The Daily Zeitgeist - All Zeit Lead Trend Scorer 2/8: LeBron James, State of the Union, Barbara Streisand, Oreos, Kit-Kats, TikTok De-Influencing

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

In this edition of All Zeit Lead Trend Scorer, Jack and super producer Becca Ramos discuss LeBron James becoming the NBA's all-time leading scorer, the New York Times's weird take of Biden's State of the Union address, Barbara Streisand's forthcoming memoir, new Oreo 'The Most Stuf' cookies, the shocking revelation that Kit-Kat bars are filled with other Kit-Kats and a new crop of beauty and lifestyle TikTok influencers using their platforms to warn consumers about overpriced and overhyped products.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just

starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeart on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you

get your podcast presented by capital one founding partner of iheart women's sports hello the internet and welcome to this episode of all zeit lead trend scorer lebron james you you get what i'm talking about right super producer Super Producer Becca Ramos? I actually do, okay? Okay. You know, I may not be a basketball watcher, but I am in the popular culture sectors. And I did see LeBron broke a record, question mark. All-time leading scorer in the history of the NBA. Not even the thing he was known for, really, necessarily.

But anyways, I'm Jack. is super producer becca ramos i don't remember if i heard it from here or if like i just watched it on tiktok because i'm doom scrolling all day but it was something like oh lebron just like he wants to be out there getting groceries and living a normal life and he he's like, he should have thought of that before scoring the most score points ever in the NBA. And I laughed. Yeah. Yeah.

He should. I think he did all that by accident. He accidentally scored all those points. It was wild. I did watch the game or at least the second half. And it was, it was rough because it was the tale of two, you know, the tale of the Lakers season. They lost a brutal one to a team that is right next to them

towards the bottom of the rankings. But he really seems like up to the point of breaking the record, he seemed to be scoring at will. And then I think just the mental, emotional toll of breaking the record after that, he just really seemed to lose a step. And then, yeah, it was just, the ceremony is not in question. I think some people are like, why would they stop the game like for this amazing ceremony?

And like, it's, this probably happened before you were born, but Cal Ripken like broke the record for the most games in a row by any like major league baseball player, which makes it the most games in a row by any athlete. Cause they have like hundreds of games every season. And they, they like stopped everything. Like they stopped.

I feel like they cut it. It was like the state of the union. They cut into the local of the union they cut into the local news like to they just stopped everything for for him to just run around and shake people's hands at the stadium like this is this is a big deal i think this is what you do it was awkward because it was like one it was like watching people set up a photo shoot. Cause the former like holder of the record was there. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the great,

you know, basketball players of all time. And then he was just like kind of laying back cause he didn't want to like steal the spotlight. But then he, like the camera was always on him. So then it seemed like he was being like ignored by LeBron. And then LeBron just seemed kind of out of gas

after that point in the game, which makes sense. But it was just a real tale of two games up to that point and after, because he seemed to be scoring at will up to that point and then really seemed to have lost a step. But now people are pointing out that his best teammate, Anthony Davis, didn't stand up when he hit the shot and broke the record. And now the fan base is like, well, we should trade Anthony Davis.

It's just a mess. It's really a mess. Drama. I'm like kind of vicariously a Lakers fan just from being here I tend to I move around a lot and I tend to always root for like the home team you know just because I like to have

all that dopamine dumped into the bloodstreams of the people who I'm interacting with on a day to day basis and you know of a win of a championship it just makes life more fun in your local community. But, and then I love LeBron.

I root for him everywhere. Well, go LeBron. Congratulations. Yes. Congratulations to that man. State of the union. I know that's what you were watching Becca.

Oh, absolutely. Definitely not continuing to dim scroll on TikTok. So I just wanted to point out like the coverage they, so first of all, I just noticed that like the New York Times was like, Biden is facing a divided Congress for the first time and really making it seem like he was coming in on a losing streak because of the midterm results, or at least including the midterm results in that losing streak. And, you know, there were also, you know, earlier articles about how he was going to have to pivot to the center because he,

you know, because of the midterms again, even though the midterms really seemed to just say people want progressive policies and they don't want this foolishness about right-wing culture worship so anyways he he did seem to stay on his you know left-leaning uh talking points not necessarily execution but talking points grind during the state of the union um which the new york times said uh described thusly biden aims to win back the white working class through their wallets which i can't imagine that he was like and only white working class yeah but also i guess like twofold with headline, is it like saying black and brown voters don't matter? Because historically, of course, it is just simply not true because they do change elections.

But also, is it saying that our black and brown voters are lost cause because you can't win them back with their wallets? They want actual change. I don't know. Either way, it's a weird fucking headline. It is a really weird headline. I feel like the New York Times is part of the political strategist class that's like, no, the

black and brown voters are in the can. He has those in the bag, so he doesn't have to worry about that. And it's like, that's not fucking true. Yeah. But they love to take black and brown voters for granted. Absolutely. The other headline, President Biden is not backing off his big government agenda.

