066: Toasting Through It (Worst Takes of 2025)

It's the final episode of Posting Through It for 2025. To close out a very weird year, Jared and Mike share a New Year's toast, review the 10 best (worst) political takes that passed over our timelines this year, and listen to voicemails submitted by friends of the show. 

This episode includes audio messages from (in the order they appear): Will Stancil, Bobby Silverman, Hannah Gais, Michelangelo Signorile, Eoin Higgins, Eliot Higgins, Kelly Jensen, Madeline Peltz, Jeff Tischauser, Juliet Jeske, Luke Savage, Nikki Ramirez, Matt [Redacted], and Talia Jane.

Slam the door shut on 2025 with the hosts of your favorite music podcast... that is also known to cover right-wing extremism at times.

**Support the show and get access to weekly bonus episodes on our Patreon page: ⁠⁠https://patreon.com/PostingThroughIt

**Reserve your copy of Mike's book with the code "STRANGE20": https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-edison-hayden/strange-people-on-the-hill/9781645030607/?lens=bold-type-books

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Fuck man, he wrecked my shirt. Don't swear.
Oh my God, what game show have you ever seen that had swearing
in it? Oh yes.

(00:40):
Welcome back to posting through it.
I'm Jared. And I'm Mike.
Thanks for people who have signed up for the Patreon.
We've got a few shout outs to give here.
A couple of them are a little delayed.
The holidays are crazy. I had a work trip and all that,
but we've got Jadles. Shout out to Jadles Cal.

(01:03):
And then I need to correct the way I pronounced a name on an
earlier episode, Renata Lee Sofsky.
It's a lovely name. Renata Lee Sofsky, which is the
Polish name that I mentioned on a previous episode.
I think as soon as I said it, I was like, I mispronounced this.
Almost certainly Renata reached out and said, in fact you did.

(01:27):
So we corrected that. As always, if we ever do a shout
out and it's you know, we're going off the name that it shows
on Patreon. We ever get it wrong or
mispronounce it, just shoot us an e-mail and we'll correct it.
Also, our holiday recording schedule is a little bit uneven,
so it's possible that there may be some people who have to wait

(01:48):
for the next cycle that we miss.But thanks for being there.
It's made a huge difference. And as we close the year out, I
thought it would be good to justkind of pause and, and think
back on the year of posting through it.
It's, it's been really huge. I mean, I had done the show
previously solo, but since you came on and we started this

(02:09):
year, I mean, especially in the last few months, it's really
popped off. I mean, we're getting shout outs
and slate podcast mentioned in HuffPost.
I, I mean, it's kind of wild to see and wild to think that we've
done this completely independently and even more so
now that we're on Patreon. We don't have to do ads or think

(02:29):
about that kind of stuff. I don't know, man, I'm, I'm, I'm
proud of us, but also, you know,it wouldn't be possible if
people weren't tuning in. So thank you to.
Everyone, my magic mind willed it into being.
Oh no, Oh no. So for this episode, Mike has
been making a list and checking it twice and finding out who's

(02:53):
naughty. But it's only naughty.
It's only the naughty. No, we love these takes
actually. Yeah, the 10 best takes of the
year. And we also reached out to all
the people who have been on the show this year and some extra,
you know, friends that we have, and invited them to submit New
Year's toast for this episode. And, and we're in the structure

(03:16):
of this show, as far as I know, it is going to be slightly
loose, loose atmosphere here. We're in the holidays, we're
getting ready. It's New Year's time, people are
drinking champagne and and and whiskey and whatever else, and I
am going to be introducing my list to you for the first time.
You'll be hearing it as Trump said, you're telling me now for
the first time and you will be telling me who's the toasts are

(03:40):
for the first time. So we're kind of like, it's like
a sharing episode. It's like AI don't know what the
fuck. I don't know what kind of New
Year's tradition this is. It's a surprise.
A friend. I don't know.
Who knows? But first, I wanted to start
with a toast of my own. I started podcasting in February

(04:03):
2018, and when I launched a showat that time, I called it Shit
Post. The audio quality was bad, I
didn't know how to speak into a microphone, my thoughts were
often mangled. But as the years went on, it got
better and the show developed a niche following.
But I was exhausted. Hosting a podcast can be a very

(04:25):
isolating experience. You spend so much time
producing, recording and editingthese shows together, then you
throw them out into the void andhope that someone, somewhere
found what you did with all thattime was valuable.
I could see that people were listening to the show, then
every once in a while I'd hear from someone who liked an
episode. But over time, it wore me down,

(04:48):
and I had to step away from the show in 2023 to kind of try to
take care of myself a little better.
After Trump won the 2024 election and I started to see
the world roll over out of fear,I started thinking that a show
like Shit Boast, which I had already rebranded at that time
as posting through it, needed toexist again.

(05:08):
Mike was finishing his book and wondering what was next, and I
asked him if he wanted to bring the show back together.
He said yes. And when we're done with this
one, 66 episodes later, I think it's safe to say you're so
fucking back, dude. Yes.
The posting throughout you've been getting in your feeds this
year is the best version of thisshow that's ever existed.

(05:29):
I'm so proud of what the show has become and that is because
we have worked our asses off to make it that way.
I'm exhausted, but I couldn't behappier.
Thank you Mike for taking this on with me.
I couldn't do it without you, and you've added so much to the
show. I get to make something I love
with one of my best friends, andI wouldn't trade that for any

(05:52):
amount of Peter Thiel's venture capital cash.
But we really owe everything to our listeners.
There are 10s of thousands of you out there now, and so many
of you come back each week just to hear what we have to say and
to listen to the conversations we have with our guests.
I love that we have an audience of people with us that are
wicked smart, but also kind and thoughtful.

(06:14):
A lot of you have signed up for that Patreon.
I mentioned hanging out with us on those premium episodes, and
while it's great having some extra money to spend on the show
and ourselves, what I've enjoyedmost is having a place to chat
and check in with our listeners.You're the reason posting
through it is the most trusted name in news.
And as I used to say in those early episodes of shit post,

(06:35):
we'll stay logged on so you can try to log off every once in a
while. Thank you from the bottom of my
heart. Happy New Year, and here's to
another year of a music podcast that occasionally overlaps with
right wing extremism. Oh man, you like you made me
tear up, which if you know me personally, like you know it's.

(06:56):
Very easy to do. If you put on a movie that has
like, like one string section ina scene, like I'll just start
fucking crying for like half an hour.
But yeah, I don't want to add too much to your toast other
than just say thank you, Jared, for that and thanks for the
listeners. 2026 is our year. I'm just, I'm just going to

(07:19):
leave it at that. I'm I'm so fucking ready.
Let's start playing some of these voicemails.
We got a lot of them in and we'll intersperse.
With the bet with the best takesof 20262025 whatever the fuck
year top. 10 takes unmatched in their league.
But first, here's a voicemail. Mike, you haven't heard this
yet. Let's go.
From an interview we did with someone I really enjoyed

(07:44):
speaking to. Hey, folks.
We'll stancil here live from Minneapolis.
I feel like that's just on your show.
But since then, ice has arrived here in Minnesota in a big way,
thanks to Trump's fixation on Somalis.
I've been going to or been scheduled to go to trainings
about how to respond to ice, howto resist them when they attempt
to do these abductions. And I'm really just waiting for

(08:06):
the moment when I'm out there and, you know, the ICE agents
have got their guns pointing at the crowd.
They're trying to grab some somepoor Somali citizen.
They're shouting at everyone. And one of them looks at me and
he lowers his gun and he goes, wait a second.
Aren't you the main character onmy favorite show?
Anyway, I've heard there's a fifth episode of the Will
Stencil show coming a Christmas.Episode.

