Adam and Ethan discuss fallout from the release of the Epstein files in the UK, the law enforcement raid of X’s offices in France, a highly disappointing turn of events from Human Rights Watch, and so much more!
To subscribe to free episodes of What In The World, check out the show page.
Reference Links:
Prince Andrew Invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace After Release From Jail
Peter Mandelson Resigns From House of Lords After Epstein Emails Revealed
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/czx3lq460n6t
Twitter Currently Known As X Offices Raided In France
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3ex92557jo
Trump Gifted Nobel Peace Prize, Cancels Second Wave of Attacks On Venezuela
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2w94wp4p1o
https://www.khon2.com/news/national/trump-second-wave-of-attacks-on-venezuela-canceled/
Israeli-Palestine Head of HRW Resigns Over Blocked Report That Accused Israel of Crimes Against Humanity
New South Wales Man Convicted of Child Sex Abuse Working As Youth Touch Football Referee Due to Loophole
Episode Transcript
Adam Tod Brown: [00:00:00] Well, hey everybody. Welcome to What In the World, a podcast about international news and events. I am, but one of your hosts, Adam Tod Brown. Who else is here?
Ethan Lawrence: I am, but the other host, Ethan Lawrence,
Adam Tod Brown: Ethan.
Ethan Lawrence: international man of mystery.
Adam Tod Brown: I don’t know if you’re that mysterious. We kind of know Yeah, no, I’ve been pretty open about where I am and what I’m doing.
you know, social
Ethan Lawrence: But I mean, you know, James Bond was an international man of mystery, and he basically started every conversation by introducing himself with his Christian names. So, you know, who
could say,
Adam Tod Brown: That’s, true. I like that. The James Bond actor they’re looking at now is like six eight. It’s like you can’t be that tall and be a spy. Are you kidding me?
Ethan Lawrence: who are they looking at?
Adam Tod Brown: What’s the guy’s
name?
Ethan Lawrence: I, don’t even know who the I’ve lost track of it. I’ll be honest. Jacob Laudy or
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn’t that guy tall as shit?
Ethan Lawrence: he was the Frankenstein.
Sorry, Frankenstein’s [00:01:00] monster,
Adam Tod Brown: He’s six five. You can’t be James Bond and be six five. You just be like, oh, it’s that guy whose head is sticking above everyone else’s in the crowd.
Ethan Lawrence: it’s that really tall
prick
Adam Tod Brown: him. Found him. He’s the one who looks like a
Ethan Lawrence: so bad at hiding
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: and plus he’s gonna have to get those suits tailored properly. Right? I mean,
Adam Tod Brown: yeah. Yeah. It’s gonna be a whole thing. I’m not in favor of it.
I still think the next James Bond should be a woman. Why not
Ethan Lawrence: still think the next James Bond should be me personally. I think that would be fun.
Adam Tod Brown: That’s not a bad choice or a black person.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah. Yeah. Or again, me, I could do it.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Has there been a James Bond with a beard? I don’t think so.
Ethan Lawrence: I don’t think so. There’s been no James Bond with a beard. There’s been no James Bond that’s five seven and clearly, clearly unfit. You know, it could, it could be fun.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. It’d be a nice change of pace. Why not? [00:02:00] So the Epstein files came out I mean, more Epstein files came out. Happy Epstein release week. Ethan, you must be so
Ethan Lawrence: Ooh.
Oh, it comes around sooner every year.
Adam Tod Brown: Ethan Lawrence. Not in the Epstein files. Proud of you,
Ethan Lawrence: And trust me, I looked, I, did look. ’cause you know, you know, sometimes when, you know, when you’re driving and there’s a police car behind you, and you think to yourself, I know I haven’t done anything, but just in case I accidentally blacked out or murdered someone, I’m gonna drive really carefully.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah, yeah, yeah,
Ethan Lawrence: That’s how I felt about the Epstein files. I was just like, I just, I don’t think I’ve been on a private jet to a pedophile island, but I will look just in case.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah. It is crazy. The names that are popping up and in so many cases, they’re just like. Well, someone mentioned the celebrity in one of their emails in passing, [00:03:00] I think Taylor Swift’s name comes up in the Epstein files at one point, but it’s just ’cause someone somewhere said her name and it’s like in an email, but she had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein
Ethan Lawrence: Have you heard that new song? Shake it Off by Taylor Swift. I love that thing. Anyway, wanna come to my eye?
Adam Tod Brown: and now she’s in the files forever. How crazy is America that a bunch of documents implicating some of the biggest names in the world, in the worst crimes imaginable were released? And it’s not even sort of the biggest story in the news in this country right now. ice is all anyone’s talking about, Ice, ice Baby
Ethan Lawrence: as a reference to the Monday show.
Adam Tod Brown: It sure is. And nothing else I’d never heard [00:04:00] that phrase before. Then.
Yeah, exactly. It does feel like at least some of what’s happening is a distraction from the Epstein files, and I’ve seen people online get kind of aggravated when people suggest that, but I really don’t think Trump has a bigger problem on his hands right now than the Epstein files, because those could conceivably send that man to prison for a long fucking time if everything that’s in there is real.
Ethan Lawrence: not just him either. Like a lot of his, a lot of his friends, a lot of the people that associate with him. And then broad suede of the entire Western geopolitical order also.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. There has this whole time been this thing where people on the right. Like, all right, well if we release the files, you understand Democrats, some of your faves on the left are gonna be in [00:05:00] there. bitch, I don’t have faves on the left. That’s not how I work. You can take any pedophile you want.
If Bill Clinton was having sex with kids, fucking send Bill Clinton to prison. I don’t give a shit. Fuck that.
Ethan Lawrence: it is the thing, isn’t it? I’m always deeply troubled by people whose hero is a political figure. ’cause I’m like, ah, what’s wrong with you in your head?
Adam Tod Brown: yeah. That’s the thing. All these Trump supporters who are so passionate about this dude, it’s like, are you a child in the 1950s? Why do you love the president so fucking much? And no, you’re not a child in the 1950s. ’cause we’d have been fighting the Nazis at that point. Well, a little earlier,
Ethan Lawrence: have already fucking won and also sent a lot of them to Argentina and also Operation Paperclips and some of them to the states.
Adam Tod Brown: We had
hired the Nazis by [00:06:00] then. Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: The Nazis were working for us by then.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Because you know how once you’re a Nazi, it just goes away When you get hired by a different government, those aren’t like deep rooted beliefs that are gonna come back to bite us 70 years later as a country, you know? It’s fine.
Ethan Lawrence: No it’s like having an accent. You know, when you move to a new place, gradually your old accent fades away and the other one starts to come in. It’s exactly like that with Nazism, I’ve
Adam Tod Brown: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ethan Lawrence: in my vast personal experience,
Adam Tod Brown: All it takes is the greatness of America to break someone from being a Nazi, I think
Ethan Lawrence: red, white, and true. Am I right?
Adam Tod Brown: 100%. So yeah, no one is losing any jobs or anything in the United States over Epstein someday, I’m sure. But. At least people are losing jobs over it in Europe, like the artist formerly known as Prince Andrew. Now just Lamely [00:07:00] named Andrew Mount Batten, Windsor, like one of us commoners. He got his comeuppance a while ago.
He was stripped of his royalness at least a few months ago. Might have been longer than that. I don’t know. I don’t follow the news, but the hits just keep coming. The latest release of files includes an email exchange between Andrew and Epstein inviting the sex creep to Buckingham Palace after his release from house arrest.
Here’s a quote, delighted for you to come here to bp. Come with whomever and I’ll be here free from 1600 ish to 2000. BP has thought to meant Buckingham Palace. No one knows what. 1600. It’s a 2000 means
Ethan Lawrence: The military do. Adam May know what that means.
Adam Tod Brown: agree to disagree.
Ethan Lawrence: Post Meridian baby.[00:08:00]
Adam Tod Brown: this is a shocking degradation of a building named after one of my top five favorite guitar players of all time. That being Lindsey
Ethan Lawrence: Uh, I dunno if you know this, Adam. when Lindsay Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac, they had to replace him with like three guys. Wait a second. I learned that from you.
Adam Tod Brown: I do know that. One of my favorite things about that guy, he fucking rules.
