Behind the Bastards
Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts
There’s a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater’s insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein’s side career as a trashy romance novelist.
- 3 hours 27 minutesIt Could Happen Here Weekly 215
All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file.
- AI Robot Slaves and other CES Miracles
- Best and Worst (non AI) Products at CES
- What’s Happening in Iran?
- What Happened in 2025 with Andrew
- Executive Disorder: Portland Shooting, the FED, Visa Pause & Turtle Island Liberation Front
You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today!
Sources/Links:
What’s Happening in Iran?
https://www.instagram.com/hengaw_english?igsh=MTZ3Z29qd3h6YzVlMA==
https://www.instagram.com/ali.javanmardi?igsh=ODV2cGZzaXk2Z3dt
https://www.instagram.com/soran.mansournia?igsh=OWFhNDdtMTRtNzl0
https://www.instagram.com/kurdistanipeople?igsh=MTI3Y3kwZ3V0N3Zvag==
What Happened in 2025 with Andrew
https://wmo.int/media/news/fao-and-wmo-report-highlights-extreme-heat-risks-agriculture
https://chimpreports.com/un-warns-as-somalia-drought-crisis-deepens-hunger/
https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-tracks-extreme-july-wildfire-activity-both-sides-atlantic
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5w5nyd5xzo
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/25/peru-youth-protesters-state-of-emergency-gen-z
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/israel-and-palestine
https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/power-struggle-sudan
https://cdn.sida.se/app/uploads/2020/08/15103021/Yemen-HCA-2025.pdf
https://www.stimson.org/2025/too-little-too-late-china-steps-up-military-aid-to-myanmars-junta/
Executive Disorder: Portland Shooting, the FED, Visa Pause & Turtle Island Liberation Front
https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-synagogue-arson-jewish-south-0e489adc986bfaddd55662075bdb6443
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26378204-tilf-complaint-signed-redacted/
https://www.syriahr.com/en/376284/
https://www.syriahr.com/en/376282/
https://www.syriahr.com/en/376266/
https://x.com/deborahlipstadt/status/2010387174651490769?s=20
https://www.landtag.nrw.de/portal/WWW/dokumentenarchiv/Dokument/MMD17-5076.pdf
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.229.1.pdf
https://georgetown.app.box.com/v/AO-CaseAssignments-061825
https://georgetown.app.box.com/v/AO-NDOs-120125
https://x.com/StateDept/status/2011478657680757214?s=20
https://x.com/StateDept/status/2010740549469557010?s=20
https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2009427948541993323
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/01/12/congress/mark-kelly-pete-hegseth-lawsuit-00722382
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20260111a.htm
https://apnews.com/article/trump-powell-federal-reserve-d87eedf1e35195957f903f9963aeaf99
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2026/html/ecb.pr260113~ec4630b9fa.en.html
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
17 January 2026, 5:00 am - 33 minutes 31 secondsPart Two: Behind the Bastards Q&A: 2026 Edition
Robert and Sophie continue to answer listener questions.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
15 January 2026, 10:00 am - 28 minutes 20 secondsPart One: Behind the Bastards Q&A: 2026 Edition
Happy New Year, Robert and Sophie sit down and answer listener questions.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
13 January 2026, 10:00 am - 3 hours 27 minutesIt Could Happen Here Weekly 214
All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file.
- 2025 Q&A
- 2026 Predictions
- Trump Kidnaps Venezuelan President Maduro
- Inside Our AI Future: Report from CES
- Executive Disorder: Minneapolis ICE Shooting, Maduro, Iran & Aleppo Update
You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today!
Sources/Links:
Executive Disorder: Minneapolis ICE Shooting, Maduro, Iran & Aleppo Update
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115850817778602689
https://x.com/war_noir/status/2008927274326761631?s=20
Https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/our-response-israel-gaza-war
https://files.constantcontact.com/7fef1c1f901/78a97f42-d0ad-4077-94b0-1e3300697e20.pdf?rdr=true
https://www.defendrojava.org/news/ecr-statement-on-the-situation-in-aleppo
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/21/us/marimar-martinez-shooting-case-what-we-know
https://mprnews.org/story/2026/01/07/shooting-south-minneapolis-ice-agents-federal-operation
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
10 January 2026, 5:00 am - 1 hour 4 minutesCZM Rewind: Part Two: How Cigarettes Invented Everything
Robert is joined again by James Stout to continue to discuss the Tobacco Industry.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
8 January 2026, 10:00 am - 1 hour 11 minutesCZM Rewind: Part One: How Cigarettes Invented Everything
Robert is joined by James Stout to discuss the Tobacco Industry.
(2 part series)
- https://daily.jstor.org/a-brief-history-of-tobacco-in-america/
- https://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/james-buchananduke-father-of-the-modern-cigarette-by-william-kremer/comment-page-1/
- https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/eaa/tobacco.html
- https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/eaa/duke-doc.html
- https://sites.middlebury.edu/smokingkills/forms-of-tobacco-advertisement/ https://csts.ua.edu/files/2016/09/A-History-of-Tobacco-Trading
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5402187/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490543/?report=classic#bib3 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40469740
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470496/?report=classic
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cigarette/JX6mDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
- http://www.cigarettecentury.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
6 January 2026, 10:00 am - 2 hours 26 minutesCZM Rewind: How The Zizians Went Full On Death Cult & The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
Part Three: Robert tells David about Ziz's glorious plan to take to the sea and sever the right and left brains of her followers in order to make them psychopaths god that sentence was weird to write trust us the episode is weirder.
