How Podcasts Ruined America

I was just speculating for a podcast. I had no personal information. I was just speculating for a podcast.” This was the testimony of Howard Lutnick, the sitting Secretary of Commerce, to the House Oversight Committee on May 6, 2026. For Lutnick, the word “podcast” seems to describe a media format in which aimless speculation is both expected and encouraged. Thus it was perfectly natural for him to hop on a podcast in October 2025 and muse with casual aplomb about Jeffrey Epstein—after all, few subjects electrify the podcast circuit more reliably.