The Daily Zeitgeist - 2024 Election = Nothing To Learn, Bible Grift Goes Poorly 05.05.26

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

In episode 2052, Miles and guest co-host Andrew Ti are joined by Associate Professor of Journalism at NYU and host of Unruly Subjects and Empire City, Chenjerai Kumanyika, to discuss… The Onion Debuts InfoWars Spoof--Despite Legal Setback, Democrats’ Best Friend Is The Overton Window…, The Thing About Being A Christian Grifter Is You Gotta At Least Know Like…Bible Verses? And more! The Onion and Tim Heidecker’s InfoWars Takeover Delayed by Texas Court Texas appeals court pauses The Onion's purchase of Infowars Watch as Alex Jones signs off from Infowars after 27 years on air The Onion’s Plan to Take Over Infowars Is Once Again in Jeopardy INFOWARS CHIEF (Tim Heidecker) ISSUES EMERGENCY STATEMENT LISTEN: DOGGOD by L.A. WitchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Because my understanding as a non-sports person is that the Knicks and Philly, and I'm kind of like both in New York and Philly person. Oh, perfect. If you had to pick. Stay out of it. You feel closer to one? I mean, I got to go home to Philly, so I think I got to, you know. I just really, yeah, I want Philly's spite to win the day because there's just something,

there's an edge to the way, like, Philadelphians, even when they win, they fucking are, they hate it somehow that I'm like this. We're still winners. Yeah. I was just reading that the Sixers are like, if people are trying to buy tickets and their like their addresses aren't in the greater Philadelphia area, they're like, no, no. We don't need usurpers in here. We need all, we need every Philadelphian possible. Not the strongest fan building program. Yeah, but still, but still. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast

Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions, you can have like a strong stance, and then there's your body having its

own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, Hope From a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice.

Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole.

This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Oh, hello the internet and welcome to season 437 episode two of the daily Zykeiser production of IHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared, sorted consciousness

through the day's news. We also have a new, obviously, you know, the non-news history version of the episodes, dropping every Monday, the icon episodes where we've talked about things people like Whitney Houston, Frida Kahlo, Bin Laden's, love obsession with Whitney Houston that to the point he wanted to go after Bobby Brown because he felt Bobby Brown was in the way of him being with Whitney Houston. And even talking about people like Mr. Bean. Anna Wintor is coming up.

Just icons and what they say about us. I did I did Sherlock Holmes. You did Sherlock Holmes, yes, where he found out he did a 7% cocaine solution injection, but not too much cocaine. Yeah. I just like that it was in there, but in a way that felt very like prescriptive. Like, well, only 7%. Not me, come on.

solution, which I got to work directly into my veins. But anyway, here we are. It is Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. For all you drunk Americans, probably got your weird sombreros on and culturally insensitive. That's fine. Garments off for Cinco de Mayo. Isn't that like Independence Day?

No, it is not. But it's also National Hoagie Day. Shout out all my Philadelphians out there. They're going to Wawa for a Hogi. It's also, in Japan, it's Quentin, it's also, In Japan, it's Kodomo No Hi, which is Children's Day. It's hug a shed and take a selfie day. Don't even know what that means.

That's no. Yeah, museum lovers day, love a museum. National Astronaut Day, love that. Love a concert too. It's National Concert Day and National Cartoonist Day. There are many more other holidays that I could go over. But you know what? I think I'll tap out at seven today.

That's a lot. That's a lot, dog. And then broad. Yes. My name is Miles Gray, aka Black. Black-in-knees experimental artist, Yoboi Kusama, who just got back from the homeland in Japan. I got to say,

I love the culture out there. I love the culture in Japan. I love the people, you know. I love the sandwiches. How's the yin? Oh, the yen? Oh, man. How's that exchange rate?

Bro, it's like my bench press numbers. Week. Week right now, week. It's, listen, there's, it's hard to balance, like, where it becomes exploitative, but yeah, I've heard it's very nice. Being there, like, you know, growing up between Japan and America, like, I've really seen a shift from like a place where some tourists came to to now, like, every American person there is buying a bunch of Onitsuka Tiger A6 shoes because they're so cheap there.

And I'm like, okay, just take off with your goods. Anyway, I'm thrilled to be joined by my guest co-host today. Wonderful writer, comedian, boxer. I know you don't talk about your pugilistic skills, but I know you, I've seen you throw, I've seen you throw the hands. Can I tell you, I just this weekend was cleaning out my apartment and I was like, I think my fighting days are past. I am actively giving away a pair of, or a bunch of jiu-sis-s and a pretty nice set of box. You're out of the Jits mom? I can't.

I think my knee and my ankles are permanently. Yeah, I get it. Well, it's good to have you. It's Andrew T. Cyclist. I'm on the exercise bike. Oh, you're really? Oh, you really are middle age now.

I'm playing poker on my iPad on the X-Kat. You're taking pictures with your iPad in public events? God, can I just tell you all the AKAs that got submitted were about Jack peeing his pants? So, okay. No, I'm keeping it clean. Keep it clean. Keep it clean. Keep it respectful.

Well, you should keep it clean today, Andrew, because we have a fantastic guest. And I would say distinguished guest. I know. At first I was like, oh, man, just a fantastic podcaster. You might know from the Unruly Subjects podcast. But then you go a little bit deeper. And you're like, hold on. Oh, whoa, whoa.

Get out the dance hall siren. Also, an associate professor at NYU of journalism, okay? A fantastic human being. Someone also has the Empire City podcast, which I've heard of that. That was up for some awards, if I recall correctly. But please, to us, just a humble, humble intellect. Please welcome to the microphone. Our guest today, change your eye, Kumayika.

Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you. I come with my own sound effects, just to let you. Yeah, that is amazing. You got to have your own sound effects. Hell, yeah. No, man, look, I'm much respect, you know what I mean, to the zeitgeist. Like, y'all, y'all, y'all are just, you know,

y'all are one of the ones when it comes to this, and I'm honored to be here with you. Oh, my. And by the way, I'm happy that you said you wanted to make sure that it was serious and clean, clean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One thing I cannot abide is podcasting that is not clean. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, Chandra, it must be your first time listening because it's about to go the fuck off in here in a second. But yeah, really good to have you. Unruly subjects pod. I did a little research on you. You seem to have come from a tradition of unrulyness, of civil disobedience, of fighting the good fight. Can you just give us a little bit about the podcast

and sort of what brought you to it and also like your very relevant background? Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you. I mean, you know, I had made, you know, most of the podcasts I make, like Empire City is a, you know, they're historical, right? So they're like these long, deep dive, very highly produced, you know, kind of go into the, go into the wilderness and come back with a long project. So Empire City was our eight part limited series about the history of the NYPD. As you mentioned, you know, we were fortunate to win a lot of awards and, you know, all those kind of things. And then I had made Uncivil. That was one of the first ones most people heard for me. It's like a people's history of the Civil War. Right. I did that at Gimlet Media with Jack Hitt. And then I also did the podcast called Seeing White, which has, and all, you know, this was like, it's the history of whiteness and that was really led by my friend John Bewin.