(08:28):
But it is beset by some creativedifficulties their their
ambition may have exceeded theircapacity this time.
So we'll see. Maybe time you publish this,
it'll be out. But maybe this is the end of the
whole thing. Who knows?
As for me, I'm just, I've been running some holiday business
promotions. It's really the most mundane
thing you can imagine. I've got working through the
neighborhood organization. I've got 17 businesses signed up

(08:49):
for a big holiday promotional project event that lasts the
month of December. We got a business passport
program, we've got a bunch of declarations and I'm
coordinating all of that. It's really funny.
It's just kind of the most mundane neighborhood
organization thing you can imagine.
And I don't think any of the people I'm working with, the
volunteers, the business centersunderstand or know about this
entire other side of my life, the ones that the one that

(09:11):
everyone on the Internet knows about.
So it's been it's been kind of akind of a relief, honestly,
really looking forward to 2026. Really feel like it's the year
that maybe we crushed these MAGAscumbags into dust.
You can really feel Trump's support falling away.
It really feels like something is giving out finally.
So so here's hoping Happy holidays, happy New Year.

(09:31):
It was great talking to y'all hoping to talk to y'all soon.
Will Stancil like the the last guy would have expected to be
leading off a year end thing when we started this.
But you know, I really hope thatshow making fun of him.
That was the reason we had him on and to begin with.
I hope that gets diminishing returns and he survives us and

(09:53):
is able to give everybody the finger that did that because it
was a bunch of fucking Nazi trash.
Hit me with a take, Mike. OK, Jared for our for for number
10 coming in this year, I did. This is a definitive list,
everybody, this is more important than your pitchfork
list or or or your your movie. I don't where where people get
their movies. I don't care.

(10:15):
This is this is the most important list of 2025 #10 Top
takes Jack Pasovic September 6th, 2025 quote the the title is
the Phillies Karen and the deathof American manhood.
Why we're losing our nation 1 surrender at a time.
Do you remember covering this onour premium?

(10:37):
Oh I do, I do. This was after the Phillies
Karen event where some woman with the prototypical, you know,
may I speak to your manager? Haircut refused to give a fly
ball to a kid at a Phillies game.
Yes, well, here's what Jack had to say to say about that.
Today we've got fathers who, instead of defending their turf,

(10:59):
accepted signed bats's, consolation prizes,
participation trophies. Like that's going to make up for
the lesson in weakness they justimparted.
As I put it bluntly, he's putting his own tweet.
Phillies. Karen got the little boys
baseball and both of his father's.
She walked away with three ballsthat night, folks. 3 This isn't

(11:20):
harmless, it's the slow poison killing America.
When men won't stand up to pettytyrants like this Karen at a
baseball game of all places, howcan we expect them to defend our
borders, our families, our way of life?
Anyway, we can end it right there.
I think you know, someone said please send Jack our femdom

(11:41):
T-shirt because that seems to bewhat is on his mind is a take.
Let's play another voicemail. This one's from Bobby Silverman.
Hello, this. Please excuse me, I got
something in my throat. So what the hell is that?
That's no good. Anyway, OK, this is Bobby

(12:08):
Silverman calling you from New York City, where I am the New
York correspondent for the Posting Druid Show, and it's
almost the end of the year. Wow, this has been like a year
where so much stuff happened with the Nazis who are running

(12:33):
things. So that's bad.
What did they do that's bad? Aside from.
Turning the country into a police state and rounding up all
of the brown people they don't like and invading good cities
and ruining the economy and destroying our ability to fight

(13:01):
the cancer. And this is getting depressing.
I'm getting very depressed aboutthat.
So it's going to be a new year, OK, It's it's and then things
will maybe get better. So I'm looking forward to things
getting better for sure. That's number one number. 2 is

(13:22):
more episodes of posting throughit and oh geez, this is I'm
getting very depressed now. I may need to go sit down
because I can't think of other good things.
The Knicks are pretty good. OK, Yeah.
That's a that's a good thing. So, yeah, it's going to be a
great year. Happy New Year and happy

(13:46):
holidays to all of the listenersfrom Bobby Silverman, New York
City correspondent. I'm going to play one more.
This one's from Hannah Case. OK, hey, it's Hannah Gaze.
I just wanted to extend A wish of happy holidays to all of you
posting through it, listeners out there and Jared.

(14:08):
I think there's. That other guy, Mike, I don't
know. I don't know about him.
I was thinking about what to sayas sort of a year in review, and
I kept going back and forth between feeling like it's best

(14:30):
to capture how depressing and difficult this year was for so
many people, and also how there were just very brief moments of
optimism in that darkness. And I think I kind of settled a
little bit on the optimism. I live in DC, and one of the

(14:53):
difficult, most difficult thingsabout this year has been the
federal incursion on DC and watching ICE terrorize
communities, including where I live.
And it's been, it's been very hard to watch and very hard to
experience and feels like there's no escape from it

(15:16):
really. But at the same time, every time
I've walked by someone being harassed or someone being
abducted, I always see my neighbors out there organizing
people turning out to documentedpeople, turning out to help

(15:37):
contact people's families and provide support however they
can. And it's been one of the few
things that, like, I think really shows the greatness of
this country. And it's been, it's a difficult
moment and we shouldn't have to do this.

(16:00):
But it's hurting to see that people are doing what they can,
when they can and however they can.
And whatever fresh horrors 2026 brings, I'm sure there will be
some. I hope people can continue to do

(16:21):
what they're doing, which is standing up to this shit That,
that went pretty hard. I, I, I was at first I was going
to make a joke and say, like, Hannah sounds like a sentient
Joy Division CD as usual. But then she brought so much
heart into it that I was like, OK, all right.
She's so smart. That's the thing.
I'm so proud of my friends. Give me another take #9.

(16:44):
Sure, can you? Can you queue up one of the the
first of the two audio tracks I gave you?
The one from Bungler Bachia Sargon of Akkad.
Oh yeah. I would say that like this is a
good example of like, you know, following somebody with, with,
with Hannah's emotional depth with with this is is almost

(17:05):
unfair. It's like tough.
But this is a good take to, to, to put at #9 for the year.
And it was only a few days ago. Everyone.
December 21st. Common theme of it all is
dignity. Dignity restored to the
forgotten men and women of the heartland.
That's what Trump's entire year has been about, from the
economic policy to the immigration policy to the

(17:26):
foreign policy. How does deporting day labourers
and landscapers bring dignity tothe working class?
Aren't they just doing jobs Americans won't do?
Well, no. Contrary to the myth promulgated
by the left, there isn't a single industry in America
that's dominated by illegals. Not one has more than a 30%
share of illegal labor. Migrants aren't doing jobs

(17:48):
Americans won't do. They're doing jobs Americans do.
OK, so I don't know if you knew this, Jared, but Trump is
restoring dignity to the homeland and heartland of the
United States right now. That's what he's doing.
I didn't know that. And that that's reporting people

(18:08):
sending them out on planes and flying them to countries they've
never been to. Yeah.
But the economy is going so great.
Yeah, that's why everything is so affordable right now.
Anyway, she got by the way, if anybody wants to know whether
like to which direction, if you believe in the whole left right
bullshit, you know to which direction this country tilts

(18:30):
like the fact that Bhatia Ungar Sargon of Akkad has a has a
newscaster job from like from being like an A deputy opinion
editor of Newsweek before on News Nation tells you all that
you need to know. She'll be on Fox next, I'm sure.
We've got another voicemail. This one's from Michelangelo

(18:50):
Signorelli, who had hit us on his SiriusXM show.
Remember when we did that earlier this year?
I do, barely. I I love Michelangelo.
He is just the sweetest dude with the biggest heart and he's
fun to listen to on the radio. So here's what he sent us.

