Some More News - Online Trolls, Wading through Covid Wastewater, and Even More Shrooms

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

Hi. Dani Fernandez (@msdanifernandez) joins Katy and Cody to talk about avoiding nihilism and having hope for the future, microdosing psilocybin, and why kids shouldn't have to start school at 8:00 in the morning (even though it means we're agreeing with Marco Rubio). Support SOME MORE NEWS: http://www.patreon.com/SomeMoreNews We now have a MERCH STORE! Check it out here: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news Get an extra three months of ExpressVPN free at EXPRESSVPN.com/MORENEWS. That's EXPRESSVPN.com/MORENEWS. For a limited time, Brooklinen is offering a free gift with purchase. Use promo code [MORENEWS] anytime for $20 off of your purchase of $100+ at http://www.Brooklinen.com. Athletic Greens is going to give you an immune supporting FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase if you visit http://athleticgreens.com/morenews today. Right now, Some More News listeners can get 15% off their Raycon order at BUY RAYCON.com/somenews. Follow us on social media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenewsSupport the show!: http://patreon.com.com/somemorenewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

hello hello welcome back to even more news the first and only news podcast my name is katie stole hi katie stole that sounds like so much news more than we thought even more yeah wow can i handle in your name too uh oh we'll try hi i'm cody johnston we've been doing this a variation of this bit for like four years. I don't even know if you can qualify it as a bit. I don't think you can. Joining us today again is actress, writer, and dare I say, internet sensation, I think so, Dani Fernandez. Yes, I love being here. Y'all let me go on my little rants it's my big soapbox

we're long overdue for you to be back for your rant it's a fun episode for me it's been like two years honestly yeah I think it was 2020 or something I think it was like the first it was it was spring of 2020 yeah and even if it feels like

it does still in my mind feel like it's 2020 i know yeah it still is don't worry it still is i mean i it's starting to feel a little bit like 2022 but 2021 is a complete wash i have like i don't think i signed just wait until 2024 when uh biden and trump are uh debating each other jesus christ yeah it's gonna be a fun year you know those tiktoks that say that we like went into an alt timeline in 2020 i 100 think that that happened to me but that means that y'all are in it with me or at least for sure you're oh we're in it we're all in it together yeah i don't know nope some people are flying high cody some people are flying high me i've been in a twilight zone all the shows that i've worked on have either stopped

that's why like me specifically all the shows that i've written on since 2019 like don't exist they're just like oh yeah that's an extra weird layer being in entertainment when you're working on shows and then they get stuck at some point in the process and they're probably going to come out but they'll all come out at once yes several years later and you're like that's not a person that doesn't represent me anymore because i've grown yeah i also think people are going to be like, how is she writing on every show? What the fuck? And it's like,

I wasn't, this has been spaced out, but it's a bit, it's actually a really, a big conversation that's happening right now that I've seen on Twitter amongst writers that like so much of our work is just stuck in the ether. And as much as things are coming out, you know, there's so many things that got dropped or pushed or moved or somebody was signed up and then had to couldn't do it anymore like a year later.

And so like anyways, this is all to say I really feel when someone said that, that like we were in I'm like in the twilight zone where I've worked and somehow made money and yet none of my work exists. So yeah, it's wild. We're going to continue to catch up with you real quick. I want to acknowledge that today, March 17th, is an actual holiday. In case you missed it, it is St. Patrick's Day. None of us are wearing green, but we are remote recording.

So fuck you. Oh, never mind. Dani's got some green oh it's a Jurassic Park shirt so nevermind she's she wouldn't get pinched I am Irish but I don't want you to pinch me

stay away you know what's not Irish what stars stars Neil deGrasse Tyson had a little tweet today stars aren't Irish because they can't be green shut no yeah yeah they're red white and blue at least he's not tweeting again about the mirror oh he'll do that again he does that like every like month and a half what was it you can't you can't kiss yourself in the mirror like when you kiss a mirror you're kissing yourself or something like that i think he was replaced by his parody account like three years ago

um this is a really good segue to tomorrow's holiday march 18th national awkward moments day that is for neil and jonathan included i guess we could just sit in silence for a moment and is that custom for a moment. Is that a customary moment of silence? National Awkward Moments Day. Oh, awkward. That was me contributing to the awkward moment. Yeah, more awkward by

calling out what he wrote in the doc. Writing out the bit that I wanted done that's not a great bit. But, you know. Well well I've made it awkward an awkward moment for us all well you know alright moving on

um I was working so hard to make it so awkward I think we've made it painful enough Danny okay now we'll continue talking the first thing I want to talk about we were talking when we started before we started recording and i was like save let's save it for the show um and that would be micro dosing with psilocybin uh yes my new

favorite thing i think but you i tweeted about it we recently did a video and I um uh did a section on psilocybin and there was a joke about my drug dealer razor and hit me up because you know there's all these rich tech bros selling five thousand dollar ketamine treatments and it's like no just anyway I regularly get people asking me sometimes it's a joke sometimes people are like can you really get me mushrooms i'm like not you sir but anyway you funny and weird like it's like it's a show i know i mean it it is funny and weird but that's a whole other conversation but in which we can have uh but, but you, you responded to this. And so I wanted to hear your experience, uh, with psilocybin, because I really feel like this is something that so many of us could benefit from. Yeah. I mean, I've been pretty

