Topic: Naming

The Onion won a bankruptcy auction for Infowars, leading to a parody takeover featuring Tim Heidecker. Alex Jones officially signed off from the original Infowars platform but has transitioned his operations to a new domain, AlexJonesLive.com. The transition involves shedding the legal baggage of the Infowars trademark while maintaining the same product lines and audience.

The ownership of the domain Diaries.com is discussed as a potential high-value asset. The conversation briefly touches on the history of early social blogging platforms like LiveJournal and Tumblr, and the hosts joke about selling the domain for Bitcoin as an "exit strategy."

The show concludes with a sign-off from Adam Curry in Fredericksburg and John C. Dvorak in Silicon Valley. The final audio mix features a rhythmic reading of names from the Jeffrey Epstein files, followed by a rap about the value of silver versus fiat currency. Listeners are directed to the Podcasting 2.0 board meeting for further technical discussion.

The hosts announce that a listener has named their baby "Mimi" after the show's terminology, though they joke about the lack of recognition for the hosts' own names. They reflect on the show's 18-year history and the upcoming Labor Day holiday. The segment transitions into the show's administrative and donation-focused portion.

Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrowski is accused of writing a book under a pen name and then appearing on television in disguise to praise his own work. The scandal has brought further scrutiny to his past, including alleged contacts with neo-Nazi groups and organized crime figures in northern Poland.

Attorneys General from 19 states and D.C. are suing federal agencies over the firing of probationary employees, alleging proper procedures were not followed. This leads to a side discussion about purchasing the domain TrumpVP2028.com and the prevalence of wild theories on the social platform X.

Tim Walz is credited by mainstream media for coining the "weird" attack line against Donald Trump and JD Vance. NPR and NBC reports are analyzed for their focus on Walz's personality and messaging skills despite his initially low national name recognition. The "weird" meme is characterized as a calculated viral marketing strategy that helped Walz secure the VP nomination.

With their children moved out, one host and his wife are considering getting two dogs to avoid loneliness. The wife insists on naming them Paul Anka and Doris Day, inspired by the show "Gilmore Girls." The host expresses humorous disdain for the names, suggesting alternatives like "Brutus," "Spike," or "Shithead" to maintain his dignity while walking them.

Citizens in Fort Wayne, Indiana, voted overwhelmingly in an online poll to name a new city-county building the "Harry Baals Government Center." The name honors Harry Baals, the city's longest-serving mayor, though local officials expressed hesitation due to the name's phonetic similarity to a crude joke. The hosts highlighted the story as an example of American humor and the public's penchant for double entendres.

CNN coverage of the Hollywood strike is critiqued for its focus on "Name, Image, and Likeness" (NIL), a term originally popularized in college athletics lawsuits. The union's demands include increased minimum pay rates and streaming residuals, which have become a sticking point as the industry shifts away from traditional broadcast models. The hosts suggest that news anchors themselves should be wary of being replaced by AI models.

The program opens with a discussion regarding actress Chloe Grace Moretz and the timing of when she added her middle name to her professional billing. A similar observation is made regarding Courtney Cox and her name change during the filming of the television series Friends.

The hosts examine a poorly executed AI-generated email request for SEO link-building related to an old episode titled "Laptop Bomb." This leads to a discussion on the historical value of domain names like art.com and broadcast.com, and Adam Curry's refusal to sell curry.com.

Updated CDC guidelines for schools suggest masking only in high-risk situations or high-transmission communities, specifically mentioning "wrestling games" as a high-risk activity. During the discussion, a host purchases the domain highqualitymask.com as a marketing gag to redirect to the show's website.

A host successfully registers the domain name "ultramagatard.com" during the live stream after discovering "magatard.com" was already taken. The segment highlights the frequent impulse to register domain names based on show jokes, many of which are never utilized for actual projects.

The global conflict is framed as a defense of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, particularly against nations like Russia that seek to sell energy in other currencies. The discussion references the removal of Victoria Nuland's "F the EU" phone call from YouTube as an example of historical memory-holing. Additionally, the "dude named Ben" meme from a past IRS congressional hearing is revisited to illustrate bureaucratic disdain for technical staff.

The Social Security Administration released the top baby names for the year, with Liam and Olivia taking the number one spots. The hosts note a "Britification" of American names, with choices like Oliver, Charlotte, and Emma gaining significant popularity among millennials.

CNN has reportedly relaxed its standards regarding profanity, allowing guests like Republican strategist Liz Mair to use derogatory terms to describe Donald Trump. Commentators noted the irony of media figures condemning Trump for name-calling while simultaneously using insults against him. This shift is presented as evidence of a broader media bias against the Republican nominee.

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak perform a knighting ceremony for "Sir Iceman" and "Sir Dude Name Mike of Not That Paris." They remind producers that donation notes must be submitted by midnight Pacific Time the night before the show to be included in the current episode. The ceremony includes the traditional list of humorous "rewards" for the new knights.

A viral weather report features the flawless pronunciation of the Welsh town Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. The name translates to "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave." The segment includes a humorous warning about the difficulty of navigating or landing aircraft in Wales due to the complex geography and language.

The new COVID-19 variant Omicron is introduced, with observations on its phonetic similarity to the advertising giant Omnicom and the technology company Micron. Anagrams of the name are noted to spell "moronic."