(19:11):
I'm Michelangelo Seniorelli, host of the Michelangelo
Seniorelli show on SiriusXM Progress 127.
I first want to thank Jared Holtand Michael Edison Hayden and
all of the listeners of Posting through it for helping us to get
through all of this madness and making sure we are heard.

(19:32):
And it's so amazing looking backnow at this year, because it
started out so bleak, so frightening, so scary, so dark.
And I think a lot of us didn't know whether we were going to
make it to the next week, let alone the next month.
And then things really started to change.

(19:52):
People came together, people organized, people got out there
and protested. They did lots of.
Creative things, they did it in new ways and we saw elections
that really showed how people are not going to take this crap
and they're going to fight back.And I feel so much better now at

(20:13):
the end of the year and going into. 2026 So thank you again
and happy New Year to everyone. One of the reasons I said I
barely remember being on the show is because it was right in
the middle of the Charlie Kirk stuff that we were doing.
Like we felt like we were doing everything all the time at once.
But I've been on on Michelangelo's show for so long,

(20:36):
and he honestly does a tremendous service for people.
He's one of the few people I know who has like a prominent
perch on radio who is always focused on combating the fascist
threat. So let's hear it #8 what do we
got? Number eight of our worst takes,
our best takes of 2026. Hey, Mike.

(20:58):
Best Takes Best Takes January 22nd, 2025.
You will recall the weather was very, very cold outside and a an
opinion writer, I guess you would call her Libby Emmons,
friend of Jack Pozobic at Human Events.
Jared, can you tell us what thisone was about?
Do you remember it? Yeah, I think this was our third

(21:21):
episode. We covered the inauguration in
DC. You were there hanging with
Hannah, and on the sidelines there was a party hosted by
Passage Press, which Jason Wilson's done some great
coverage of them in the Guardianof Far Right publishing house.
Basically, that's trying to, youknow, really trying to make
itself like the cultural vanguard of the MAGA movement.

(21:45):
I haven't heard much from them lately, but Libby Emmons went to
a party they hosted and wrote this.
And here we are. Trump was cancelled and he has
ascended to the throne of globalpower.
The memesters and net artist do not reveal their public names,
but their authorship of the movement has transformed the

(22:07):
political and cultural landscape.
And for myself now, having attended the Coronation Ball
when only eight years ago I was ensconced with the Pussy Hat
wearers on the National Mall, then cancelled over Trans just
one year later. How many all I get cancelled
over trans? I got cancelled for trans.

(22:28):
I'm now serving as the writer ofright wing cultural influence.
I can attest to that fact. My guess is that next time,
anyone will be able to buy a Gadsden flag dress off the rack
and we'll be able to go out intothe world with the face of our
own avatars. Really, actually, even though
it's #8 I think it is, you know,purely in terms of writing the

(22:52):
worst, it is the, it is the absolute worst.
But the Gadsden dress that is the like, Don't tread on me
flag. And the idea is that, like,
somebody was so cool at this thing and wore that in dress
form. And her prediction was at the
start of the year that likes notlong from now, people will be
wearing those dresses everywhere.

(23:14):
And but the biggest, I think faux pas, the biggest wrong in
her take was of course, that shewas a, a, a writer of any kind
of cultural importance. All right, let's do a couple
more voicemails. I've got 2 from people with the
last name Higgins got Owen Higgins and Elliot Higgins.

(23:38):
I'll play Owens first. Hey guys, this is Owen Higgins
guest on The Who the Hell is Matt Taibbi episode as well as
one related to my book Owen How tech billionaires on the right
by the loudest voices on the left that if you are listening
to this and you have not got it,you should get it.

(24:00):
Anyway, it's been a pretty good year.
Published my book. Looking forward next year to
reading Mike's book, enjoy my appearances with you guys, and
look, you know, as far as next year goes, who knows?
Who knows what's coming down theline.
I'd like to say that things can't get much worse, but we all

(24:21):
know that that's not true. Anyway, I'd like to end just by
recommending some music for those fans of yours who like
electronic music. Hell yeah.
I've been listening to this drumand bass DJ from the UK called
Harriet Jackson. Her stuff is really, really
good. So check her out if you haven't
had time. All right, guys, see you in

(24:43):
2026. Bye.
The the the music podcast part of it is is holding Jared.
This is holding it's, it's we'vememed it into a thing.
Yeah, here's Elliot Pickens. Hey gang, this is Elliot Higgins
from Balencat. It's been an interesting 2025
and I hope everyone has a good new year.
One thing I've been thinking about a lot as as as we're

(25:05):
moving towards the first year ofTrump's term, I'm wondering how
many of his hanger. ONS.
Who he's put into positions of power are going to embarrass
themselves or get bored enough to leave.
And who's going to replace them?Who's waiting in the wings of
Trump world? Because I feel they've probably
already scraped the bottom of the competency barrel and I can

(25:29):
only imagine what the next barrel looks like, probably full
of rotten fish and other terrible things.
I'd love to hear what you guys think could, could be the next,
I don't know, Deputy director ofthe FBI, Secretary of State,
Secretary of War. I don't know, but I hope they're
not British. I hope.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, we, we, we can make fun of

(25:52):
the British, even though I, I, I, I really love him.
What I was going to say was thatlike, is there something Mr.
Higgins beyond Kash Patel? And for people who haven't
listened to our premium episode from the last one, I would urge
you to go back and listen to himtalk about his favorite TV shows
for 5 minutes and try to find somebody.

(26:13):
I mean, quite literally, you could just find someone on the
street and make them the FBI director and they would be more
engaged and more into it than than he is.
So I mean, in some ways, these kind of stooges that he's
referring to are a gift in disguise in some ways because
they're just, their incompetencyis so salient.

(26:36):
All right, let's get back to thetakes #7 best take of 2025.
What do you have for me? Niall Ferguson in Times UK
January 3rd, 2025 So he did he he he kicked this off before
Trump took power, which is rare as the only one on the list like
that. And he he has a the the piece

(26:58):
was titled I was wrong to call Donald Trump a would be tyrant,
And I'll just read from it. Ferguson, 60, who divides his
time between the UK and the US, where he has positions at both
Harvard and Stanford, was a was at Mar a Lago to attend a
fundraiser for a conservative education charity.
Four years ago, he was deeply critical of Trump's role in the

(27:20):
January 6th attack on the US Capitol.
Oh, that's nice of him. I'm glad he did that.
Writing for Bloomberg, he said that Trump violated his oath to
preserve the Constitution, was ademagogue and would be tyrant.
How can we be sure Trump won't try to be won't now try to be a
tyrant? Quote.
I'm convinced that whatever impulses he has or has had in

(27:42):
the past, the system can system can contain them as it was
designed to, he says. I also think that the American
electorate was collectively smarter than I was was in seeing
that January 6th was not quite the earth shattering event and
was presented on television. My assumption in January 2021
was that it was a career ending mistake by Trump and I was wrong

(28:04):
in that. So wow, thanks man.
You got a real courage over yourconvictions man.
I'm I, I, I look forward to moreNiall Ferguson takes.
Oh my God, what a Ding Dong. Anyway, here's someone really
smart. Kelly Jensen.
Hi, Jared and Mike. This is Kelly Jensen.

