Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - QQanon | Ep. 282

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

The guys meet in the shadows to share their conspiratorial beliefs about mis-hit iPhone buttons and political donation solicitation text messages. Plus, Soren's been rewatching The Last of Us and Shogun season two will have many more dragons.Follow Soren & Daniel on Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.social/https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.social

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Bet responsibly. gamblingcare.ie This equation has perplexed mathematicians for centuries. It will likely never be solved. Sinead, pass me that Deep River Rock Vital Mango and Passion Fruit. Packed with vitamins and zinc, Deep River Rock Vital can support cognitive functions to help you think better. Professor, the answer is 13.86 squared.

No, it's not. It won't make you a genius though. 5.341? Nope. Is it nine and a half? Please sit down. Deep River Rock, that's better. When will I be remembered? What about me? Oh forget it I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien

Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer they're gonna find it I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here. Sore in, let's get into it. Okay, right now. Conspiracy theories hit me. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Hold on, there was, just to give everyone a peek behind the curtain. Again, we make our sausage behind just a curtain. At the beginning of this podcast, Dan said, I have something I want to talk about and I have a pretty good way into it. Yeah. We want to talk about conspiracy theories. And I said I had a pretty elegant way in to get us started. And you trusted me. Soran, let's talk about it, conspiracy theories.

So this is a staple of podcasts I've heard, because people love talking about this kind of thing. Your favorite conspiracy theories. I love listening to these two. Or ones you actually believe. Or ones you actually believe. I have, I think, a decently original one. And I think it's original because I came up with it

and then I didn't Google it because I didn't want to believe that someone has already on this beat. But this is- The seed, the beginning of every conspiracy theory is don't look up alternative, like don't look up what actually might debunk it. This is something I truly believe in my bones. It's a little bit sinister, but not like there's

a secret cabal of government employees who are running the country kind of sinister. It's sinister in like a tech capitalist nightmare sort of way, but I firmly believe that the keyboards on smartphones have been getting worse on purpose. Like, I've gotten through several updates of iPhones in my life, and now I'm very frustrated. I'm frequently from muscle memory of what the keyboards used to be, filling periods into the middle of words. When my thumb used to hit the space bar, now it hits the period because Apple shifted where

the keyboard was on the phone. And so I'm constantly, it makes typing everything so much slower and more frustrating because I have to go back and fix it. And I also feel like spell check has gotten worse on the phones. It was always like kind of laughable in the beginning when people would say like, oh, I typed what the fuck on my phone and it changed it to what the duck. That kind of thing doesn't happen anymore. That sort of whimsical mistake.

Now it makes like mistakes that you would expect if this was the first iteration of spell check. It has gotten worse at figuring out what I'm trying to communicate and where I get a little bit more tinfoil hat about it and where it gets a little bit more conspiracy theory. Why they're doing it. Right, it's easy to say like,

oh, technology is getting worse because technology is getting worse or because they want to later sell you a phone with better spell check or a better keyboard. I think they're making the keyboard worse and they've been making the keyboard worse because they want to frustrate you so much that you more than type do voice to text everything as an easier, superior alternative because they want to generate more examples of human beings talking and saying sentences

so they can better train AI. Oh no, wait, you don't think that they could train it just as easily off of what you write? I don't think so. No. I think they're trying to get familiar with the way people actually talk. So when they're making like, whether they're doing a typing AI person or a talking AI person, they'll just have like millions and millions of hours of data of people from all over the country in different regions with different idiolects and dialects just speaking the way they normally speak. They have so much data. So you can type in as like, Hey, AI chatbot, how would a person from rural Nebraska order chicken dinner online.

And they can like generate what sounds like someone from Nebraska doing that. You know, they have enough data that whatever you put in, they can give the closest approximation to it. That's a thing that I sincerely believe. Cause I went down my own rabbit hole of like, keyboards are getting worse. Why would they do that?

Yeah, yeah, you can think it through. Not only is like talking into a phone to get the text generated superior, because I'm fumbling over my stupid thumbs on the keyboard, I also, and this might be a me problem, you could tell me if this is a you problem as well, the button that I accidentally hit the most often on my phone without realizing, is the button that I accidentally hit the most often on my phone without realizing is the

button that opens a microphone in the text conversation. I don't know how that happens, but I'll be texting someone and then I'll put my phone in my pocket and then I will pull my phone out and I'll realize that I have been recording in the text window doing a voice memo for who knows how long. It's something about the placement of that button that it's scientifically designed to be the most likely hit button on the entire phone. I'm never accidentally taking a picture. I'm never accidentally hitting send on anything.

I am always accidentally activating the microphone that is collecting my voice data. Fascinating. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do, I understand what you're saying. I do hit that voice memo button an awful lot. And I did same exact circumstance where like, are you drinking a beer? So we're in, why thank you. No, what a generous question. This is Manhattan Special, Diet Manhattan Special, an espresso coffee soda that I've loved for decades. Are you drinking a carbonated coffee? Pay for it. And I'm happy to pay for it, but I sure would love if Manhattan Special would send me some

free product for this podcast. An espresso coffee soda. It's got five calories, total fat zero, sodium 2%, carbs zero, added sugars zero, protein one gram. You've got a coffee seltzer water there. An espresso coffee soda called Manhattan Special. Stop calling it that. That's not what it's called.

It's espresso premium coffee soda. Yeah, but I, they're trying to dress it up. You've got a seltzer water that has caffeine in it and tastes like- It says delicious right on the label. It has McCroy coffee flavor. All right, drink it up. Since 1895, soren soren. So you know it's time tested.

