November 19, 2025 • 10 mins
Jared and Mike welcome a special, top secret surprise guest to read through the excerpt of American Worm-O, Olivia Nuzzi’s tome about having wet, sloppy FaceTime sex with RFK Jr. and the parasite that lives in his cranium. They dip “under the blade of devices” to find winking flags and ponder all that is “more meaningful and more meaningless than you might think.” The guys then shift to Dave Portnoy, who finds himself the target of MAGA’s growing Hitler Youth contingent. It’s an episode that will make you “worry about the worm that was not a worm” in Posting Through It’s brain.
Listen to the full episode by signing up for our Patreon: https://patreon.com/PostingThroughIt
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
The spark, the flame, the rumor fulfilled.
The labyrinth on fire. The Palisades fire.
What labyrinth? Oh, this is it.
The mouse? I don't actually understand.
She's the, She's the mouse. It's the mouse who builds a
maze, but also desires desire itself.
(00:25):
The mouse desires cheese. Why don't we let the worm
through the labyrinth? Yeah, no one's ever put a worm
in a maze. OK, so blah blah blah, there's
some more bullshit. More about this fire, more of
her feeling shitty about people hearing and learning about her
affair with RFK Junior. Then what?
(00:50):
People often, often people I do not know very well, reach out to
tell me that I have appeared in their dreams.
OK, got to get a full breath forthis run on sentence.
I wonder if this is because I sleep so little.
If the version of me who lives on the plane of dreams tires of
(01:11):
waiting for me to release her toaction.
If she goes out searching for places where she may exist
without my permission. If she identifies the minds of
those who have felt any kindnesstowards me, I if she thinks that
within her dreams she might get to live freely instead.
Breathe. Breathe.
Tachi PT was broken. Chichi PT was broken at this
(01:32):
time. I wonder too if this is a
function of being a visible facebut a veiled personality.
Oh. Come on.
If my impression contains empty space, that renders me an
adaptable idea and thus a usefuldevice for subconscious minds.
It is nice to think of this thatI might still be in some way to
(01:55):
someone of use. The abuse of Vanity Fair
magazine, who I recommend we collectively stop clicking on
links until she is no longer in her current position.
I mean to tell you as best I can, what it was to face the
(02:17):
unrealness, to stand so close that it seemed at times almost
plausible, to tiptoe along the edge of the abyss and to balance
there just long enough for to forget that the plates would
soon shift. I mean to tell you of the Canyon
where voices carried the place where monsters spoke to me,
where I listened, where I found that, as fortune or curse would
(02:39):
have it, I knew the language of monsters.
Where, with news on my tongue and tears in my eyes, the role
of town crier I interpret literally.
I ran back over the hill to translate for those who could
not stomach the thought of standing face to face with
monsters, but who required knowledge, Knowledge of monsters
(02:59):
as the monsters accrued evermorepower as they revealed or
converted evermore monsters among men.
Can we just? Can we just break something down
here? I want to slow it down for a
second because I, I really need to Like, you know, she was let
go from a publication because she had a FaceTime sex affair
(03:24):
with like a quack, a doodle political candidate, right?
Which was a complete violation of her ethics.
Right, because she was covering him.
Yeah, she, I mean, she was covering it's, it's completely
unethical. Now we learned she's had
multiple affairs with people. I mean, whatever of people that
she's covered, it's really, it'sreally bad, right?
(03:48):
This is really bad. And she's, she's acting like
she, you know, was like she's, she's acting like she was thrown
to the wolves, like these monsters are ripping her apart
and all this stuff she faced like the, the, the very basic
level of consequences someone should expect to face for doing
the things that she did. And then she fell up.
She got a fancy job at Vanity Fair and what I'm sure is a six
(04:11):
figure book deal. Yes, at minimum.
So woof, that's my review so far.
OK. She jerks herself off about
monsters for a bit. And here's here's the excerpt of
the end of this chapter. It's so good.
It's it's, it really is my favorite part.
(04:33):
Certain dramas you can count on.Empires fall at last, Heroes
fail at 1st. And here I mean to tell you that
character is not why you are in the at what you are in the end.
Character is the thing you cannot outrun or outgun.
That spares sparks with fate allalong.