honest about my mental health journey. I've had to do so many different things to both work with my depression and heal my trauma. And by that, I mean, I have done clinical ketamine. It's different than street ketamine, I want to say, because people will write me, oh, I've done ketamine too, like at a party. I'm like, not the same thing as in a doctor's office. You know, to each their own. I'm just saying like I had to do it literally on a clinical level for depression. I did not enjoy that because, and it was so funny because my mom wrote me and she was like, wait, you mean the horse tranquilizer? And I was like, it's not a horse tranquilizer. And then I looked it up and I was like, oh. And it made me, it's great. It has been life-saving

for other people. For me, it felt very, I was so out of it, both during it and after, that it just made me feel worse, to be honest. However, I'm always about guinea pigging yourself if you're having a really hard time finding other treatments. I've done TMS, which is transcranial magnetic stimulation. That's where they stimulate on top of your brain under stimulated areas that I do also recommend that's starting to be covered by insurance. I could list off all the things I've done. Wow, that's fascinating. I hadn't heard of that before.

Oh, yeah. It's great. It's great. TMS, you can look it up. My insurance did cover it. It is expensive, but that was nice to have a chunk. It just shows that we're starting to accept other alternative treatments. We're aware that medication, I am on medicine. I take Lamictal. It's a mood stabilizer. I know a lot of other writers take it. I'm very transparent. I want people to get help. I want people to find, for me, it was like I tried something and it didn't work. And this is some things I would do for a period of time. It's not like you try it once and you're like, well, it didn't work for me. But my journey over the last, honestly, two decades, I would say I've been dealing with depression since I was young. It's a constant. It's a skill like learning to heal yourself and learning what works for you. And so when I added microdosing, it was funny. I was actually working with a healer. I'm also really spiritual. And she was

like, I think you're missing – I think the thing you need is like mushrooms. And so I started them last year. And I remember the first time – and so microdosing is not the same as obviously taking a larger dose where you're hallucinating. You're not supposed to hallucinate when you microdose. I think of microdosing as like you should still be able to go about your job, go about your day without people being like, what the fuck is the matter with her? You know, I was like, I'm in these writers rooms. I can't have my showrunners being like, excuse me. She's on drugs. Yeah, she's on drugs. And so, and I also told them like I was on shrooms. I was very, you know, and, and then people in my writer's room were hitting me up like, Hey, can I get

a person? Um, but I would say the first time I took them, cause obviously my body was not used to them. The first time I took them, I remember I got a little bit high and I was like, well, this just feels like an edible. And I've, I've taken edibles, you know, I take them for sleep and whatever. And weed is a central nervous system depressant. That's why it works great for anxiety. It like lowers that. But for me, for depression, if I'm already kind of low, it's hard for me to be motivated. That's why weed doesn't necessarily work great for me because I'm already kind of in this depressed state. So basically, I don't feel motivated when I'm taking edibles. I understand there's different strains. You don't need to write me about it. No, no, no. We don't need to explain.

Yeah, please don't. I live in California. I live literally down the street from a weed. Strains aren't even that different if a person knows how they're affected by weed at this point, you know. Oh, yeah, for sure. Like I've said, I've literally had electrodes on my brain. So I've studied all the things. This is all to say, though, I took the shrooms and I was like, well, I just feel a little high. This is this. And then I remember I was going, I was laying my head down. It was like one in the morning. I was laying down and all of a sudden my brain was like, I love my life. I love my apartment. You know, it's really cool that I get to live and work in Hollywood. Like this is actually a blessing. And I was like, what the fuck is this? Why people

take them? Yep. Yes. Yes. 100%. You're so many things that you've said are so important. And like, yeah, let's just first be clear. I'm not saying like go out and get super hallucinogenic on mushrooms every day or every three days. Right. Although I have heard I have heard from people who study, you know, and scientists different. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and reading everything I can about it, you know, say like, you know, this is an older gentleman. I can't recall his name, but he's, you know, a psychologist. And he said, I, me and my wife will do a real trip once or twice a year. I find personally that that's a very spiritual connection practice for me. But that's a separate conversation than microdosing, which for me, everything that what you're saying hits home. It's, you know, and I like weed. I have a lot of anxiety. But yes, it's very easy.

If you are feeling low or overwhelmed, it can amplify those feelings and you can kind of get settled. Whereas when I have a microdose, I feel a relief. It's like all of a sudden I'm able to separate my anxious thoughts from myself. I have so much peace and gratitude. I feel connected and I feel articulate. It's like I'm not scrambling through a bunch of cobwebs that have been accumulating over the last couple of years. I have a lot of like hangups about drugs because of my my history with my there's a lot of addiction in my family and so for me there's a personal struggle with accepting uh drugs or like

understanding like how much do i need to rely on something but this isn't about getting fucked up this is about mental health and i do want to say though, sorry, this is not to me a drug. Yeah. This is literally of the earth. And it's so, I mean, it goes back to like, there's so much medicine that comes from the earth that was, I mean, I'm preaching to the choir. I feel like everyone that listens to this knows this, that was made illicit and illegal when, it's so funny because at, i love going to descanso gardens in um

pasadena and they have like a whole section because all these different plants and things there talking about the indigenous people that were there that used the plants and medicine there that then became like illegal and it was like they knew how to treat things they knew how to treat themselves they knew how to heal themselves. They knew how to heal themselves. And yet, like, so to me, when you say like, like this to me is not even a, it's literally shrooms from the ground. And it's our programming. It's this, I mean, we all here have grown up under the war on drugs and the stigmatization. I mean, it's been longer than that, the stigmatization of drug usage. But, you know, I think it's part of what's happening now is a social realization that we have ignored healing practices that have been available to us. Yes.

