Stand-Up Call - 7/18/25
Welcome to All Hands on Deck—a special podcast for Tortuga Society members and Tortuga Media paychads.
These are recordings of Tortuga’s biweekly standup calls, in which our guys convene to update the group on progress with job stacking and assorted ventures, theorycraft business ideas, and shoot the shit on issues of the day.
Most episodes will be available to paid subscribers — our spicer discussions will be exclusive to full Tortuga Society Members.
In this third episode I make a big announcement: Theon Ultima has been promoted to Co-Captain and CEO! This promotion is in truth business as usual — as Theon has been managing the organization & administration of Tortuga for some time now as I focus on marketing, writing, and other various projects.
We also dive into a myriad of topics in this call.
Think you all will enjoy, so give it a listen.
Topics include:
Theon gets promoted to Co-Captain — what that means for Tortuga moving forward
Reflections on how Tortuga evolved from Walt’s Substack audience into a standalone institution
Why Theon was effectively CEO since the beginning of the year
The importance of building a brand separate from a single personality
Theon’s thoughts on year one of Tortuga and why realizing a vision matters more than just dreaming it
The rise of curated spaces and the decline of the monoculture
Is the “dead internet theory” just cope? Theon proposes the Ubiquitous Internet Theory instead
Do we actually need “safe spaces” for high-agency men online?
Walt’s take on esotericism, subcultural code-switching, and why Substack is deteriorating
The difference between Substack and Reddit as platforms of power
Can you still write sincerely online or is everything now a performance?
Zoomer social stress and the rise of facial optimization subcultures
Are curated spaces the future of the Internet?
The role of ambient performativity and why Zoomers are never truly “offstage”
Why we need institutional obfuscation and re-enchantment—not just transparency
Should Substack build better group chat and community tools?
Is Chris Best blowing $100 million on AV slop? The boys speculate
Is Substack just “OnlyFans for intellectuals”?
Should we build a competitor?
Will Ellis Islanders and Heritage Americans ever form true ethnic voting blocs?
WASP cultural decay and the collapse of Episcopalian gravitas
Do any churches have youth anymore or are they just suburban social clubs?
Do megachurches hollow out religion into therapeutic shopping malls?
Could we build a structured code for piracy—letters of marque for modern job stackers?
Was Charlottesville the death knell of ideological trust?
How do you grow up in a society without adversity?
Fourth Turning, Gen Alpha, and the dawning of American Brain Rot
Are Zoomers more racist or just more socially anxious?
Can the internet ever be “for guys like us” again?