But then I was like, you know, I kind of want to be able to, I want to be like y'all. I want to be able to weigh in as, you know, fashion is destroying our world in real time. And also, I wanted to be able to do some fun stuff because I don't know about you, but I just know there's a lot of people who, you know, maybe, you know, there might be people who are already thinking about politics and organizing and making the world better. Or they might be people who want an entry point. Right. And but also it's like at six o'clock, if you're like me, your brain is fried. And I can only listen to things if I can maybe do other things while I'm doing it and where it's a little fun and where we're also going to talk about, you know, how to, what's the best ice cream in New York or like how to make Shataki mushrooms, which is something I really.

really want to learn. Okay. Ooh. So we have, so we've been doing it, and we have incredible episodes. I can help you on the mushroom thing. Just that way. Can you go to the mushroom? I'll talk to you later.

I'm taking all the, all the advice. Now, just while I say, you know, we have some incredible episodes. Recently, I somehow persuaded one of the head leaders of the sort of international director of the South Korean trade unions to tell me how they got a president, you know, how they rescinded martial law and got the president impeached and arrested. arrested, yeah. And I was like, how you do that? We might need to know that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just out of curiosity, not about anything. But how did you do that? How did you do that? Exactly. I couldn't believe she'd talk to me because it was like, I never felt, I just feel so silly sending these emails. I'm like, hi, you're like the leader of a big umbrella trade union and I'm a podcaster.

And I was wondering if you would talk to me, but she did. Hey, look, it's amazing. If the newspapers are correct, you know, the 2024 election was all because of podcasts and nothing else. Which was a great scapegoat. I love that it was simultaneously like, all right, big up the podcast, but also like, it wasn't just because of the podcasters. Maybe that it could have been your platforms.

I mean, the fact that, you know, certain podcasters are like the focus of the conversation that's like, it's like, y'all really ain't got no gay, man. Y'all are really out here wilded. Yeah. Oh, man. Well, we are going to get to know you even better. But first, Chenjerai, we're going to let the people know what we're going to talking about today. The onion, you know, officially took over Info Wars. And there was a big,

big plastic cup sendoff that Alex Jones had for their like last broadcast as it went into obscurity. And then the onion with Tim Heidecker came out with their sort of, you know, their new updated version of Info Wars, although it's already hit a legal snag because if anything, Alex Jones is the king of just appeals and trying to, you know, trying to, I guess. guess what's the word I'm looking for. Dragging it out. Yeah, dragging out the inevitable. But not winning. But definitely he's not the king of winning. Yes. The thing about getting dragged is it does mess up your clothing and eventually gets down to your skin and then you will be scuffed and harmed. Then we're going to talk about the Democratic Party's

best friend, the Overton window, because there was just a fantastic clip of the DNC chair, Ken Martin, talking to John Favro of Crooked Media last week, about the official party post-mortem report on the 2024 presidential election. And what exactly went wrong? And I feel like a lot of us don't need a consultant generated analysis to know what went wrong. But hey, if that's what some people need, fine. But the answer is Ken Martin gave. I was like, see, this is exactly what my fear was going into this year is that it's being served up to you on a plate.

And you're still going to find a way to do just to fuck it all up. So we'll talk about that. We'll also talk about Russell Brand. And right now he's currently grifting as a Christian as he's dealing with sexual assault allegations and is on trial. And I just got to point out, you know, the thing about grifting being a Christian grifter, you got to know at least a couple Bible verses. You know what I mean? At least, look. Like, don't say you like Wu-Tang and you can't name one song.

You know what I mean? Oh, you like Wu-Tang, what's your favorite song? You know, the Wu-Tang. Let me look. Let me look really quick. Yeah, yeah, let me look. 36 chamber Oh my God

What the fuck? Okay. So we'll talk about that. He had a really hard moment trying to just pick out any Bible verse that was relevant to him. Name a Bible word. It's a big book, guys.

It's a lot of charge to narrow down. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I have to acknowledge my own privilege. I went to Lutheran school and Catholic high school. So I was inundated with Bible talk.

Now we get to it. Off the cuff, I can, I'll regurgitate a Bible verse if I have to. And I can drift. You know what I mean? Because I know about that. If you're a right wing grifter, though, at least get better at crowd work.

He doesn't need to have it, but he does need to be able to vamp better. Yeah, yeah. That was the crazy thing. You can't even fill some dead air. Come on. But anyway, we'll talk about that. We might even get to the fact that thermoses, like the thing that we used to put our lunch in, are exploding and blinding people because I'm going to guess it was because of some kind

of kind of corporate greed where they didn't put a safety feature in. Well, that could just be my theory. They're exploding. Yeah, because of the gas buildup. I thought it was just the gas, the thing that we all do. You just drink methane-filled. Oh, yeah. Apple juice of care.

Yeah, yeah. Pass out. I didn't realize that's explosion. No, no, it's causing a high-pressure canister that is, has unfortunately blinded some people. Like most of capitalism, we just brought the IEDs into our own house. Right, right, exactly. Intentional. We paid money for it.

Right. And we got it. Walmart. But before we do that, Chenjerai, we'd like to ask our guests, what's something from your search history that's revealing about who you are, what you're into right now? Well, you know, listen, I've lived a strange life. And if you Google, well, this is, like you said, my search history, because I was thinking, if you Google, for example, Spooks and Lawrence Fishburn, you may find that I was once in a strange and wonderful hip-hop group, kind of randomly

persuaded Lawrence Fishburn to be in our video. Oh. Oh. I like a very not subtle self-promotion about an old rap group. I mean, I'm this as not, I mean, look, I stand by the spooks, but I am not

out here like, please go listen. First of all, I don't own any of the, I don't even I don't know where the money goes. Did you have an MC name or were you coming out? I did. Yeah, but my MC name, this part is a little embarrassing. I'm looking at the Wikipedia, so do you?

Yeah. It was hip, no. You were hip, no. Yeah, before the drink, I got to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Of course. You know, because it was even worse, it was even worse, it was even cornyer than naming yourself after the drink. Yeah, of course. I fashioned myself, no, this is a kind of wicked hypnotist.

I like that. Of hip hop. This is the kind of bravery and vulnerability that we're looking for. Yeah, this is very, very. Yeah, and I shouldn't talk. I was in a rap group with Shia LaBuff. Okay. in high school. Yeah, we were called the Element Crew. Yeah, it was me and a bunch of kids I knew from the Valley who were also child actors on the Disney channel. Oh, bro, I got some Googling to do right now. Yeah, yeah, there's some stuff on SoundCloud if you can find it.