(28:25):
I am. Really honored that I got to be
on the show this year and have been thinking about what kind of
message I would. Leave for your listeners and I
guess. My biggest message as we go into
the new year is that I hope people take advantage of the
public libraries that they have access to.
And if they don't have access toa Public Library, they find a

(28:45):
way to get access, whether to a regional library or they pony up
a little bit of cash to pay intoanother local district.
This can look like getting a library card, but it could also
look like using that library card to check things out, or
requesting any sort of title that you're interested in from
the library. If they don't have it on shelf,

(29:06):
ask them if they can get it. If you have kids, bring them to
the children's events at libraries.
Bring them to story time. As an adult, you can attend all
kinds of programs yourself. Take advantage of these gems
that are in our community and bea part of continuing to advocate
on their behalf and ensure that the entire community is being

(29:27):
represented in the library and not just.
Those with a vested interest. In the sorts of materials and
ideas that can be available in the library.
I have no good jokes. I have some good book
recommendations. You know, my my biggest thing is
that I like to tell folks is if you don't like what you're
reading, put it down. Pick something else up.

(29:48):
There's no award for finishing something you don't love.
Instead, keep looking for those things that you do love and keep
enjoying them. Thanks so much.
Have a great new year. That's good guidance for life.
I, I'm, I'm very happy. I'm very happy with that.
I was going to make a nerd joke there, but then I'm like,
actually, yeah. Like, no, it's good that we're

(30:10):
we're we're hyping libraries on the show.
Yeah. So that was really smart.
Give me some I I want the stupidshit again.
Mike, number six. All right, welcome to back to
what the fuck we're doing here. Yeah.
So number six. OK, Jared, I got AI got a star

(30:30):
on here. I have a * You ready?
This is a this is a posting through its star.
We like star makers, you know star discovery.
We helped make this star here. Oh God, I already know who this
is. Yeah, yeah, this is.
I thought I got to tell you. I thought that she would be #1
like I thought you'd be #1 but then I really looked at the

(30:53):
takes and I started to break it down.
That person is. Yeah, yeah.
Catherine Night Train D that's hers pseudonym real names like
Katya Ungar, whatever. But like, you know, no matter
how bad Catherine D's takes were, she still advanced her
career because she got a New York Times op-ed after this.

(31:16):
It wasn't it wasn't about the radical right or anything like
that. That was too offensive.
It was sort of like, you know, why is the Internet like in in
like some sort of magical forestdream parade.
And like it was the type of likenothing blabber about the
Internet that sometimes gets published.
And that's what she wrote. Well, for this one, Jared and
I'll, I'll let you read some of it.

(31:37):
I'll just say that she first came to us in a premium episode.
It was an October 13th article called Nick Fuentes is Winning,
Winning Over Women on the Left, which I have retitled.
In my mind, women are gooning over Nick Fuentes because that
was one of the lines in it. Her evidence was very sparse.

(31:58):
I think she probably could have,you know, cracked the top ten
maybe, but sometimes you got to push things down.
You know how these lists go. Well, it's interesting that that
got the most amount of attentiononline.
People were really angry about it because the worst one came
out afterwards. Jared, if you recall it was for
Politico on October 19th and it was about the Nazi leaning

(32:25):
messages that were leaked from Republican group chats.
Will you read some of this? My intuition is that if more of
these exchanges took place face to face, some of the ugliness
might soften. It is one thing to type a slur
into a void and another to hear your own voice saying it to a

(32:49):
person standing a few feet away.That's true.
I once interviewed a white supremacist, a self identified
Nazi, who told me he had never actually said the N word out
loud until our interview. When he finally heard himself
say it, he was disgusted. We spoke twice more after that

(33:12):
and over time he completely renounced white supremacist.
Just put Catherine D in front ofall these guys.
He had been, in his own view, Internet poison and having to
explain his beliefs to somebody outside of that world in a sense
de radicalized him. This is an exceptional situation

(33:33):
specific to this particular individual circumstances.
But there's also a lesson there when we can extrapolate to much
less extreme situations, especially with all we know
about the Internet and disinhibition.
If people had to look others in the eye while saying vile
things, if they had to hear their own voices speaking hatred

(33:55):
aloud, much of this rhetoric wouldn't exist.
Screens create distance, and distance changes moral calculus.
Yes, go on, speak on it. The Internet changes our sense
of who we're speaking to and howour words land.
Until we come front that ship directly, we will keep circling

(34:18):
the same argument about whether people really, quote mean it.
The question misses the point. Meaning itself has become
unstable because the medium blurs in tension and
consequence. The Young Republicans Telegram
archive is a mirror of that instability.
Its participants knew what they were saying was dangerous and

(34:41):
certainly difficult to justify to outsiders.
Yet they didn't stop. Their downfall was predictable,
perhaps inevitable. In today's political
environment, there's always someone waiting in the wings to
weaponize words, screenshot orders, archivists of

(35:01):
discontent. Maybe the real solution is to
move these chats offline period,and watch them disappear.
She's got the answers. That's how.
That's it. It just, they didn't mean to say
the Nazi stuff, Jared. They didn't mean to.
It was just they were, they werejust online.
And if they had just kind of gotten offline, they would have

(35:23):
been like, hey, guys, let's stopsaying Hitler is good.
The key for fixing online racismis to go let those people be
racist in the real world. Also the most important point
that you made at the time, whichis also they, they were taking
these chats off like they were, they were not like on social
media, they were, but they were trying to be private and those

(35:46):
these were their private thoughts anyway.
Catherine D Catherine D, for people who don't know, wrote a
whole bunch of articles in rightwing publications and then was
all of a sudden sort of pushed forward as a kind of an expert
and seer on on Nazis. Yeah, because they know if they
call me or Mike for comments in the New York Times, we're going
to be like, fuck you, fuck you, fuck this guy.

(36:10):
Your story's ridiculous, you shouldn't write it.
But then, you know, she can get in there and do the like.
Wow, isn't the Internet a weird little magic box?
That's so weird. Yeah.
And that's it. It's like 4000 word essays.
Also, I I can't let this go. We need to keep moving.
We said we were going to keep moving on this one job, but I

(36:30):
can't let this go. She never identifies the white
supremacist that she radicalizedjust by looking into his eyes.
Anyway, it it doesn't, maybe youdidn't have to, but you don't
even she didn't put any descriptor around him, right?
It wasn't like, how did she meethim?
It's like, you know, Anyway, it doesn't fucking matter.
Last thing I'll say about Catherine D probably the most
mad anyone's ever gotten at us for talking about them on this

(36:54):
show. She subscribed to the Patreon
just to hear the episode where we talked about her GQ article
about gooning to Nick Fuentes, and then sent us both very angry
messages that that didn't make alot of sense.
Anyway, here's Madeline Peltz. What's up?

(37:16):
Posting through it, listeners, It's your girl Madeline Peltz,
AKA Maddie Bat Mitzvah AKADJ Samuel Taylor Suit, AKA
Chicago's youngest retiree. And I'm calling to say Merry
Christmas because we are saying Merry Christmas again in the new

(37:36):
golden era. This year, I wrote a book and
produced a documentary, and I want to take a moment to reflect
on the things that I learned in 2025.
Number one, if you want to succeed as a woman in media, the
most important thing is what youlook like.
Always speak in a baby voice, keep your IQ at a comfortable

(37:58):
room temperature, and do not hesitate to compare your affair
with RFK Junior to the LA wildfires that displaced
200,000. People #2 always post through
it. Bill Ackman did nothing wrong.
Elon Musk did nothing wrong. Benny Johnson did nothing wrong.

