Three stories.
Three minutes.
Every weekday.
Here’s what survived the week.

This Week in Review pulls together a run of stories about trust, control, and the quiet confidence institutions keep asking us to accept.

We start with investigations that matter less than who’s allowed to run them, as lawmakers argue credibility while millions meant for the homeless quietly disappear into luxury homes and private jets. Oversight isn’t the problem. Belief is.

From there, control becomes the theme:
Tax season promises relief, then hands you new forms.
Real ID tightens security while making movement more expensive.
Technology offers dignity and choice, right up until it asks a machine to make the most human decision imaginable.

California spends $236 million to help 22 people and calls it leadership.
Health experts warn that everything you enjoy eating is destroying your gut.
Your car shakes after a snowstorm—not because it’s failing, but because ice is stuck where it doesn’t belong.

Meanwhile:
The U.S. quietly positions itself closer to conflict with Iran.
Kids can’t read cursive, but are still expected to sign their names.
Major restaurant chains file for bankruptcy while insisting nothing changes.

Washington avoids a shutdown the same way it always does—delay, duct tape, and confidence.
AI agents promise efficiency while quietly introducing new risks.
And adulthood officially begins at 32, complete with blowout parties and the realization that nobody actually knows what they’re doing.

The through line is simple:
Everyone wants certainty.
Very few want questions.
Most systems just ask you to go along with it.

Sign here.

If you want this every weekday, it’s Three Stories. Three Minutes.
The Snark Factor 3 in 3 posts Monday through Friday, exclusively on Substack.

Subscribe at FingersMalloy.com to get each episode as it drops.

This is the Snark Factor 3 in 3 — Week in Review.
I’m Fingers Molloy.
Let’s talk Monday.

Because of technical issues, there wasn’t a new full Snark Factor radio show on WAAM 92.7FM Ann Arbor this weekend — but Fingers didn’t want Sunday to pass without dropping something new.

So this episode is a little different.

First, Fingers reacts to the media glow surrounding the No Kings rallies, the lack of skepticism in local coverage, and the very organized network of activist groups behind the events. Then he shares a special Snark Factor 3 in 3 Week in Review, plus a bonus Monday edition from Substack.

Included in this episode: possible U.S. ground operations in Iran, paid TSA line-sitters, London PowerPoint dating nights, unpaid TSA agents, Netflix price hikes, United’s “Relax Row,” rising summer airfare, Death Cafes, oral exams making a comeback because of AI, Chinese router security fears, AI-driven power usage, medieval toilet wine, teens feeling pressure to stay online, 2016 nostalgia, worldwide travel cautions, cigarettes becoming trendy again, and young people taking up grandma hobbies to escape their phones.

If you’ve been wondering what the daily Snark Factor 3 in 3 sounds like, this episode is a full sampler platter.

Find everything at FingersMalloy.com.

On this episode of The Snark Factor, Fingers Malloy and Sarah Smith take on a familiar theme: common sense in full retreat.

They kick things off with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award going to Jerome Powell and “the people of the Twin Cities,” which leads to a sharp conversation about immigration enforcement, media narratives, political branding, and how the word courage now gets stretched so far it could snap. From there, they get into Trump’s joke about Japan and Pearl Harbor, Congress debating a bill tied to harming law enforcement animals, Denmark allegedly preparing for a possible U.S. move on Greenland, and why the federal government needs to get its grubby lizard fingers out of the student loan business.

Then the show takes a turn from political absurdity to modern-life dread. Fingers and Sarah dig into the alarming rise in death rates among Gen X and elder millennials, which spins into a conversation about colorectal cancer, colonoscopies, processed food, fast food, stress, and whether a generation raised on pizza rolls and “just keep moving” is finally paying the bill. After that, they tackle a new experimental keto pill that promises the effects of dieting without giving up carbs, an AI-generated Val Kilmer appearing posthumously in a new film, and Tinder wanting deeper access to users’ photo libraries to build more “authentic” matches. In other words: health anxiety, artificial people, privacy collapse, and the future getting dumber by the minute.

If you miss the live show on WAAM Talk Radio, you can catch The Snark Factor on your favorite podcast platform.