The episode opens with four back-to-back sponsor reads. ZBiotics promotes its genetically engineered probiotic drink PreAlcohol with a 15% off code. NBC News plugs Here's the Scoop, a daily news podcast hosted by Yasmin Massougien. DR Horton advertises its national Red Tag Sales Event on new homes. Ozempic announces the availability of a pill version of the injectable GLP-1 medication. These ads establish the commercial framing before content begins.

Tommy Vietor opens by teasing Ben Rhodes about two simultaneous wins: the Knicks reaching the NBA Finals and his second book entering the world. The conversation quickly turns promotional — Tommy urges listeners to buy 'All We Say' and help Ben beat Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy on the New York Times bestseller list. They run through the episode agenda, which covers Bill Pulte's DNI appointment, the Iran war, Lebanon ceasefire tensions, Gaza, the Ukraine drone barrage, far-right influencers in Moscow, Colombia's runoff election, MAGA corruption stories, and Ben's interview with AI policy expert Aya Ibrahim. Ben also plugs upcoming book events at the 92nd Street Y and in LA.

The centerpiece of the episode's opening is the bombshell news that Donald Trump has made Bill Pulte, a businessman best known for running HVAC companies and promoting meme stocks, the acting Director of National Intelligence — the top spy overseeing all 18 US intelligence agencies. Tommy Vietor explains that Pulte's previous stint running the Federal Housing Finance Agency consisted largely of using mortgage data to manufacture criminal cases against Trump enemies like New York AG Letitia James. His appointment to the DNI, Tommy argues, is simply a transfer of that retribution operation to an infinitely more powerful platform: the NSA's global surveillance capabilities. Ben Rhodes adds that the fact Pulte will simultaneously continue running FHFA — managing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while leading the intelligence community — is almost comic in its absurdity. The hosts play two clips of Pulte: one from a 2022 conference where another man is slapped in the face with a novelty dildo and presents Pulte with a statue reading 'Bill Pulte Fucks Only the Young,' and one from a podcast where Pulte waxes nostalgic about countertops versus HVAC. Ben notes he began his Washington career helping write the 9/11 Commission legislation that created the DNI — a role never imagined for someone with HVAC expertise. The hosts also flag that Roger Stone pushed for the appointment, and warn that Pulte's real mandate may include manufacturing foreign-interference conspiracy theories to justify overturning future elections. ^{[1] — Tommy Vietor "Trump installed Bill Pulte — an HVAC entrepreneur and meme stock promoter — as acting Director of National Intelligence, overseeing 18 inte…" 06:55 Play}

Fast Growing Trees is promoted as America's largest online nursery, offering a 20% discount with code WORLD and guaranteeing healthy plant delivery. BetterHelp, described as the world's largest online therapy platform with over 30,000 therapists and 6 million clients served, offers 10% off for new sign-ups via betterhelp.com/crookedworld. Tommy notes that given the state of the political world, everyone could use a therapist.

Tommy Vietor opens with a cold reality check: three months of war, weeks of siren-emoji tweets about imminent peace deals, and not a single ship is freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The US military has escorted roughly 70 ships through over several weeks — compared to 130 per day during peacetime — as nations drain strategic reserves to avoid an economic crash. Tommy details the stalled deal framework: a 60-day fighting pause, unrestricted shipping resumption, and hard follow-on negotiations over the nuclear program; plus a proposed $300 billion post-war investment fund that sounds to him like the JCPOA with Gulf-state laundering. Ben blasts Axios for credulously amplifying leak after leak about imminent deals, calling it a tool of oil market manipulation. He also dissects Trump's Obama obsession: whatever deal eventually emerges will almost certainly mirror the JCPOA's mechanism of releasing previously frozen Iranian assets through third-party countries, and Ben urges journalists to call it out. Trump's own quote — 'I thought they started to get very boring' — captures the incoherence at the center of US policy. ^{[1] — Tommy Vietor "Three months into the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. The 130 ships per day that transited it during peacetime have been re…" 23:05 Play [2] — Tommy Vietor "130 ships/day vs. 70 escorted in weeks: During peacetime, 130 ships per day transited the Strait of Hormuz; since the Iran war began, the U…" 26:58 Play}