(38:19):
If you are the power hungry son of Jewish refugees and have the
personality of a boiled egg thathas been swallowed whole by an
off leash Labradoodle, only to be puked up moments later and
you find yourself at the top. Of the most.
Corrupt White House in American history there is no upper limit
to how much people want to hear from you #3 always be kind,

(38:45):
especially to your. Sister.
She may annoy you when you get over simulated at a children's
pumpkin patch, but she is also your ride.
Home. All right, that's all for me.
Go bears. Subscribe to my sub stack.
Love you. Bye.
Amazing. All right.
I don't really have much to add to that, but thank you.

(39:06):
I'm going to play. I'm going to play the one we got
from the other Chicagoan, Jeff Tishauser.
Hey, it's Jeff Tishauser here, vice mayor of Chicago.
Blue sky. I'm going into.
This holiday season, thankful, thankful for y'all's podcast.
And I'm not just saying this. I swear I'm not just saying this
because I want to be back as a guest.

(39:27):
All right? I, I am very much a fan of your
show and your show is helping mestay sane.
So thank you. I hope you're both enjoying your
holidays. And you know, what am I thinking
going into 2026? I think it's more of a mood that
I'm going to try to bring. I got 2 middle fingers raised to
the sky screaming fuck Greg Bovino, fuck Ice, and fuck

(39:49):
everybody who wants this shit, who wants to destroy families
and to terrorize people. You know what gives me strength
though? In 2025?
I saw my neighbors stand the fuck up.
I saw so many fucking young people stand the fuck up.
We got, we got pushed down, we got pepper sprayed, we got shot
with rubber bullets aimed at ourheads.

(40:10):
We stood right the fuck back up.Chicago is US.
Chicago is our home. Chicago, we run these streets.
These are our neighbors and family members they're
terrorizing and we're not going anywhere.
That's all I'm trying to say. So, you know, happy holidays,
everyone, except Greg Bovino. Jeff has that dog in him, you
know. Yeah.

(40:31):
He's but he's the perfect guy. Like he, you know, he was on to
do Patriot front with us and he's just the perfect guy for
that stuff because you see the way he goes, he just goes in and
you need and you need that. You need that.
It's like a, you know, not a lotof people who cover the far
right have that type of energy and you need you because when

(40:52):
you get face to face with some of these guys, you get CTE, man.
It like has you have to be you have to you have to be like more
like intense than they are sometimes.
And he's for Patriot Front. There's no better fit.
I always appreciate Jeff becauseyou know, I've, I've been
becoming a fair weather fan of the Chicago Bears since living

(41:14):
here since they're having a goodseason.
But I don't watch all the games,but I know when they win because
Jeff gets in the Jeff gets in our fantasy football group chat
and just post the bears, the bears, the bears, the bears.
And that's how I that's how I know the Bears won that day.
All right, well, you ready for #5?
#5 let's do it. I just want to say to the

(41:36):
listeners, we had like some night, you know, you know what?
You know what 10 through 6 is like?
I'm on a list like this. They're like, those are good,
but you think you want to get tothe real, We're going to get the
real elite shit, the real elite takes, and I'm going to give you
one that we haven't even coveredyet.
Can you believe that? What do we got?
This is one we haven't even covered yet, but we we couldn't

(41:58):
leave it off thanks to the news cycle that helps make it even
more interesting than it was before, which is David Brooks of
the New York Times. November, November 21, title,
the Epstein story question mark.Count me out, Cher.
Would you like to read that? If I were a Democratic

(42:20):
politician, this role-playing iskind of fun.
I'd add that America can't get itself back on track if the
culture is awash and distrust, cynicism, catastrophizing, lies,
and conspiracy mongering. No governing majority will ever
form if we're locked in a permanent class war.

(42:43):
I try to recognize that no political moment is forever.
Right now, the dark passions areascendant.
But after one cultural moment, voters tend to hunger for its
opposite, which in this case means leaders who protect and
leaders who project integrity, unity, honesty and hope.

(43:04):
How many y'all like the Dark Passions by the way?
The smart play, I'd say is to rebut conspiracy mongering, not
abet it. When the giant issues like AI
and Chinese dominance come crashing down on us, we will
look back on the Epstein moment and ask what the hell were we
thinking? And from USA TODAY just a week

(43:28):
or two ago. The New York Times columnist
David Brooks appeared in a Thursday, December 18th
phototrop, eating a meal and sipping a drink.
The photos line up with a 2011 billionaires dinner that
included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla founder Elon
Musk, among others. So basically this guy is like,
hey, I don't know why the Democrats are so worked up about

(43:51):
this Epstein stuff. Maybe we should just forget it.
Can we just like, can we stop here with the with the leaks of
stuff? I think we can just like do
that, right? Why don't we stop that then of
course we've got pictures of him.
They've. Been taken by Jeffrey Epstein,
Yeah. We don't know what he did or
whatever. All I know is I ain't I I ain't

(44:11):
show up at any fucking dinner with Jeffrey Epstein.
I know that. If we did, we'd have to disavow,
disavow you on the podcast. But I don't know, we're good
friends. I'd keep you around.
But everything OK, let's let's play a voicemail.
This is Juliet Jeske of DecodingFox.

(44:32):
News The one woman. Podcast slash media project on
Sub stack. I watch all the Fox News.
You'd never want to. Let me tell you, it's not always
fun. I wanted to congratulate my
friends Michael Edison Hayden and Jared Holt for all of their
success with posting through it in 2025, and I wish them the
best and continued success in 2026.

(44:55):
They're both highly entertaining, brilliant men.
They have great rapport with each other.
We will all be quite busy covering the manchild deranged
lunatic who is diminishing by the day in the White House.
I wanted to do a quick bit that I sometimes do for my podcast.
Judge Jeanine Pirro is no longerwith Fox News, but she still

(45:15):
shows up on the network from time to time.
And she has a quick message for Jared and Michael.
Here we go. I'm Judge Jeanine, if you want
to watch listen to a podcast, two researchers who know a lot
about the far right and other topics, check out posting
through it. I'm not going to listen to it
because I love Donald J Trump asmuch as I love my dogs Red Ted,

(45:39):
Stella and Doodle and you know, I like a York Peppermint Patty
and throwing pens. Stay away from Christine Om
though, because she will shoot apuppy in the face.
I'm Judge Jeanine, thanks for listening, posting through it.
Give it a shot. Can we get her on to do that?
Like can we? Can we have an interview with
like a full interview interview with Judge Jeanine?

(46:01):
Just never break the bit. Yeah, just don't break the bed.
It's she's really good. She's.
Good at it, yeah. Wasn't she like she she has like
a theatre background. She used to do and and so does
Bob and like you can tell like when they do their voices and
performances that they're they they have a lot of practice and
performance. That was really funny and I
haven't seen her in a minute. And that make makes me want to

(46:23):
amend that. I'd like to say hi.
Yeah, we first, I think. I had, yeah, drinks maybe like
it must have been like four or five years ago.
I haven't seen her since I. I I love Julia she's she's
amazing she's awesome. So cool.
Let's go back to that Doo Doo brain shit #4.
OK #4 this one, it's going to betough to laugh like at this one

(46:47):
because it's so fucking horrible.
But it has to be in, you know, it had to be in the top 2025.
This was we, we have to be consistent with the takes.
And this was the number four worst take of 2025.
This is Olivia Rheingold of the Free Press, who ran basically a

(47:09):
propaganda campaign through the Free Press.
They they they will call it journalism that is essentially
tried to minimize the horrific, just so bleak and so painful
starvation and famine that happened in Gaza this year.
Kids were sick, but not just with malnutrition.

