Lovett or Leave It - The Eyes Were Made For Crying (Live from Pittsburgh!)

Episode Date: October 8, 2022

Lovett or Leave It hits the road to Pittsburgh’s Roxian Theatre. Lovett and the Second Lady of Pennsylvania Gisele Barreto Fetterman take Dr. Oz to the pound. Pittsburgh’s own Damon Young hands out the Nobel Prize for Posting, and joins Lovett in doling out the advice yinz need. And the Rant Wheel spins next to the beautiful Ohio River, powered by vacations, nuclear weapons and, of course, Lovett’s take on the Bros takes. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Hello, Pittsburgh. Lovely to see you all. Welcome to Love It or Leave It Live or Else. Coming to you from the Venice of Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh. Which is Latin for whole town. I'm John Lovett. And while I'm in Pittsburgh, my pronouns are Yen-Sy-Yen's.

You cracked the pronoun thing a long time ago. We have a great show for you tonight behind every future senator is an even better spouse. Giselle Barreto-Fetterman is here. Pittsburgh's own Damon Young is here. And we are going to dispense some advice and a Nobel Prize for posting.

Plus, we will spin the rant wheel, and we want to hear your high notes live and in person. And for all my Jewish friends, I hope you spent the day guilty and hungry, as God intended. But first, let's get into it. What a week. Donald Trump has sued CNN for defamation, claiming the network smeared him by broadcasting commentary that used the labels racist, Russian lackey, insurrectionist, and Hitler. That doesn't sound like the CNN I know.

I have to assume that happened when Anderson Cooper got blackout on New Year's Eve. Still can't wait for Giuliani to finally lay this all out in court and accidentally prove Trump is Hitler. In a truth posted over the weekend, in a statement he truthed, Trump attacked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for agreeing to a deal to fund the government saying he had a death wish and insulting his wife Elaine Chao with a racist name. It doesn't matter who he is.

It's never acceptable to threaten violence against a sitting U.S. Senator. Crooked's lawyers have been very clear with me about. Republican Senator and NRSC Chair Rick Scott declined to condemn the statement, issuing this word salad. Are you okay with this? Well, I can never talk about,

respond to why anybody else says what they said, but here's what, is the way I looked at it is, I think, you know, what the president is saying is, you know, there's been a lot of money spent over the last two years. Perfect. No notes. First of all, not prepared for

the most obvious question in the world. So shout out Rick Scott, not prepared. Love that. I also like that when pushed his first resort is to, I'm not even sure if I believe in other minds. He resorts to the philosophical question of whether another person can ever be knowable. And I appreciate that. Scott tried to imply he could have been calling Mitch McConnell's wife a friendly nickname. Let's keep going with the clip. Causing unbelievable inflation and causing more and more debt you know the president likes to give people nicknames you can ask him how he came up with the nickname i'm sure he has a nickname for me

he jokingly calls me uh nameless skinny ugly fuck with love ugly fuck. With love. And then Rick tried to land the plane. Nicknames are one thing, but this appears racist. Is that okay? It's never, ever okay to be a racist. It's, you know, I think you always have to be careful, you know, if you're in the public eye, how you say things.

You want to make sure you're inclusive. Here's the thing. It is 2022. Your death threats need to be inclusive. Imagine if somebody threatened to kill someone at your workplace. And then a reporter asked you if you thought that was okay and you were like, ugh. Literally no bottom for these people. He threatened to kill Mitch McConnell.

And he's like, who can say? Anyway, earlier this year, a lawyer for Donald Trump reported he refused Trump's request to tell the National Archives that all materials had been returned because he wasn't sure if the statement is true. Trump really fucked up. He accidentally hired a lawyer with something to lose. You want somebody at the very fucking bottom. You want somebody with nowhere else to go. Unhireable. Meanwhile, the National Archives informed the

House Oversight Committee that some of Trump's presidential records are still missing. And if you want the rest of those records, you're going to have to pry them out of Trump's cold, dead toilet. And then there was Georgia. Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker's flawless campaign hit its first snag this week when news broke that he had urged a girlfriend to get an abortion in 2009 and paid for the procedure himself. As a candidate, you can have secret kids or you can have paid for a secret abortion, but you can't do both. It's not a clear brand. Some are calling Walker a hypocrite, but that is completely unfair. They don't believe the abortions they need are wrong.

They just believe the abortions you need are wrong. Republicans rallied behind Walker, citing Walker's denial, even though there are literal receipts. The woman shows reporters a receipt from the abortion clinic, a bank deposit receipt with an image of a personal check from Walker, and a Get Well card that Walker signed. It's pretty persuasive, but it could have been worse for Walker because he went to the Get Well Soon section and missed the Secret Abortion section in the greeting card aisle. It's so hard to pick so many different categories now. Secret abortion, parentheses, friend's wife. Secret

abortion, parentheses, pastor. Secret abortion, parentheses, pastor slash friend's wife. Following Walker's statement, his conservative influencer son Christian lashed out at him on Twitter, tweeting, You're not a family man when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over six times in six months running from your violence. Christian continued the conversation in several videos on Tuesday, saying this. Family values, people. He has four kids, four different women, wasn't in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women. Do you care about family values? Look, we've made fun of Christian before,

but I actually genuinely feel for him. Like, no one should have to read their dad's painful secrets in the news. You should hear about them from a mistress at a funeral. And I know I'll forget this feeling when he films a video in a Starbucks drive-thru blaming Biden because they ran out of raspberry white mocha, but for now, I'm going to feel, I believe it's pronounced empathy.

How do you say it? It sounds wrong. Empathy. Empathy. I'm not sure. It doesn't sound right. Just hours after the story broke, Walker appeared on Hannity to insist it was all a lie when Hannity asked, What about the $700 check? Is there anybody you can remember sending that much money to?

Well, I send money to a lot of people, and that's what's so funny. Okay, let's just go back to it. No more, no more. I know we've sort of been inured to how bottomless that fucking well of Republican nonsense has become, but this person is unfit for office, he is barely coherent, he has a history of violence and abuse, the decision to run in and of itself

seems to have been personally painful to the people he should care most about, he claims to be pro-life while paying for abortions, and then he goes on television, and these goons try to help him, like when Smithers tries to help Mr. Burns cheat at golf. But he can't even be saved when Sean Hannity and other propagandists set him up. Look at this. I'm going to win this seat. So, Herschel, you're saying that you weren't the perfect dad or the perfect spouse, but you've been redeemed. Is that what you're saying? Oh, that's exactly what I'm

saying. No one is perfect. You know, I even said at a meeting, I'm a sinner. We all sin before the glory of God. But every day I get up in the morning, I pray to God that let me do his will. And that's the reason I'm in this race right now. When I see people getting hurt on the street, the crime that's going on right now. So what you're trying to say is you have made mistakes and you're not perfect, but you've been redeemed and you're a changed man and you're doing better now. Is that right? Exactly. That's exactly what I'm saying. Look at the effort that goes into this. They just want one more vote to cut taxes and social

security. That's what it's all about. That's it. All of this noise, all the attack ads on Warnock and Fetterman and Barnes, all the dark money, all the news cycles about how dangerous it is that Velma eats pussy, all of it is because they want to cut taxes on the rich. That's it. What a project. Can you imagine if these people are... Every single person we just saw is phenomenally wealthy, and they want more tax cuts so bad,

they go on television and pretend they're upset that a cartoon detective is a lesbian. In case you didn't have enough reasons not to vote for Dr. Oz, a story published this week outlined how medical studies published by the Pennsylvania Senate candidate resulted in the suffering and death of hundreds of dogs, as well as pigs, rabbits, and rodents. It's sad, of course, but on the bright side, we now know scientifically that acai berries don't cure being tortured by Dr. Oz. Look, doing medical research on animals isn't by itself damning. How do you think our drugs are tested? The issue is that Oz's research repeatedly violated the Animal Welfare Act,

hurting animals for no good reason. You know how bad it has to be going for Republican Senate candidates this week when the dog torture story is the second worst story for your candidates? Also this week, Harry Styles endorsed Beto O'Rourke for Texas governor while performing in Austin, sporting a Beto for TexasRourke for Texas governor while performing in Austin, sporting a Beto for Texas sticker on his guitar. Meanwhile, in front of Abbott Campaign HQ, a door opened and someone shoved a bleary-eyed Piers Morgan out to the cameras wearing a magnificent Dior gown. The competition is heating up. Oh, yeah, you got Harry Styles? Look at this.

