A Week in the Wild: Volume 2

·56 min·4 clips

All nine Supreme Court justices agreed, and the administration has done nothing but give excuses for why it can't comply.

1. A Week in the Wild is a weekly current-events commentary podcast in which hosts Jimmy Wills and Jeremy Caton give their opinionated take on the news, and this episode centers on the fallout from Trump's tariffs and the Kilmar Abrego-Garcia deportation case. 2. Jimmy Wills and Jeremy Caton co-host the show, with Wills identifying himself as a professor familiar with DEI policy in higher education. 3. The episode's throughline is the hosts' argument that recent tariff, deportation, and DEI-funding decisions reflect a broader erosion of institutional checks and public-discourse standards. 4. The hosts call the tariff rollout an example of a 'kakistocracy,' government by the least competent, and argue the administration didn't anticipate the stock market's reaction. 5. They characterize a post signed 'DJT,' the ticker symbol for Trump's own company stock, urging people to buy during the crash as textbook insider trading, and cite Marjorie Taylor Greene's stock gains as a related example. 6. China's Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization is quoted responding to the trade war by saying the country's middle class alone outnumbers the U.S. population and that China has endured 5,000 years of history without American markets. 7. The hosts discuss Chinese social media influencers exposing the manufacturing cost of luxury goods and 'Reps,' replica products, arguing this could upend Western retail branding. 8. On Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, they explain he was a legal Maryland resident deported to a Salvadoran prison despite a unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court order requiring the administration to facilitate his return. 9. They cite Senator Chris Van Hollen's account that Nayib Bukele's government indicated the U.S. was paying El Salvador not to return Abrego-Garcia, and note Bukele's public self-description as 'the coolest dictator in the world.' 10. The hosts criticize Attorney General Pam Bondi for calling the deportation both 'an administrative error' and separately describing Abrego-Garcia as a known gang member, calling the messaging contradictory. 11. They note the IRS has begun sharing taxpayer data with ICE, arguing this could discourage undocumented immigrants who have been paying taxes from continuing to do so. 12. They cite a clip of a local resident defending immigrant-driven property value increases in her county with a satirical tone, framing it as evidence immigrants are unfairly scapegoated for crime. 13. The hosts discuss Harvard rejecting a Trump administration demand tied to $2 billion in DEI-related funding cuts, contrasting it with Columbia's more compliant response. 14. Wills, describing himself as a professor working on equity issues, argues DEI protections extend beyond race to include women's employment, disability access, and veteran hiring preferences, not just affirmative action. 15. The hosts discuss Riley Gaines, the swimmer who became a public figure over a race against a transgender competitor, clarifying she placed fifth, behind three cisgender women and one transgender competitor, not second. 16. They compare the reaction to Gaines with broader 'scapegoat' narratives, briefly using a competitive orchestra seating system as an analogy for merit-based outcomes. 17. The tone is a fast-moving, unscripted two-person commentary format with heavy cross-talk and shared frustration rather than opposing viewpoints. 18. The hosts frequently interrupt and complete each other's sentences, building consensus rather than debating each other directly. 19. Best for politically engaged listeners who want strongly opinionated, left-leaning weekly news commentary. 20. Less suited to listeners wanting neutral, both-sides news coverage or non-political podcast content.

As heard by us

A heated political roundup on tariffs, imprisonment, and power when the news turns unsettling.

A Week in the Wild turns current events into a pointed argument about judgment, power, and the public cost of political decisions. Jimmy Wills and Jeremy Caton move from tariff and stock market chicanery to the case of Mr.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You get tariff-and-market chicanery, Mr. Garcia's prison ordeal, and a week of headlines that feels wildly off the rails.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Weird, Wicked, and Wild