Claim OwnershipWhere There's Woke
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Every single time the right, or even center-left, goes ballistic over a "woke" controversy, the slightest bit of investigation shows the scandal is almost entirely bogus. This is not a new phenomenon; it dates back decades. It's an intentional tool used to protect the powerful and preserve the status quo, while further scapegoating and otherizing those who push for political progress. This podcast digs into not just today's fake scandals, but those of yesterday and yesteryear. The terminology has changed some, but the pattern has not. Listen in as host Thomas Smith shines a light on the panic, the fragility, the overreaction, and the lying that ignites 'Where There's Woke.'
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Lydia continues sharing the very-good-examples from The Federalist of times when the Left abandoned Free Speech principles because the impacted person was a Conservative. Yep, they're still going. How Outrage at Kimmel Grew to a Shout From a Whisper, Stuart A. Thompson (9/19/2025) The Censorship-Industrial Complex, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government (5/1/2024) The Mechanics of Government Censorship, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (9/29/2025) Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do! To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!
Jimmy Kimmel caused significant outrage a couple of weeks ago that you likely heard about. The "outrage" on the Right was that he dared to say Charlie Kirk's name and imply that the alleged killer was MAGA. The outrage on the Left was that after Kimmel said that single sentence, the government mafia-bossed the broadcasters to pre-empt his show, ultimately leading to Jimmy Kimmel's suspension from the air by ABC and his silence. The Right will have you believe that the Left is blowing this completely out of proportion, and since when did the Left even care about Free Speech anyway?! Lydia takes us through a piece in The Federalist: 6 Times Leftists Melting Down Over Jimmy Kimmel Were Happy To Deny Conservatives ‘Free Speech’, and we discuss how comparable the examples were that they came up with. If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
It's part 2 of our little foray into the disturbing transphobia-addled mind of Bill Maher. This one features a hilarious clip where Bill yells at Neil DeGrasse Tyson while not understanding a word Neil has said.
Bill Maher decided to bless us all with his sage advice on our country's fascism problem - why don't we all just stop doing the things that the fascists use as their excuse to do the fascism they already were going to do anyway? How did we not think of that??? Are we all the dumbest bunch of idiots?
After the release of our PragerU videos (WTW88 & WTW89), we received a comment in the Facebook group from a listener pushing back on the characterization we made regarding a one sentence bit from Ben Shapiro's commencement speech video. This feedback emboldened Thomas to dig into the story further to see if we owed an apology to Ben. Was this a unique instance in which the anti-woke were right and there truly was a miscarriage of justice? **If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com.**
Kaiser issued the most infuriating statement last month announcing that they were "pausing" their gender-affirming surgeries for patients 19 and under. Why in the world did they do this when the majority of Kaiser members are in California - a protective state for the transgender community and one of the most likely states to stand up to the Trump administration? Lydia breaks down what happened, who has been speaking out, and a particular theory about why Kaiser Permanente might have made this decision. Massachusetts et al v. Trump et al (8/1/2025) If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
Part 2 of 2. Now that we're Oklahoma-certified teachers, it's time to learn more about PragerU. Who are they, where does their money come from, and are they really going to be the new PBS? We break down one of their PragerU Kids videos, and end with a pretty unhinged video presented by a WTW frenemy. If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
1Part 1 of 2. The Department of Education in the state of Oklahoma recently announced that in their search for teachers to address an ongoing shortage in their schools, they'd be partnering with a conservative "edutainment" entity to develop a test to make sure teachers coming from blue states aren't too "woke." Lydia tells us more about this story and we take the JUST RELEASED test to see if we can pass it. In part 2, we'll dig into who PragerU is, the kind of content they produce, and what we can do to fight back. **If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com.** Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
Part 2 of 2. Andrew Sullivan continues his screed and we continue to tear it apart. But Lydia won't let us leave on an angry note, so she shares her experience attending San Francisco Pride this year - her first Pride EVER! **If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com.** Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
Part 1 of 2. The New York Times unveiled an opinion piece by Andrew Sullivan that basically talked all about how the LGBTQ+ community have gone too far - DURING PRIDE MONTH. We go through this outrageous op-ed and debunk his claims and logic in true WTW fashion. **If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com.** Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