Ethan Lawrence: I am gonna pull you up on something just because it’s important that we fact check certain things. right at the top of this segment, you said that people were losing their jobs over this. I’m gonna push back on the idea that the Andrew, formally known as Prince, had a job
Adam Tod Brown: Good
Ethan Lawrence: in, the way that we understand it.
and in terms of facing his comeuppance, it’s more that he doesn’t get to call himself Prince anymore and has to live in a slightly smaller mansion.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. I remember one time I specifically looked into [00:09:00] what does the Royal family do? What’s your job? Because there’s a lot of criticism that they’re just kind of getting paid to do nothing. Right. And I don’t remember what source I found, but they were like, nuh, they gotta do a bunch of public appearances.
well, who fucking cares? That’s not work. You have to show up to a fucking cotillion or something. you’re still not
working.
Ethan Lawrence: that’s, what they understand to be work. I remember recently, I think it was prince William and Kate Middleton, they went on a, some kind of diplomatic mission to the Commonwealth and ended up in Jamaica and worked soundly booed by everyone there. Which made me laugh a lot
because it’s like, oh, guys, come on.
It is not the 1960s anymore. You can’t just go to Jamaica and expect a warm welcome.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. I love seeing politicians get booed. That’s [00:10:00] fucking democracy in action right there.
Ethan Lawrence: A lot of people talk about the 20 12 Olympics in London as like being like this great moment where the country came together. I disagree personally, but it certainly was a great moment when George Osborne, the then Chancellor of the Ex Checker appeared on the big screen as being president at the event and the entire stadium started booing.
It was so good.
Adam Tod Brown: I love it. That always feels so unifying when you’re in a crowd of people and you realize you all hate the same thing. It’s great. There is also an email thread where Epstein is offering to set Prince Andrew up with a woman, but the woman in question is 26, so that’s not as scandalous as it sounds, I guess, provided she’s not a girl Epstein kidnapped 12 years prior or something like that.
Ethan Lawrence: And we cannot confirm that that’s [00:11:00] not the case. So.
Adam Tod Brown: Unfortunately we cannot because by 26 she had definitely aged out of Jeffrey Epstein’s wheelhouse for sure. So it, could fucking be, this is a quote from the email from Epstein about the Russian woman. She 26 Russian clevere, beautiful, trustworthy. People. If you have not read the Epstein files, that man’s grasp on spelling is like second grade level.
Ethan Lawrence: I’ve read a few emails now, and honestly it feels like I’m having a stroke half the time.
Adam Tod Brown: It’s so bad. It’s so bad. Did no one ever talk to him about that shit? I mean, I guess you’re that rich. You’re that powerful. People don’t call you out on your shitty
Ethan Lawrence: you imagine that if there’s like a grammar Nazi calling out Jeffrey Epstein?[00:12:00]
I don’t think you meant to put that apostrophe there. I would still like to fuck the children though.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah, that’s why he cut ties with Epstein. Just couldn’t handle the spelling and the texts. Wasn’t all the kid fucking No. It was just those texts. Come on. Learn
to spell.
Ethan Lawrence: I’m waiting for that to come out about Elon Musk, if I’m honest with you. But at some point where Elon Musk said, uh, I don’t actually think that that means what you think it means. And that thing was like, oh, fuck this guy.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Fucking Elon Musk. That’s gotta be one of the most scandalous emails that have come out of all this, because all the other emails are just people kind of corresponding with Jeffrey Epstein about random shit. And then here comes Elon Musk being like, when’s the party on the island? Are there gonna be women there?
Jesus, dude, I think my, favorite one of those was when Epstein, God bless him, God bless. Epstein, was really trying to be subtle with [00:13:00] Musk and being like, oh, there’s gonna be a diplomatic party. And oh, hey, now, then, now then that’s a reference to a famous Peter for Jimmy Saville from the uk. It doesn’t matter.
Ethan Lawrence: And then Elon’s like, oh, I dunno if I don’t wanna be, hanging out with diplomats. I dunno, that doesn’t sound very fun to me. And Epstein had to fully come out and just say, I didn’t mean, I meant, I didn’t mean an actual diplomatic party. I meant,
Adam Tod Brown: God, Elon Musk is a fucking mess. Just living proof that money cannot buy. Cool. I mean, yeah, imagine being pedophile of Jason and a dork.
Ethan Lawrence: The two worst things you can be.
Adam Tod Brown: That dude sold flame throwers online and we were still like, shut up dork. Fuck you. He is into space travel and has rockets and we’re like, oh, shut
yeah. If the neighborhood flamethrower guy just walked in the room right now and [00:14:00] opened his jacket to reveal an array of flamethrowers for sale, I’d be like, you are the coolest person I’ve ever met. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, it’s like, shut the fuck up. What do I need? Fire for you Fucking dork.
Ethan Lawrence: I have a theory that he’s ruined space travel for everyone as well because this, everyone reacted like this. When Jeff Bezos went up with whatever that blue thing
was and he took Katy Perry up there and she had a daisy
and it’s like, yeah, everyone thought he was a dork and all, and everyone on that spaceship was a dork and Branson.
The same with Virgin e. Elon Musk somehow is so much of a Doyle. He’s ruined space travel.
Adam Tod Brown: I will give Richard Branson one thing, I met that dude once and he was so nice, I was at the Virgin Music Festival in Maryland. He just showed up, I was there on a press thing, so we had access to [00:15:00] backstage, green room type areas and Richard Branson just fucking showed up and was cool as shit.
He’s probably a monster generally in real life. He in the Epstein first,
Yeah, he is in the Epstein files. Yeah, yeah,
Ethan Lawrence: it comes up more than
Adam Tod Brown: yeah. Just not on the plane. He just flew his own planes there. Probably.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah. You can fit two planes on the air strip on the Nons Island, I’m sure.
Adam Tod Brown: There is also a picture of Prince Andrew just on all fours hovering over a girl, laying on the floor in the Epstein files. Here’s one thing I will say. Not really in defense of Prince Andrew, but just throwing it out there as a possibility. What if Epstein’s thing, when it came to, trying to get blackmail evidence he could use on people, what if he was like.
Setting these dudes up with women who were of age and then just at one point [00:16:00] you just slip a 17-year-old in there and then you’re like, ah, gotcha. She was underage.
Ethan Lawrence: Oh, Jeff, you tinker.
Adam Tod Brown: Ah, you, god dammit. Am I un punked? on. So this is a hidden camera show. There’s a camera up there in the corner and this girl is 12.
Oh no. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if it was something along those lines though.
Ethan Lawrence: That’s why Ashton Kutcher was mentioned 7,000 times in the Jeffrey Epstein emails.
There was, you know, a lot of toing and froing for old, for Ashton Kutcher
Adam Tod Brown: Oh, the tch.
Ethan Lawrence: jumping out from behind bookcases.
Adam Tod Brown: So, yeah, that is one name from Europe that has popped up in the Epstein files. And then there’s Peter Mandelson. He has [00:17:00] resigned from the House of Lords after a bunch of emails came out. Linking him to Epstein, also, Ethan House of Lords. Please explain.
Ethan Lawrence: will do one thing before we get into this story that I do want to say is that this story is actively evolving as we speak. We are recording this on Wednesday, the 4th of February. I imagine it’ll come out on next Monday. And it is evolving at such a rate that there’s a possibility that Stan will not be Prime Minister when this episode comes out because of this.
Adam Tod Brown: Wow.
Ethan Lawrence: I’m just flagging that this could very quickly go out of date, house of Lords. So in the uk we have two bodies of parliament. We have the Houses of Parliament and the House of Lords House of Parliament made up of members of Parliament that are elected House of Lords unelected.
They’re broadly made up of landed Gentry, [00:18:00] Barron’s, Dukes, all that sort of stuff. Religious leaders people who are considered experts in their field. But most of it is made up of political cronies from former prime ministers who can basically stuff as many lords in there as they want. There’s about 600 of them and essentially every time something is decided in Parliament, it gets kicked up to the House of Lords.
They have a look at it. If they like it, they send it back. If they don’t like it, they change stuff. So it’s a system. It is a system of government and it turns out riddled with nonsense as it goes.
Uh, so yeah great system.
Adam Tod Brown: Most governments are so efficient. You would think that’s weird. It’s weird that this one’s not working.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah, it’s really weird.
Adam Tod Brown: he was also British ambassador to the United States for a while, but it seems like that was
very brief.
Ethan Lawrence: yes. This is where the problem [00:19:00] started. So he was appointed US Ambassador in February, 2025, and was removed from that position and I think September of 2025. The reason being is that tranches of the Epstein files kept coming out. And it became more and more politically embarrassing for a guy who clearly was very, very good friends with King Pedophile over there.
but here’s the thing, and this is why it’s now blowing up in Keir Starmer’s face. I’m actually really angry about this, so if, if I get emotional, forgive me. But we as the British public all knew about this in 2019. 2019. That was three fucking prime ministers ago, and Starmer elected in 2024 is claiming that he had no idea.