I got my own androgynous British person. It's Piers Morgan in a Christian Dior gown. The European Union passed a law requiring that all new small electronic devices have a USB-C charging port by 2024. By 2026, the same rule will apply to new laptops. The legislation is targeted at Apple, which will need to transition away from its lightning connector i'm glad they're sticking it to those dongle hawking

zealots in cupertino you get them europe we won't you get them steve jobs didn't die of drinking soup to cure cancer so that every one of us would have a drawer filled with tangled mystery cables. It has to fucking end. Steve Jobs must be rolling over in his perfectly round egg-like coffin. And you can see where it is on your phone.

The thing that sucks about Steve Jobs' coffin, the thing that's really annoying about it that they never fixed is when you drop Steve Jobs' coffin, Steve Jobs' coffin. The thing that's really annoying about it that they never fixed is when you drop Steve Jobs' coffin, Steve Jobs flies out and goes right under the couch. So sorry. Three scientists jointly won this year's

Nobel Prize in Physics for their ground-bearing experiments in quantum entanglement, where two particles act like a single unit even when they're separated. Big deal, I say. The Clintons have been doing that for years. I don't know. Doesn't seem right. I don't feel, I want you to know, I don't feel good about it. OPEC announced Wednesday that it will cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day. That's

the largest reduction since the start of the pandemic and can send gas prices up just weeks before the midterms. The White House insisted that President Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia over the summer had not been a waste of time, said a spokesperson. He got a pretty good base tan. Snoop Dogg has announced the launch of Snazzle O's, which are essentially cannabis-infused Funyuns. Sadly, the announcement came too late for Martha Stewart, who had housed a whole bag and spent the next 48 hours believing that she had died. Look, I like edibles. I'm pro-edibles. Edibles are great. I find the whole thing of, like, oh, these are Funyun edibles, these are gummy bear edibles,

this is chocolate edibles. It's not like drinking. You don't savor it over time and get drunk as you go. You eat a little tiny thing, and then two hours later, you're like, ugh. And I like that, but I truly don't understand. It's like, ooh, a cannabis-infused Funyun. Okay, you have one. The whole thing is stupid. I mean, fine, make your Funyun ones, but okay, now you have one Funyun.

stupid. I mean, fine, make your Funyun ones, but okay, now you have one Funyun. Maybe two Funyuns if you're one of those people that can just go ham without lying in bed bundled with anxiety. It's like, I had one Funyun, and then I had a pleasant time watching Netflix, then I had three Funyuns, and I thought everything I've ever said was embarrassing. Every word out of my mouth since I was a baby has been wrong because I had an extra Funyun. Prue Leith, a kindly, colorfully dressed judge on the Great British Bake Off, revealed in her new memoir that she helped her mother drown kittens in a bag when she was 11 years old.

The kittens fought like the devil for life, Leith noted. I always forget that Dr. Oz spent those years running a British cupcake lab. If you had asked me three days ago which Bake Off judge drowned kittens, I would have been confident and I would have been wrong. kittens, I would have been confident and I would have been wrong. And finally, a pumpkin grown in upstate New York set a new record for heaviest in the country, weighing in at 2,504 pounds, which is roughly equal to one your mom. When we come back, Giselle Barreto-Fetterman is here. And we're back.

I love spending time in Pennsylvania, something Dr. Oz has never said. Here to talk to us about it. It's someone who knows a thing or two about what yinzuan. Please welcome to the stage the wonderful Giselle Barreto-Fetterman. Hi. Thank you for being here. How are you doing? Good, how are you?

I'm doing great. Look, are you a little bit surprised by just how big of a yutz Oz has been as a candidate? No. Only because I've caught his shows a few times. And I just, I can't. No. We simply can't. What has it been like campaigning at a time in which

there's been this sort of unprecedented wave of negative ads, BS attacks. It often seems as though when there's a bunch of negative campaign ads, it hits the family of the candidate harder than the candidate. The candidate can brush it off, but the family can't. How's it been going? So I'm good. I mean, I cry a lot, but everything is fine. But my eight-year-old, I have three small kids. My eight-year-old, I have three small kids. My eight-year-old, August, comes into the room and he's like, Mommy, why is Daddy too radical for PA? I was like, get off YouTube.

Turn it off. So we have those conversations, you know, at home. Dad does not sell meth. You know, these are things I never thought I would have to say to my kids. But these are conversations we've had to have. I never thought about that, that you're getting served the ads about your dad on YouTube. That's a bummer.

And the children channels, though, which is bizarre because I feel like they're wasting money. We don't let kids vote. So it's not even helping them. Pittsburgh has pioneered putting French fries on sandwiches. What do we do to help more people understand

how good an idea this is? How do we get the word out about French fries on sandwiches? How do we make it seen as less not done? Right. Yeah, I think you ask people to open their minds, right? Be open to this idea that french fries can go in anything.

And that is a Pittsburgh ethos. Yeah, we can... And if we can get people to understand, get people to open their hearts, really, their minds and their hearts, on this one issue of fries... The sky is the limit. They'll start to say, wait,

maybe some of these other ideas I've had haven't always been right, you know? Exactly. What else am I missing? You have to start somewhere. Yeah. So, obviously, your husband had to take a leave from the campaign trail when he had the stroke,

and then all of a sudden, this supposed doctor decides to use it and mock it. That had to be enraging. Yeah. I mean, it's hard. One, you know, I teach my kids to be good people, right? And then you have like an awful person running to represent us all. And that's really hard. But also a doctor, right? And I think about like when I was in a doctor for anything, were they making fun of me? Is this something that happens? And, you know, and how many people have strokes or medical emergencies? And to think that the person who should want you healthy is rooting against you is really upsetting. So when you're traveling, what are some of the things

you're hearing that aren't getting the kind of coverage you think they deserve? Like when you're talking to people, what they care about, Like, what's been the issue that's been most surprising that you get asked about again and again? Sure. I mean, people really care about guns, right? And keeping kids safe in schools. That's something I hear in red parts of the state, in blue parts of the state. Abortion, of course, is a huge issue. And in some parts of the state, like Pittsburgh, we hear it loudly. But I'll be in a red part. I was in a very red county, and a woman pulled me aside, and she whispered to me. She was scared to say it out loud. And she said,

I had an abortion, and I'm not a murderer. I mean, she was in tears. And that's the reality. In these places across the state, they whisper their concerns because they're so afraid to say it out loud. And that's so sad. So what is the way that people can help right now that's the most effective? People inside Pennsylvania and then people outside of Pennsylvania. What is the thing that the campaign needs right now more than anything? So you can go to Mobilize and search for John Fetterman. You could text bank. You can talk to your neighbors. I think a lot of people, just like with Trump, they thought this could never happen. But it can happen. So don't think that it can't happen because it can. So really get 10, 15 friends and neighbors involved.

Talk to the scary guy with the scary signs outside his house. Try to make a connection with them. I mean, in a safe space. There's a few people here that were at the phone bank we did yesterday. And we were calling to sign up people to do voter protection. So to be poll observers, to be in the early vote and on election day. And it was really, it's like, I've never had so many people say yes. Like I've never seen so many people be like, yes, I want to do it. I have to do it. And if one person did ask me, they said,

the only thing that gives me pause is I'm worried about some of the extreme rhetoric out there and all these threats that are coming. Have you felt on the trail some of the ways in which the Republican rhetoric, the Republican extreme language, is that something that's affecting how it feels to be on

the campaign trail? It's definitely real. And I've been in parts of the state where I have really uncomfortable conversations, right? And I'll have folks who have said to me, well, you're so pretty and you do nice things. I like you. My issue is with all the other illegals or all the other immigrants. And I have to have these conversations, right? I have to try to win them over with my charm. But they're not easy, right? Like I get home and I want to cry. I mean, I cry every day. But you just feel dirty, right? And you feel sad because it's a brainwash. I mean, it's a real brainwash that has happened to our country. I'm sad about the crying.

Oh, it's okay. It's healthy for your to our country. I'm sad about the crying. Oh, it's okay. It's healthy for your ducts. It's good for the ducts. Every once in a while, I'll watch like Terms of Endearment or a movie like that. Because then it'll start the crying. And then you just keep that going for like an hour or two. But I try to do that once a year. I constrain it to like one huge cry.

