On The Record (07-21-26).

This week we went to see The Odyssey and came out thinking about Bronze Age collapse, because Nolan’s Odysseus is haunted by the wreckage of a civilization that mistook conquest for strength—and the parallels basically write themselves. Then we checked in on the Leading Economic Index, which has been declining for years while the coincident index keeps climbing, and the gap between those two lines is the gap between Wall Street and everyone else: the market’s fine, the C-suite’s fine, but the person trying to build or buy a house is living in a completely different economy. Chapters Intro: 00:00:38 Quick Takes: 00:01:37 Max Notes: 00:07:53 Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:14:26 Chart of the Week: 00:17:16 Headlines: 00:19:48 Outro: 00:20:53 Resources Guardian News: Britain’s new prime minister Andy Burnham makes address NBC News: Trump imposes 50% tariffs on dairy, alcohol, and cars from Canada Reuters: Doctors question evidence behind Pentagon plan for testosterone screening Fox Business: Bessent delivers remarks on far-left political terrorism Netflix: Bill Maher Mark Twain Prize Middle East Eye: US influencer Clavicular’s ‘Israelmaxxing’ propaganda trip ends in national scandal Forbes: Here’s The Odyssey’s Budget And Break-Even Point At The Box Office Africa Is a Country: Odyssey to Africa’s last colony Drop Site News: Jeremy Scahill and Ro Khanna CLASH Over Palestinian Armed Resistance and Iron Dome The Conference Board: Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the US Declined in June and Partially Reversed Gains from Prior Two Months ACLU: Defending Our Vote: The ACLU’s election safeguarding program Grist: New York governor orders first statewide data center moratorium The Lever: Repeat Food Contaminator Gave $2.2 Million to GOP. Now Thousands Are Sick UNFTR Resources Video: On The Record 7-21-26 (The Odyssey | Pete Hegseth Loves Buff Dudes | Clavicular in Israel.) Essay: Quite the Odyssey. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibilitySupport the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.