Episode 148 dives into chaos as hosts mock an unnamed critic’s "prankster" claims (Phoebe Bridgers, The Good Place rumors) before pivoting to 9/11 conspiracy theories and a live segment with Alex Rubenstein. Using leaked 2024 Houthi recordings of a 2001 call, Rubenstein reveals CIA Director George Tenet pressured Yemen’s Saleh to release a suspected USS Cole bomber—without naming him—exposing potential U.S. cover-ups in the War on Terror’s early days. The episode blurs satire and speculation, leaving Tenet’s role in post-9/11 detentions deliberately obscured. [Automatically generated summary]
Liz, when was the last time you did a fucking prank or tricked somebody?
None of your beeswax.
See, you can't even think about it.
Do you know how many pranks I've done in just the past month?
I think I talked about this in the show before, but you know, like the good place thing, the Phoebe Bridgers thing.
I know, you're full of pranks.
I'm doing pranking.
I'm doing full prank.
So is this your day of rest?
I'm not saying a holiday.
If anyone asks me if I've ever hooked up with Phoebe Bridgers today, I'm telling them no.
If anyone asks if I've ever hooked up with fucking Steve Buccemi's uncle today, I'm telling them no.
If anyone asks me if my dad is the head writer on the TV show, The Good Place, and if I hooked up with the fucking crazy lady from that TV show, I'm telling them no in the first place, yes in the second.
Alright, we gotta make this quick kick.
I got to go to the Pranksters Ball in Magic City tonight.
The Prankster's Ball, Magic City.
Yeah, yeah, in Atlanta.
It's like a club for gentlemen.
Pranksters Ball, just I am, I really immediately think of like Anaheim.
It just sounds like something that was in Anaheim.
Yeah, like House of Blue.
Let's go to the Pranksters Ball.
Oh, yeah.
Downtown Disney in Anaheim.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah.
We should do a show.
Are those?
Oh, yeah.
But those are back amongst like 19-year-olds who are addicted to ketamine.
Those aren't back amongst people.
Yeah, it's like a Zoomer art kid thing.
Yeah.
That's, I will say, what's with the big clothes?
Hello, everyone.
I'm Liz.
I'm Brace.
We are joined by producer Young Chomsky.
Not that I want you to wear tight clothes.
The podcast is called Truanon.
Welcome to the show.
Hello.
We have a fun show today, I think.
We are going, well, back to our roots, talking 9-11.
Got a 9-11 update, kind of.
Adjacent.
It's 9-11.
It's like a 9-11-ish update.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A 9-11 and a half.
So I want you all to kind of close your eyes and remember the spirit, not of 9-11, but on the day after 9-12, when all of America felt like we were together.
And it was okay to be racist for everyone.
Keep it in.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Passover 3, true and on edition.
We have with us here live in the studio.
Well, only, you know, electronically, Alex Rubenstein, who is here to, well, talk a little bit about some recordings that came out recently that he did a little article about.
Alex, how you doing?
I'm great.
Thank you for asking.
I don't know if I'd call the article little, but yeah.
Yeah, actually, that's true.
This is quite a long article.
Three and a half thousand words or something like that.
But yeah, I tend to run long.
Yeah.
Well, I think it's pretty useful in this case because before, well, before I get ahead of myself here, what the fuck is the article called and what is it about?
And why did you write it?
Yemen's 2001 Phone Call Revelations00:00:52
Well, the article is about Anmur al-Alaki because basically what happened is the Houthi government of Yemen, which is like a revolutionary government that took over power from like the Saudi-backed government in 2015, I think.
They released recordings of CIA director, former CIA director George Tenant making a phone call in what they told me was the year 2001.
And the phone call is to the then president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Salih.
And in it, he basically angrily demands the release of a prisoner who he refuses to name and is in Yemeni prison on suspicion of being involved in the bombing of the USS Cole that year.