Stuff You Should Know - SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: What's the deal with Bond, James Bond?

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

James Bond, the most infamous secret agent ever to grace the silver screen, originated in the pages of British author Ian Fleming's novels. Amateur agents Josh and Chuck uncover all sorts of Bond trivia in this action-packed episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. Are there any pictures of you online? Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it. Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now.

Police, they are trusting the software with this magical ability to lead them to the right suspect. In this episode, we dive into how cops are using AI and facial recognition, and sometimes getting it wrong and putting innocent people behind bars. So if your accuser is this algorithm, but you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works. Listen to Killswitch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, it's me, Josh, and I'd like to welcome you to the Stuff You Should Know Summer Movie Playlist.

It's summertime and we thought what better way to kick off one of the four greatest seasons of the year with a focus on movies, because what screams summer more than a nice darkened, cool air-conditioned theater and a great movie playing right in front of you. So we're going to start the whole thing off with our July 2010 episode on What's the Deal with Bond? James Bond. Hope you enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Uh, hi.

With me is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Bryant. Charles Bryant. How's it going, Chuck? It's an odd way to introduce yourself, don't you think? Not if you're a super spy. Are you a super spy? Actually, I wouldn't say James Bond was even a spy.

Secret Service, is that a spy really? No, he was an assassin and just general plot disruptor, I would say. He was a blunt instrument of the crown. Yeah, if you wanted the job done and you couldn't, if you didn't have time to worry about the politics or diplomacy, that kind of thing, you sent James Bond. Yeah, get JB on the phone, 007.

Yeah. He'll take care of business like Elvis. You could call him on his car phone long before any car had a phone. Yeah. All right? He was always predating technology. Yeah, as a matter of fact, there's a James Bond theory

of entrepreneurial innovation. I believe that. And from Russia with Love, 1963, he talked, I can't remember who he talked to, but he was in his car using the phone. Yeah. That was in his car, and audiences went nuts for it. Oh yeah, they were like, oh my god, he's on the telephone.

Right. In a car. But that's what they sounded like in England though. Oh yeah, well sure. Possibly Ghana. Right. So Josh, where do we start here? We can't not start with Ian Fleming.

Ian Fleming. Ian Fleming. That's where we gotta start. Let's do it. No, there was a colon after that. Oh, Ian Fleming colon was, as everyone knows, and if you didn't, you need to get out from under your rock that you reside in right now, the creator of James Bond in novel form.

He was also originally a journalist and a stockbroker and World War II starts to come around and he joins the naval volunteer. Royal Navy. Royal Navy. And he was actually, Chuck, did you know, assigned as a spy himself in Washington, D.C.? Yeah, sort of a spy, you could call it.

He was in intelligence, and he would occasionally, he was an administrative guy, but sometimes they would send him out to do field work, where he would take secret pictures of documents, just like in the movies. Do you know who was assigned to his spy unit? James Bond. Yeah. No.

The guy who was the inspiration for James Bond his name was William Stevenson, aka Intrepid, right? Yeah, one of many inspirations. Right, but in an interview in the Times in 1962, Fleming said, you know, James Bond is this romanticized version of a spy. Bill Stevenson is the real thing.

Right, well, romanticized version of himself. To an extent, sure. Another member of that spy ring was a guy named Rol Dahl, who wrote James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Yeah, and a bunch of body books. Right. He also had the non-children's books that were a little racier.

Yes. Not many people know that. So Chuck, let's talk a little bit more about Ian Fleming. Give it to us, buddy. Yeah, like I said, he sort of based James Bond on, I think, who he wanted to be. He was a playboy. He was an island hopper. An adventurer.

An adventurer, a skier. He dove with Jacques Cousteau and snow-skied from the tops of mountains in Switzerland and had a place in Jamaica where he actually wrote all these books. Right, he named the place Goldeneye and every year he would go to Jamaica and write a book. And I just wanna dig him up and throttle him for that,

because I mean, what a life. You know? Oh, it's time for me to go to my estate in Jamaica and write a book that's going to just make me millions more. Yeah, which he did. And he reportedly picked the name James Bond because he wanted the most boring name he could find for his super secret agent.

I think he didn't want the name to compete with the actual character. Like why bother giving him some fancy name? Just name him James Bond and have him kick butt. Right, you know what the opposite of that is? Hexall Jim Duggan. Yeah, he should have named kick butt. You know what the opposite of that is? Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Yeah. He should have named him that.

Well, then it would have competed with the character. Duggan. Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I could hear that. So, yeah, he wrote... See, the article says 13 novels. Well, he wrote 13 books. I got 14. What's the 14th?