One long two-hour cry. That's what I try to do. It's healthy for your eyes. Your eyes need it. Yes, it's okay. The eyes need to cry. So thank you very much for being here. Now, we would like to open this up to all of you

because it's time you face a quiz on just what John Fetterman is facing in this race. So it's time for a game we're calling Sick as a Dog. Please. Please, please, please. I want you to know something. I think we phoned that in. But it got the job done. So obviously, we have seen a story this week that Dr. Oz co-authored studies in which animals were mistreated and exploited in ways that violated scientific ethics and the law.

Of course, Dr. Oz, doctor in quotes, spent decades parroting dubious and fabricated claims about countless supplements, technologies, and downright quackery. So who wants to put on a drafty gown, sit on a crinkly paper and subject yourself to Oz's whims as we trade off asking you questions? Kendra is out there and throw up your hand if you want to answer a question. We'll go to a few different people.

Giselle, you want to kick us off with this first question? Hi, what's your name? Devin. Hi, Devin. Hello. Okay. Dr. Oz and his producers reportedly agreed to pay $5.25 million to settle a class action lawsuit claiming the TV star misrepresented how well what product worked. Ginseng. That was a really nice try, but no. Sorry. We're sorry. I was real sure. try, but no. Sorry.

We're sorry. I was real sure. It's a no. I'm sorry. It was Labrada brand weight loss pills. Next up. Who's up next? Hi, what's your name?

My name's Missy. It's green coffee bean extract. We already told you the answer. You weren't listening. Missy. That was a really weren't listening. Missy. That was a really good job, though, Missy. Missy, it was a really good job. How many Pennsylvania doctors signed a letter warning voters about Dr. Oz's years of exploiting his viewers and his lobbying on an anti-choice platform?

All of them. No. All of them? All the doctors? Doesn't even make sense. One of them is Oz. Throw out a number. I think today it was 150, but originally it was 100. Wow, that's real. That's Luke. That was good. Hi, Luke. You did a good job. Good job, Luke. Okay. Relatedly, how many doctors sent a letter to Columbia where Dr. Oz was then serving as vice chair of surgery and director of integrated medicine,

calling him out for, quote, quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain and asking him to be dismissed. How many? All of them. Stop saying all of them. Hi, what's your name? My name's Ajmel.

It's like, you've got Ajmel. Oh, Ajmel. Okay. You've got Ajmel. Nice. That works. You've got Ajram. Nice. That works.

I'm going to go with 73. Thank you for being brave to try, but that was wrong. You're so much better at this than me. It was 10. It was 10. 10. Now, next question. When did Columbia finally cut ties with Dr. Oz? 2005?

No. Uh-oh. It took them until 2022. That's disgusting. It's not great. Apologize. That's disgusting. Okay, one more. Another one.

On his show, Dr. Oz once promoted a weight loss plan that required viewers to eat 500 calories a day alongside what to lose weight? I just had 500 calories backstage. I know, it was like one Pittsburgh meatball. So 500 calories and what? Celery juice? Oh. It was actually a fertility drug.

Human chronionic gonadotropin. I think it's pronounced not going to help you lose weight. It doesn't work, by the way. And they knew it didn't work when he started promoting it. It was already debunked by the time he put it on his show. So he told a bunch of people, oh, it's very easy to lose weight. You just eat 500 calories a day.

Of course, you could stop there. That will work. But he's like, no, and then take a fertility drug that's already been disproven. Have at it, because I don't care what happens, because I am a very school dude who's definitely not concerned with just myself and my money and my houses and my shirts.

And if you accidentally get pregnant from that fertility drug, no abortion for you. That's right. In another episode, Dr. Oz hosted a so-called expert to talk about iridology. What is iridology? Does anybody know what it is? Hi, what's your name? expert to talk about iridology. What is iridology? Does anybody know what it is? Hi, what's your name?

What do you think iridology is? My name is Mia. Hi, Mia. Hello. It's not related at all to like... So what happened when you raised your hand exactly? I don't know. I honestly don't know.

Iridology. You threw your hand up and you're like, I'm... Is it something related to the liver? No. Somebody else want to take a shot at it? First of all, I applaud you. That was real millennial energy. In a great way.

What is iridology? What's your name? Pamela. Pamela, what is iridology? The study of the iris. That is correct. Scooby-Dooby-Doo. It is a pseudoscience in which patterns on the human iris can be used to detect health problems in other parts of the body.

He's like one step away from being, you have a criminally shaped skull. This fucking guy. In yet another episode of his show, Dr. Oz welcomes an expert in crystal sonic therapy. Another pseudoscience that alleges you can use sound to do everything from cure cancer

to, you guessed it, lose weight by using what? Radio waves? No. No. No. Close, though. Close. Yeah, that was really close. Sound baths. Sound baths. We'll give it to you. We'll that was really close. Sound baths. Sound baths. We'll give it to you. We'll give it to you. Sound baths.

Scoopy doopy doo. Good job. Jesus. According to a story this week, a whistleblower and veterinarian testified to truly horrifying examples of gratuitously cruel treatment of dogs, including at least one dog who was kept alive for continued experimentation, despite data from her continued suffering being deemed unusable. According to the veterinarian, one Osled study resulted in a litter of puppies being killed by intracardiac injection with expired drugs inserted into their hearts without sedation. Upon being killed, the puppies were allegedly left in a garbage bag with living puppies who were their litter mates. Following an internal investigation,

Columbia University was ordered to pay a fine to the USDA for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, but how much was the fine? 5.2 million. It should be. It fucking should be. But it was only $2,000. Which stinks.

Want to do the final question? Yes. And finally, who the fuck are you going to vote for next month? Yes. Let's get dog lovers for Fetterman on the screen. Thank you so much, Giselle. Thank you.

Go elect John Fetterman. For the love of God. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. That was great. When we come back, Damon Young is here. Hey, don't go anywhere.

There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Please welcome to the stage Pittsburgh's and Crooked's own Damon Young. Hi, Damon. How are you? I'm good. I'm great.

It's good to see you. It's good to see you. I didn't get to see Damon backstage. Yeah, this is... Genuine warm feelings. This is genuine. Wow. Not faking it.

Yeah, we're not faking it. All right. Let's kick this off. Now, Damon, you're terminally online. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Almost inhuman amount of time on the internet?

Yeah. Do you know where you end and the posts begin? I do not. Technology and your thoughts fused into one? Yeah. Cool, Me too. It's time for a game we're calling the Nobel Prize of Posting. Here's the deal. The Nobel Committee has already named several winners, including a group of physicists for their work on quantum entanglement. The institution is yet to catch up on the art,

the science, the craft of posting. So Damian and I are going to take it upon ourselves to bestow the Nobel Prize of Posting for just this week. Are you ready? So we're going to look at a few and we're going to decide which one we think deserves this week's Nobel Prize for Posting. Let's first start with Elon Musk's tweet on his own personal plan with a fucking vote to bring peace to Ukraine and Russia. He has a whole plan. He wants to redo elections. He wants to do a vote. He's got a thing about Crimea. What do you think? I'm waiting for this motherfucker to go to space and to stay. That's what I think. I mean, he's been building this spaceship for decades. Just go and stay.

