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Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Bald and Bloviating

A nonpartisan bald news junky dissects top stories and rants about their implications, along with other personal, science, and tech discussions.

news news commentary

All Episodes

14:11

When Miss France Was Almost Mister

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/08/02

Mookie Spitz rewinds to 2001, when French beauty queen Elodie Gossuin was crowned Miss France—and almost immediately became the subject of a tabloid-fueled smear suggesting she was transgender. What started as a rumor spun by the New York Daily News spiraled into a cultural flashpoint, one that exposed deep veins of transphobia, media sensationalism, and societal discomfort with identity long before “woke” was even part of the lexicon. Mookie revisits his own op-ed from the time, which called...

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24:44

The 3 Types of Manager

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/30

Mookie Spitz dives into the world of management archetypes with a mix of humor, hard-earned scars, and unfiltered truth. Drawing on his chaotic years running Chicago nightclubs in the 90s—where powder-fueled nights bled into daylight columns for control-alt-delete op-eds—Mookie revisits lessons that still hit hard in the corporate world today. He breaks down the three types of managers you’ve either worked for, worked with, or—if you’re honest and experienced enough—been yourself: The “Mommy ...

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38:07

Israel Wants to Annex Gaza & the West Bank

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/30

In this blistering solo episode, Mookie Spitz rips away the sanitized headlines and drills into the raw truth behind Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Far from the usual media spin, Mookie lays out how the Netanyahu government—propped up by hardline ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir—is systematically turning Gaza into an unlivable wasteland while accelerating settlement expansion in the West Bank. The goal? Not peace. Not coexistence. But a singular, unified Israel with Palestinians p...

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10:36

Top 10 DJ Pro-Tips

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/29

In this riotously sharp episode of Bald and Bloviating, Mookie Spitz takes listeners back to the wild, sweaty nights of Chicago’s 1990s dance club scene. Drawing from his time as a barback, bartender, and eventually club manager—plus his Nightlines magazine columns—Mookie resurrects a brutally funny and painfully honest list: the Top 10 DJ Pro-Tips, with a focus on Driving Club Managers Insane. With the bite of someone who’s seen it all from the other side of the booth, Mookie skewers the ego...

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53:59

DJs, AI, and the Hubris of Bullshit Artists

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/17

Mookie Spitz lays out a blisteringly clear thesis: today's AI "creators" are often nothing more than digital-era DJs—bullshit artists hiding behind technology, mistaking curation for creation, and swaggering with a confidence they haven’t earned. Drawing from his lived experience as a 1990s nightclub bar manager, Mookie compares most of the ego-soaked DJs of that era—who stood in booths playing other people’s records while soaking up the praise bestowed the songwriters and producers themselve...

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72:15

Dom Donald & Elon the Brat

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/16

Mookie Spitz tears apart the flimsy fabric of modern etiquette, dragging it through the mud of our digital cesspool. What starts as a deep dive into why Nixon chose to resign—bowing to protocol over narcissism—explodes into a sweeping, honest exploration of how those old norms have been obliterated by the almighty attention economy. Welcome to the age of the troll, where behaving badly isn’t just tolerated, it’s fetishized. Where social media has transformed the human need for recognition int...

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43:28

Nixon Didn’t Have to Quit — And Neither Do You

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/14

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace — not because he legally had to, but because he bowed to etiquette, tradition, and the unwritten rules of political “decency.” In this episode, Mookie Spitz unpacks that moment in history when decorum outweighed actual law, especially when the law was murky or absent. Nixon didn’t have to quit. He chose to — because back then, the script said he should. But today? That script’s in flames. From Nixon to Trump to Musk, Mookie charts how we’ve lurched from resi...

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105:18

Two-State Solution? Now?! A Jew & a Muslim Debate

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/10

Jewish agnostic Chicagoan Mookie Spitz and Muslim agnostic Canadian Ali A. Rizvi — who grew up bouncing between Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Pakistan — dive headlong into one of the planet’s most radioactive debates: the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. It’s a showdown years in the making. Normally aligned on nearly everything, from atheism to trashing fundamentalists of all stripes, this time they find themselves on diametrically opposite sides. Ali argues that the Middle East’s tect...

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61:54

Inside the Infiniverse | Part 2

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/08

Mookie Spitz brings you the next installment of the unhinged director’s cut you didn’t know you needed. In this series, he takes apart his novel Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine — laying bare the cosmic insanity, twisted characters, and philosophical rabbit holes that drive it. This pod digs into Episode One: The Birth, where we meet Alice — a quadrillion-year-old Boltzmann brain born out in the frozen corpse of a dying universe. She's godlike, lonely, emotionally stunted,...

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57:15

Beware the 95/5er! Are You Giver or Taker?

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/05

Mookie Spitz rants about the messy power dynamics that shape our relationships. Inspired by a fiasco where he got kicked off X for flooding timelines with his novel, Mookie pivots to something way deeper: why so many of us are stuck in lopsided connections where one person gives everything and the other barely gives a damn. He introduces the 95/5 principle — a stark look at how one partner ends up pouring in 95% of the love, energy, support, money, sex, time, you name it... while the other ki...