Well, I've got 12 novels plus two short story collections, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy and the Living Daylights was another collection. So it seems like it would be easier to find this out, but I literally saw two different sets of information. So are we going to go with 14 because you are quite the sniffer. Let's go with 14 total. Okay. 12 novels. because you are quite the sniffer. Let's go with 14 total.

Okay. 12 novels. Alright. But he wrote, I think he wrote the novels first, maybe? Or did he write the short story books like in between? Yeah, they were in between. They were toward the end. Okay.

But so he was getting fat and lazy in Jamaica. Yeah, interestingly though, or maybe it's not that interesting, they made the movies way out of order. Yeah, they did. Dr. No was the first film, but that was the sixth novel. Right, but did you know that they originally, the people who made the official Bond movies,

originally wanted to make Thunderball. Thunderball was a story that Ian Fleming came up with with another guy who wanted the rights to make a movie out of it. That fell through, but Ian Fleming went ahead and wrote the story anyway that they came up with as Thunderball. The guy sued his pants off and actually gained custody,

gained the rights to the book Thunderball, which tied it up and made them opt for Dr. No to go first instead. There was a lot of litigation over the years in the Bond franchise. Yes, there was. I guess when you have a franchise that long and that vast, there's gonna be people suing people

over something. Well, plus it's legendary. He's a legendary character and he's made a lot of money for a lot of people. Absolutely. The other interesting thing I thought just before we move on was that Moonraker was written in 1955. That was the third novel.

That is insightful. And of course there wasn't a space shuttle. Like they changed the setting and all that stuff. But it did involve like a nuclear weapon. So, you know, kind of odd. And Man with the Golden Gun, which was the, Roger Moore's second film was the final novel, and it was released after his death.

So it was way out of order. And in that one he predicted Hervé Viaché, which nobody saw come in except Ian Fleming. Yeah, you're right, yeah. It's weird. Let's talk about James Bond a little bit. Okay, the character James Bond. So it turns out James Bond had a Scottish father,

which he didn't originally. No, that came about because of Sean Connery. Yeah, Ian Fleming was not a big fan of Sean Connery. At first, yeah. At first, and then Sean Connery was like, check this out, and he made one pet go up while the other went down Yeah, a bunch of times and Ian Fleming just like clapped and squealed and that was that right?

right, he was a big fan and he said, you know what you are James Bond and He actually went back and changed James Bond's history Yeah to kind of match Sean Connery a little bit because he came to see like this guy is Bond, right? So he gave James Bond to Scottish father. Andrew. And a Swiss mother. Monique Delacroix. And they both died mountain climbing, right?

Yes, when little James was 11 years old. And he went to the orphanage. And he went to an orphanage. He was supposedly born on November 11th, 1920, but there are different accounts of his birthday and when he was born. And clearly when you have a franchise with Daniel Craig playing him in 2008, he can't be born in 1920.

Yeah, because bodies, the exhibition wasn't showing in Miami in like 1958 or anything. So yeah, there's a sliding scale there obviously to make it viable. But James, much like his author namesake, Ian Fleming, not namesake, making James Bond, much like the author Ian Fleming, went to the Royal Navy in World War II,

rose to the rank of commander. Yes. After the war, that's when he entered the SIS, known as MI6. Right, which is the sixth branch of the Military Intelligence Directorate. You got that, buddy. Right, and his first two assignments, Chuck,

were two taps, weren't they? Assassinations, right off the bat. So, apparently you have to kill two people to get a double-O status, which is the license to kill, and he got them, like you say, right off the bat. Yeah, and he was the seventh dude to get him, so that's where 007 comes from. Right.

The seventh agent, we shouldn't say dude, because they were, were there female agents? Yeah, there were female agents. Okay. I'm pretty sure. Oh, and we should probably take the time here to explain. I like James Bond. I know that you like James Bond movies too.

Is this the disclaimer? We're gonna get killed here? We are not members of James Bond fandom, I would say. I mean, I've seen all the movies, but no, I haven't studied the books. I've never read any of the books. I don't think I've seen all the movies. But I do like them in a very recreational manner. So, that being said, we are not going to get

every single thing right here. We are going to walk right past information that we just don't know exists. So, in a very friendly manner, if there is anything that you have to say that can round this podcast out even further, the more, we love knowing new things. So please let us know, I guess is what we're saying, right? Oh, they'll let us know.

Except for the three dudes that just turned it off and went, well they have no business even attempting this thing. And then they go give us a one star rating on iTunes. So, back to Bond. He, as we all know, is a sharp dresser, and he loves fast cars. He loves his martini, shaking, not stirred.

