Best The End of the World with Michael and Stu Podcasts (2025)

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95: In a Silk Suit Tryin' not to Sweat 50:02

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4d ago50:02

50:02

This week we are tackling Kathryn Bigelow's 2025 film A House of Dynamite which deals with one of our "favorite" nightmare scenarios, namely, a nuclear missile of unknown origin being fired at a major American city. We analyze the film's three part/three perspective structure and also discuss its controversial ending. We open the episode by discuss…

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94: New York is Now 56:39

11d ago56:39

56:39

This week we are charting some of the reactions (and overreactions) to last week's mayoral election in New York City wherein Zohran Mamdani emerged triumphant. Can Mamdani's campaign point the way for future Democratic Party successes, or is it an outlier that must be seen firmly in the context of deep blue New York City? We chart reactions from Th…

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93: Time I had Some Time Alone 52:05

18d ago52:05

52:05

This week we're getting into Abel Ferrara's 2011 film 4:44 Last Day on Earth which follows an actor, Cisco (Willem DaFoe), and his painter partner, Skye (Shanyn Leigh), on....the last day on earth. With nods to some of our old favorites including Al Gore, the Norse conception of Ragnarok, as well as Joseph Campbell, the movie explores what two peop…

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92: Can't Touch the Bottom in Too Deep 1:01:48

25d ago1:01:48

1:01:48

This week for Halloween we are covering "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft. We get into Lovecraft's troubling history of racism, showing how it works as a manifestation of the anxieties of white supremacist ideology. We also discuss the work of Mark Fisher, who has looked into Lovecraft's deployment of "the Weird." Lastly we consider Lov…

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91: I'm Looking Through You 56:55

1M ago56:55

56:55

Is our genetic makeup our destiny, or is there someway we can overcome the code on which our bodies and minds are based? This is the question asked by this week's film, 1997's Gattaca, written and directed by Andrew Niccol. We get into the reality of the eugenics-obsessed world presented by this picture while pointing out some of the...other aspect…

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Beyond the CV: From the UK to the US - Real Talk for Job Seekers | With Tatyana Arbouzova | Ep.13 26:42

1M ago26:42

26:42

🎙️ Beyond the CV: From the UK to the US - Real Talk for Job Seekers | With Tatyana Arbouzova | Ep.13 Two voices. Two perspectives. One mission: cutting through the noise of today’s job market. In this episode, myself and Tatyana Arbouzova go across the pond to compare what’s really happening in tech hiring on both sides of the Atlantic. Is the US j…

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90: We Are Your Overlords 58:00

1M ago58:00

58:00

We're finally covering the Norse vision of the apocalypse, Ragnarök. We go over the Norse pantheon of gods, Odin, Thor, Loki, all your favorites, and then we get into some of the events that presage the coming of doom before plunging fully into that doom itself, particularly the tragic death of Baldr done by the coward Loki. We also get into some o…

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Engineering‑Led Quality: The End of Dedicated QA? | With Michael Kitchen | Ep.12 41:13

1M ago41:13

41:13

Engineering‑Led Quality: The End of Dedicated QA? | With Michael Kitchen | Ep.12 - is live! This one’s a big one - I’m joined by Michael Kitchen, Engineering Manager, for a deep dive into how projects are delivered when engineering takes the lead on quality. We explore: Are dedicated QA roles becoming a thing of the past? How engineering‑led qualit…

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89: Life is a Highway 51:53

2M ago51:53

51:53

By The End of the World with Michael and Stu

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The Gary Gang Chronicles: Rebranding Manual Testing | With Gary Hawkes | Ep.11 29:55

2M ago29:55

29:55

The Gary Gang Chronicles: Rebranding Manual Testing | With Gary Hawkes | Ep.11 Two Garys. One name. Zero idea how we got here - but we’re owning it. In this episode, we dive head‑first into rebranding manual testing for the modern era: how to ditch outdated perceptions, highlight its strategic value, and show why it still has a place alongside auto…

