After spending half of this Check Your Brain episode talking about the DabbleVerse and Stuttering John Melendez, Tony Mazur reads a New York Times opinion piece on why the Epstein files should have never been released. Tony disagrees, believing everything should be released, but it's true that a story like this may be too layered and nuanced for the average person to grasp. If their takeaway is "yeah, but Trump is in the files," they're not a serious person. They're a partisan who roots for one team over another.

For decades, families gathered in their big ol' vehicles and enjoyed a nice night out at a chain restaurant. The purpose of these chains is, no matter where you're located, you'll have generally the same food and experience at a reasonable price. However, by the 2010s, chain restaurants became pariahs, and many have either filed for Chapter 11 or have closed up shop completely. Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur talks about the death of the chain restaurant, how it wasn't just Millennials and their avocado toast that killed them, and how these closures represent an erosion of the Middle Class.

Be sure to subscribe to Tony's Patreon. $3 gets you just audio, $5 gets video AND audio, and $10 has all of the above, as well as bonus podcasts per week. Visit Patreon.com/TonyMazur.

Tony is also on Rumble! Go find his video podcasts over there for free.

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at illstr8r@gmail.com.

Each month or so, Tony Mazur and Chad Zumock sit down for a retro show, where they riff on pop culture fixations from years, and even decades, past. Among several other topics, they chatted about video movie rentals and even called the last standing Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon. They also discussed comics in 2026, James Harden, and the rise and swift fall of the Two Coreys.

Chad is doing his thing behind a paywall at Patreon.com/WorldWarZ.

Be sure to subscribe to Tony's Patreon. $3 gets you just audio, $5 gets video AND audio, and $10 has all of the above, as well as bonus podcasts per week. Visit Patreon.com/TonyMazur.

Tony is also on Rumble! Go find his video podcasts over there for free.

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at illstr8r@gmail.com.