He loves women. Yeah, and do you know if you shake a martini instead of stirring it, you pretty much ruin it? I disagree. I shake all my martinis. Dude. How does it ruin it? Feathers it, I think. What does that mean? It means it's basically just a vodka rock. So you just like the vermouth bottle

just waved near the glass? Pretty much. I like just a little vermouth, little olive juice, but no olive. No olive juice. I'll put three olives in you. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it.

I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it.

I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the way you're doing it. I like the vermouth bottle just wave near the glass pretty much I like just a little vermouth little olive juice, but no olive no olive juice I'll put in all I'll put three olives in usually really all right But then I eat them so fast that they have no time to taint the martini well That's why you're not a super spy. No so Josh James Bond a couple of the other traits. We should just mention. He is a James Bond, a couple of the other traits we should just mention. He is a martial artist.

He's a gifted man with his fist and feet. Or if you're Roger Moore, a karate chop. Yeah, he loved the karate chop. Oh yeah, yeah, that was a big deal in the 70s. And he carried a, famously carried a Walter PPK handgun, .32 caliber. Yeah. And that's a little guy, have you ever seen him?

They're small. And I've played GoldenEye, and I've played I guess I just played GoldenEye. It is a great game. Yeah, and you know they're bringing that back for Wii. I've heard. Matt Frederick of Coolest Stuff on the Planet told us that they are bringing that back because

it's still sort of the standard for first person shooters, like 15 years on, it's still a great game. So they're bringing it back because it's still sort of the standard for first person shooters, like 15 years on. It's still a great game, so they're bringing it back as is, like completely as it was, but with better graphics. That's gonna be fantastic. For the Wii. Yeah.

Pretty exciting. Back to the real life. Yes. Of the fake life of James Bond. Right. That's what we should've titled this podcast. The real life of the fake life? Yeah.

OpenAI is a financial abomination. A thing that should not be. An aberration. A symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm going to tell you why on my show Better Offline, the rudest show in the tech industry. Where we're breaking down why OpenAI along with other AI companies are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job.

I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app, Apple podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. Are there any pictures of you online? I'm not just talking about Google, I'm talking anywhere. Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. That database is now being used by police departments all across the country to match criminal suspect photos. And sometimes it makes mistakes. So in this one case, two of their search results that are, I think we're in the top 10 of the search results, were Michael Jordan, a picture of Michael Jordan. But cops are still using it to make arrests. Police, they are trusting the software

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Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. Get your tickets today AXS.com. How about let's talk about some of the enemies. Dr. No, he was the first one to appear in the films. Dr. Julius No. Right, he's an atomic scientist. Yeah, he was clearly Joseph Wiseman played him and he was a great, great villain.

Goldfinger, you can't talk about Bond without talking about Goldfinger. He was, eh, he Wiseman played him, and he was a great, great villain. Goldfinger, you can't talk about Bond without talking about Goldfinger. He was, eh, he don't like him. No, not really. I was a big Goldfinger guy. Were you? He tried to laser the crotch of James Bond.

Oh yeah, that's right. Pretty hardcore. Yeah, it's like Max Scorpio. Right. What's that? In that Simpsons where Homer ends up going to work for the supervillain. Right. Yeah, he's like, no Mr. Bond, I expect you to die

and be a very cheap funeral. Ah Job was one of my favorite, he was one of Goldman's henchmen. I loved him too. The big Asian guy with the bowler hat that he could cut the head off a statue. Yeah, he was huge. With his hat.

Yeah, very big dude. Yeah. Jaws, we grew up with Roger Moore. Uh-huh. So you can't not talk about Jaws. No, he was great too. He was in two of them, right? He was in Moonraker and the spy who loved me. I thought he might have been more than that,

but he definitely. No, I looked it up. He was only in two. Two, really? God, he made quite an impression. Yeah, he did. He found the girlfriend in Moonraker, I think, right? Yeah, he falls in love or something.

Yeah, the little nerdy girl. And then he pops up again in Happy Gilmore. Was he in that? Yeah. I didn't see that. Yeah, he was Happy Gilmore's boss on the construction site, and he ends up becoming a fan. Wow.

Did he have the teeth? No, he didn't have the teeth. Just for the movie. But he was a big guy. Yes. Lately, we've had more recent villains that I don't think the new villains compare, personally. They kind of come and go, you know?

