#2566 - Cody Tucker

Cody Tucker said he reads quickly and follows obscure facts into further research, often turning the results into Instagram content or stories for his podcast. He began with general conversation and ended episodes with “Half-Ass History”; after a friend suggested separating the history segment, he started publishing it on its own, where it gradually found an audience. Joe Rogan and Brian Simpson were among those who shared it. Tucker said he enjoys making, learning, and teaching even when few people are watching, and that living in a small town makes wider recognition feel distant. His book is The Hidden History of Everyday Words and Phrases; he plans to narrate an audiobook himself.

The conversation’s history and crime stories often came with qualifications. Tucker said Debbie Harry’s account of a man who picked her up in a Volkswagen Beetle may have involved Ted Bundy, but the timeline puts Bundy elsewhere, so it could have been someone else. They also discussed General Butt Naked, who was said to have killed and eaten people during Liberia’s civil war before becoming a preacher. A former senior CIA official, meanwhile, was described as having faked credentials, invented an operation to steal $150 million, and spent large sums on luxury goods; the speakers questioned whether a photograph of recovered cash and gold showed the original scene or a government arrangement.

They questioned whether pharmaceutical companies can run multiple studies, publicize favorable results, and have reviewers assess company-prepared reports rather than raw data, citing Vioxx as a concern. An example purporting to show a treatment as “100% effective” using one treated subject and two control deaths was explicitly illustrative, not an established study. They praised The Dropout for depicting how people knew Theranos’s tests did not work; one investor was said to have put in $150 million, and the suggestion that Warren Buffett invested $100 million was tentative. On government accountability, they criticized weak oversight and discussed California’s $24 billion homelessness spending and Gavin Newsom’s veto of an audit, while acknowledging that claims about money enriching nonprofits and executives were speculation, not audited findings.

AI and social media raised concerns about both personal relationships and public information. Tucker said he uses ChatGPT for reassurance and feels it has learned how to talk to him; the speakers worried that chatbots can flatter or gaslight users, and noted reports of AI convincing people to commit suicide. They argued that automated or coordinated accounts can amplify outrage and shape casual users’ perceptions, while conceding that some suspicious-looking commenters may simply be shit-posting. One speaker guessed that bots could make up about a quarter of his followers and cited a former FBI analyst’s much higher estimate for Twitter, contrasting it with the platform’s stated 5% figure. They debated identity verification as a possible response, while recognizing it could endanger whistleblowers who need anonymity.

The speakers also warned that true-crime audiences can mistake themselves for detectives and pursue unsupported theories. They did not know whether Lindsay Clancy was psychotic when she admitted strangling her children, and treated that possibility as uncertain. In discussing religion, Rogan argued that using the Bible to condemn homosexuality can be selective given other biblical teachings, including those concerning slavery and clothing; he said people should hold their beliefs without mistreating others. They also questioned the historical reliability of some religious accounts, noting that some Gospel authors may not have met Jesus, and discussed flood stories appearing in multiple ancient traditions. These were presented as questions and interpretations, not settled conclusions.

Tucker said he fears death and values learning, while another speaker said he would choose indefinite life extension rather than miss what he might learn in the future. The conversation moved from those questions to the limits of human control over nature: Colossal Biosciences was described as trying to bring back the thylacine, and the speakers debated whether animals engineered from gray-wolf genes using ancient dire-wolf DNA should be called dire wolves. One considered them dire wolves because they have defining traits; the other said they are not technically the same animals. They also discussed combat sports as demanding technical problem-solving under controlled conditions, in contrast to street fights, which can cause death or permanent injury and lack protections such as an on-site medical team.