The podcast ending has brought me an unexpected Bright Spot: The Great Re-Listening has commenced, and it gets weird (mic down for this one)
I’ve been listening since the dawn of the pod, so the guys’ announcement last week really hit me hard. There have been few things in my life as consistent and longstanding as Knowledge Fight, and I’ve been struggling to find something else that scratches the nihilist itch and calms it with an analytical but perfectly humorous dissection of the crazies inching their way from the fringes to the center of our society.
I guess it will be no surprise to the Wonks that the only logical next move was to go back to the beginning and do it all again. I’ve never even considered re-listening
To hear the then-current events discussed is both alarming and cathartic, but the foresight the guys have is so validating.
In one of the early episodes (maybe Episode 7 with Tyler Snodgrass filling in as “Guest Jordan”) they discuss the complex nature of humorously covering a person like Alex and his awful takes and despicable ethics, many of which are really disgusting and Dan is extremely conscious of the line between coverage and co-signing. At one point Dan says that if Alex ever brings up Sandy Hook on his show again, Dan doesn’t know how they’ll handle it on KF because while people should know what a piece of shit Alex is for what he’s done to the families of SH victims, he doesn’t want to perpetuate the damage Alex causes every time he brings up Sandy Hook, and also there’s nothing funny about it so that doesn’t work well for the format of the show.
Of course, Future Wonks know how THAT scenario panned out. And Past Dan was absolutely right - when that topic did eventually come up again on Alex’s show, covering it would require its own format…though I can’t imagine he expected that format would involve witnessing the depositions firsthand and reporting on them in depth as a recognized expert on Alex’s career.
Okay, enough yappin’ I’ve got a 3 hour episode about Alex’s appearance on Joe Rogan to get through.
Now bring in the dancing robots!