Cooler Heads

Helena Blavatsky and the Theosopher’s Stone

This week, we descend into the occult stacks with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky as our guide. Special guest Dr Marina Alexandrova of The University of Texas at Austin joins us to unpack the strange, sprawling world of Theosophy: imperial Russian mysticism, Eastern and Western esoterica, hidden masters, cosmic truths, and the utterly unbelievable life of the woman behind The Secret Doctrine. Check out some of Dr Alexandrova’s recent work: https://www.whitefungus.com/ https://lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-91580-1/

Homeward Bound

This week, we speak with Johnny’s sister, Kristie, about the excitement of living abroad—the adventure of new places, fresh connections, and building a life somewhere new. We also touch on the feeling of being a stranger in a strange place, and how that experience shapes identity, independence, and connection while navigating expat life and being single abroad.

Gettin’ Sassy

This week: chaos in the Middle East — the Iran war, ceasefires, and Strait of Hormuz brinkmanship — plus a blunt look at what Donald Trump’s foreign policy even is (if anything). Then we pivot to something far more human: a striking, intimate conversation between Ben Sasse and Ross Douthat on mortality, meaning, and how to live when time is suddenly finite.

Man O’ Man

This week, we unpack Louis Theroux’s newest documentary, “Inside the Manosphere” alongside a heated Jubilee face-off featuring Jillian Michaels and body positivity activists—two equal and opposite extremes in the ongoing battle of the sexes. When both sides push to the edge, what does a way forward actually look like?

Iraniacs

This week we walk through how a “contained” war somehow managed to squeeze the Strait of Hormuz, rattle global markets, and drift into the familiar “no boots on the ground…unless” phase. None of it is surprising—every escalation was basically sitting in the pregame notes. Less fog of war, more willful blindness.