There's, like in Casino Royale. Yeah, I mean they're okay, but they're all... Can't even tell you who the villain was. Yeah, like they're all decent, but they're not like iconic characters like they used to be. Right, like Blofeld. Yeah, well Blofeld was the sort of legendary,

I don't know how many movies he was in, but he was played by like. Teli Savalas, Donald Pleasence. Yeah, Donald Pleasence was my favorite version. He was good. And Max Van Seedal played him, I think in Never Say Never Again, maybe. Max Van Seedal, he's a class act.

Yeah, I was, what did I watch the other day? Oh, Shutter Island, he's in that, and I leaned over to Emily and I was like, you know, I was, what did I watch the other day? Oh, Shutter Island. He's in that, and I leaned over to him and I was like, you know, I wanna see Max Van Siedel play like a kindly grandfather in a movie. I don't think he can slow it down. Anytime that dude pops up in the movie, you're like, oh, well, he's the evil doer.

Right. He's the villain. Or so you think, until Shutter Island falls apart at the end. Don't ruin it. Yeah, it ruined itself. Yes, that was Blofeld. He was the bald guy, and he was the head of Spectre, that falls apart at the end. Don't ruin it. It ruined itself. Yes, that was Blofeld.

He was the bald guy and he was the head of Spectre, which was the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Right. It's a great villainous title there. That's not only a great name, that's your mission statement. Yeah, all wrapped up into one.

One of my favorites, Max Zoran, played by the great Christopher Walken. He was the, dude, I know you love that movie. A Beautiful Kill is one of the best Bond movies ever. But that had the worst Bond woman ever. Grace Jones? No, Tonya Roberts.

I don't remember her. She was the Bond girl. I don't remember. She was the lady from the 70s show that was like one of the late Charlie's Angels replacements. Tanya Roberts, yeah. Yeah, who cares? It was the 80s, nobody was paying that much attention.

But it was a good song. It was, and Christopher Walken was in it. Grace Jones was in it. She was pretty scary in that. Yeah, she was excellent. Talk about a martial artist. But Max Zorin is, did you know he was the product of genetic experiments by Nazis?

Walken was? Well, not Walken, Max Zorin. Yeah, yeah, I don't remember that. Yeah, and one of the unintended side effects was he was a complete psychopath. I thought you were gonna say one of the side effects was his use of punctuation. You are good, man.

Everybody does walk-in. I can't do a walk-in. Let's hear it. It's really just an altered John Travolta. Why are you so weird? That's great. Thanks. Of course, Chuck, there's 006, Alec Trevelyan.

Yeah. What was he in? That was one of the Pierce Brosnan ones, wasn't it? Yeah. I think. Yeah, which I don't remember those. I loved Pierce Brosnan. Oh, he was good.

The fact that he wasn't James Bond earlier, he's like, oh yeah, you're gonna cast Timothy Dalton, are you? Well, I'll go be Remington Steele, jerks. Yeah. And I'll just wait my time. Then they tried to get him again, right? I think so., I'll go be Remington Steele, jerks. And I'll just wait my time. Then they tried to get him again, right? I think so. And he was committed to Remington Steele,

which was sort of like James Bond for TV. Oh, so did he do Remington Steele first? Oh yeah, he did Remington Steele. Well, it goes back and forth. There was like, Timothy Dalton was offered the role before Roger Moore, did you know that? No, I didn't. When he was 21 years old, he was gonna replace Sean Connery,

Wow. and Dalton said, I'm too young to play James Bond, and then he comes around years later, just like Brosnan did. Okay, but I am glad that Pierce Brosnan went in. I just happen to think that those, his period of movies were unfortunate. I thought they were pretty good.

I didn't like them. I'm really happy with Daniel Craig's stuff so far. Well, you know, my statement on that is that was the only direction they could take that franchise. After the Jason Bourne movies, you couldn't have a guy like winking at the camera like Roger Moore and like slapstick sounds and sound effects.

You had to take him in a real bad, bad direction. Yes, and you mean like seem Ohio bad. Yeah So double of six Alec Trevelyne. He is I think he informs the character Alex Krychek from X-Files You think so, huh? Very nice Josh. Thanks. All right. So those are the villains. Clearly not all, but we should also talk about some of the people that James Bond had working on his side at MI6. Which we will call, from here on out, the superfluous characters.

No, dude, they're great. M, Q, M was the head of MI6, and there were several M's. M was just a title, and M was the one that's always frustrated with Bond, yet he knows that he's the blunt instrument of choice, you know, pretty much in every movie. Right. Q.

