Our second sponsor this week is MD Hearing. We have friends and family who have hearing loss. There's a good chance that you do too. Well, we don't have need for hearing aids ourselves. We have a good friend who does. We asked her to assess MD Hearing's newest product carefully and honestly, her testimonial is at the end of this ad. MD Hearing makes high quality, simple and effective hearing aids for a tiny fraction of what most hearing aids cost, helping bring audio clarity and capacity to people who might not otherwise be able to afford it. MD Hearing was founded by an ENT surgeon who made it his mission to develop a quality hearing aid that anyone could afford. He kept the price low by removing several rarely needed components. MD Hearing's Neo model costs over 90% less than clinic hearing aids. And the Neo is MD Hearing's smallest hearing aid ever. It fits inside your ear and no one will know it's there. MD Hearing's products have also have rechargeable batteries that last up to 30 hours and they're volt plus model is water resistant and up to three feet of water. You don't need a prescription, which also means there's no middleman. You know, when I first read that three feet of water, I thought, well, that's not very much. On the other hand, you're probably not listening to much when you're in water anyway, so that three feet of water is supposed to detect you if you end up going into water without meaning to with your hearing aids. Yeah.

It's a fair amount of water actually. It's not the deep end, but it's the shallow end. Indeed.

Here's the newest testimonial from my friend who has substantial hearing loss and who relies on hearing aids. We asked her to try this product and this is what she said. I tested the Neo. MD Hearing's new in the ear canal hearing aids. I was a bit skeptical since I've never liked in the ear canal models, preferring the stability of over the ear sets. They were surprisingly comfortable and stable, staying put without coming loose, even when I wore them to exercise. I tried the Neo in several situations. She writes from Discord voice chat to an in-person conversation in a room with a white noise generator and they passed every test. Well, it's true. They don't have the individual audiogram programming and smartphone integration of my usual hearing aids. They have everything else for less than 5% of the price. They provide an absolutely stunning level of quality for pennies in the dollar. So if you want MD Hearing's smallest hearing aid ever, go to MDHearing.com and use promo code darkhorse to get their new $297 when you buy a pair offer. Head to MDHearing.com and use promo code darkhorse to get their brand new $297 when you buy a pair offer. It's a fabulous deal for a fabulous product. Okay.

Two notes before I get to the final ad, if you hear me crunching in the background, I am fending off a cough from a case of what must have been COVID three weeks ago that I got better from almost immediately, but the cough will not let me live a normal life. So anyway, hopefully we'll get past that. But anyway, the crunching is unavoidable. Also, I point out people watching us on Twitter, we, as Heather said, only back sponsors, we reject numerous sponsors and we only back things that we believe in. The green outline on the screen does tell you though that we are speaking as a result of a financial arrangement. And that means when it's gone, you don't have to worry that we are because we aren't. We're speaking for ourselves. Okay. Our final sponsor is American Heart for Gold. If you listen to darkhorse regularly, then you know just how incompetent and unstable many of our institutions are becoming. Interest rates are sky high. We are caught between runaway inflation and recession. We are assured that this is all fine while the cost of food, housing, medical care, schools, everything, climbs, which you've noticed if you ever enjoy housing or food. Our leaders are increasingly nonsensical. All of this threatens businesses, jobs and retirement funds. Finding ways to secure your nest egg and insulate your wealth is more important than ever and adding precious metals to your assets is a great way to stabilize your investments and protect yourself financially. American Heart for Gold is a precious metals dealer that can help you do just that. American Heart for Gold helps individuals and families protect their wealth by diversifying with precious metals. They make it simple and easy to protect your savings and retirement accounts with physical gold and silver. With one short phone call, they can have physical gold and silver delivered right to your door or inside your IRA or 401k. They are the highest rated firm in the country with an A plus rating from the Better Business Bureau and thousands of satisfied clients. And if you call them right now, they will give you up to $5,000 in free silver on your first qualifying order. Contact them today by visiting the link in the episode description or call 866-828-1117. That's 866-828-1117 or text Dark Horse to 998899. Again, 866-828-1117 or text Dark Horse, one word to 998899. Alright, that's finished. Alright, I do not know what the world looks like to other people. I will say there has been a lot of talk on TwitterX about the important difference between what those of us who use that platform are seeing and what people who use other platforms or pay attention to the mainstream media are seeing with respect to the conflict in the Middle East. There's a lot to say about it. There's certainly a huge amount of noise being circulated on X. It is not like a refined portrait of anything. There's lots of garbage. But what is being noticed by many people is that one does seem to have access to the signal buried in that noise. There's lots of actual evidence emerging on TwitterX and we are able to sort through it. And sorting really is the key to understanding where we are. So we have been looking at this unfolding picture in Israel as a result of the attacks on Israel on October 7th. And yesterday I recorded and we released on the same day a podcast with an Israeli journalist. She's a freelancer who also served in the IDF as all Israelis do 25 years ago and she served on the Gaza border. This is Iffrot Fenneksen and the podcast has produced a very intense reaction. Most of it extremely positive. People including, I've seen, there's lots of public stuff. You can look at the reactions publicly and there's a tremendous outpouring of gratitude for a perspective that is not widely being discussed elsewhere. But there's also a concerted amount of pushback of an interesting kind which we will talk a little bit about. And then there is the behind the scenes responses that I have received and I know Iffrot has also received from people. Some of them very well positioned, very careful thinkers who have reacted universally positively to this part. Universally positively with one exception. I did get one pushback from somebody I quite respect. And in any case, we are going to talk today about the predicaments in the Middle East, about the implications in the wider world, which I believe we have no choice but to discuss, even though in some ways this event forces us to narrow our focus or it attempts to force us to narrow our focus. And this is none of this is easy to do. And so maybe the thing to do is to just surface what I think is the underlying fundamental tension that causes even an exploration between two people, both of whom I know for certain is acting in good faith and attempting to do what he thinks is right. And another person who I believe to be doing exactly the same thing but can't know for sure because it's not me. Do you want to

jump in?