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88: What's in Your Head? 45:22

2M ago45:22

45:22

This week we have bowed to pressure and are at last covering a 2013 National Geographic documentary called "How to Survive the End of the World: Zombie Earth." This is the first entry in a six part series to which we shall be returning periodically. The zombie apocalypse scenario set out in this infotainment feature is really about rabies, and not …

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87: No One Can Hear You Scream 51:14

2M ago51:14

51:14

At long last we are covering Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece Alien. We go over how the film is really about, surprise, capitalism, and how the ultimate aim of capitalism is to discover the perfect war-making commodity, in this case, a merciless killing machine unburdened by illusions of "morality," as one character puts it. Great movie, really fun …

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86: How Can I Bring You to the Sea of Madness 49:59

2M ago49:59

49:59

This week we are talking about 2022's Triangle of Sadness. Directed by Ruben Östlund, the movie looks at class divisions in three stages, zooming out from the troubles in an individual romantic relationship, then looking at class as it works on a luxury cruise, before finally depicting a kind of post-apocalyptic, Lord-of-the-Flies-with-adults situa…

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Garages Beats & Test Suites | Automation, Connected TV & FX Digital | With Martin Tyler | Ep.10 32:04

2M ago32:04

32:04

🎧 Garages Beats & Test Suites | Automation, Connected TV & FX Digital - Episode 10 is live! This one’s special - I’m joined by Martin Tyler, Head of Test at FX Digital, for a proper deep dive into Connected TV, automation, and how the test landscape is evolving. We talk real about how testing’s changed, what’s working (and what’s not), and why hiri…

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85: On that Day the Dead Shall Wake Thee 54:29

2M ago54:29

54:29

We've gone back to a total classic of the apocalypse genre, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, to mark our return from our "brief sojourn" in the realms of the afterlife. We get into all sorts of stuff about childhood traumas caused by the film, the desirability of voiceover in movies, the ATM-hacking skills of young John Connor; it's all here. We open th…

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84: A Brief History of the Afterlife Five The Vedic Religion 48:06

3M ago48:06

48:06

In the final installment (for now) of our afterlife miniseries, we are considering the ancient Vedic Religion, the ancestor of modern Hinduism which arose in northwestern India in the second millennium BCE. We talk about the idea of being reincarnated in other realms (as opposed to in this world), and the different factors that might alter the real…

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83: A Brief History of the Afterlife Four Ancient Egypt 50:00

3M ago50:00

50:00

Moving in a parallel direction to our last topic, we are going over the afterlife beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians this week, touching on mummification, the pyramid texts, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the elusive Field of Reeds. We compare the classes afterlife of the Mesopotamians to the highly stratified beliefs of the Egyptians, while also…

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She Codes Quality: Women in Tech Speak Up | With Nataliia Burmei | Ep.9 38:01

3M ago38:01

38:01

She Codes Quality: Women in Tech Speak Up | With Nataliia Burmei This one’s special - I sat down with the amazing Nataliia Burmei to talk all things Women in Tech, leadership, and the ongoing shift from QA to QE. We go in on how the role of QA has evolved into something way more strategic — it’s not just about testing anymore. It’s coaching dev tea…

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82: A Brief History of the Afterlife Three 49:15

3M ago49:15

49:15

It's part three of our foray into the history of the afterlife, this time with a focus on Ancient Mesopotamia and the legendary Epic of Gilgamesh. We go over the conception of the afterlife presented in the poem, which is very egalitarian if not very comforting, and we then move on to consider the second half of the tale, which focuses on Gilgamesh…

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81: A Brief History of the Afterlife Two 51:59

3M ago51:59

51:59

In the second installment of our afterlife miniseries we delve into the prehistoric realms, discussing the earliest evidence we have for some kind of a belief in the afterlife in prehistoric, neolithic peoples. We also consider the Neanderthal and Denisovans, cave paintings, early totemic art, and the practices of ceremonial burial. We also touch o…