Adam Tod Brown: Okay.
Ethan Lawrence: journalists all across the political spectrum are all acting [00:20:00] today. Just so surprised that all this has come out because he seemed like such a nice guy. Peter Mandelson was Sack twice during the new labor era in the nineties, in the naughties for lying, covering stuff up, doing dodgy dealings on the side, everything like that.
He was literally known as the Prince of Darkness. That was his nickname. Then, as I say in 2019, it turned out that he was deeply in bed with Epstein. And then in 2024, labor, Starmer, McSweeney, all that lot decided, you know what would be a really, really good idea, especially because we may be looking down the barrel of a Trump presidency here.
Let’s send another guy who was heavily implicated with the notorious Peter f Jeffrey Epstein. ’cause I’m sure they’ll have a lot to talk about. And so this week it’s really started to blow up because he’s now been, as you say, [00:21:00] stripped of his lordship. Although you can’t actually strip someone of their lordship.
You can take them out of the House of Lords, but he’s still technically a Lord because of some arcane law from like the 17 hundreds, which means you can’t not make someone a law because it’s so fucking stupid. And on and on it goes. They had a debate in Parliament today. Prime Minister’s questions, which happens every Wednesday.
Kiss on the back foot the whole time because the leader of the opposition was like Why? Get the NSA job though? And he’s like, well, we didn’t know. And it’s like You did know. You did know. All of you knew.
But then she can fucking talk. Kenny, bad not. They all knew. All of them knew. This is what is so frustrating about it.
There is an oh murder between the political class, the media class, basically everyone in the UK who’s worth a damn. They all knew that Peter Mandelson frequented Epstein’s emails, his houses, everything like that. They all knew. And now they’re doing that thing, which I’m sure you’ve noticed in [00:22:00] the US as well.
They’ve done that thing where they’ve started noticing. All of a sudden they’ve been doing a lot of noticing and now it’s like, okay, great. You notice that he’s hanging out with the nuns all the time and there’s no doubt nuns adjacent himself. But I mean this whole thing came because apparently he’s leaked.
He leaked some stuff during the Gordon Brown era that he shouldn’t leak.
And it is like catching al Capone on tax evasion. Like
it’s, I’m so angry, Adam. I’m so fucking mad. I’m sorry for talking Unbroken for nearly five minutes. I can only apologize.
Adam Tod Brown: no, no, that’s great. I appreciate the perspective and yeah, it is interesting that it seems like in the emails, it’s not really sex stuff that’s getting him in trouble. It’s like sharing government secrets with
Jeffrey Epstein, yeah, we just had on the conspiracy pod, we just had two former [00:23:00] CIA officers and Epstein connections to. The intelligence community came up, and I didn’t really push back too hard on this, but one of ’em was like, well, I don’t really know what kind of benefit he would have for intelligence agencies, and it’s like this, this kind of shit.
Ethan Lawrence: Exactly this.
Adam Tod Brown: in with politicians to this degree, then obviously he’s gonna have some sort of benefit for intelligence communities.
I don’t know that he was necessarily an intelligence agent, but there had to be something else behind this, beyond just sexual gratification
Ethan Lawrence: Well, I mean, not to be too conspiratorially minded about all of this, but I mean it’s basically a matter of public record now that Epstein was [00:24:00] deep in with Mossad and the Israeli intelligence.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: So, I mean, this is, this would all be useful information for a, you know, a hostile client. You know it’s all there really if you’re willing to connect the dots.
But of course, in, in Western democracies you mustn’t do that. You must never implicate Israel in anything. Ever.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. We got a doozy of a story coming about that at the end of the show.
Ethan Lawrence: Uh.
Adam Tod Brown: It is frustrating to me that the Epstein files and just the whole Jeffrey Epstein situation keeps getting referred to as a conspiracy theory. what are you talking about? The guy got arrested for it. He was charged.
He was convicted like this all happened. How is this still considered a conspiracy theory to people? It’s just a fucking scandal [00:25:00] now. It’s not a
Ethan Lawrence: Or In a way, all you need to do is just chop off the theory. It was a conspiracy. It was some people conspiring together.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. People conspiring together to lie about what they were doing.
Ethan Lawrence: It’s
not a fucking theory. Like we’ve got tranches of evidence at this point. You know, the great and good, the Prince of Darkness himself taken down.
Adam Tod Brown: The Prince of Darkness. What a fucking nickname. Do you Not, at some point, if you have earned the nickname The Prince of Darkness, do you not just sit back and go, man, I gotta change some shit.
Ethan Lawrence: I think he reveled in it. I think he loved the idea that he was like the bad dude. Of labor. Hey. Yeah. I’m Peter Mandelson. I get stuff done. I get sacked for sharing state secrets. Yeah,
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. There’s also an email where he was just celebrating Jeffrey Epstein’s release from jail, [00:26:00] so. If nothing else, that guy knew about Jeffrey Epstein. If he knew to celebrate him getting outta jail.
Ethan Lawrence: I cannot stress enough. I’m so angry. Kiss Armor’s current defense is that he had no idea.
Adam Tod Brown: That’s insane.
Ethan Lawrence: We’ve known four years for years.
Adam Tod Brown: And you said 2019, right? By that point, Epstein was dead. We knew everything about Epstein by that point. That’s insane. That is insane.
Oh
Ethan Lawrence: we’re all expected. And all the journalists, all of them are being like, oh, you know, Keir Starmer may have had a lapse of judgment, a lapse of fucking judgment.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah,
Ethan Lawrence: He gave one of the most important diplomatic roles to the fucking pedophile guy.
Like,
Adam Tod Brown: That’s
nuts. He should lose his job for sure. Keir [00:27:00] Starmer,
Ethan Lawrence: Absolutely. Now, ideally,
Adam Tod Brown: seems like a little bit of a fuck face too, right? He’s not.
Ethan Lawrence: oh, he’s a piece of shit. It’s,
Adam Tod Brown: is he what would be considered a right winger in this country or is he more left leaning?
Ethan Lawrence: Okay, so, so there’s two things going on here. So I’ve got a distinguish between US and UK politics and how UK politics exists. So he is the leader of the Labor Party, which you would fairly describe as broadly center left.
Adam Tod Brown: Okay.
Ethan Lawrence: So in terms of policy, probably a little way to the left of the Democrats, I would argue.
Adam Tod Brown: Okay.
Ethan Lawrence: but Ki Armer himself is from the right of the party which definitely varies towards a more at least fiscally conservative kind of right wing appear. do you know [00:28:00] what actually Keir Starmer probably would map on quite well to the current Democratic party.
Adam Tod Brown: Oh, okay. So he is like
Ethan Lawrence: Quite managerial, quite ineffective, fairly useless, constantly kicking himself in the face whenever something bad happens.
I mean, this has been the watch word of his, basically his whole prime ministership so far. Something bad will happen. He will make it worse, and then they will u-turn on it. That’s ba basically how it works. Just piss off as many people as possible. That’s the way to go.
Adam Tod Brown: so he is kind of Nazi light like Gavin Newsom.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah, go on. Yeah, that works. That works for me.
Adam Tod Brown: Hey, speaking of people who’ve turned up in the Epstein files, let’s talk about Elon Musk’s bitch ass. We already were for a little bit, but the French offices of x. Have been raided by the Paris Prosecutor’s Cyber Crime Unit, and probably by Macron’s manly ass [00:29:00] wife, I’m being honest. Just joking.
I don’t think Macron married a man. That’s just a very popular right wing conspiracy theory right now.
Ethan Lawrence: But she does look very striking in a fla jacket. You gotta give JE that.
Adam Tod Brown: What a cool name. Jit. Every
Ethan Lawrence: Let’s get in it. je.
Adam Tod Brown: je.
Ethan Lawrence: ah, but then you get jaded, wouldn’t you? If everyone was called Jit then no one’s called Brigitte.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah, I, but you’re just kind of automatically hot if you got a name like Jit. It’s just in your bones,
Ethan Lawrence: It’s sort of like the opposite of the name Emmanuel.
Adam Tod Brown: exactly. Yeah. So the EU has launched an investigation into suspected offenses ranging from unlawful data collection to complicity in the possession of child porn, you know, on account of how Elon Musk.
