Cori is a hard-working corporate employee who dutifully contributes to America’s tax base. Nina is a low-income artist with Crohn’s Disease whose medical expenses make her a net parasite, despite also paying taxes. After a surprise performance of improvised music by soda-can virtuoso Cori, we discuss tariffs, security, Medicaid, FICA, “maxing out contributions,” Incidence of Taxation, employment benefits, monetary incentives, distortions, the Tragedy of the Commons, suckers, rationalizations, population collapse/explosion, and episodic disability. Is art, work? How hard is it to be poor? Can air be privatized? Like Life itself, our tax/benefits system isn’t fair, and it cannot go on forever. So a big Thank You to all American taxpayers who support unproductive, under-productive, post-productive, and ill members of society like your show-notes writer.

 

Links:

Leta Boylan testimony

Terminator 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/

Tragedy of the Commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

The Economist on more people claiming entitlements: https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/04/02/the-tyranny-of-tiktokkers-who-turn-up

Cori travels from statehouse to statehouse to testify against the worst excesses of gender ideology, while Nina gets sick for a month and loses her voice and relevance. Cori shares news from New Hampshire, where heterodox Democrat Jonah Wheeler is subject to a struggle session; Nina shares about watching television and playing Lexulous. Our lives couldn’t be more different, but we come back together to argue about AI art, neurodivergence, diagnosis skepticism, the attention economy, and ice cream. Our new slogan is “Bring Back Retardation!” and we’re doing our part.

Links:

Jonah Wheeler breaks ranks with Democrats: https://x.com/Sidewalk_Steve/status/1902818393373413728

Jonah Wheeler struggle/listening session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB5wwYewBis&ab_channel=Documentia

Cones ice cream (closed): https://www.yelp.com/biz/cones-artisanal-ice-cream-new-york

Winter’s testimony: https://x.com/LGBCourage/status/1899180045870010722

Yarden Silveira: https://www.city-journal.org/article/yarden-silveira-death-transgender-surgery-complications?utm_source=virtuous&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cjdaily

Ash Hall: https://www.aclutx.org/en/biographies/ash-hall

Ovarit shutting down: https://ovarit.com/o/Announcements/676340/ovarit-is-closing

Severance: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/

Autism self-diagnosis: https://x.com/buttonslives/status/1906851869106082120

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber: https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs-a-theory-1.pdf

episodic disability: https://episodicdisabilities.ca/home.php

You Be Illin’ – RUN DMC: https://youtu.be/19tjJ0G-8V4?si=pr4gvoVcIkhdkR9B

Following up on our June 2021 episode What If We Win? the Dorx ask whether we have won the gender wars yet. While discussing weak arguments, bad journalism, wrong pronouns, diversity of tactics, tolerance, metallurgy, the responsibility of power, and Cori’s “boys,” still more questions arise: Why are people who know better still referring to men as women? Who coddles the coddlers? Is a Liberal’s true authentic self an Authoritarian? How do you pronounce “Maori”? Listen to this episode for answers, and remember to STAY MARGINAL!

Links:

What If We Win? Heterodorx June 2021 episode: https://www.heterodorx.com/podcast/episode-21-what-if-we-win/

Blocked & reported Zizians episode: https://www.blockedandreported.org/p/episode-247-the-zizians-reign-of

Informed Dissent podcast on Brianna Wu: https://informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/p/episode-12-the-babies-are-in-charge

Nina’s Tweet about pronouns: https://x.com/ninapaley/status/1893348769053254076

Conservative NZ church hakka disrupts Pride parade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOjP-L8acU8&ab_channel=AllBlacks

Rumspringa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa

A Heterodorx double-whammy! We broke this recording into two parts because they’re so different.

Episode 163: Cori’s Breasts Break The Internet https://heterodorx.substack.com/p/episode-163-coris-breasts-break-the

More than what you ever needed to know about Cori’s breasts! Are they real? Are they implants? Are they gynecomastia? Whatever you call them (Cori calls them “the Boys”) they never fail to upset certain people on Twitter. Plus: Cori’s sweater, Cori’s scarf, Cori’s weight, Cori’s latest testimony at the Indiana Statehouse, Cori’s political opponents, and — as if that weren’t enough — Cori’s conversion to Judaism!