You might find his rap name was Rap Eye. I just went by Miles because I didn't really, I had a graffiti name at the time. It was Prime, but with the number one instead of an I. Yeah. And I didn't, that felt a little too backpacker for me at the time. I was like, let's be real. I'm a private school kid. I'll just be Miles.

Yeah, yeah. That was my thing, too. I mean, I didn't have, you know, I mean, there's some times where I think the vibe sound like I was trying to be gangster, but it was clear. That was the other thing. The other thing was there was other guys in my group were actual street credibility. Right.

So there was no way I could, you know. Oh, we had no street credibility, and I was talking about flipping bricks of cocaine. And I was 17 years old. Okay. And I was writing it in physics, like honors physics class. If I could, if I could just pitch you guys. starting a podcast just called like second tier unks or some some version of that. I'm going my Jay Dilla hat on right now.

I'm fucking ready. I'm into it. Yeah. Oh, man. Confessions of a second tier on. It happens. I mean, that was a beautiful time.

And also, especially because what you guys, I'm reading this started out in Philly. So kind of, you guys had some competition. You know, no, Philly was like,

you know, but yeah, I mean, Philly was like, you know, I think, I think I think I think Jada because it was like in Philly is more rappers than people, you know? But, you know, we, but yeah, but we also, you know, we had like the weirdest kind of fame because we sort of did okay here and like the adult contemporary market because we had our secret things.

We had a really good singer in a group who is, right. And then we like went, we kind of weird. We went gold in like, it was a weird thing. We went gold in Belgium, but you only need like 5,000 albums to go golden Belgium. That's great. The big waffle. So people would be like, well, that's only $5,000. I'm like, oh, man, let a brother live, man.

Yeah, come on, yeah. Come on. Technotronic was from Belgium and y'all bang with that. Come on. Come on. Come on. I want a thing. That was just, and they're just like, who's the one black person we know who kind of can sound like a rapper to be on this song.

Pump up the jam. Pump you up. You're like, hold on, where is that person from? I like it, man. A little Flemish flavor on there. Unk podcast is off to a good start. Yeah, I'm saying. Also, I didn't really.

I'm reading, this true, your track, things I've seen was the intro for the European version of the TV show Dark Angel? You know, that is true. That, I think that that's true. You know, I remember seeing that on our paltry. The Jessica Alba vehicle, Dark Angel. Wow. But you know what it wasn't the soundtrack for? What?

Even though we got a gold album in the UK, the UK show that premiered shortly after that caused Spooks for years. Oh, yeah. It was a name of our group. I was like, come on, man. It's right there. You know, speech from arrested development. You know, speech, he successfully sued, you know, for some royalties about the name because he argued his name put that idea out into the, it was like.

Red. Yeah. Wow. But I talked to speech and I was like, speech. So come on. Can we do the same thing? He was like, no, bro. No, sorry.

Y'all ain't ever been spooks, dog. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You're referencing something. Okay. And maybe that's why the BBC was like, is it okay that we, this group is called Spooks? And we, I don't know. Maybe we'll just put Technotronic as the theme song.

Chandra Rai, what's something you think is underrated? Well, it depends on which way you want to go. If you want to talk qualities, if you want to talk pop culture, I would say the show and or, which is, I'm making the courageous choice to say, to make a big Disney blockbuster show. It's underrated. But politically, in terms of its analysis, the show is just so sharp. But in terms of other things, I just think like genuine curiosity. I know this is corny, but I feel like we have a kind of, I feel like the model for having political discussions in our culture and discussion is like debate. That's why certain people who may or may not have been assassinated could be held up as like the examples of critical thinking.

Right. And it's like to me, you know, I think that, you know, you think about a debate. Here's one thing you're never going to do in a debate. admit that you were wrong. Yeah, you go, oh, I don't know that. Thank you for putting me on to that. Except that every conversation that's a real conversation, you should be going into it with the hope that you're going to figure something

that you want to shift. And so to me, like, I just think, like, genuine curiosity. I mean, I'm a nerd like that. That's part of why I went ahead and went, you know, to school and why I read and why I want to be around smart people like you. Like, I've basically crafted my whole life to be around people like yourselves who I feel are smarter than me, at least in certain areas. Thank you.

I don't know. I just said at least certain areas. No, there's a lot I don't know about. So, thank you. Yeah, the change right absolutely will wash me. Yeah. So I, like, I, you know, yeah, it's corny, but I think curiosity is under rate. Well, it's true because, yeah, every, every quote-unquote debate is basically like a rap battle.

You know what I mean? Right. Like in the same way, you're not trading bars and someone goes, oh, you got me there, man. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. You're right. My mama's breath does stink. You're right.

You're right. You're right. We are looking into it. I have seen this job. I don't know if it's probably unfair to Canadians to say that the genre of compliment battle rap started in Canada. Maybe that's stereotyping Canadians unfairly. I believe it. But yeah.

I feel like it's just so they'd be like, I'd rather compliment the guy, huh? You know? I don't know enough about him to tear him down. I really like you sure. Have you ever seen these things, these compliment battles? I've seen, yeah, yeah. I've seen the comedy versions of like there's boast rattle, like our friend Kyle Ayers hosts one like that that are more. are like, they aren't as, they aren't lyrical, though.

I would like to see somebody really. Yeah, no, they got the full on bow. It's like if you, it's like if you had it turned down when you couldn't make out the words, you were thinking they were talking about guns. Right, right, right. The amount of this going on. I want to be like you. You got great skin.

Oh, man. Yeah, political discourse is not great. Chenjerai. Yes. What is something you think is overrated? That one is pretty straightforward for me. I think I'm going to say I'm liberal pundits. And by this category, I mean, you know, people like Ezra Klein.

I think there are lots of smart people who write for the Atlantic, but many of the commentary essays I see in places like the Atlantic, like this whole. Who are they for? Yeah. I'm like, and the reason why I think this really bothers me is because all my life, these people have stood up like they were the adults in the room. Like everybody else was, didn't, was uninformed. And what I think we've seen, especially over the last three years, is like, oh, y'all actually,

and to me, as I've gotten educated, because, you know, during that period, I was watching these people take up all the air in the room and pretend like they're the adults, I was also getting educated. I was getting my degree. I became an, I'm a, by the way, a national council member of the AUP, the American Association of University Professors. So I have a lot. And you start real, you start listening to their arguments and you're like, oh, y'all actually

don't even have the range. Y'all don't have the intellectual range. Right. If you watch Ezra Klein's interviews with Tonehisi Coates, what you see is a person who, A, doesn't have the intellectual range, but also doesn't have the character

to admit that you're getting, you're getting washed right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a rap battle. What's he supposed to do? Yeah. So I think these, so maybe it's obvious to, like,

people who are in this community and they're just like, yeah, whatever. But I think that these people still hold, they still dominate some power. Yeah, man, influence. I'm like, why are we, well, who's listening to these folks, man? A lot of people. Yeah.