Holy shit, coffee seltzer's been around since 1895. All right, sorry. I was gonna say, that is the problem that I had the most. I do fucking hate texting because I always, you will see, you know this because you and I text back and forth. Every single, there used to be like just a lot of errors all the time.

And now what you see is edited, edited, edited, edited on every single one that I send. Because I even, for a long time, I was a holdout from getting an iPhone because I needed a slide phone. Like a phone that you just slid open and it had a whole keyboard on it. Cause I could text real fast there and I would get shit right.

And I could send whole emails and stuff. I am, if I have to send an email on my phone, I get very anxious because I'm gonna fuck up something. I'm gonna like, there's gonna be I's and O's always. It feels like it's a personal attack on me. Like I'm like, I know I hit O. And like also how can I be getting just these two wrong all the time?

How come when I'm taping O, I'm not hitting P? Like O, sometimes I'm actually putting an I in. And sometimes P? Like O, sometimes I'm actually putting an I in. Sometimes when I'm doing I, I'm actually putting an O in. And I'm like, this is like just against me. This is an attack on me. But I understand that that may not be true, that that's probably not true. If I was to think of a reason why they would be making the keyboard shittier, I mean, AI feels like a pretty good...

AI just like general, like a general AI voice feels pretty smart. But I also think that it could just as easily be them trying to create, getting enough information from you that they could create an AI voice of you yourself. Possibly. So like the same way where we've done this podcast

a number of times, Gabe Harter has then like basically he can put together based on our voices throughout this podcast and episodes and episodes and episodes. You could put together basically an AI podcast and you listen to it and we're saying things we've never said before, but it does, it's mimicking us pretty well. Yeah. So it's just collecting somebody's voice over and over

again, you can finally create an actual voice of them. And I don't know like end game there. I don't totally understand. Maybe you're creating like a memo service for yourself. You're your own assistant or something. It falls apart. The conspiracy theory falls apart a little bit because I don't know what the end-to-end game is.

You're right. I mean, everything else makes sense to me. Like the history of forced adoption for Apple technology has been, we will make this so convenient and ubiquitous that it's undeniable. Everything, all of the people who are not Mac people eventually migrate to Mac because it's everywhere, because you need an iPhone if you want to go to a concert, and because you don't need to be convinced it's easy. It's just so clear how easy it is and how helpful it is. And that's what I feel like they're doing

with voice to text now. They're making that seem like such the norm, like so stupid to not use it. And the why to that took me to collect our voice data. But then the why after that is, and then what? How do you make money off of, because the end game is always money. How do you make money off of all of our voice data?

I'm sure people, our listeners will tell me exactly how. I'm sure Ed Zitron has done a thousand episodes of podcasts about this exact thing, telling me how. But yeah, it's hard for me to think of like what the actual application of that would be, apart from like tech ghoul visions of the future where people just don't do anything anymore, where it's just computers and it's robots and AI doing everything.

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18 plus. Bet responsibly. GamblingCare.ie This equation has perplexed mathematicians for centuries. It will likely never be solved. Sinead, pass me that Deep River Rock Vital Mango and Passion Fruit. Packed with vitamins and zinc, Deep River Rock Vital can support cognitive functions to help you think better. Professor, the answer is 13.86 squared.

No, it's not. It won't make you a genius though. 5.341? Nope. Is it nine and a half? Please sit down. Deep River Rock, that's better. What if it's simple and dumb? What if it's like, you know, as Apple,

I get those screen reports at the end of every week with like, here's how long you spent on your phone. It's always pretty demoralizing. It gets a grim number. But if they're just like we used to sit there and look at numbers of like how long people stuck with a video at cracked, It's always pretty demoralizing. It gets a grim number. But if they're, just like we used to sit there and look at numbers of like how long people stuck with a video at cracked, or like how many people watched it,

you wanna juice that. And like your numbers are coming in, they're a little bit low. And you're like, well, we gotta keep people on their phones somehow. Like let's turn on that thing that fucks up their texting. And it keeps you on an extra 20 seconds. And that's, but it's every single person and it's every single time you text. And you're only doing

it because you've got to like juice these numbers that you've got for this particular quarter. And then you turn it off. So you can turn it on and off. It's going to be that dumb. And I still would be like, yeah, that makes perfect sense. I'm sure it is. I'm sure it's the same way that there are cookies that collect data on all of your computers everywhere. And Facebook, even if you're not on Facebook and you don't have a Facebook account, it still has a little pixel that follows you around the internet and collects your data.

And when I first heard about this kind of thing, data brokers and collection, years ago, my mind went to much more interesting places than what the truth was. My mind's like, they're gonna steal our data. And I don't know what they're like, they're gonna use this data to steal my money or to get pictures of my niece's feet

or some like nefarious, like crazy fucking super villain stuff, but it's always ads. It's always, we get this data and we can build a sophisticated dossier of who you are, and then we will sell that information to advertisers so they can more effectively target ads at you. I'm sure you're probably right, and this voice collection thing is that.

They're not going to replace me with an AI robot. They're going to build an even more robust profile of me. So they'd be like, listen, this guy who sounds like this, he sounds like he's got an East Coast accent and some college education, and he talks about Chick-fil-A a lot. That information would be interesting to chicken sellers on the East Coast who would like to feed his Instagram with more targeted ads. I'm having a realization here. I'm falling down the rabbit hole with you because now I have a real end goal in mind that I understand, which is this would be a much bigger conspiracy. This was the Joe Rogan version of a conspiracy theory. But what if they are trying to get you, yes,

trying to get you on voice record as much as possible. And they are, that button is so easy to, I love that you love your drink, Dan. That's wonderful. They are trying to get you to, you automatically hit that button. I don't even know where that button is honestly, but I hit it a lot by accident.