(04:54):
I refer now to my own witness and witnessed when I slipped.
I was swallowed whole straight through the plot, under the
blade of the devices and out theother side.
Under the blade of the devices. She's talking about people shit
posting about her, so she's currently under the blade of the
devices right now because peoplekeep joking about how shitty
(05:15):
this is online. So that's under the blade of the
devices. I mean to tell you that this is
more meaningful and more meaningless than you might
think. So it's nothing.
So nothing it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean anything.
Very deep. I mean to tell you that before I
was consumed by it, I could not have told you what it was.
(05:36):
But now it's now she knows it's the worm.
OK, this is this coming up. This is, this is actually low
key the worst line of all actually in terms of writing in
my opinion. My, my, it's meek, my my
critique. Go ahead.
The flag winked beside the lanesthat bent, to borders that
faded, to barriers that fell to the lines I crossed.
(05:58):
First of all, what are you talking about?
The flag fucking winked. What is it, an asshole?
Besides the lanes that bent to borders that faded to barriers.
I have no idea what you're talking.
About the lines that I crossed. Who do they have?
Who? Did anyone edit this?
The flag. OK, one more time the flag
(06:20):
winked beside the lanes that bent to borders that faded to
barriers that fell to the lines I crossed.
Is she? Is she on DMT?
At a bowling alley? What is she even talking about?
Well, I'll tell you what she's talking about, she says.
I am talking, of course, about how it happened between me and
(06:42):
the politician. OK.
I am talking, of course, about how it happened between the
country and the president. I cannot talk about 1 without
the other. When I open my eyes, I see still
the blur of colors, the flash ofred, of blue, of white.
(07:04):
Jesus, dude. I mean to tell you now as best I
can. I mean, thank you for reading.
I really appreciate it and I look forward to you.
I'm coming to Chicago. Oh yeah, around Thanksgiving.
I am, yeah. I'm coming to Chicago around
Thanksgiving. I look forward to seeing you
again in person. Oh yeah, same NPR, hopefully as
(07:25):
well. And, and yeah, we can, we can
share a vegan treat then. I'm pescetarian.
So I mean, it's my that's the same thing at vegan as vegan on
Thanksgiving anyway. Oh yeah, Jared told me to shame
you for that. The softest dietary
restrictions. Like the weakest.
(07:45):
Not even hard enough to be vegan, you know.
So, so you, you like respect animals, right?
But you see fish and you're. Like.
You're like, fuck those guys. Yeah, I guess.
What about? Worms.
Would you eat a worm? Yeah, would you eat a worm like?
I would not. It's this is the, you know,
pescatarianism is is is is the Long Island vegetarian.
(08:08):
That's what's called the Long Island vegetarian.
You got to have the pizza, so you can't cut cheese.
OK, You, you, you gotta have pizza.
And like, you gotta have, you gotta have fish because the
quality of fish is so good. So I apologize and I'm sure you
can talk. Maybe you can talk me out of it
while I'm in Chicago. But you draw the line at at
(08:28):
worms. Then you think worms have
feelings. I've never, you know, it's not
that. It's more that I'm a little bit
disturbed by the thought of a worm which obviously didn't
enter Olivia's head as she was engaging in this affair with
with Mr. Worm Man. Andrea, you read a lot of books.
In fact, you read 1 recently that you still finished.
(08:49):
But the whole time, every time Iwould say, oh, how was the book
going? You'd be like, this is the worst
book I've ever read. I hate this or.
Are you going to read Strange People on the Hill?
That's an important question. Is that what your book is
called? Yes it is.
I'll definitely read it. Wait, I can't even remember the
book that I hated. I forget what it was, but I want
your review of what you just read today.
(09:10):
Not knowing the characters, not knowing, having having like the
most surface level knowledge. Just if you picked up a book,
crack this open and this was thepros that came to meet you on
the page. What's your review of American
Canto by Olivia Nuzzi? I would give it five stars on
(09:30):
Goodreads. I thought the flow of it was
really nice. And the content was like, you
could tell she lived through a lot.
And she was reflecting on her experiences and she really grew
from it and that she wasn't trying to like use like her
platform to get more famous. And she likes being by the beach
(09:52):
and she likes looking out of thecars and and flags and she
loves, she's a patriot. And I just think this was really
well written and I have no notes.
