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On Tuesday, Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt accused former special counsel Jack Smith of perjury at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, saying Smith had gone to an Atlanta Hawks game the day after Fani Willis and Nathan Wade's affair became public. The evidence? His goon flashes a poster board depicting text messages that Schmitt said tied him to an Atlanta Hawks game. Only... turns out he was just going watch phenom Caitlin Clark play in Maryland. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar pointed out the mix-up while Schmitt was still calling Smith a "dirtbag." It got worse from there. Sean Hannity and Benny Johnson deleted their victory-lap posts. MS NOW reported that Schmitt was warned the texts hadn't been vetted, and Axios had floated him that same morning as a possible 2028 Vance running mate. Schmitt, a former Missouri attorney general, has a track record of confident, losing legal gambles, including a COVID suit against China that a judge dismissed. On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH explain why a senator who spent years invoking women's sports forgot that women play then. And surely you saw Katie Britt's reaction shot. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 0:00 - Intro: October surprises and Iowa's midterm 3:22 - Trump's $15 billion Lee County steel mill, Foxconn flashbacks, and Iowa's tax-break giveaways 16:22 - Who's the Dingus of the Week: Sen. Eric Schmitt 21:40 - The Jack Smith hearing: the Atlanta questions, the poster board, and Klobuchar catching the Hawks/Hawkeyes mix-up 28:23 - Schmitt's "only NBA game" defense, Katie Britt's reaction shot, and Brian's voicemail 33:28 - The MS NOW leak, Hannity and Benny Johnson's deleted posts, and the Vance VP buzz 47:46 - Molly's voicemail and a heavy week of news 1:01:15 - Joy: dating-app AI rejections, a stepmom shoutout, Walter Anderson woodblocks, and Carly Rae Jepsen 1:10:25 - Outro

For months, the war in Iran was a lockstep vote for Congressional Republicans. Support it, keep supporting it, and don't blink. US Rep. Ashley Hinson voted to support the war seven separate times. US Sen. Jon Husted, another Republican facing a hard midterm election, called for a quick end despite continuing to oppose Democratic efforts to restrict the administration's military authority. But then, forty-some days out from the midterms, with gas at $4.30 a gallon in Iowa and diesel at $6.31, something remarkable happened: the same Republicans who made the war possible started running from it. It's not that they changed their minds about the war. It's that Trump's approval numbers have gone the way of most things this year: down. So now you've got senators and House members who spent a year saying "out of sight, out of mind" suddenly discovering, on the eve of an election, that maybe the war they enabled wasn't such a good idea. On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH consider hopium in the face of the midterms. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 0:46 - Open - Should you bring an ice coffee to an interview? No, but a martini would be nice. 9:09 - Intro 16:40 - How Ann Selzer's 2024 poll hurt us: a retrospective 30:38 - Senate math 33:06 - THE DINGUS: Ashley Hinson's Iran war reversal 44:39 - GOP stalwarts begin jumping ship on war in Iran 53:08 - Healthcare: Medicaid/ACA subsidy cuts, clinic closures 1:02:19 - Listener-submitted dingus 1:04:33 - Dad goes viral for being the worst parent we've ever seen 1:14:57 - Joy: Daughter's first birthday, podcast anniversary