First of all, the reason I don't believe this deserves a Nobel Prize for posting is because this is just historically classic, arrogant, surrounded by yes people billionaire stuff, which is that, like, I got it. people, billionaire stuff, which is that like, I got it. I got this thorny, diplomatic, international, complicated situation. I read the Wikipedia. People seem to nod when I say things. So I'm not giving it to this. Also, I think it's funny that this is a tweet he's tweeting in a week in which no one on Twitter wants him to buy Twitter. He doesn't want to buy Twitter, but God damn it, he's going to have to. Yeah. I'm convinced that Elon Musk and Kanye West have the same library card and they

read the same books. They have the same book club. Everything that comes from him could come from Kanye very easily. By the way, let's just make a little note that Kanye or Elon is a great game we should do in the future. Because it is genuinely hard to tell the difference. And it is like a metastasized genius thing that seems to be part of it. Which is like, I don't buy into the people who say, oh, Elon Musk isn't smart. He's clearly smart. But there's something that happens when you're good at one thing and that makes you think you're good at everything. Yeah, it reminds me of like, if you went to college and like that first semester home, when you came home and you didn't know shit,

but you thought you knew everything, that is them. You haven't done a reading yet. You haven't applied any of the knowledge, but you think you've been exposed to all these concepts. You wrote like one really great paper and got like a B minus on it. And you think that you are an expert on every fucking thing and that's just yeah it's like there's that chart that like you have no knowledge and you know you have no knowledge and you have a little bit of knowledge and you think you have all the knowledge then you go back down the curve and think you don't know anything and then you slowly approach wisdom I feel like Elon is like riding the wake of that first peak he's

like on water skis on that wave and just sort of riding around the very wake of that first peak. He's like on water skis on that wave and just sort of riding around the very top of that first fucking thing. Agreed. Next up, we have this tweet from Occupy Democrats. I will read it to you. Breaking. New book reveals Donald Trump brutally mocked Rudy Giuliani as fucking disgusting on a plane because the odor after Giuliani used the bathroom was so disgusting that Trump decided to loudly complain, RT, if you're glad you weren't there to experience it. Now, the reason I believe this is worthy of a nomination is because obviously Occupy Democrats is one of the cringiest fucking accounts in human history. And clearly, clearly just a kind of grift. But I feel like this tips back over. You know, it's like the extremes touch.

Like, this is art at the other end. You know, a broken clock is right twice a day. And I definitely see Rudy Giuliani blowing up a bathroom. You know, it could have been him. It could have been the fly. It could have been either. This is a great example where some stories have been either. This is a great example where some stories have no heroes.

This is a story with no villains. You relate to Trump. You relate to Rudy. You relate to Occupy Democrats. You relate to the plane. You relate to every aspect of this. We could see ourselves in any part of this

mocking it from the outside. Being on a plane after Rudy Giuliani absolutely fucking sets off a gastrointestinal fucking IED in the bathroom. You could see yourself being in the bathroom, realizing that you're doing something that everyone on the plane is going to smell. We've all been there. So who is the audience avatar here? I think the book is the avatar.

Yeah, I think that's right. I think the book is the audience avatar here. I think the book is the avatar. Yeah, I think that's right. I think the book is the audience. I mean, I think it's almost like that episode of The Simpsons you see from every perspective. All right, so now we have, that's our next nominee. Next up,

Lena Dunham tweeted, and when I go, I want my casket to be driven through the NYC Pride Parade with a plaque that reads, she wasn't for everyone, but she was for us. Who can arrange?

Oh, it's tough. It's a tough one. Lena is so white. Like, she is so aggressively, thoroughly, just diametrically white. Like, it is, like, she, it's like a new element, like a new level. Right. You know that there's that Vantablack that's the darkest black? This is Lena White. Yeah, it's Lena White. It's like a level below Alabaster. And the thing is, I actually am a fan of her work. Of course, me too. Absolutely. I am a fan of her work, but she just... Look, I mean, I actually think it takes real craft to produce something like this, because

I don't know that we're having this conversation if there wasn't the who can arrange at the end. Because, first of all, it's modeling. It's like describing your own death. Then it's imagining yourself being in a parade after your death. Then it's also telling people how to see you after you die. And then it's also kind of requesting work, like requesting services.

Who can arrange? Yeah, I think that this is the leader, easily. This is the leader? All right. Right now, in the poll position. In the poll position. Definitely. All right, finally. Now, this is the final nominee. It is a late entry. Wow. It is a late entry. Wow.

It is a photo of Dr. Oz that he tweeted in May of him with a therapy dog named Teddy. And then our boy John Fetterman quote tweets it and says, has anyone seen this dog since May? Okay. Has anyone seen this dog since May? I wouldn't be surprised if that dog was used for crudités, which is a word I did not know how to pronounce until he said it.

I don't think a lot of people have been calling it crudités until he started calling it crudités. Yeah. I'll be honest, I think I probably used crudite the way Dr. Oz did. And I don't want to pretend I didn't. I don't want to sit here and look you in the eyes and say, yeah, I can't believe you said crudite. But I'm not running for Senate in Pennsylvania. I had never heard that word out loud before. You're a man of the people. I'm a piss burger. You're a piss burger. We don't say, yeah, we don't say coup de te,

we say veggie tray. Veggie tray. Veggie tray. Motherfucking coup de te. Like, what the hell? There was a period in my life where I was like, you know what?

I need to eat vegetables more. The hang up for me was always like washing and cutting the vegetables. And then I would just say, you know what? I'm just buying veggie trays for my house to eat alone. And then I would just go to the supermarket and I'd buy the pre-made veggie tray and I would just have it in my fridge and I would eat it till it went brown. It's a lonely veggie tray for one. I feel like-

Is that too much? That is, you should, yeah. But why not? Why can't I just buy a veggie tray and have it in my fridge and eat it just for me sometimes? I mean, are you a sophomore in college? Because, yeah, you should go to the produce section and buy actual

vegetables individually. I know that. I know that that's what I should do, okay? But I'm saying I don't go to the supermarket in the world as I wish it was. I go as it is. And I know that if I buy a pepper and a carrot and whatever else and a big thing

of broccoli, that's just garbage in three days. Alright. So now we need an answer. What do you think? So it's Lena. I would say Lena versus Fetterman. That last one brought the hammer, so we're going to go with Fetterman. The Nobel Prize for posting the first one goes Lena versus Fetterman. That last one brought the hammer, so we're going to go with Fetterman. The Nobel Prize for posting the first one

goes to John Fetterman for absolutely owning Dr. Oz. All right, Damon's agreed to stick around for an advice segment, so when we come back, we're going to take some questions from the Pittsburghers. And we're back. In his podcast, Suck with Damon Young, Damon takes a deep dive into his own psyche,

not to mention that of his guests, but in the Washington Post, he looks outward and doles out advice to the people. So you're in luck. Damon is here to help unpack the mess that is your life and the messy reality that is being alive. So if you need advice, raise your hand. Kendra is up in the balcony.

We're going to start up here, and then I'll I want to, I want to share before we get started that I have literally written five advice columns. Like I just started doing this. And they're good. Oh, thank you. And they're really good. I just started doing this in like August. You did a great job answering my anonymous question. So again, all I'm saying is that I'm going to conjure every bit of toxic masculinity that I have and say that if my advice makes you do something fucked up, I take no accountability. No accountability. Because I am not seasoned at this. I don't know if I'm good at this, but let's go. And on a fundamental level, is it even possible for a stranger to get advice from a stranger?

I mean, I get it from my barber all the time. But he's not a stranger. He's not a stranger. So anybody up there want to get some advice? Oh, we have a hand up there. Please remember that this is going out publicly. Yes, I would say that's a really good point, Kendra. We don't need an email to our show inbox that's like,

hi, I'm the person who said my name, my fiance's name, and the person I'm cheating my fiance with. Can you please cut the whole fucking thing? This is going in the episode. Hi, what's your name? Hi, my name's Linda. We need advice on the spotted lanternfly. Spotted lanternfly.

What's your question? Damon knows all about it and what to do. We need him to share his advice. Damon, what's your advice for these invasive spotted lantern flies I have some ambivalence about the spotted lantern fly so the first time I saw one and again if you live in Pittsburgh you've been

inundated with all of these messages about if you see them you need to shoot them in the fucking face and then you need to report you need to report on the killing on the murder and so this has been shoved down our throats all summer And then you need to report, you know, you need to report on the killing, right, on a murder. And so this has been just shoved down our throats all summer. And so I saw one for the very first time on my stoop.

It kind of looks like a stink bug. But if a stink bug listened to Beyonce. Of course. And so I'm sitting there. I'm like, you know, this is the bug I'm supposed to kill. I'm poised to kill it, whatever. And then I'm like, you know, this is the bug I'm supposed to kill. I'm poised to kill it, whatever. And then I'm like, you know what? I'm a black American.

The government is asking me to assassinate a living thing and then snitch on it too. So I was like, you know, fuck that. And it's outside. It's not in my house. I let it go. Well, let me, let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. So like two hours later, I'm out, I'm working. I'm at like this restaurant that has like the indoor outdoor, you know, seating, whatever. And I see another one and I figured that, you know, I maybe bought some goodwill by not killing that one and maybe communicated to his brethren that, you know, Damon is cool.