I don't either. And so if they can get you voice recording more frequently, then they can roll out a thing where they're like, hey, listen, you're using this all the time anyway. You can have just, it's like an Alexa in your pocket. Like you can just have voice record on all the time. And so you can say like, text Dan. You don't have to say somebody's name or anything.

You just say text Dan, it would come up and they would say, or text Daniel in my phone because that's what you're in there as buddy. Thanks bud. And then you would be able to just say what you wanna say and then it just does it. You don't even, you're not even taking the phone out of your pocket anymore.

You're wearing your wristwatch or whatever and it's like doing it through that. And all even, you're not even taking the phone out of your pocket anymore. You're wearing your wristwatch or whatever, and it's like doing it through that. And all your, you're not ever saying, hey Siri, or like, hey, hey anybody, Alexa, whatever. You're like, it's just automatic. And so you talk to it, it's even better than Star Trek because you're not even saying computer. Like you just start talking and like,

it's like, it knows what to do. The benefit of that would be, hold on, hold on. This is the second tier of this. The benefit of that would be, hold on, hold on. This is the second tier of this. The benefit of that would be my phone, this is great, this is my tinfoil hat moment, is already listening to me. I know that we talked about this. I know that other podcasts have done this to exhaustion.

I know that Reply All did a very good podcast about this and how your phone is not listening to you and that you're crazy for thinking that. But the minute you have a conversation with somebody else, it's exclusively like in the ether, it's just you two talking, I start getting served up ads for these things. And if they were doing that, they'd know that there's like, there's a real reckoning coming for that and that somebody's going to find out and that that's bad. And if you can finally get people to a point where they want that instead, where they're just talking into their phone all the time

and the phone's always listening, because of course it is, then it's way easier to like sweep that under the rug. They've been doing that all these years. Right, all the phone really needs to do is prove to me a couple of times that it's making my life measurably better by spying on me constantly. This thing is in my pocket

as I'm walking around and talking all day, and it's listening to me as I'm at work, as I'm talking to my wife, as we're figuring out what we want to do for dinner. And then if I take out my phone while I'm sitting at the toilet, and it auto-populates with an ad that was like, two for one dinner at Chili's plus movie tickets. If that's what you're into on a Thursday night to see Sinners, as you've been talking about all day, I'd be like,

damn yeah, I have been talking about Sinners and we were thinking like, when are we gonna get dinner? This is a, all right, okay phone, you can keep listening. The second that you make my life worse, then I'm gonna turn it off and get a dumb phone. The really spooky one is home repair, Dan, because something will go wrong in your house and then you don't even necessarily talk to somebody.

It's so weird. Like there'll be times where something's like, I'm like, fuck. Say like you're leaking your basement, for instance. You're like, oh, it's leaking again. You'll have to be more specific. Maybe you'd say that out loud. You'd say that out loud.

And then your phone would be like, oh, bad, oh, injuries. Injuries that happens to me all the time. I will not even have gone to an ER or anything. I just will have injured myself. I start talking to my wife about it and then I start getting very specific ads for that particular type of injury. I'm like, there's no way.

You know that there's not a threshold in your life where you get to 42 and they start giving you like, this is what the types of injuries you might get. It's like, it's so hyper-specific that I'm like, you fucking, you are listening to me. But also thank you. I did actually need this article because this is very helpful. Good stretches in here. You had great suggestions. Okay.

Let me give you my conspiracy theory. By the way, thanks for starting this podcast with that great quick question. Soren, do you have any conspiracy theories that you believe in? That was a wonderful idea. Oh yeah. A fantastic idea shockingly not brought to you by Manhattan special. The drink of the past and the future. I would like some as a present. That's... God damn it. It's too good. That's a really good ad, Dan. I must kind of irk you

a little bit that that is a... You got to constantly use the name Manhattan and not something that's a borough near you. Like Jersey borough. One of those Jersey boroughs. Whatever they're called. What do you call them? Hamlets? Haslets? They're all haslets, right? It was, I was talking to my future sister-in-law about Instagram advertising and she was like, have you ever gotten anything? Why don't you use your podcast to get stuff? And I was like, have you ever gotten anything? Why don't you use your podcast to get stuff? And I was like, well, I guess one time we talked about Lululemon for a few minutes.

And then a few months later, they sent Soren and I like $1,400 worth of Lululemon merchandise. And I fell in love with Lululemon. They knew what they were doing. I learned nothing from that. I have since not mentioned a single brand. So I'm trying to subtly incorporate every once in a while,

a brand that is not giving us something for free, but that I would very much like to have for free. Lululemon, I mean, it was so easy to buy me. Like I was not, I think we talked about in the podcast, I was like, isn't that a girl thing? And I was like, yeah, look at the emblem. It's a girl on there. And then they sent me a bunch of gear and I was like, oh shit, this stuff's good. And the gym, I was getting compliments, like compliments,

not on the clothes, on my body. And I was like, oh, thank you. And they're like, that shirt's doing you a lot of favors or whatever. And then I was like, it's Lou Lemon. They're like, ah, don't you hate that one? It's the expensive ones. And I was like, I don't know how much they cost. They gave it to me. Also, if I'm getting this kind of attention, no, I don't hate it. In fact, I like it.

