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Jan 22, 2016

Record Date: January 13, 2016, 11:21 AM

After more than a three-year hiatus, Couch Surfing returns. Jimmy Brown joins in for some social commentary, after John experiences verbal abuse from a Twitter mob because he dared to criticize a subjectively offensive joke (yes, really).

00:04:11 - John teases his primary opinion of the joke, before reading the initial tweets that came about from his speaking up.
00:11:17 - John attempts to put things into much-needed perspective, so that listeners may better understand his original intentions.
00:21:49 - Jimmy makes a point about the option to speak one's mind, versus the option to stay quiet. This leads to a discussion about double standards that exist within debates between genders.
00:27:06 - John focuses on a number of people applying a straw man fallacy.
00:33:31 - Jimmy gets to the root of the problem.
00:38:58 - Feminism is discussed more, with John establishing his credibility within the movement.
00:44:56 - They take time to unpack the joke, wherein John talks about the bad habit of reinforcing gender norms, or gender binary.
00:49:37 - Jimmy shares differences between sexism in a joke and sexism in video games. This leads John to discuss the real-life story of #Shirtgate.
00:58:04 - John gets controversial and argues in favor of the word misandry, its meaning and intent. Opposing definitions of sexism in general also come up.
01:04:00 - The conversation gets especially heavy, as depression and suicide are discussed. The term "Check your privilege" is also examined.
01:10:05 - Days after the incident in question, John's accidental misuse of Twitter results in further dogpiling.
01:14:18 - More perspective is in order, as John points out how minor this all is compared to far more severe and extensive cases of online abuse. A silly analogy involving American Healthcare comes into play, for reasons.
01:20:03 - Jimmy and John experiment with the joke itself, attempting to make it more inclusive and arguably, better. The theory of accountability in comedians gets discussed as well.
01:24:29 - The show closes with a fun contradiction about engaging with someone you claim to not care about.

The following artists can be heard in this episode:

Cuba Gooding Jr. & Matthew Lillard, Mackintosh Braun, Art Versus Industry, Tegan & Sara, Lana Del Rey, Uh Huh Her, Kimbra, MNDR, Birdy & Knowkai, Phantogram, MS MR, Florence + The Machine & Seven Lions, Rabbits Running, Gregory Alan Isakov, Woodkid, Ulrich Schnauss & Sasha, Timber Timbre, The Royal Concept, Tame Impala, Jim James and Max.