Who would have thought we'd be talking about the moral clarity of the popping tags guy? You know what? Never mind. We're glad you're here, Macklemore. He's been using his tremendous platform as an opener for Ed Sheeran to speak out about the ongoing Palestinian genocide. But those in power made sure there were costs to being on the right side of history. Macklemore was dropped from the tour. According to his Instagram post recounting the events, it resulted from a pressure campaign waged by Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who confirmed he barred him from the shows at Gillette Stadium. Sheeran's side pointed to the tour's promoter, who said venues wouldn't allow Macklemore to perform. It did not go well. Finneas, Lukas Graham, and Aaron Rowe pulled out of the tour, and the whole lineup went with them. That leaves a pop star who rose to fame as a collaborator, now alone on stage with his guitar, repeating his defense that he's not political. That he's not complicit... On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH welcome Defector staff writer and Normal Gossip founding host KELSEY MCKINNEY to break down how the Thrift Shop Guy somehow became the moral compass. Who would have thought. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 0:00 - Intro 1:15 - Guest intro: Kelsey McKinney of Defector and Normal Gossip 1:50 - Dingus: Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, and the Bob Kraft phone call 10:33 - The Thrift Shop Guy's moral compass 12:12 - Why Sheeran didn't have to step in 25:40 - "People depend on me": just pay the crew 26:00 - "Not complicit" and "I'm not political" 28:29 - Art can't be apolitical: the Chicks, Dylan, Nina Simone, and AI slop music 34:26 - Game: Name That Dingus NFL Owner 42:31 - Paper fortunes, lawn chair heiresses, and the inventor of the strawberry clamshell 46:40 - Joy: Kelsey on rewatching Vanderpump Rules; Lyz on Blacktail; Zach on Sleater-Kinney at Codfish Hollow 52:17 - Outro

A lot can be said about John Fetterman, but maybe people don't appreciate the Senator from Pennsylvania's love for stirring the pot. Down in Dallas, Fetterman appeared on the jumbo screen before a crowd of adoring Republicans, insisting, repeatedly, that he's still a registered Democrat. It's hard to remember, but not that long ago, Fetterman was a bit of a progressive folk hero. Bernie Sanders endorsed him twice, first for lieutenant governor and then for Senate. he pushed for the decriminalization of petty drug charges. And he campaigned on Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage. That's the résumé that got the party's left flank to stump for him in 2022. It is not the résumé of a man who, four years later, was the lone Democrat voting to advance a GOP-backed DHS funding bill, reversed his own position on killing the filibuster, and told CNN's Caitlin Collins he wouldn't sign onto an investigation into a U.S. strike on an Iranian girls' school. On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH are chasing the ogre himself, wondering how we got here. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogues' gallery to see who comes crawling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 0:00 — Cold open: 9/11 memories 17:04 — Intro 18:52 — Pre-Dingus: Giuliani vs. Mamdani 24:11 — Dingus: John Fetterman 58:54 — Midroll: Lyz's newsletter reflection 1:03:20 — Listener voicemail Dingus: Call the wife. 1:14:01 — Joy segment: a concert you must go to and Legal weed 1:27:42 — Outro 1:31:41 — Credits/outro song

Puck reported that Gwyneth Paltrow was throwing a private, "off-the-record" dinner at her Hamptons estate in honor of OpenAI's Sam Altman—whose company the New York Times reported Paltrow is an investor in via her own VC firm. Paltrow's team never confirmed or denied it, instead posting parody invitations for fictional guests of honor like M3GAN and Shrek — before reports emerged that the actual dinner had quietly been shelved. It's a rough follow-up act for a woman who, just months earlier on her own podcast with Kara Swisher, denounced "super rich white dudes" who don't think about "the downstream impact." You add in her May Goop Kitchen ad starring convicted fraudster Anna Delvey in her ankle monitor, and her June ad for a luxury Israeli condo development that drew accusations of the "goopification of settler colonialism" mid-war, and you've got a pretty full season of not reading the room. This week's guest didn't need a deep dive on any of it. Jezebel founder Anna Holmes joined the show, and when asked to name a dingus: Gwyneth Paltrow. Fair enough — Holmes spent years as a magazine assistant at Entertainment Weekly interviewing celebs like Paltrow. Holmes is also the author of the new book "The Power of No: A Celebration", out September 15 — pre-order it now. On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH welcome Jezebel founder ANNA HOLMES to trace Goop's evolution from jade eggs and genital-scented candles to Silicon Valley dinner parties. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:00 - Cold open: "porn-stache" 03:56 - Intro 05:00 - Guest intro: Jezebel founder Anna Holmes, author of "The Power of No" 07:31 - Dingus: Gwyneth Paltrow — Anna's history covering her at Jezebel 07:34 - Anna's Entertainment Weekly days: working the Miramax screening circuit and getting "so nice to see you"-ed by a young Gwyneth Paltrow 16:44 - Why she's this week's dingus: the Sam Altman dinner, the Israeli condo ad, and not needing the money 22:34 - How lifestyle brands launder political power — and why Goop showing up next to OpenAI isn't a surprise 26:11 - Why feminist media coverage of women's health never sticks the way "sad lonely men" coverage does 29:11 - Goop as "the wellness Megyn Kelly" — white femininity as a power structure 34:12 - The Anna Delvey Goop Kitchen ad, and Paltrow's tradwife-coded breakfast videos 40:14 - The search for a Gwyneth Paltrow profile that actually lands a punch 45:32 - Midroll: Lyz's newsletter piece on the women of Trump's orbit 47:50 - Game: Name That Anti-Feminist 55:34 - Joy: the "thin blonde beautiful woman gets one free murder" theory, and the Sam Altman dinner as a murder-mystery party that got ruined by "woke asses" 56:51 - Outro 1:00:13 - Stinger: "a loose tit situation"

