Episode 11: The Geopolitical Shapes Place
Hello! On this episode (which was recorded on Sunday, 4/12), Victoria has a slight mental breakdown (no big deal) about the omnicrisis devouring us all. Nothing Ever Happens vs. Oh God It's So Over, the matchup you've all been waiting for! Next the girls discuss Infiniti's talk of a 700-horsepower QX80 juxtaposed against their current, uh, two-and-a-half car lineup. SUV lineup, really. Then we point and laugh at Volkswagen for pausing production of the ID.4. Then we point and laugh at Ford for begging the President to pause tariffs while he smirks and says "no".
SHOUTOUT: Thanks to Eve for enabling the really cool shoot with my friend Sula! Here's one of the shots she took of me with the F-100:
CALL TO ACTION: Here's the WA State Rail Plan along with the opening for public comment, and here's the Urbanist article that goes into great detail about what we can and should ask for, for the good of our region!! Please, if you want high speed rail (and importantly dedicated trackage for it!) in WA, make your voice heard before April 24th!
THANK YOU: To Nat for the incredible cover of Shapes Place, which we end the episode with!! This brought us a lot of joy, we really appreciate it! Also thank you to all of our $15 subscribers, thanks for your patience
CORRECTION: "Irrational Exuberance" is from Alan Greenspan, not Ben Bernanke. This podcast apologies for the error.
Referenced Stories:
IDF blows up apartment block in Southern Lebanon @The Guardian
3,636 dead in Iran (254 children) @Reuters
Call for end to civilian casualties in Lebanon @Amnesty Int'l
Jet Fuel Prices (via IATA) line go up
20% of global oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz @BBC
700 Horsepower QX80?????? @TheDrive
The Luxury SUV story I wrote @This Patreon
Leaf Best Seller Until 2020 @CleanTechnica
Ariya canned in America @Car And Driver
Infiniti sales in '25 @Car And Driver
Infiniti EV Maxima concept @Car And Driver
Hotdogging @Dictionary.com
1,000 HP Infiniti QX80 @TheDrive
Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept @Car And Driver
Nissan Juke-R 2.0: 600 HP GT-R Drivetrain In A Joke @Car And Driver
Sultan of Brunei's Car Collection @Wikipedia
Rothko Chapel
Oswego factory fire @WSJ
Jim Farley hangin' with the President @YouTube
Ford begging for tariff relief @WSJ
Thomas Sabula heckling the President @Car And Driver
New Aston Supercar @TheSupercarBlog
Car Companies Are Abandoning The Everyday Enthusiast (Matt Farah) @Road & Track
Comments (26)
Bad and naughty podcasters get put in the astronaut wiggler Also holy fuck the Shapes Place song is incredible
okay i know i'm a month late here but i just wanted to note that i'd never heard anyone use the phrase "hotdog shit" until vicki used it around me once. that's all.
Holy crap! I remember that Q50 Eau Rouge day. Jalopnik nuked the photos and Infiniti nuked its exterior-view video, but my video is still on the page: https://www.jalopnik.com/a-chat-and-some-doughnuts-with-infiniti-red-bull-racing-1653133948/ Vettel was struggling a bit to keep it from hooking up too much. I'm not surprised that it tried to eat an Elizabeth.
We know your from the same place as Gibson cuz before you said hot dog I had only seen that term used that way in Count Zero
Things very much DO happen, they are happening right now, it's just that the imperial core is the place most insulated from change and hardship. Other generations thinking the world is ending because of religion or nostalgia or whatever is very different from being measurably in the middle of a mass extinction the likes of which Earth hasn't seen since a mountain fell from space onto the Yucatan (73% decline in wildlife since 1970 baybee). I appreciate Victoria and November for having the only sane reaction, when I'm surrounded by people who either say "that's not real, that's just liberal lies" or "well I'm sure they'll think of something, it'll never affect me personally"
I think the widespread tendencies towards either denial (it won't impact me though) or apocalypticism (we're all going to be suddenly wiped out as though by a meteor) are both coping strategies to take the simpler, easier path of not having to do anything. The more realistic and unpleasant view is that humanity is not going to suddenly go extinct, society is not going to explode overnight, it's just going to be a gradual downwards stairstep process of crisis that makes the standard of living much worse, then a period of recovery that never *quite* makes it back to the level you were at before the next crisis hits. "Nothing will happen" and "I will be instantly wiped out" are easier to deal with than "within my lifetime I will be living like people in Cuba or Haiti or Myanmar or Sudan are now"
Worst User Experience Ever: The Kia Nero has dual-purpose Audio and Air Conditioner knobs 😡 When you try to turn the radio down, if the car isn't in the right mode, you turn the temperature down instead, and the touch button for defrost (under your index finger) inadvertently activates.
in-car controls in 2026 are my personal Shapes Place-inducing horror
Hey Pod. I realize this is a stretch and it's unwise to trust people on the Internet, but I am currently stationed in/around Boise Idaho, and on the off-chance you end up getting that car and need somewhere to piss, I know several trans woman in the valley who could assist. Peace.
I used to have a G37 manual sedan that I sold because I couldn't afford to run it (I had the internal oil gallery leak from the early version where they thought a paper gasket was a good idea) - I'm sorry to say that I would buy the Q50 with the Z manual driveline unless they botch it. The last Q50 they were putting $10k on the hood of Red Sport I just couldn't deal with that transmission. Yes I am part of the problem.
You know the neatest part about those SUV prices? They rise when the dollar falls further.
one may simply go around idaho
eyeing the panhandly part at like an hour and 20 minutes and wondering whether one simply rolls the dice
You know the big ass Nissan v8 passenger van? I have a joke that they should make an Infiniti version for tradwife influencers and sell them out of Park City, Utah
Iceland has a fair few Infinitis, but I'm not sure if they're sold local or imported from the US. I've also seen a listing for an R34 GT-T, so y'know, there's just utter perverts here.
oh my god re: being sick during horror week: i was also like sick and fevered and i kept having stress dreams about me, random tranny from poland, being personally involved with the strait of hormuz somehow and everyone was mad at me for being sick and not being there to Adress the situation
Well, why didn’t you?
The ongoing review of the state of major manufacturers has been very helpful as someone who hasn't kept up with industry news for a while. Writing this I realize that I basically stopped following auto news when Clarkson left Top Gear. Which I have very complicated feelings about.
Whoa, that's my name at the end, pretty cool dude.
I say hotdogging and hotdog shit too
I was gonna say the last time I heard that colloquialism used was from my local mechanic when I lived in WV, saying I was hotdogging my outback despite having tod drive up and down 12% grade mountains every day to get to class. Oddly enough I'm pretty sure he did have a fallout shelter in his shop.
On an unrelated note, the other day I got a set of filters so I can use 600 Polaroid in my beloved old SX-70. So far so good on that front!
Piping up that I use "hotdogging it" as well for the kids doing burnouts/moto stunts here maybe its the southern region keeping old slang alive.
I was ranting about that in the TF comment section but it would be so awesome to hear you talk about all the weird micro-cars and alt-fuel mobility solutions that got put on the market during the 70's oil shocks, so many delightful little critters, none of them stood a single chance lol
Hello shapes place my old friend, I've come to talk with you again
It's always sunny [nightmare] in the shapes place.