Part Four: Robert concludes the story of the Zizians with a spree of horrific violent crimes and deaths, culminating in a shoot out with the Border Patrol in Vermont of all places.
Sources:
- https://medium.com/@sefashapiro/a-community-warning-about-ziz-76c100180509
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
- https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/infohazard
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
- Wayback Machine
- The Zizians
- Spectral Sight
- True Hero Contract
- Schelling Orders – Sinceriously
- Glossary – Sinceriously
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130330/https://sinceriously.fyi/my-journey-to-the-dark-side/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130302/https://sinceriously.fyi/glossary/#zentraidon
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130259/https://sinceriously.fyi/vampires-and-more-undeath/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
- https://x.com/orellanin?s=21&t=F-n6cTZFsKgvr1yQ7oHXRg
- https://zizians.info/
- according to The Boston Globe
- Inside the ‘Zizians’: How a cultish crew of radical vegans became linked to killings across the United States | The Independent
- Silicon Valley ‘Rationalists’ Linked to 6 Deaths
- The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians | WIRED
- Good Group and Pasek’s Doom – Sinceriously
- Glossary – Sinceriously
- Mana – Sinceriously
- Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
- The Zizian Facts - Google Docs
- Several free CFAR summer programs on rationality and AI safety - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
- This guy thinks killing video game characters is immoral | Vox
- Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck
- Eliezer Yudkowsky comments on On Terminal Goals and Virtue Ethics - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
- Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
- SquirrelInHell: Happiness Is a Chore
- PLUM OF DISCORD — I Became a Full-time Internet Pest and May Not...
- Roko Harassment of PlumOfDiscord Composited – Sinceriously
- Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
- Infohazardous Glossary – Sinceriously
- SquirrelInHell-Decision-Theory-and-Suicide.pdf - Google Drive
- The Matrix is a System – Sinceriously
- A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
- Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
- A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
- PLUM OF DISCORD (Posts tagged cw-abuse)
- Timeline: Violence surrounding the Zizians leading to Border Patrol agent shooting
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 January 2026, 10:00 am - 2 hours 29 minutesCZM Rewind: The Zizians: How Harry Potter Fanfic Inspired a Death Cult & The Zizians: Birth of a Cult Leader
Part One: Earlier this year a Border Patrol officer was killed in a shoot-out with people who have been described as members of a trans vegan AI death cult. But who are the Zizians, really? Robert sits down with David Gborie to trace their development, from part of the Bay Area Rationalist subculture to killers.
Part Two: Robert tells David Gborie about the early life of Ziz LaSota, a bright young girl from Alaska who came to the Bay Area with dreams of saving the cosmos or destroying it, all based on her obsession with Rationalist blogs and fanfic.
Sources:
- https://medium.com/@sefashapiro/a-community-warning-about-ziz-76c100180509
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
- https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/infohazard
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
- Wayback Machine
- The Zizians
- Spectral Sight
- True Hero Contract
- Schelling Orders – Sinceriously
- Glossary – Sinceriously
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130330/https://sinceriously.fyi/my-journey-to-the-dark-side/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130302/https://sinceriously.fyi/glossary/#zentraidon
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130259/https://sinceriously.fyi/vampires-and-more-undeath/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
- https://x.com/orellanin?s=21&t=F-n6cTZFsKgvr1yQ7oHXRg
- https://zizians.info/
- according to The Boston Globe
- Inside the ‘Zizians’: How a cultish crew of radical vegans became linked to killings across the United States | The Independent
- Silicon Valley ‘Rationalists’ Linked to 6 Deaths
- The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians | WIRED
- Good Group and Pasek’s Doom – Sinceriously
- Glossary – Sinceriously
- Mana – Sinceriously
- Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
- The Zizian Facts - Google Docs
- Several free CFAR summer programs on rationality and AI safety - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
- This guy thinks killing video game characters is immoral | Vox
- Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck
- Eliezer Yudkowsky comments on On Terminal Goals and Virtue Ethics - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
- Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
- SquirrelInHell: Happiness Is a Chore
- PLUM OF DISCORD — I Became a Full-time Internet Pest and May Not...
- Roko Harassment of PlumOfDiscord Composited – Sinceriously
- Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
- Infohazardous Glossary – Sinceriously
- SquirrelInHell-Decision-Theory-and-Suicide.pdf - Google Drive
- The Matrix is a System – Sinceriously
- A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
- Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
- A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
- PLUM OF DISCORD (Posts tagged cw-abuse)
- Timeline: Violence surrounding the Zizians leading to Border Patrol agent shooting
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
30 December 2025, 10:00 am - 1 hour 1 minutePart Three: X-Mas Special: The Heroes Who Ended The Slave Trade
We conclude the story of how Britain ended its role in the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Against the State by James Stout available for preorder here: https://www.akpress.org/against-the-state.html
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
25 December 2025, 10:00 am - 51 minutes 42 secondsPart Two: X-Mas Special: The Heroes Who Ended The Slave Trade
In this episode we introduce two great heroes: freed slave and adventurer Olaudah Equiano, and crusading abolitionist lawyer Granville Sharp.
Against the State by James Stout available for preorder here: https://www.akpress.org/against-the-state.html
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
24 December 2025, 10:00 am - 1 hour 19 minutesPart One: X-Mas Special: The Heroes Who Ended The Slave Trade
In our annual holiday reverse episode, Robert introduces James Stout to the heroes who fought to end the Atlantic Slave trade.
(3 part series)
Against the State by James Stout available for preorder here: https://www.akpress.org/against-the-state.html
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
23 December 2025, 10:00 am - More Episodes? Get the App