Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
Hey guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.
We're the first people to do podcasts.
We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but you know. Tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.
Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite.
On Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter.
Where does your group perform?
We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.
Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chapter 2: How is Trump's election fraud narrative impacting voting rights?
She submitted an N-400 in 2021 and was granted citizenship based on what the DOJ is calling false statements. She's charged with two counts of false statements in relation to naturalization. two counts would be, I guess, registering to vote and voting. She's, oddly enough, one of the ones who's not actually charged with voting in a federal election. She's just charged with two false statements.
This is, I think, one in the interview and the other on the N-400. Oh, okay. Yeah, that can make sense. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting that they didn't charge maybe like I guess they're like eyes on the prize trying to denaturalize someone. Yeah, I mean, like a big part of the FBI's messaging in this is, you know, we found people who illegally voted.
But half of the people here aren't actually charged with that. And I don't quite know why. Maybe it's theoretically possible those charges could be added later, but at least in the original criminal complaints... issued when DOJ made this announcement, Exume is not actually charged with voting, even though the criminal complaint says that she did, but it's not one of the charges.
Yeah, a normal patent with federal charges is to have a lot of charges, and most of these federal cases will end in plea bargains, right, because the exposure is so high. So yeah, it's interesting that that's not there when normally the patent is to put as much as you can in front of the person so that you end up with a plea bargain. Yeah.
This last guy is also not charged with illegally voting in a federal election. Abhinadun Vig is a 33-year-old green card holder who immigrated from India in 2012. He's alleged to have registered to vote in 2016 and subsequently voted in person for the 2016 general election and then by mail in 2020. Vig later submitted an N-400 in 2023.
But he only faces one charge, procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully. So again, a lot of these charges, even though the criminal complaints allege a lot of the same stuff, the actual charges vary greatly. And it is unclear why exactly that is. Yeah. Are they different? They're all in New Jersey. All New Jersey. Same USA attorney. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting.
It'll be interesting to follow those cases as well. I know, like I said, that they have some sort of denaturalization targets, so whether they're just focusing their energies on that. It could be a case or it could be something to do with the specifics of that crime that I just don't know about, voting while not a citizen.
Yeah.
Yeah, there could be some prosecutorial reason that they aren't pursuing it in certain cases, but are in others. Yeah, and they're all alleged to have voted in federal elections, right? Yes, in at least one federal election, either presidential general election or midterm general election. New Jersey does not have local election voting for non-citizens. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of Chaco Canyon in public lands management?
We look at public lands management today. Like last year, I was in Chaco Canyon. Chaco Canyon was the site of the biggest building in what is now the United States until the 1880s. Oh, wow. Chacoan civilization built these massive great houses there. Really, really beautiful, amazing place. One of the less visited units in the national park system. Gorgeous, amazing.
Chapter 4: How does drilling impact the Gwich'in people's culture and environment?
I saw some out there too.
This is all news to me.
You got to go to Chaco Canyon.
We have to find something we can record that gets me down to the Southwest.
Yeah, I bet there are some bigots. You know, there are, because they appropriate the Zuni sacred sun symbol in some of their Nazi shit. Because have we not fucking done enough? Well, apparently not, right? Because there is... There is a campaign to have drilling to delist areas of Chaco Canyon. I also spent time last year in Gwich'in homeland with Gwich'in people.
There, what's happening is the Trump administration is trying to grant drilling permits in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Man.
The Gwich'in people, I should say, prefer to use the term Arctic refuge. So I'm going to try and use that going forward. They don't like ANWR, just the acronym. So what that will do, right, is on the plane there, drilling is the place where the caribou migrate.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of the Bureau of Land Management's productivity standards?
The porcupine caribou herd makes the longest land mammal migration in the world.
So we're just speed running the devastation of every cool big animal we have.
Yeah, like we're going to do drilling in the place where the caribou carve, right? And if they don't go there to carve... Then it's over. Yeah. Yeah, and there are so few of these animals left that can cross political boundaries, that can travel their great distances unimpeded by capitalism. Largely, that's because the Gwich'in territory is not a reservation. It's like they own it.
So they can go off public land onto Gwich'in land. And without the caribou, the Gwich'in culture cannot be the same as it is. The caribou is...
sacred to them like their culture and the existence of the caribou i guess are tied together and like the same could be said for bison right like that it's part of the reason that we don't have bison on the plains anymore because indigenous people and the bison went hand in hand in the genocide of the indigenous peoples there was also genocide of the buffalo i guess and those two things weren't separate or distinct
And I think like there's this idea in the American liberal psyche that like a bison being on the land constitutes a return. And that's not it. Right. Like privately owned bison being on the APR is not land back.
I mean, it would restore the grassland to some degree, but that's not that doesn't have the same cultural impact as returning the land to its natural stewards.