And I would not eat a worm. No one should eat a worm.
All right. Thanks, Adria.
Thank you to the premium subscribers.
(10:13):
It's been a pleasure to to speakto you all.
Thank you for being premium subscribers.
We go, go team. All right, my wife, everybody.
The spark, the flame, the rumor fulfilled.
The labyrinth on fire. The Palisades fire.
What labyrinth? Oh, this is it.
The mouse? I don't actually understand.
She's the, She's the mouse. It's the mouse who builds a
maze, but also desires desire itself.
(00:25):
The mouse desires cheese. Why don't we let the worm
through the labyrinth? Yeah, no one's ever put a worm
in a maze. OK, so blah blah blah, there's
some more bullshit. More about this fire, more of
her feeling shitty about people hearing and learning about her
affair with RFK Junior. Then what?
(00:50):
People often, often people I do not know very well, reach out to
tell me that I have appeared in their dreams.
OK, got to get a full breath forthis run on sentence.
I wonder if this is because I sleep so little.
If the version of me who lives on the plane of dreams tires of
(01:11):
waiting for me to release her toaction.
If she goes out searching for places where she may exist
without my permission. If she identifies the minds of
those who have felt any kindnesstowards me, I if she thinks that
within her dreams she might get to live freely instead.
Breathe. Breathe.
Tachi PT was broken. Chichi PT was broken at this
(01:32):
time. I wonder too if this is a
function of being a visible facebut a veiled personality.
Oh. Come on.
If my impression contains empty space, that renders me an
adaptable idea and thus a usefuldevice for subconscious minds.
It is nice to think of this thatI might still be in some way to
(01:55):
someone of use. The abuse of Vanity Fair
magazine, who I recommend we collectively stop clicking on
links until she is no longer in her current position.
I mean to tell you as best I can, what it was to face the
(02:17):
unrealness, to stand so close that it seemed at times almost
plausible, to tiptoe along the edge of the abyss and to balance
there just long enough for to forget that the plates would
soon shift. I mean to tell you of the Canyon
where voices carried the place where monsters spoke to me,
where I listened, where I found that, as fortune or curse would
(02:39):
have it, I knew the language of monsters.
Where, with news on my tongue and tears in my eyes, the role
of town crier I interpret literally.
I ran back over the hill to translate for those who could
not stomach the thought of standing face to face with
monsters, but who required knowledge, Knowledge of monsters
(02:59):
as the monsters accrued evermorepower as they revealed or
converted evermore monsters among men.
Can we just? Can we just break something down
here? I want to slow it down for a
second because I, I really need to Like, you know, she was let
go from a publication because she had a FaceTime sex affair
(03:24):
with like a quack, a doodle political candidate, right?
Which was a complete violation of her ethics.
Right, because she was covering him.
Yeah, she, I mean, she was covering it's, it's completely
unethical. Now we learned she's had
multiple affairs with people. I mean, whatever of people that
she's covered, it's really, it'sreally bad, right?
(03:48):
This is really bad. And she's, she's acting like
she, you know, was like she's, she's acting like she was thrown
to the wolves, like these monsters are ripping her apart
and all this stuff she faced like the, the, the very basic
level of consequences someone should expect to face for doing
the things that she did. And then she fell up.
She got a fancy job at Vanity Fair and what I'm sure is a six
(04:11):
figure book deal. Yes, at minimum.
So woof, that's my review so far.
OK. She jerks herself off about
monsters for a bit. And here's here's the excerpt of
the end of this chapter. It's so good.
It's it's, it really is my favorite part.
(04:33):
Certain dramas you can count on.Empires fall at last, Heroes
fail at 1st. And here I mean to tell you that
character is not why you are in the at what you are in the end.
Character is the thing you cannot outrun or outgun.
That spares sparks with fate allalong.
(04:54):
I refer now to my own witness and witnessed when I slipped.
I was swallowed whole straight through the plot, under the
blade of the devices and out theother side.
Under the blade of the devices. She's talking about people shit
posting about her, so she's currently under the blade of the
devices right now because peoplekeep joking about how shitty
(05:15):
this is online. So that's under the blade of the
devices. I mean to tell you that this is
more meaningful and more meaningless than you might
think. So it's nothing.