Launched an AI app that was mostly designed to create
porn. Yeah [00:30:00] that was a good weekend on XY everything up.
yeah, and it’s just so charming to see these fuck faces act like this is a free speech issue. There’s nothing free speech related about making nude images of people without their consent. That’s not even sort of a free speech thing. And if people on the left were doing it to people on the right, people on the right would be fucking irate.
Ethan Lawrence: as well. They should, to be fair.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah, absolutely
Ethan Lawrence: It’s not okay no matter who’s doing it. it’s really fucking not okay.
Adam Tod Brown: no, and I mean, Elon Musk should kind of go to prison for it.
Ethan Lawrence: at least,
Adam Tod Brown: It really is facilitating the creation of child porn. that’s the kind of thing you’re supposed to do on the dark [00:31:00] web. you should have to have a tour browser to access something like that. And Elon Musk is putting it on Maine and just be like, what?
Free speech?
Ethan Lawrence: I I think it is important to we should be, you know, balanced in these things. Elon Musk says that this is a political attack,
so
Adam Tod Brown: oh
Ethan Lawrence: says about that.
Adam Tod Brown: I didn’t even think about that that it could have been a political attack. I mean, that’s the thing. You don’t think about those things, do you, Adam, you just, your knee jerk responses.
Ethan Lawrence: To child porn creation tools on Grok, on X, the everything app. And you never thought about it being a political attack.
That’s how blinked and myopic you are
Adam Tod Brown: I feel foolish, honestly,
Ethan Lawrence: as well. You should
Adam Tod Brown: Because now I’m reflecting on all those times during the Obama administration, when Biden was creating AI chatbots that produced child porn and [00:32:00] we on the left didn’t say anything. And that’s our
Ethan Lawrence: not a word.
Adam Tod Brown: you know?
Ethan Lawrence: Not a word. For eight long years you are like, it’s fine. It’s fine because we are winning. And now here you are on the back foot and suddenly it’s a problem.
Adam Tod Brown: man. Grow a spine. Liberals have some beliefs. Yeah. This is nuts. Calling this a political attack. This is a crime. You are committing a fucking crime dude,
Ethan Lawrence: I mean, it is a political attack. Because it involves politics and he’s being attacked rightly,
Adam Tod Brown: right? Correct.
Ethan Lawrence: you know, but by the strictest definition of those words. Yes it is, but I don’t think he means it like the way I think we should be, meaning it
Adam Tod Brown: It’s a political attack, but a justified political
Ethan Lawrence: a hugely justified political attack.
Adam Tod Brown: There is also a whole separate investigation over the [00:33:00] grok issue that has been launched by the UK’s Information Commissioners office. The first investigation started in January, 2025 and just involved the X algorithm at that point, but was expanded to include grok in July, 2025.
This is a quote from William Malcolm from the ICO. The reports about grok raised deeply troubling questions about how people’s personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualized images without their knowledge or consent. Whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this end quote. If you’re this desperate to see naked celebrities, do you need ai? Can’t you just Photoshop someone’s head on an existing naked body and just call it good you fucking perverts?
Ethan Lawrence: Can’t you do what we used to do back in the Halian days of dial up and just use [00:34:00] your fucking imagination.
Adam Tod Brown: Or just look at regular ass porn.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah, you could do that. Although in the UK that’s quite hard now. ’cause you need a VPN or to give your credit card data to Keir Starmer. can give it to Pete Mandelson, who can give it to Jeffrey Epstein.
Adam Tod Brown: so is it hard or is it not hard? I guess because
Ethan Lawrence: Not hard at the minute. ’cause again, it’s just the effort barrier.
You know what I mean?
Adam Tod Brown: yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: So it is flacid in my hands.
Adam Tod Brown: I don’t understand the need to use AI to create porn. Just go look at porn. There are so many stunningly beautiful women who are willingly engaging in pornography, don’t take money out of their pockets. I remember I was watching a documentary about exotic dancers, and there was this woman who’s like, listen, my husband’s rich.
I don’t need to work. I just do [00:35:00] this for the love. get off that stage and get a poor person up there who needs the money? What? What are you doing? Why are you dabbling in this? Just stop it. I don’t know how those two things are related. I just wanted to go on a rant.
Ethan Lawrence: It’s just something else that you’re cross about.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah, just I’m getting it all
out.
Ethan Lawrence: Musk and this bitch.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. The two things. Driving this country into the ground. This is an international podcast. What are you talking about? Well, this involves France, I guess.
Yeah, Elon Musk send that motherfucker to prison. It does seem like he’s given up on influencing us politics and has moved on to Europe. Probably. I don’t think he’s gonna do any better in Europe, but
Ethan Lawrence: No, I think ’cause in, in America a lot, there were, there was not everyone, obviously, not even, probably a majority, but there were a lot of people that sort of, kind of liked Elon [00:36:00] Musk. In Europe it’s very different. Everyone fucking hates, likes.
Adam Tod Brown: people ask me all the time, who is your dream subject for a podcast like your dream guest? Who do you want to talk to most do. I honestly think it might be someone who just really loves Elon Musk. I got so many questions like, why? What is it about that man? What is it about the richest man on earth that makes you love him so much?
Is it just that he’s that rich? ’cause it’s never gonna benefit you. That’s not gonna trickle
down your way. I don’t get it. He’s so deeply fucking unlikeable, and I think that’s what it is. I think people incels especially who [00:37:00] identify or recognize that they themselves are deeply, deeply unlikeable.
People probably gravitate toward Elon Musk because they see a little of their unlikeability in that fucking monster. I think he might be onto something
Ethan Lawrence: there. it has to be like, you know, oh this guy, one of the most unlikeable people in existence like me, one of the most unlikeable people in existence is nearly a trillionaire.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. You know what’s he doing? I must find the secret.
Yeah. It worked for him. Being a pompous jackass, maybe I’ll become a billionaire too. No, you won’t. You’ll just get fired from your job for posting crazy shit on Twitter.
Ethan Lawrence: you know, I never heard him talk until 2025, and my life has been significantly worse since then.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah that voice is infuriating. I try to avoid it as much as I can. [00:38:00] I remember when people were really, really hating on Kim Kardashian, like at the height of that, one of the things people would always bring up is, oh, I just hate her voice. It’s like, why are you hearing her voice?
I haven’t heard Kim Kardashian talk in such a long time. Like, why are you seeking out Kim Kardashian content if you hate her that much? Elon Musk is just inescapable. you can’t help but hear that fucking Windbag talk.
Ethan Lawrence: That’s, especially now that I’ve heard it, every time I see a statement, even if it’s just written down, I know what it sounds like.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: I know how he’s saying. Uh, yeah. So, uh, yeah. Uh, shut the fuck up.
Adam Tod Brown: did you see the clip of him describing, putting together an AI comedy roast to Joe [00:39:00] Rogan?
Ethan Lawrence: No, I didn’t, and I’m gonna have to look at it and it’s gonna make me very sad. I’m sure.
Adam Tod Brown: Talk about a man who has no concept of what comedy is. It is infuriating to watch. Like it ends with him being like, and then you could like have a missile go up a guy’s ass and explode. that’s like fourth grade humor, man. That is not what people are looking for in comedy. And he’s talking about it like, can you believe the possibilities?
Can you believe what the world will be like when Elon Musk is generating your standup comedy using grok? I can’t imagine it. That’s kind of the problem.
Ethan Lawrence: How is it that we’ve been talking about a global network of child abusers and yet this is the most depressed I’ve felt during this episode?
Adam Tod Brown: That’s Elon
Ethan Lawrence: possible?
Adam Tod Brown: [00:40:00] That’s Elon Musk.
Ethan Lawrence: Elon Musk somehow worse than the global pedophile sex ring
Adam Tod Brown: yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: just sat here and I’m like that, you know what? This is the thing that’s made me want to kill myself. It sucks that there aren’t a lot of people facing consequences over the Epstein thing, but if it comes to pass that it’s just Elon Musk, I’d be fine with that. If only Elon Musk gets a really big public trial and conviction. That’s fair. We took down the
it would almost be worth it. It would almost be worth it. Just, yeah. And then we can crucify him on a big cross. That’ll be fun.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yep. Try him in the Hague.
Something like that.
Ethan Lawrence: Bible style on him.
Adam Tod Brown: Oof. I would love it. So let’s shift gears away from people who are named in the Epstein files and talk about Donald Trump instead. I don’t really follow the news, but I assume if he was named in those files, his followers would be pretty vocal about it. Seeing as how they’re all so committed to saving the children and all.