Yeah, exactly. And allowing indigenous people to manage the land for future generations in the way that they did for millennia before this massive extinction event, the European colonization.
I hope nobody thinks they privately own buffalo flock. It's the same as land back.
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Chapter 6: What does the rise of anime and manga reveal about American culture wars?
So what might be causing this? As pop culture has become one of the main battlegrounds of the culture war, maybe anime and manga serve as a safe refuge from the divisive, all-consuming politics of the United States. A few months ago, we got behind-the-scenes news about the Andor Press Tour.
Creator Tony Gilroy admitted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Disney requested Gilroy and the cast refrain from using the words fascism and genocide in early promotion of the show to avoid political outrage. When James Gunn described Superman as a quote-unquote immigrant, right-wing news pundits manufactured a backlash with a Fox News graphic reading, Super Woke.
And Jesse Waters saying, you know what it says on his cape? MS-13. Former Superman actor Dean Cain also complained about Superman becoming too woke a month before he joined ICE as a part of a publicity stunt. American culture war issues do affect the way our entertainment industry operates, from what projects get greenlit to casting and even corporate mergers.
The Trump-aligned Ellison family bought Paramount in 2025 and now seek to acquire Warner Brothers.
Chapter 7: How do pop culture and politics intersect in modern media?
All that considered, it would seem that anime and manga may not get nearly as caught up in our American culture war debate and be relatively safe from both woke and anti-woke influence. Though this idea demonstrates the limits of woke as an understanding of politics. Because of course, Japanese media is in fact very political.
Take Gundam, Godzilla, Attack on Titan, films like Love and Pop, Jinrao, or Kiyoshi Kurosawa's new movie, Cloud. A lot of Japanese media wrestles with their extremely punitive judicial system and the country's relationship with nationalism and the military.
Not to mention the growing popularity of media that plays with gender and sexuality like yaoi and boys love, or the common presence of gender non-conforming characters in works like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man. And yet there aren't as many angry YouTube videos decrying woke Chainsaw Man for having a beautiful non-binary twink. America is just largely insulated from Japanese political issues.
Last February, Japan's conservative party swept a parliamentary snap election, gaining over two-thirds control of the lower house, the largest majority since World War II. But both Chuds and Woke alike can enjoy anime because it feels outside American politics.
Chapter 8: What are the implications of Trump's recent lawsuit settlement?
And it is true that Japanese creators aren't trying to navigate around a potentially hostile American audience, which means they can do certain things that American companies might find too risky.
The vitriolic reactions to The Last Jedi definitely affected Disney's plans for Star Wars, which soon prioritized the comparatively safe and sanitized Mandalorian TV show, which has a movie version coming out this week.
Most of the non-Andor Star Wars shows are primarily trying to capitalize on nostalgia, whether for the original trilogy, the prequels, or even the Clone Wars TV show from the 2000s. Andor was championed and protected by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, but now she's transitioning out of that role.
In an exit interview with Deadline, Kathleen Kennedy alluded that going forward, Lucasfilm may not pursue risky projects that break the mold. Quote, you have to be bold and you have to be willing to take risks with people and ideas. Otherwise, you are just doing the same thing. Right now, we're in an era where companies are so risk averse. And I get it. I hear all the conversations.
They've got Wall Street to please. And I get it. But I also believe that that's what contributes to things disappearing ultimately. Unquote. this reliance on nostalgia, and this extreme risk aversion has landed us in a pop cultural recession. And Japan is ready, willing, and able to fill the gap.
This is not simply a matter of thing Japan, but rather this points to real differences in the production and distribution process. a lot of manga is read in Japan. As popular as it's getting here, we are nowhere close to how much manga is read in Japan, despite their smaller population. Japan still is the primary producer and consumer of manga, with a market value of almost $4.5 billion a year.
Manga that sells really well often gets adapted into an anime. And when that anime airs in the US, the show then helps drive sales of the original manga. The top-selling manga in the US usually follow whatever is the most successful currently airing anime adaptation. In recent years, that's been Chainsaw Man, Spy Family, Demon Slayer, Berserk, and Jujutsu Kaisen.
This model doesn't really exist in the US. We don't have regularly airing 22-episode seasons of comic book shows anymore, especially any that appeal to a wide age range. The closest comparison is what Amazon Prime has done with miniseries like The Boys and Invincible. But even the juggernaut that was the MCU did not meaningfully boost sales of the original Marvel comics.
It Could Happen Here will return after these messages. We now return to It Could Happen Here. In an interview last January, Jim Lee, chief creative officer and president of DC Comics, talked about why manga is beating Western comics. Quote, the stories told in Japanese manga and anime are incredibly powerful. I often find myself wondering, what is missing in Western comics?
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