DEWs and Data Centers - The Spokane Fire Conspiracy Theories (E384)
On August 1st, 2026, a complex of fires started in Spokane, Washington that would become the state’s most destructive fires in history. Over 700 structures have been lost and thousands of acres burned as high winds fed the flames over the weekend. Nearly as quickly as the flames ignited, so did the conspiracies online.
Today, Travis takes Jake and Julian through the conspiracies being circulated about the fires. Editor Corey chimes in on location.
Spokane County leaders held unknown discussions with data center developer seeking massive facility on West Plainshttps://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/jul/24/spokane-county-leaders-held-unknown-discussions-wi/
A company proposing a massive West Plains data center has little history, spurring outcry from concerned residentshttps://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/aug/02/company-proposing-massive-west-plains-data-center-/
Police Affidavit - State v. Aaron Forrest Farinacci https://cp.spokanecounty.org/courtdocumentviewer/imageviewers/SCDocumentViewer.aspx?docid=12708182&caseNumber=2611023532&subNum=2.0&pageNum=7
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Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe and Jake Rockatansky. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
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Comments (57)
Great ep, fellas! I feel like I’m losing my mind with this data center stuff. My town (suburban Chicago) just approved a data center last year and it was so frustrating our aldermen just approved it without really listening to locals.
Ngl i have some agoraphobic trans friends for whom this dog vaccuum thing might be life-changing.... they all shave their heads anyways so.....
I am such a Jake lol
Loved this episode. Lots of funny personal stuff and felt like such a great general conspiracy conversation.
i saw a post on tumblr which was a screenshot of a xitter post by julian of lou wilson's car, and i REALLY hope julian is the one who took the pic
I should not sit on a public beach get drunk and smoke weed alone. The random laughing to the point of tears this episode is causing is not making me look any less mad
Jake, the proper Simpsons allegory is the Monorail episode
Corey!
Vanessa!
Yo Jake, are the curtains matching those drapes?
Jake please let me know which dog flowbie you recommend.
Next time don’t what a crappy bootlegged version of the movie
Most people in the Spokane area will naturally associate Al French with corruption, and so conspiracy follows naturally follows from that. I was ~4mi from ground zero when the Old Trails fire broke out. It's completely ridiculous listening to people talking about how implausible it was that the fire spreading like it did. The wind was INSANE when I evacuated. It wasn't even remotely surprising how fast and how far it spread, even though it was ridiculously fast-spreading.
V1
One Weird Trick that Space Lasers Hate: Listening to Blue by Eiffel 65 will give you the power to deflect direct energy weapons.
Thank you for introducing me to this song.
Holy shit, shoutout to my boy Jake. I used to have a papillon named Flowbee (the one in my pic), best dog ever to live. I had to learn not to use clippers on his coat as well. Never knew that would be something I heard reflected back to m. Comfort is king.
I work in wildfire. I'm spending all my overtime money on food preps and podcast subscriptions
Be safe-ish, friend.
Yay singing julian
My dog vacuum is in the mail 🫡
using a dog vacuum is low key genius. like my dog I too have trouble sitting still during haircuts and the hair gets everywhere
For Jake's sake, and for anyone else who hasn't followed the financial situation around AI, some of the biggest companies in the US are over-leveraged to invest in OpenAI and Anthropic. That's companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Apple etc. they're all spending billions of dollars to prop up companies that do not and cannot make a profit (for specific numbers on that go read Ed Zitron's newsletter). When, not if, they do not achieve returns on these enormous investments, there will be a Correction in the stock market. All these stocks are going to crash in value. If you own index funds, those will also drop. As a few people have said, they probably won't do a bailout—although with Trump anything is possible. Regardless, I don't think a bailout would do anything except prolong the decline and let them dig the hole deeper. This contraction in the economy is going to be felt by everyone and probably extend to other countries. People are going to lose their jobs. If you have an adjustable rate loan or a mortgage, that's going to go up. I'm not sure how far this will spread after that. The fact that nobody is allowing these data centers to be built in their communities is a positive sign. If they can't build the centers they have planned and run the chips they already have before the next cycle of chips come out, they are essentially stranded assets. Losing big early might discourage some people from throwing good money after bad.
more talk about bull shit, its free content
Coreheee
Shout out to Tom who wrote the spokesman articles. One of the coolest dudes out there.