You should say he or she for M. True. Dame Judi Dench took over. Yeah, oh man, she's doing a great job, too. Q is the head of the Q branch. Judi Dench, did you hear that? Chuck just said you were doing a great job too. Q is the head of the Q branch. Judy Dench, did you hear that? Chuck just said you were doing a great job, so keep it up. Keep it up, Dane Judy Dench.

Dame, Dane? Dame. Dame. Yeah, she's a dame. Q is the head of the Q branch, MI6's research and development branch, and Q, as you might know, is the guy who, in all the films, gives James his gadgets.

There's always that great scene where James goes into the laboratory and starts messing around with the gadgets and exasperates Q because he's burning something or he's firing a missile inside and he shouldn't be. That's Q. Right. And he's now been replaced by his former assistant, R.

Right, now is R John Cleese? Yeah. Yeah, he's doing a good job. But he's the new Q, he just used to be R. Well, because Q died. Right. Lou Allen? Yes, Chuck.

That was the actor that played the original Q, is that right? Right. Or the Roger Moore Q that I loved. Right. Who else we got? Felix Leiter, who I like, Jack Lord, Jeffrey Wright, both played him. Oh yeah? CIA agent.

And then there's another guy named Hayward Wade. Was he CIA? Yeah. I thought they said they didn't know if he was DEA or CIA. He was around before the DEA was. Was he? Yeah.

And then you've got, I think Jack Wade is his name, and he was actually played by a couple people, including Joe Dom Baker. In the Pierce Brosnan ones. Yeah, yeah. He had a couple of American counterparts, that's a good point. And, little known fact, Joe Dom Baker was in,

I can't remember the name of the movie, but it was one of the greatest Mr. Science Theater 3000s ever. Oh really? Yeah. Bad movie? What? Yeah. And then of course we have to mention Moneypenny. He was Em's personal assistant and Moneypenny,

you always knew Moneypenny because James would come in and flirt very much with her. And I always got the sense that if James were to ever settle down with anyone, which he clearly won't, it would have been Moneypenny. Sure. Or at least he made her think that. Right.

Every day was Secretary's Day when James Bond was around. He was always just so nice to her in bringing her things from his travels, shot glasses and stuff. Spoons, she had an extensive spoon collection. Refrigerator magnets. Chuck. Josh. Let's talk about the movie, shall we?

Yeah, sure. Let's talk about James Bond on screen, because it wasn't necessarily just relegated to the movies. Oh yeah, good point. So James Bond first appears on screen, on the small screen, on a CBS TV series called Climax, with an exclamation point. Really?

Yeah. And he was first played by a guy named Barry Nelson. And Barry Nelson, you may recognize as Mr. Ullman, the manager of the Overlook in Kubrick's The Shining, who tells Jack Torrance the ropes. That's the first guy to ever play James Bond. Wow, was he English? No.

American? Yeah, CBS TV series. So we've had a Scotsman, quite a few Englishmen, an American, and an Australian And what what do you mean Australian? I mean someone from Australia That was George Lason. He was Australian was it you know what happened to him well. He was much of an actor Well, it wasn't just that he after the success of his Bond movie I mean he played James Bond, it was filmed and produced and released.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the movie. He was like, holy cow, I'm James Bond and I'm going to buy a boat and sail around the world for a while and he came back and his star had already faded because he did one thing and that was that. Oh really? Yeah. He kind of blew it.

He wasn't much of an actor either. But it wasn't just that, it was a combination of those two things. He was a bad dude though. Like he got the role apparently because he impressed Ian Fleming because he had a faux fight scene with a wrestler for his audition. And he actually punched the guy.

Like got mad and punched him. And Fleming's like, this is our dude. Wow. Yeah, because Fleming wrote the Bond character as much darker. Yeah, the novel character for sure. like Roger Moore took it in a very awful direction specific direction You know that was not the least bit like how Ian Fleming had written them. You're the ultimate Roger Moore apologist. I love Roger

He's good in the saint and that's why I got the the role I think Okay, the TV show the saint. Sure. All right, so Chuck. Let's where I got the role, I think. The TV show The Saint. It's a good one. Alright, so Chuck, let's get back to the beginning again. So we talked about Barry Nelson, and on the big screen, the first Bond ever was Sean Connery, right? In Dr. No. Well, they did a pilot, though, on TV as well.

That's the Barry Nelson one. Oh, it was called Casino Royale, though, no? Right, it was based on Casino Royale for Climax. Which I think, you know how they used to do like, they would have the name of the series, but then there'd be like different, like Wonderful World of Disney. It was like the name of the series,

but then there were different documentaries or cartoons or whatever. I think it was like that. And that flopped and it got canceled. They didn't know what they were doing with TV back then. They had no idea. So yeah, you're right. Dr. No was the first film in 1962,

and there's been 22 in total. No? Yes. And we're waiting, and that's official Bond films, because they parodied him and other things. Woody Allen played him, for heaven's sake. Yeah? Yeah.