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𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 | With Danny Stockwell | Ep.8 24:53

4M ago24:53

24:53

🎙️ "𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁"" The latest Talent Sessions Bytesize episode is now live - and this time I’m joined by the brilliant Danny Stockwell Talent Manager from FX Digital (someone I’ve known a while, and we’ve been meaning to do this for ages). We go deep into what’s really happening in today’s tech hiring…

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80: A Brief History of the Afterlife One 53:24

4M ago53:24

53:24

This week we are deviating from our normal subject matter slightly in covering Albert Brooks's wonderful 1991 film Defending Your Life as a way of introducing the miniseries we'll be running for the next month. The afterlife seems like a natural corollary to the show's typical focus on the end of the world, and Brooks's film felt like a good way in…

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The QA Hype Show & Quality Talks - TestBash Special Show | Gary Shannon, Rosie Sherry & Stu Day | Ep.7 48:48

4M ago48:48

48:48

This latest episode is a special collab between The QA Hype Show and Quality Talks, where we dive into all things TestBash - featuring none other than Rosie Sherry, CEO and Founder of the Ministry of Testing. Both myself and Stu Day (Quality Talks) will be heading to Brighton this October to take part, and let me tell you… this one’s shaping up to …

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79: I Still Dream of Orgonon 47:56

4M ago47:56

47:56

This week we are discussing right-wing paranoia about weather control and how it is being used as a comforting belief that enables one to evade accepting the reality of human influenced climate change. We go through the history of the "chemtrails" conspiracy theory, while also situating it in the earlier (and much more interesting) beliefs of Vienn…

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78: Islands in the Stream 52:40

4M ago52:40

52:40

This week we are discussing the recent furor over the Jeffrey Epstein case which has begun to surface divisions within the MAGA movement. We go over the actual history of the prosecutions of Epstein and Maxwell, look at the various ways Trump supporters have justified the administration's refusal to "release the files," while also speculating about…

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77: How Many Ways To Get What You Want? 56:47

4M ago56:47

56:47

This week we are discussing the Biblical Antichrist. What does the New Testament have to say about this ominous figure? Why do some Christians maintain his return is a necessary precondition for the so-called "second coming" of Jesus Christ? What historical (or contemporary) figures have people asserted might just be this Antichrist? Is the Antichr…

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In the Trenches – 6 Months of Building | With Neill McCarthy | Ep.6 41:17

5M ago41:17

41:17

🎙️ "In the Trenches - 6 Months of Building" is where startup reality meets raw conversation. Hosted by Gary and Neill, this series pulls back the curtain on their journey building businesses from scratch - six months in and still scrapping, learning, pivoting, and growing. Expect honest takes on the wins, the misfires, and the messy middle, with re…

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76: I Won't Forget to Put Roses on Your Grave 44:51

5M ago44:51

44:51

This week we are discussing Edgar Wright's zombie comedy about the mundanity of day to day life under late capitalism, Shaun of the Dead. Featuring star turns for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the movie examines the question of how to live a meaningful life through the familiar tropes of a zombie picture. We consider the ways the issues at play in thi…

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75: The Days Are Long And the Nights Will Throw You Away 47:20

5M ago47:20

47:20

For our 75th episode spectacular, we are discussing 28 Days Later, the 2002 film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland that reinvigorated the zombie movie for the 2000s and launched a franchise that has been back in the news lately. We go over the film's links to Stu's favorite topic, Romanticism, while also comparing it favorably to …

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74: Mickey Mouse Has Grown Up A Cow 53:59

5M ago53:59

53:59

This week we are talking about billionaires and what makes them different than the rest of us. Why do they put so much stock into utopian fantasies of human salvation on Mars? Who do they believe Artificial General Intelligence will solve all of Earth's problems if we just allow for it to be born (with as few regulations in place as possible)? Why …

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73: They're Programmed To Destroy Us 55:03