In his first appearance before a Republican House, the president renewed calls for large new economic programs and offered no concessions on federal spending. It feels like they had this agenda in mind that was like, Democrats lose big in the midterm. We come back and start steering things back towards how they've always been, which is to govern to the center. like theatrics of the night was that Biden knew that Marjorie Taylor green was going to like start shouting at him. And then he kind of used that to like basically be like, so you're not going to try and cut Medicare or any of, any of the things that you guys want to cut. Like, all right, that's, that's great. I, you know, like he kind of played it smartly, like knowing

that they were going to interrupt the state of the union because that's like yeah it's their new edgelord stance um but i don't know it all seems like theatrics at this point we'll see what he follows through with it's all silly and goofy and gross and to me it's like i understand maybe him wanting to use her as a ploy to show like how he's the bigger, better person. But I'm like, kick her ass out. This is so immature. Like you guys are working governmental people, grown ass people with degrees and requiring in theory. I mean, George Santos is like a whole other ballgame of like, you know, like rapport and absolute like excellence to be in these positions.

And you're going to act like that. Like, it's just like any other white collar. I'm not even talking about like blue collar or working class job. Even if you're in corporate America, you can act like that. You know, like it's like especially not any working class job. So it's like, why do you guys, people we elect to be in some of the highest, most important positions in the country think it's proper to act that way it's just like such white woman behavior it's just like

yeah and there is some subtext that the listeners should understand that at the last big team-wide uh meeting all hands meeting i was shouting liar into from the back of the room and becca did take me aside and i guess she's you know making the point again that i gotta stop doing that uh but yeah it's it is wild but i guess it's also politics is entertainment to some degree to some portion of the population who should uh look into actual entertainment. They should try that because it's much more entertaining. They should try reality TV, baby. Yeah, there you go.

It's where you belong. Barbra Streisand's got a memoir coming. This just, because people, like the thing people are talking about, they're like a thousand page memoir is coming from Barbra Streisand. And this just hit me with the realization that I've just never taken the time, I guess, to fully get the whole Barbra Streisand thing. Like I know she's like famous for being massively successful and talented and like egotting. And but I've like, I don't know. I don't think I've like watched many of her movies. So this is not me saying like she's overrated.

It's me like saying that I just, I need a Barbra Streisand like for dummies course from somebody to be like, yo, Barbra Streisand is an incredible talent here. Here are her movies and the things that you need to check out. I mean, I do believe that she was from a very specific era of Hollywood in time where she was breaking boundaries.

Absolutely. Like she, like it's, it's funny to say this now, but you know, at the time she was considered like an unconventionally beautiful woman and that broke a lot of barriers. I think she was a huge representation for the Jewish community in a time period where it was very contrived to be Jewish in popular media. You know, she

was a woman in a time period where women were very disrespected in Hollywood and she, you know, broke barriers for that. But I will say since her era of like rise, I feel like she's really just like kind of been quiet and just been like with her money and her dogs as she's cloned and just like sat back so i think a lot of folks just like don't know like if you're not interested in like the history of like american movie hollywood popular culture i don't think you're gonna know much about barbara stanchion unless you're like a big like broadway stan yeah like you're not going to know. And that's okay. I totally understand. Like,

I'm not even, I love Broadway and I love American cinema and like popular culture. And I still don't know that much about Barbara Streisand. Like, I'm not like the biggest Barbara fan. I know her as Fanny Bryce. I know her for a star is born and like, that's it.

Right. The things, you know yeah it's um it's true like she's just been famous for being an icon for so wealthy and iconic and doing weird things with her wealth for so long like the so the barbara streisand effect is like probably the thing that i've heard referenced the most on the internet about her uh in the circles of the internet that i travel in but and that that's just about her suing someone for trying to take a picture of her house and that that actually drawing more attention to her house i've known that she yeah the the dog cloning is very next level rich person also having i believe she has a mall in her basement that was like staffed which is very

strange uh because like when was the last time she was on a red carpet you know like i just feel like she she has the thing i know her for mainly is like you could tell me anything that she has any like indulgence going on in her private home and i would be like yep yeah yeah no that that makes sense so i think i need to do a barbra streisand uh learner uh well you can read the book you know so it's a thousand pages that's it is long it's longer than spare that is a very long book and you know for those who are in on the leah michelle broadway tea uh leah michelle on tiktok dig acknowledged the joke that she cannot read and that she has 256 days to learn how to read so she can read Barbara Streisand's book. All right, Leah Michelle. We love her, don't we, folks?

