<p>Unf*cking The Republic (UNFTR) is a series of audio essays on the grand American experiment lovingly curated and presented by a quasi-anonymous political writer. </p> <p>Each essay reflects on a singular topic that is generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called “powers that be.” As we know, history is written by the victors and can be perilously manufactured to favor destructive world views. These views become intractably ingrained in the public consciousness and pervert public policy, oftentimes with horrific results. </p> <p>As of this podcast’s founding, we find ourselves living in a true kakistocracy. The disconnect between what we believe and what is actually happening below the surface or in plain sight is where this podcast lives. </p> <p>Together we’ll upend conventional wisdom, blow up narratives on the left, right and center and use magical devices like facts, logic and reason to explain how exactly we arrived in bizarro America, the funhouse mirror version of what was originally intended. #UNFTR</p>
The United States is in a full-blown housing crisis — and Congress just passed the most significant bipartisan housing legislation in a generation: The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act cleared the Senate 89-10, co-sponsored by Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott. So why won’t it fix the problem? In this episode, we break down exactly what the bill does, what it deliberately leaves out, and why the structural forces driving housing unaffordability in America—rising mortgage rates, institutional investors, zoning failures, generational wealth inequality, and decades of racial exclusion—are largely untouched by any legislation currently on the table. From the redlining of Levittown and Stuyvesant Town to the 2008 financial crisis and the asset inflation chasm it created, we trace how homeownership became both the engine of the American Dream and the mechanism of its denial. We also look at what actually works, like how Vienna’s social housing model has kept half a city affordably housed for over a century, and ask the question no one in Washington wants to answer: short of a depression, what does it actually take to make housing affordable again?
Resources
National Mortgage Professional: What’s The Rookie Home Buying Age? Not 40, New Analysis Shows
HUD: The 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress
National Low Income Housing Coalition
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: The State of the Nation's Housing 2025
Congress: H.R.6644 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
The White House: Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers
U.S. Census Bureau: Housing Vacancies and Homeownership (HVS) Q4 2025
Enterprise Community Partners: Four Key Findings from the 2025 State of the Nation's Housing Report
National Low Income Housing Coalition: The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes 2025
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: FHA Loan Production Report June 2025
Bipartisan Policy Center: What's in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
NPR: Senate Passes Bipartisan Housing Bill Targeting Large Investors
National Mortgage Professional: What's the Rookie Home Buying Age? Not 40, New Analysis Shows
National Association of Realtors: 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers
Gravel Institute: How Socialists Solved the Housing Crisis
Book Love
Richard Rothstein: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Mehrsa Baradaran: The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap
UNFTR Resources
Episode: The Economics of Racism.
Video: The Economics of Racism.
Episode: Housing in America.
Video: Congress Just Passed a Housing Bill That Changes Nothing.
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Why the Democratic Party’s promise of “restoration” misses the mark; how decades of economic crises reshaped American politics, and why returning to center means chasing a target that keeps moving right. One side built a durable monument to white nationalist capitalism while the other became its world-class pit crew. The fight isn’t about competence or committee chairs. It’s about whether Democrats can offer an actual vision for the future instead of just patching up the damage Republicans leave behind.
Book Love
Kurt Andersen: Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History
Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
Chris Hedges: Death of the Liberal Class
Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Mehrsa Baradaran: The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America
Jeff Sharlet: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Nancy MacLean: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Professor Thomas Piketty: Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Karl Marx: Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1
UNFTR Resources
Video: Democrats are FAILING | Losing the Iran War | Hasan Piker Rules
Essay: Why I’m So Mad at the Democratic Party.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Max and 99 are running hot this week. They break down catastrophic inflation data and what it means for stagflation ahead, hit headlines on animal welfare legislation and foreign policy chaos, and tackle listener emails on Democratic failures and economic warning signs. Off-topic covers toxic RFK Jr. and standout character actors. They rank their Top 5 comfort movies and close with spring training optimism. Enjoy!
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:08
Headlines: 00:06:12
Emails: 00:19:17
Top 5: 00:36:22
Beyond the Bullshit: 00:53:23
Outro: 00:59:24
Resources
ASPCA: Farm Bill Moves Forward with Mixed Results for Animals
Animal Legal Defense Fund: Petition: Stop Horses from Suffering for NYC’s Carriage Industry
Forever Wars: None of These People I Insulted Want To Die For Me in The Strait of Hormuz?
The Independent: Chelsea Handler claims she bought ‘the most toxic’ $6 million house from RFK Jr and Cheryl Hines
UNFTR Resources
Video: Iran War, Energy Spike, and the Inflation Perfect Storm
Episode: The Art of Trumpflation.
Video: On The Record 3-16-26 (Democrats are FAILING | Losing the Iran War | Hasan Piker Rules).