And that are natural and are not based in pharmaceuticals. And, you know, another thing that you'd mentioned, and it's really, I commend you for being someone who is so committed to their mental health that you've been brave enough to experiment and try different things because it's scary. It's hard. But one of the benefits of psilocybin is that it's it's quick. It's immediate. it's quick, it's immediate. You can start to feel those effects and start to have a different shifting of your perspective versus you start an SSRI that takes six, eight weeks to kick in and it might not be right for you and a bunch of other side effects that, you know, again, we did this whole video about this, but you know, that can exacerbate your depression. So it's really a little bit miraculous. Yeah. Shrooms are, to me, have been one of the most life-changing thing. I think they have saved my life. And, um, I do also want to say that it is

a privilege now that I have the money to do like shrooms are cheaper, infinitely cheaper, like for how much they work. But when I talk about like clinical ketamine, when I talk about TMS and stuff, it's a privilege that I now have insurance. It's a privilege now that I have money to do it because I used to be insanely like scarily poor. Yeah. Dangerously poor is what I would call it. It's really important to acknowledge how expensive it can be to get to have access to this. And we're privileged to live in California. But yeah, you're completely correct. And I hope that by us talking about it, though, I hope that by everybody talking about it more often, we see changes happening sooner than later. There already are lots of decriminalization yeah cody knows more about that oh no i'm just agreeing with you uh yeah but there was someone in

entertainment who was i mean this has happened a couple of times but they were arrested at the airport for having shrooms and i think about this all the time if i am filming in new orleans or i'm filming in atlanta like that scares me that I don't, that this thing that has saved my life, that is kind of keeping my depression at bay that I no longer have access to. It's the same thing to me. I mean, I don't think it has maybe the same addiction level, but like, if I suddenly got off my Lamictal just all of a sudden, you know, if I just suddenly stopped taking shrooms all of a sudden, I definitely start to feel the depression coming back in. And so that to me does scare me. I am lucky currently to be working in California, but I won't always be filming here.

So yeah, yeah. I mean, that's it's totally a concern to have. You know, I say travel with the chocolates, but that's its own risk. And also that's different. And that's not necessarily what the way that you consume it. But hopefully there will be more options. You know. Oh, and I'm sure people in those places would be like, we have shrooms. And I'm like, yeah, I just, you know, I would just have to figure out. Yeah, I'll just like, you know, hit me up. And when I'm in town, I'll take care of the people like I will take care of you. I'm just saying, like, the hit me up when I'm in town. I'll take care of you.

People are like, I will take care of you. I'm just saying like the fact that I can't fly with them, the fact that I can't fly with them and that somebody was literally arrested like that. Was that recent? I didn't see that. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was only a couple of weeks ago.

There should be more. I mean, in California, I think they should be decriminalized pretty soon. We'll see. Okay. I want, in California, I think they should be decriminalized pretty soon. We'll see. Okay, I want to talk to some other things. Oh, hello. Do you have a boss that likes to play stuffed owls in your home that are clearly just hidden cameras? Perhaps privacy is on your mind because of that. Or maybe you just don't like the fact that big tech companies regularly take your personal data and sell it to random people.

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OK, Danny, in our slight prep for this episode, we were DMing back and forth a little bit about different topics. I mean, I think that every so often we've sent DMs like this would be a good thing to talk about. And then I don't keep a master list going. But you had mentioned the topic of white nihilism. And I think that sounds fascinating. I want to throw to you to set that up. Yeah, for sure. It's something that I've seen. What's so fascinating to me as someone that has worked a lot in both in all of my communities, in the queer community, in the Latino community, and talking about trauma. I'm also a suicide survivor. I had, this is a trigger warning. Wow.

It just, it just blurted that out without saying anything. I had my first attempt when I was in middle school. Actually, Latinas have, Latina teens have some of the highest suicide rates in this country. And so I tweet a lot. That is all to say I tweet a lot about hope. I tweet a lot if you follow me about hanging in, ways to hang in. I think hope is a skill. It's something that I constantly have to work at. I feel like most survivors constantly have to work at having people in general who are living on planet Earth.

constantly have to work at having people in general who are living on planet earth and so what i've started to see more of though is every time myself or any other marginalized person dares to have hope i deal with we're allowed to cuss on here right i've been cussing absolutely i deal with fucking dumbass white men in my comments nihilistic like, what is the point? We're all going to die. Or what is the point? The earth is on fire. Or what is it? I'm like, I don't have, I get that you, like, I literally had a guy that was like five years from now, we're all going to be dead or whatever, talking about climate change. I'm like, what the, I don't give a fuck about five years. I give a fuck about right now. What are you doing in the communities right the fuck now? Because I'm trying to mentor people in my community to get them to survive right the fuck now. I don't know what's going to happen five years from now, but I'm so fucking tired of people who are more privileged than me trying to take my hope away. Something that I've worked so hard for and then I'm putting back into my own community.

