Grifty
Grifty is a podcast about late-stage capitalism, false idols, and the ways politics, media, pop psychology, conspiracy culture, technology, celebrity, branding, and disinformation overlap. Hosted by Azadeh Ghafari, Aaron McCall, Dr. Inna Kanevsky, and Julian Walker, it examines how charismatic personalities, movements, corporations, influencers, and institutions use the language of truth, freedom, justice, identity, and community to build audiences, sell certainty, and gain power. The show argues that culture becomes content, belonging becomes a business model, and eventually everything becomes something to monetize. It blends snark, scholarship, history, and political commentary while asking bigger questions about persuasion and power.
Episodes
HOW AMERICA LOST ITS MIND, AND DO WE EVEN WANT IT BACK? Episode 1
HOW AMERICA LOST ITS MIND, AND DO WE EVEN WANT IT BACK? Episode 1: It's Not a Horseshoe. It's a Business Model. The wellness people think your toothpaste is poisoning you. Finance bros think empathy is bad economics. Somebody on the far right thinks Taylor Swift is a Democrat psy-op, while someone on the far left thinks your aunt buying hummus is personally funding colonialism. On parts of both fr
Beating A Dead Horse
Grifty Pod Bonus Episode "Beating a Dead Horse" We're back because the group chat got out of control. This week we break down the Eric Swalwell allegations, Azi's firsthand experience as a whistleblower in the Eric Bauman scandal, and the bigger issue of power, patriarchy, and why "believe women" suddenly comes with exceptions. We also get into cult of personality politics and what happens when th
Episode 46: Truth or D.A.R.E, the T-Shirts and Transvestigations Leading Us Nowhere
Episode Summary Welcome back to Grifty Pod. If you are listening to this episode without a helmet or a seatbelt, you are far braver than we are. This week felt like the entire nation had a stroke while standing upright. The Epstein documents dropped and inside that cursed file dump we discovered the soul bending phrase Trump and Bubba which was not on any of our bingo cards. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Episode 45: You Can't Sing
Episode 44: Water, Winter and Washington: Alaska's Fight for Survival and Sovereignty ft. Dr. Brian Heaslet
This week on Grifty, we are heading north… way north. where climate change, government chaos, and corporate greed have collided at once. Alaska is in free fall. A typhoon has slammed the western coast, wiping out villages and food stores that took generations to build. The federal government is shut down, freezing aid and cutting off SNAP benefits for tens of thousands. While people are trying to
Episode 43: No Kings Day & Bush Girl Fall
This week's episode dives straight into the No Kings protest, where nearly eight million people took to the streets to push back against Trump and the creeping rot of authoritarianism. It was the largest protest in American history, a moment that felt like the country briefly remembered what collective power looks like before the morning hangover set in. And on the other side, we had the tankies t
Episode 42: Get At Me Dog
Episode 41: September Grifty Roundup
Episode 40: Special Election Alert with Sam Sukaton
Episode 39: Dig A Hole and Scream In It
Episode 38: Make America Hypocritical Again
August 31, 2025 Welcome back to Grifty, the podcast where cult wellness, corporate greed, and authoritarian politics meet at a potluck dinner nobody wanted. Tonight's theme is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again plan, better known as MAHA. The Trump team is branding it as a health revolution. But peel back the organic avocado sticker and it looks more like the same old MAGA project:
Episode 37: Alana Zeitchik
Episode 36: Our Jeans Don't Have Time for This
Episode 35: Good Night and Good Luck
Episode 34: The Ep-Files: The Truth is Out There... Or is it?
Episode 33: Hey Daddy
Episode 32: Everything is a Scam
Episode 31: Ketamine Gambit
Episode 30: We're All Gonna Die, But the Goose is Fine
🚨 New Grifty episode just dropped with our new co-host @mrneuropolitan! We're diving into the most chaotic month in American politics, when the Supreme Court drops their worst rulings like they're hot. This week: ⚖️ SCOTUS June doom is upon us. Will we survive it? 👹 Senator Joni Ernst outdoes herself & casually shrugs off deadly Medicaid cuts 🥛 RFK Jr. teams up with a raw meat influencer to rewri
Episode 29: The Foot Fungus Amongus
Episode 28: The Constipation to Fascism Pipeline
Episode 27: Back on Our Bullshit
Episode 26: XO, Gossip Girl ft. Tawny & Joanna
Episode 25: Dr. Nicole Lippman
Episode 24: I'll Make a Man Out of You
Episode 23: The Art of the Steal ft. Dr. Inna
Episode 22: The Accidental Activist
A conversation with Federal Advocacy Coordinator Aaron McCall.
Episode 21: Hack the Apocalypse
S3 Official Trailer
Happy Kendrick Lamar Day! S3 Trailer
Episode 20: How Y'all Doin
Episode 19: MAHA HAHA
Episode 18: Anything Could Happen
It's a new year! Anything could happen 🤗… Anything could happen 🤔… Anything could happen 😨 We kick off our third season discussing post-election coping strategies, the New Right Tech Bro Overlords who are thrashing democracy to make their Optimized new world order happen, and the items got us through the liminal period before Inauguration.
Episode 17: Weird Science
The Grifty crew was joined by Dr. Nini Munoz to talk about all things grifty. Dr. Nini is an electrical engineer and data scientist specializing in sensor design and integration. Her expertise ranges from inertial navigation systems to biosensors, and she integrates AI for pattern recognition and systems risk analysis. She completed her doctorate at Cornell University, where her research at the in
Episode 16: Grifty Tribune: Fascist Sleeping Beauty
Episode 15: Grifty Tribune: Puppy killers, brain worms, and faux dictators, oh my!
