Normal Men

Election predictions, with a normal degree of confidence. Plus: pumpkins, cheesecake, Utah.

George's North Carolina early-vote tracker
Votecaster: George's election-night Senate needles
Don Moynihan's giant Ann Arbor pumpkins

College football acts normal. Ed reveals the Hobby Acquisition Algorithm. Also: some random memories and the semiconductor industry's toilet problem. Then: butts.

Show notes: North Carolina early-vote dashboard; Carolina Forward; EUV explainer; Toto and semiconductor ceramics; Scott Colom's beef ad.

Grab bag (contains at least one Politics, probably an Econ). Canada has the water. We have some ideas about staffing.

Airline reporter mentioned on the show: @wanderme.paxex.aero.

Ugarles joins us to talk meats, football, and SCOTUS. Alito has grievances, Roberts has neighbors, and retiring at the right time turns out to be part of the job. Plus: major questions doctrine, lower-court obedience, and the difference between calling balls and strikes and being a super mod.

Find Charles on Bluesky and at his link hub, including his 52+1 podcast appearance challenge. Listen to No Homework with Patrick Cosmos and L. Ron Mexico, and City Saint/Country Saint with L. Ron Mexico.

Also plugged: Ape Shit, Carrie McLaren's zine about humans and other primates. Its first issue examines Helping Hands' helper-monkey program. Available from OR Books.

This is a normal amount to think about an Idaho Senate race, I don't know what you're talking about.

Donate to Todd Achilles’s campaign.

Musicology Duck returns with a unifying theory of Trump's inner playlist! Also: architecture in the DMV, midterm polling, and diesel prices. Follow Musicology Duck.

Why every enterprise open-weight model is bad, digging holes in your yard, consumer AI and warfare, the Amodei Pause, capex math, and dayenu on the models. Lowtax turns up late with a dispatch on Ian Paisley Jr. Plus Cascadia subduction, the generic ballot, and the correct amount of Tajin.

This week: leatherwork. Ed tries on a harness, George does some shoe-leather reporting, and we kick around the ol' pigskin. Also: an old coinage, and a departure reviewed.

Links: Polytoken · Sky Marchini, harassed over heavy sour crude

This week: the Lake Effect and CBC comes packing. The Men investigate pheromone-maxxing, chicken-tender nation, and (unfortunately) data centers.

Links: Shiv Ramdas's Rice Truck thread · George's Jerome Powell shirt

This week: a brief exploration of comparative religion and the lost art of letter-writing. George teaches us about USMCA and les dangers du Québec. Ed thinks they should cut the power. Also: Dude Wipes.

Links: George on Canadian supply management (FT) · Hailey · Sky Marchini, owed an apology · Fatal Attraction

the Ed-less Men tackle the state of the Senate states. Buckle up, it's the preseason!

Down one normal man and up one provisionally normal historian: Bret Devereaux joins to discuss Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, and we make it about twenty minutes before the Late Bronze Age collapses.

Chapter markers say which segments contain spoilers for the film.

Bret Devereaux blogs at https://acoup.blog and is @bretdevereaux.bsky.social.

Mike Black joins the Men for a wide-ranging conversation about mostly the NDAA. Authorized and appropriate at all times.

Improv episode after Glonzo ate our guest's internet connection. Three thousand words about lettuce, Nolan does Homer, Troy in Maine, and Taco Bell totally exonerated. Then: some Tate schadenfreude, the darkening of the dawn, and Spanish supply lines. Also, gossip about some models.

Normbot now live on Bluesky: @normal-men.bsky.social

Lindsey Graham and the McConnell succession watch. Brazil's World Cup exit gets blamed on Protestantism. Count Binface takes the fight to Clacton. Michigan's Senate proxy war, and how Graham Platner actually got out of Maine. Links: the Institute for Hispano Studies, the hand dryer at the Crown and Treaty, and Allagash, Maine.

Some futbol, moderate arborism, the fast road to Argentina, and Eurovision. 250 years and Normal as ever.

Show notes:
Mexico 2–3 England at the Azteca (match report)
The cherry trees and the golf course
Trump confirms he asked FIFA to review Balogun's red card
Balogun: born American by accident
Canada joins Eurovision
Frederick Douglass, “Love of God, Love of Man, Love of Country” (1847)
Albion's Seed
Groverhaus

The normal men get hot and bothered, fix what's wrong with NYC politics, are gone to look for America, and contemplate an unwise conflict that expects too much of the Curds. A well-insulated episode.

Come take a mind-safari with us to Beirut, Manchester, and West Palm Beach. Plus: tilling the GOP 2028 field way too early.

A defence of the pastoral lifestyle and also the barbacoan lifestyle. Also: your gut health and soda, thunder v swamp, grudgingly handing it to the Knicks, and 10 mpg(ame).

Links: Musicology Duck’s reflecting pool · The Double Pivot · Sickos Committee

Unfortunately additional Maine. Then: a bit of fish and the Intercept Cinematic Universe.