community. And so a tweet, you can tell I'm really mad. A tweet that I had, also I want to say Clarkesha Kent, another great writer. We follow each other on Twitter. She also has talked a lot about white nihilism. We kind of were going back and forth about it. So something that I said, Frederick Joseph had tweeted and said, everything is falling apart, complete collapse, and white supremacy is to blame. And I said, and I want everyone to be especially alert of the rise of white nihilism, which will continue to overtake these platforms, including about climate change. I see them replying to anyone who wants to help, quote, we're fucked and everything is worthless. You're not done fighting, you fucks. I said, especially all the white liberals I see who respond with negativity anytime any person of color tries to help, you're not done fighting. And so I gave examples of anytime that I've tweeted about helping and having to deal with white and self-fuckheads replying, or liberal, literally

liberals replying to me. I honestly feel sometimes, I've said this, I feel as a liberal person of color, often my biggest obstacles are white liberals. They are the people that try to gotcha me the most. They're the people that try to catch me and other people of color. They're constantly trying to correct us. Yeah. So that is my, I have more tweets on it, but that is a problem that I've seen. Yeah. Thank you for sharing all of that. It's incredibly frustrating. I remember seeing this and seeing this thread and some of this and some of the other stuff that you get online too. And I'm really proud of you every time you push back against people and call it – I personally find it inspiring. I think think we connected i tweeted something

yes hopeful something that helps me through a hard time and it's already hard to be vulnerable online it's at least for me it is it's hard to to stick to my gums i'm very quick to delete something that i might felt it feels too personal especially when people immediately come and attack and and judge me for it or extrapolate and go into like yeah the worst possible interpretation or you're like that's not obviously that's not what what what i'm saying and if if this isn't for you then it's not for you but in terms of what also what you're saying in this specific example and i do i see this with climate change and everything all of it's like, the future might be happening, but you're using that as an excuse to disconnect

from the right now. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was going to say they have to choose that. They have to choose that so they can continue to be passive, so they continue to not clock in. The rest of us don't have the luxury of not clocking in. I don't have the luxury of tapping out, in i don't have the luxury of tapping out not with my family not with my community i have to fucking be here we have issues that are happening right now that people need help with right now and so

they have to believe that everything is fucked and nothing matters so that they continue to do nothing as they have continued to do the past decade. Yeah. And like, we talked about this a little bit before the show, but like everything is fucked, but everything's always kind of fucked. Yeah. It's never not been fucked. The point is like you find meaning,

you get better. Sorry. No, no, no. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just want to say, especially for people of color. Yes.

I'm sorry that you now think things are fucked. Right. This has how, how it's been. What do you think it's been like to be a black or brown person in America for centuries now? For a lot of us, it has felt like the end of the world. When I tried to end my life in middle school, that was the end of the world for me. I'm sorry you now think it's the end of the world. I've had to pick myself up so many times.

So many times being a queer brown woman, it has been the end of the world. I've had to pick myself up so many times, so many times being a queer brown woman. It has been the end of the world for me. And I don't have the luxury of tapping out, you know, like that's, that's what I'm trying. Like same with COVID. It was the first time that I really saw some of my colleagues really struggling. And you know what I get? And that's why I was tweeting, like, you know, hang in there, like stuff about having hope. And people are like, you know, fuck you, whatever. And I'm like, yo, I'm sorry. This is the first time you've dealt with a crisis. Most crisis, most of us have grown up in crisis. I was actually semi okay during this pandemic because I'm so used to crisis, which is scary. I've heard this from people with a lot of trauma that they were like,

I actually was surprised at how well I did because I was equipped already. Everything, everything you're saying right now, I would heart retweet all of that. I don't know, like the because the framing about like like climate change, I think, is a big example you're talking about. big example you're talking about and uh for so long uh it's been framed as if it's like the quote end of the world so that we do something about it like you use that tag

like yeah it's like it's gonna be really really bad and I think people have internalized that as being like well it's everyone's gonna be dead the planet's doomed we're like everything's completely fucked there's nothing to do about it as opposed to like it's gonna it's going to be bad um it's like not every single human on the planet will die unless we decide to like nuke the ocean or something um but it's and it's going to be hard and people will die

and people will be displaced and it's going to be very very um it's going to be bad but that doesn't mean it's going to be the end of the world yeah it's important to maintain that uh that hope and perseverance yeah uh community what you're talking about so that more people are get to the other other side and to right like if if you have that then more people will survive it because but you need to have that understanding that of to bring it back to where what you had just said people will survive it because more people believe that you can. Understanding that, to bring it back to what you had just said a moment ago, Danny. Yes, people of color, people that have less fortunate, people that we have not acknowledged were struggling for so long, have been at this point for a long time.