And the parody he did of Casino Royale. Yeah. There's also an unofficial Bond film with an official Bond, right? Let's hear it. Never Say Never Again. Yeah, that was Connery's, that was also fraught with lawsuits as well.

That was based on the Thunderball lawsuit. Yeah, they remade Thunderball. Right, and they named it Never Say Never Again because Connery had said after 1971 that he'd never play Bond again. Because he played Bond, what, for the first six movies? Something like that? One, two, three, four, five, and then George Lazenby,

then he came back and did Diamonds Are Forever. And then after that came Roger Moore. Yes. And then Roger Moore had a pretty good run. He did. So Sean Connery stops playing Bond, George Lazenby comes along, does it once, leaves. Sean Connery has to come back another time.

After Sean Connery, they get Roger Moore. In the midst of Roger Moore's run, Sean Connery makes another Bond film. 12 years after the last one he'd made. Right? And, yeah. Kim Basinger was the Bond chick in that one. Yes she was.

And they called it Never Say Never Again because he'd said that he would never play Bond again. Never, Trebek. Open AI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be, an aberration, a symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm going to tell you why on my show Better Offline, the rudest show in the tech

industry, where we're breaking down why open AI, along with other AI companies, are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app, Apple podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. Are there any pictures of you online? I'm not just talking about Google.

I'm talking anywhere. Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. That database is now being used by police departments all across the country to match criminal suspect photos. And sometimes it makes mistakes. So in this one case, two of their search results that I think were in the top 10 of the search results were Michael Jordan, a picture of Michael Jordan. But cops are still using it to make arrests. Police, they are trusting the software to lead them to the right suspect. But you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works. This is not a minority report.

This is happening right now. People are getting arrested and doing actual time in jail after being picked out by a computer. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, where every Wednesday we explain the right now of living in the future. You can turn off the computer, but do not let the computer turn you off.

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And then me too happen. And then everybody else wanna get pissed off because the white said it was okay. Problem. My oldest daughter, her first day of ninth grade, and I called to ask how it was going. She was like, oh dad, all they were doing was talking about your thing in class. I ruined my baby's first day of ninth grade, and I called to ask how it was going. She was like, oh, dad, all they was doing was talking about your thing in class. I ruined my baby's first day of high school.

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Right. Timothy Dalton, I guess we might as well venture into his years. Yeah, I saw those when they first came out, like in the theaters, and I didn't think anything of them. I don't know if they were over my head or whatever, but I didn't like them. They were pretty good, Living Daylights and Licensed to Kill. I don't know if they were over my head or whatever, but I didn't like them. They were pretty good.

Living Daylights and License to Kill, they were both. Are they good, really? Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a more novelistic Bond. Like he was darker and a little more bad dude. And I mean, it might have had something to do with those coming off the heels of Roger Moore and his vaudeville act that he brought to Bond. And Dalton had a two picture run

and then was replaced by who everyone thought should have been Bond before Dalton, Pierce Brosnan for one, two, three, four films. And then they went the inevitable direction with a blonde Bond with Daniel Craig. Is that inevitable you think? Well, I meant the inevitable way of making him a tough dude.

But yeah, his blondness was not inevitable. You know, you think? Well, I meant the inevitable way of making him a tough dude. But yeah, his blindness was not inevitable. You know, you make fun of Roger Moore, but he had a seven picture stint as James Bond. Yeah, and that was our childhood. Trust me, dude, at the time, I loved it. But then when I got older, I revisited all of the Sean Connerys, and then I saw the butt-kickiness of Timothy Dalton,

and now Daniel Craig, and now I'm kinda like, Roger Moore was kind of a joke to me. No? You still stand by it? I do. I like Roger Moore. Sam Neal was considered at one point. I could see him as James Bond.

Yeah, he would've been bad. He was great in Dead Calm. Yeah, that was a good movie. You know, I don't know that this even qualifies as a podcast. Podcast? People are gonna be like, you guys are just kinda chit chatting. Chuck, there's also theories, tons of them.

Best one, actually the only one I could find really, is the Codename Theory. Have you heard this? I have not. Cracked got a lot of publicity for it. It's a fan theory that basically says Cracked got a lot of publicity for it. It's a fan theory that basically says James Bond is a name that goes along with 007.