I mean, but it's also like that class, there hasn't been a consequence for being wrong for my lifetime. And I'm fucking old now. Like, you know, all these people after 9-11 were saying wild, ridiculous shit about Iraq. And they, no one lost their job. No one's so true, man. Yeah. No, they get promoted. They're like, what would you like in column?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That'd be great. Like, you just need to get their face and be like, yeah, but you don't know what you're talking about. And you haven't for 25 years. Do you have a nebulous definition of genocide or ethnic cleansing? Right. Great.

Great. Yeah, we love that. Yeah, we're looking for that exact thing. We just want someone to say it's like if someone asks you, you got to act like it's so amorphous and abstract. And difficult. It's just such a difficult. It's so complex. Yeah.

Oh, what can we do? What can be done? I know this is maybe like a less risky answer to what's overrated than like. No, but it's true. Mark Lamont Hill says mac and cheese. I'm not going there. Right. I'm not going on.

I don't want that smoke, people. I think mac and cheese is delightful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fantastic. Rated correctly. I think we should all agree. Right. Mark, you know, you my man.

I'm not going there with you. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not all mac and cheese is good. Let's be honest. No, exactly. But the category.

The category is, I feel like correctly, correctly rated. Yeah, I mean, it's like one of those things because there can be so much nonsense within it, it's hard to say the shitty mac and cheeses aren't fucking it up for the good mac and cheese. Right, right. And then it gets sticky. Were you here when I went on my insane thing about how I've been putting,

I've been making soft, like cheese sauce with sodium citrate? Yes, yes, yes, because you're trying to make that viral burger. You don't know. I'm not, I'm just worse than that. Can I hear about this really quick? I don't take us off, of course. The quickest version of this is sodium citrate is basically the chemical. You can buy it

in most food, like fancy food stores, we can buy it online very easily, that the shorthand is it's the chemical that turns cheese into cheese with the Z. And so you put cheese, some liquid, I use stock, I use, I've used a beer before, a little bit of sodium citrate, and like shredded cheese turns into a cheese whiz, but you can use any base cheese. It's so good. Sorry, this is, oh, man. You activated me. I might try this, but I don't know if I can tell anybody that I'm going to. right. No, no.

Get some sodium citrate. It's, it's hilarious. It just like arrives in like, you know, a bag of white powder and, yeah, um,

mom, have you tried cooking? No, but I've, I've, I've, I've, I've,

I've, I've, I've, eat with Andrew, uh, from time to time. And he, he doesn't miss with his cooking.

Oh, wow. And his, like, food taste. Oh, so you pull out cosine with their full chest. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. . Andrew,

I feel pretty good about it. I feel pretty good about it. , What did you make for the Oscar party? What was the thing that you made for the Oscar party? Oh, that was so dumb. All right. It was our friend, Demia DiJuibe, does like an Oscar pun party.

And it was just a layup right there. I can't believe more people didn't take it, but I made a ham net. Oh, that's right. Oh, wow. You wove together. Was it prosciutto or harmoni-bedico? I can't remember it. No, I wasn't spending that kind of money.

I just made, I twisted thin ropes of prosciutto and woven a net. See, I like to bake a little bit. But you got to be careful, man, because I can bake. And because I sort of was able to, like, you know, amaze my family and impress them, I make, I'm like, I got the mistake that I'm a real baker. And until I would pull down at a couple of parties, I like put out a couple of my pictures and my little pies. And then people start pulling out their baking IGs.

Oh, yeah. It's heavy. Yeah. Acaroons. I'm like, I don't, okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm not a baker. Okay.

Yeah, exactly. Right. They're like, oh, you like to bake? You're like, oh, not like this. Now, come on, now. What cooking school are you from? Cordon Blue over here, man. Four years on the set.

Okay, we are going to take a break, and when we come back, some news. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross

double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay and I'm Alex English Each episode we pick it here unpack what went down

And try to make sense of how we survived it Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill Waxing all about crack in the 80s To be clear, 84 is big to me Not just because of crack I'm down to talk about crack on day But just so y'all know At this point, Mark, this is the second episode

where we've discussed crack So I'm starting to see that there's a through line We also have AIDS on the table right now So Thank you for finishing that. sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast,

learn the hard way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keer Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing.

And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. Because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. And we're back.

So I'm sure people on the internet got to see Tim Heidecker unveiling his version of Info Wars with the Onion. Just saying all kinds of fun stuff, like how he was saying that he's like, he's like, send in your piss and we'll be able to take the gold out of it. Just, you know, doing his thing. Then there was a, he did a cheers where they drank the blood of the forsaken. It just felt very like a great send up of the peak Alex Jones. This thing is giving me pure joy. Watching it play out. I'm like, oh, yeah, it's just the best thing, man.

I'm just, and I wish I could see like a camera angle of people who have not really kept up. I'm like, let me go on info. What is happening here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're spitting out there, whatever they're drinking as they see. What the, or they might not even notice. And like, oh, this new guy's pretty good. We need that view.

That's the reaction videos I need right now. Exactly. People go, because now the website is down because the court-appointed receiver no longer is paying the bills. So that led Alex Jones to do a farewell toast. It really, it's bittersweet. I don't want to hear his voice, but I love hearing him be like, oh, wow, this is it, folks. The CIA and FBI, they got me.

Here he is on his farewell broadcast, the last one of InfoWars ever, but while also promoting the Alex Jones store.com. I never bluff, folks. If you knew what we had, the whistleblowers, the documents, we have royal flushes. They are screwed to the moon. So just so you know, as he's ranting, a bunch of his employees are in the background, holding glasses, is thinking that they're going to be cheering, but instead their bosses doing some kind of manic conspiracy rant.

Glory goes to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father that leads guys to direct us. We are commit ourselves to God in this holy fight, and we are committed. And if God stands, okay, let's go ahead. This fight.

Yeah! I salute this crew and all the viewers and listeners to this fight, and I commit myself to Jesus Christ's hands. Amen. And what are you downing? Vodka? God bless the Info War!

Bro. God bless the info war. That's why you got to get the script before you raise your glass. You don't know what you're about to co-sign. Yep, yep. He has so many papers on that desk. So unfortunately, you know, he managed to pull off another delay tactic because there's an appeals court decided that the, quote, court appointed receiver no longer has control over the website assets that the onion would be licensing.

And that came just before the hearing that was going to finalize that deal. So now the can hath been kicked down the road until May 28th, when there will be another hearing about this. But again, it just feels like it's good luck, good luck, but what's done is done, sir. And yeah, this is all, again, Alex Jones, trying to keep the lights on as long as he can. But in terms of the physical space, that's gone. because that court-appointed receiver

is not paying the info war's rent, as he even said, that apparently costs $81,000 a month. That's so wild. Wow. That sounds like a space in L.A. Like a production facility in L.A. There's no way.