We had an episode on A Worst Year Ever last week, the week before, with Eve Ettinger about burnout. They just put out a piece on burnout that was really interesting and talking about how it's actually like CPTSD and that a lot of the symptoms of burnout that people are all experiencing from this pandemic actually are things that people of color and marginalized individuals have been experiencing for a very long time. But as we are coming through this pandemic and we're back to normal, we have not addressed or really acknowledged the reality that we've all opened our eyes to see. No changes are happening. And Cody, to your point, when we're talking about the future,

yeah, fuck you for being nihilistic about like there's no hope. Yeah, we're out here every day scrounging up hope so that there is a possibility. But like as we move forward together, you better have an understanding of the ways other people

are affected by these changes because displacement, food insecurity, all of this stuff is going to hit marginalized people first. Yes. Not the white privileged who are maintaining a status quo and want to be back to

normal. Right. And even if it's the end. Like Daniel, what were you saying? In five years, the sea levels will rise five, 10 stories and everyone is going to be like, okay,

well, what are you going to do before that? Yes. We can find meaning in the moment and where we all are. And the privilege of like being alive on earth in in a universe with billions of galaxies like yeah uh like appreciate that and find meaning there um i don't know what are you doing for quality of life now right sorry i was just gonna read one more tweet i was gonna read you one perfect example of what of what kicked this off that i was just like, I totally snapped. So my tweet was, if you are still up, sorry, I'm going to get

emotional. If you're still up, then this message is for you. You're still in this thing. There's still so much left of your story. You've worked so hard. Don't take yourself out of the game before you see what the next chapter has to offer. And again, that is my surviving suicide. Like just who needs, whoever needs to hear that. I put that out there because I know what it feels like to feel hopeless. This was the immediate reply. The next chapter is dying of heat stroke while the world burns around us. It doesn't matter what we've worked for. We've reached the end of the line. And I don't think – I don't know – When you've put – When I'm so vulnerable – You've made yourself vulnerable like that. Yes. To be like, I am doing everything I can to hold on and I see – And people are immediately

like, you know, fuck you for having hope. We're all going to die. It's just like, you know what? If you're going to do that, do that on your own timeline. Do that to yourself. Don't do that for me trying to get, because like I said, what are you doing for quality of life now? How are you helping marginalized people now? There are people around you in your city. You know, there are unhoused people. There are still kids in cages who need our help now what are you doing now to help them or even like how like first of all like if you feel that way log off and go be miserable like in the real world good bothering people but like uh what are you doing also like for yourself so that you can show up for other people. Like, find the thing that keeps you going

and that doesn't make you feel like that. So then you can look around and go, I could actually help people around me that are less fortunate and actually do something with that. I don't know. I just hate that they see myself. They see someone who's trying to

speak to people about holding on and they just need to take me down a peg. It happens a lot. Katie, you and I were talking about being women online and what, and they just cannot handle me having any sense of self-love. I think that's the biggest thing. Whenever I post a picture of myself, it gets torn apart. They need to take me down. Anytime I post anything like that or any of my wins, they need to take me down. And it's just – I wish they knew how hard it was. How hard it was to do it in the first place. How hard it has been to survive this life. it has been to survive this life. And it got like when you read that exchange, I knew exactly how that felt. That gut of like and I think that our journeys to posting something that feels

vulnerable might be a little different. But for me, I'm like, I've done it. And like. And then I feel it and I feel shame and anger and like, oh, I did something bad and like, I didn't do anything bad. I shared something sincere and you're used to me being a certain way, but this is also part of me. And if it's not for you, it's for someone else. Um,

and yeah, I think that there's, and it, look, it's hard to be online. I think people get a lot of shit, but there's a certain kind of response to women when women are being vulnerable or standing in their power. Without fail,

there is somebody there, a man, not a woman, maybe sometimes, but a lot of male people people are there to take you down. And it's very painful. And you have to have a tough skin. But I also don't want to have a tough skin because my vulnerability is part of my power. Great. It's great. And it's necessary and it's needed. And that's why I do think that I have that people follow me, the right people. Now I try to set an intention, to be honest. I'm like, like I said, I'm a very spiritual person. I started to set an intention when I tweet that, like, I just want the right people to find this. I want the people that need to see this to see it.

And a lot of times they do. And they'll write me like I was just, a lot of times I'm like, this is a sign. This is your sign. You know, if you're needing to hang in or, you know, I've shared about self-harm and stuff. And I'm like, this is a sign to step away. Like this is a sign to get help. Like if you've been contemplating this, like I'm your sign because I was there. And so it has found the right people. I know I've touched people's lives, but the abuse that I take is really difficult for a lot of people are like, don't delete your Twitter. And I'm like, I don't think you'll

understand. Like as a trauma survivor, I'm coming, I'm already coming in at a deficit. I can already not handle the abuse. Like, so the amount I get for being a woman in public and in entertainment is just as much therapy as I've done sometimes that I can't even handle it. So that was heavy. You know, but I think a good and important and I feel good for having the conversation. I hope it resonates with some of our listeners. We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back for some news. I was going to say even more news,

but we're going to come back for some news. Yeah. Even news. Even news. Hey, you listening to the show, you like green stuff? Green money, green apples, green beer? Maybe those green mail drop-off boxes you sometimes see instead of the blue ones.