And each actor was playing an actual different person who had assumed this undercover name, James Bond. Really? Which explains the changes in personality. Yeah. It explains why Sean Connery was so suave and Roger Moore was so goofy. It explains why Daniel Craig and Timothy Dalton were so violent.

It explains a lot of stuff actually. It explains George Lazenby's departure because his wife, the only time James Bond has ever been married, died in that one on Her Majesty's secret service. Yeah, he had a wife. Most people don't know that. And she was killed by Blofeld, right?

So he leaves after that. That explains that, right? Absolutely. There's actually holes in that theory. Do you know them? I know a couple. Like for example, George Lazenby recognized gadgets that were debuted during Sean Connery's tenure.

If he was a new person, it would be new to him. He'd be like, what's his dart gun? Right, exactly. Right. And I think the Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore is recognized from his college days at Cambridge as James Bond, which would mean that he was using the name before then,

but it's still a pretty cool theory. If you want any cool theory shot down, I recommend you go to commanderbond.net, mi6.co.uk, or jamesbondwiki.com, those are some good sites. I'm gonna retract my Roger Moore bashing a little bit. I actually liked four out of seven of his films. So you're right.

Sometimes I forget about the awesomeness of Live and Let Die and Man with a Golden Gun for Your Eyes Only, those were all pretty good. It was like Octopussy, Moonraker was really silly, does not age well at all, and View to a Kill, I just can't get behind that one. View to a Kill is awesome. What about The Spy Who Loved Me?

That's the one with the underwater lotus. Yeah, yeah, great movie. And I have one last fact, are you ready? The legendary Bond producer, co-producer, Albert Cubby Broccoli, his family invented broccoli. They crossed cauliflower with rabe and invented broccoli and he actually left the family farm

to go to Hollywood to pursue his fortune when he was like 18. Are you making this up? I am not. He invented broccoli? His family did, his parents, grandparents. That's a pretty good fact. Broccoli.

Very cool. Good for him. They're in trouble now though, because MGM is in trouble. Yeah, but they're saying it's just a blip on the radar. If you listen to anybody who's attached to the Bond 23 project, they're like, this is fine. Yeah, it's being delayed big time though,

because MGM's over their heads financially. If you know anything about MGM, if you're an insider at MGM, we want to hear from you. Let us know. What's going on with Bond? That's funny. We gotta talk about Bond girls. That's one of the hallmarks of Bond films. Usually there's two Bond girls at least.

There's like a hot villain and like a hot, an aide that helps him out in some way. Sometimes she turns out to be a villain, but there's usually two Bond girls and he's equally attracted to both. Like Grace Jones? Yeah, he was attracted to her for some reason. They are femme fatales, like I said,

Bond cannot help but fall for them, even though it might mean he has to eventually kill them after he makes sweet love to them. And I'm gonna go ahead and ask you what your favorite Bond girl is. I just recently realized that Carrie Lowell was a Bond girl and I used to have the biggest crush on her when I would watch.

Wild Work It. No, Law and Order reruns on A&E. They used to show Law and Order for eight hour blocks on A&E. And I'd be like, I'm not going to class today, I'm just gonna watch Law and Order. And she was on a lot of them. She would be my favorite Bond girl.

I'm going with Ursula Andress. She was hot, dude. Back in the day, she played Honey Rider. And that's another hallmark of the Bond women is they usually had really awful names that hinted at sexual innuendo. Yeah, plenty-o-tool. Honey Rider, Pussy Galore.

Actually Solitaire, Jane Seymour, she was pretty good in Live and Let Die. Like that she was actually a really good actor. Okay. Moonraker, of course, had Holly Goodhead. And A View to a Kill had Tonya Roberts. As Stacey Sutton. They didn't even give her a cool name.

So, Chuck, what's the best Bond theme song? Well. Let me take a wild guess. I'm gonna say Live and let die is probably my favorite. I would have put a thousand dollars on that or What's her name? Carly Simon spy who loved me. Nobody does it better love that song dude Best Bond theme song if it's not You do it kill. Okay, if it's not that it is Nancy Sinatra to a Kill. If it's not that, it is Nancy Sinatra singing

You Only Live Twice. Yeah, that was awesome. Yes it was. Shirley Bassey, just another little factoid. She did two. No, she did more than that. She did Goldfinger, she did Diamonds Are Forever, she did Moonraker.

Moonraker. That's three total. I was also a big fan of Sheena Easton's for Your Eyes Only. Yeah, she did a good one. And Rita Coolidge, All Time High, from Mock the Pussy. Didn't Tom Jones do Thunderball or something? He did.

