turkish coastline and threatening to disrupt NATO. Finally, the latest installment of our Summer Music Series, in which we explore the meaning and message of Billy Idol’s iconic video for “Dancing With Myself.”

This week, CNN legal analyst and public masturbator Jeffrey Toobin was suddenly back on the air, much like an unexpected erection popping up in a Zoom conference call. Over at NBC, production of the reality competition “Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide” was shut down after 40 members of the crew came down with explosive diarrhea. A lobsterman in Cape Cod said he was swallowed and spit out by a humpback whale. And our Summer Music Series is back as we deconstruct Bonnie Tyler’s classic video for “Holding Out for a Hero.”

Joined this week by a new friend of the pod, retired Harvard Business School professor Steve Rogers, we shut down the French Open as well as a Canadian member of parliament who can’t seem to stop getting naked on Zoom. Also, the hottest new fashion trend for men: 4” inseams. We talk to Steve about his excellent new book, “A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues: What You Can Do Right Now to Help the Black Community.”

This week, GQP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene compared mask mandates to being sent to the gas chambers in Germany. Rand Paul received a mysterious package containing white powder and blamed it on 1980s pop icon Richard Marx. Mullets and skinny jeans were banned in North Korea. Phil Collins, musician and historian of the Alamo, donated his extensive memorabilia collection to Texas only to discover that it might be counterfeit. A former “Bachelor” contestant rebelled against new CDC guidelines to prevent salmonella infections by kissing a rooster on Tucker Carlson’s show. And a woman in El Paso jumped a zoo barrier to feed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos to a pair of spider monkeys.

As the weather warmed up and trillions of sex-crazed Brood X cicadas emerged from the earth, we shut down Mar-a-Blogger’s latest screed against New York Attorney General Tish James and asked the only question that needs to be asked about Rep. Matt Gaetz: how is he still in Congress? Meanwhile, Scott Stringer tried to persuade us to vote for him in the NYC Mayoral primary by featuring a child named Benjamin Bridgntunnel on a large campaign postcard with no explanation of who this person was and why we should be convinced by his apparent endorsement. And finally, the New York Post made a grave error about the number of peacocks Martha Stewart has on her Connecticut farm.

This week, the uncertain flight path of a wayward Chinese rocket added to our anxiety payload. Two New York City mayoral candidates said they thought that the median price of a home in Brooklyn was around $100,000. A man was arrested in Houston on murder charges, but his bengal tiger and two monkeys are still on the lam. And Nigella Lawson scandalized Britain with a recipe for...banana peel curry.

This week, we discuss Donald J. Trump’s reemergence as a blogger. A furniture company discovered that a third of people in England wash their sheets only once a year. A man in Japan was arrested for dating 35 women simultaneously in a bid to get birthday presents. In this week’s episode: Check out Donald J. Trump’s breakthrough in communications technology. Big #YUP to… “Bad Trip” on Netflix “The Circle: Season 2” also on Netflix Netflix in general