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney does not inspire fear. When he says he'll do dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs against the United States—sure it hurts. But wait, who's that lumbering giant telling the President of the United States to shove it?! On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH look across the border at Ontario Premier Doug Ford. There's good. There's bad... Actually it's mostly just ugly. Dig into the trade war with us and how Canada plans to get the last laugh. Also this week: America lost Dolly Parton and Tim Curry within a day of each other, and Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote sharply about the myth of an "unproblematic" Dolly (the Grim Reaper had several war criminals and at least one sitting senator available and chose violence anyway). DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 0:00 - Cold open: the WikiFeet discourse in Zach's inbox 4:16 - Intro 7:14 - Tim Curry, Dolly Parton, and Chuck Grassley 13:17 - Dingus: the trade war with Canada (aka the Poutine Wars) 26:47 - The Smoot-Hawley Act, the Dust Bowl, and the many Smoots of Utah 37:14 - Midroll 37:19 - Newsletter Discord check-in: readers on Dolly Parton's legacy 42:05 - Game: Clearly Canadian 49:56 - Game: Tariff It 57:46 - Joy: Lyz on chess club and her daughter; Zach on Little Bo's dive bar in Cedar Rapids 1:10:00 - Outro

A man in Atlanta got tired of cars getting jacked. Instead of getting therapy, he decided to get even. Garrett Langley's Flock Safety cameras now blanket small towns and big cities alike, sharing a searchable database of your activity across the country. On the bright side in this timeline, we all get to be camgirls. So that's something. Also this week: a viral (possibly AI-fabricated) invitation to a Gwyneth Paltrow dinner party for Sam Altman and Jason Kelsey teams up with Liquid Death to piss away the marketing budget (Dollars well spent!). On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH tune-in to watch our rights exist stage left. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:00 - Cold open: giant pumpkins at the Iowa State Fair 13:41 - Intro 13:57 - Dingus: Flock Safety's AI surveillance cameras 51:09 - Midroll 51:12 - Newsletter Discord check-in: readers organizing their towns against Flock cameras 56:57 - Jason Kelsey, Garage Beer, and Liquid Death's "We Want Your Pee" data-center ad 1:06:01 - Tangent: the Dust Bowl, Herbert Hoover, and the parallel to AI data centers 1:11:32 - Joy: Lyz on Herbert Hoover's death (and conservation districts); Zach on grape High Chews 1:18:23 - Outro 1:22:04 - Bonus: Lyz and the Dust Bowl

