Good Skews: Lynlee Thorne on the 2025 Virginia Elections

This week BJ Barham, the lead singer of American Aquarium, stops by to talk about his run for town board. What’s it like to be in The Rolling Stone the same week you’re being called a Communist for pointing out that local officials are giving sweetheart land deals to their relatives? We get into it. Before that: Jelly Roll-based psyops, the No Kings protests vs. Operation A.I. Sky Diarrhea, and the cartels’ (fake? fake.) bounties on CPB.Support the show

Did Marjorie Taylor Greene get woke Freaky Friday’d? (No.) We discuss the plan to give your electricity to AI by giving Big Sweaty Brother control over your thermostat. And other AI hijinks, including a peek into our future in Albania, where they made an AI a cabinet minister with hurt feelings. The NY Post has a shocking revelation about the Portland frog, and it’s that he once made a joke they didn’t get. Also, a fun update from the Q Shaman, who filed a lawsuit claiming he is the rightful president, and we are convinced.Support the show

Can you end a government shutdown if no one even understands why it’s happening? Let’s find out. In the meantime, the chemtrails guys and the park rangers who take down makeshift Epstein statues apparently got furloughed. Then, we get into the continuing invasions of random cities and the mysterious case of a CPB helicopter raid involving American children in zip ties that looks like they were used as shock troops to save the investment of a slumlord.Support the show

We’ve got to invade Portland because the president was confused by footage from 2020 and a lady named Cloud is mad about noise ordinances. RFK Jr. is pretending Tylenol causes autism which, you’ll be shocked, made his fellow anti-vaxxers even madder. No worry, we don’t need medicine anymore because we’re rolling out fake alien technology beds that will regrow our limbs and make us all live forever. Another normal week.Support the show

 It was a perfectly innocent $50k in a fast food bag from an unnamed foreign government, don’t worry about it. The feds continue to focus mostly on running down conspiracy theories around the Kirk killing, while one congressman solved it: It was leather daddy furries. Then Ted Cruz makes a good point about Jimmy Kimmel in the worst possible way.Support the show

In times of struggle, people have always turned to folk music. From labor anthems to civil rights ballads, these songs remind us who we are and what we’re fighting for. Today, as the world feels increasingly chaotic, folk music is once again rising up to meet the moment.On this episode of Good Skews, Matt Hildreth sits down with singer, songwriter, and podcaster Lizzie No to talk about the folk revival happening right now. Lizzie shares her journey from New Jersey to Nashville, her vision of folk as a living practice rather than a museum piece, and why contemporary voices matter if the genre is going to stay politically sharp. You can listen to a playlist of all of the music mentioned in this episode here: https://weeklyskews.substack.com/p/good-skews-folk-music-during-timesSupport the show

Today we talk about the trial of the guy who tried to kill then-candidate Trump last summer. No not that guy, the other one. He’s decided to represent himself, and started off his case by challenging Trump to trial by combat. Then we get into the latest on the killing of Charlie Kirk and the revelation, after a week of FBI flopsweat, that the killer seemingly knew a trans person.Support the show

We discuss Donald Trump’s career as a non-exist federal undercover agent and the new Epstein scandal strategy: Steal QAnon talking points from 2019. Then, America blew up a fishing boat with 11 civilians on it to stop less cocaine than is in your average single SEC frat house. Can the war crimes get more wanton? We check in on what’s going on in South America’s and the Caribbean’s politics and economies to learn: Probably.Support the show

A Pentagon higher-up is suing his psychic side-piece for threatening to beat up his wife. An affair that started as innocent research for a book that we’re guessing is like “What if Jack Ryan was into healing crystals?” Keeping with the theme of mysticism, we get into RFK’s ongoing destruction of the HHS and CDC, him finally admitting he doesn’t believe in germs, and our new CDC director who thinks he should be able to sell your kidneys.Support the show

In 2025, Virginia is one of only two states with major elections—and the results will shape the midterms and even the 2028 presidential race. Producer Matt talks with Lynlee Thorne of Rural Ground Game about why it matters to compete in every district, the surge of new candidates, and how rural local leaders are fueling Democratic momentum statewide.Support the show