It turns out that's what I'm paying for. I will pay any price to get that kind of attention. My conspiracy theory, Daniel, this is one that I have harbored myself as well. It is that, okay, let me just tell you what's happened first. First I get a lot of cold texts from companies, not companies, from different- Colorado? Colorado, but also LA now.

And now that my brother lives in Milwaukee, I get them from Wisconsin as well. But it's just trying to get donations, right? It's like trying to get donations for a new candidate that's running for, hey, but like a lot of them are really aggressive, like, Elon on his heels right now. You gotta donate now, or you gotta sign this petition now.

You get a lot of those, right? Yeah. I've, before the election, I was donating. I was donating a lot because I wanted the campaigns to succeed around the country, and I was donating to Kamala Harris a lot. Okay, I was donating a lot because I wanted the campaigns to succeed around the country and I was donating to Kamala Harris a lot. Okay. I was going to say, and then now that you got what you wanted, you don't need to donate

anymore. But when I didn't get what I wanted, I stopped donating. I was so frustrated and sad that like, well, there's no way whatever the amount of money that I'm donating will ever even possibly compete with Elon Musk. It's like I lost my, my spirit was broken. Sure. So I stopped donating for a while as I was like trying to recalibrate. And when I stopped donating, I started getting messages from the Trump campaign. They were like, tell us if you voted for,

tell us if you secretly voted for Trump. Like that kind of stuff. I would get a lot of messages like, do you agree with what Trump's doing right now? And then they got more and more favorable to Trump. They're like, and it was clear that it was coming from the GOP. And so my conspiracy theory is,

when you donate to a political party and you are like a regular donor or maybe even not, maybe you're just like you donated a couple of times and then like those hostile messages that they're sending you, they're like, why are you the last one to sign this petition? You're our holdout. Like as soon as you start, you're not even answering those anymore. Then they are like, fuck you, we are going to sell your information to the other side. And that will do two things. It

will get it starting to get a text from the other team is going to rally you up and it's going to bring you back to our base. It's going to think it's going to bring you back. It's you're not getting these types of things anymore. And it's also going to bring you back. You're not getting these types of things anymore. And it's also going to punish you for abandoning us. And so I think that they, because that information is so valuable. They know who I am, the types of people I vote for, and that's like, maybe even what my causes are. like whatever I'm donating specifically to and like, or a candidate that has like a, what like they're standing on abortion or whatever it is. They're going to try to rankle me any way that they can

to try and drive me back. And so they will sign me up. They'll, they'll sell my information to the other candidate. Behold, NovyBet, the betting app that delivers offers information to the other candidate. in places each way every day. Search NoviBet, download the app, or check out NoviBet.ie for the best Punches Town promotions. NoviBet, more power to you. T's and C's apply. 18 plus, bet responsibly. GamblingCare.ie.

This equation has perplexed mathematicians for centuries. It will likely never be solved. Sinead, pass me that Deep River Rock Vital mango and passion fruit. Packed with vitamins and zinc, Deep River Rock Vital can support cognitive functions to help you think better. Professor, the answer is 13.86 squared. No, it's not.

It won't make you a genius though. 5.341? Nope. Is it nine and a half? Please sit down. Deep River Rock, that's better. I think that's 100% right. Here is, cause we're in the same boat on a lot of this. Here is a text that is not going to move me

in April of 2025. Daniel, it's Nancy Pelosi. Now more than ever, that's not gonna do shit for me. I am pissed at Nancy Pelosi and I don't like what she did with my money last time. Here's what will move me. Daniel, JD Vance here. I want to make it legal to fuck 14 year olds. Can you give me money?

And I'm like, oh, I got to stop these guys. Oh, Nancy, take me back. Yeah. Yeah. Or I mean, also maybe they have like a, it could not be as nefarious as this. It could be that they are like, we know what's going to, you haven't clicked on a single one of these ever. You know, I'm not, there's never been a cold text

that I've been like, I will donate to this text right now. Yeah. If I see that kind of text, I'm like, you're right. Like that candidate is close. I should be like donating to that campaign. I will just then go do it separately. But it's possible that that's everyone in the world. Everyone has gotten that smart, that they're not just... Because a cold test could be coming from anywhere, from anybody.

So it could be coming from your own party. And it still says, hey, listen, JD Vance would really like you to fuck 14-year-olds. Don't you agree with that? And then you immediately like, no. would really like you to fuck 14 year olds. Don't you agree with that? And then you immediately like, no. And then you respond by going to, yeah, just going to your whatever page you got set for donations for the Democratic party and you're going to donate. It's possible that they didn't sell the information, but there's still some real chicanery happening. Yeah. That's such a good conspiracy theory. I love that so much. I think it's happening. I'm pretty mad about it. I'm mad about those cold texts in the first place. How many are you getting a day? I get like seven a day.

I don't get that many. I was getting a whole... I get like seven a day. I don't get that many. I was getting a whole, I used to get a whole lot more, I think, because I still, I have monthly auto donations to like New Jersey abortion access fund through ActBlue, I think. And that's got to be tied to enough Democratic mailing lists. So they're like, ah, we got this guy. We'll poke him again for the, when the Jersey governor race is heating up in a few months, we'll poke him again.

But for now, like we, his money is secure with us. This is the point. Yeah, if you're doing this, so if you're, if you've got like a, if you're giving them a monthly thing, you're signed up for that, then there's, it's in their best interest not to ever talk to you again. Yes.