Yeah. He did Thunderball. And since we're talking about the songs that have really gotten lame in recent years, like the Chris Cornell one and Garbage, you probably didn't even remember they did songs. Garbage did the one for... World Is Not Enough.

Oh, okay. Pierce Brosnan. Yeah. And Sheryl Crow did one. Did she really? Yeah. Wow, that is lame. And Madonna did one and now it's gotten to the point

where they're just like, like the last one, they put Jack White with Alicia Keys. Up next is Miley Cyrus Oh God say it ain't so bond 23 What else do we have here? This is the podcast that won't die No, I do have like James Bond it just goes on I do have a couple of more facts, okay Well first of all before you move on if we're gonna talk about the songs we need to talk about the opening sequences the title sequences When you're a young Baptist boy,

and there are naked silhouetted women jumping on trampolines, it's very titillating. And arousing. And arousing for a young boy named Chuck. I'm titillated and aroused. And then the opening sequence of the films typically is some awesome action scene, and then the title sequence comes up.

There'll be like a seven minute action scene. They call that a cold opening, buddy. A cold opening? Uh huh. That's very nice. And I just got a couple more facts for you, Josh, and then I'll let you put this to bed. Alright.

What would you say is the highest grossing bond film of all time, Adjusted Gross? Adjusted Gross, I would say Casino Royale. No. Top two all time, Thunderball and Goldfinger. You're a liar adjusted gross You know Casino Royale worldwide netted like almost six hundred million dollars so far bunch of money Thunderball and Goldfinger did more did they really yeah Thunderball in 1965 dude grossed aed $141 million. What?

And that's... Wait, is that worldwide or US? That's worldwide. Okay. And that is close to what Licensed to Kilt grossed in 1989. That grossed like 150 something. And Thunderball, you know, 30 years more,

grossed $141 million. Right, but what I'm saying is Casino Royale grossed 141 million. Right, but what I'm saying is Casino Royale grossed 600 million. Well, I mean, yeah. That's not an adjusted gross, though. You can't compare 1965 dollars. Oh, I see, you're figuring inflation in. Yeah, that's why it's called an adjusted gross.

And that's about it. I mean, we could say the cars he used real quickly, the Aston Martin, obviously. My favorite is the Lotus. The Lotus, the Alfa Romeo, and then that new Audi that's pretty cool. Do you like the Audi? Yeah, I mean, it looks awesome.

But I do miss the Lotus and the fact that it could also be a submarine. Right. And lastly, Chuck, I would like to say to all the kids of our generation, if you ever noticed a similarity between Inspector Gadget and James Bond, you are dead on.

Yeah. You think so? Yeah. Alright, so that's about it. If you wanna know more about James Bond, like I said, there are three, at least three really good websites for all things Bond fandom.

You can check out our website by typing James Bond. Brings up a bunch of stuff in the handy search bar. And now, if you can believe it, it is time for Listener Mail. Yes, Josh, I'm gonna call this Samurai Stuff from Thomas. Guys, I'm a total samurai geek. I practice Japanese sword-based martial arts, kendo and a yado.

I've read all this material about samurai and your podcast was a very good introduction and I thank you for it. However, I am kind of surprised you did not mention the greatest samurai of all time, Miyamoto Musashi. This guy was the epitome of everything samurai were supposed to be, a dedicated so-soyvent, aant a poet a painter a calligrapher philosopher a general and an all-round butt-kicking killer Not only did he write the book of five rings

He also killed 60 men in single combat before age 40 not to mention all the guys he killed in warfare At one point in your podcast you talked about the wooden katana called Bokken in Japanese. Yes, it was a practice sword, Josh, but it was also a weapon in its own right. Because Japan is such a wet climate, swords were sometimes destroyed by rust. Bokken were cheap and easy to replace. And Musashi was famous for winning some of his greatest battles with the wooden sword. Ow. I know, can you imagine, dude?

Ow. God. Getting smacked to death. Well, he says instead of cutting someone's heads off, he would brain them, which I guess means. Like you crack their skull open. Yeah, until their brains come out. Also, he was a big fan of using two swords at one time,

sometimes two katana, sometimes the short and the long, whatever it took to do the job. You guys rock, I love your show. I'm grateful for the Samurai Show from Thomas. Well thank you Thomas for the extra information. As I said, we are always interested in knowing everything we possibly can about a subject. So if you have anything to tell us about James Bond

that we missed, that we got wrong, that we need to know, we want to hear it, wrap it up and send it in an email. Don't forget to spank it on the bottom and maybe serve it a dry martini, shaken, not stirred. Address it to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffs.com.

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