5M ago55:03

55:03

This week we are discussing the introductory miniseries of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica as a kind of "culmination" of our recent robot/AI-themed episodes. For once we both really like the show, and we dissect how it deals with the complex issues of technology and religion as well as the question of "fatherhood" with respect to both characters …

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72: But Are "Friends" Electric? 56:30

6M ago56:30

56:30

This week we are continuing our suite of robot themed episodes by discussing the play that originated the word, R.U.R. by Karel Čapek which was first written in 1920. Derived from a Czech term meaning "serf" or "worker," these robots are more akin to the androids and other humanoid robots to be found in works like Blade Runner or Companion than the…

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71: We Are Programmed Just to Do Anything You Want Us To 57:44

6M ago57:44

57:44

This week we are talking about robots. Where did they come from? What are they? Are they really going to replace all human workers? We get into the history of these machines, while looking at the implications for them, should they be paired with AI. We also discuss Elon Musk's fixation on humanoid robots, and where this obsession derives from. We a…

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70: Bring Me A Dream 1:01:08

6M ago1:01:08

1:01:08

This week we are discussing E.T.A. Hoffman's short story, The Sandman, which presciently anticipates some potential psychological consequences of a too-deep dependence on artificial beings for companionship, while also pointing towards the fundamentally destabilizing possibilities a world filled with autonomous, robotic beings might bring. We go ov…

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69: In This Everlasting Twilight 52:58

6M ago52:58

52:58

This week we are talking about the growth of emotional dependency on AI as programs like ChatGPT become more ubiquitous and more sophisticated. We recognize that this has the potential to be, in a sense, a double apocalypse, as the rise of AI threatens to make human beings completely redundant while at the same time the resources used to power AI m…

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Breaking Barriers: Oculus, the Metaverse, and the Diversity Disconnect | With Charmaine Short | Ep.5 36:07

6M ago36:07

36:07

Breaking Barriers: Oculus, the Metaverse, and the Diversity Disconnect join me, Gary Shannon, and Charmaine Short (Operational Test Manager at Fnality) take a critical look at how virtual reality and metaverse technologies are shaping the future - while still facing deep-rooted issues around inclusivity and representation. In this episode, we dive …

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68: Round and Round and Round We Spin 44:17

6M ago44:17

44:17

This week we are discussing Rian Johnson's 2012 film Looper, a time travel movie that (perhaps accurately) predicts a bleak future where class stratification and rampant criminality have flourished unchecked. Time travel has been invented and its primary use seems to be the elimination of hit men who are sent back in time to be murdered by their yo…

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67: You Can Never Break the Chain 46:31

7M ago46:31

46:31

This week we are talking about global supply chains and how they might be stretched, perhaps to the breaking point, if the Trump tariffs are allowed to take effect. We revisit the moment when many of us were first introduced to the idea of a supply chain, the early days of Covid-19, and look at how the current potential supply chain disaster differ…

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66: I Cursed the Gloom that Set Upon Us 47:32

7M ago47:32

47:32

This week we are discussing Ridley Scott's 1982 classic sci-fi noir Blade Runner. While we praise the visual depiction of a post-nuclear-war American city, we both found the plot somewhat difficult to hook into, so to speak. While the essential examination of the question of humanity, and what it would mean for an android to achieve a fully realize…

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65: Across the Great Divide 54:40

7M ago54:40

54:40

This week we are discussing psychics, specifically psychic medium John Edward of Crossing Over with John Edward. This program which ran from 2001 to 2004 purported to connect living people to their dead relatives by means of Edward's psychic mediumship. We go over a brief history of psychics from ancient times to the present before digging into Edw…

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64: A Cyclops Walks Across the Sky 1:07:10

7M ago1:07:10

1:07:10

This week we are discussing two recent albums by mainstays of 2000s era indie rock that deal directly and obliquely with climate change, namely Mount Eerie's 2024 release Night Palace and Dirty Projectors/David Longstreth/s t a r g a z e's 2025 record Song of the Earth. We talk a bit about the history of both artists and why it might be that they a…

