From Houston to Heteropessimism: What could go wrong?

A city reels, leaders insist on calm, and the numbers won’t stop echoing: sixteen bodies discovered in Houston’s bayous this year. We walk straight into the tension between fear and fact—what officials mean by “no evidence,” what communities hear, and how rumors surge when updates feel thin. Instead of settling for a binary—serial killer or nothing to see—we break down the practical signals that matter: time-of-disappearance windows, case-linkage criteria, toxicology realities, and how mapping sites and social contexts can clarify whether a pattern exists or tragedies are unlinked. The goal isn’t to sensationalize; it’s to ask for transparent, methodical communication that respects both investigative integrity and public trust.

Then the conversation takes a sharp turn to a headline-grabbing claim: dating as an “evidence-based” decision. A professor’s choice to stop dating men sparks a wider look at heteropessimism, household labor research, and the seductive simplicity of treating love like an optimization problem. We separate what the data actually shows—persistent inequities in domestic chores and emotional load—from sweeping narratives that turn partners into “junior employees.” Can analytics help relationships without stripping them of humanity? We argue for the middle path: use evidence to illuminate blind spots, negotiate better boundaries, and build fair routines, while refusing to compress identity, chemistry, and care into a single metric.

If you’re curious about how to tell rumor from risk in public safety—or how to balance heart and heuristics in modern love—you’ll find substance, pushback, and a few sharp questions to take with you. Enjoy the ride, share it with a friend who loves a good rethink, and if it resonates, tap follow and leave a short review so others can find the show. We’ll be back after the long weekend—what’s on your plan list?

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Transcript

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Friday Opener & Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Woot woot, hello, it's Friday. Okay, uh, I'm sorry, but I didn't have much time to find some topics this morning, so it's gonna be scarce, but I did find something that I found kind of interesting. Houston police discover 16 bodies in bayoux this year as Mayor dismisses serial killer speculation. This is happening in Houston, Texas, not new, not New Orleans, the Bayous,

Sixteen Bodies in Houston Bayous

SPEAKER_00 0:45

okay? I didn't know Texas had bayous. Texas police have found at least 16 16 16 bodies in the bayous around Houston so far this year. Um that's more than one a month. Oh my gosh, according to authorities and local reports sparking concerns of a serial killer, which city leaders are working to dispel. Here's this. This is fantastic. This is fantastic. Houston's mayor has said police have no evidence of a serial killer. Well, they just have 16 bodies, that's all. But experts are calling for an extensive investigation into the deaths. I think something's happening here. Something is afoot. Oh, see, I told you. I said Joseph Oh, I cannot pronounce his last name. Gia Cologne, a retired NYPD sergeant and criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley, a coincidence unlikely, a careful inspection of each case is warranted, yeah I'd say so, including the forty-eight hours prior to the discovery of their disappearance. The spate of apparent drownings is reminiscent of another concerning number of deaths in the waters of Lady

Officials Push Back on Serial Killer Talk

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Five of the bodies were discovered in a five-day span last month, according to Houston Police Chief Noah Diaz. And Captain Salem Zia, commander of the Houston Police Department's homicide division, said the youngest victim was twenty. Authorities later revealed the bodies belonged to both males and females. Well, what other bodies would they frickin' belong to? What is wrong with these people the way they write these articles and ranged in age from their twenties to their sixties? What do you what are we looking at aliens now? Come on. Rumors stir fear and anxiety in our communities, the chief said. It's important to rely on verified information and investigations. Yeah, but if you have it, if you're finding sixteen bodies in the bayous around your place, something is up and you need to do you do need to tell the people. Houston Mayor John Whitmer slammed misinformation and wild speculation online from political candidates surrounding the cases at a news briefing on September twenty ninth. We do not have any evidence. No, you just have sixteen dead bodies. Hello. That there is a serial killer loose in Houston, Texas, he said. Let me say that again. There is no evidence that there is a serial killer loose in the streets of Houston. Yeah, okay, buddy. He called the number of deaths alarming and asked for patience as the city investigates. Okay, well, what do you think is going on? There that goes on, and I don't really want to keep this that goes on that much longer. But what do you think is happening? That's the first time I've ever heard this story like this. Okay. Next. Oh, y'all, get ready for this next one. Oh, this is a new, this is a new thing. Okay, get ready. It's a new spin on dating, and this this is insane. Professor has been praised for evidence-based