Links:

KJK goes after Cori: https://x.com/heterodorx/status/1889852099518955762

Cori’s testimony: https://x.com/heterodorx/status/1889695879658938488

Sia Liilii: https://nevadawolfpack.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster/sia-liilii/11631

Chris Daley, Indiana ACLU: https://www.aclu-in.org/en/biographies/chris-daley

Episode 164: Nina’s Brain Breaks Itself https://heterodorx.substack.com/p/episode-164-ninas-brain-breaks-itself

Cori suddenly pivots to surprise Nina with an unexpected interview about her lifelong mental health affliction and the medication she takes to manage it. What is the difference between grief and depression? Should you “feel your feelings” when your feelings are broken? What is serotonin? Which is a better theory of the brain: etchings or bike gears? We know very little about brains, which raises another question: can we talk to an SSRI expert?

Link:

Back on ‘Zac by Nina: https://blog.ninapaley.com/2025/02/08/back-on-zac/

A founding editor of online magazine Queer Majority, Rio Veradonir advocates “an inclusive vision of queerness grounded in the liberal value of universal human rights, rather than identity politics.” We discuss liberalism, anti-liberalism, the gay press, extremism in media, neo-marxism, critical social justice, legitimate vs made-up oppression, population politics, the right to hurt yourself, the distribution of mens’ IQs, and, most importantly, pegging. Nina argues against surrogacy, Cori shares his podcast goals, and both admire Veradonir’s use of the word “orthopraxy.” We also use the word “retarded” because Heterodorx is a free speech zone. Liberty for all!

Links:

Queer Majority: https://www.queermajority.com/

Rio Veradonir: https://www.queermajority.com/about-the-editor-sub/about-the-editor-rv

Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose & James Lindsay: https://cynicaltheories.com/

The Baby Boon by Elinor Burkett: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Baby-Boon/Elinor-Burkett/9780743242646

Nina’s Sex-Positive Memoirs: https://4w.pub/sex-pos-memoirs/

Kaynes-Hayek Rap Battle:

The Economist: https://www.economist.com/

San Francisco Sex Information: https://www.sfsi.org/

Andrea Dworkin on The Sexual Revolution: https://blog.ninapaley.com/2019/08/23/andrea-dworkin-on-the-sexual-revolution/

Wilfred Reilly: https://www.queermajority.com/contributors-1/wilfred-reilly

Daniel Quasar: https://designsbydanielquasar.com/pages/freelance-and-commissions/

Cori and Nina endure 2 hours of neo-religious propaganda so you don’t have to. Instead, you must endure 20 minutes of Nina attempting to recall plot points while Cori complains how long it’s taking. Are the characters flat, or nuanced? Is the movie merely terrible, or does it have cult classic potential? Is the director cleverer than we give him credit for? How much can the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences humiliate itself? Cori eventually talks himself into giving two thumbs up for “The Room of 2024” while Nina is just glad it’s over.

Links:

Emilia Pérez: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20221436/

Vaginoplasty song:

The Room: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368226/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_2

“Oh hi Mark”:

Cori and Nina take turns reading aloud Trump’s Executive Order 14168: Defending Women from Gender Identity Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, commenting on every section. You won’t get a deeper analysis than ours, although you must endure Cori’s over-dramatic reading voice and the hosts’ occasional bickering.

Links:

Executive Order 14168: Defending Women from Gender Identity Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/

TERFle Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Island

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber: https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs-a-theory-1.pdf

Remember the Free and Open Internet? Tech journalist Bryan Lunduke does, and isn’t afraid to write about its demise one institutional capture at a time. We discuss having our hearts broken by our beloved Internet Archive; the Wikipedia Foundation’s shady dealings; the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s championing “the right for little children to look at porn on the internet”; and Mozilla’s “Feminist decolonial lgbtqia+ climate justice using AI event in Zambia.” Like any good journalists, we ask the tough questions: How do you get your name forbidden by ChatGPT? Who is more banned from conferences, Lunduke or Paley? Are we gonna have a free and open internet, or not? (Answer: not.) Whether you love nerds or merely are one, this entertaining episode will have you wanting to get offline more than ever.