Because you're gonna forget you're doing that. Yeah. And you don't wanna remind a person that they're doing that. Yeah, I'm getting one. Here's one from Jenna Griswold. According to Politico, Trump is preparing to sign a presidential, presidential memorandum targeting ActBlue.

Hey. Yeah, there it is. Hi, sir. I'm Randy Villegas. I'm the Democrat running in districts in California, 72nd congressional district. Like I get them from, and they're not just from my state because I have a 970 phone number. I get them from Colorado. I get them from, and for whatever reason, I get a lot to say like my dad's name or I get up at something to say my brother's name because I think that this is also just in phone records. You can attach certain phone numbers to a family essentially. And so they're just stabbing in the dark. Yeah. It's so funny to me for as sophisticated as the targeting

of their ads are, as we've mentioned earlier in the podcast, it is funny when it gets closer to the election just how wide of a net they cast. Because I'll get the text from the same random numbers, but it'll be like, hey, Dan, Beto O'Rourke here. I'm like, nah, that's not doing it for me. We're like, Tim Walz here, Tim Cain here. I'm like, Tim Cain, get the fuck out of here. And he's like, hey, Dan, Al Jandria, Casio Cortez. And you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're fromain here. Like Tim Cain, get the fuck out of here. And it's like, hey Dan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're from around here, let's talk. What are you mad at now? And part of this is also that, the ones that were coming from Trump have a very specific cadence and language to them. There's a lot of capitals. It's usually in like a blue for whatever reason,

like they figured it. And then usually in a blue for whatever reason. They figured it out. And then stuff's highlighted within it. So maybe it's because they're taking an image. I'm trying to think of how they're actually doing this. There's stuff highlighted in yellow. And the language is so aggressive and tough. And then occasionally I will also get a democratic one that is like an exact same, it's using the exact same glossary.

Like it's using the same terms and everything like that, but it's a democratic one. And that makes me suspicious that if they're not selling, at least selling my information to each other, that they are, this is the same people doing both sides. I think now I'm imagining that, yeah, there's a warehouse somewhere where it's just, one of my early college jobs,

I was not technically a telemarketer. I was in a room with a bunch of people in front of phones and there were a lot of products that were advertised late at night, like a multi-cleanse, like a bowel cleanser. We also, there was advertisements for a bra that was supposed to, like a sports bra that was supposed to boost up your cup size.

There was a mattress topper that was supposed to be very comfortable. Bunch of random, completely unrelated products advertised late at night. And then they would say, there's a sale going on. Call the number below right now and you can capitalize on this sale. We college students sat in front of phones and waited for the phone to light up. And then the phone would tell you someone is calling because they saw an ad for this product.

And then you open up your binder of information. It's like, okay, they want to buy the multi-cleanse. Here's the script for the multi-cleanse. And let me talk and pretend that I'm a multi-cleanse salesman. Hang up, pick up another phone and pretend I am a bra salesman. I mean, it's not pretending. We are selling all of those products, but it's just, we are just like the salesman for everything that is advertised to you.

There's probably a warehouse with a bunch of college folks or interns or whatever who just work for fundraising packs broadly. And they're just texting the same rough language with a few tweaks to everyone everywhere. There's one database of all voter information and they're all sharing it. God damn it. That's really grim too, because then it's just like, it's just, the texts come in so dire.

They're like, if you don't do this, a baby's gonna die. Like they're like, you have to do this right now within the next five minutes, if you don't sign this, a baby will die. We're waiting on you. That they would use that kind of hyperbole when they're just sending that same thing out to both sides, but with different incentives. Yeah. So I know it's impossible to cater every fundraising text, but they would do a lot better if the texts were slightly more personalized and they were like, Daniel, we saw how much you've donated in the past. We see what you've done.

It's very helpful. That're like, that's enough. But we would like more and if you can spare it, that would be great. Or, hey Daniel, we've been watching last week tonight. You guys are doing your best. I hope you can trust. Yeah, you're the real hero here. We've seen the show.

We'd like some more money. I'd even settle for Nancy Pelosi texting me and be like, Soren, it's Nancy. No money this time. You're doing great. I just wanted to say hello. I'd be like, hey, she knows. Do you need anything?

Yeah, this is the first time Nancy's texted me and not needed money. I like this. Yeah. Text me after you win to be like, hey, man, we crushed it. That was fucking sick I'm taking the day off. You should take the day off Don't give me any more money to get something nice for you Yeah, it's hard like like Cory Booker did that stump speech. I know stump speech Cory Booker did the

Jerry no, what's it called? What's it called? Just it wasn't gerrymandering. He just no he just Occupied the floor for- Right, it has a name. But anyway, yeah, he did that speech for- It wasn't filibustering technically because he's not blocking anything. But the spirit of filibustering, yeah. And so he did that speech for like over 24 hours. And as it's going on, like, you know,

it's obviously coming into my newsfeed and I'm like, hell yeah. Like this feels great. So I donate. As soon as he's going on, it's obviously coming into my newsfeed and I'm like, hell yeah. This feels great. So I donate. As soon as he's done, as soon as he's off the floor, the texts start coming. They're not from him, but they all say from Cory Booker. Like I just got off the Senate floor. Or off the Senate?

Is he in the Senate? Shit, Soren. Good luck. I just got off the floor. And boy are my dogs tired. But he's asking and then there's a bunch of like, cause like they know that that kind of thing will rattle at the base, but then immediately I get flooded with the texts. And I'm like, I already did the thing.