Don't fuck with him. And so for the next half hour, these motherfuckers were hitting me in the eyeball, diving into my beard, landing in the drink that I had. And so my point is that fuck those motherfuckers. I tried to give them a chance. I tried to give them a pardon. It did not work. And it's on site whenever I see them.

Dead. Yeah, it's on site. Wow. Yeah. So again, and it flipped. It flipped in like two hours where I was, again, I was a pacifist, but they made me choose violence. So are we, what is the status of the war against these lantern flies? Are we winning, losing? What's this? We're losing. We're losing. So these little bugs, they're outsmarting all of you. They jump really far. So that's your excuse. They don't have tools.

They don't have hands. They don't have thumbs. They have nothing. They're stupid. They are literally seriously stupid. Like they don't have any natural predators. So they don't have like a survival instinct. They will just land on you and just stay.

Yeah, they will just fly. They will just fly in your face. What a fucking nightmare. Where did they come from? China. Okay, cool it. That's racist. Fucking Trump in row three.

That is racist. It's horrible. I'm so sorry, everyone. I apologize for the person in row C. Did not expect that energy tonight. Let's just keep moving, Damon. Jesus. Sad to see it.

I was not anticipating that racism tonight. Let's just keep moving, Damon. Jesus. Sad to see it. I was not anticipating that racism here in this show. Does anybody, who else needs some advice from up there? Oh, there's somebody. Hi, what's your name and what do you need some advice about? My name is Derek and I was wondering if you're the political outlier in your family, what's your advice on how to speak to or relate to your parents and siblings in order for them to try to at least consider your point of view. Oh. That's a serious one. That's a good one.

Here's... I have... Go ahead. You go. No, you take it. No, no, no, you go. No, I want you to take it. I want you to go first, and then I build off of your answer.

Done. Here's what I think. What's our goal? Is our goal to get three specific votes from your fucking right-wing zealot family? Or is our goal to win? And so my view on this is, I think that when you're worried about trying to persuade the people you're closest with to have views that are opposite of what they currently hold, I think sometimes it's a little bit more about our relationships than it is about our politics.

And my view on this is, let's say you got a couple Tucker Carlson fans in your family. Let's say there's two or three. Now, you can have an argument with them that gets heated, and then your aunt makes some sort of joke to diffuse the tension, and then you don't talk about it for a couple hours, and then it's a little bit hostile for a while, and then it kind of cools down, and the next day you pretend it never happened. That's an option you can have. It does not make our society a better place, and those people don't come away with a different point of view. Or you can say, you know what? I have these three Trump-loving people in my house that I grew up in. They're there right now doing their thing. I can go out, and I can find five, six, seven people who wouldn't

have voted, and I can make my job getting those six or seven people who wouldn't have voted. And I can make my job getting those six or seven people who wouldn't have voted to turn out. And so my view would be, don't worry about changing their minds. Worry about overwhelming them at the ballot box. And so my thing is, go out there and outvote them. You don't have to convince them. That's my take.

So I'm going to veer a bit from that. And my question is, why can't you do both? Yeah. And then also Damon's point is, fuck shit up. Thanksgiving's around the corner. I mean, you could go out and persuade whoever to vote and get everyone in the ballot box.

But, you know, and this is a very specific message that I have for white people. You know, there are people who will never, ever, ever, ever listen to what I have to say, regardless of my message, regardless of my platform, they're not going to listen to me, but they might listen to you. They might listen to you at the Thanksgiving table or at the cookout or whatever crucible whiteness that I am not privy to. Right? They might listen to you there. And so, again, I think that those uncomfortable conversations are necessary because are you just going to just allow them to just be that way and fester forever? Or are you going to confront them? And also make it like an

ultimate answer. Like, you know what, if you want to continue to see me, if you want to continue to have this relationship, then your politics have to change. You know, I have a friend, I started a blog, Very Smart Brothers, which, you know, some people might hear, might be familiar with. And my partner with VSB, my partner for VSB wrote about, he's biracial, his mom is white, and he wrote about cutting off his mom because of her political beliefs. Because she was a, you know, make America great, you know, Trump supporter, all of that. And so if we want like an actual change, that's maybe how far we need to go to do that. maybe how far we need to go to do that. I do think there's a distinction, too,

between representing your point of view when there's going to be the rabid people, the kind of lost people, and maybe you just need to kind of stake your claim. But there are kind of persuadable people, and you shouldn't cede that territory. I will say I've had many different kinds of these interactions in my own life, and I will describe one very angry confrontation with a

relative that just culminated in them saying, and you know what else I have a problem with? And I just shouted, what, Mexicans? And I ran out of the room. So I will say that I've gone, I've tried all the different tactics. I'd say the only way out is through. Yeah. We think pick a fight now. I'm with Damon now. There we go. Flip a tablecloth, throw a pie, get fucking messy, get in there. Get in with these people. And again, I mean, I know that is going to be very, very difficult and tense and, you know, whatever,

to do that with your family and your friends, perhaps. But if you don't, then who will? Who else has a question? How do I explain to my seven-year-old the difference between a superpower and a supernatural force. Fuck. What? What are you talking about? What on earth are you talking about? What rubric for seeing the world do you have in which superpowers are something other than a supernatural force? superpowers are something other than a supernatural force. What do you think Superman is? What are you talking about? The difference between a superpower and a supernatural force, is that really a question? You think there's a difference?

Okay. I'm going to take a stab at it. I think superpowers maybe don't exist in our current universe. I think superpowers, I think of like superheroes. Yeah, yeah. Whereas supernatural, I think of maybe unexplained religious sort of spiritual phenomenon. I think you're right. Oh, sorry. Wow. Holy shit.

Thank you. Thank you, God. She shoved the microphone in my face. Yeah. Unexpectedly. Wow. Are there no problems in your life whatsoever? Your question is that you think there's a distinction between the supernatural and superpowers,

and there's a seven-year-old who doesn't understand what you're trying to explain to them. You must be going through a lot of other hard stuff quickly to get to this. These are the questions children ask. You're an adult. You asked us. Kendra, take the mic away from him again. Thank you.

Okay. Hi. Hi, what's your name and what is your question for Damon? I'm Tiara. And, hey, y'all. My question is, how do I convince the white people at my job that I don't give a fuck about the queen? Like. I mean, what's wrong with saying exactly that?

Organize a staff meeting, you know, get a Zoom, get an email. Yeah, just put it on their calendar. Yeah, put it on their calendar. Everybody lives by their calendar. Just add it to the calendar. Wear T-shirts, coffee mugs. You know, just this reinforcement over just waves, waves crashing on a beach. And I just want to say one other thing.

I'm so sorry that you feel like you're living in this upside down cuckoo bananas, fucked up world that not giving a fuck about a dead billionaire from another country is something you need to explain to people. Shame on everybody who cares. from another country is something you need to explain to people. Shame on everybody who cares. I am so angry about how much coverage this fucking thing got. And then there were these stories that were like,

well, she wasn't just a queen. She was also a great-grandmother. A lot of great-grandmothers died this week. Nobody gave a fuck. They die all the time. A great-grandmother died during this show. It's not on the Today Show tomorrow. Hoda's not talking about it.

It's traumatizing to black and brown people that she's on this pedestal when we know for centuries that she's traumatized black and brown people. And just the disregard for the feelings of black and brown people in the workplace is sinister to me. I feel like you could just say exactly that. And, you know, you could give a context. You could talk about imperialism. You could talk about all of the stuff that the British Empire was a part of and that the queen oversaw. Like she wasn't there actually doing stuff, but she's the fucking queen. I don't think there's a problem with actually articulating, like, you know what, this is why I don't give a fuck about the queen. In fact, it's not just, I don't give a fuck about the queen, it's fuck the queen, right? And again, I think that as long

as you give, you know, the facts and the data and whatever, and you don't have to sway people, you could just let people know, like, this is how I feel. And's that and the secret is that they don't give a fuck about the queen either really that's right that's like no one here no one really gives a shit no one gave a shit it was it's a thing to talk about a way for people to respond to things that they feel compelled to respond to but no one at your job gives a fuck about the queen you could actually ship them from I don't really give a fuck about the queen, to fuck the queen, if you give that context for why you're like,

you know what, fuck the queen. As long as your workplace isn't the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, right? Because they really do care, I think. I mean, does anyone, raise your hand if you give a fuck about the queen, please? They're not going to raise their hands now. Yeah, no, please. Could you imagine?

