This week on another preview episode of the Autocratic Despair podcast, Nick and Dr. Craig start with a confession: they both enjoyed the Atlantic's report on FBI Director Kash Patel's alleged drinking problem a little too much. And they want to talk about why that enjoyment felt so good and so rotten at the same time.

The Atlantic published a bombshell investigation alleging that Patel — the man running the agency that just convicted eight Americans of terrorism for wearing black clothes — has been drinking to the point of obvious intoxication, missing mornings, going unreachable behind locked doors, and panicking when his computer froze because he thought he'd been fired. More than two dozen current and former officials spoke to the reporter. Patel has denied everything and filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit.

Nick and Craig sit with two reactions. The first is a flicker of hope disguised as schadenfreude: if Patel is drinking like that, maybe some part of him knows what he's doing is wrong. Maybe the substance abuse is the last remaining signal from a conscience that hasn't been fully extinguished — shame metabolizing itself as vodka because it has nowhere else to go. The second reaction is darker: since when do we take pleasure in someone's self-destruction? These are not the people Nick and Craig were three years ago. The show examines how sustained exposure to authoritarian cruelty has quietly recalibrated what its hosts are willing to enjoy, and whether noticing that recalibration is enough to reverse it.

A quick update on the Prairieland case: Judge Pittman has still not ruled on the defense motion for a new trial based on allegations of jury coercion. Meanwhile, a second legal thread has emerged — Benjamin Song's attorney has filed a motion arguing a Brady violation, alleging the prosecution failed to disclose that the wounded police officer drew his weapon before anyone fired. That fact only came out during the officer's own testimony at trial. Sentencing is scheduled for June 18. The clock is running. The names still need saying.

Then the show goes meta. Nick and Craig talk directly to their preview audience about what they're building, where the show is headed, and why Talarico Talk is the spine of the whole project. The weekly segment in which the hosts foolishly pin their hopes on a very normal yet annoyingly religious politician from Texas isn't a sidebar. It's the thing that keeps the show from collapsing into pure despair. The congregation is forming. The Talarico train is boarding. America has a Talarico-shaped hole. Nick and Craig want you on board — not because Talarico is a savior, but because the exercise of hoping for something specific is itself a form of resistance.

The episode closes with Nick offering extended and unsolicited advice on how to be a better uncle. Not necessarily a biological uncle — though that counts. Nick argues that "Unclng arts" are dying in America and that reviving them is one of the few things you can do this week that will make the world measurably better. Step one: avail yourself of the cornucopia of nicknames available for addressing children. These include but are not limited to: kid, big dog, chief, champ, and boss. Nick has opinions about when to deploy each one. He shares them whether you asked or not.

Names said on this episode: Kash Patel, Cameron Arnold, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Bradford Morris, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto, Benjamin Song, James Talarico, Herman Bailey, Champ Bailey, Boss Bailey, Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson, Ray Allen, Jon Ossoff, Roy Cooper, Beto O'rourke, Colin Allred, Ken Paxton, John Cornryn.

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