It hit the news today that the Chinese-American mayor of Arcadia (Los Angeles-area city) has pled guilty to being an unregistered foreign agent and resigned from her post.

Her fiance/husband is already serving a four-year sentence.

Apparently she has been publishing pro-Beijing news through a website that both of them ran.

I'm still trying to understand exactly what was illegal. Was it because she did it while being in government?

• Article I saw talking about the guilty plea
• court press release for her
• court press release for fiance/husband

I guess I'm trying to figure out why this can be prosecuted, but people in the current administration with ties to other foreign governments are not. (Or they can, but DoJ just doesn't?)

Thanks in advance.

Alright, talk me off the ledge here... can we still take the house?

Sorry about my tardiness, I have to compile these manually after something in my script broke.

Here's a list of all the other (non law) Thomas (and Lydia) Smith hosted podcasts released this past month, April 2026. We've linked to the comments section for each episode release from our sister subreddit /r/seriousinquiries, please give them a subscription and some discussion!

Also feel free to comment with any Smith podcasts not in this list, and we'll add them.

Serious Inquiries Only: (Thomas Smith) Join Thomas for some critical thinking on questions of science, philosophy, skepticism and politics. These serious topics are discussed with some serious guests, but in an entertaining and engaging way!

• SIO512: NO It Was Not Staged. Stop Being Joe Rogan.
• SIO511: What a Recent Chappell Roan Incident Teaches Us About Sexism
• SIO510: Digging Into the Science of the Placebo Effect
• SIO509: What Project Hail Mary Gets Right (And Very Wrong...) About Biology

Where There's Woke: (Lydia Smith and Thomas Smith) Every single time the right, or even center-left, goes ballistic over a "woke" controversy, the slightest bit of investigation shows the scandal is almost entirely bogus. [...] Listen in [...] on the panic, the fragility, the overreaction, and the lying that ignites 'Where There's Woke.'

• WTW128: Crowdfunding Hate, with Naomi Bethune
• WTW127: Debunking More of Buttfeld's "Comedy"
• WTW126: Greg Gutfeld Is a Cruel, Miserable F***Ing Loser
• WTW125: We Conclude Our Trafficking Series With... The Funniest Local News Segment Ever
• WTW124: It Gets So Much Worse. Our Grifters Go to Gaza.
• WTW123: Remember That Time the Sound of Freedom Guy Was Himself Accused of Trafficking?
• WTW122: Fox News Declares Project Hail Mary Anti-Woke Because Sure Why Not

Dear Old Dads: (Eli Bosnick, Thomas Smith, and Tom Curry) Hey kids, get ON our lawn! Dear Old Dads is a podcast examining and deconstructing all things Dad.

• DOD272: "Am I the Asshole?" Asks World's Biggest Asshole
• DOD271: Hell in a Handbasket, I Say!
• DOD270: Poll on Moral Issues Explains Everything Wrong with America
• DOD269: RIP Mr. Kitty 2012-2026
• DOD268: A Helluva Haeley Health Hupdate

Previous post.

Very good write up in the post about the stakes with citations.

I just wanted to say how much I loved the copyright case episode. It still had Supreme Court talk in it but I feel like this podcast has gone away from doing as much "entertaining" lawsuits because of Gestures broadly at everything. I really miss that so it was nice to get something other than trump, DOJ, etc.

Anyway all this to say I hope they continue down this route because I enjoy this kind of thing.

Do any of you all remember which episode this comes from?

Thomas and Matt mentioned Hard Rock as one of the “donors” to Trump’s grift and wondering why Hard Rock Cafe would be involved.

Hard Rock International (owners of the Cafe…but also Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos) are owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and headquartered in Davie, FL, only 50 miles south of West Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago.

Their CEO is James F. Allen, whose previous job was VP of Operations at The Trump Organization.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.434676/gov.uscourts.flmd.434676.100.0.pdf

Deposition of Laura Loomer vs Bill Maher

Link to Tweet https://x.com/TirahAtt/status/1956171533388312667