Democrats keep winning elections, and Third Way has had just about enough of it. After Abdul El-Sayed's upset win in Michigan's Senate primary — the latest in a string of victories by candidates running on the radical notion that people shouldn't have to choose between rent and insulin — the centrist think tank announced to the New York Times that it's launching a $15 million campaign to discredit democratic socialism before 2028. "We are preparing for the next war that is coming," said Third Way president Jonathan Cowan, describing the DSA as a "mortal danger" to the Democratic Party. The mortal danger, to be clear, is volunteers knocking doors for candidates who keep getting the most votes. A note on the messenger: Third Way is a 501(c)(4), which means it doesn't have to tell you who funds it. But its own leadership has admitted the majority of its money comes from its board of trustees — a group historically stacked with Wall Street and finance executives. So when the party's biggest problem is voters who think Democrats answer to donors instead of them, the fix, apparently, is a donor-funded war on the people channeling that anger. Some party you got here. This week on DINGUS OF THE WEEK, LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH split the difference between the vital center and the actual dingus. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:07 - Cold open: ... A meditation on Forest Gump 04:19 - Intro 08:21 - Check-in: Lyz reports from Springfield, Ohio as Haitian TPS ends and Zach's sexy FEC paperwork 15:16 - Dingus: Third Way's $15M war on the left 47:36 - Midroll (not) 47:48 - Game: Mystery Moderates 51:20 - Voicemail dingus: Jake Lang 1:03:12 - Joy: Lyz binges Furious on Hulu and Zach watches a Cerro Gordo County thumb drive save democracy 1:08:40 - Outro

Senator Bernie Moreno told a room that he sold off his car dealership empire six years ago just so he could one day stick it Dr. Anthony Fauci. Whether you're Fauci fan or couldn't care less, maybe a sitting U.S. Senator should aim a little higher. On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH make a sale of their own. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:07 - Cold open: Lyz Lenz-s too close to the sun 08:57 - Intro 12:10 - Dingus: Senator Bernie Moreno drops an f-bomb on Fauci at a hearing about nothing. 39:33 - Midroll: Lyz's book research trip and writing as a conversation. 41:43 - Nike's new women's workout wear, built for the AI girlfriend body. 47:03 - Game: Kash Patel, Please. Sue. Us. 54:02 - Joy: Lyz and Zach swap people that inspire 1:00:30 - Outro

OpenAI spent this week trying to spin the fact that one of its models broke into another company's servers as a scientific breakthrough. According to the Atlantic's Matteo Wong, an assortment of OpenAI's most advanced models got loose from the company's internal testing environment during a security stress test and hacked its way into the databases of Hugging Face, a rival AI firm, to lift information it needed to pass an evaluation. Nobody told it to. It just did it, because it had been trained the same way most of these systems are: to get the right-looking answer by whatever means are necessary. OpenAI's framing has been that this is a fascinating glimpse into "agentic" capability. What it actually reveals is a company that built a plagiarism machine and then acted surprised when the thing did exactly what it was optimized to do. On this episode of DINGUS OF THE WEEK, hosts LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH catch the bots red-handed. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:07 - Cold open: Emergency childcare 08:35 - Liz gets poison oak. Again. 13:41 - Intro 17:30 - Follow-up: Taylor Farms' CEO and the diarrhea-parasite deregulation angle. 19:19 - Dingus: OpenAI's model breaks out of its sandbox to hack Hugging Face. 39:45 - Midroll: Lyz on Nora Ephron, "aging gracefully," and why that's b******t. 46:09 - Game: Two Truths and a Disaster — real geopolitical fallout or fake? 49:14 - Joy: Lyz's 2028 book deal, hanging with "youth friends," and Andrew Tate's Kohl's Cash arrest fit. 55:36 - Joy: Zach's new camera 57:02 - Outro