Ethan Lawrence: Q Anon.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah. They’re gonna take down all the pedophiles except the one please not that [00:42:00] one
Ethan Lawrence: Isn’t it tragic what has happened to Alex Jones?
God. The dude was right. He was right, but he can’t celebrate it.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah. It kind of reminds me of the COVID thing, Trump, of all the things he’s done, he should be celebrating operation warp speed, it was under Trump, that the COVID vaccine got developed as quick as it did,
Ethan Lawrence: yeah. It’s an unbelievable achievement.
Adam Tod Brown: but because of their fucking ideology, he can’t claim it. He can’t celebrate it.
He’s got fucking RFK Junior in the booth being like, oh, in fact means kill people. Hmm. I think they saved a lot of people, and Trump should be fucking gloating about that.
Ethan Lawrence: God, imagine if he could imagine if he could. Ah, can’t.
He can’t. ’cause they were [00:43:00] bad.
Adam Tod Brown: Or January 6th. You’re all so anti mask. You don’t wear masks when you storm the fucking capitol. fucking
Ethan Lawrence: Oh.
Adam Tod Brown: brilliant
Ethan Lawrence: But yeah, pour one out for the ongoing Greek tragedy. That is Alex Jones’ life.
Adam Tod Brown: fucking guy. So anyway, remember when the United States kidnapped the president of Venezuela and spirited him thousands of miles away from his home, you know, like we do to street vendors and landscapers. And schoolchildren in this country
Ethan Lawrence: Holy
Adam Tod Brown: now?
Ethan Lawrence: shit. That was this year.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah. That happened this past month. And
again, not the biggest story in America right now.
We abducted the president of a sovereign nation and we’re like, but ice though. Holy shit. It’s like when the government was dropping all those UFO videos [00:44:00] on us during the first Trump administration, we were like, are the aliens gonna get Trump out of office? Then? We don’t give a shit if they’re not. Same thing.
Ethan Lawrence: if you buy into Steve Bannon’s idea of flooding the zone with shit. I have to say, when I was reading through the notes for today’s episode and I got to that bit, I was like, oh yeah, whatever happened with that and then had the secondary thought, oh shit, it’s working.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. It,
Ethan Lawrence: How is it that I forgotten that America fully abducted an elected leader from another country and I don’t know where he is.
New York, maybe.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah. Do we even know what happened to Maduro? Is he still alive?
Ethan Lawrence: I assume he was sent to New York. That was the whole thing,
wasn’t it? He was going to New York
Adam Tod Brown: To
face
Ethan Lawrence: you can,
Adam Tod Brown: state charges for dealing drugs. That makes sense. That makes perfect sense.
Ethan Lawrence: yeah. Yeah, he’s gonna turn up in CECOT, isn’t he?
Adam Tod Brown: Oh [00:45:00] 100%. Or I feel like we’d probably want ’em in Guantanamo. ’cause it’s just our little homegrown torture center.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah. Yeah. It’s nice, isn’t it? It is art artisanal
torture.
Adam Tod Brown: Our small batch torture center. Torture to table.
Oh
Ethan Lawrence: Okay. You are funny, man. You’re very funny.
Adam Tod Brown: I try so
it it sure seemed like that Venezuela stuff was gonna turn into a war of some sort. But apparently that fishing boat has sailed without being drone striked by Pete Hegseth. For now, because Trump has announced that a second wave of attacks have been scaled back and withdrawn the announcement.
Actually came in early January, but like we’ve touched on, I feel like the world [00:46:00] has been a little preoccupied with other stuff since then, so it went mostly unnoticed. This is a quote from Trump on truth social.gov. The official mouthpiece of the US government. Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign of seeking peace.
This is a very important and smart gesture. The USA and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding in a much bigger, better, and more modern form their oil and gas infrastructure. Because of this cooperation, I have canceled the previously expected second wave of attacks, which look like it will not be needed.
However, all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes. At least $100 billion will be invested by big oil all caps. All of whom I will be meeting with today at the White House End quote. Isn’t it weird how [00:47:00] the whole justification for taking Maduro and bombing those fishing boats was, oh, Venezuela is flooding this country with drugs. And now that we got Maduro, not a word about drugs. We’re just talking about oil. Go figure.
Ethan Lawrence: to quote a famous banner that was unveiled after an incursion to a different country that ended up being about oil, but at the time was sold about being something very different. Could I just say mission accomplished?
Adam Tod Brown: I knew that’s where you were going.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah, it is a long, road to a short pier for that one. so sorry.
Adam Tod Brown: I did post a thing on Blue Sky not too long before the Maduro [00:48:00] kidnapping. I’m pretty sure at this point, United States elections, at least up to this point, have been decided kind of like shark Tank. You have Shark Tank. Is that a show you’re familiar
Ethan Lawrence: it’s called something different here and I, okay. I’m gonna have to admit it. Okay. Right. So it’s not called Shark Tank in the uk it’s called Dragons Den.
Adam Tod Brown: Oh, okay.
Ethan Lawrence: And the issue is glaringly obvious, which is that dragons don’t live in dens. They live in fucking layers. So that’s already a problem,
Adam Tod Brown: Yep.
Ethan Lawrence: but yeah.
Yeah. But they call them dragons instead of sharks.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. And even the name Shark Tank implies that these badass billionaire investors have all been captured and confined. Even that name is kinda weird now that I think about it. Sharks live in the ocean. They shouldn’t live in tanks.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah, it feels more like an aquarium really, doesn’t it?
The concept’s flawed from the ground up,
Adam Tod Brown: Abolish the show. the thing I posted was that I’m [00:49:00] pretty sure up to this point, most of our recent elections since like 2000 at least, have just been decided. Shark Tank style, where each candidate just pitches his idea for toppling the government of Venezuela and taking all that oil. They just pitched their plan to a room full of billionaires and whoever’s plan they decide is the best, that’s our president.
And somehow they decided Trump’s plan to just kidnap the president of Venezuela. That’s
thinking outside the
box.
Ethan Lawrence: I hate to say it worked,
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah,
it
sure
Ethan Lawrence: he’s say what you like about Trump. he gets it done.
I mean, you’ve been on that, you know not to blow smoke up your ass, but you’ve been on this Venezuela hype for so long as evidenced by the fact that during your convalescence at the beginning of the year from your infected [00:50:00] foot the archived episodes of Venezuela, where you were talking about this nearly 10 years ago,
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: you must feel somewhat vindicated
Adam Tod Brown: A little bit. A little
bit.
So about a week after Trump made this announcement,
he was finally awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that he
has
Ethan Lawrence: fucking time.
Adam Tod Brown: so desperately been seeking, except it’s not his Nobel Peace Prize. It was actually awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Carina Machado, which in and of itself is kind of funny if you know enough about the opposition party in Venezuela. For one thing, just the fact. The United States wants that opposition party back in power should tell you everything you need to know about that party. [00:51:00] There is one reason why the United States ever wants a regime in power, and it’s because they are beholden to our business interests. worthwhile remembering people.
this opposition party.
I’ve said this a million times. They took Venezuela to the exact same point that this current regime did. There was, in 1989, a huge riot in Venezuela that happened on account of the economic policies put in place by this opposition party that we are so thirsty to get back in power that had people fucking.
Eating cats and dogs and shit. people were starving in Venezuela
Ethan Lawrence: and they weren’t just eating the cats and dogs in like the the way JD Vance said [00:52:00] that they were eating the cats and the dogs they were eating them for hunger, not just for fun.
Adam Tod Brown: Right. Right. Not just to troll the libs, you know? Or to troll the conservatives, I guess in his case.
Ethan Lawrence: Who knows what he’s doing? He’s, always playing 60 chess up. Boy, isn’t he old
Adam Tod Brown: that fucking guy. Yeah. Bring it on. When people are like, well, you get rid of Trump, JD Vance is next. Cool. Cool. does not have the juice. Trump has.
Ethan Lawrence: Very similar to what we were saying about Musk earlier.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: Like he’s just , an unfunny dork.
Adam Tod Brown: by all means install a president that I realistically think we could bully out of office. That’s JD
Ethan Lawrence: Oh yeah. I’m not saying people should, I wanna make it very clear that I’m not saying people should, but I think it would be entirely possible to tweet at JD Vance. So hard he kills himself.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Or at least resigns, you know,
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah, but [00:53:00] I’m not saying you should. I’m just saying it’s feasible.
