Friendly Fire: To Catch Hollywood’s Predators & Midterm White Pilling

October 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Friendly Fire: To Catch Hollywood’s Predators & Midterm White Pilling

The midterm polls look bad for Republicans—Calci now gives Democrats a 59% chance of taking the Senate—but the hosts of Friendly Fire are not buying the panic. Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, and Drew Knowles spend much of this episode arguing that the polling industry has been catastrophically wrong in the same direction for years, and that the individual Senate races are all within the margin of error. But the conversation quickly widens beyond horse-race predictions into a broader argument about what is actually broken in American culture, why Hollywood keeps making sympathetic films about child predators, and whether the public's despair about politics reflects something deeper than any single election.

The Midterm Puzzle: Poll Skepticism and Race-by-Race Realism

The hosts start by confronting the widespread doomerism among conservatives. Drew Knowles points out that polls have "been wrong by 15 points and always on the same side, always in favor of the Democrats," yet the media keeps quoting them as gospel. He compares polls to "medicine in the Victorian era"—people keep using them because they're the only information available, even though they don't work anymore.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:06) **Episode Kickoff & Daily Wire Promotions** - The hosts run ads for Daily Wire content, including the film "Run Hide Fight Infidels" and the series "The Terminal List," while also promoting early voting through GOPvotes.org.
2 (02:42) **Noahide Laws Controversy** - Michael Knowles and Ben Shapiro discuss a viral clip where Shapiro was accused of saying Christians would be beheaded under Jewish law, clarifying the actual theological debate.
3 (06:13) **"Confession" Trailer & Film Discussion** - The hosts preview the Daily Wire film "Confession," starring Rob Lowe and James Franco, and discuss its themes of communism, materialism, and sacrifice.
4 (09:10) **Midterm Election Doomerism vs. Optimism** - The panel debates whether Republican prospects are as bad as polls suggest, with Shapiro offering a more optimistic seat-by-seat analysis.
5 (13:53) **Polls as Victorian Medicine** - The hosts critique modern polling, comparing it to unreliable 19th-century medical practices and arguing that iPhones have destroyed polling accuracy.
6 (14:38) **Trump’s Polarization of Politics** - The panel explores how Trump has reshaped both parties into pro- and anti-Trump camps, making traditional political models less reliable.
7 (16:00) **The Danger of Republican Infighting** - The hosts condemn Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly for urging voters to stay home or support anti-Israel candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Michael Knowles Ben Shapiro Drew Knowles Chris Hansen

Show Notes

Hollywood is making a movie about Chris Hansen, and he joins the show with some explosive notes and dishes on the industry’s real predators. Ben Shapiro shares new details about Daily Wire’s upcoming big screen release. Michael Knowles embraces midterm optimism and rejects the doomers. And Andrew Klavan makes a public pitch to right a longtime wrong in the world of literature.

Ep. 25

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