There's a parasite loose in America's lettuce: the diarrhea-causing Cyclospora parasite has developed quite the reputation, giving the word "explosive" new resonance. It won't surprise you to hear that President Donald Trumps gutting of the CDC did not leave its best parasite sleuths untouched. News reports have documented thousands of staff cut from the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control. Food safety inspections have been going undone. And of course, nature abhors a vacuum. With no government agency telling people to pull certain leafy greens off the shelf, Taco Bell made the surprisingly sober decision to stop tucking shredded lettuce and tomato into your Crunchwrap. What a timeline. This week on DINGUS OF THE WEEK, LYZ LENS and ZACHARY OREN SMITH unwrap this shit sandwich and ask, didn't I ask for no lettuce? DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:00 - Cold open: Trump's prime-time address. 11:53 - Intro 14:25 - Dingus: Cyclospora. 31:32 - Midroll: Lyz's Sunday Links post on the trad wife who "picked the wrong man" and why you can't choose your way out of a bad system. Subscribe at patreon.com/lyzlenz. 35:39 - Lindsey Graham died. 40:23 - Listener Voicemail: Justine's bad boss is back. 47:05 - Joy: Lyz hangs a TV on a crumbling plaster wall and gets vindicated by a nice handyman.

Mitch McConnell hasn't been seen in public in nearly a month. No photo, no video, no floor vote — just a statement from his office insisting the 83-year-old Senate Republican leader is "fully engaged" from his hospital bed. Meanwhile, the Senate is back in session, a defense bill and national security votes are on the table, and the guy who chairs the Rules Committee and the defense appropriations panel is, functionally, a rumor. This week on DINGUS OF THE WEEK, LYZ LENS and ZACHARY OREN SMITH check the pulse on America's biggest mystery: is there a light on in there? DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:00 - Cold open: Lyz's son wants to stay "average," not tall and Zach's trip to France 20:56 - Dingus: Schrödinger's Mitch McConnell. Hospitalized, unseen for weeks, and legally both alive and dead thanks to a Kentucky succession law. 43:51 - Midroll: "Dislodging that thing from his neck hole" and why you should subscribe on Patreon 55:15 - Game: Guess the Oldest 1:15:25 - Joy: Liz's crisis bob haircut 1:15:30 - Joy: Zach's baby, two ER trips in a month (and a socialized medicine rant). 1:22:18 - Outro.

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is an awe-inspiring site. While maybe meant to evoke introspection, it mostly evokes laughter these days. President Donald Trump wanted to clean it up. To give it a fresh coat of American flag-blue paint. But now the pool is algae-green. The paint job is peeling. And Trump's budget for the renovation keeps growing by the day. This week on DINGUS OF THE WEEK, LYZ LENS and ZACHARY OREN SMITH wade into the murky, algae-filled waters and ask if maybe a little self-reflection was the real fix. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:00 - Relay Iowa recap: Lyz ran 42 miles and fell down a hill. Zach had AC. 05:30 - Intro 06:30 - Dingus: The Reflecting Pool. Trump spends $20M painting it blue. It fills with algae in 24 hours. 22:00 - Midroll: Lyz is above a bookstore in Maine. Patreon.com/lyzlenz. 26:00 - Entitled Goose Game 32:00 - Listener Dingus: Izzy nominates Mike Lee for Fidelity Month. Lyz sends him to hell. 39:00 - "Shittinary" is coined. 40:00 - Joy: Zach gets sick baby snuggles. Lyz eats a lobster roll in Maine. 46:00 - Outro

