Three for the Founders

Jon Augustine, Lybroan James, Reynaldo Macías

Three for the Founders exists to tell the truth about America — the parts that got left out of the textbook and the parts hiding in plain sight. A white guy, a brown guy, and a Black guy sit down every week to follow the argument wherever it leads, no matter how uncomfortable the destination. Brotherhood is the method, and honesty is the rule. If you've ever felt like the real story was being left out — this is where you find it.

  1. Jul 6

    Tractor Theory: Piloting at 36,000 Feet w/ Mr. Nobody - Ep. 46

    What do YOU think? Text us! What's good, fam — welcome back to Three for the Founders, where Brotherhood meets the breakdown. Look, every now and then we get a guest who reminds us why we started this show in the first place. Today's that episode. We're sitting down with a man we're calling "Mr. Nobody" — an active commercial airline captain who's been flying since 1991, and who's choosing anonymity on purpose. Not because he's got something to hide, but because he wants you to judge the ideas, not the man. No race, no age, no resume flex — just the truth, standing on its own two feet. Real They Live energy, if you know the film. And the timing on this one isn't an accident. We're recording this fresh off a stretch where the administration rolled back equal opportunity hiring protections by executive order, the Supreme Court cleared the runway for vote dilution against Black voters in Louisiana v. Callais, and ICE got the green light to use race in enforcement while colleges got told they can't use it in admissions. Sit with that contradiction for a second. Meanwhile, you've got a Sigma — Victor Glover, our fraternity brother — piloting Artemis II around the actual Moon. 252,000 miles. And somewhere in the middle of all that, some random commentator on the internet said the quiet part loud: "If I see a black pilot, I'm gonna be like, boy, I hope he's qualified." So yeah. We needed to have this conversation. Mr. Nobody takes us through it all — sixth-grade dreams of flying, a father who served in Vietnam and never made it past 27, gatekeeping that started before he could even drive a car, a military pipeline that tried to steer him into a missile silo instead of a cockpit, and a commercial aviation career where he's been "the only one" in nearly every room he's walked into. We get into the Tuskegee Airmen, the "tractor" metaphor for how status and insecurity drive race relations in this country, getting boxed in by a cop on a private airfield he legally owned, and what it actually feels like to be 6'2", 250 pounds, in a crisp uniform, knowing 200 passengers are sizing you up before you even say a word over the intercom. This is a deep one, brothers and sisters. Grab something to sip on, settle in — Part 2 is already in the works. Let's get into it. Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, or  YouTube and let us know. Til the next time...left on Founders...we out!

  2. Jun 8 ·  Bonus Video

    Monuments and Monsters (Extended) - Ep. 44

    What do YOU think? Text us! "Art Versus Artist, Power Structures, and Huerta’s Revelation” Okay. Stay with me here. Because this one requires you to hold two truths at the same time — and if you’re not used to doing that, today’s episode is going to be uncomfortable. Good. Here’s what we know: Dolores Huerta — farmworker organizer, civil rights icon, the woman who stood next to César Chávez for decades and helped build one of the most consequential labor movements in American history — waited sixty years to tell us something she knew. Sixty years. And before you judge her for that silence, I need you to understand why she was silent. Because if she had spoken in 1965, or 1975, or even 1995, they would not have investigated César Chávez. They would have destroyed Dolores Huerta. Full stop. We’ve seen that movie before. But here’s where it gets complicated — and this show doesn’t run from complicated. The same week Chávez’s name is coming off buildings, Jeff Epstein’s client list is still a closely guarded secret. The Catholic Church has paid out billions — with a B — to survivors, and the institution is still standing, still collecting, still canonizing saints. Donald Trump has thirty-four felony convictions and a seat in the Oval Office. So let’s be honest about what’s actually happening here: we are very good at erasing individual people — especially individual Brown people — and remarkably reluctant to dismantle the systems that make monsters possible in the first place. That’s the through-line today. From Chávez to R. Kelly. From Bill Cosby to Thomas Jefferson. From J.K. Rowling to Kanye West — who sold out two SoFi Stadium shows, eighty thousand seats each, with no promoter and no advertising, which is either a miracle or a warning, and I’m not sure it’s a miracle. The question isn’t whether bad people can make great things. History has answered that. The question is: what do we owe the people they harmed — and what does it say about us when we decide the art is worth more than the answer? Antonio, Lybroan, Jon — let’s get into it. Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, or  YouTube and let us know. Til the next time...left on Founders...we out!

  3. May 11 ·  Video

    The Murder Machine: Nationalism, the Draft, and Who Pays the Tab? - Ep. 41

    What do YOU think? Text us! Five years. That's it. In 250 years of American history, the United States has been at peace for roughly five years. So what does it mean to wave the flag? To say "thank you for your service"? To call this country a democracy? In Episode 41, Antonio, Lybroan, and Jon don't flinch. They open with Jon's debrief from a white educator affinity session — what it looks like when white people finally slow down enough to talk about race — and then go somewhere bigger: the architecture of American militarism, the moral weight of sanctions, and the uncomfortable truth that what the U.S. exports most reliably isn't democracy. It's markets. By bullet or bayonet. Drawing on Imagined Communities and How to Hide an Empire, the fellas interrogate how nations — and the loyalties we feel toward them — are constructed fictions enforced by power. They debate the draft, dissect the "thank you for your service" reflex, and ask the question American mythology would rather you didn't: What exactly are we protecting — and for whom? Brotherhood, as always, is the method. Honesty is the argument. 🎙️ Find us at threeforthefounders.com | IG | YouTube | TikTok | Facebook Where Brotherhood meets the breakdown. Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, or  YouTube and let us know. Til the next time...left on Founders...we out!

    The Murder Machine: Nationalism, the Draft, and Who Pays the Tab? - Ep. 41

Ratings & Reviews

4.7
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Three for the Founders exists to tell the truth about America — the parts that got left out of the textbook and the parts hiding in plain sight. A white guy, a brown guy, and a Black guy sit down every week to follow the argument wherever it leads, no matter how uncomfortable the destination. Brotherhood is the method, and honesty is the rule. If you've ever felt like the real story was being left out — this is where you find it.

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