I'm sorry, bro. Why does Info Wars, like what? You don't got it like that. I don't know what the fuck is in this place for $81,000. And unless you're just, you're doing that for the numbers. But anyway, the website, dead. And again, that was a snippet from the last

official Info Wars where they told Jesus Christ with their plastic cups. Very, very, very fun stuff for them. So weird. Yeah. But that has stopped Heidecker from doing his thing. Because again, he posted his first taste of what the real onion version of the InfoWorowars world will look like. And it looks like it's going to be pretty funny. Long made that last.

But I like that they also use like the rainbow flag colors on the thing. just to further, just to incense the lovers of Info Wars to be like, I hate seeing a spectrum of color in an intentional way. It makes me wonder. Oh, the RG Bibb.

Yeah. Okay, so let's see. RIP to Tim's voice. God. That seems terrible. I feel like, because I, whenever I try and do gravely voice stuff for fun or like a bit

or whatever, I'm glad I'm only doing it for two minutes. And then I'm like, oh, fuck, that's, that ain't going to hold up. That ain't going to hold up too long. Trying to talk like this. I'll tell you what. It's just, uh, that's pretty good, though. I like that.

It's pretty good, you know. Been watching a lot of info words, Chandraai, you know. And we got, we got, we got Changerot Kuminikon today. Uh, he's an associate professor, NYU journalism. You're going to tell us all about why journalism been compromised by the globalists right after this. So here's, yeah, look, it's, it's not hard to do. I feel like most people have grown up hearing some version of a man.

talk like this. So it's not like a case study. I'm just, I'm drawing on all the gravelly white man voices I've heard in my life. The cadence, though, quite good. Look, I'm a musician. Yeah. I'm a comedian.

It's all about timing, baby, you know. And that's what you're debating whether you need to, you know, I'm over here wondering whether you need to pull this into your repertoire a little bit more for certain topics. Maybe. I might have to. I might have to bring it up here because Democrats,

Democrats got the midterms on a base in a silver platter, hated down to them from Jesus Christ. And they are doing nothing but thwarting God's intent with the way they are running their campaign in 2026, I got to say. So, the Democrats, right? I don't even.

Maybe I should just keep doing Alex Jones. 2024, right? There were many lessons for Democrats, for Democrats, for the DNC, not for both people who have eyes, ears, a brain, and a common sense of empathy. All kinds of, all kinds of

lessons to be learned if they would actually reckon with them. You know, what was it in 2024? Was it the throwing of trans people under the bus? Was it turning their backs on immigrants? Was it them ignoring the genocide in Gaza? Was it them acting like greed flation wasn't a thing? Was it them trying to court Republicans to offset their lack of progressive appeal? Was it, was it so many that, again, I didn't see the report. That's just me saying things as a frustrated onlooker during that entire campaign. But anyway, the lesson here is that I think most of us, like I said, up top, we don't need a consultant-generated analysis of the election to have some pretty solid ideas on

how to course correct, not just for 2026, but for 2028 when, you know, the table is fully reset. I just want to play this clip of the DNC chair, Ken Martin, talking to John Favreau last week about, again, the DNC said we have an official report that an analysis of the election, that we've come to see what the weaknesses were, what we learned, what we could have done better. And yet he said when he was vying for this position that this report would be released, we still have not seen it.

It still has not been publicly released. And he was asked about this, and his answer is haunting. Because I just, I've never seen someone hem and ha so much when the thing is like, what happened to that report that you guys made, that is supposed to come out, that's supposed to tell us about what happened in what we thought was a very winnable election. But here's Ken Martin of the DNC.

Different. Your exact quote was, of course it will be released. Why did you change your mind on that? Well, look, I mean, what I said all along, even when I ran for this position, is that we were going to focus on the things that will help us win the upcoming election, right? Making sure that we learn the right lessons that could help inform our victories. And that's what we'd done. We said this when, we sent out the press release back in November saying we weren't going to release the report. We were actually keep. So we learned the lesson when we said we weren't going to publicly learn the lesson?

He says the word lessons so much. I just want to keep our focus on those lessons. And we release those lessons. We continue to do that. And it's important for me. Instead of navel gazing and looking backwards and trying to relitigate 2024, I don't know about you, John, but I don't have a time machine. I don't think you do. No one does, so we can't change what happened in 24.

What a fucking... Are we talking about a report to try to understand what happened in that election, no? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that the topic? Isn't that why he's... We've learned the lessons. The lessons haven't been learned. Yeah.

Right. Listen, it's like we all said, those who forget history don't have a time machine, so don't worry about it. That's what I've always heard. Yeah, those two, yeah, repeat it. It's clear they didn't have a time machine. And that's their problem. And that's your problem is you don't have a time machine.

John Favreau presses him a little bit more. He's like, dude, like basically, what the fuck are even talking about? Which is, by the way, wild.

Yeah. If you're heavy, if you're a Democrat, like a high level Democrat and you get John Favro pushing back on your ass, that means you truly. Right. Exactly. Like,

it's like, it's not even palatable for crooked. Like here, here we go. This is him against saying like, but you did hold, what do you mean, Ken Martin?

We have to do it to give people who invested so much time energy and money a sense of what happened and why we lost. Correct. Especially why we lost. So what changed between August and December? I understand there are lessons, but those are not the full report. Why not release the full report? What's in the report that you wouldn't want to publicize? Yeah, there's no smoking gun in the report. And I know that's what everyone's so eager to learn it. I think the smoking gun. Guess what, John? But if there's no smoking gun, why wouldn't you just release it that? Because we want to keep the focus on the lessons.

Damn. What? The lessons. I'm sorry, motherfucker. Where are the lessons? That's the key thing. Do you have a list? Okay, sorry, maybe I'm saying this wrong.

Do you have a list of lessons that we can look at? Lessons are a report? Yeah. Well, because what's you going to say? What are you going to say? Like, insisting, he says he goes on, like, this goes on for like 15 minutes in this episode where he keeps going like, well, I know you're going to try and get me to say there's some smoking gun. and insisting there's no smoking gun is a great way to confirm the existence of said smoking gun.

And it felt like he really didn't want to mention a few things like maybe Gaza, okay? Because the funny thing about that is there are people who have seen the report. And there is a significant portion dedicated to how ignoring the genocide was a quantifiable net negative to the Harris campaign. amongst many other lessons because the whole report wasn't just that. That was one of the lessons, Ken. That was a lesson. But I guess we don't want to learn that publicly

or admit that publicly because you can tell right now, especially after that loss, the first sort of instinct of the DNC was like, it's the groups, it's the groups. By that they mean activist groups. People who are like progressives, other people who are like,

you guys aren't doing enough, we're on the ground. I mean, at this point, progressive, though, it's like left of Dick Cheney. Like, what the hell are you? Yeah, at this point, right? Yeah, no, it's so progressive. I mean, I just feel like, you know, I mean, I don't want to see the people who are currently in power and the Democrats be the part of our society who has control.