Adam Tod Brown: it seems very possible. Yeah. He seems like he’s got that
Ethan Lawrence: He’s a very thin skinned man that JD Vance and that I feel like, you know, he probably should have learned better from his upbringing from, what did he call his fucking grandmother Nino or
whatever it was.
Adam Tod Brown: Memaw or something like that. It’s like he can’t even say that.
Right? I listened to the episode where you watched Hillbilly Elegy, and I felt so sorry for both of you.
Ron Howard should be in the fucking Hague for making that goddamn movie. What the hell? What the hell was Glenn Close
Ethan Lawrence: Send Ron to prison.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Send Amy Adams to Guantanamo for that shit. Come on.
Ethan Lawrence: She’d appreciate the artisanal torture, I’m sure.
Adam Tod Brown: So, yeah, the opposition party, their leader gave Trump her Nobel prize. And despite that, Trump still has yet to [00:54:00] endorse her as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. I cannot stress enough people. You can’t lick these boots enough. It will never be enough. Stop trying. Stop trying to kiss Trump’s ass. Quit trying to fucking appease that man.
Nothing you do is gonna work. That’s especially true if you’re one of these motherfuckers in the US who is still supporting Trump. ’cause you think you’re trolling. I can’t stress enough. These are Christian nationalists. You are not Christian enough to fit their ideology. This will come for you someday too.
That includes the fucking opposition leader of Venezuela. Just look at United States history. We buddy up to leaders of other countries all the time, and the second it’s not convenient for us anymore, [00:55:00] we will take that motherfucker out. So I doubt the president of Venezuela’s listening to the pods still, because I have talked a lot of shit about the opposition party.
I’m sure at one point she was listening, but on the off chance, just stop. Trump doesn’t love you. Trump doesn’t support you. Trump just wanted your fucking Nobel Peace Prize and you gave it to him also. What a shitty way to get a Nobel Peace Prize. That’s like being an NFL player who never won a Super Bowl.
So you just buy someone’s Super Bowl, ring from Pawn Stars or some shit. You still don’t have a Super Bowl ring. You just bought one That’s different. He didn’t earn it.
Ethan Lawrence: The Nobel Society were very clear on this. They were very clear that it cannot be traded. you know, he will not go down in the book. you know it’ll be her forever. And I’m glad that the Nobel [00:56:00] Society have got such stringent rules considering they once gave one to Henry fucking Kissinger.
Adam Tod Brown: Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. good that it’s good that this body is of such integrity and such rules-based excellence that they’ve gone, no, this is worse than giving one to Henry Kissinger.
Yeah. Because I mean, when you think a piece, you think Kissinger,
Ethan Lawrence: I do, I think about all those fucking landmines in Cambodia.
Adam Tod Brown: Why didn’t Rumsfeld get one? You know? Where’s Dick Cheney’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Ethan Lawrence: I’m surprised they didn’t just give one to Trump, like it means so little at this point.
Adam Tod Brown: I am surprised also because there’s that big talking point. Well, Trump has ended eight wars. name ’em,
name
‘EM wars have decreased by 7300% since Trump took office. Don’t look it up. Don’t try to crunch the [00:57:00] numbers. trust
Ethan Lawrence: numbers to crunch. Just, it on faith.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah.
yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: gotta have faith.
Adam Tod Brown: Ah, I listened to that album very recently. It holds the fuck up. Goddamn.
Ethan Lawrence: I’m assuming you’re talking about George Michael and not Limp Biz’s cover.
Adam Tod Brown: Yes, but Limp Bizkit, I’m not gonna lie. That’s a solid cover.
Ethan Lawrence: It is a good cover. I can’t deny it. I’ve tried for so long to be like, no, nothing Limp Bizkit ever did was of any value. But you know what? That
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah,
Ethan Lawrence: is good.
Adam Tod Brown: there’s plenty to hate about Limp Bizkit and their Cover of Faith by George Michael is not one of them.
Ethan Lawrence: Find other things.
Adam Tod Brown: that cover was fun as shit. I also forgot that on the album, the song Faith about 23 minutes long. It’s so fucking long.
Ethan Lawrence: Is it okay? Right.
Adam Tod Brown: It’s got a really extended instrumental [00:58:00] break that carries
on for a significant amount of time.
But here’s the thing, it’s still a fucking banger. George Michael is
great.
Ethan Lawrence: the song that needs it, isn’t it? A cover version of a George Michael song that, that needs the fat instrumental
Adam Tod Brown: No, no. no. The original by George
Michael
Ethan Lawrence: God. Really? Okay.
I’ve only ever heard the radio edit Adam.
Adam Tod Brown: no, it’s super fucking long on the album.
Ethan Lawrence: Right. Finding that that’s gonna be, yeah, that’s my evening. After this,
Adam Tod Brown: times.
Ethan Lawrence: I’m gonna pack a suitcase and listen to the 23 minute epic. That is faith.
Adam Tod Brown: It’s like a fucking Pink Floyd song. All right. Well, this next story is gonna be some real upbeat stuff. It’s about the Israel-Palestine conflict,
Ethan Lawrence: Ah,
what an episode. This has been
pedophiles Musk. And now finally
Adam Tod Brown: yeah,
Ethan Lawrence: we’ve all been waiting for fucking [00:59:00] Israel Palestine. Let’s go.
Adam Tod Brown: yeah. This is the one thing that arguably, I would say, talking about this is probably more intense where you are than it is here. Even. They are really taking action against that Palestine action group that keeps protesting this shit.
Ethan Lawrence: Update on that.
Adam Tod Brown: Let’s hear it.
Ethan Lawrence: As of literally like an hour before we started recording the six people that were under investigation were in court even for damaging some Israeli armaments or tech or something. They were found not guilty by a jury of their peers.
Adam Tod Brown: Go figure.
Ethan Lawrence: So all six will be walking free.
That’s probably why recently Keir Starmer’s labor have been making overtures about getting rid of jury trials.
Adam Tod Brown: Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure.
Ethan Lawrence: ’cause the juries do this terrible thing where they don’t do what Netanyahu wants.
Adam Tod Brown: Oh yeah. [01:00:00] do that as a jury? It’s Netanyahu, that guy’s, great
Ethan Lawrence: Love that guy. Love that. He’s so great. Bebe. Little Bebe.
Adam Tod Brown: bb, little BB. You’re wanted by the
Ethan Lawrence: But yeah, I could
Adam Tod Brown: court, Bebe?
Ethan Lawrence: for saying this on this podcast. Ki Stone’s gonna come and hit me with a frying pan.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Well, ’cause it’s very anti-Semitic to criticize Israel.
Ethan Lawrence: juries antisemitic now.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: are Hamas.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah, exactly. And people at home can’t see it. But I put Israel Palestine conflict in quotes, in the notes because calling this a war or a conflict is kind of crazy at this point. It’s a fucking genocide.
I feel like for it to be a war, the other side has to be also sometimes striking back and making some gains in [01:01:00] the battle. And that’s not happening. Israel is, for lack of a better word, dominating this conflict.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah, it’s almost like there was an insane power imbalance to begin with.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah, go figure. And even from the beginning when people are like October 7th though, it’s like, all right, yeah, that was bad.
But I’ve also seen Munich. I know how Israel can respond to shit like this. It can be a very targeted thing that doesn’t, I don’t know, blow up a rigged pager in a child’s face at a shopping market. You know, things like that. Although that was Hezbollah they were acting against for that.
Ethan Lawrence: I dunno if it’s just them being disingenuous or if they genuinely can’t see it. But it is possible for two things to be bad.
Adam Tod Brown: Yep.
Ethan Lawrence: I don’t think that hamma should have attacked that music [01:02:00] festival. Of course, I don’t, like a lot of people died, a lot of people were injured. It’s a dreadful thing and it should never have happened.
But I also feel that way about everything else that’s happened in response, like how Israel has responded. And I don’t feel like that’s a hypocritical position to take.
Adam Tod Brown: No, of course not. it’s bad when innocence die. Like the fact that that isn’t sort of like a universal thing we can agree on is, uh, I made myself sad again.
Yeah. It’s a huge fucking bummer because yeah, obviously 7th, it’s not an ideal. It’s not great.
Ethan Lawrence: That’s the
Adam Tod Brown: yeah,
Ethan Lawrence: stance of the, you don’t even like
this podcast Network.
Not ideal.