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dot com slash some news. That's buyraycon.com slash some news to save 15% on Raycons. Buyraycon.com slash some news. And we are back as promised for some news. We were going to talk about Russia

but we're going to skip that this week because we did an extensive update talking about no-fly zones and deep discussion about what's happening on Worst Year Ever, which you guys should check out. It was a really good episode. And we will, of course, continue to talk about it as the situation continues. We're going to talk about COVID. I guess we're through it, but not. So we did it, I guess. The White House is scaling back on COVID response plans, including tests and paying doctors who treat uninsured patients

since they are running out of money for the COVID relief funds. So pretty soon you will not get reimbursed the idea of like yeah the united states running out of money yeah what like whatever it's fine um this is of course comes as the ba2 omicron variant uh is already seeing cases surge in Europe just a few weeks after cases dropped from their first surge. As we know by now, watching what's happening around the world, we can expect that to happen here as well. So that's fun.

It's just, last time we had this big announcement. Okay, we're scaling back. And then we had another surge and it was like playing catch up and getting people back on the same page. And then Omicron hit and it was all of January before they started sending out tests and masks right as we were over the height of the surge. And it just feels like we can't get it right or won't

won't um can could could have could have i guess ba i guess ba2 has higher transmissibility um people are having waning immunity fact from vaccines. They are seeking approval for the third or fourth booster shot at this point. Yeah, Pfizer's fourth booster. Or third, second booster. Fourth shot, second booster.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, boy. Okay. John, do you want to talk to us about wastewater? Well, I would love to talk real quick about why there's no money. And initially, it started with the Republicans saying, we don't want to allocate any more money to this.

We're done. We'll do the $700 billion for defense every year, $0 more for COVID. And then the compromise that they tried to, or that Democrats acquiesced to for the most part, was that, okay, we're going to take, the Biden administration requested $22.5 billion. So they said, okay, we'll do $15.6 billion, and we're going to take a bunch of that money that was already allocated to states for their pandemic response. There's going to be, like, no new money. And progressives in the House said, like, no, that's wrong. We need, like, new money. We need to be able to pay the doctors back who are treating uninsured patients.

We need to buy extra doses of antiviral pills. We need to send more vaccines to countries that don't have them yet, which we've just declined to do and thinking it's all going to work out. And so because of that, it got taken out of the appropriations bill. And now they're trying to like Frankenstein together some new bill. einstein together some new bill but but like the biden administration is like hey this is like dire and this is going to be like catastrophic if you know ba2 becomes worse or becomes something else like we're not done yet we want to be done but we're not done yet i know we want to be done but we're not yeah so that So that's my little. Yeah. No, that's that was a good one. It's I don't even know what to say or do at this point. You know, it just feels we're just going to let this this continue to happen. We don't have people's attention. People.

It's weird. people it's weird I mean what is our the death count is no longer something that people even think about to say thousands of people died it's like a blink of the eye

you're like oh yeah that happened and right 100,000 was an incalculable loss I was gonna say almost up to 1 million. There was like the headline, right? Of like 100,000 on the front page and

what's that number now? It's almost 1 million. It's a little bit higher than that. So a little bit higher than 100,000. Tiny bit higher. Not a new headline amount of higher. right and most of the people writing for the new york times don't know someone who's died don't know someone who's

gotten very sick the the people who have don't work don't work for the new york times or the washington post or in the white house or or in inside the Beltway and the people that they talk to yeah who they tend to talk to are like Trump voters in like coffee shops right diners and the people who have seen a

disproportionate amount of loss don't get to make the rules so it's frustrating I can't talk about wastewater comfort we don't have to except that according to our shit it's on the rise in certain areas of the country apparently oh like our shit yeah like wastewater shows covid 19 levels are uh rising again it's like yeah that's how it is right like it goes yeah like okay well it's down so like we can all go out oh it's still a thing that exists yeah it's going up and

it's whack-a-mole yeah i had my mask off in a restaurant this weekend like it felt very strange like not i mean yes i walked at the table but then walking to the bathroom i didn't put my mask on because i didn't have to and i was like i'm gonna test this out and i felt very um exposed but you know the mask mandate might come i'm vaccinated boosted how are you guys feeling when you go out do you can do you continue to have coveted insecurities when you're walking around do you feel like you're back when i'm walking around it's fine because like it's outside like that's that's one thing like i feel like like still like totally dropped the ball early on like it's okay to be outside with people um that's like the safest place to be yeah so like outside walking

i'm like yeah whatever mine's adjacent where it's like the things that we that they're starting to talk more and more about is like the effects that it's had on our mental health to like not be interacting with people and i just my capacity to interact with people is like, I just have the anxiety that I didn't used to have. Um, now if I like go to a friend's function or something like that, I just feel like a lot of my friends don't even go. They'll just end up like, I just can't, you know? And I don't know, like it'll be fascinating to see how, especially because they've talked like development and stuff and, and kids. I know one of my, one of my like, uh, friends, her kid, like they've just grown up with,

with just this, you know? And so, and I want to say it is something that we could have knocked out in 2020. It didn't have to carry on as long as it has. Oh, God, yeah. Like, it's, yeah. Well, what I was, I think what I was insinuating is, like, her kid doesn't know going into stores. It's always been with a mask. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, they don't know because they were, like, one when it started. So now being, like, three and four, it's like that's all they've ever known. And I know a lot of conservative people are like, see, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, well, that didn't have to happen. It didn't have to be their entire lifespan so far. It could have just been, you know, in 2020. But yeah.