Stop it. I also want to respond to those texts and be like, I am watching you on TV now. You are not texting me. COREY Is this voice to text? COREY Yeah. COREY Because I do have it on mute. Is it one of those situations, Corey? Blink. Blink once of yes. Yeah. So that's mine. That's where I stand on it. I don't want to get too deep in the weeds on I don't want to get too deep in the weeds on actually saying I do believe this because man you see how quickly like I see you watching their podcast like I see like that gets planted

and then like three days later it's all over Reddit and like everyone's believing it and like it becomes a real thing so easily that it's like I don't stand behind the things I'm saying right now. I'm just saying I fucking feel like this is true. Yeah. Yeah. I don't stand behind anything I've said on this podcast. I should accept, with the exception of the smooth, fuzzy taste of Manhattan Special. You know, it does, it's a bad name. I'm gonna, I'm with you. I know that you're so angry that it's not about one of your hazlets, but Manhattan Special, there's already a fucking drink called a Manhattan.

I know. And so if you call your drink Manhattan Special, it implies to me that this is going to be an alcoholic drink and it's going to have some whiskey in it. And it comes in what looks like a beer bottle. It's a very confusing drink. It is. You thought it was beer. People have stopped me in the street because I thought it was beer before.

I've even poured it into a pint glass because that's the only glass I have that will fit it. And it still very much looks like a dark beer that I'm drinking at 11 in the morning. But it's not. No, it's a Manhattan special, it's a Manhattan special. It's a Manhattan special. From 1863.

I can drive. Just after the Civil War, this was invented. Yes. I have a friend who started drinking. Just after the Civil War, when love for the North was at an all time high. It could have been higher. I have a friend who started drinking athletic beer,

got very into it. If anybody doesn't know what that is, it's a non-alcoholic beer, but it's become like a real beer of choice for non-alcohol, for people who don't wanna drink alcohol because I guess it just tastes good. I don't know, I don't drink it, but he loves it. And he loves it to the point now

where he's started bringing it into his everyday life like out in the world where he'll be like about to go pick up his kid from school and he'll be like, but I just did like a long day of shingling or whatever. Like I was out all day. I just would love a crisp beer. You know, I'm just going to take a roadie athletic and we'll be like drive down the road drinking an alcoholic beer. And I'm like, you can't, oh wait,

I don't know if that's legal or not, but I feel like you shouldn't be doing it. Yeah, it seems like you got the non-alcoholic beer to scratch a different itch. In my experience, non-alcoholic beer is for like, I'm at a party where I'm at a barbecue and I'm not drinking, but I wanna feel and look like I'm drinking and participate in this social aspect. It's not like, I wish I could drink in church, but I'm not allowed. No rule against this.

Yeah. It's possible that this is because this is somebody who does bits and he's gotten lost in another bit. Like he doesn't know if he believes the bit or not. And so he, yeah, I think that it's like, but it is like a very funny thing to like go to like a school board meeting and just pop one. I feel like, what's the problem? It's non-alcoholic. All right, well, Daniel, there's another thing I do want to talk about.

Okay, do it. Are you watching The Last of Us? I am. Okay, did you go through and rewatch season one before watching, starting season two? I did not, no. Okay, I know that season two is out right now. I'm very excited for it. I'm so excited that I have done the thing I did for Game of Thrones, which is I'm like,

well, I'm not watching it yet. I'm going to rewatch so that I'm fully prepared because I didn't do that with Severance. And there were definitely moments in the second season of Severance where I was like, uh-oh, where were we again? What is this? I am wishing I did that on season two of not to yuck your yum with a Star Wars thing, but season two of Andor is out now. And I'm realizing that I wish I would have rewatched

the first, because first of all, the first season is amazing and the second season seems like it is too. But as I'm in it, I'm just like, oh, oh, what? Who, who are all these people again? Yeah, Witcher is a show like that where Witcher's like, refuses to hold your hand through the show, to remind you of anything. They're just like, well, fucking, if you can't keep up, then don't watch us. They're like, okay, I'm sorry. I'm rewatching All Blast of Us. I remember it pretty

vividly, but I'm also rewatching it because I don't want to get Macklemore'd again. And what I mean by that is that Macklemore, a long time ago, back when I was in college, was a big hit and we all loved him. And he came up with that song about being gay and we were all like, ah, the song of a generation. This rules. Like, listen, how brave. Look at what he's doing for people. Like this is a song for everyone, this is wonderful. Two weeks later, I mean it was not long before everyone was like, hold on a second. It's hard to overstate how well constructed

that Macklemore moment was because as far as I know and you can correct me because you were in our bigger Macklemore fan, Thrift Shop came out first and that was such a catchy, that was like the song of the summer. Everyone, it was for racism reasons, it was playing on all radio stations. It was a pop rap hit. He is a cool, handsome guy. It's a song, it's like a funny song that doesn't take itself too seriously about saving money

by buying vintage shit at the thrift shop and having a good time doing it. And it had a catchy as all hell hook and a great saxophone backing track for it the whole time. And it was like, this fucking fun clown, what a blast. Let's play this song all summer. And then the follow-up was this song about- Same love. Same love, and it's about how it's okay being gay, which I guess Macklemore thought was a brave thing

to say in 2017. We all did. Like he wasn't wrong. His finger was on the fucking pulse. But the problem is we were all fucked up. Like it was the first time that, yeah. So yeah, to give you some context, like the song, if you're not familiar somehow with this song, it starts with him being like when I was in third grade, I thought that I was

gay because I kept my room straight. Yeah. And I had uncle who was. I could draw. And so he came to his mom crying and he's like told her that he thinks he's gay. And his mom's like, Ben, are you serious? You've been a pussy house since first crate. Yeah, I love it.