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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The February Producer Price Index (PPI) data release came in way hotter than expected, exceeding consensus expectations by nearly double. This is on top of an already hot January report, which signifies that goods and services inflation in the pipeline is very much a trend and not an isolated event. PPI typically foreshadows consumer inflation—where the public really begins to feel the pain—by about two to three months. And these numbers don’t include the impact of the war in Iran and the unbelievable spike in energy costs. Today we break down the nature of inflation shocks, why this differs from the dual oil shocks of the 1970s, but how it has already produced the same stagflationary result.
Resources
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Producer Price Index News Release summary
Trading Economics: United States Producer Price Inflation MoM
Wolf Street: Core PCE Inflation Hits 3.1%, Worst in 2 Years, in Unique Twist Blows way past CPI Inflation. Driven by Core Services
Morningstar: Inflation Set to Rise in 2026 as Tariff Costs Hit Consumers
KPMG: Headline masks lingering inflation
CNBC: $100 oil? Prolonged Hormuz closure could spark a 1970s-style energy shock
Yahoo Finance: Oil at the Edge: Markets brace for the largest supply shock in decades: Oil & Gas 360
Investopedia: Understanding Hubbert's Peak Theory and Global Oil Production
Bloomberg Law: Morgan Stanley Sees Private Credit Default Rates Reaching 8% (2)
Business Insider: Morgan Stanley says AI disruption of software will send private credit defaults surging
UNFTR Resources
Video: Iran War, Energy Spike, and the Inflation Perfect Storm
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Max and 99 kick things off revisiting old predictions and check how they're holding up. They hit the headlines: billionaires breaking records, geopolitical conflict threatening economic stability, and monopoly concerns in the music industry. Listener emails cover politics, financial industry backdoors, and navigating complicity. They rank their Top 5 historical figures to reclaim, do some movie talk, and member shoutouts round it out. Enjoy!
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:18
Housekeeping: 00:00:34
Headlines: 00:21:13
Emails: 00:48:54
Top 5: 01:00:23
Beyond the Bullshit: 01:19:35
Outro: 01:43:27
Resources
Acquired: Epic Systems (MyChart)
Bloomberg: Europe Rushes to Contain Price Fallout From War in Middle East
Foreign Policy: The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy
Forbes: World’s Billionaires List
The Cut: ‘My Friends Live in a Bubble. Should I Dump Them?’
NPR: Live Nation and Justice Department reach settlement in antitrust case
Reuters: Judge tells Live Nation, state AGs to negotiate potential deal
Straight White American Jesus Podcast
John Fugelsang: Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists
Forbes: AI Minted More Than 50 New Billionaires In 2025
Matt Taibbi: Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History
UNFTR Resources
The End of the American Experiment.
Phone A Friend: Zohran Mamdani.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Not a soul on this planet knows what comes next in the war theater. Because that’s war. But we can anticipate what comes next for the U.S. and global economy, or at least game out certain scenarios. This isn’t just another discretionary “police action” on the other side of the world or a simple regime change. This war is wired directly into the global energy, food, and financial systems. But a proper analysis must acknowledge how the circumstances of the U.S. economy and our monetary and fiscal policies have changed. There is no direct antecedent to the situation in which we find ourselves, which makes the folly of this war all the more absurd. We didn’t just launch a war. We may have just pulled the fire alarm on the entire world economy.
Resources
John J. Mearsheimer: Big Trouble Ahead in Iran
U.S. Energy Information Administration: Amid regional conflict, the Strait of Hormuz remains critical oil chokepoint
EnergyNow: CHARTED: Oil Trade Through the Strait of Hormuz by Country
Reuters: Asia’s oil and LNG dependence on the Middle East
Institute for Economics & Peace: Economic Consequences of War on the U.S. Economy
Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity: Modern Money and the War Treasury
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland: Fiscal Dominance and US Monetary: 1940–1975
UNFTR Resources
Video: Iran War Could Wreck the Entire World Economy
Essay: The Iran War Could Wreck the Global Economy.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
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Markwayne Mullin fails his first test. Lindsey Graham wants to blow the Iranian people. The markets are getting Blackrocked. OpenAI and Oracle have a bit of a cash crunch. Dario Amodei is full of shit. What Crude markets tell us about the war. Truth bombs from the House of El. Actual journalism on Iran from American Prestige and Dissent Magazine. ProPublica doin’ the lord’s work and Persopolis.
Chapters
Quick Takes: 00:00:36
Max Notes: 00:06:44
KLTW: 00:15:02
Headlines: 00:17:04
Pod Love: 00:18:26
Book Love: 00:19:27
Outro: 00:20:04
Resources
Bloomberg: BlackRock $26 Billion Private Credit Fund Limits Withdrawals
Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time: Charles Merrill and the Democratization of Stock Ownership
IRA Financial: Trump, Alternatives, and the Solo 401(k): The Retirement Plan That Paved the Way for Alts in 401(k)s
Bloomberg: BlackRock’s Retail Private-Credit Hopes Run Into Market’s Angst
House of El: DOLLAR COLLAPSE: Japan to DUMP $1.2T in US Treasuries After Trump Cuts 95% Oil Supply
Dissent Magazine: War, Revolt, and Iran's Unfinished Struggle
Grist: Kristi Noem all but killed FEMA. Will her departure save it?