Please. I'm not telling anybody. I do think it's actually a bigger... We're the only ones who can see the crowd, so... We'll close our eyes, then you just raise your hand. Raise your hand if you give a fuck. I do think it's actually bigger, too. It's actually...

The reason it bothered me so much, too, in addition to the points that you were making, is that it's a larger issue to me than just people pretending or actually caring a lot about the queen. It's people worshiping kind of institutional authority and only the good parts. You know, the reason this person is being mourned is not because they're a person, it's because they represent this institution. But of course, in death, you're only expected, you're only supposed to talk about the parts that are honoring without acknowledging the parts. If you represent the monarchy, then you represent the whole damn thing. Some of the same inclination that leads like wall-to-wall coverage on CNN and all the news networks of this dead monarch is the same inclination that causes a kind of worshiping and elevating and hyping of the presidency and treating it like

more than what it is, which is just a very, very important job. It is a person who does a job and they are in an institution for good and for ill. And I do think like there's a kind of sickness to the kind of worshiping of power that is corrupting. Yeah. Yeah. And I think what we also see, and not just with the queen, but with other prominent public figures who pass, is the performance of grief. People see other people grieving publicly online and they feel like, you know what, I also have to perform. I also have to weigh in. I also have to tweet or post something on IG or Facebook or whatever about this to keep up, you know what I mean, to be a part of the community because, again, everyone else is performing and they're

expecting me to perform, so I had to perform too. Statements like yours get to the reality that it is a performance. Again, these people don't really give a shit about the queen, but you could get this social capital of retweeting something very obvious about it and get 2000 retweets, 20,000 Facebook likes or whatever. And that itself is a capital. And so people are using this death and using this process of mourning to enhance their own social status, basically. Yeah. Just by the fact that it is available to all of us at any time to share our feelings with the world, the act of having a feeling is then mediated before, even if you never post anything. Even if you never post anything even if you never post anything you are trained to observe yourself feeling a feeling and that experience is diminishing

and turning into a performance your own feeling even if you never post it there's a fucked up to that that's like everywhere all the time not online in the real world but for all of us it's sort of changing how we interact with each other and i think we're at the beginning of it yeah. Yeah. I mean, the performance of grief, the performance of sadness, I don't want to say that people aren't authentically sad or authentically grieving, but sometimes the performance ends up replacing the actual emotion where you're chasing the performance and you are more cognizant of the performance and how the performance affects other people than how you actually feel and how you're actually grieving and how you're actually dealing with your own emotional volatility. Yeah, I think that's right. Before we let you go,

you've written, as you said, a number of columns for the post. And I just want to rapid fire, get your advice on some of the topics you've already covered. We've already covered killing the spot on the lantern flying. You got to yes. Yes or no. Should I get my anti-vax friend's baby vaccinated without them knowing? Hell the fuck no. No. By the way, shame on all of you. No, you don't secretly give another person's baby medicine. Come on.

You don't kidnap the baby. Use your heads. You will go to prison if you do that. Should I date someone who was mean to me in college? No. Oh, really? I was a yes on that. I'll date someone who's mean to me now.

Yeah, that was a question where I had to figure out 500 more words to say. Yeah. After like, no, fuck no, no. How do I get my cousin to stop saying the R word? Okay, and does everyone know what the R word is? Here, okay. There was a man who emailed me at least three times. And the last email said,

this is the last time I'm going to ask you what is the R word. Language is like water. And by language like water, I don't mean that it's like fluid. I mean that the same substance could hit you like a brick. It could be ice or it could be just like a breeze connotation. And words change. Connotations of words change. The R word was a word that was an actual medical term at one point. And then it became an off-color insult.

I've definitely said it when I was in middle school and high school, just offhandedly to, you know, call someone dumb or call myself dumb or whatever. And then, you know, as, you know, culture shifted, then that word has become a slur. You know, one of the few words that people try not to say out loud. And I think that that context matters because that is what happens with words, where a thing that might have been cool 25 years ago just isn't now, and that's fine, right? Because that's just how language shifts, and that's how connotation shifts. And the thing is, sometimes the language wasn't even cool 20, 25 years ago. We just have more access and more people who have more platforms to be able to say, you know what, that shit is hurtful. You should not say that.

So don't say that word. And if there's any other words that you feel like you were able to say five or ten years ago and you can't say, there are hundreds of thousands of words. And just don't say that one. It's that simple. that one. It's that simple. That's the part of it that frustrates me when people are so demanding to say this word that people are saying don't say. It's like, yo, go to fucking thesaurus.com and plug it in and find a new word. Just do it. I do it all the time. I shouldn't have said that, but I do it all the time when I write. Yeah. Do it all the time. I do it all the time. Rhyme zone, Thesaurus.com.

These are arrows in the writer's quiver. As a person who names many episodes with puns, I go to RhymeZone all the time. RhymeZone is our secret weapon. Here at Love It or Leave It, it's unrelated, but it is true. All right, everybody, check out Stuck with Damon Young. Check out Damon's column in the Washington Post.

Damon's going to stick around for the rant wheel when we come back. It's time for the rant wheel. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Before we get to the rant wheel, Crooked is bringing you the election coverage you love to hate with Crooked Radio every weekend in October

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really cool, crooked.com slash kicks. Okay. You should do it. They're almost sold out. Truly, we're selling sneakers. They're cool. I don't know if they're Damon Young cool. I like sneakers. I have the Crooked coffee.

He's got the Crooked coffee. Get him some Kara Yumas. And now it's time for the rant wheel. You know how it works. Damon's agreed to save for the good coffee. Get him some cariomas. And now it's time for the rant wheel. You know how it works. Damon's agreed to stay for the rant wheel. Also joining us this week, it is Kendra, our producer. Kendra James. Kendra had a rant.

I do have a rant. And when Kendra has a rant, Kendra's on the show. Here's how it works. We have eight totally random topics, not at all suggested by the people on this stage. The wheel spins and lands on one of these topics, and then whoever happens to feel inspired has a chance to do so. On the wheel this week, we have posting about cats' birthdays. We have spotted lanternflies. We have bros. We have Donda Academy, Twitter threats about nuclear weapons, quad axles, vacations. Let's spin the wheel. It has landed on Twitter threads about whether or not Putin will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

I put this on the wheel and I just wanted to say this. I don't know what we're supposed to do with the threat of a nuclear weapon being used in Ukraine. I don't know what we're supposed to do with the threat of a nuclear weapon being used in Ukraine. I don't know how we're supposed to process that reality or think about it. I certainly don't know what any one of us as individuals is meant to do about it. But I do know one thing. Something as serious, significant, important, dangerous, world-changing, deadly serious about a topic such as using nuclear weapons in a war. I know that it is not meant to be explicated on a social media platform with a limited number of characters, which is basically just a giant algorithmically determined chat room. I know for certain

this is not where we should be figuring it out. And there is nothing more stressful to me than some foreign policy expert I've never heard of saying, will Putin use nuclear weapons? I think probably not one of 30. I never feel better when I get to 30. Then it's like another expert with a different set of letters after their name at some different foreign policy institution, probably funded by Qatar that I've never heard of before, says like Putin use nuclear weapons some people are a little too sanguine I think it's a real possibility one of 28 I hate it thank you let's spin it again it is landed on Donda Academy. I believe, Kendra, that was your suggestion.

