Call It Like I See It

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at a recent analysis done by Public Citizen that looked at the connection between political donations by corporations and their tax liability as well as recent reports about how much Google co-founder Sergey Brin spent to try to defeat a one-time wealth tax in California, and then consider the extent to which the huge sums of money being spent by billionaires and corporations in political d...

Excerpt from the episode "Why a Political System Goes from Order to Disorder, and the Reason 'the Why' Matters."  In that episode, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana considered whether what feels like rising disorder America’s political and legal system is actually the result of entropy, as understood in a physics sense, and discussed what this means for people who value things like representative government and rule of law.

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James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss at the controversy in the WNBA surrounding the idea of transgender participation that has followed statements by Sophie Cunningham suggesting that transgender girls should be banned from women’s sports and consider why this issue can so reliably get people fired up and how, because of this, it may be being used opportunistically by many actors to raise...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana consider whether what feels like rising disorder America’s political and legal system is actually the result of entropy, as understood in a physics sense, and discuss what this means for people who value things like representative government and rule of law.  The guys then react to a recent article that argues that a rise in self-imposed perfectionism that may be tied to societal trends is m...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at the online backlash to Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” over its inclusion of black characters and consider the extent to which it is driven by people are trying to “own the past” in the Orwellian sense, people who are just ignorant as far as the history of the Mediterranean, or just general malcontents.  The guys then discuss the recent move by Tuskeg...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss Mark Galeotti’s “Homo Criminalis - How crime organises the world,” the 2025 book that takes a look at the many forms organized crime has taken in societies throughout history, including how an argument can be made that the state itself is one of those forms.  The guys then look at how much of what we see in modern times further illustrate the blurry lines between the over...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recent article by Rose Horowitch of The Atlantic entitled “The End of Reading is Here,” including how widespread reading shaped and sharpened minds of people, and of society as a result, over the past few hundred years, why people today are reading for information or entertainment so much less, and how societies may fundamentally change as people read less and less over time.

Th...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the video “How Amsterdam Invented Capitalism” and consider how what took place in Amsterdam actually exposes some of the inherent contradictions between how capitalism is perceived versus how it is practiced.  The guys then discuss how capitalism and other economic systems evolve over time even if the perception of them remains fairly static.

How Amsterdam Invented Capitalism ...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to the revelation that President Trump made over $2 billion in in his first year back in office and discuss whether the free pass many Trump supporters give him with his obvious self-dealing is a result of Trump giving them “somebody to look down on.”  The guys then take a look at the recently released autopsy report of the 2024 election from ...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to some recent research from Emma Harrington and Natalia Emanuel that suggests that in some scenarios, there are some very real social and psychological costs with working from home.  The guys then discuss what at least feels like a drastic uptick in spam calls offering loans of various sorts, and consider how close we are to spam making phones essentially unusable for incoming calls.

We Lik...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the Jay-Z’s deal with Target to exclusively release the 30th anniversary edition of his first album Reasonable Doubt despite (or taking advantage of) efforts from black activists to maintain boycott against Target for its rollback of DEI initiatives.  The guys then consider how this illustrates a consequence of the “Splintering of Black America” Eugene Robinson talked abo...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana try to make sense of the recent push to ban Sharia law in the US at the state and national level and discuss why the apparent coordinated use of Sharia law as a strawman by right leaning media seems to be so effective even though there does not seem to be any notable effort going on in the US to enact Sharia law and the US Constitution would operate to prevent it an...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recently completed Enhanced Games, which allow athletes using banned performance enhancing drugs and banned equipment to compete, and consider why the performances at the games came up well short of the kind of record breaking feats that the organizers were promising.  Later on, the guys take a look at published advice from Sanjay Bhojraj, an experienced cardiologist, about the 5 thing...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana continue their streaming between the lines series and discuss the 2024 documentary “American Godfathers: The Five Families,” which is currently airing on Netflix and is based on Selwyn Raab’s book “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires,” and consider the vast influence of the Mafia and...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recent wave of redistricting that has followed the US Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision which allowed for partisan gerrymandering even to the extent it is discriminatory and consider how viewing and fighting this as a racial justice issue can both helpful and a hinderance to those who oppose it.  The guys then discuss the NAACP’s call for Black athletes to boyco...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to the report that the US national debt now exceeds the size of the US economy, measured as the gross domestic product, for the first time since right after World War II in 1946 and consider whether all the talk about how bad huge national debts were, which happened when the actual debt was tens of trillions of dollars lower than it is now, was just political posturing.  The guys then consid...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the dietary supplement creatine and its growing use by not just athletes but all people, particularly in light of a recent claim by Darryn Peterson, a college basketball star and top NBA draft prospect who suggested that taking creatine caused him major physical issues this past college season.

Darryn Peterson says high doses of creatine led to cramping (ESPN)

Darryn Peterson says he's finally...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss Nir Eyal’s “Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results,” the 2026 book that deep dives into the concept of beliefs, including how they affect how we see and move through the world and how one can use them to better their life.  The guys specifically consider how Eyal defined beliefs, extent to which so much of each of ...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the story of the US soldier that is being charged for using confidential insider information to win bets about the capture of Maduro on the prediction market platform Polymarket and consider the risks that society faces as prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi seem to be turning the whole world into a casino.  The guys then react to recent research on extent to which our brains pro...