Never Close the Inquiry
Never Close the Inquiry
Podcast Description
Never Close the Inquiry is for pushing back on black and white, us vs. them thinking in politics—for creating dialogue across the aisle, and for demystifying the right for the left and the left for the right. The goal is better conversations, better arguments, better solutions, better relationships, and, maybe, a few giant skips and a jump and a hitch-hike down the line, a better country. neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com
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The podcast explores themes of political discourse, empathy, and understanding, with episodes featuring discussions on prominent political figures, analysis of current events, and insightful commentary, such as the implications of Trump's presidency and systemic economic challenges facing graduates.
Never Close the Inquiry is for pushing back on black and white, us vs. them thinking in politics—for creating dialogue across the aisle, and for demystifying the right for the left and the left for the right. The goal is better conversations, better arguments, better solutions, better relationships, and, maybe, a few giant skips and a jump and a hitch-hike down the line, a better country.
Episode 60 – The Neophytes: Progressively Pestilential Polymarket
We–your friendly local prudes–have been open about our abhorrence for prediction markets generally and scummity scum scum Polymarket specifically. Our antipathy was already on its way to a fresh peak after Polymarket recruited a long list of athletes and celebrities, some of them among the most popular of the last three decades–LeBron, Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Sue Bird, Spike Lee, Reggie Bush, and Richard Sherman, among others–to appear in a bajillion dollar ad legitimizing a particularly noxious form of sports gambling where the house, paid by skimming the top off every trade, cannot lose, and paycheck-to-paycheck young Americans sucked in by the prospect of quick money can and do. Polymarket is paying LeBron $15 million a year, which admittedly is close to double his current Sixers salary; he’s only worth $1.4 billion and may need the supplemental income.
But it gets worse. According to investigations by the Wall Street Journal and Politico, as beautifully set forth in a fern-TV YouTube video
(side note: fern has 5.55 million subscribers and this is the first I’m hearing of it; in certain respects, I am 1000 years old–Polymarket paid a series of online influencers to post videos portraying fake gambling wins without any disclosure that (i) they were paid, which is a violation of federal law by itself, or (ii) the wins were fake. To enable the filmed lies (the “fraud,” as we lawyers like calling it), Polymarket created a dummy website and app that allowed the influencers to manufacture bespoke “trades” and put fake $10,000 wins in Instagram videos in exchange for relatively small under-the-table payments directly from Polymarket’s chief marketing officer. Not great, Bob.
Apropos of nothing, Donald Trump Jr. is a Polymarket investor and member of the board, and federal investigations into Polymarket have generally quieted down since approximately January 2025 or something along those lines.
Tune in to hear the Neophytes say mean things about people actively making the world a worse place.
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