Nothing could've prepared me for Jake using a dog vacuum to cut his hair
And he's part of the local dog vacuum community!
As a Mexican, “don’t trust Italians” seems like pretty good advice ngl
Also, since skynet was mentioned and since there was a lot of recent buzz over “AI” that went rogue and hacked another company — if the events of the terminator ever happened, it would be because the AI was programmed to do it, not because it achieved consciousness. I’m sure I’m speaking to the choir, but man is it embarrassing to hear it “reported” by credible outlets as if it weren’t a ruse to make people think these LLMs are more powerful than the current models ever could be
I'm currently choking on the Spokane wildfire smoke as I listen to this.
Speaking of SCE receiving the official blame for the Eaton fire, any in LA that have been getting relentless “Wildfire Victims First” ads on YouTube and elsewhere, the organisation is a thinly veiled PR campaign for wildfire litigation reform funded by SCE and PG&E
No matter how cynical I get, I can't keep up. (I think I may be paraphrasing Lily Tomlin, which puts me in good cynical company.)
dog vacuum. never heard that before
Hearts from TO, ON...we just had a week of wildfire smoke (from up to 500 miles away) that made it impossible to go outside. For three days the air was orange-brown. Couldn't see past one city block. When I had to go outside to get my kids some milk there were people *jogging* and *riding bicycles* recreationally despite media, provincial and federal warnings that being outdoors was an "extreme health risk." People are *insane*.
Jake should make a video tutorial on how he cut his hair
Even if it’s Patreon only, we deserve the tutorial 😂
Sorry to hear about your parents house, Corey! My cousin also lost hers in the Gray Fire. I was born and raised in Spokane and we’ve always had hot dry summers but the last 10 or so years have gotten noticeably worse. It’s been insane out here with all the conspiracies. My parents are still evacuated. Stay safe out there, folks!
Thanks Megan! Sorry to hear about your cousin's home as well. Things have definitely gotten dryer out there unfortunately. I hope your parents are safe!
Bro, 'Naruto Running' actually works bro Low key
it does make one feel at least ten percent cooler
Great episode guys! But Jake has gotta start listening to some "better offline" or better yet see if you can get Ed on to talk Jake through the AI bubble funding quagmire.
I'm sure Ed would be glad to come on or have some of the QAA folks on his pod
I'm in western WA, currently trying not to breathe the smoke from the wildfires ruining lives in my state and I'm old enough to remember when we DIDN'T have a "wildfire season" that caused us all to have to hunker down indoors for weeks every summer.
Real shit. It wasn't like this even a decade ago. -Puget Sound area
The AI bailout has already begun. Just look at this latest round of quarterly reporting coming from publicly-owned AI companies and you will see they are all receiving revenue from fat new DOD contracts. Why do you think president is asking congress for more defense funding? It's not the war.
They're still not profitable tho
Deep Dish Blessing Keeping 🔥
Great episode QAA, I live in western Washington and not very online so unaware of the conspiracies sprouting from this as it’s relatively recent. I’m all for the ai bubble to pop, these ai bros can suck a tailpipe!
George Clooney cuts his hair with a Flowbee.
Jake got me into haircuts. Over 1000 so far…
It's true. We are being ruled by Captain Planet's rogue's gallery.
Corey reveal
The thing with bailing out Ai is that it wouldn't be a bailout so much as just funding these companies forever due to them already being run at a loss with no real way to make up for that
No offense to the new crew but I'm really appreciating these recent eps with the boys (and Liv)
Bro im fucking offended
Hell yeah