An unsurprising figure is involved in the current battle between Harvard University and the federal government, and he has come out to EXPOSE Harvard's racist and discriminatory practices by sharing a "trove" of internal documents they don't want you to see. Lydia walks us through what these documents are, how things escalated to this point, and what Christopher Rufo wants us to think it all means - which The New York Times helped platform on an episode of The Daily. Cool. Best Practices for Conducting Faculty Searches Rufo's smoking gun that makes no sense: Harvard's "Placement Goals" - HELP US FIGURE OUT WHAT THIS IS! **If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com.** Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke! This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. and his second-in-command, Mr. Brain Worm, have appointed a real piece of work to lead the supposed "autism study" that HHS is conducting; and we had to call in for backup as we take on these anti-vaxxers: Dr. Jenessa Seymour! Jenessa takes us on a deep dive about David Geier and tells us all about the way he's approached science, ethics, and human beings in the past. Spoiler: it's not great! **If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com.** This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Karen Attiah, columnist with The Washington Post, was looking forward to teaching her second iteration of the Race, Media, and International Affairs course she developed for Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, when it was abruptly cancelled - with no explanation as to why. We chat with her about the inaugural session of the course in an environment where the Israel-Palestine protests were happening on campus and the President was called into Congress to answer Elise Stefanik's "questions," what the media twisted about what was actually happening in those encampments, how she felt when Columbia cancelled her course, and the eventual decision she made to teach it anyway. If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke! This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Every year, tens of thousands of people run the Boston Marathon, and this year the Right had a bone to pick with one particular participant; we'll give you one guess what the bone was. Independent journalist Frankie de la Cretaz started asking some questions when this popped up in their algorithm, and after seeing their debunking journey in their newsletter, we had to have them on! If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke! This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Part 2 of DOGE's scam-extraordinaire! We dig into the last few claims from the article in The Federalist, as well as some bonus propaganda that Lydia picked up on in the interview. The Limestone Mine If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke! This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Lydia watched the DOGE interview on Fox News so the rest of us didn't have to. In it, Musk and his posse make some "shocking" claims about the fraud and waste they're identifying in the federal government. Lydia gives us a deep dive debunk to call out the falsehoods, the misleading statements, and the straight propaganda this "charm offensive" spewed on national television. Part 1 of 2. Revolving Door Project's research on DOGE personnel If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke! This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Representative Jasmine Crockett made an offensive joke about Governor Abbott's disability. The right pretended to care all of a sudden, and it seems that much of the left has decided they don't care. What should we, the woke police, think about this? How should we react? What should we expect from Democrats and each other? **If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com.**
For like... 20 minutes... Megyn Kelly told an upside down world version of the Lively/Baldoni feud. There's a reason conservatives are very interested in this story, and I'll give you a hint it rhymes with pisogyny. If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
We complete our Blake Lively Hatestorm Debunk by looking at some fun comparisons. What happens when celebrities who are men happen to have a bad interview, or have a damning tape released of their bad behavior? How does it stack up to a woman who said, "Congratulations on your little bump!" Equal crime, equal time? I think you know the answer. If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads to lydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
Hey folks, big announcement!!! Our podcast, Gavel Gavel, is now available to the public! No longer is it only available on Patreon! This series on GG, we'll be covering the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni legal battle. It is so fascinating for a million reasons. But this is a unique and standalone WTW episode, don't worry! The Blake Lively hatestorm that happened (Lydia will catch you up if you're not familiar) was absolute nonsense. It requires a debunk, just as any anti-woke scare story does. And debunk it, we shall! If you enjoy our work, please consider leaving a 5-star review! You can always email questions, comments, and leads tolydia@seriouspod.com. Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
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I was getting worried about Thomas's blood pressure. Don't have a stroke, Thomas, we need you