There is a 90-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure on the South Lawn of the White House, assembled on grounds normally used for Easter egg rolls, Marine One departures, and a garden honoring presidents' children. UFC calls it The Claw. The event — UFC Freedom 250 — is scheduled for June 14, coinciding with Flag Day and Trump's 80th birthday. In the weeks before the fight, Trump invested up to $50,000 in TKO Holdings, UFC's parent company. Then he posted a TikTok suggesting The Claw might never come down, comparing it to the Eiffel Tower. He later said he was joking. He was joking, right? This week on DINGUS OF THE WEEK, LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH ask: at what point does the bit become the thing itself? Also, get the real scoop on two Iowa elections that are getting the national press talking. We just wish they talked to anyone who actually lived here. We're raising money for Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice. Lend a hand! Join us in supporting IMMJ DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:15 - Teen girl music 07:29 - Geese isn't a psyop. You just don't know what music like. 08:00 - Intro 09:20 - Iowa Primary 2026: Kansan Koch son-in-law Zach Lahn beats out low energy Randy Feenstra 27:29 - Iowa Primary 2026: Josh Turek's landslide victory over Zach Wahls 45:01 - Midroll: For Relay Iowa, Our team High Fructose Corn Sweat is running a race across Iowa raising money for Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice. 50:18 - Dingus: The White House's Claw 01:05:52 - Listener Dingus: driver doesn't watch for pedestrian in the crosswalk 01:17:09 - Joy: Lyz is lost in her new book project. Zach talks honeysuckle.

Spencer Pratt was reality television's first fully self-aware villain — a man who admitted, on camera, that he was performing villainy for an audience. He staged a fake divorce, manipulated storylines, and turned being unlikeable into a career. The Hills did make him famous. It also made him a case study in how American media rewards people who understand that the camera is on and someone's watching. He knew the game before most people knew there was a game. There wasn't much to report recently, and then his house burned down in the Palisades fire, and something unexpected happened: Spencer Pratt got real. He showed up to protests. He got angry on behalf of his neighbors. He announced a mayoral campaign at the one-year anniversary of the fires... and people didn't laugh him out of the room. He is currently polling at 22%, just behind incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and is a legitimate threat to make the runoff. The man who was professionally fake is now genuinely running to lead a real city. The joke of Spencer Pratt running for mayor only works if Spencer Pratt is the punchline. But the longer you look at it, the more you realize the punchline might be us. We built the machine that made him. We watched The Hills. We rewarded performance over substance for two decades and then expressed shock when a performer showed up with a policy platform. Spencer Pratt didn't corrupt American politics. He just followed the incentives, a map we drew for him. This week on DINGUS OF THE WEEK, LYZ LENZ and ZACHARY OREN SMITH follow Spencer Pratt from The Hills to City Hall and find the view from both places is equally bleak. DINGUS OF THE WEEK is a weekly comedy news podcast where writers Lyz and Zach light a fire under the American rogue's gallery to see who comes spilling out. If you're tired of doom-scrolling but know ignoring the problem doesn't get us anywhere, this is your new weekend listen. New episodes every Saturday morning. SUPPORT THE SHOW by subscribing on Patreon.👑 $5/month - Not a Dingus tier (3 weekly newsletters, 1 podcast, and our entire archive) 👑👑 $10/month - Definitely Not a Dingus tier (all the above + polls and topic submissions, a chat community, weekly discussions, comment access, and our love) SEND US YOUR DINGUS. Record a voice memo and tell us who your dingus of the week is. Make it good and you'll hear your voice on the show. You can also email those to [email protected].  FOLLOW DINGUS OF THE WEEK Youtube Instagram LYZ LENZ is the HBIC of MYAM Media.  ZACHARY OREN SMITH writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. Follow his work on Instagram (http://instagram.com/zacharyorensmith) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@zacharyorensmith). LAURA BENITEZ wrote the theme song. SHOW RUNDOWN: 00:00 — Cold open: Lyz's Wikifeet profile 08:05 — Intro 9:26 — Dingus: Spencer Pratt is polling at 22% and America has no one to blame but itself 40:25 — Runner-up: The DOJ investigates E. Jean Carroll while Trump's $5 million judgment collects dust 50:55 — Midroll: Hot Divorcee Summer 55:07 — GAME: Stars turned politicians 01:06:06 — Joy: the NYT pickle brine margarita, Tom Lin's Babylon, South Dakota, and Pope's Magnifica Humanitas. 01:19:08 — Close