It's so stupid. It's wonderful. And then he qualifies it after it's been like tripping. Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she? You're like, why did you feel it necessary to like qualify that? But I also remember back to being in college and there being like a LGBT event at school where people could get up and talk just like at a podium that was in the quad. And people would get up and the first thing they would say is, I'm not gay.

I am an ally. Like they would qualify every single time. And if somebody didn't, like I had a friend, Alex Brown, who didn't qualify, he just got up there and started, it was pretty irate and was yelling about equality. And at the end I was like, is Alex gay? My thought immediately was he didn't qualify it, I wonder if he's gay. And I realized that that's an indictment against me. You have to understand that it was what I was perceiving.

It was what I was seeing. People would either get up there and they would say nothing and then they would just talk about LGBT or they would get up there and say, I'm not gay, but I'm an ally. And if you weren't doing one of those things, if you weren't doing the second thing, then you were the first thing. And I don't know why that even mattered to me then, but it did. It was culturally, it was like, oh, is he gay? Oh, I wonder if he's gay. Not in a way where I was like, there's any animosity or anything, but it's just like, we felt we needed to know. I don't know why. I don't know why. There's no good answer here.

But Macklemore song came out, everyone was like, yeah, yeah. And then it became pretty clear. Finally, I had them for straight people. Yeah. All right. Yes, exactly. And then finally gay people came out and they were like, no, man, this song is rough.

And you're like, it's not rough. And they're like, listen to this. And you're like, oh, it's rough. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So like, all I can do is like try to be better at every turn and keep an open mind and be like, okay, I'm still learning. I'm so sorry. Please bear with me. And then I was thinking about that with Last of Us. And I was like, shit, I really loved the episode with Nick Offerman. There's a whole bottle episode where you learn about

Frank and Bill, these two guys who fall in love in an apocalypse. And then they stay with each other until they get old and then they die together. And it's beautiful. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous episode, very moving. And I was like, I took a moment and I was like, hold on, Soren. Why did you love this? Think about the reasons why you love this. This is because this is novel to you? Is it because it was too men? What was it about it that really made it special?

And so I was like, fuck. So I was going back really trepidatiously to re-watch that episode. I watched it last night, Dan. I'm still going to stick with the fact that this is not a dangerous banger. This is a banger. It's a great episode.

It's really, really well constructed and beautiful. Decades from now, we'll still make lists for top 50, top 100 episodes of television in a vacuum of all time. Even when social attitudes have changed and evolved in a different way, people will still say regardless of social attitudes, this is a well-written, people will still say, regardless of social attitudes, this is a well-written, well-acted, well-directed, well-conceived episode of standalone television, full stop. I think you're okay.

Yeah, I mean, structurally too. You go back and you watch it, and it's such a well-told story. It doesn't feel outside of the world at all. It doesn't feel like a bottle episode because there's like a little intro where like, where Pedro Pascall and what's her name? God damn it. What's her name, Dan? Oh no.

Bella Ramsey. Yeah, Bella Ramsey. That they're just like walking and they're like, there is a lot of business up front. And like them finding a mass grave there. And then you go from the mass grave based on a blanket, you know that you're back in time because you see that blanket around a baby and you're like, oh, that was such a good cinematic move. I know exactly where I am and you

haven't had to say anything. You don't even need a chiron. You just show me when this baby was alive, here was what was happening. You get to Nick Offerman and his bunker and like every single movement in it and like him discovering the hole where this guy has fallen and then that they never fill that trap in again, like that hole stays out there because it's like a remembrance of like, this is where we met.

And like them falling in love in a very short amount of time or at least starting to like each other in a very short amount of time because it's literally a night or a day because he's like, you have to go, you can't stay here. And warming to each other in that time enough to stay together. It's so slow, but really, really good and really well done. It's so self-assured. It's so funny to me that It's so self-assured. It's so funny to me that The Walking Dead was on the air for 20 years and had three or four different spin-offs to talk about all the different kinds of stories that could

happen in the zombie apocalypse. Every single one of those stories was, we happened upon a group of people and these ones decided to be cannibals and these ones decided they were, and these ones decided to be cannibals, and these ones decided to be Nazis, and these guys decided to be bad. Like, these are all the stories that you could tell in a zombie apocalypse. And within maybe the third episode of Last of Us,

they were like, here is a perfect story of what could happen in a zombie apocalypse for people who are not trying to save the world or kill everyone, people who did not have a cynical view about things. It was just like a self-contained portrait of one couple in the zombie apocalypse, living a very compelling, deceptively simple life.

It was truly incredible. Let's watch it life. It was truly incredible. Let's watch it again. It's really wonderful. It is, the other thing is that it sets up the entire rest of the series of like, why Pedro Pascal is doing what he's doing. Like you have a guy who could have gone either way. He's a survivalist or a prepper.

And like, he could have easily become really brutal and vicious, or he could have become so kind and good. And it was these people in the world who don't necessarily have these tangible skills of cutting metal or knowing how to build a weapon or fighting or anything like that, but they are so valuable to holding a society together. And he happens to run into one of those and he falls in love with this guy. And Pedro Pescal is also in the same situation where he's not a good person in that show. He's a bad guy, but you introduce somebody to his world who is good and like they become this sun

that then they sort of orbit. And if that sun implodes or dies, they spin off into who knows where. Like they spin off and they can be anything at that point. But you have these people who, it's the intangibles, right? It's like the things that you can't specifically put your finger on that they provide, but they are the glue to everything. And you need these people in the world. And they are the good. They're the good that you're protecting essentially.