I'd rather see much more progressive forces, people who have the kind of understanding to speak to issues like my current mayor, Azar on Manda. But let me just say, like, but I got to say, like, it's amazing that these folks have watched what's going on. can't even figure out how to do something like this or just take any of the lessons. Because if you look at how things are moving, there was such an opportunity for them to just peel off even like low-hanging fruit to try to eat anything. And it just doesn't seem like they've learned even one lesson. Yeah. I mean, and I think it goes back to that structurally, this party as constituted is incapable

of actually perceiving those lessons because that would actually require them like a self-dismantling. That's right. I fully agree. Because of that, of course you can't because it's like, man, I don't know, I'm a snail. Why I'm going to read about salt? You know, that's, yeah, exactly. I mean, this is, I mean, now what I would say is at the party as a sort of national force. When you look at the local, you know, elections and things, it's interesting that sort of tease out how we want to talk about Democrats.

Right. And places where there's different options. But as an organization, absolutely. And that's what's so hard, I think, to grapple with is that even when people keep fran naming the conversation. Well, what Democrats need to do, and it's like, no, actually, this organization, if they did what they needed to do, like you said, they would be some destructive. Yeah, it would. And people like Ken Martin would not be chair. That's for sure. I mean, because like, you know, the, the Democrats were gifted and even more fucked up version

of this Trump administration where, you know, they truly believe now more than ever that they really don't have to change their approach because this, the time honored strategy of merely gesturing to the right and saying, well, then there's that. So I don't know if you walk that. Yeah. And that's my campaign. Did you go, boo? There's a Republican.

Right. What I think the folks are really missing is that people get apathetic and burnt out. Yeah. And they won't show up, you know? And I mean, that actually happened. That's one of the lessons you should learn in 2024. Is a ton of people didn't show up. Now, I don't always characterize those people as like on the couch.

Because I think, I heard people say people didn't get it off the couch. And I'm like, I don't like the couch metaphor because they're not on the couch metaphor to me. Yeah, work. Their work. Exactly. And then, and also, or they're like deeply disillusioned, you know, by shit like this spectacle. And I just think, you know, so like, yeah, I think. And what people understand is that in a way, that's, that's, that I think in a way works, works in conservative's favor, right?

Is that people just stay home. And people, and if you give people that and you continue to roll out this as what you're rolling out as inspiration, then people, there are going to be. people are going to stay home. I mean, I'm going to try it. As much as I hate these people, I will get up and try to drag people to the party. I'll do everything I can do. Yeah. But yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, this is the interesting thing though, too. Like when you poll voters, right, it's not great for Democrats because people still look at Democrats and go, that's like kind of like a rotting corpse that's not doing anything. Republicans are leading by like a 10 point margin that they basically that they're quote willing to fight for what they believe in. Or plus

four. Like they have a four point advantage of that because most people are like, I don't know, they're crazy, but they're getting at it. Yeah. They're doing the thing. And then on top of that, right, is this other thing that I think is really interesting. This from the Guardian quote, a staggering 77% of Americans believe the country's political system

is in need of either major changes or complete reform, according to a recent Pew survey. 59% of voters believe the country's political and economic systems are fundamentally stacked against them. Like, you're looking at that And the thing is an incremental change.

They're saying you can capture this huge group if you actually put something out there that's more than like, we got it, we got it, we got to stop Trump. I mean, yeah, we do need to stop Trump and we do need to stop the threat that his administration poses. But the thing also that people are yearning for is a vision of a different America, not the one where you're going to continue to say, yeah, having three jobs is fine. Barely being able to see your kids as you try to survive under this, you know, capitalist system. We have, that's okay. That's not what their, people are yearning for some, just offer something different. And again, I don't know how much they can offer that's different.

If they're, they're playing Heidi, Heidi hole with their little report that would have told them, shit, we need a, we need a real robust, like, populist economic agenda that appeals to working people. And I think maybe there's going to, like, let's just use, like, working class code words. And maybe we can. It's also like, like, when voters say, like,

or when polled, people who are polled, say, like, oh, we don't think Democrats will fight for what they believe in. I think the evidence is they are fighting for what they believe in. It's just that what they believe in is this. Incrementalism. Yeah. Or less. Yeah.

I mean, this is kind of like, you know, it reminds me of the frame that the thing about, you know, police, you know, I made Empire City. And people are like, oh, you know, we have to, you know, why can't we get the police to do their job? And it's like, well, it is. You know, I want to give you a historical take on what the police's job is. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Let's go all the way back. just so we know how this started exactly. Yeah. Well, there's still time, Democrats, maybe, I don't know. I think that's why it's interesting to see, like, a lot of people just now, they're not really caring what the sort of prescriptive sort of directives are from the DNC and more just like, no, this is what I'm running on because I actually know poor people. That's the other thing.

None of these people, Ken Martin doesn't know a single person who is, down and out or struggling to make ends meet. I don't know. They probably got plenty of employees. I was going to say that. Yeah, right. I was saying aside from the people in his employee, you know what I mean?

They will soon. Right. With this AI bloodbath, you know what I mean? It's a lot of tech, it's a lot of former tech engineers like, you know what I mean? They're hitting the food line,

you know what I mean? This is, and I think that's just generally too. Like, there's no sense of urgency because they don't talk to, like, working people every day. Right. You're right.

You're not around. You're not talking to. You know what I'm saying? So you don't feel that you're not feeling, you don't feel that stress because you're insulated from it, socioeconomically. And because of that, it completely tints the way you look at what you think is happening in the country and completely not understanding that a majority of people are actually not comfortable.

And I should actually say like, you know, when it comes to people, you know, I do a lot of political organizing. And I think organizers, most of organizers I know are far better at that because they are working on different campaigns, they're in contact with people and hearing grievances, but there is sometimes a portion of our movement where people are in our own kinds of bubbles. And even we might not understand how people, you know, the disillusionment that could cause somebody in certain ways. And so I think like we all have to break out of, I mean, I think on one hand, yeah, these Democrats, they don't care and they're not, that's what they're doing. But for us, even me, like I challenge

myself to make sure, you know, that sort of like university life and podcasting life and, whatever doesn't put me in a bubble where you don't understand how people, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, for sure. And, actually, all I have to do is go to a family cookout and I get it real quick, you know. Same, same, same. Yeah, that is just I open up my text thread with all my friends from high school. And it's a full spectrum of existences. You know what I mean?

I have people who, my friends, some are professional, some are working at the supermarket because they used to have a job like at a legal office and then shit changes and other people have jobs in tech. And now they're working at Arawon, you know, like serving up people. $40 smoothies and shit like that. And things can change so rapidly. But anyway, that's America. Ken Martin, give us the lessons, please.

I mean, we know what they are, but you guys look real foolish by insisting. It's like, we don't need to look back. How do you learn exactly? You know what I mean? How do you learn if you don't? Can I just also like for every high profile person, like, how the fuck are you not ready for this?