(47:31):
In every instance, they were suffering with other conditions
or illnesses like cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy and
even traumatic head injuries. A few weeks ago, I started to
notice that the same kids were appearing over and over again in
coverage about Gaza, and they were being photographed by
different photographers, which suggests some element of
coordination. And then the New York Times had

(47:54):
to issue an editor's note about this viral image.
And that made me wonder, what else weren't they telling us
about these photos? This, that, that's conspiracy
brain shit. Oh, the same, the same kids are
getting photographed and it's like, yeah, maybe maybe it's
because they're close to like a central location or they're like
in a one of the big refugee camps that the photographers all

(48:18):
go to and said and said they're like some degree of coordination
here. Plus, the UN formally label
labeled as a famine, and everyone knows that it's a
famine. And everybody knows that they
were blocking aid from getting into Gaza and in fact, shooting

(48:39):
people who were going to starving people who were going
to get aid. That's what's not a very fun
take to go through. But we still have three more.
Here's Luke Savage Hey there fellas.
Luke Savage of the acclaimed substack Luke W savage.com also
Luke W savage on the artist formerly known as Twitter Co

(49:02):
host the Michael and us podcast coming to you from north of the
49th parallel in the free city of Toronto.
What can I say this year has been kind of a whirlwind.
I think I've recorded something like 100 episodes of my own
podcast, and I'm looking forwardto a few weeks respite from
that, which I should hopefully be in the midst of by the time

(49:24):
this drops. And Speaking of podcasts, I had
been known to go on other people's as well, and without
any exaggeration or hyperbole, Idid just want to say that
recording with you guys this year back in September was some
of the most fun I've had doing that in quite a while.
A real pleasure to talk all things Iglesias, though it is a

(49:46):
shame we did so before he published his epically titled
rebuttal to my piece. I I've been right about some
things, I think it was called. Anyway.
So much fun to sit in on the show and just unbelievably
cathartic to talk pundits and media guys with you both.
Looking forward to hopefully doing that again sometime in

(50:09):
2026. For now, I'm planning to leave
the content minds for just a little bit.
Read, relax, engage in some other non posting related
activities. But shout out to you guys and to
all your listeners, a happy New year, Happy holidays.
Wishing you good health and as we say up here in Canada, keep

(50:32):
your sticks on the ice. Cheers.
Cash Patel would like to hear that.
Yeah, our boy. Yeah, man.
Keep the keep, keep the stick onthe ice.
I'm out here right now. I'm watching land man, I'm
Paramount Plus. Everybody, you guys need to
listen to that premium episode if you haven't yet, but I'm
going to be doing my Cash Patel impression for the next
throughout 2026. Take #3.

(50:54):
What do we got, Mike? All right, so we're done with
the the, you know, right, top three.
That's your real, like, come on,you, you, you're listening to it
like Casey Kasem, like the top hits or whatever.
You're like, you want to know the top three, right?
You want to know the top 3. So #3 Jared, this is a guy.

(51:15):
I, I, I, I have to tell you, I, I wasn't even able to get
through reading this one on the premium episode.
We covered it because it was just too good.
It is by Jeffrey Ingersoll, editor at large at the Daily
Caller, who whose bio says writer, drinker and that and the

(51:43):
the headline for this everybody is enough is enough.
Ellipses. I choose violence.
All caps I I think we need to read.
We need to read this full section.
Everybody needs. This.
Yeah, but before we do just knowthat he published this and then
they affixed an editor's note atthe top that's like, hey,

(52:06):
listen, I know this guy sounds fucking insane, but we publish a
diversity of opinions and the piece, the piece doesn't
actually call for violence. Yeah.
There's all kinds of. You know, it's only a
self-defense situation. The New York Times covered it.
They got in some hot water. I mean, it was the first time
the Daily Caller had been in thepress for anything in a while.

(52:29):
And and this happened like startus out.
Choose violence. We all know the government is
not going to help you in your time of need, especially a Soros
sponsored government. Time out.
I don't even remember this from the first time.
Like like the Trump administration.
OK, nevermind. This is a Soros sponsored

(52:52):
government. Conservative conservatives
looking to peacefully assemble and publicly debate need to be
realistic. Nobody's going to help you.
In fact, they're going to encourage violence.
They're going to excuse, justify, and encourage it.
Encourage it. We saw as much with Charlie
Kirk. They were practically begging

(53:13):
someone to go after him and whensomeone did, they quickly
justified it. Well, I think now that we know
the extent of it, the time to goas lambs to the slaughter is
over. All caps.
In real terms this means bringing security with you.
That's dying to dole out drubbins.

(53:34):
I'm sure a fair amount of ex cons who found Jesus loved
Charlie Kirk. Maybe they need work?
Well, first of all, before I'm sorry, I just need to interject
something real quick. Even though we've done this
before, what are these ex cons sitting around and be like,
yeah, I like that guy. I like that Kirk guy.
He's he's. You know what I'd love to do,
man? You know what I'd love to do is

(53:55):
just beat the shit out of someone, Polly.
Walnuts, Polly Walnuts. Be put some respect on Charlie
Kirk's name. Listen, the boss told you,
whatever works, we need to reinstitute the cost.
So some activist takes the sign next to your table at a public
debate like what happened here. She gets instantly closed lined.

(54:21):
I don't care if police are present, do it anyway.
In fact, be wildly disproportionate.
Which is, which is awesome, because that's just assault.
You can't. You can't beat the shit out of
somebody because they took your property.
That's not how the law works. Oh man, imagine how good two in
one are if this is the third one.

(54:43):
A fat black lady assaults your on camera talent.
Of course. Thank.
Way to go, Jeffrey. Fat black lady, right?
Like yeah, he just pulls that one out of his ass.
Book the kind of security that has no qualms hospitalizing her
and people like her. OK, I don't really, can we drill
down on this? We're saying, I know we're not
doing an episode on this anymore, but I, I, I, I, I think

(55:05):
I was laughing too hard to actually look at it.
Book the kind of security that has no qualms hospitalizing her.
Described as a fat black lady and people like her.
Right. So just like book like what are
you talking about? Like book like, you know, Dylan
Roof, like what are you talking about?
Like, just like insane white supremacist basically.

(55:30):
But Mike, the editor's note saidthat this one didn't actually
endorse violence. It's a fucking this is insane.
I was like, this is insane for the Daily Caller.
Dudes, rope up your car and start vandalizing it.
Bros. Dismounting with cudgels?
We'll fix that real quick. Turn it into an instant brawl.
Break bones, force corrupt police to intervene.

(55:53):
I want blood in the streets. OK, I think that's enough of
Jeffrey Ingersoll. Back to the fucking doors,
buddy. Writer, drinker Jeffrey
Ingersoll. I can't wish him a happy new
Year, actually, but thank you for giving us the take.
He won't hear you anyways. Blackout.
Here's Nikki. Hi, Jared.

(56:14):
Hi, Mike. Hi, posting Threat listeners,
this is Nikki McCann Ramirez from Rolling Stone Magazine.
And this year was a lot. This year was a lot.
And being on posting through it,listening to the podcast,
watching it grow has been a delight and a pleasure.
I don't think I need to recap all of the horrors that we
experienced in this first year of the Trump administration.