Yeah. Everything you've done has made this. Right. You resisted and resisted and resisted. And then it's I mean, it's not the same fucking listened. Yeah, like, everything you've done has made this jerk, yeah. Right, you resisted and resisted and resisted, and then it's, I mean, it's not the same, exact same thing. Nevertheless, he persisted. You keep pushing it, you keep pushing it, you keep pushing it, not doing anything, and it gets worse and worse and worse.

Like, well, it's worse now. Yeah, because you didn't do anything. Yeah. It's gonna be, it's interesting because, like, I know, like, Katie, you're talking about, like, just the sort of weird anxiety and, like, discomfort of just, like, going to the bathroom with that anxiety and like discomfort of just like going to the bathroom with that and like just the adjustment that people are having to make like adults are having to make contrasted with the adjustment that like really young children will have to make right exactly weird

thing um even just like interacting without like half of a face to to interact with and socialize um at the same time like my my brother had uh his first child uh during pandemic um and he's he's doing great part of that i think is also just because if it's in the middle of a pandemic then your parents are home you're working from home uh so he has had both of the parents there for a good portion of of uh his life so far and you can really tell um i'm sure you know i'm sure that you know again like all the socialization and and and what you're talking about but like but there is that other aspect of like yes parents should be with their kids when they're when they're born yeah i mean totally i think that they're for a lot of parents who had young children, there are aspects of the pandemic

that have been a real gift, but also are obviously a huge trial, especially as it is ongoing and as your children grow. And we don't know how to explain or unpack what's happening. We don't have answers to when this will end or what's going to happen in the future. I think that you, yeah, I think it's interesting how much conservative certain types of people like

to talk about the damage of masking and the emotional damage of masking or isolation, which is not a point that I want to just dismiss because obviously there are very serious things to consider. But when I talk to young people, I know that they are having long-term trauma from way more than just that growing up in a world that's on fire uh growing up with the polarization and the violence and seeing black men murdered on camera uh which obviously has been going on but now we have social media you know and so you see it in a different kind of way these are all things to consider when we're talking about our children's development.

Our children. I don't have children, but I take ownership of all of your children right now in this moment for the purpose of my point. Anyway, there I'm done talking. Jonathan, how about some broken news? You got it. That wasn't that wasn't broken news. That was intact.

The Senate unanimously voted to make daylight saving permanent this week. If it passes, we'll stay at the current time, so in the later hours, and won't set the clocks back once a year. It'll always be 3.55 p.m. Yes, it'll always be 3.55 p.m it'll yes it'll be 3 55 p.m on thursday march 17th it's groundhog day but just the minute over and over yeah we'll never touch our clocks ever again or work together never have to look at them your microwave will always be the right time whoa i love this so i we talked about this and we're sure ever but i think it's worth i am for

it i uh very much hate falling back i like the full day of sunlight i've got one friend who's been posting saying like you guys cranky about it basically i guess the main counterpoint is that for a certain it is yeah and um uh basically the there are parts of this country during winter where it's dark still dark at 8 a.m and so that's hard for kids going to school but even what's his name ted cruz is like start school later what's his name ted cruz is like start school later marco rubio whatever ted cruz will never say anything no value so uh although marco rubio is a big surprise too um yeah well that's i mean if he believes that great but i don't think he does i think it's just the thing he says right yeah but that is the answer and that's the problem is if you ignore daylight safety, get rid of it, keep it, whatever. School for kids should start later anyway.

Yeah. Like the CDC literally has reports about like, yeah, it's bad for kids to go to school this early. It doesn't help them retain knowledge, doesn't keep them healthy. It's too early. It's not good for them. So that should be a thing that happens anyway. I hate that. I remember I was so exhausted as a teenager.

It's like your body is changing. You're taking in the amount. Now as a TV writer, like the amount that your brain uses so much calories when you're – is burning so many calories when you're like consuming that much knowledge. And I just remember being exhausted. And it's like teens are seen as lazy it's like oh shit like this is the biggest transformation of their bodies happening right now it's using up all of their calories and like also i just want to say i remember because i was on the dance team and our track team would would get up at like 4 a.m. They had to be there at 5? Yeah, if you want to do anything extra, it's even like

8 hours, 7 or 8 hours a day there doing the school part and then you're encouraged to do other stuff too. I was just going to say, I remember track and field like having a full day before we would get to if y'all are in tweet at me if you were in track and you had

to like be there at 5am because it's just like what I was briefly and then I wasn't because of that yeah like this is not gonna work for me that's just that's just too much and like we talked there's an episode of the