Adam Tod Brown: Not ideal.
but here’s the thing, to go out on a ledge. Israel’s response, even less ideal. next up on, you don’t even like this [01:03:00] podcast. Adam is gonna describe the Holocaust as problematic.
yeah, yeah. But even back when it happened, my first thought was. God damn. The response from Israel is gonna be a nightmare. here we are, two and a bit years later.
yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: God, it was 2023. Fuck me.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah it’s been bad for a while and it seems like we are quickly running out of voices who are willing to say that what’s happening in Palestine is a war crime, including a pretty big name.
The Israel Palestine Director of Goddamn Human Rights Watch has resigned in protest saying The organization’s new chief blocked a report accusing Israel of committing crimes against humanity. End quote, [01:04:00] by way of its denial of Palestinian refugees right of return. Which I believe some Palestinians have been allowed to return as of very, very, very recently.
Like within the past couple days,
Ethan Lawrence: Because the hostage Exchange was completed, wasn’t it? that’s now, done. So that was a step on what we can extremely charitably call a piece process.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. A peace process or Trump’s land development deal.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah. Ally identical.
Adam Tod Brown: just trying to turn Gaza into a tourist destination some sort. I don’t know, you remember a few episodes ago when we were making fun of Auschwitz having a [01:05:00] gift shop.
Ethan Lawrence: That was fun, wasn’t it? We were talking about that.
Adam Tod Brown: How could I forget?
Ethan Lawrence: Oh, it’s one of the classic episodes of Won In the World. Go back. All one in the world. Episodes of one. The best stuff you’ll ever hear in your life.
Adam Tod Brown: So the guy who resigned, his name’s Omar Shakir, he worked for Human Rights Watch for more than 10 years. He told Al Jazeera that the report he published sought to connect the erasure of camps in Gaza with the emptying of camps in the West Bank with the full assault led by the Israeli government, the aid agency for Palestinian refugees, and underscoring how in the midst of this Nakba 2.0 that we’re seeing unfold beyond us, it’s critical that we learned the lessons from Nakba 1.0.
Nakba for the record, was the forced displacement of 750,000 Palestinians by armed Zionist groups in 1948, shortly after the state of [01:06:00] Israel was created.
Ethan Lawrence: And again just for those keeping track at home, that is three years after the end of the second World War.
Adam Tod Brown: Yep.
Ethan Lawrence: You know, as we were pulling ourselves from the wreckage, getting Nuremberg ready and setting up all those things where we say never again.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah,
Ethan Lawrence: Took three years.
Adam Tod Brown: we were like, eh, but one more time. more.
Ethan Lawrence: One more time. Nakba Babe,
1.0. They obviously didn’t say 1.0 at the time.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. How could they have known another one was coming?
Ethan Lawrence: There’s that gag, isn’t there about a time traveler going back and speaking to someone in the 1920s and saying, oh, so what was it like during the First World War? What the fuck do you mean the First World War?
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah, exactly. So Shakir says he was told executive director Felipe Opion, who took over last year was worried the report would be misread by detractors. A call to demographically extinguish the [01:07:00] Jewishness of the Israeli state.
Ethan Lawrence: So basically they were worried about people going, that’s anti-Semitic.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: Essentially
Adam Tod Brown: again, that’s like, I don’t know. Remember when there was a big deal with warlords in Africa using children to fight as part of their military child soldiers?
Ethan Lawrence: 2012 baby?
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Was that racist? I don’t think so.
Ethan Lawrence: Yes. It was By this definition,
Adam Tod Brown: yeah, that’s the thing.
Ethan Lawrence: the entire Kony project racist to the core.
To be fair, it might have been, I don’t remember what happened with all of that
Adam Tod Brown: yeah, there was weirdness behind the Coney shit. I don’t remember what all of it was, but was weird.
Ethan Lawrence: bad example. ’cause I feel like that went sideways at some point. don’t recall how.
Adam Tod Brown: But it [01:08:00] is, I think, an accurate comparison because how is saying, oh, what Israel’s doing is a little excessive? How in the fuck is that anti-Semitic? That makes no goddamn sense. Here’s my big overarching concern about Republicans in their fight against antisemitism. There has been on the Republican side, this push George Bush ii, George W.
Bush especially, has been very actively involved in something called dispensationalism, which is the idea that a certain number of the world’s Jewish population. All has to be in Israel at a certain time so a war can [01:09:00] break out in the Middle East and that war is gonna bring Jesus back. I honestly wonder how much of this antisemitism push on the right is really about, let’s make that fucking war happen.
Let’s give Israel enough rope to the point that someone is like, alright, we’ve had a fucking enough. We are going to invade Israel and stop this shit. And then right wingers in this country are going to be so excited because that’s it. That according to the Bible is what’s gonna bring Jesus back that big fight in the Middle East. One reason I kind of wanna see it and I don’t. This is just a joke. This is still a comedy
podcast. Yeah, but what’s really interesting about it, let me say [01:10:00] that both sides think Jesus is coming back for them. So when that breaks out, it’s gonna be really interesting to see how it ends. Does Jesus come back for this side?
Does he come back for the side on the Middle East, he just not come back at all and everyone’s disappointed? Probably the third
thing. we can get some cameras on that because I do not plan to be there when it happens.
No, no, no, no.
Ethan Lawrence: Gladly watch a live stream. But I’m afraid I will not be there in person,
Adam Tod Brown: It is gonna be a, oh, how funny would it be though, if Jesus does come back and he’s like, no, no, no, no. I’m here for the Muslims. You’re. The white people are the bad people.
Ethan Lawrence: or perhaps even better. Jesus comes down and it’s just like, do you know what? I am so disappointed in all of [01:11:00] you.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: damnit God, father damnit, all of you people. You had one job, you guys, and now I’m here and I’ve gotta sort out this mess. I’m very disappointed. I’m not angry. I’m never angry. I’m Jesus, but I am disappointed in all of you.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Just the idea of Jesus coming back and intervening in that. I don’t know why, but it reminds me of a time when Dane Cook was actually a really good comedian and he had a bit about what if when the UFOs finally land, a bunch of hundred foot tall Native Americans come walking out. He’s like,
guys, we’re cooked. It’s over. We’re done. We’re fucked. That would be very
funny. Yeah. All right, let’s end on a story out of Australia. Fucking [01:12:00] We love you Australia. Wild ass
place.
Ethan Lawrence: bla coba,
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Yeah. Fucking kangaroos and shit. Outback steakhouse.
My favorite thing
about Australia. Yeah. Hell yeah. Boomerangs and shit.
did.
did we do mate? Did they say mate? I think so. Who knows?
Ethan Lawrence: Good day, mate. Yeah, they would. They’d say, mate,
yeah,
Adam Tod Brown: They’re mate types.
Ethan Lawrence: more likely to say cunt, but yeah.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the state of New South Wales specifically is what we’re talking about. It’s there that a man convicted of two child sex abuse offenses has been able to work as a referee for a youth touch football league for more than a decade of all the youth sports, to have a pedophile refereeing.
it gotta be the one with [01:13:00] youth touch in the name?
Ethan Lawrence: I’m just so glad that you’ve structured these stories in a way that, that this episode has just come full circle,
right?
Adam Tod Brown: has. Well, I just want people to know that you don’t have to be rich to be a creep, You know?
Ethan Lawrence: the referee of a youth touch football league.
I doubt he’s earning,
Adam Tod Brown: You can sort of be Elon Musk just without the money is all shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll be among the stars.
Ethan Lawrence: and I’m sure that’s what he was thinking is as he goes into his job as referee for the Youth Touch Football League.
Adam Tod Brown: unless I would say this doesn’t apply to like teachers or doctors, but otherwise, if you just [01:14:00] really wanna work around kids, I’m suspicious. I’m a little suspicious of that because I mean, we had the Big Boy Scout scandal here where it turned out, oh. Lots of Boy Scout leaders were pedophiles oh, I wonder why.
Is it because parents trust you to take their kids to the woods for a weekend? Be alone with them.
Is that what attracts,
Ethan Lawrence: it like that, it’s like, how do we not see this coming?
Adam Tod Brown: yep. Exactly. It’s like, okay, so let me get this clear. You want to spend your weekend with dozens of kids in the woods? That’s what you as an adult man want to do. Let’s call the
Ethan Lawrence: And they are all relying on you because you are completely isolated from the rest of society while you’re out there. ’cause this is the nineties and we don’t have cellular telephones
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: [01:15:00] and. You are happy to take on the responsibility of 15 to 20 young boys in your care when you are the only reason they’re gonna be staying alive
Adam Tod Brown: as a volunteer, no less.
Ethan Lawrence: as a volunteer. Oh, you’re not getting paid for this shit.