(56:37):
You guys did a really good job of that.
But what I will say is what I thought would be an ending to a
really bleak and abysmal year. I am, weirdly enough, feeling
kind of hopeful because I think over the past couple weeks,
particularly, we've seen weeks and months, weeks and months.
We've seen the Trump administration, the Republican

(56:59):
coalition, the MAGA base developsome fractures that for the
first time really feel like theycould be permanent and really
feel like they could be wideningand really feel like they could
split the hold that Trump and macro Republicanism have had on
the conservative movement for the last decade.
I'm talking about people like Marjorie Taylor Green breaking

(57:22):
with the president. The reality that Republican
lawmakers across the country arerealizing that the president's
policies over the last year havebeen incredibly unpopular, and
neither are choosing not to run or bracing for catastrophic loss
losses. I'm going to restate that or
bracing for catastrophic losses in the midterm elections in

(57:45):
2026. And so this year was really
hard. A lot of people were put through
absolute torture and brutality by the administration,
everything from ICE raids and communities to deportations, to
foreign torture, prisons to, youknow, the shutdown and families

(58:06):
being deprived of their health care and access to food.
And it, I, I never like thinkingin this framing, but if there is
something that gives me hope, it's that all of those things,
all of those actions are clearlyalienating Americans.
And hopefully we'll see, we'll see Republicans pay for their

(58:28):
mistakes in the coming year. Happy holidays to all y'all,
love y'all. So basically TVUSA has Nicki
Minaj and we have that Nicki andI'm I, I think it's like way
better personally. We have the better Nicki way.
Better. It's not.
It's not even a. There's not even a question.
It's not even a thing. #2 Mike, what do you have?

(58:52):
We're getting close. All right, I think a lot of
people would have thought this might have been #1 but it just
couldn't quite cut the top one #2 and it's a real honorable
mention here. There's a lot of factors into
what move these takes higher or lower the the perch, right?
When you have something coming through with the New York Times,

(59:14):
that's a big, that's a big, that's a big megaphone right
there, right? We're going to agree with that.
That's the number one place to to drop a take pretty much.
Then you have the next thing is the timing, right?
That's a huge factor too. It's sort of like, hey, like,
you know, you know the joke whenor when people make a joke and
people say afterwards like too soon, right, about something,

(59:35):
right? Timing is a factor, timing.
And to get like a take like this, you got to come through.
You have to have a level of belief in yourself, right, that
you're like, I can just fucking drop this.
I can just drop this in. I got the I got, I've got
everything going for me. I got this abundance fucking

(59:55):
thing that I don't I that Mike Hayden doesn't understand what
it is. There's like, you know, I've got
a podcast that, that where I sound worried every time I say
something, you know, I'm, I'm a big fucking deal.
I'm a big fucking deal. I'm not, I'm not like some guy
who's, you know, drawers are filled with Silly Putty.
I'm I'm actually. I'm a, I got big balls to drop a

(01:00:18):
take and that guy is Ezra. Ezra Klein, big guy.
Yeah, Ezra Klein with a, with a huge hit.
And I know he's going to be disappointed not being #1 on
this list. But number 2 is no, I mean, he
he over I, I think he was biggerthan Ingersoll just because of
those other factors. I know that Ingersoll did
everything he could in the DailyCaller, but this was great here.

(01:00:41):
September 11th, 2025. This is the new 911.
You already know what this one. Is we all?
We all remember where we were when this take dropped.
Yeah, top chart charting take ofthe year.
Klein absolutely flexing on thistrack.
Let's hear the flow, Jared. You can dislike much of what
Charlie Kirk believed, and the following statement is still

(01:01:05):
true. Kirk was practicing politics in
exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses
and talking with anyone who would talk to him.
He was one of the era's most effective practitioners of
persuasion. When the left thought it's hold
on the hearts and minds of college students was nearly

(01:01:25):
absolute, Kirk showed up again and again to break it slowly.
Then, all at once, he did. College age voters shifted
sharply right in 2024 elections.This was not all Kirk's doing,
but he was central in laying thegroundwork for it.

(01:01:49):
I did not know Kirk, obviously, and I am not the right person to
eulogize him, but I envied what he built.
Now, that's the key part of this, by the way.
That's why I made sure that was in there.
Yeah, that's the that's the mostimportant thing.
A taste for disagreement is a virtue in a democracy.

(01:02:14):
Liberalism could use more of hismoxie and fearlessness.
In the inaugural episode of his podcast, Governor Gavin Newsom
of California hosted Kirk admitting that his son was a
huge fan. What a testament.
Just Kirk's project Mike. If I remember correctly it was
actually this take which is why we scrambled The Jets and did a

(01:02:37):
like emergency broadcast style. Who the hell was Charlie Kirk
episode? Yeah, it is actually, yeah.
We, we felt like we had to urgently and it really changed
the trajectory of this show. I think in many ways.
I think, you know, I don't know.I think it was like just shortly
after we had gone to premium andit got like it, it racked up the

(01:03:00):
most, I mean just like downloadsthrough the roof when we did it,
it was the. Most pop It was the most popular
episode we had this year. Yeah, and and I think like
largely because people were like, wait a second, isn't there
more to this story than we're getting?
And I just want to just harp on one thing rather than
congratulating ourselves for doing a podcast.
The this guy is out there like imagining himself like, you

(01:03:25):
know, I'm going to entertain some questions from some
conservative young people about abundance, Abundance.
It's like, would you like to hear more about abundance?
So don't shoot me. Have you heard the good news
about housing developments? Anyway, all right, Anyway, yeah,

(01:03:46):
it was. It was what it would.
Look, there's still there. There is another, as they would
say in Star Wars. There is the greatest take of
2025. We've got two more more
voicemails to cram in before we get there.
First one's from Matt Redacted, who joined us for The Who the
Hell is Kumia Anthony Kumia episode.

(01:04:06):
And then we've got Talia Jane. Hi Jared and Mike, Matt here
from the Kumi episode. It's a pleasure seeing a show
grow and of course it was a hugepleasure talking Anthony Kumia
with you. One thing that I didn't mention
is that Kumia fans lurk on YouTube.
That's where all the Opie and Anthony is.
That's where Ants Compound Mediaand AM shows live.

(01:04:29):
And when I saw you had APTI YouTube profile, I checked out
the episode and seems to be doing well.
A lot of engagement and here aresome of my favorite.
Comments. Let me.
See STD 88 writes. Your soy latte is ready at the
counter. His name is STD amped up, EVCT

(01:04:53):
writes. Anthony is a comedy legend.
Sorry he offends your delicate sensibilities.
Mitch Connor dash R6I writes real shit.
People who have a problem with Cumia are soft.
D under score C under score 5 six O 4 writes it's 3 beta white
male feminists calling Anthony all the phobes and ists Promark

(01:05:15):
53. 17 just writes. Gay.
So I'm not. Totally sure that we've captured
the hearts and minds of the Kumiya fans, but it was really
fun to be on the pod. And I have a prediction, by the
way, I think that Kumiya becomesa Christian in 2026.
He's had a couple heart attacks and I think it would help with
his new AM radio listeners. I think it's a good.