A clip of Marco Rubio testifying to Congress that Operation Epic Fury substantially degraded Iran's defense industrial base is juxtaposed with Trump musing that he actually left the Iranian military alone because they're 'moderates.' Ben Rhodes shreds both claims: reporting indicates over 70% of Iran's ballistic missiles and launchers are still intact, the Iranian Navy continues to control the Strait of Hormuz, and the damage to US military assets is vastly underreported. Tommy details the staggering scope drawn from BBC satellite imagery: 20 bases hit across eight countries, 42 aircraft destroyed, 24 MQ-9 drones lost, three THAAD batteries at $1 billion each destroyed, and an E-3 Sentry worth up to $700 million damaged. Ben frames this information gap as a product of corporate media consolidation — regular people in the Gulf are better informed about damage to American bases than most American citizens. The Pentagon kicking its own press corps out of their briefing room to make way for speechwriters in a newly declared SCIF is the latest move in that information war. ^{[1] — Ben Rhodes "Marco Rubio went to Capitol Hill and claimed Operation Epic Fury had substantially degraded Iran's missile program. Reporting tells a compl…" 32:20 Play [2] — Ben Rhodes "70% of Iran's ballistic missiles intact: Despite Marco Rubio's claims of decimating Iran's missile program, reporting indicates over 70% of…" 33:21 Play}

A voice note from Al Jazeera journalist Justin Solhany delivers the starkest data point of the episode: UNIFIL counted 683 Israeli trajectories northward into Lebanon on May 31st, against 61 from Hezbollah, with Israel's weekly average over 300 and Hezbollah's in the double digits. Ben Rhodes argues that calling this a ceasefire is a fiction that serves political interests — Israel is occupying nearly 20% of Lebanese territory, has displaced a million residents, and has killed 3,400 people while losing 27 soldiers. The Lebanon front has become the clearest pressure point between the US and Israel in the broader Iran negotiations, with Iran demanding the fighting end everywhere and Israel refusing. Axios reported that Trump called Netanyahu and screamed 'you'd be in prison if it weren't for me; everybody hates you,' a claim an Israeli analyst known as 'Bibi's shofar' denied, though the Wall Street Journal confirmed a second call where Trump talked trash. A reported agreement to halt Beirut airstrikes in exchange for no attacks seems fragile, while Israel captures the ancient Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon — a site it last held during its previous occupation 25 years ago, raising fears of a protracted new one. ^{[1] — Justin Solhany "UNIFIL data shows that on the single most intense day in late May 2025, Israel fired 683 projectiles northward into Lebanon while Hezbollah…" 38:50 Play [2] — Justin Solhany "683 vs 61 Israeli to Hezbollah projectiles: On the most intense day in late May 2025, UNIFIL counted 683 Israeli trajectories into Lebanon …" 39:43 Play}

Netanyahu, at what appears to be a settlement event in the West Bank, plays to the crowd about expanding Israeli territorial control in Gaza from 60% to 70% — squeezing approximately 2 million Palestinians into 30% of one of the most densely populated places on earth. Israel's defense minister Israel Katz tweets about 'voluntary migration,' which Tommy and Ben read as ethnic cleansing in diplomatic language. The humanitarian picture drawn by Doctors Without Borders is catastrophic: 90% of water and sanitation infrastructure destroyed, pests breeding in sewage, rats, lice, scabies, and fungal infections rampant, with essentially no functioning healthcare. Ben notes the international community has done essentially nothing — no UN action, no significant fundraising, no media access to see the actual death toll, which is probably far higher than the 70,000 already reported. A side story about the UK's Starmer government banning American podcasters Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker for their views on the Israeli occupation — while doing nothing for Palestinian civilians — prompts sharp criticism from both hosts of a centre-left government prioritizing silencing critics over helping the people its policies affect. ^{[1] — Tommy Vietor "Netanyahu publicly stated Israel controls 60% of Gaza and his directive is to push to 70%, which would compress roughly 2 million Palestini…" 45:00 Play [2] — Tommy Vietor "Doctors Without Borders found that Israel has destroyed or damaged nearly 90% of Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure. Raw sewage bre…" 46:00 Play}

Hims is promoted for its online platform connecting men with licensed healthcare providers for ED treatment, offering sildenafil (generic Viagra) at up to 95% less than brand name via discreet home delivery. Sundays for Dogs is described as air-dried, all-natural dog food made from over 80% meat, founded by veterinarian Dr. Tori Waxman, with Tommy vouching that his dog Luca loves it.

