The latest episode of the No Agenda Show, Episode 1897 titled 'Caconian,' released August 23, 2026, features host Adam Curry and returning guest co-host Rob Dew delivering a wide-ranging media deconstruction. Broadcasting from the Texas Hill Country, the pair examine how the coming midterm elections are influencing major news narratives, from AI data center panic to affordability messaging, beef imports, and the U.S. posture at the Strait of Hormuz. The episode also pays tribute to the late John C. Dvorak through the newly launched Order of the Ant.
Curry and Dew argue that opposition to AI data centers has been engineered into an anti-Republican wedge issue, citing a Gallup poll showing 7 in 10 Americans oppose local data center construction. They discuss Texas Governor Greg Abbott's reversal after taking $20 million in campaign donations from data center executives, now imposing a construction moratorium. Other topics include Flock camera vandalism, Fourth Amendment questions on public roads, Confucius Institutes, Pentagon audits of 30 universities, and Chinese national voter fraud charges in Massachusetts. The hosts also cover Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's bond buyback 'twist' and the Clarity Act's implications for stablecoins.
The hosts push back hard on the framing that data centers are inherently harmful. Curry frames the buildout as a generational economic opportunity comparable to the railroads or the fiber boom of the 1990s, urging listeners to train as electricians, welders, and technicians. 'This is an opportunity for the American people to take money from BlackRock, from Vanguard, from Google, from Meta. Take their money,' Curry says. Dew adds a firsthand account of friends in Alexandria, Virginia being offered $4 million for homes surrounded by existing data centers, illustrating how private equity money is flowing directly to homeowners in affected corridors.
The episode digs into Treasury Secretary Bessent's activist bond strategy, a maneuver Curry traces back to Janet Yellen and dubbed 'activist Treasury issuance' by economists Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Miran in 2024. Curry explains how swapping long-term 30-year bonds for short-term T-bills is designed to lower yields and prop up the stablecoin market, with Tether and Circle now controlling more than 80 percent of a $300 billion stablecoin sector projected by Citi to reach $3.5 trillion by 2030. Coverage extends to CENTCOM's stealth Omani shipping corridor moving 10 million barrels of oil daily, Trump's declaration of the Strait of Hormuz as 'American territory,' and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defending the 300,000-ton Argentine ground beef import deal. A boots-on-the-ground note from a soldier deployed under NAVCENT offers context on USS Lincoln conditions.
No Agenda is a long-running, listener-supported podcast hosted by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak that takes a skeptical, independent look at mainstream media, politics, culture, and the forces shaping the daily news cycle. Known for sharp commentary, humor, and its signature media deconstruction approach, the show offers an irreverent alternative to conventional news analysis. Episode 1897 is available now wherever podcasts are heard, and through modern podcast apps at podcastapps.com.
