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Three for the Founders

Three for the Founders

By: Jon Augustine Lybroan James Reynaldo Macías
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Welcome to Three for the Founders, where Brotherhood meets the Breakdown. We’ve been having these conversations for years, and now YOU are invited to join us. We’ll say the things you are afraid to say, and ask the questions you want to ask. Three brothers. All truth. No filters.

© 2026 Three for the Founders
Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Ep. 31 — They Love MLK Once a Year. They Hate His Ideas Daily.
    Feb 2 2026

    What do YOU think? Text us and let us know!

    Season Two of Three for the Founders kicks off exactly where America gets uncomfortable: at the gap between the quote and the policy.

    Recorded on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and launching February 2, 2026, this season premiere opens with a toast to brotherhood—and immediately asks the question nobody wants answered out loud: how do you celebrate the Dream on Monday and dismantle it by Tuesday? From a Los Angeles studio, Reynaldo Antonio, Jon Augustine, and Lybroan James return sharper, looser, and less interested in pretending symbolism counts as action. Thirty episodes deep and freshly into 2026, the brothers set the tone for a season that refuses to separate history, power, and the people paying the price.

    The conversation moves with purpose and side-eye. MLK Day as performance versus policy. Free parks, closed futures. DEI rollbacks framed as “fairness.” Whether arguing online is civic duty or just free labor for the algorithm. Ten years into the Trump era, the hosts trace what’s changed—and what’s simply stopped hiding. Along the way: Ghanaian “welcome home” moments, family shout-outs, jokes about thrill-seeking, and a sobering reframe—when your daily life already runs on adrenaline, you don’t need to jump out of planes to feel alive. The laughs land, but so do the receipts: January 6 rebranded, racism deployed as a tool, and capitalism quietly doing what it’s always done—consolidate.

    Episode highlights include:

    • Why MLK is safest to America as a soundbite, not a blueprint
    • How DEI became the villain the moment it threatened comfort
    • The myth of “both sides” and who benefits from pretending power is neutral
    • Racism as strategy, wealth capture as the endgame
    • Whether people are complex—or just committed to lying to themselves
    • How repetition, attention, and outrage reshape what we call “truth”

    Listener takeaways for 2026:

    • Don’t accept the first version of any story—ask say more
    • Engage online only where there’s real relationship; starve the bots
    • Read Black authors to re-center history and reality
    • Spend your energy building family, community, and coalitions—not defending myths
    • Remember: symbolism is cheap. Power is not.

    Season Two doesn’t offer comfort. It offers clarity. Three for the Founders is back—measured, unfiltered, and unimpressed by hollow tributes. Like, subscribe, and pull up. The dream deserves better than a holiday.

    Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Ep. 30 - Say More: What Season One Taught Us *Bonus*
    Dec 29 2025

    What do YOU think? Text us and let us know!

    At a time when Americans are tired of scripted outrage and elite-approved talking points, Three for the Founders is doing something different—speaking freely and living with the consequences. In Episode 30, the hosts look back on Season One and tell the truth about what happens when you stop chasing applause, stop curating a “target audience,” and start saying what you actually think. The result? Real conversations, real pushback, and real growth.

    This retrospective pulls no punches. The hosts reflect on early episodes that played it safe—and later ones that didn’t. They talk candidly about faith, race, gun culture, family, language, and power, including moments that made listeners uncomfortable and moments that made the show stronger. Along the way, they honor influential voices, remember friends lost too soon, and acknowledge where they got it wrong—and why owning that matters more than managing optics.

    There’s humor, too—phones buzzing mid-recording, debates about bathroom doors at home—but the message is serious: authenticity beats approval every time. Three for the Founders isn’t here to preach or please. It’s here to have the conversation others won’t—and trust the audience to decide what to do with it.

    Episode 30 drops December 29.

    Season One ends. Season Two begins in 2026.

    Listen—and judge for yourself.

    Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Ep. 29 - Endings Are Easy—It’s Admitting the Mess That Hurts
    Dec 22 2025

    What do YOU think? Text us and let us know!

    We know something about endings. We know when a beloved teacher hangs up the chalk, when the church mothers finally step down from the usher board, when a job no longer fits, or when a season of our own lives is quietly tapping us on the shoulder saying, “Baby, it’s time.”

    That’s why this week’s episode of Three for the Founders feels like it was recorded for every one of us.

    Episode 29 closes out the podcast’s first season with an unflinching conversation about endings: the kind we invite, the kind we delay, and the kind the country may be drifting toward whether we admit it or not.

    The brothers anchor their discussion against the backdrop of a “capitalist Christmas” and corporate rollbacks of DEI—even as those same companies cash in on Black Friday. The hosts push us to see how justice, clarity, and honesty should shape how we exit, not just how we begin.

    When Personal Seasons Shift

    Antonio speaks for many of us who stayed too long at a table we loved. After four and a half years on a working board—and two and a half knowing he needed to go—he finally chose health, purpose, and peace over obligation. That’s a sermon in itself: you don’t have to keep showing up when showing up hollows you out.

    Jon opens up about career pivots, calling, and faith transitions. From leaving ministry nearly two decades ago to stepping fully away from Christianity more recently, he names the fear of letting people down—and the quiet ego underneath it. His story reminds us that spiritual and professional shifts aren’t failures; often they’re freedom.

    And Lybroan continues to be the patron saint of planned exits. Whether navigating teaching, real estate, or academia, he shows the power of intentional endings—of seeing the season before it sees you. He’s already got eyes on a doctorate next.

    But this episode isn’t just about personal lives—it’s about national ones. The hosts wrestle with a heavy question: Is America ending?

    Lybroan and Antonio say yes: powerful interests are already drafting the blueprint for a redesigned nation, and the signs—Project 2025 and constitutional choke points—are all around us. Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower reminds us that scarcity has always been used to justify walls, surveillance, and the rearranging of democracy.

    Jon hopes the Trump era is what’s ending—and admits the optimism may be wrapped in the comfort of privilege. If nothing else, he argues, the young people are watching, questioning, pushing. And that has always been the seed of American rebirth.

    What emerges is what folks in our community have long understood: endings are not the enemy. Denial is.

    Some of us plan. Some of us surrender. Some of us delay. But all of us have to face the moment when what once fit… doesn’t.

    This first season of Three for the Founders ends the way a family gathering does—full of gratitude, good sense, and a reminder of unity: “We represent the United States and its principles and everything it’s supposed to be.”

    And then, true to form: “Left on Founders, we out.”

    Season 2 is expected around February 1, with episodes every two weeks. And yes—Bryan Stevenson is on the dream list.

    Until t

    Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok and let us know. Til the next time...left on founders...we out!

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 9 mins
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