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. ^{[1] — Tommy Vietor "Russia launched one of the war's largest attacks — 665 drones and 73 missiles — killing 20 Ukrainians and injuring 100, while a Russian dro…" 53:00 Play [2] — Ben Rhodes "Candace Owens and the indicted Tate brothers descended on Moscow for Russia's annual Saint Petersburg investment conference, with Owens pos…" 56:30 Play}

Colombian voters sent the race to a runoff between left-wing Senator Iván Cepeda — who helped negotiate the 2016 FARC peace deal and wants to continue President Petro's policies — and right-winger Abelardo 'El Tigre' de la Espriella, who has Trump's backing and wants to build Bukele-style mega-prisons to crush cartel violence. The security situation in Colombia has genuinely deteriorated: politicians shot on the campaign trail, armed drone attacks by criminal organizations, thousands displaced. But Ben warns that a US-backed right-wing bloc across Latin America, propped up by private security forces or direct military support, is a pattern with a uniformly bad historical record — the very conflicts in Colombia, he notes, were partly an outgrowth of the last time Washington tried this. With a major Brazil election coming, this is a bellwether moment. ^{[1] — Tommy Vietor "Colombia heads to a June 21st runoff between left-wing Senator Iván Cepeda and Trump-backed right-winger Abelardo de la Espriella, who call…" 59:50 Play}

Tommy opens with a comparison to Reaganland-era scandals involving Billy Carter's two gas pumps, then unveils what he argues is an order of magnitude more brazen corruption. ProPublica traced a $620 million Pentagon loan to Vulcan Elements — a North Carolina rare earth startup — directly to a phone call from convicted felon Peter Navarro, who had visited Don Jr. in prison and appears in the acknowledgments of Don Jr.'s book. 1789 Capital, Don Jr.'s venture firm, had invested at a $200 million valuation; within five months the company was worth $2 billion. A similar setup may be in motion for Unusual Machines, a drone parts company whose board includes Don Jr. and where he owns millions in shares. Ben frames this as the Trump family migrating toward the Pentagon budget as the biggest available prize. The second story involves the Trump Organization's $1.5 billion golf course in northern Vietnam: the Financial Times reports that Vietnamese families are being required to exhume the graves of relatives to make way for the development — a development Ben connects directly to Trump's Liberation Day tariff threats, which effectively coerced Vietnam into approving the project. ^{[1] — Tommy Vietor "Don Jr.'s venture firm 1789 Capital invested in Vulcan Elements at a $200 million valuation. Three months later, convicted felon Peter Nava…" 1:04:15 Play [2] — Tommy Vietor "After Trump announced massive tariffs on Vietnam on Liberation Day, a Trump Organization golf course deal with Vietnam was announced. The F…" 1:07:35 Play}

Helix Sleep is promoted for its quiz-matched mattress delivery, 120-night trial, and 20% sitewide discount at helixsleep.com/world. ThirdLove is advertised for its wide range of bra sizes (AA through H, including half cups) with $15 off first purchase using code PODCAST15. The Crooked Media podcast Hysteria, co-hosted by Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco, is cross-promoted as a sharp, women-led show about democracy and culture.

Ben Rhodes interviews Aya Ibrahim, a former Biden White House AI policy advisor now at the AI Now Institute, about three interlinked AI stories. First, Pope Leo's encyclical: Ibrahim argues the Pope is the only figure who took tech leaders at their word about wanting to renegotiate the social contract, and that his entry into the conversation demonstrates moral authority and political power are not mutually exclusive. She notes a culture of learned helplessness among US policymakers who believe only coders get to decide how technology shows up in our lives. Second, Trump's AI executive order, issued the same day: entirely voluntary, asking companies to optionally share previews of powerful models before release — Ibrahim compares it to asking someone on a date rather than exercising oversight over world-remaking technology. Third, the US-China AI race paradigm: Ibrahim calls it a false choice between technological dominance and everything else — privacy, democracy, governance — and a race to the bottom where innovation comes at any cost, even humanity itself. She also draws a sharp drone analogy: just as cheap Iranian garage drones devastated American military infrastructure, small cheap open-source AI models could enable catastrophic harm without requiring the compute that only the US and China possess. The interview closes with reading recommendations: The Verge, Wired, and AI Now's own research. ^{[1] — Aya Ibrahim "Pope Leo's AI encyclical tackled political economy, moral implications, job dislocation, AI in warfare, and the risk to human dignity — iss…" 1:18:00 Play [2] — Aya Ibrahim "The US-China AI race framing forces a false binary: either we have the biggest AI companies or we have privacy, competition, and governance…" 1:21:40 Play [3] — Ben Rhodes "The drone era taught a painful lesson: the US had a dominant, expensive advantage, but Iran built cheap drones in garages that shut the Str…" 1:28:45 Play}

Tommy Vietor thanks Aya Ibrahim for joining and teases next week's episode. The full production credits are read: the show is produced by Ilona Minkowski, Michael Goldsmith, and Anisha Banerjee, with team members Matt DeGroot, Ben Heathcote, Jordan Kanter, Kenny Moffett, David Tolls, and Ryan Young. Staff are noted as proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. A final cross-promo for Hysteria with Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco closes the episode.