Yeah. And when I say you're, I mean, anyone out there who actually is that type of person, I am not putting myself in like a category where I would do anything in a apocalyptic scenario. I would not be helpful. Right, I am neither Pedro Pascal survivor nor the goodness that must be preserved in the world.

But I'm going to, I'll help. I am acceptable fodder. Yeah. And so I, but I did rewatch it. I just finished that episode and I was like, fuck, that's good. And then I started thinking back like, well, what episodes do I still have to go? And in just like giving myself an elevator pitch of each one of the ones that I could remember,

I was like, oh, the plan is so much clearer now that it's over on like why you go to each individual civilization and like what you learn there about who we are is very, very interesting. It's like, you start with this one where you're, it's an empire, right? It's like everyone, the government is Nazis and there are these people who are working, these small band of people trying to overthrow that and everyone else

is just trying to get by. And then you go to a city where they did overthrow it. And it's also not great there. It gets pretty bad because there's, because people can't let go of the vengeance that they feel. And like, and then you get to a society where there is where it does feel like it's religious, but it does feel like everyone's kind of got their finger on the pulse, except they've created essentially a monarchy and it's all built around this guy who is, oh, fallible, who fucking knew like,

and it's maybe the worst of all of them. Even with all that power we gave him? Huh. So you go through all these different scenarios of like, well, if we had to restart a society, just like four of us, could we do it? And the answer is really no. You wouldn't do a good job.

It's a great show. And just sort of tangential to your point is that there's shows that my wife and I watch together, and then there are shows that I watch out of my own time. And I will always qualify that because all of my tastes are bad. It's my dumb Marvel show, or my dumb Star Wars show or my dumb zombie show.

And it's, it's now funny that Andor and Last of Us are on as I'm watching them on like a Monday while she's working and it's just in the background. And she just overhears, you know, a father and a daughter archetype having a very serious high stakes argument about emotional fallout. And she was like, I just hear Shay in the back of me like, I haven't heard anyone talk about zombies in this show. Are you sure this is not a show I'd like?

That's like, White Lotus is a murder mystery. Like I liked my fucking weird murder mystery to about rich people, but I don't care about the mystery at all. No. And my dumb Star Wars show that is like, like focused on a literal nuts and bolts on how empires are built and how resistance gets from the ground up. Grass-roots resistance. Yeah. Like quick, I'm going to put on my dumb Star Wars show.

And it's just like very serious men in white clothes talking about bureaucracy. And I'm like, this is so fucking good. I mean, that's for the best parts of Game of Thrones. She's like, where are the lightsabers? They're not in this one. No. The first season. The only monsters are in the minds of men.

The first season of Game of Thrones was, I mean, the fights, I guess everyone's like eventually looking forward to like the battles and stuff, but really the politics of that show was the most interesting part. It's like, how do you negotiate a system that is broken? And like, here's a bunch of different people doing it. They've all got their different ways of doing it.

Let's see which one succeeds. And you're like, okay, all right, I get it, little finger, I see what you're doing. And it was fun, it was like so fun to just think about the politics. It was fun, but it was fun enough that I felt like by the middle of that show's run, I was the wrong audience or like I wasn't by the middle of that show's run, I was the wrong audience.

Or like I wasn't on the same page as the showrunners because a season would conclude. And as they were building hype for the next season, the showrunners would come out and they were like, yeah, we've, next season, we're gonna have three dragon battles. Even bigger than the one dragon battle you had before. And I was like, oh, was that the thing I was supposed to be looking for? three Dragon Battles, even bigger than the one Dragon Battle you had before.

And I was like, oh, was that the thing I was supposed to be looking for? Because the first season that I loved had none. And that got me in the door for the show. I wasn't playing the long game of Dragon Battles for this show. I was really, give me Littlefinger and Varys whispering in a room. Give me that for eight years. Oh, couldn't get enough of it. Yeah. And just thinking of a guy like Tyrion trying to survive in that world and doing it with just his mouth. And you're like, fuck, I watch a whole show. It's just you solving problems

for you're trying to get out of deadly situations by talking your way out. Feeling the trap close around you and finding an exit. That's what, by the way, I don't know if you had a chance to watch it yet cause it's been out for a while. Shogun is that. Shogun is exclusively that.

And it is very, it's a slave to the book. Like the book is long and it's almost exclusively that. It's a lot of that in a very long book. And somehow they got all that in a season. And I think they did a great job, but it is just bureaucracy. It's like them like figuring out how to negotiate feudal Japan. Shogun, I had that same impulse

when I was selling other people on it that it 100% scratched the Game of Thrones itch for me that nothing has scrapped, like peak Game of Thrones, that nothing else has really hit since then. Shogun was like, this is what I've been missing. This is what I wanted. And now they're gonna make a season two of Shogun, and I heard 17 dragons.

How about it? We've never seen that many. David Benioff is promising 17 dragon fights. Very exciting for the Japanese people. All right. Well, everybody, thanks for listening to the show. Daniel and I on Blue Sky, you can find the theme song, that's me, Rex. You can find their music on Spotify, anywhere you stream music. We always have to say thank you, a deep, deep thank you to our editor, engineer, sound producer, all of the things, Gabe Harter, The light in the world around which we orbit, that keeps, that we save,

because he can't save himself. No. We do it because we're strong and big. Goodbye. All right. Yeah. I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favourite?

Who did you get? Who would I be if you remember? Words without words, word without words Who are you going to? Oh, forget it I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer they're gonna find it

I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here