We're going to take a quick break. We'll come back and talk about Oreos, Kit Kats, and TikToks, the latest TikTok trend. Becca will explain it to me. We'll be right back. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes.

Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it? Like you miss 100% of the shots you never take. Yeah. Rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself.

Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that

has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.

Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them boys. I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly ignited this fire?

Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports

on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. network iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast the black effect podcast network is sponsored by diet coke and we're back and oreo is releasing the most oreo oreo cookie which is a it looks like it's the size of an ice cream sandwich it's i guess it has the i was not aware of this level of filling the most stuff i knew about double stuff and mega stuff this has most stuff it's the third layer layer up the third level up of the amount of stuffing that can be between two Oreos. Um, the most they offer, uh,

it seems like it verges on the structural having problems with structural integrity, but the cream in this Oreo is cookies and cream. So it has ground up Oreo in the Oreo filling. Um, the review from the takeout is very mid. It's just like, it just tastes like the Oreo that doesn't have the Oreos in the filling.

However, this got me, this sent me down a trend hole because they like just reference. So they said combined with ground up Oreo cookie themselves in the filling, sort of like how Kit Kats are filled with other ground up Kit Kats. Which is crazy. I, as someone who regularly ate Kit Kats like most of my life and still loves an

occasional Kit Kat, but I've lately been a crunch bar girly. I had no idea I was eating this cannibalized bar. Yeah. Yeah. It's fucked up. That's fucked up Kit Kat. It's fucked up.

What are you doing? that is our position at the daily zeitgeist putting a kit kat ground up kit kats in in kit kats is fucked up uh no but so they link off to an earlier article where apparently the new york post explained that kit kat revealed a secret in uh 2015 during an episode of Inside the Factory, a TV show from the BBC. So during the candy manufacturing process, it was explained mistakes inevitably happen, which result in irregular, malformed, otherwise funny looking KitKats. Because KitKats do stay pretty consistent with the shape and consistency. Because Kit Kats do stay pretty consistent with the shape and consistency. So what they do, they throw those in a bucket and then an employee collects all the oddball Kit Kats. And then those get processed down and reworked into the paste that glues the wafer cookies together inside the Kit Kat.

So Kit Kat filling is made of broken KitKats, which actually, that actually explains what is good about KitKats because KitKats aren't chocolate around wafers. They are chocolate around wafers that have chocolate infused in them in a way that like makes them even more chocolatey than just straight like a full solid block of chocolate in some ways like an embarrassing fact about me is

that when i was growing up i used to like warm up my kit kats in the microwave for like 10 seconds so they would be a little melty and eat them that way i mean that's not embarrassing that's that makes you human that is something something I will be trying. Like a melted Kit Kat is my favorite thing. Like if it's been in my pocket all day and then I'm like, oh my God, I forgot. And then I get to eat it. I mean, that's a mess though. That's a mess. I know, but I've accepted that. I've accepted that mess. You got wipes on you. You got hand sanitizer. You just have wipes on you and you accept the lost chocolate that comes with that? The chocolate that gets lost? I'm licking that. You're licking the whole thing. i'm licking that you're licking the whole thing i'm licking it yeah all right i i am doing that but i do actually have a question for you

jack back to the oreos what size oreo do you like i like single oreos but i do i big mac them is a thing i've talked about before on the show where i take one of the sides off and then I put the like one-sided Oreo on top of a regular Oreo. So you get three cookies, two fillings. And that is my preferred ratio of cookie to filling. And my favorite Oreo is controversially the lemon Oreo. I really love the lemon Oreo. That is controversial. See, I'm kind of controversial in that the Thins are my favorite Oreo.

Thins are good. I think they have the best ratio because I think the cream is too sugary sometimes. And I love the cookie part the most. So the Thin gives me the best. I can eat like 80 of them in one sitting. Yeah. And I am in it for the most sugar that can be delivered in the smallest square inchage, I guess. All right.

And finally, there's a trend on TikTok that I think is kind of brilliant. It's called de-influencing. Becca, explain it to me. All right. So de-influencing. It's primarily in like the beauty and lifestyle space. Because if you're like me on TikTok, I, I used to pride myself on being like, I don't buy things from social media. Like I'm not influenced. I worked

in advertising wrong. I got on TikTok. I see all this shit on a beauty and lifestyle TikTok. And I'm like, gonna buy that new makeup, gonna try that eyeshadow, gonna try that concealer, whatever it is. Like the girlies that look like me are wearing it. I'm buying it. And I think TikTok has a very unique type of format that like, even if it is a not sponsored ad, it could potentially be sponsored. Like the way that people do the ads now, they don't have as many clearances when it comes to like verifying that it's a sponsored ad or not, that it feels very organic. And you're like, oh shit, like I definitely am going to buy that product versus the way they do ads for Instagram or Facebook traditionally. So I've been caught up. Many people have been caught up, but the recession is happening. And now lots of influencers are starting to de-influence, which is where they

are taking products that have been overhyped, you know, like viral products and kind of breaking them down and being like, this shit actually sucks. Don't buy it. It's sometimes things that like really big influencers are promoting that micro influencers are cutting down, but it's also stuff that like big influencers have promoted and they're like, actually, this thing sucks and I'm not going to do it again. My contract is over and I can be honest with you. Yeah, basically. Michael Jordan just comes out and is like, Gatorade actually isn't good. I've never drank any Gatorade or McDonald's.