YouTube show coming out next week that Jonathan wrote and it's about work, a history of work, present work, and things like that. And part of it goes into just, like, this idea of, like, it's not good to work so much to, like,

you can't do it. You need, like, efficient breaks. You need rest. You need to not just be, like, get up and go to school there. Again, again like eight hours and then uh you just it's just not how human beings are wired uh how you can be the most productive if that's your goal you know if we have this goal like you got to be maximum maximally productive then it shouldn't be uh so earlier for so so intense i don't know i agree with you did y'all

not to bring up this whole thing i'm gonna I agree with you did y'all I don't think ruby not to bring up this whole thing I'm gonna make this short but did y'all already tackle the Kim Kardashian work quote uh yeah so episode the day right before we filmed the episode which was yesterday I uh I was like we have to add this quote in so it is it is in there um because it was just too perfect that like yeah so we did yeah we did uh i just feel like you're right kim people don't like yeah they shouldn't it's the same thing katie you were saying with like everything that gen z has to deal with i also just think it's hilarious that people are like gen z is so weak i'm like um they have to

deal with like constant trauma school shooters like they're actually the least weak. Their ability to handle the amount of trauma that it takes to live in our country is at this moment, which it's always been. But like just, you know, I didn't – I was coming off of that when I was in high school. Like we had, you know, reports of school shooters and stuff. But like that's in their normal drills. It was not a reality that we thought about every day. It was not a reality. It was not a common thing.

Yeah. That was – I think you're a couple years younger than me. But like at least in my childhood and growing up, that's a fluke. That's not a thing that we have to prepare for. Yeah. That's a huge change in the in the time we're not old no no but i i think the whole thing is i i'm like yeah i don't i don't also just like on a spiritual level i don't know if we were sent here to just work like who wants to work um work full

time and you still can't afford a home like i don't this yeah of course people don't want to you know it's like what the what's the point we're here to enjoy the fruits of this it was like it was like um that tweet that was like i forgot what it was but it was essentially like yo the our planet literally makes food how did i end up with rent you know it's just like we our planet has everything that we need for resources how did we end up with rent you know it's just like we our planet has everything that we need for resources how did we end up with like the most capitalistic um like dangerous giant battery in the sky yeah giant free battery right there we have all this medicine which shouldn't be illegal it's really helpful and anyways so i'm like yeah kim people don't want to work because they

are working and it's not actually do it's not i have one final point i want to say um you cannot be not work and uh be poor like you poor people have to like i don't the idea of like not working that's a rich concept you cannot survive in this country as a poor person not working. Like you just wouldn't be able to survive. Right, like yeah. Like this idea of like people aren't working these days. Yeah, they are. Yeah, obviously.

Because otherwise, yeah. Yeah, that needs to go. I keep hearing that of like, well, the people that don't want to return to work, people are working. They're not. What do you mean? That they're just not making money? Because it's not like we work, people are working. They're not. What do you mean that they're just not making money?

Because it's not like we're giving them handouts. They're not working for a job. They might not have gone back to their shit job that doesn't give them anything. Oh, I just I was just going to say, like, I was working three jobs when I first moved to L.A. and I was on food stamps. I still could not afford rent. There was a period of time when I was living with two girls in a one bedroom. And another time I was living with four guys in a house. Like we each had a room, but mine had no windows and we had one bathroom.

So anyways, now I have worked my way up, but I want to say like there was a time like, yes, even though I had food stamps, like I still could not afford right yeah it's so yeah you can't be you can't not work and survive and you shouldn't have to work three drive three drives three jobs yeah um i'll do we're yeah we're gonna i mean we're gonna do an episode a full episode on this concept too but like being poor is expensive yes um it's very expensive to to to be poor and i think people don't understand that either um and so like fuck off kim or ashy and like i guess i kind of i kind of think this is a good place to leave it what do you get do we want do you have one more? I mean, if you want to listen to 30 seconds of Nancy Pelosi reading a poem by Bono, you can comment on it. Or I can just play it and leave it there. We can play it out.

Play us out. Play us out, Nancy. I mean, I'll play us out with a little bit. Oh, St. Patrick, he drove out the snakes with his prayers, but that's not all it takes. For the smoke symbolizes an evil that arises

and hides in your heart as it breaks. And the evil risen from friends from the darkness that lives in some men, but in sorrow and fear, that's when saints can appear to drive out those old snakes once again. And they struggle for us to be free

from the psycho in this human family. Ireland's sorrow and pain is now the Ukraine, and St. Patrick's name is now Zelensky. Oh, nice. Everyone claps. That was good. It is, I mean, I guess it is better than getting the cast of Hamilton to sing some song.

Yeah, maybe. For COVID or whatever that was. I forget, everything blurs together now. That was good. I'm glad that they solved it. I think it might have been the insurrection. I don't know. Yes whatever that was. I forget. Everything blurs together now. That was good. I'm glad that they saw. I think it might've been the insurrection. I don't know. Yes,

it was. Thank you. It was the, it was the, which is obviously worse. Somehow that's worse. I don't know how, but it is.

Thank you for that. High note. Ending the show. Danny, it has been a delight having you. Thank you so much for being so open and honest and vulnerable and sharing. Please plug your work. Yes.

You've got some exciting stuff going on right now. I do, yes. So I'm at Ms. Dani Fernandez. You can follow me if you're not going to be a horrible person. If you like inspirational things. I love posting inspirational things. And yes, I do. I just got to announce for DC Comics, I will be writing a Harley and Ivy love story for Pride.

I'm very excited about it. You'll be able to pick that up in stores in June. That's so thrilling. That's something that you don't have to wait years and years. Thank God. So that's a win. 2022 wait years and years. Thank God. So that's a win. 2022 is shaping us. Yes.

Yeah. All right, guys. Thank you so much. We'll be back next week. And remember that we love you very much. Very much. We actually, we really do.