Age, Timing, and Patterns in the Cases

SPEAKER_00 4:16

decision to stop dating men, but why reduce love to a math equation? Alright, you ready? Here we go. This is so dumb. I can't believe some of these people who have these college educations actually make it through life like this. Okay. Heteropessimism is a trendy buzzword right now, with female writers lamenting the state of straightness in thought pieces and TikTokers pitting the sexes against one another. And a Wharton professor's book is being lauded as according to New York magazine, an echo an economist's

Misinformation, Trust, and Public Safety

SPEAKER_00 4:55

take on heteropessimism, as though more negativity about heterosexuality is what we need. In her media rounds, okay, this is her book title, get ready, it's a mouthful. In her media rounds for having it all, what data tells us about women's lives and getting the most out of yours, Associate Professor of Business Economics Corrine Lowe has ruffled some feathers. I'd say so. I'm not physically repulsed by men, I'm socially and politically repulsed, she joked to New York magazine, before revealing that her move to exclusively date women after divorcing her husband was an evidence-based decision. So you weren't born that way? Is that what you're saying? You weren't born gay? Okay. See, it is a choice. Uh making it even more clinical, she reas she recently told the Times of London how dating women wasn't if was an efficient decision. I didn't have time to filter through men. I needed to take on another, I needed to take another draw from the distribution, as economists say, as productivity as as productively as possible. Did you get that? Did you get that? She doesn't have time to go through all the men. So what you have time to go through all the women? What's the difference here? Uh they say this, and then this next bit is insane. The way women look at men, these women, these these college education, uh educated women look at men is asinine. Okay. They say romance is dead, but perhaps it's just been replaced with a formula. No, all right, get ready. This is the insane part, believe it or not. The author claims that many wives end up with a husband

Pivot to Dating and Data Debate

SPEAKER_00 6:56

who is a junior employee they have to manage as opposed to a co-CEO of a household. Bull crap, bull hockey, bull SHIT. What kind of person says this about a man, about her husband? She cites her 2025 study, Winning the Bread and Baking It Too, which found that heterosexual wives still carry much of the household workload, regardless of how much they earn relative to their husbands. Well, maybe that's because you're not supposed to be okay. No, I'm not gonna go down there. Maybe that's because maybe you were meant to be the nurturer and mothers and wives and not the you know what I'm saying. I think you know what I'm saying. But you know, if you look, if you want to go out there and do your thing, then do your thing. But you don't need to bring others with you. Don't try to talk other women into doing it too, because this is dumb. If you want to go out there and be the breadwinner, go fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But you don't have to put down men, you just haven't found the right one, that's all. You you want a robot, is what you want. That's what you want. You want okay, I'm done. I I'm done. I may have to do a blog post about that. I'm gonna have to finish reading that article, let it marinate. I need to think about it because I do, I think I do want to write

Evidence-Based Dating and Gender Roles

SPEAKER_00 8:32

about that. I want to write a rebuttal to that asinine woman. All right, see, will it well I guess we're done here. Because I'm good. I'm glad I'm running out of time. So we need a question of the day. Well, I guess it's the weekend, and it's for some of us a three-day weekend. So my question is the day, question of the day is what do you have planned this weekend if you want to share with me? You may not want to share with anybody uh what you're doing, and that's fine. Um, so I guess that's it. That's all I've got today. Today is Friday, right? I'm sure yes. It has to be Friday. Yeah, long weekend coming up, and the gent and I will hopefully maybe be back on Sunday with our brood awakening. We'll we'll see. There probably will not be a podcast here on Monday since that is a holiday. Um, just because I won't be getting up and doing my regular routine, so there's that. Alright, I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Have a

Note: Chapter timestamps must be within the episode’s duration; reordered for accuracy

SPEAKER_00 9:34

great weekend. Bye.