Where There's Woke

Part 1. We dive headfirst into stories in which a teacher's First Amendment rights appear to have been violated. It seems clear to us how wrong this all is after reading the complaint, but how will these cases play out in court? 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!

A few weeks ago, Lydia and Thomas did an episode on the steps of the California Capitol for California Freethought Day, highlighting the differences between a fake free speech professor-story and a real one. This juxtaposition sparked a research effort to dig into more of these cases, some of which will be featured in the following episodes. 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!

FOLKS. Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters is GONE. Lydia breaks down the final few things he pushed before he abruptly resigned with 15 months still left in his term, the bizarre happenings of that resignation and where he's headed next, and finally, what we've learned in the aftermath. This Is Ground Zero in the Conservative Quest for More Patriotic and Christian Public Schools, Jennifer Smith Richards/ProPublica (10/22/2025) Fox25's Wendy Suares Attempts to Question Walters After His Resignation Announcement 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!

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!

Part 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.