I've never eaten McDonald's. Are you crazy? I think it's become a bigger conversation now because there was like a mascara gate that we didn't get to last week, but there was a big influencer who like did this ad for like a L'Oreal mascara but she was like clearly when she cut away cut back to doing falsies and it didn't say and this is like back to the the formatting of ads like it didn't say in the

caption that it was a sponsored ad or like a sponsored video or that it was like a product promo so it's like she's just lying to her audience being like oh my god this is like one of the best mascaras I've ever tried and she's wearing falsies and people are just like fuck this shit like everyone's lying to us like let's just be honest about like what is being sold it's under the guise of the recession and that we're all broke but i think a lot of it is also just people being like fuck this shit yeah i'm annoyed it's broken. Like you can't, I mean, I guess, I guess this has been happening for a while, but it didn't used to be this inbred, like ads mixed in with the content.

Yeah. Like, you know, I get like, I guess there were, there was product placement, but we, we knew that that was happening in the movies and we knew that it was being

paid for. And we were rightly pretty skeptical when somebody would suddenly like we would make fun of it and it had like this is a this is a frustration that makes sense and i think people probably like young people especially who don't have the context for how bad and confusing like the messaging around consumption and like product information has become like don't don't understand how bad we have it at this point because the media and like the internet and social media has just been completely taken over by advertising and like everything is advertising. So this is a great trend that I could see really taking off.

I've had the thought before that we shouldn't be doing this. Like when we get, you know, a RFP from a brand and they're like, Hey, like write up for ad ideas for us for free. And then we do. And they're like, sorry, we're not interested. I. And they're like, sorry,

we're not interested. I just want to be like, okay, well in that case, I am going to do an ad about how your product is bad, or at least talk about what I actually think about your product, Bush light or whatever the fuck, you know?

So I don't know. That's a, I love this. I love this for Tik TOK. I love this for our future. That's, uh, I love this. I love this for TikTok. I love this for, uh, our future. Hopefully, you know, marketers don't figure out how to infiltrate de-influencing for another six months. Yeah. Don't be scammed. Don't get, um, don't overbuy products. Like I used to consider myself like a super budget girl. And then, I don't know, I've been on TikTok and I'm like,

used to consider myself like a super budget girl and then I don't know I've been on TikTok and I'm like maybe I do need that new eyeshadow I don't know it's like oh the concealer does look cool like I'm gonna just and then like I'm dropping like 200 bucks at Sephora every month so like don't be me right be smart be more mindful do a little bit more research before you just pick up from Sephora and you know you don't need 80 steps to your beauty routine. You know, like I have, I'm de-influencing the skincare community. Okay. I used to be a 12 step over the like past year. I think I like grew because of TikTok, my skincare routine.

I'm like, okay, I got to do like the shedding where it's like, I only do exfoliants every two days and that retinol every other day. And then like, I got to get this new toner. And then now I'm like, do I really need 12 different serums before I go to bed? This is, I, it's taking me an hour to get ready for bed. Don't do that. Yeah. Don't be me. Um, but listen to the D influencers, you know, or know or don't unless they're they have some weird alternate agenda but I do like the possibility folks

and if people have like good hacks for like where you find I feel like my the only hack that I know is like just searching things on reddit because reddit like doesn't really you know that reddit generally has communities of people who are telling the truth about their experience with the product. Uh, otherwise it's just all

gamified and bullshit. I agree. I think Reddit is kind of where I go if I'm like unsure about something and I have been influenced by TikTok. Like I bought the Boston clogs, which were like so big on TikTok last year, but I did spend hours on Reddit being like, are these worth it? I will say those were worth it. I bought them. They're worth it. I wear them every day in the winter. Well, thank you so much Becca Ramos for joining, co-hosting

this trending episode, keeping us abreast of what is happening on TikTok. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? You can find me and follow me at Bex, B-E-C-C-S Ramos on all platforms alright that's going to do it for us

this afternoon we are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show until then be kind to each other be kind to yourselves get the vaccine don't do nothing about white supremacy and we will talk to you all tomorrow bye bye yourselves. Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.

There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive

producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports.

Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.