GENERAL ELECTION–STATE OF PLAY The 2024 presidential debates have been unveiled "The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday that the three 2024 presidential debates will be held next year on Sept. 16, Oct. 1 and Oct. 9. "(https://www.axios.com/2023/11/20/2024-election-debates-biden-trump-republicans ) Swing states that are expected to decide the 2024 presidential election
Episode 14: Psychology Says No Such Thing!
On this episode, the gang is joined by the one and only Dr. Inna Kanevsky to discuss all types of grifty misinformation floating around online about pop psychology and science. Dr. Inna Kanevsky has over 1.1m followers on TikTok (@dr_inna) and her videos have garnered over 36 million views, which according to some estimates places her in the 99.75% percentile of U.S. Tiktokers. When she's not bein
Episode 13: Grifty Tribune: The Trump Dump
GENERAL ELECTION–STATE OF PLAY States where abortion is on the ballot in the 2024 election "Voters in about a dozen states could decide the fate of abortion rights in November with constitutional amendments on the ballot in a pivotal election year — including in several battleground states that will be key to deciding the presidential race and which party controls Congress." (https://www
Episode 12: I'm Just A Grift: An Interview with Caroline Calloway
She's just a girl, a girl in the world. Join Azi as she has a fun two part chat with Caroline Calloway about everything and nothing. Tune in for the second part of this interview next week. Find us on all social media platforms @griftypod or visit www.grifty.org for more
Episode 11: King Caucus
KING CAUCUS - On this episode of the Grifty Tribune, Azi, Sari and Taryn discuss the outcome of the Iowa Caucus where Trump won (with a lower turnout than previous years), reviewed the tick tock of Trump's busy 2024 trial schedule, and discussed how they'd characterize the 2024 electorate.and what exactly will motivate them to vote and save our democracy from the man who wants to be King. History
Episode 10: Extremely Online
Episode 1 of Season 2 features Taylor Lorenz discussing influencers and Taylor Lorenz is a prominent journalist who has made a name for herself covering topics related to technology, internet culture, and social media. She has worked for major publications such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Her work covers the intersection of technology and society. Lorenz i
Episode 9: The Grifty Old Party
Episode 9 Grifty Tribune: The Grifty Old Party On this episode of Grifty, we are kicking off our new ongoing series- The Grifty Tribune. In ancient Rome, the Tribune was a person who upheld or defended the rights of the people. And we plan to do the same with this ongoing series. In this edition of the Grifty Tribune, Azi and Sari break down the latest in American politics with a focus on how t
Episode 8: Boys Don't Cry
Grifty Pod Episode 8: Boys Don't Cry Boy's don't cry, and that is precisely the problem. On this episode of Grifty, all the gang is back in town for our back-to-school episode of exploring the Manosphere – an interconnected echo chamber of men and boys where the themes of toxic masculinity, misogyny, and homophobia are platformed and normalized in online forums, podcasts, and articles all over the
Episode 7: And I will try to Fix you: The life coaching Industry | Part One
Gather 'round as we delve into the world of life coaching. Apparently in these modern times, for the average person, craving a new life implies seeking the assistance of a so-called life coach. These self-proclaimed saviors promise to guide you towards a life of success, wealth, and popularity. But let's not be fooled for beneath their veneer of expertise there may be nothing more than a shameless
Episode 6: Indictment Day | Part Deux
Indictment Day: Part Deux Donald John Trump has been indicted and arraigned for a second time in three months, with at least two possible ones to come. (Insert clip of Kimberly Guilfoyle bellowing out "The Best is Yet To Come!"). Although Trump invited all of his fans to the Miami Federal Courthouse on his Arraignment Day aka Flag Day aka his 77th Birthday, there was reportedly more press than MAG
Episode 5: Holistic Ballistics
Do you believe in magic? On this episode of Grifty, friends of the pod explore America's mass shooting problem thru the lens of the magical thinking that fuels both gun and wellness cultures, as well as discuss the latest news about GOP grifters Donald Trump and George Santos. The market for Toxic forms of wellness exists because people are feeling disempowered with their health and lack trust in
Episode 4: Veni, Vedi, Grifty: They Came, They Saw, They Grifted
The 2024 Presidential election is officially underway. Joe Biden Part 2 is in full effect. Dude is old, get over it. Ron DeSantis went and got himself sued by Disney and is running 30 points behind Trump. Tucker Carlson got himself fired from Fox News and now has to report from his basement bunker. RFK Jr. and Marianne Williamson bringing old-school wellness grifts back into politics. Azi and Sari
Episode 3: Wacky Backy Quacky
On this episode, Friends of the Pod discuss the pseudoscience that can be chiropracty wacky backy quacky, which is the perfect place to trap gullible people looking for some relief. Of course, like many wellness practices chiropractice care lives in the in-between of therapeutic health modalities that can be effective and can also become iffy when mixed with pseudoscience. At times the field has
Episode 2: Bias
In this Episode, We are joined by our first guest, Sari Beth Rosenberg. Sari teaches U.S. History and A.P. U.S. history at a New York City Public high school, named The High School of Environmental Studies, with over 20 years of experience. In this episode, we talk about the historical aspect of how history and ideas are presented to us and where being biased plays a role in how it's told. We disc
Episode 1: Take Off
Take off them fabricated streams and them microwave memes, it's a real world outside. Welcome to the first episode of Grifty: a late-stage capitalism audio newsletter by and about false idols. Our conversations will be a little snarky, a little intellectual, a bit historical, a lot political, and ultimately about how to survive late stage capitalism, take care of one's mental health, and engage i
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