What The Frock

The latest episode of the “What The Frock?” podcast begins with something almost unheard of in the modern age: Rabbi Dave admitting he might have been wrong. Not politically wrong. Not factually wrong. Philosophically wrong. And as strange as that sounds, that confession becomes the doorway into one of the most unexpectedly thoughtful episodes the show has done in a long time.

What starts as another internet culture discussion about the upcoming adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey quickly turns into something far deeper. The internet has spent weeks mocking rumors surrounding the casting of Achilles, specifically the possibility of Elliot Page portraying the legendary Greek warrior. The memes write themselves. Achilles, after all, has become a modern symbol of masculine perfection, immortalized by actors like Brad Pitt in the public imagination. But Rabbi Dave asks a question that most people have completely missed: what if modern audiences fundamentally misunderstand Achilles in the first place?

Drawing from Homer’s actual Odyssey, the episode explores the shocking reality that Achilles is not presented as triumphant in the Underworld. He is broken, regretful, diminished, a shadow of what he once was. Homer’s great warrior confesses that all the glory of Troy was not worth the cost. Better to live an ordinary life than reign over the dead. It is one of the oldest anti-war statements ever written, and the discussion turns that revelation into a meditation on modern civilization itself.

From there, things become gloriously strange in the way only “What The Frock?” can manage.

The conversation moves from ancient Greek ideas about “skia,” shadows without substance, into modern identity politics, internet culture, TikTok narcissism, livestream economies in China, AI-generated summaries replacing human thought, and even why young people no longer dance in public. Somewhere along the way, Waymo cars begin circling a cul-de-sac endlessly like confused mechanical souls trapped in Greek myth. It sounds absurd because it is absurd. But beneath the humor sits a serious question: has modern civilization become trapped fighting shadows instead of dealing with reality?

The episode also contains one of the clearest explanations yet of how AI search engines and social media may be hollowing out culture itself. Friar Rod’s comparison to Fahrenheit 451 lands like a hammer. The internet promised unlimited knowledge, but increasingly it delivers simplified summaries stripped of depth, contradiction, and humanity. The open web begins to resemble Homer’s Underworld, populated by fading echoes instead of living voices.

And yet, despite all the heavy themes, the episode never loses its sense of humor. There are jokes about NASA probing Uranus, Disneyland livestream narcissists, Seattle shipping homeless people to Bremerton, and the lingering cultural importance of the Elaine dance from Seinfeld. The show wanders the way old tavern conversations wandered, from philosophy to nonsense and back again, usually over ale and poor decisions.

Underneath all of it sits the central idea of the episode: civilizations lose themselves when they begin mistaking attention for meaning. Achilles learned that lesson too late. Homer knew it three thousand years ago. The uncomfortable possibility explored in this episode is that maybe we are learning it again in real time.