So nothing it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean anything.
Very deep. I mean to tell you that before I
was consumed by it, I could not have told you what it was.
(05:36):
But now it's now she knows it's the worm.
OK, this is this coming up. This is, this is actually low
key the worst line of all actually in terms of writing in
my opinion. My, my, it's meek, my my
critique. Go ahead.
The flag winked beside the lanesthat bent, to borders that
faded, to barriers that fell to the lines I crossed.
(05:58):
First of all, what are you talking about?
The flag fucking winked. What is it, an asshole?
Besides the lanes that bent to borders that faded to barriers.
I have no idea what you're talking.
About the lines that I crossed. Who do they have?
Who? Did anyone edit this?
The flag. OK, one more time the flag
(06:20):
winked beside the lanes that bent to borders that faded to
barriers that fell to the lines I crossed.
Is she? Is she on DMT?
At a bowling alley? What is she even talking about?
Well, I'll tell you what she's talking about, she says.
I am talking, of course, about how it happened between me and
(06:42):
the politician. OK.
I am talking, of course, about how it happened between the
country and the president. I cannot talk about 1 without
the other. When I open my eyes, I see still
the blur of colors, the flash ofred, of blue, of white.
(07:04):
Jesus, dude. I mean to tell you now as best I
can. I mean, thank you for reading.
I really appreciate it and I look forward to you.
I'm coming to Chicago. Oh yeah, around Thanksgiving.
I am, yeah. I'm coming to Chicago around
Thanksgiving. I look forward to seeing you
again in person. Oh yeah, same NPR, hopefully as
(07:25):
well. And, and yeah, we can, we can
share a vegan treat then. I'm pescetarian.
So I mean, it's my that's the same thing at vegan as vegan on
Thanksgiving anyway. Oh yeah, Jared told me to shame
you for that. The softest dietary
restrictions. Like the weakest.
(07:45):
Not even hard enough to be vegan, you know.
So, so you, you like respect animals, right?
But you see fish and you're. Like.
You're like, fuck those guys. Yeah, I guess.
What about? Worms.
Would you eat a worm? Yeah, would you eat a worm like?
I would not. It's this is the, you know,
pescatarianism is is is is the Long Island vegetarian.
(08:08):
That's what's called the Long Island vegetarian.
You got to have the pizza, so you can't cut cheese.
OK, You, you, you gotta have pizza.
And like, you gotta have, you gotta have fish because the
quality of fish is so good. So I apologize and I'm sure you
can talk. Maybe you can talk me out of it
while I'm in Chicago. But you draw the line at at
(08:28):
worms. Then you think worms have
feelings. I've never, you know, it's not
that. It's more that I'm a little bit
disturbed by the thought of a worm which obviously didn't
enter Olivia's head as she was engaging in this affair with
with Mr. Worm Man. Andrea, you read a lot of books.
In fact, you read 1 recently that you still finished.
(08:49):
But the whole time, every time Iwould say, oh, how was the book
going? You'd be like, this is the worst
book I've ever read. I hate this or.
Are you going to read Strange People on the Hill?
That's an important question. Is that what your book is
called? Yes it is.
I'll definitely read it. Wait, I can't even remember the
book that I hated. I forget what it was, but I want
your review of what you just read today.
(09:10):
Not knowing the characters, not knowing, having having like the
most surface level knowledge. Just if you picked up a book,
crack this open and this was thepros that came to meet you on
the page. What's your review of American
Canto by Olivia Nuzzi? I would give it five stars on
(09:30):
Goodreads. I thought the flow of it was
really nice. And the content was like, you
could tell she lived through a lot.
And she was reflecting on her experiences and she really grew
from it and that she wasn't trying to like use like her
platform to get more famous. And she likes being by the beach
(09:52):
and she likes looking out of thecars and and flags and she
loves, she's a patriot. And I just think this was really
well written and I have no notes.
And I would not eat a worm. No one should eat a worm.
All right. Thanks, Adria.
Thank you to the premium subscribers.
(10:13):
It's been a pleasure to to speakto you all.
Thank you for being premium subscribers.
We go, go team. All right, my wife, everybody.
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