Epstein Files Flop, State of the Market, Autonomous Robots, Trump's Gold Card, Friedberg on Jeopardy

The episode opens with the hosts saying that a comedian booked as a celebrity guest got sick at the last minute. They do not name the guest. The cancellation leads to a short exchange about whether a comedian would suit the show. One participant says comedians' "takes on society and culture are pretty interesting." Another argues the show works best when "it's less just people doing takes and it's more the back and forth banter." The host says that this kind of back-and-forth is what he is always trying to get going.

Jason Calacanis introduces himself (the transcript spells it "Kalakanes") and names David Friedberg and Chamath Palihapitiya as his co-hosts. One co-host asks why he can no longer reply to the host on Twitter. The host explains that his replies were full of "MAGA lunatics and crypto scams," with as many as 500 replies to a single post. He moved replies behind a subscription of "$3 a month." By his count, 1,500 people signed up, and he says the money goes to charity. The co-host says he subscribed so he could keep trolling him.

The first news item is a letter addressed to "Director Patel" about the Jeffrey Epstein files, which one host reads aloud. The letter's author says they asked for the full files before the director took office and received "approximately 200 pages of documents." They then learned from a source that the FBI field office in New York "was in possession of thousands of pages of documents" about the Epstein investigation and indictment. The letter says the FBI never disclosed that these files existed, despite repeated requests.

By 8AM tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office regardless of how such information was obtained. There will be no withholding or limitations to my or your access.

The host then puts the question to the panel. Should the FBI have the discretion to say no, or is it out of bounds for the FBI to withhold the files? One participant says the question is "above my pay grade" because they don't know the law on FBI investigations. They raise a concern: people who were investigated and turned out not to be guilty could be named in the files, so the FBI may need to review them "before they do a document dump." Someone else adds that the files might include informants.

Another voice pushes back. In this reading, the letter does not describe a negotiation over what can safely be released. It describes being misled: "We're gonna lie to you and tell you that, you know, here's here's the story." The reply to that is that the FBI may have its own side of the story, and "we have to hear from them."

The panel then asks why the public cares. One participant lists possible motives: gossip, a wish to prosecute people who hurt others, or an "opportunity to cancel" people. Another notes that the story has run for twenty years and argues that the interest is mostly about conspiracy theories and the "deep state," that is, whether there has been a cover-up. A third participant narrows it to a question of governance: when the chain of command asks for something, may a subordinate withhold it because "the person above you doesn't deserve to know it"?

One participant reads out the grounds on which the FBI can withhold information, even from the president: an ongoing investigation, secret sources whose safety would be at risk, and national security concerns. Because this is breaking news, the hosts make no judgment. They say they will discuss it next week "when we get the facts."

The hosts then congratulate David Friedberg on his Celebrity Jeopardy appearance. They joke about whether they can say the show's name on air, and he jokes that the bar must be low if podcasters are now being invited. The panel cites audience estimates without confirming them. Regular Jeopardy is said to draw "seven to 9,000,000 a night," and the celebrity edition a smaller audience of "couple million people." A co-host says the group kept quiet for four or five months while Friedberg worried about how he had done, and then reveals the result: he won, and the co-host says he "crushed it."

The clip the hosts single out is a Daily Double. The contestant tells host Ken Jennings, "I'm gonna go all in, Ken." The category is African geography, at 12,800. The clue describes a Tanzanian peak that is "both Africa's highest and the world's tallest freestanding mountain". The answer, "What is Mount Kilimanjaro?", is ruled correct. Friedberg then describes a coincidence: at dinner the night before, friends had quizzed him on African geography because their son was studying for a quiz on it. He calls it "a slumdog millionaire moment."

Friedberg also describes how he prepared. After he got in touch with the show, he watched the previous season's Celebrity Jeopardy episodes and "figured I could get, like, 60% of the answers." He bought a cheap buzzer on Amazon to practice with, but it "didn't do anything." The hosts also mention that Jason Koon, a professional poker player who plays in their game (transcribed "Coon"), coached him. Friedberg's own account focuses on his conclusion before walking on: "there's no upside," because viewers remember the misses.

In his account, the buzzer was the main difficulty. Contestants may not buzz until a light comes on, and "if you buzz too early, you get locked out for a quarter second," which he says "makes a huge difference." The clue appears on a large screen right away, so contestants can read ahead, but the light only turns on when Ken Jennings finishes saying the last syllable. Friedberg says there is a delay of "about hundred fifty to two hundred milliseconds" between the eyes and the ears, so "you actually hear stuff before you see stuff," and he adds that the delay differs from person to person. He offers this as his own explanation for why he kept losing the buzz to the contestants next to him while waiting for the light. No source for the figure is given in the conversation.

The hosts also replay his biggest miss. On a Daily Double in the category of climactic moments in sports movies, he says it is "Not my best category" and wagers 4,000. The clue describes Jimmy Chitwood's winning jumper for the Hickory Huskers. He answers "What is hoops?", which is ruled wrong, and the correct answer was Hoosiers. One participant notes that Gene Hackman "died today." Friedberg complains that friends never text about the answers he got right, only to ask "How did you not get Hoosiers?"