Fuck me.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. So
yeah,
you.
Ethan Lawrence: brother from New South Wales who’s getting paid a lot, I would imagine.
Adam Tod Brown: Old Timothy McDougall. He’s been officiating junior and youth competitions at regional, state and national levels, including under 12 girls teams for a long time.
This, despite the fact that he was placed on the New South Wales sex offender registry in 2014 after pleading guilty and being convicted of two counts of sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl in 2012 when he was 21.
I don’t understand. Just go find a 21-year-old [01:16:00] dude. Like, why
Ethan Lawrence: Especially as a 21-year-old.
Adam Tod Brown: a 21-year-old? Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: I’m, I’m a 33-year-old man. I feel that I’m way outside the bracket of what a 20 year, 1-year-old woman would want, and that’s absolutely fair. That’s fine. But if you are 21,
Adam Tod Brown: yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: go find a 21-year-old. They’re cool People.
Adam Tod Brown: It’s gotta be way better than hanging out with a 14-year-old in every conceivable way.
Ethan Lawrence: I don’t even want to hang out with a 14-year-old. Socially
Adam Tod Brown: No, absolutely not.
Ethan Lawrence: Yeah. not. even as a casual hang. Yeah. I don’t want the room to explode in noise every time I say six, seven. No, thank you.
Oh we’ve been avoiding that. So assiduously on this tour, like any pinch point where the word six seven might come out, we’ve eradicated them.
We can’t run the risk of 2000 children losing their fucking minds.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. In my day we said six, nine, and it meant something. You know,
[01:17:00] that’s the sex thing. So this guy, he’s been convicted twice for failing to comply with reporting obligations since he was put on the sex offender registry in 2016 and 2019. One of the offenses relating to his failure to report he was working as a DJ under the name dj. Timmy.
Ethan Lawrence: right? Unpopular opinion.
No adult should be called Timmy.
Adam Tod Brown: Nope,
Ethan Lawrence: fucking grow up
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah, I,
Ethan Lawrence: like you. You are Tim. Now You are Tim. When you turn 18.
Adam Tod Brown: and if you’re calling yourself Timmy. You’re still trying to appeal to kids. that’s a kid’s name.
Ethan Lawrence: This was the thing when I started reading the article, I was like, look. I dunno all the details yet I’m going to try and be as charitable as possible because I do believe that the justice system should be [01:18:00] designed in a certain way that someone does their time and then at the end of it we hope we have a reform character.
That’s the hope, that’s what we pray for. So I was reading the article and I was like, look, it was in 2012, let’s see what happened. And then the more it came on missing reporting dates, missing stuff. And I’m like, okay, he’s not really, he’s not really repenting. I don’t feel much repenting going on here.
And then it gets to the point where he was laughing it up as DJ fucking Timmy and I was like, ah, we need to castrate this man. I think.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. At the very least. Fire him from his job as a youth touch football referee.
Ethan Lawrence: No, Adam, you can’t because of the loophole.
Adam Tod Brown: that’s
the,
Ethan Lawrence: my God. This story.
Adam Tod Brown: that’s the thing. There is a loophole. There is a technicality about work conditions that is allowing him to keep his job. [01:19:00] His superiors at this job know about his sex offender passed one of the parents tipped them off.
And normally a report of that nature would trigger something called a working with children check. As in, let’s check on this, not let’s pay this guy. And, sorry, I wrote check wrong in the notes. It’s actually C-H-E-Q-U-E. Ejected.
she in this case though, and this blows my mind with referees. A working with children check is not triggered most sports assume they won’t ever be completely isolated with children. So, you know, makes perfect sense. ’cause that’s how it works. If your job doesn’t specifically put you in [01:20:00] alone time contact with children, those kids are safe. They’re completely safe. This guy’s not gonna be able to talk his way into someone’s life at all. You know,
Ethan Lawrence: So I’ve, had my head in my hands for the past minute and a half. I would just like to say two things. The first one is it doesn’t feel like it should be beyond the can of Mortal Man, even an Australian man. Just close the loophole.
Adam Tod Brown: close the
Ethan Lawrence: Now that we know that it’s there let’s have a conversation about that New South Wales.
let’s close that up. Liquidity quick. And the second thing you don’t have to hire anyone who applies for the job.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: You don’t have to.
You could look at this guy’s CV and be like, oh, there’s a gap here. What’s that gap for? Oh, that’s when I went to prison for raping a 14-year-old.[01:21:00]
Alright. yeah, we’re gonna actually gonna terminate the interview here, I think. Thank you for your time. Don’t expect to hear back, but No I mean, I guess maybe I’m being silly and maybe there’s just such a dearth of referees for youth touch football in New South Wales that they’ve just gotta get whoever they can.
Oh my God, Australia, why are you like the way you are?
Adam Tod Brown: yeah. What would it take to close this loophole? does it take government action? If so, just do it. Just fucking close the
Ethan Lawrence: It’s too much fucking effort mate. I was too busy out beg, throwing another shrimp on the Barbie. I’ve got a Barbie going on now, so I can’t really do anything about be right now. And then after that I’m gonna have some really, really thin lager. So I can’t do anything after that either ’cause I’ll be drunk and I can’t make decisions when I’m drunk and I’m mostly drunk most of the time.
Adam Tod Brown: Are they worried about pushback from pedophiles who wanna [01:22:00] be youth touch football referees? just close the fucking loophole. You maniacs
Ethan Lawrence: not a big demo.
Adam Tod Brown: it.
Ethan Lawrence: huge demographic. That’s
Adam Tod Brown: Or,
Ethan Lawrence: why they hired DJ Timmy.
Adam Tod Brown: or maybe it’s all of them. Maybe they’re just like, we won’t have referees if we don’t allow pedophiles. I’m sorry.
Ethan Lawrence: And is that what you want Australia?
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah.
Ethan Lawrence: don’t want no more youth touch football ’cause there’s no one to officiate it. Is that the world you wanna live in?
Adam Tod Brown: This would be one of the few instances where my answer would be use ai. Just have chat. GPT officiate Your youth touch football games. How hard can it be? youth
touch football.
Ethan Lawrence: Timmy can do it,
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. They all suck at
the sport.
Ethan Lawrence: can do it.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. Just let chat. GPT officiate these matches. If you’re gonna hire pedophiles to do it.
Ethan Lawrence: Oh, Australia. Oh, I love you. But why? Why are you,
Adam Tod Brown: Ugh.
What a [01:23:00] place. What a place. But hey, I think we have reached the end of this upbeat feel Good episode of what In the World We Did it.
Ethan Lawrence: we certainly have what? A, what? A marathon.
Adam Tod Brown: Yeah. This ep, this episode’s called Epstein International for a reason. Very.
Ethan Lawrence: I
am, brother.
Adam Tod Brown: Common theme running through most of these stories. But I wasn’t gonna not put the Gaza story in here also.
Ethan Lawrence: Hey he’s potentially Mossad, so, you know, it is all,
Adam Tod Brown: yeah, it all it all ties together. So Ethan, thank you so much for doing the pod as always. I
appreciate it.
Ethan Lawrence: as always.
Adam Tod Brown: What do we have to plug before we get outta here? I will like to tell the people we have a website. Finally. You don’t even like.com. You can find all the episodes, you can find the show pages.
We’re adding stuff to it. It’s still kind of under construction, but it’s there. Go check it out. And that’s all I got. Ethan, what do you wanna plug?
Ethan Lawrence: Well first of all, may I say [01:24:00] how happy I was to hear that you finally streamlined your foot good for you.
I am currently on tour with horrible histories, the concert in the uk. If this comes out next Monday, then if you are in Darlington, Bristol. Wales and Manchester, then you’ve missed us.
Sorry about that. But we have got dates coming up in Liverpool, London, Birmingham, Milton Kings, Cambridge, Nottingham, Sheffield, fucking Southampton, York, Brighton, and Sunland. So come on down, see the show. People have seen it, and I’ve been told to my face in the lobby meeting a, clutch of my adoring fans that it was quite good.
Adam Tod Brown: I’m sure it is.
Ethan Lawrence: That’s when an 8-year-old said to me, she said it was quite good.
Adam Tod Brown: Eight year olds don’t
lie.
Ethan Lawrence: yeah.
Outta the mouths of babes.
Adam Tod Brown: and I think that’s it. Let’s get the fuck outta here. Ethan, say goodbye.[01:25:00]
Ethan Lawrence: Goodbye.
Adam Tod Brown: Goodbye everybody. We love you.