DiscoverSmoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast222. Michael Tracey on Kirk, Epstein Files, and Cancel Culture 2.0
222. Michael Tracey on Kirk, Epstein Files, and Cancel Culture 2.0

222. Michael Tracey on Kirk, Epstein Files, and Cancel Culture 2.0

Update: 2025-09-16
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Investigative journalist Michael Tracey is hard to pin down, maybe because he doesn’t play for one team. A journo in the old-fashioned “stick-poking” mode, Michael started debating Sarah on his own introduction before she was half-way through. Fair enough! We go on to discuss Charlie Kirk — whom Tracey sees as a “mouthpiece” for the administration — and then go deep on the Epstein Files, which Tracey tore into, in part, because no one else was. You might be surprised at the gap between the wild fantasy spun online and the facts on the ground.

We disagree on a lot (who doesn’t?), but Tracey has done some of the most honest journalism on Epstein — a case everyone talks about, and few people know. He’s also stood up for free speech, something that’s getting crushed as the right discovers their own powers of cancel culture.

Also discussed:

  • Wikipedia suuuucks

  • Why Michael thinks Kirk is not a martyr

  • Pro tip: Don’t bring up that Ann Coulter story from Michael’s college years in your intro …

  • Charlie Kirk the podcaster vs. Charlie Kirk the campus debater

  • OK, well since the Ann Coulter story was already brought up, here it is …

  • What happens when your ACLU lawyer is drunk

  • The Jewish mafia of Ohio

  • Epstein Survivors, Inc.

  • The accusers in the Epstein saga are … complicated

  • Was Epstein murdered in prison? It’s not impossible!

Plus, Nancy on the erotic power of 16-year-old girls, Sarah on vigilante justice-by-internet, Michael explains Nintendo Switch 2, and much more!

Marjorie Taylor Greene gets Michael thrown out of a press conference that Ro Khanna invited him to. For more of Michael’s reporting, hit him up on Substack

Michael Tracey
Counter-hegemonic musings
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222. Michael Tracey on Kirk, Epstein Files, and Cancel Culture 2.0

222. Michael Tracey on Kirk, Epstein Files, and Cancel Culture 2.0

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em