In Episode 1873 of the No Agenda Show, titled 'Supercycle,' hosts Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak dissect a range of news stories, focusing on a nationwide audit of autism treatment billing that reveals staggering increases in Medicaid spending. According to the episode, published May 31, 2026, North Carolina saw an 11,000% spike in Medicaid spending for autism treatments, while Minnesota's Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy outlays surged roughly 51,000% since 2018. Curry provocatively questions whether the original autism epidemic narrative itself was a scam that primed the pump for these expenditures. 'Perhaps the actual study of autism, of who, how many people have autism, was the scam to begin with, an inside job before it even got to the Medicare and all of this money that was going to autism treatment?' he posits.
The episode also covers the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explosion at Cape Canaveral, which the hosts compare across ABC, CBS, and NBC in their signature 3x3 segment. Dvorak floats the possibility of sabotage timed to the SpaceX S-1 filing, while Curry notes that the launch pad itself was destroyed. The hosts observe a verbal tic in CBS coverage, noting that the word 'glitch' has been quietly replaced by the century-old farming term 'haywire.'
Other topics include the collapsing Freedom 250 concert led by Silicon Valley figure Keith Krach, with dropouts including Martina McBride, the Commodores, Bret Michaels, and Young MC. The episode also examines Joe Rogan's on-air apology after a Theo Von episode raised alarms about SSRIs and the discredited chemical imbalance theory, Texas AG Ken Paxton's push to classify Sharia law enforcement as a second-degree felony, and Jill Biden's CBS book tour and the furious response from Pod Save America.
Dvorak and Curry dig into Keith Krach's Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, the competing America 250 commission chaired honorarily by Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and Treasury Secretary Bessent's remarks at the Reagan National Economic Forum about a proposed $250 bill featuring President Trump, complete with a primer on seigniorage. Curry shares hands-on frustration using Anthropic's Claude Code agent to automate show credits and clip cutting, concluding the AI 'supercycle' touted by Armada CEO Dan Wright is overvalued. A boots-on-the-ground note from an independent Washington State gas station operator details two-week fuel contracts and hidden carbon-credit fees pressuring July 4 prices.
The implications of these stories are significant: the autism billing audit raises questions about the integrity of Medicaid spending and the narratives driving it, while the Blue Origin failure highlights the risks and potential sabotage in the commercial space race. The episode underscores the importance of scrutinizing media framing and official narratives, as the hosts call attention to subtle language shifts and political maneuvers that affect public perception and policy.
