Spellbreakers Ep. 172: I Cured my Euro Friend of TDS

Host Matt Trump returns from a break (a Fourth of July in the Arizona pines, plus a whirlwind Gart conference) with a story about his old physics-grad-school friend Jacques, a laid-back Frenchman who claimed he wouldn't visit America until "the orange dude" is gone. Matt assumed the worst, then discovered he'd read the whole thing wrong, and admits the episode title is technically a lie. What follows is a warm, rambling, genuinely funny meditation on friendship across political lines, the awkwardness of being outed as a Trump supporter to people you've known for forty years, and one very ambitious email in which Matt attempts to explain who he thinks Trump really is. Expect motorcycles, the game of Go, World Cup racial dynamics, a JFK teaser, and a closing detour into Operation Paperclip and the City of London. Charming, unhurried, and a little bit conspiratorial.