Really? Yes. How are you not ready? Just like media relations wise. What the fuck? Yeah. Well, what did you think was going to happen when you went on cricket media? Yeah.

And we told you, we're going to talk about the report. A follow up. You know, there would be a follow up at least. And you can't say like, John, I'm not Doc Brown and you're not Marty McFly. Okay. And this delineeringing over 88 miles or whatever it needs to go. And there ain't a banana peel back in that Mr. Fusion in the back. Okay.

I got no flux capacitor. Like all Democrats, his strategy is, I assume you're stupid. Right. And I shall proceed. Yeah. You stupid? And you know what? You can duck my head and go right through that. All right, let's take a break. And when we come back, we're going to learn a little bit about the Holy Bible from the one and only Russell brand. Amen. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be.

Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we picket here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you're just so you're not.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed correct. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. They're finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite. favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests.

I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on Earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app.

Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. And we're back. And like I was saying, if you're going to grift, you know, know a little bit about the community you're grifting. You can't just, I mean, a lot of people just put the costume on and assume that's enough. And a lot of time, it can be enough. But again, like Ken Martin, you should expect a follow-up or two.

And I'll just be like, uh-huh. Cut to Russell Brand, who is currently on a rebrand tour slash, please ignore all the terrible sexual assault allegations against me tour. He's gone to visit Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, and any other, like, right winger who's willing to pretend that in his estimation, he is being canceled actually for speaking out about the COVID vaccine and not like the actual legal jeopardy he's facing due to his own alleged actions. He's been like really framing all of this as like, you know what happens, man.

you'd speak out against COVID and then they take everything from you or they come at you. And it has nothing to do with the court, the stuff going on with me right now. But one consistent thing about Brand is that I think he's a sniveling little fuck wad who will do whatever it takes to maintain his status, which is why it should come as no surprise that when the allegations came out and he was having to go to trial, he suddenly went from atheist to Bible-toting Christian wearing like, big ass, hippie wood bead crosses, and always carrying this Bible around with him. And this is one of those moments

where someone you deeply dislike in Pierce Morgan did a thing where you're like, yeah, go on, Pierce, go on now. Let him just cook himself right now. Let him hop right into his own, an air friar of his own making and set that thing to $4.50. Because he went on Pierce Morgan's show,

and Pierce Morgan was like, dude, like, what's going on? He was just like, What's up with this Christian stuff, dude? He's like, I've known you to be an atheist. You know, like, you got a lot of material on that. And now suddenly you're an atheist and you're bringing a Bible to your court appearances. It's like, something just feels very insincere about all of this.

And I'm just going to play this part where, you know, Russell's like, I'm really a Christian. You have to believe me. And Pierce Morgan's like, all right, bet, man. Why don't you pop open that book real quick? Let me hear something. And this does not go well at all. So asking you a question about your Bible? Yes, if you want to.

Thank you. Was that the one you took into court? You're the very one. Okay. What was your thinking of taking it into court and what you were seeing looking at some passages? What were the relevant... He's got his hands on the Bible. All right. Thank you for asking me. There's some relative passages. I didn't heard, did it?

A little bit. It was this from a Zion. You're right. Bear did say, you know, be chilled. He's just thumbing through this. He's drowning right now. Oh my God. Pierce is saying nothing. just letting this shit. Oh, cause.

Right, he's just a dead air, brutal, violent dead air. This is, just, you know, this is playing. It's just Russell Brand hasn't found a Bible version. In the old gallery, but remember you just said it's a hired spot. This is from Isaiah.

Oh. Say a book. Give me a book in chapter, baby. I, excuse me. Oh, still. This is, again, The, oh, this is excruciating. You know, he's trying to find some words that maybe say something about woman or man.

He's trying to, he can't, oh. Oh, he keeps going through the same five pages. The same three pages back and forth. It says here. It says here what, sir? This is his first time looking at this shit. He just put random post-its in there to make it look like he's reading. Oh, here's now Pius looks like the screen.

Guys, this is, I'm not joking. This has been playing continuously. He still has not found it. The worst I was looking at that day. Uh-huh. Was not this. I can't actually find the verse that I had that day. Oh, my God.

Truly amazing. I can't even go. It goes on longer, too. Oh, my gosh. Sir. Do you even know what's in the book of Isaiah? Oh, this is a good for a lot. Do you know how to pronounce the book Isaiah?

I was really, yeah. Part of me was like, I was willing to be like, is that a UK thing where it's like, Isaiah, but I was like, I know from being in churches in the United States of black It's Isaiah. But the other thing I will say for aspiring Bible grifters, Proverbs is your best friend, okay? Because it's right there in the name of the book, okay? It's giving you little rules and quotes that you can live here.

Just if you thumb through Proverbs, you would have found something. I appreciate this council because I've often wondered if maybe I should leave my job as an organizer and become a start a ministry. Yeah. It just seems like there's a lot of brain in it. Yeah. Hey, Mace did it. You know, he's okay. He kind of ran into the same problem, no, didn't he.

Like, he was asked to quote. Then, eventually, he was like, yeah, look, he likes Chinese. He was in church, I think. Yeah, no, he was actually, like, had a ministry, which I'm like, ooh, Mason, Betha, that might be a little too much dip on your Bible. But, yeah, here, like, again, it's just like, how do you, again, I think it speaks to the arrogance of Russell Brand where he was like, I merely need to show up with these total.

these symbols, and that will cover me in the blood of Christ as I face these allegations and go to church and hopefully try and curry sympathy from a church. Don't bring the Bible. Yeah. Then you could be like I didn't have it. Yeah, exactly. It's also like, like, I mean, I guess it's like a fundamental feature of grifters, but it is like kind of wild how lazy everyone is.

Yeah. Like, truly, you have to memorize like three things. You're an actor, dog. Like, you can't fucking pull this out. Yeah. You could have even done John 316, the most tired verse of them all and be like, well, for God, I love the world so much, idiot. And I think about that sacrifice. Just have it.

Yeah. I disagree with the, I disagree with the idea that grifters are, some of these grifters are compelling. You know, they start talking and you're like, oh, okay. Yeah, go on. I'm not saying, but he does have, like, the ability to command an audience. Right. Or he has in the past. That's true.

What is this? It is weird. I think because he really was not. never, like, that was his worst nightmare come true. But yeah. And just for some reason, you're not prepared for that. Like, anybody, if you're conniving like that, you'd hope they're like, and what happens when the worst nightmare comes, you'd be ready.

You have a smoke bomb you throw down and run out of the room or something or pretend you have a medical event. Back to back clips from, they would say opposite ends of the political spectrum. And I would argue the same side of the political spectrum just now. But the common thread is like, how the fuck do you not have one? person in your camp that asks you a hard question. Right. That's the thread between this and the Ken Martin.