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58:25

Inside the Infiniverse | Part 1

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/07/03

Mookie Spitz unleashes a cynical, hyperverbal annotation of his new novel Jonnie Fazoolie & The Transfinite Reality Engine through the layers of his latest cosmic fever dream designed to enthrall readers, writers, sci-fi nerds, existential thrill-seekers, or far as this pod goes masochists who want to hear an author lose his mind about his own creation. Expect spoilers galore here, because this show is meant for people who have read the book, are reading it, or don’t give a shit and just ...

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45:07

Ode to Luxurious Bloviation: Tweeting My Entire Novel

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/06/28

Mookie Spitz dives headfirst into his manic creative process — from obsessively shaping his sci-fi novel Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine into rigid three-line paragraphs, to pulling off an audacious stunt: tweeting out the entire damn book, line by line, every hour, for 200 days. This is part confessional, part masterclass in embracing constraints to spark creativity. Mookie breaks down why arbitrary rules (like limiting prose to OCD-tight paragraphs) forced his writing t...

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170:37

The Spider's Jar: Blowing Borges' Mind

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/06/26

In this expansive solo episode, Mookie Spitz takes listeners on a hallucinatory, high-concept journey through the philosophical backbone of his new novel, Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine. The focal point? A chapter titled “Hating Mondays," featuring an object so conceptually loaded it makes Borges’ Library of Babel look like a cozy bookshelf. Mookie starts with literary ground zero: Jorge Luis Borges and the mind-warping thought experiment of a library containing ev...

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53:15

Big Apple Breakup: New York City Sucks

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/06/26

In this brutally honest episode, Mookie Spitz unleashes a full-throttle rant on why he walked away from the city he once loved — New York Fucking City. From the dopamine-drenched highs of Broadway and late-night oyster bars to the rat-infested, overpriced dumps and subway stench, Mookie pulls zero punches in recounting his 13-year romance, souring, and eventual divorce from the so-called Greatest City on Earth. Part memoir, part socio-political commentary, part love letter soaked in con...

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32:49

@$$hole Bosses & Backstabbing Colleagues

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/04/29

Mookie Spitz dives headfirst into why work so often feels like a slow-motion train wreck — and why the people around you are usually the ones going off the rails. Drawing from decades of personal experience to create a satirical expose worthy of The Office, Mookie breaks down what he describes as the four types of asshole bosses: The Evil Superstar — a top performer promoted into leadership and drunk on their own importance. The Clueless Bully — insecure, incompetent, and determined to cover...

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59:10

Brandsplaining the Yang Gang

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/04/28

In this unapologetic, no-holds-barred solo episode, Mookie Spitz reflects on his surreal brush with presidential politics — a behind-the-scenes strategy session with Andrew Yang during his 2020 campaign. Armed with decades of marketing and branding expertise, Mookie tried (and failed) to show Yang how emotional storytelling, clear messaging, and unabashed provocation win elections — not endless policy details. What follows is a sharp, hilarious, and brutally honest takedown of political naive...

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56:02

Choose the Red and Blue Pills

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/04/27

Mookie Spitz opens up about the thin line between science and mysticism, between reason and wonder, and concludes we need to embrace both. Through vivid stories of premonitions, near-misses, and life-or-death moments, Mookie explores the mysterious threads that seem to connect us across time, space, and even reality itself. From a mother’s prophecy to a son’s narrow escape, from a teenage acid trip to glimpses of something ancient and eternal, this journey isn’t just about questioning t...

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42:06

The Jewish American Civil War, Part 1

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/04/26

In this fiery and provocative episode, Mookie Spitz dives deep into the growing civil war within the Jewish American community. Drawing inspiration from Chris Rock’s iconic “Civil War” routine, Mookie offers a no-holds-barred stand-up-style rant about the fierce generational and ideological divide that's exploded post-October 7th. He explores how younger, liberal Jews rally behind Palestinian rights, clashing head-on with older, Militant Zionists fiercely defending Israel at any cost. With wi...

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42:47

The Jewish American Civil War, Part 2

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/04/26

In this powerful follow-up, Mookie Spitz returns to the raging civil war within American Jewry — a battle that’s only deepened post-October 7th. Moving beyond satire, Mookie delivers a heartfelt, provocative message: a call for Jewish Americans to reclaim their critical thinking, compassion, and humanity amid the chaos. With sharp analysis, personal stories, and biting wit, he breaks down the two extreme camps — Militant Zionists and Leftist Apologists — who now dominate the conversation abou...

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42:54

Three Times The Charm

Bald and Bloviating ·

2025/04/26

On this hilarious and brutally honest episode of Bald and Bloviating, Mookie Spitz ruminates on three — count 'em, three — epic bike crashes that all share one common thread: his stubborn refusal to admit he needs help. From a bloody Manhattan bike-lane disaster (that cost him $12K and a surgically rebuilt elbow) to two more wipeouts on California bike paths, Mookie serves up wild storytelling, painful lessons, and a raw look at how avoidant personalities handle crisis — badly. Packed with hu...

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64 results

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