It was. So here's the thing. We could be mad at Kanye about so many things right now. We could be mad about the White Lives Matter shirt that he wore in Paris this week. We could be mad that he's hanging out with Candace Owens. We could be mad that he dragged Lauryn Hill's daughter into it by making her model the White Lives Matter t-shirt at the fashion show. We could be mad that he is making me keep up with the Kardashians. I almost said Kardashians. But we

could be mad that he's making me keep up with the Kardashians, a show that despite watching everything from every Real Housewives franchise to Love After Lockup, I have never seen an episode of. So there's just so much that I could be mad at him about. But as someone who once worked at a school founded by celebrities, I am the most mad about Donda Academy. Do not send your child to a school founded by a celebrity. It's a bad idea. The school that I worked at founded by celebrities was great. It was perfect. I loved it. Everyone there was wonderful. It did cost $34,000 a year and his only cost 15. That's great. But what is going on there? If you go to the Donda Academy website, it has three administrators listed. The principal is a woman

who used to be the choir director for the Sunday service thing, the cult that he was doing out in the middle of the valley in California. She doesn't have any formal teaching experience. She won't even have a master's degree until 2023. She's running a school. The second person, the vice principal, was a public school teacher, great, respect, love that. Again, has no formal administration experience and is just helping to run this school. He posted a video to his TikTok the other day, and this is why I really started paying attention. It is a video of the school's choir. They seem to be in a windowless room. At the school that I worked at, all of our rooms had windows, I would like to say. The music room had windows. And it's them and this one woman

leading the choir, and they're just going, hello, Donda, hello, Donda, hello, Donda, over and over again, and then transitioning into a version of his song, Good Morning, from 2007. And I watched this, and I said to myself, it's giving cult. Their uniform is like a long black t-shirt, black pants, and then like those weird black Yeezys. So all the kids are just dressed like that, and they are just chanting Donda over and over and over again. You cannot convince me this is a real school, and I cannot believe he has been allowed to do this. It's actually upsetting to me in a time where like education is so, so important for our kids. Like when you have people like trying to pull the so-called CRT from our schools, when we are

banning books, when it is so important that we need kids to be informed, conscious citizens of the world. And he's doing this and people are paying to send their kids to be educated by fucking Kanye. This, he needs to be stopped. Someone needs to take this nigga's phone away. It's just like, it's so upsetting. Anyway, you have kids.

Would you let Kanye West educate your children? No. Is there a celebrity you would let educate your children? Jesus, I don't know who to, I don't know the name. Well, according to Kanye, actually Jesus is educating the children. It's technically a Christian prep academy. Yeah, I don't know. Angela Bassett, maybe. She has a master's from Yale. Yeah, she could be a good teacher, I think. Quinta Brunson, I mean, she does a great job as a teacher. So three, three celebrities.

Gina Davis does archery and she was in Mensa. Okay, that's fair. So four. So Gina Davis, Quinta, Jesus. And Jesus. And Jesus. And Angela Bassett. And Angela Bassett.

I think we cracked that one. Yeah, anyway, he needs to be stopped. He needs to be stopped. Thank you, Kendra. Let's spin it again. It has landed on vacations. Vacations. Okay, that's mine.

I come to this with no vacation baggage. We didn't really have money when we went on vacation. It was the Newcastle PA. Shout out to Newcastle. Hot dog capital of the world, but that's not necessarily a place that people think of when they think of vacations. We didn't summer. We didn't have summer as a verb money, right? think of vacations. Like we didn't summer, we didn't have summer as a verb money, right? So we didn't summer. And so I come to this, you know, with fresh eyes and I've been on several vacations as an adult and everyone is vacationing wrong. They're all doing it wrong. Everyone. Yeah. Because vacations are supposed to be, at least, you know, I feel like in the truest sense of the word, you escape work to go somewhere and have some leisure. You do not leave work to go create more work. I just feel like that

is what we tend to do where we go on the vacations. It's like, okay, we're meeting a group at nine o'clock for breakfast. And at 11 o'clock, we're going to snorkel with the shark that killed Sam Jackson and Deep Lucy. And then at one o'clock, we're to snorkel with the shark that killed Sam Jackson and Deep Lucy and then at 1 o'clock we're meeting a group for brunch and then 3 o'clock we're going to spelunk at Cave Satan's Anus and it's like we're doing all of this shit. Doing all this shit is creating all of this activity and scheduling and meeting and doing all that when I just want to go on vacation. I want to sit in my room. I want to be butt naked, eating scallops, binging Barry or Atlanta or whatever the fuck. And I don't want to feel bad

about that. I don't want to feel shame for not doing shit for the gram or for not taking advantage of the island or hiking or whatever the fuck that these people want to do. I left work to escape work, not to create more work. And again, I think that this is a byproduct of just American rise or grind, always having to be on, always having to do shit culture. I'm done with it. It just frustrates me because we don't know how to relax. Counterpoint. I like my vacation scheduled within an inch of their fucking lives. You're doing it wrong. I like knowing where I'm going to be every goddamn minute. And I like it to be the same every day. My ideal vacation, my ideal vacation, I have an alarm that goes off at

the same time every morning. I get up, I do the same thing every day at the exact same time. I get up at 8.45, swim 8.47 to 9.15, breakfast 9.17 to 10, pool 10 to 3 every day on time, dinner reservation at the exact same time every night, routine 10 days, 20 days, 30 days. I don't care. I can do it every day as long as the exact same time. That's what I want. That's shocking because that's not the way you run the show.

It's not the way I run a show, because I vacation like I work, and I work like I'm on vacation. Let's spin it one more time. It has landed on bros. Here's what I would like to say about the film bros. I'm very frustrated by the discourse on the film bros. The reason I'm frustrated by it is because there was this big gay rom-com.

It comes out. It doesn't do well. And then all of a sudden there's a conversation about why. And all the answers don't really matter. And the debate is very stupid. Here's the reason it's all very stupid to me and very frustrating. The reason it's very frustrating is

a movie like Bros comes, right? Everybody waits to see how it does. Nobody says it before it comes out, right? There's promo, there's ads, there's things, then it doesn't perform well. Then all of a sudden, everybody knows why. Oh, the ads were too much about why it was groundbreaking, not enough about it was funny.

Oh, it's Billy Eichner's fault or it's the industry's fault. It's the release date. It's all the rest. The reason I find it so frustrating is we go from not having a gay romantic comedy to attacking the reasons for a failed romantic comedy. And we skip over the part where just this one movie isn't enough. And at no point in any of this debate about whether or not Bros was the right movie to be the gay rom-com to end all rom-coms, I was reading all of it and I was thinking about it. I have my own opinions about it. But what I was realizing I had not thought about at all was how desperate I was when I was 12, 13, 14 years old for anything resembling gay love on television, anything.

There was a show on MTV, and the name is escaping me right now, but it would basically be this kind of running kind of soap opera of different relationships. There were like three or four per episode, and they were always overlapping. So one was finishing while one was in the middle and one was beginning. And every once in a while on this MTV show, does anyone remember this show? Was it Undressed? Every once in a while, there would be a gay one. And the thing I will always remember about the gay one is whenever the two guys kissed, they would go to a super wide shot. And when I say that just this existence of this storyline of two boys kissing on a TV show, it felt like an oasis in the desert. And the fact that this movie not succeeding financially is such a big deal is a testament to just how backwards

and empty and unequal the way in which we tell stories has been, continues to be, will continue to be for the foreseeable future. There has just been nothing. There's been nothing even remotely like this. And it sucks that one movie has to be the avatar for all gay movies, that this one version of what a gay rom-com can be has to stand in for what all gay movies have to be. It sucks. I remember when I was a kid and Queer as Folk came out on Showtime, and I tried to watch it, and it just didn't feel like me. I didn't understand. I didn't know how to be gay. I didn't know anything. They were kind of sad. Did it take place in Pittsburgh? It did, didn't it? The American version took place in

Pittsburgh. And I remember just thinking, is this what it is? Is this what being gay is? This must be what it is. It's the only thing I've seen. The only thing I've seen is this version of what it means to be gay. And they all seem pretty fucking depressed. And it seems pretty gray here a lot of the time. That was Pittsburgh. So that was the Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, not the gay aspect, the Pittsburgh aspect. Pittsburgh. So that was the Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, not the gay aspect, the Pittsburgh aspect. And the fact that so many, I think like gay people have decided to also kind of turn on this a little bit and resent the fact that this movie is supposed to stand in for all gay stories. Like, I understand that feeling. I understand that resentment. I remember feeling it as a kid and

being like, this isn't me. This doesn't speak for me. This isn't me. That's fine. But like, understand that like that we need more of these movies, not less of them. We need to find a way to have those stories be told. And there needs to be enough gay and queer stories so that one of them doesn't have to stand in for all of them. And that we don't have to see ourselves. That just by dint of being gay doesn't mean we have to see ourselves in a gay story. Because there's enough gay stories that we can find the one that speaks to us. And I think it is an amazing achievement that this movie got made.

And whatever comes next, you will look back and say, this movie got to exist and make the space for another story and another story after that. And some Marvel gay guys need to start fucking. That's the other thing. All right, that's the rant wheel.

One more time for Damon Young. Thank you to Kendra James. When we come back, we'll end on a high note. And we're back. All right, let's end on a high note. Hi, what's your name and what is your high note? Hi, my name is Elise and my high note is I convinced my company to give employees paid days off to be election workers in Allegheny County. Nice. Thank you for doing that.