ProPublica: Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees
ProPublica: Event: How to Use Our News App of Disclosures From Political Appointees
Pod Love
American Prestige: War in the Gulf and the Global Economy w/ Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
Book Love
Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis
UNFTR Resources
Video: On The Record (3-9-26).
Video: MTN Macro Take (3-7-26).
Episode: Trump Accounts.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Welcome to the first-ever Omnibus—the show finally has a name! Max and 99 open with the weight of the moment, addressing the U.S.-backed strikes on Iran before diving into the AI-military pipeline. Off-topic headlines hit on small business closures in NYC and fighter pay in the streaming era. Listener emails cover everything from financial anxiety to the mechanics of shadow banking, and Trump finding time to pump crypto mid-war. They rank their Top 5 everyday products they can’t live without, plus fit in some movie talk and member shoutouts to close it out. Enjoy!
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:19
Housekeeping: 00:10:06
Headlines: 00:14:33
Top 5: 00:58:28
Beyond the Bullshit: 01:12:18
Memberships: 01:23:32
Outro: 01:24:07
Resources
Fast Company: Bitcoin, XRP, and other crypto prices are rising today. What Trump said on Truth Social to boost digital assets
The Verge: How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance
The Hill: OpenAI goes on defense as Anthropic surges after Pentagon fallout
The Baffler: A Fighting Chance: Going up against the UFC
Brooklyn Vegan: Long-running NYC vegan restaurant Red Bamboo is closing
Acquired: Google Part III: The AI Company
UNFTR Resources
Video: Iran War, US Empire and What The Media is Hiding
Episode: War in Iran and the Decline of the U.S. Empire.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Senator John Kennedy is a bad caricature of a southern gentleman and he masquerades around Capitol Hill as a folksy “just asking questions” kind of fella. In reality, he’s a wealthy, elite, fraud with a $20 million net worth who attended Oxford. Despite representing the poorest state in America, this Louisiana senator took his allotted time at a hearing with the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to review how poverty is calculated and take issue with it. So this is our response.
Resources
Senator John Kennedy: Kennedy questions Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on poverty data in Senate Banking Committee
USAFacts: What is the poverty rate in Louisiana?
World Population Review: Poorest U.S. States 2026
The Data Center: Health as resilience capacity in New Orleans: The critical role of community-based collaborations
Prison Gerrymandering Project: Federal Census policy harms Louisiana’s democracy — but state lawmakers can fix it
Wikipedia: John Kennedy (Louisiana politician)
Buzzfeed News: John Kennedy Is America’s Folksiest Senator. Some People Who Know Him Say It’s An Act.
Quiver Quantitative: Senator John Kennedy has filed a new financial disclosure - here’s what we see
UNFTR Resources
Video: Senator Questions Poverty Calculations | Here's Why That's INSANE
Essay: John Goober Kennedy: The Louisiana Senator Thinks Poor People Are Faking It.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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The U.S. and Israel have declared war on the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite indications from Omani negotiators that the parties were close to agreement as late as the night before the bombing of Tehran and other Iranian cities began. Mainstream media have already cranked up the propaganda machine to frame this as everything from a necessary and just maneuver to an unfortunate turn of events. The anglo-centric framing is undeniable and we risk losing the plot. There’s also a stunning lack of historical perspective in any current analyses. Make no mistake, this is an illegal move conducted by a waning empire that put a madman in charge. And it threatens us all.
Apologies for any mispronunciations! -Max
Resources
UNFTR Resources
Video: Iran War, US Empire and What The Media is Hiding
Essay: War in Iran and the Decline of the U.S. Empire.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi took to Capitol Hill with her burn book in hand and a message to Congress, the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and the American people: Shut up, the Dow hit 50,000. She was right about the Dow Jones Industrial performance until the next day, when stocks dumped out on news that AI might be real and that the economy added 400,000 fewer jobs last year than we originally thought. That’s the thing about building an entire narrative around the stock market. The stock market is not the economy. And the victims of Epstein’s crimes deserve better.
Resources
MS Now: FULL HOUSE HEARING: AG Pam Bondi testifies over handling of release of Epstein files
Business Insider: Anthropic and OpenAI release dueling AI models on the same day in an escalating rivalry
Fortune: Anthropic’s Claude triggered a trillion-dollar selloff. A new upgrade could make things worse
Matt Shumer: Something Big Is Happening
U.S. Department of the Treasury: Monthly Treasury Statement: Receipts and Outlays of the United States Government For Fiscal Year 2026 Through January 31, 2026, and Other Periods
UNFTR Resources
Video: Epstein Victims Deserve Better Than Bondi's Economic Theater
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
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