Pod Save the World

Podbit · Pod Save the World

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge

Explore episode Jun 3, 2026
Society & Culture
Far-Right Influencers in Moscow: Paid or Trolling?

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge · Jun 3, 2026 Society & Culture

Candace Owens and the indicted Tate brothers descended on Moscow for Russia's annual Saint Petersburg investment conference, with Owens posting rapturous commentary about how clean and beautiful Moscow is. Ben Rhodes points out that Pyongyang is also clean, that the architecture has existed for centuries, and that no one gets a goodwill tour of Russia without being shown exactly what they're meant to see.

Where this was said

Russia's Drone Barrage and American Far-Right Influencers in Moscow

At 56:30 · chapter starts 52:50

Russia's largest drone and missile barrage of the war kills 20 Ukrainians and injures 100, with a stray drone even striking a Romanian apartment building — potentially triggering Article 5 considerations. Against this backdrop, far-right American influencers Candace Owens and the Tate brothers — who face rape and human trafficking charges — arrive in Moscow for Russia's annual Saint Petersburg investment conference. Owens posts gushing content about Moscow's cleanliness and beauty; Ben responds that Pyongyang is also clean, and that autocratic regimes excel at managed goodwill tours. The White House is sending a representative (a minor cultural commission chair named Rodney Mims Cook Jr.), signaling Trump's ongoing flirtation with Russian investment. Ben connects this to growing European anxiety: the combination of Trump's thirst for Russian investment, his disregard for Ukraine, and actual Russian sabotage operations in European countries is stoking real fear in Poland, the Baltics, and Romania of military escalation — precisely as Trump threatens to pull US troops out of Europe.

News
Russia's Massive Ukraine Barrage — And the American Right Cheers Them On

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge · Jun 3, 2026 News

Russia launched one of the war's largest attacks — 665 drones and 73 missiles — killing 20 Ukrainians and injuring 100, while a Russian drone crossed into Romania and hit an apartment building. Simultaneously, Candace Owens and the Tate brothers were in Moscow for an investment conference posting about how clean and beautiful the city is.

News
Colombia Runoff: El Tigre vs. the Left, Trump Picks His Side

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge · Jun 3, 2026 News

Colombia heads to a June 21st runoff between left-wing Senator Iván Cepeda and Trump-backed right-winger Abelardo de la Espriella, who calls himself 'El Tigre' and wants to replicate El Salvador's mass-detention model. Ben Rhodes warns this is part of a broader US effort to build a bloc of right-wing Latin American leaders, a strategy that has historically ended badly for the region and for US interests.

Similar podbits

Society & Culture
The Intrinsic vs. Instrumental Values Trap

The Only 12 Lessons Buried In Every Self-Help Book - Spence… · Oct 10, 2026 Society & Culture

Most people confuse things they value instrumentally (because they get them other things) with things they value intrinsically (for their own sake). Greenberg's friend stayed in a miserable relationship for years because she was living by her parents' values, not her own — the values map made the mismatch instantly visible.

Society & Culture
James Hollis's 4-Rule Formula for a Great Life

“This Is The Culmination Of Everything I Know” - Dr Andrew … · Sep 14, 2026 Society & Culture

Jungian analyst James Hollis distills a good life to four things: shut up (have gratitude, stop whining), suit up (prepare yourself to fulfill a role), show up (do the actual work in service of others), and daily get out of stimulus-response to ask what your deeper wish actually is. The whole landscape of self-help slots into just these four bins.

Society & Culture
The Late-20s Reevaluation: When the Game Stops Working

“This Is The Culmination Of Everything I Know” - Dr Andrew … · Sep 14, 2026 Society & Culture

Toward the end of their 20s, many men discover that all the strategies that earned them recognition and success have stopped working. It's a second adolescence — more important than the first — where the question shifts from 'how do I play the game?' to 'who do I actually want to become?' Most people going through it look fragile from the outside. They're actually building a foundation.

Society & Culture
The Man Points Problem

The Hidden Psychology Of Highly Sensitive People - Dr Sasha… · Sep 7, 2026 Society & Culture

Men need a 'bank account' of masculine status — muscle, money, success — before society grants them permission to express vulnerability. Chris Bumstead can cry at the Olympia and get celebrated. A struggling nobody doing the same thing gets contempt. This creates a tragic paradox where the men who most need emotional support get the least of it.

Society & Culture
Kierkegaard's Prophecy: Why Infinite Options Create Maximum Misery

Finding Your Life Path, Solved · Sep 2, 2026 Society & Culture

More freedom doesn't produce more happiness — it produces more anxiety. Kierkegaard identified this 180 years ago: the more options you have, the more you feel the 'dizziness of freedom,' a paralytic unease at having to choose any single one. The freest generation in history is, by his prediction, exactly the most anxious.