That's great. Hi, what is your name and what is your high note? Hi, everybody. I'm Karen and I am a breast cancer survivor. I survived. Thank you. That's great. Thanks for sharing.

Hi, what is your name and what is your high note? Hi, my name is Lulu. I moved to Pittsburgh this summer. It's pretty well documented. It's hard to make friends as an adult, and I bought two tickets to the show in the hopes I would have a friend to come with me, and I do, and she's in the back.

And it's been really great to have a friend. That's great. I will say, there are times when someone says, my high note is it's hard to make friends, and I came here alone. So I'm really glad how that one turned out. Hi, what's your name, and what's your high note? My name is Stephanie, and I came here alone. I love that.

But my high note is that a year ago, I moved here to get closer to my family. It took a $20,000 pay cut to be closer to my family. But I found out yesterday that I got a promotion and I made up that $20,000 pay cut. Nice. That's great. Hi, what's your name and what is your high note?

Hi, my name is Kate. My high note is I got married this weekend. Whoa! To my very socialist, slightly anarchistic husband, who I love to listen to your show and listen to Pod Save America and get in very heated debates with in the car, and there's no one I'd rather do that with.

And I love you so much. Thank you for coming to Pittsburgh. Thank you. Wait, hold on a second. Anarchist, institution of marriage. I don't actually believe him. I mean, look at this. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Kate's so great. She can make an anarchist follow the rules. Amen. Pretty good. I do a lot of things to make him follow the rules. Pretty good. Hi, what's your name? What is your high note?

My name is Bethany. Bethany. Yeah. My high note is that literally, I'm sorry, I'm a single mom. I'm unemployed. Literally, this show is the joy that I look forward to every week. And I wasn't going to be able to come, long story, but a good friend of mine, some of you may know her.

She used to be a city councilwoman. She used to be my boss, Natalia Rudiak. Encouraged me to do something nice for myself. And I'm a little sad you're not wearing a skirt, but it's fine. It's fall. I'm wearing a skirt. The skirts will be back. The skirts will be back.

But they're not here, and that's fine. Again. But I just appreciate it because seriously, you make me laugh so hard that it's like shit I can't explain to my 11 year old because it's too complicated and way too inappropriate and like poppers and he's like listening to me with the headphones laughing and being like what are you laughing at and I'm like uh

yeah let's not well there's this thing called the special master oh he's well aware of what a special master does I bet I bet, I bet. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for coming. Nice to meet you.

Hi, what is your name? What is your high note? Hi, I'm Emily. Thank you for all you do and for all you put on the show. This is going to sound sad, but it gets less sad. Earlier this year, one of my best friend's dad's unexpectedly passed away. And her older brother and her entire family kind of conglomerated in her

hometown. And he was a professor at the local university. And they took all of books that he had that their families had collected and they're opening a brick and mortar bookstore in their hometown in the coming months. So if you're in Murray, Kentucky anytime soon, go to Boland Books and also support

your local bookstore and get to know folk stories. Thank you for sharing. Hi, what is your name? What is your high note? Hi, my name is Erica. And my high note is that I'm here. I get to see you. I was in Chicago at the same time you were.

But I had a conflict that night. I had one obligation of my entire trip there. And it was the night your show was. So I'm very happy to be here. It's so good to see you. Thanks for coming. Hi, what is your name? What's your high note?

Hi, my name is Hannah. My mom and I drove three and a half hours to get here from Buffalo. Buffalo. My sister's in Rochester. I actually live in Rochester, but I'm from Buffalo. So I... Have you had a garbage plate?

I have had a garbage plate. Yeah, French fries on everything. Of course. Yeah, my high note is coming here after a shitty year. And also that my boyfriend doesn't listen to podcasts and he doesn't get it. Every time I would ask him, I was like, what's my favorite podcast? And he's like, he would just mix up celebrity names, like first and last names. Like the last time it was like John Lennon. And then a couple of days ago he goes,

isn't it love it or leave it? And I was like, yeah. So that's my, I would say if you get an opportunity to see John Lennon live, you should take it. Yeah. That'd be cool. Hi, what's your name and what is your high note? Hi, my name's Lauren and my high note is that I moved here two months ago for a new job, sight unseen and it was absolutely the right decision. I'm so much happier here than I was before. Thank you for sharing.

What's your high note? Hi, I love it. My name is Haley. I've actually dreamed about this moment and you coming to Pittsburgh so I'm very excited. Maybe you're still asleep. And all the high notes that are like deep and beautiful. This is not that. So just prepare yourselves.

But my high note is that you have made my week two weeks in a row. This is obviously a high note for this week. But last week I had binge watched a ton of RuPaul's Drag Race when you had mentioned that you did it on Pod Save so I recognized Ginger Minj in the Hocus Pocus 2 release which spoiler alert if you haven't seen it but that

was like the high point of the whole movie for me so thank you for that Thank you I don't know if I really can take much responsibility for a ginger minge appearance and hocus pocus too, but I'll take it. Hi, what is your name and what is your high note? Hi, love it. My name's Abby. I love you so much. My girlfriend and I talk about you as though you're a person we know. That's not my

high note though. It's parasocial. I love it. Right, right, right. It's not healthy. It's not real, but that's okay. Here you are. We're best friends. So I just wanted to tell you that my really, really one of my best friends for like eight or nine years patty just got engaged to a great guy sam and so we love that and sam loves you so much he wished he could have been here tonight you are his celebrity crush and patty doesn't listen to podcasts but sam loves you and they both got engaged and we just love each other to each other not yeah to each other. Nice. Yes. And Sam loves you. Shout out Sam and Patty. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, what is your name? What's your high note? Yeah, my name is Jesse. I'm one of the doctors that works at UPMC. And as of January of this year, UPMC, you know, shout out to UPMC.

As of January this year, UPMC is the only provider, the only insurance company in the state that covers facial feminization surgery. So for once, I find myself really prideful to be working for a large organization that covers the full gamut of transgender care. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. What is your name? What is your high note? I love it. My name is Dan. I'm a big fan of you and the other Pod Save America guys. And also as a gay person who dreamed of being a director and screenwriter, thank you for your input on bros. I've been very frustrated by the dialogue by a lot of our fellow homosexuals.

But my high note for this week is I got laid off from my job a couple months ago. It was a student loan servicer that I worked at. I know the ethics are, but I'm in final rounds with a couple different companies. And also after seeing AOC's story today, I got to tell a couple friends how to get refunds if they made payments on their student loans and were qualifying for forgiveness. So. Awesome. Thank you. Nice to meet you. What's your name and what is your high note? Hi, my name is Ian Everhart. And my high note this week is my wife and I are celebrating

our daughter's first birthday on Monday. And as if that wasn't enough, she has taken her first steps walking today. So very excited about that. Wow, that's great. What's your name and what is your high note? My name is Jackie and I am a chef and entrepreneur. I owned a restaurant across the street for three and a half years until about two months ago. But my high note is, is that without Giselle Fetterman,

I would never have had it. She was the one who introduced me to a lot of people that helped me get my business off. And about three weeks ago, she called me because I've been doing Thanksgiving dinners for them. And she said, we're out on the campaign trail and we're doing our thing. But all John can think about is if I'm going to make Thanksgiving dinner for them. So I want to thank her for everything she's done for my career. Thank you so much. That's a great place to leave it. That's a perfect place to leave it. Thanks to everybody who shared a high note. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, call us at 323-538-2377. That is our

show. Thank you so much to Damon Young, Giselle Barreto-Fetterman, Kendra, everybody who participated. There are 31 days until the midterm elections. Have a great night. And thank you, Pittsburgh. This is so much fun. Thank you. Love It or Leave It is a Crooked Media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett. Kendra James is our executive producer. Brian Semel is our producer. And Malcolm Whitfield is our associate producer.

Hallie Keeper is our head writer. Sarah Lazarus, Jocelyn Coffman, Pallavi Gunalan, and Peter Miller are the writers. Bill Lance is our editor. And Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McClain and Caroline Haywood, for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast, and to our digital producers, Narmal Konian, Zuri Ervin,

and Milo Kim, Mia Kelman, and Matt DeGroote for filming and editing video each week so you can. And you can find these glorious videos at youtube.com slash crookedmedia.