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63: Take My Advice You'd Be Better Off Dead 55:07

8M ago55:07

55:07

This week we are looking at Train to Busan, a 2016 film directed by Yeon Sang-ho. It's a zombie apocalypse movie set on a train moving from the South Korean capital of Seoul to the southern city of Busan. We get into the film's historical overtones, as well as the family drama that plays out amid this unfolding horror show. We open the episode with…

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Nostalgia/Back to the 90s - Gary Shannon & Leigh Rathbone - Ep.4 1:08:49

8M ago1:08:49

1:08:49

🎙️ Nostalgia/Back to the 90s Join me, Gary Shannon, and Leigh Rathbone (Head of Test at Cavu) as we embark on a nostalgic journey through the evolution of testing tools and the rollercoaster ride of the QA market across the decades. In this special episode, we delve into the tools that defined the '90s, the challenges we conquered, and how the indu…

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62: A Dry Voice Comes from a Stingy Heart 58:19

8M ago58:19

58:19

This week we're are discussing Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's recent book Abundance. This text offers a new vision of the future for the Democratic Party to center as it attempts to claw back power, ignoring for the most part the larger societal issues of wealth inequality in favor of focusing on regulatory changes that could be made to spearhead …

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61: One Step from the Great Beyond 1:05:34

8M ago1:05:34

1:05:34

We're talking about the rise and fall of Julius Caesar and the end of the Roman Republic this week, following up on our previous episode. We've got anecdotes about Caesar weeping before statues, his run in with pirates, his war against Vercingetorix in Gaul; all your favorite Caesar stories are here! Plus we also muse a bit on Caesar's death; why d…

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60: We're Together Dead and Lonely 1:02:18

8M ago1:02:18

1:02:18

This week we're discussing the run up to the final collapse of the Roman Republic, charting such characters as Scipio Aemelianus, the Gracchi Brothers, Gaius Marius, and Sulla and attempting to map them and their historical circumstances onto some of the events of recent American history. While the analogies are imperfect, there are enough similari…

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Standing Tall: How to Shine in a Crowded Job Market with Gary Shannon & Laura Woods Ep.3 20:56

8M ago20:56

20:56

🚀 Welcome back this is a spin off show call The QA Hype Talent Show! (ByteSize)🎙️ I’m beyond excited to dive into this episode with a brilliant guest Laura Woods from Ten10 – with so many people in the current marketplace looking for work we thought this would be a great idea for a show to help get people back to work! The show is called "Standing …

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The Power of Community - Gary Shannon & Rosie Sherry - Ep.2 41:51

8M ago41:51

41:51

🚀 Welcome back to the 2nd episode of The QA Hype Show! 🎙️ I’m beyond excited to dive into this episode with a brilliant guest as we explore The Power of Community! In Episode 2, Rosie and I unpack why community is such a game-changer – from the value of networking to the magic of face-to-face interactions. Whether you're building connections or sha…

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How to Succeed in QA/QE & Tech Roles - Gary Shannon & Ganesh Practoor - Ep.1 41:31

8M ago41:31

41:31

🚀 The First Ever Episode of The QA Hype Show 🎙️ I’m thrilled to launch my new podcast, The QA Hype Show! Episode 1 is packed with insights from Ganesh Practoor, Head of Infrastructure & Quality Engineering at Santander. Here’s what we’ll be diving into in this episode: 💡Testing & Tech Trends: Boosting Productivity, CX, and Quality 🚀 Your First 90 D…

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59: A Man of Wealth and Taste 1:10:03

9M ago1:10:03

1:10:03

This week we are diving into the weird world of Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr., the newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services in the second Trump administration. We go over his history of environmental activism and chart how this morphed into a profoundly conspiracist worldview that, with him now in control of the levers of power in the A…

The End Of The World With Michael And Stu Podcasts