Gummy Beasts

This episode of West of Knowhere covers a chaotic week of news and online drama: the suspected shooting/assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the swirl of conspiracy theories around it. We discuss a Taco Bell employee shooting over a soda dispute, legal and social media fallout from high-profile posts (including James Comey’s seashells and a brewery’s controversial tweet), and Jimmy Kimmel’s joked-about remark about Melania. Other topics include Palantir’s CEO on wartime targeting, teenagers storming the Church of Scientology, Rudy Giuliani’s hospitalization, a big-game hunter killed by elephants, OpenAI models avoiding talk of goblins, and an Am I the Asshole segment about urging a partner into rehab after a newborn arrives. Linktr.ee/wokpod https://news.sky.com/story/secret-service-agent-who-took-bullet-in-trump-assassination-bid-may-have-been-hit-by-friendly-fire-13537624  https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/church-of-scientology-tiktok-trend-teens-b2968285.html  https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/openai-codex-system-prompt-includes-explicit-directive-to-never-talk-about-goblins/  https://www.wifr.com/2026/05/01/fbi-secret-service-speak-with-minocqua-brewing-company-owner-following-social-media-post/  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/legal-experts-shellshocked-new-comey-indictment-rcna342583  https://www.irishtimes.com/offbeat/2023/02/16/us-cancer-patient-developed-uncontrollable-irish-accent-doctors-say/  https://futurism.com/future-society/palantir-ceo-war-crimes  https://pugetpress.com/2026/05/01/taco-bell-worker-shooting-florida-water-cup-dispute/  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/27/melania-trump-jimmy-kimmel-abc-spat?CMP%3Dshare_btn_url  https://pugetpress.com/2026/05/01/california-hunter-killed-elephants-gabon/  https://13wham.com/news/nation-world/rudy-giuliani-hospitalized-in-critical-but-stable-condition-president-trump-ted-goodman-mayor-new-york-9-11-injuries-sick-illness