(01:05:36):
That's a good guess and I actually do create stuff and I
would love to plug my actual actual work, but I don't want to
get doxed. And Anthony Cumia is famous for
doing that, so probably. Skip what I do.
But anyway, again, love the show.
It's a great music podcast. Happy 2026.
Long live posting through it. He gets it.
Hell yeah. My Man Music Music Podcast of

(01:05:58):
the Century is posting through it.
That's right. We talk about other stuff too,
sometimes. All right, here's Talia Che, and
I think this is the last one we have.
It's Talia Jane. I'm here with my little baby,
thinking about the difference between niceness and kindness
and how this year we've seen decorum and appeals to it

(01:06:24):
weaponized to force compliance with awful, cruel things.
Appeals to decorum to keep people silent, to get them
snitching on their neighbors. And thinking about how moving
into the new year, hopefully more people realize that decorum

(01:06:46):
is a tool of the fascist machine, and that if they want
to fight back, they have to abandon any sense of politeness
and throw down and throw sand inthe face of bullies.
And my baby wants you to know that niceness is not the same as

(01:07:08):
kindness, and that sometimes thenicest thing you can do is be a
little bit of an asshole to terrible people.
Preach. That's the intro to my new
hardcore album, yeah. I love that.
That was so sweet. They got me pumped up.
Yeah, but I like, but I like holding the kid.
But she's like, it's like she was still ice cold, you know

(01:07:29):
what I mean? She's like, fuck this.
I'm just, I'm dropped. I'm spitting.
We have some. We have some good, we have some
good friends on the show. I got to tell you.
Like these, these toasts are like so nice.
Everybody's not nice like that, but they're nicely done.
Like, they're really thoughtfully done.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, they put as much thought

(01:07:51):
into this as I put into the top 10 takes of 2025.
And ladies and gentlemen like Casey Kasem, we are counting you
down to the number one take, thenumber one take of 2025.
For this one, I'm going to tell you a story first.

(01:08:13):
It's about a civil rights group nominally, and they got
themselves into a little bit of hot water.
This is a group that focuses ostensibly a lot on
anti-Semitism. And on this day, a very the most
arguably one of the most famous people in the world, number one
most famous person in the world,did what looked like a Roman

(01:08:34):
salute, which is also known as aHitler salute.
And when they did they at 5:52 PM on that day, January 20th,
that was Elon Musk, by the way, we're talking about.
They took to social media and could not wait and even a few
more seconds to rethink the following statement, which is

(01:08:55):
not the top take of the year. This is just the context that
gets us to the top take of the year.
Everyone go ahead. Jared, if you could just read
this social media statement thatis not the number one take of
the year, but sets up the numberone take of the year.
Yeah, so yeah, richest man on the planet does Nazi salute, or
at least something that looks. A.

(01:09:16):
Whole lot like a Nazi. Salute.
All right. Yeah, it looks like for sure.
This is a delicate moment. It's a new day and yet so many
are on edge. Our politics are inflamed.
It's like how I would describe my stomach after a bad meal.
And social media only adds to the anxiety.

(01:09:39):
It seems that at Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment
of enthusiasm. Not a Nazi salute, but again, we
appreciate that people are on edge.
In a moment of enthusiasm. In this moment, all sides should
give one another a bit of grace,perhaps even the benefit of the

(01:10:01):
doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning.
Let's hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and
years ahead. Very sweet actually towards Elon
Musk who threw his arm up in a very angular motion.
You know, Jared, a lot of peoplewere saying when that happened,

(01:10:23):
hey, you don't seem to express the same kind of grace or or
offers of grace towards college students.
Do you remember that? Remember a lot of people saying
to this group, this is group is called the Anti Defamation
League by the way, everybody anda lot of people were saying,
hey, you were saying like show some grace for this guy who just

(01:10:46):
threw his arm up like that. He's got a lot of power and a
lot of money, but you kind of like, don't do that about just
random college kids. It's kind of weird that you
don't do that well. Coming in, the ADL will hear
like a college kid join a chant.It's like, you know, globalize
the Infantata or whatever and just be like that college

(01:11:11):
student is basically a member ofHamas.
Right. Yes, if you could, I would like
you to read for me. It was March 9th, it was a
Sunday when the ADL dropped the number one take of 2025, and I

(01:11:31):
would like you to read that for me in your most serious Jonathan
Greenblatt voice, please. We believe there should be swift
and severe consequences for those who provide material
support to foreign terrorist organizations, incite violence
in support of terrorist activities, or conceal their
identities in order to harass and intimidate Jewish

(01:11:52):
individuals in institutions withimpunity.
We appreciate the Trump administration's broad, bold set
of efforts to counter campus anti-Semitism, and this action
further illustrates that resolveby holding alleged perpetrators
responsible for their actions. Obviously, any deportation or

(01:12:13):
revocation of a green card or visa must be undertaken in
alignment with required due process protections.
We also hope this action serves as a deterrent to others who
might consider breaking the law on college campuses or anywhere.
And this was, of course, their statement when ICE arrested

(01:12:36):
Mahmoud Khalil, basically imprisoning him on completely
false, fabricated terms, silencing his free speech
rights, taking him away from hisfamily and this civil rights
organization said. So this was an encouraging
development in so many words. They gave the game up when
they're like, we hope this will be a deterrent for people.

(01:12:58):
This is the line that makes it the number one take of 2025.
We appreciate the Trump administration's broad, bold set
of efforts, whatever that might be, to counter campus
anti-Semitism, right so. Which this year amounted in near
totality to using DHS Secretary of State's office to pick out

(01:13:26):
Middle Eastern exchange studentsor or students here on visas who
criticized the Israeli government and trying to process
them for deportation. That was the effort.
So that's the side of history that ADL wanted to be on in
March. And then you know what happened
in June? Because the case was completely
bogus and everyone could see that from jump, that no matter

(01:13:48):
how hard they wanted to bend therules towards illegality, they
couldn't even do it. Yeah, their whole argument in
court was like, but we're the government, we can do whatever
we want. And the court was like.
Well, Mahmoud Khalil is free, ofcourse.
And I've written some stuff in the document that I won't say

(01:14:08):
out loud, Jared, but you, you know what I'm thinking.
All I have to say about that is he's smiling, but he's not
saying anything. Yeah.
Well, what to say about this is if you are a civil rights
organization, why don't you try comporting yourself like a civil
rights organization? And that is my final thought on
the top 10 takes of 2025. I hope I don't see you guys

(01:14:31):
around here next year. Don't come around and be repeat
offenders. Hope everybody learns their
lessons. Mike, thanks for putting that
together and thanks to everybodywho sent in a voicemail.
What a way to end the year. Closing out the 66th episode of
posting through it this year. My God was what a journey it's

(01:14:56):
been dude. And I cannot sell this enough.
If you haven't got a chance to listen to the last Patreon
episode, you need to listen to Kash Patel talk about
television. We're excited to show you what's
in store next year. There may or may not be some in
person things. Maybe that's early.

(01:15:18):
I that's all I'll say. The Femdom shirts should be
shipping in the new year. Please send us the photos if you
ordered one. Send us photos wearing your
Femdom shirt anywhere but especially if you wear it to the
club and get bottle service or some kind of like if you if you
ball out in that shirt, I want to know.
The the real trick with Jared would be to wear the Femdom

(01:15:41):
shirt in the studio audience of Real Time with Bill Maher.
All right, well, that is a wrap on this year and to play us out,
I made a very sloppy little shitty rendition of one of the
only holidays long as I like, which is all playing sign.
Thanks for hanging this year. We're excited to show you what's

(01:16:02):
next. And here's that I I learned from
a friend that if you record something and it sounds kind of
shitty, you can call it lo fi. So good riddance to 2025, by the
way. Fuck that year.

(01:17:15):
Music.