Topic: 1885

The RAISE Act, a proposed merit-based immigration system, is discussed alongside media criticism that it would have barred the ancestors of Trump and Stephen Miller. The hosts argue that comparing 1885 immigration needs to modern policy is a logical fallacy, as the country's requirements for labor and assimilation have changed. They critique Jim Acosta's confrontation with Stephen Miller over the "Statue of Liberty" poem as a theatrical rather than substantive debate.

The history of Austin's Moonlight Towers, 165-foot lighting structures erected in 1885, is explored in relation to the "Servant Girl Annihilator" serial killer. These towers were originally installed to illuminate the city and provide safety during a period of high-profile murders that some theorists link to Jack the Ripper. Austin remains one of the few cities to maintain these historic 19th-century lighting structures.