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888: Not Today, Hades!
Brief
The episode stages three modern myths: Icarus (ambition), Cerberus (the gatekeeper), and Zeus (earthly divinity). In Act One, reporter-turned-amateur-portraitist Pablo Manriquez narrates how a found box of art supplies in late winter 2022 propelled him into painting Washington figures. Pablo describes using a 10‑minute YouTube tutorial to teach himself faces, churning out at least 18 Mitch McConnells and other political portraits, selling works that ranged from $25 to $500. His side hustle ballooned after a FaceTime with Jill Biden and public praise from Joe Biden; emboldened, Pablo snuck a life‑sized Frederick Douglass painting into a House press‑gallery renaming in February, photographed lawmakers with it, then formally donated it to the Standing Committee of Correspondents. The committee voted 4–1 not only to reject his gift but to adopt a broader rule prohibiting credentialed reporters’ artwork from hanging in the Capitol, citing conflict‑of‑interest concerns. Pablo frames his stunt as ego-driven and vows to campaign for committee change despite the rebuke — a classic Icarus ascent and fall with immediate plans to climb again.
Act Two pivots to the grim mechanics of the SSA’s Death Master File. Jeremiah Schofield, an SSA veteran, recounts secretive February meetings with DOGE (a Department of Government Efficiency effort tied to Elon Musk) and DHS requests that pushed agency staff to add death dates without documentation. He says Office of the CIO staff posted about 6,000 death entries on March 8, 2025, forcing people to 'resurrect' by appearing in person; initial resurrections numbered about 30 and grew to roughly 300 in weeks. When DHS later proposed marking 2.7 million people dead, Jeremiah sampled 25 names and found 25 were alive and 23 were citizens or lawful residents. He says DHS actors (including a DOGE associate, John Covel) described aims of inducing self‑deportation or facilitating ICE arrests. Jeremiah refused unlawful instructions, escalated to supervisors (notably a disagreement with Steven Evangelista), later resigned, and filed a whistleblower claim; Nadia Reiman reports DHS issued a statement about interagency data sharing and two congressional offices have opened inquiries.
Act Three is a quieter, human vignette: Daniel Alarcón’s fawning expectations of spending days with Lionel Messi collapse into an eight‑hour wait followed by an awkward, curt hour that yielded nothing publishable. Alarcón describes being held at the training ground without basic provisions, watching team mood dampened after a player’s ACL injury, and having his magazine ultimately kill the profile. Across the three acts the show examines ambition, institutional gatekeeping, and the gap between myth and reality — with speakers often at odds with authorities (Jeremiah vs. DHS and his supervisor) or with their own expectations (Pablo’s ego and Alarcón’s imagined intimacy with a living legend).
Why it matters
Pablo Manriquez said he started painting after finding art supplies in late winter 2022 and used a 10-minute Paint Coach YouTube crash course to teach himself portraiture; he produced at least 18 Mitch McConnell paintings and sold works for prices that scaled from $25 to $500 (he settled on $500 for 24x36-inch canvases).
Key details
- Pablo told Ike Sriskandarajah he got a FaceTime call from Jill Biden (with Joe Biden praising his work) after posting his paintings, and later slipped a life-sized Frederick Douglass portrait into a February press-gallery renaming event hoping it would be hung in the Capitol; the Standing Committee of Correspondents later voted 4–1 to bar credentialed reporters from having artwork hung in the Capitol.
- Jeremiah Schofield, a longtime Social Security Administration (SSA) employee, said an Office of the CIO processing added roughly 6,000 people to the Death Master File on a single day (March 8, 2025) after pressure from a DOGE/DHS initiative; those people had to 'resurrect' by appearing in person at SSA offices (Jeremiah reported ~30 resurrections quickly, rising to ~300 within weeks).
- Jeremiah told reporter Nadia Reiman he and colleagues reviewed a later DHS-provided list of 2.7 million names and sampled 25 records: 23 of the 25 sampled were U.S. citizens or lawful residents and all 25 were alive, leading him to conclude DHS intended the Death Master File changes to induce 'self-deportation' or ICE arrests (John Covel, a DOGE contact at DHS, allegedly described those outcomes on a call).
- Jeremiah said he refused an unlawful instruction to mark people dead, escalated concerns internally (including to supervisor Steven Evangelista), resigned months later, and is now filing a whistleblower complaint; Nadia noted only DHS responded to inquiries and that two congressional offices are investigating Jeremiah's allegations.
- Writer Daniel Alarcón described traveling to Barcelona the week after his wedding for a one-hour profile of Lionel Messi that was repeatedly curtailed (initially three days, then one day, then an hour), spent many hours waiting without basic accommodations, and left after a terse, unproductive interview; his magazine ultimately killed the piece and paid a kill fee.