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Betting is now as easy and as common among (college) kids as ordering a pizza — it lives on their phone, inside the game, and it’s marketed straight at them. And here’s the part nobody wants to hear: parents are into it too. Two views of the same epidemic. Dr. Lia Nower, who runs the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers, has spent years tracking how betting rewires young brains — and why the apps are built to make sure it does. Then Kayman, a Tulane sophomore, takes you inside the dorm: the parlays before class, the group chats that double as sportsbooks, the roommates down a thousand bucks by Thursday, and why none of it registers as a problem to anyone his age. It’s not a vice. It’s just what you do.

Is your kid gambling? You’re not crazy — you’re just a normie. And the answer may already be in your family group chat.

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CLUB NORMIE IS FOR:

• Socially and Politically homeless. Independent-ish.
• Old-school in the way that used to be… just school.
• Looking to understand when did normal get so weird?

Strollers with dogs in them. People telling their deepest fears to Chat-Gpt. Socialism is hip. Every relationship now comes with an org chart — who is the victim and who is the powerful. Ah what? This is crazy -- no?

Host Jennifer Weissmann.

Normie (n.) — politically homeless, socially confused, and pretty sure the elevator used to involve eye contact.

You're not crazy. You're a normie.

New episodes weekly. Subscribe and pull up a chair.

Sane company for insane times.

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Before your kid applies to college, listen to this. 121 American colleges just FAILED free speech. Is your kid’s school one of them?

FIRE’s 2027 College Free Speech Rankings are out, and they’re brutal. 121 of 261 schools got an F. Not one got an A. And parents are about to hand these places $500,000 without ever checking the grade.

Dr. Sean Stevens (FIRE) wrote the highly-anticipated annual report card. FIRE surveyed 63,000 students at 261 American colleges, and what he found should scare every parent:

• The worst college in America for free speech — and why NYU earned dead last (in 2027 and 2026).
• Why Texas schools fell off a cliff this year
• The number nobody’s talking about: more than half of students would block a speaker they disagree with. From either side.
• What “free speech” actually looks like on campus once your tuition check clears

What is FIRE? The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — a nonpartisan nonprofit that’s defended students’ and professors’ speech rights since 1999, on the left and the right. Every year it grades every major college on how free students really are to speak, disagree, and listen. This is the seventh year of the rankings, and it’s the worst one yet.

You’re not crazy. You’re just a normie.

One flag: I couldn’t verify the “more than half would block a speaker” stat or the Texas drop in a quick check — those presumably come from Sean’s interview, so make sure he said them on tape before they go in the description.

Sources:

• FIRE — 2027 College Free Speech Rankings
• FIRE — NYU 2027 spotlight report (ranked 261 of 261)
• JNS — University of Chicago tops ranking, NYU last

Club Normie. Society and politics, minus the meltdown. You’re not crazy, you’re a normie.

CLUB NORMIE IS FOR:

• Socially and Politically homeless. Independent-ish.
• Old-school in the way that used to be… just school.
• Looking to understand when did normal get so weird?

Strollers with dogs in them. People telling their deepest fears to Chat-Gpt. Socialism is hip. Every relationship now comes with an org chart — who is the victim and who is the powerful. Ah what? This is crazy -- no?

Host Jennifer Weissmann.

Normie (n.) — politically homeless, socially confused, and pretty sure the elevator used to involve eye contact.

You're not crazy. You're a normie.

New episodes weekly. Subscribe and pull up a chair.

Sane company for insane times.

Send us Fan Mail

Iran. And you. Midterms are coming. Sick of the Middle East? Too bad — it’s not sick of you. Every phone, every tank of gas, every box on your porch floats through waters patrolled by men who make school kids chant “Death to America” before breakfast. Bridget Toomey, Iran and terrorism expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, pulls back the curtain on who’s bankrolling the chaos: Iran and its proxy network, from the Houthis choking the Red Sea to the squeeze on Saudi Arabia and global oil. The “ragtag militia” you’ve heard about? It’s a well-funded war machine now, and it’s aiming at your wallet. Is the U.S. blockade actually working? Who’s still buying Iran’s oil? And why is Tehran watching our midterms like a hawk? Normies don’t need to be experts. We just need to know what’s true, so no one can tell us what to think.

CLUB NORMIE IS FOR:

• Socially and Politically homeless. Independent-ish.
• Old-school in the way that used to be… just school.
• Looking to understand when did normal get so weird?

Strollers with dogs in them. People telling their deepest fears to Chat-Gpt. Socialism is hip. Every relationship now comes with an org chart — who is the victim and who is the powerful. Ah what? This is crazy -- no?

Host Jennifer Weissmann.

Normie (n.) — politically homeless, socially confused, and pretty sure the elevator used to involve eye contact.

You're not crazy. You're a normie.

New episodes weekly. Subscribe and pull up a chair.

Sane company for insane times.