It's like, your people are prepared. I mean, the night before you make the announcement, I'm now, I'm now a big Christian. Yeah. Have a Bible verse. It just feels like that night, you're like, yo, all right, all right. Somebody got to be like, how much you know about the Bible? You're like, nothing, less than nothing. They're like, all right, go to Proverbs, memorize two joints.

Yep. You just need two. Yep. Something about a man and a woman, some about how the man leads the family. That's what you're right. Go go to Proverbs. It's right there. Go to Proverbs.

It's right there for you. Again, it's so easy. You could even fucking AI could have helped you out. Yeah. Yeah, what I mean? The AI would even tell you, don't go to Isaiah, man. You can even find some good ones. You know what I'm saying?

You know what I mean? If you're rich, give up all your wealth, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. He tried. Guys, it's so easy. And I'm like looking at his like wooden like cross necklace. It looks like something he got like a reggae festival.

You know, like from one of the vendors at a reggae festival. and he's like almost got the one with... Yeah, he almost got the highly salazi joint and he was like, wait, no, no, actually I need... Let me get this cross. This is an Ethiopian? Yeah, okay, I'm fucking with this. And then he found like the Bible

that was in his hotel room by the Gideons and was like, okay, I got this, this. Okay, now I'm ready to hopefully distract the public. Yeah, but you can't make your entire PR campaign like the same energy of me trying to go out on Halloween. That's just closing some shit together. Could I have a question? I haven't followed all this.

Now, one of the things that tapping into the Christian thing makes available to you is the whole, I've fallen from grace. And I need redemption. Did he tap into that bag? He's definitely said things about, like, how he was stupid and has made mistakes. But nothing that would, because, again, there's no way that he could take accountability for, you know, he could. You know, from the court action he's facing right now. He could. If you, if you're claiming that you're standing on principle.

Right, right, right. Well, that's the line, right? Because even with the, especially the conservative Bible grifters, they're like, would Jesus actually have done that? Because I feel like Jesus would have really looked out for the poor and the downtrod. And based on the book I've heard about. Jesus's portfolio was really the most important. I feel like, you know, there was some self-sacrifice in there somewhere. Yeah.

Jesus would have definitely taken advantage of a bear market. You know what I mean? That's so clear. Clear clear. Well, Chenjerai, thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Zykeyes. Where can the people find you, follow you, take your work in, support you, all that good stuff. Yeah, come on over to our unruly subjects, Patreon, unruly subjects, podcast.com. By the way, I'm also in the leadership of a magazine called Hammer and Hope of Black politics and cultures.

So check out Hammer and Hope. And, of course, you should go check out Empire City. I'm on IG as Chandri as myself. I'm on X. I don't do much there, and I'm on Blue Sky. So, man, so much respect for y'all. I really love what y'all do because it allows me to stay up on it, on what's happening in the world.

And, man, y'all doing a good work. Much respect. That's a compliment I can barely process coming from somebody who is teaching people about journalism. Thank you for the kind words, Chenjeri. Andrew, how about you? Oh, also, is there a work of media that you're enjoying, Chenjerai, that you want to, it could be a social media post, the work of media, whatever.

Well, to promote one thing that, again, well, Hammer and Hope is a magazine of black politics and culture, so I don't know if the digital reporting counts as media, but that's one. In the podcast world, there's a great podcast called Our Ancestors, We're Messy by Nicole Hill.

Everybody should check that out. It's really dope. And yeah, man, you know, that's what I'm standing on right now. Oh, well, thank you for that, Chenjerai. Andrew, how about you, man? Where did the people find you follow you?

Oh, I don't know. man. You're still doing Yos, it's racist. We might be changing things up in a little bit. But for now, still doing Starter Trek, our premium show, where Tani Newsom and I, or Tani really is walking me through Star Trek, some of the weird-ass Star Trek episodes. It's been very fun. Work of Media.

I don't know if you actually saw this when you were in Japan. Have you seen the movie Exit 8? Oh, I've played the game. I want to go see the movie. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's very good. The movie's very good. It's shockingly close to the look of the game.

Well, the game is shockingly close to every Tokyo, like, Metro subway station, which is why I started playing out of nostalgia, because I'm like, I feel like this is the Azab Ljuban station in Tokyo right now. I was sharing it with my other friend, and we obsessed over the game. So when I saw the trailer, I was like, yeah. I recommended. Where did you go see it?

Because I'm like, I think I have to go to San Gabriel to go see it probably. There's only like random screenings. No, I know. No, no. Just the distance. Let's go. Let's go. When you're up to see it, we'll just go.

We'll get some dumpings and whatnot. Okay. But I saw it just at the regular AMC at the Galleria, dog. Oh, bang. Yeah, because I think it's been out for a minute. So there was like 10.30 a.m. or 10.30 p.m.? Yeah. It's tough.

I do recommend it. It's also watchable at home. but it was nice on a big screen it's it's a it's a good weird movie that's it's it's like off this indie Japanese video game I assume the video games Japanese actually I guess I don't know and it's just like

a like a weird creepy little time loop thriller yeah horror thrillery it's good it's very good um okay you can find me everywhere at Miles of Gray a work of media I like it was just well this is from at the onion.

It said abortion pill thrown into air and caught in mouth. And the photos just is when I'm going, ah. Anyway, that was my working. Also, I was telling Jack on the earlier trending episode Monday that I saw Interstellar for the first time. And I was like, oh, this is what everyone's talking about. Okay. Oh, I saw you've seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I finally understood the meme where Matthew McConaughey is in the chair crying, looking at something. I was like, what the fuck is this? What's going on? It all makes sense now. I can finally participate in the interstellar discourse years after the fact. You can find us everywhere at Daily Zeitgeist. Let's see.

We're at the Daily Zikeggeist on Instagram. You can go to the description of this episode wherever you're listening. And that's where you're going to find at the bottom. You'll find the footnotes. Footnotes. Thank you, which is where we link off to the information we talked about in today's episode. We also link off to a song. think you might enjoy. The song

that I think you might enjoy is a song by the band L.A. Witch. It's called Dog God. I just like it. It's rumpin. It's tumpin. I love the guitars. I love the chords in it. And let's see. The Daily Zykeyes, production of I Heart Radio. So for more podcasts or my heart radio,

visit the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get these shows for free. That's going to do it for us this morning. We'll be back later today to tell you what's trending. Until then, we bid you adieu. Peace. The Daily Zykeyes, is executive produced by Catherine Long. Co-produced by Victor Wright.

Co-written by J.M. McNabb. Edited and engineered by Justin Conner. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, hope from a hypocrite I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian.

I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole.

This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. American soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on to Ernie Stewart the chip. Score! I'm Tab Ramos.

I'm Tom Bowker. On our podcast, inside American soccer, you'll get the real storylines, the biggest decisions. and the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. Listen, Inside American Soccer

with Tom Bogart and Tabramos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.