Our annual list of funders (because transparency matters)!

👀 What I’m watching: Pluribus

📕 What I’m reading: History of 1930s Germany

🎧 What I’m listening to: A Pixar film soundtrack

🥨 What I’m eating: A Costco favorite

👨🏼‍💻 What I’m doing: Publishing our annual list of funders!

In the throes of a cold that completely obliterated my sinuses, brain and will to move, I managed to watch the vast majority of Pluribus on Apple+

(Despite the praise I’m about to laud on this show, this it not an ad from Tim Apple. But keep reading later on to see our full transparent list of funding).

Without spoiling, this show is about AI, specifically, the wool being pulled over our head as we relinquish our jobs, culture, individuality, and minds to chatbots, without much extra thought. “AI” and “Artificial Intelligence” is never brought up explicitly on the show, but some dialogue unquestionably mimics the circular and often illogical conclusions of AI chatbots.

Strangely, the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), won’t explicitly say the show is about AI. My unfounded, tinfoil hat theory is that he doesn’t want Apple, a tech company fully embracing AI, to cancel the series.

Whatever you think the show is about, or not about, please take the time to watch it and send me a note telling me what you think it is about. Many a redditor have pointed out that it’s “too slow.” But for those of us who thoroughly enjoyed all of Better Call Saul, it always pays off. And hey, maybe it’s good for your attention span to just drink in the gorgeous cinematography.

Gilligan and his crew may as well be the New Mexico tourism board, having spent nearly two decades projecting the beautiful oranges and blues of the desert onto our small screens. And by the way, yes, that is the actual mayor of Albuquerque with a cameo in episode four.

You may have noticed a few cameos in Wednesday’s video from the World History section:

I also picked up The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich at the Barnes & Noble on the Plaza in KC a few weeks ago (my other go-to Barnes & Noble is in Zona Rosa - say hi if you see me!).

That book did not feature in this week’s TikTok, because it’s got a big old swastika on the cover and binding. I get why it’s there, but I have to admit, I paused for just a moment before purchasing it. And later fully omitted it from our video, in fear of getting suppressed. I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t just a book by it’s cover but also maybe don’t put a giant swastika on a book if you’re trying to teach non-Nazis about the horrible crimes Nazis committed. I was prepared to explain to the cashier exactly what the book was about, only to realize, with relief, it was someone I knew, who knows I am not a Nazi.

Anyways, it’s a thick book. It’s gonna take me awhile to get through it. But since we are living 1930s Germany right now, it’s a fully immersive experience, even when I’m not reading. Like why Spy Kids did a movie with “smell-o-vision,” except this is less fun and I have no interest in smelling the actual Nazis recruited by ICE.

You’re probably tired of hearing from young parents and their Disney-filled Spotify Wrapped, but I cannot tell a lie, dear reader. I cannot sit here ad pretend I listened to the music that I wanted to listen to this week.

So, what are the parents of a precocious toddler listening to? Lucia has taken a break from the music of Moana, Coco, Encanto and Frozen, and taken a left turn into the Cars franchise.

On one the hand, I am delighted. I am literally fueling Lucia’s interest in cars. I got her a Hot Wheels track for Christmas and was thrilled to see her enthusiasm for the mechanism that makes the car take the second loop even faster. She also has a new set of pink wheels - a Little Tikes Princess Cozy Coupe to be precise - and LOVES it.

On the other hand, the Cars franchise has never been my favorite of the Pixar films. They’re not bad, honestly. In truth, my only real knock against them is they may be the only Pixar films truly made for kids and not adults. When they do make winking references for adults, they’re pretty dated, lame jokes.

But here’s the good news: it’s got a perfectly fine soundtrack, which we are now hearing constantly on Lucia’s Tonie box. I have heard “Life is a Highway” more in the last week than I have in every road trip of my life combined.

You know those peanut butter filled pretzels from Costco? Our household is destroying them. They’re disappearing faster than cold medicine at a daycare.

We promised to make our funding sources public, and now’s the time to reveal our funding from 2025. One of our co-founders, Micah, has been working hard on this since the end of the fourth quarter. He even made a graph (thanks, Micah!).

But that’s not all. We want you to know exactly who we’ve worked with, not just the category they fall under:

Most of these revenue sources are part of continuous contracts. In other words, that circle graph reflects what we were paid in 2025, not what they have or will pay us in 2026.

I’d also like to note another source of revenue: Free the Facts. This was a contract between myself and the organization that predated the creation of our media company, but continued through December. We made 41(!) videos with this organization last year. You can check out the playlist here.

Finally, I promised in last week’s newsletter I would share my thoughts on the news of the last few weeks, which may or may not have just contributed to the overall shittiness of my cold on Monday. I’m going to do a lot of showing versus telling in today’s video. In short, we are slow-marching into full-fledged fascism with the help of a lawless militarized force and a (very) short man cosplaying as an actual Nazi.

I continue to maintain that humor, especially directed at the cowards inflicting pain, is a massive, important tool today. Another major tool: journalism.

I’ve spoken very little about the editorial changes made at The Washington Post before leaving. In truth, they didn’t really change. But the people enforcing them, and how they talked about the news, did change. Jeff Bezos had all but disappeared. This was made all the more significant when the FBI raided the house of a Post reporter last week. Bezos has yet to say a single word on the matter.

When the leadership up top, including the owner, publisher and editor-in-chief don’t - or can’t - lead, there’s nothing to follow. Even if you have an established set of morals and rules, like The Washington Post has, those mean nothing if leadership keeps breaking the norms without explanation.

As Trump and his allies continue to take control of various media sources, it becomes more difficult for viewers and readers to trust their news, despite how well-meaning and ethical the reporters themselves continue to be (and make no mistake, my former colleagues at the Post reporting the news are still the best of the best).

Bob Woodward was once told to “follow the money.” With legacy media, that will often lead you to a Trump source with ulterior motives. With Local News International, you’ll find our funding comes with no strings attached. We are truly independent and will not accept money from political action committees or parties on either the right or left.

Still here? Fine. Here’s a clip from my latest collab with Ruff Ruffman:

You can watch the full, first interview here. And the second full interview below: