The Daily Zeitgeist - Amazon’s Top Products (To Fill The Hole In Your Soul) 11.26.18

Episode Date: November 26, 2018

In episode 280, Jack and Miles are joined by comedian Caitlin Gill to discuss Amazon Best Sellers, the history of Black Friday, and more! FOOTNOTES: 1. Amazon Best Sellers2. How Did ‘Black Friday’ Get Its Name?3. What’s the Real History of Black Friday?4. Wal-Mart worker killed in Black Friday shopping stampede5. Europeans Are Flying Across the Atlantic to Participate in Black Friday6. The classist vilification of the Black Friday shopper7. Congress Establishes Thanksgiving8. What The Media Doesn’t Understand About Black Friday Shoppers9. WATCH: Metallic Taste - Show Me The Body Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that?

That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller

from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality,

cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast or wherever you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Captain's Log, Stardate 2024. We're floating somewhere in the cosmos, but we've lost our map. Yeah, because you refused to ask for directions. It's Space Gem, there are no roads.

Good point. So, where are we headed? Into the unknown, and welcome to Season 59, Episode 1 of Dirt Day! or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust us, it's out of this world. Hello, the internet, and welcome to Season 59, Episode 1 of Dirt Daily Zeitgeist, the podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness using the headlines. Box Office reports TV ratings and what's trending on Google and social media. We're also going to take a look at what's trending on Amazon, because it is Cyber Monday. Happy Cyber Monday, everyone. It's Monday, November 26, 2018.

I'm doing voices like it's a morning zoo show. My name is... There it is. There it is. Get those door busters. That's my boy Miles coming in hot. What's up? It's your boy Fartman.

My name is Jack O'Brien A.K.A. Come on Jackie Let's go party Oh O'Brien Come on Jackie Let's go party Zay gang

Zay gang That is courtesy of Jose Antonio Reyes And I'm thrilled to be joined As always by my co-host Mr. Miles Gray J-O-L-E-C-H-E, toilets for big D's, Howard Dean's sick battle cry, Trump choking on his alibis. But it's just the Miles Gray these hot takes call in me. Open up my eager mouth.

Because it's Daily Sight Geist. Wow. Thank you to Deanna at D-E-E-L-E-E-S for that Mr. Brightside anthem. Classic rock. Thank you so much. Came in a little stumbled on the beginning. But hey, you know, we're pushing through. We're pushing through. We're pushing through.

Recovered well. That's the name of my game. Usain Bolt 100, where he like stumbled out of the gate and then just still like lapped everyone. Exactly. That was the AKA equivalent of someone singing Mr. Right Side. Certainly was. Well, we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the great Caitlin Gilf.

What's up? It's Caitlin Gilf in the morning. Caitlin Gilf, the roller skating grandma that you want to... If I didn't say it, did you say it? No! Oh, Caitlin. Oh, my God. Holy shit.

Serving up some TNA. That's Tuesday AM radio, baby. Yeah, yeah. You're too good at this. I think if I was listening, I would get it. Oh, this is a character that's lived inside me for years. I hear this voice. Slowly killing you.

Oh, wow. I also brought my little buddy, Major, who is very disturbed by this personality that she doesn't really know. Yeah. Right. Lurks with him. You're right. Hot Lips has not seen this.

Mommy is terrifying. Yes, that's right. I don't know whether to be impressed or call an lyrics with him. You're right. Hot Lips has not seen this. Mommy is terrifying. Yes, that's right. I don't know whether to be impressed or call an exorcist. Am I right? Oh, it's a problem. It does not bolster trust in a relationship. I need you to take me seriously right now. Blah, blah, blah.

Caitlin, we're going to get to know you, the real you look a little bit better in a moment but first uh we're gonna tell our listeners what we're talking about today today is a special consumer guide edition i don't know not really but we're gonna talk about uh some of the top purchases trending on amazon we're gonna talk about what the hell black fr and Cyber Monday are exactly. What is all this shit? And yeah, just consumerism in general. We might even engage in consumerism by giving a shout out to a corporation that is doing something cool in the news, which is our new form of patronage now.

It's like, oh, thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, woke capitalism. But first, Caitlin, what is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are? Oh, God. Okay, so I had to write an Ariana Grande song parody, which was a thing. I am

37 and my head is in the sand. I'm not aware of all pop culture. I didn't know I had heard an Ariana Grande song. It turns out I had. I succeeded in writing the song parody, because I am out of touch, but I am still good at puns. But I also then fell down the rabbit hole. I did a little searching of Ariana Grande.

Less revealing than the fact that I found out that I like Mac Miller a lot. I'm having this backwards morning, where I didn't think I was allowed. I just have a very, oh, I'm not cool for that vibe, where I don't know. I don't think dork allowed, I just have a very like, oh, I'm not cool for that vibe, where I don't know. I don't think dorks are allowed. Especially not with any kind of hip hop,

which is definitively, it's always cool. It's always like a head of a curve of some kind that I'm like, oh no, a curve. So I just did a little deep dive into Mac Miller and reading about Mac and then finding other like, oh, maybe there's good music right now. Maybe I can.

I'm not even from the. I'm from California. But I read a lot and then listened to a lot of Mac Miller. My Spotify is confused. Right. Yeah. Your Discover playlist is going to be wild. How many times did you listen to Thank You Next?

And also, how many times are you listening to this 26-year-old tell you about his existential pain? Right. And you're like, it's connecting. he's definitely he's definitely one who i got into more after he passed which yeah it's a bummer yeah yeah he's got he's got some good records yeah and uh i was always kind of yeah i liked his production a lot i think that was one of the things that really set him apart for me it was like oh i really like the beats that you you rhyme on because they're not like your typical usual uh you know top top 20 hip-hop it does have a sound that's like oh yes you are it's is it we to me it was like distinctly of his character which is like oh you were a suburban jewish kid like this is jazzy somebody in your house had a jazz record on and was like this is swinging and it sunk into you in a way that is a little different.

It's just an... It was... Yeah. Was he Jewish? I think so. Yes. I believe that that is part of what I learned in my deep dive. Am I wrong?

Malcolm James McCormick. I have no idea. Confirm. I could be totally wrong. And confuse it with one of the other rappers that I looked into. No, no. His mother is Jewish. Father Christian, mother Jewish.

Raised Jewish, had a bar mitzvah. Well, there you go. It seemed to be, I think I watched a video from Source. I don't know. I just. Yeah, I watched his bar mitzvah video. It was really good. He was, yes, he would always rival Drake as the best Jew in the rap game is what he would say.

That's what I remember. Caitlin, what is something that's overrated? Turkey. Okay. The country. Well, the country is pretty cool. Now, this being Monday, you are just stuffed to the gills on turkey.

That's fun. I'll show myself out. Why is turkey overrated? It's a dry bird. It is always too much. It's too much to prepare. People don't handle it regularly. It's only sold once a year.

It's a weird business to be in. It's just not a delicious bird. It's not that good. That's what I said. I said we just have this sentimental connection to it. It's like we habitually eat it. And I don't think we know it's bad. Many of us are not that great at cooking anymore.

So it's just like, oh, this tastes like other bad food that I've made. But no, it is bad. It is difficult to make good. Unless you deep fry it or brine it, I feel like. You have to brine it. If you're not brining it, you're a fool. What are you doing? You should be putting salt and herbs and butter under the skin.

Yes. Okay, if you don't know how to brine, rub together a lot of salt and some sugar and a bunch of spices, whatever you like, and then lift up the skin of your bird with your hands, with your gross, gross hands, and you shove it in. You shove that mixture in and stick it in your fridge. It doesn't have to be a big pot of water. It can be a dry brine. That is equally delicious.

Some helpful information for you this three days after Thanksgiving. Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot that you already did that. If you didn't brine your turkey, my apologies. You get another shot, though. Yeah. We know this in pre or post tense. Your turkey was not satisfying.

You labored on it for hours. You followed every instruction that you could possibly find. And still, it was a disappointing protein on the plate. But it is nice because I've had a good turkey. So it's like it's, you know, I'm on the edge of my seat every Thanksgiving. Like, will this be the one where I have another good turkey? And it never is. And also, I would agree that it's just like there's nothing about the turkey that makes that preparation better.

Like if you did that to chicken, it would be better. It would be a moister, better tasting bird. Delicious, juicy, as we say. Well, that segues neatly into what I view as being underrated. What's that? Which is every poultry except for turkey. Yeah. I like chicken.

I'm not knocking chicken under the bed, so to speak. As they say. But like, have you ever had yourself a Christmas goose? I haven't. I was actually just talking about how that is a thing that seems to have fallen out of fashion after Scrooge. Yeah. Wait.

Yeah. What the fuck? Why aren't we eating goose? Rich. I've never had a goose. It's meatier. It's got, as the fat renders, it's a fattier bird. So as it pulls out, it just develops more character than you're going to get from a turkey.

Also geese are just like, because they're less commonly eating. I mean, this is the thing where like I blow up a spot and then it's like no good anymore. Right. But it's just, it's not around. Geese are still delicious. Yeah. So they're just tasty. Did you grow up eating geese?

And you cook them the same darn way. We've had a couple geese. Wow. Yeah. I wonder if it's the fact that, you know, in America, geese are all over the place. And sometimes, like, I've come into contact with a lot of goose shit. I wonder if that's true for most people. You don't run into a lot of wild turkeys, but you run into a lot of wild geese.

I mean, speak for yourself. That's got to be regional, right? Yeah, it's probably regional. Because I've run into wild turkeys. Yeah, you see them out there? They are aggressively stupid, the wild turkey. I understand why we ate and wanted to eat them. Yeah, they're very dumb. I mean, I have my problems with factory farming or whatever,

but if you've ever met a turkey in the wild, you're like, yeah, okay, dinner. Like, if it's me or you, it's gonna be you, turkey. You're fighting with your reflection in a pond. Maybe it's like geese are kind of beautiful in a way. Yeah, or maybe you see them out more. I don't know, man. Are you trying to tell me a turkey ain't pretty?

Because geese just got that flat gray thing going on, very modern, very sleek. The turkey, spotted, modeled, kind of neat looking, a little wild. It's, I don't know, what do you want? Like your lawyer's house or your grandma's house? It's a different design. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Different design aesthetic. But equally, they're equal.

But actually, no, goose is more fat. I think goose is tasty. I think duck is tasty. I think duck is tasty. I love duck. I think a bunch of, like Cornish game hens, like one for a guess. But duck is a bird too.

If you don't know how to cook it, you could fuck duck breast up or hold duck very quick. Tell me you're not going to mess up a turkey. I think it's a little bit more forgiving because people know what bad turkey tastes like and bad duck is like, I don't know,

this is aggressively bad. Yeah, or some people are just like, oh, this is fine. And then you'll have like, I remember there was an episode, I think it was Bourdain, who was like with some guys who were like duck hunting. And he was watching them cook it.

And he's like, let me cook this. Let me show you. And they were like, holy shit. Whoa, this is, whoa. This doesn't have to taste like shit. Oh, I once sent back duck confit in a restaurant with a very sophisticated review of what had went wrong. I'm a monster. I know duck can go wrong. Yeah, man, but confit, like you're just very sophisticated review of what had went wrong. I'm a monster. I know duck can go wrong.

Yeah, man, but confit, like you're just cooking it in the fat, baby? You're messing that up? Yeah, you're just leaving it. It was dry. It was so dusty. I sliced a piece for the waiter and he got embarrassed. He was with me. It was a slow night. It sounded like you were cutting cardboard.

Oh, you could meet. It was not good. I won't reveal the name of the restaurant. The service was too kind. But it was, I've had bad duck. Yeah. What is the myth? What's something people think is true?

You know, two beef. I don't think that tryptophan is actually what makes you tired. I think we made that up to blame the turkey for our problems. I think we fucking ate too much. Yes. I think you need to stop identifying chemicals that are sort of in a bird. There's a million things that make you sleepy. Are you trying to name a compound?

I'm sorry. You're trying to say that a potato doesn't have poison in it? You literally night shaded yourself next to the turkey, but it's the tryptophan that's making you tell. I don't know. I'm sleepy. It must be that one element of the seven pound plate I just ate. No. It was that bite of turkey I had.

Yeah, I don't think that's it. Because when I eat a turkey sandwich, I'm asleep. I can't drive. Minutes ate. No. No. It was that bite of turkey I had. Yeah, I don't think that's it. Because, you know, when I eat a turkey sandwich, I'm asleep. I can't drive. Minutes later. Yeah, you know, it's dangerous. Yeah, I think the amount of tryptophan you would need is not going to be present in a single or even multiple servings of turkey. Yeah, I just think-

I think you need to eat an entire bird straight to the dome. Yes. And at that point, it point, you have bigger problems. If you could house a whole turkey breast, my goodness, could you imagine? Right. Because those things are – what happened? What did they do? There's a tone in your voice of respect that I just want to – it's really resonating.

It's something is – I feel like something is so – because a lot of factory farmed poultry, they give them the hormones to make the breast meat even more substantial for eating or whatever oh yes like isn't that like our i thought like wild turkeys aren't that massive right then like the ones we buy they're definitely i mean i think chickens and turkeys are both like you know getting those like yeah just double j cup yeah uh style implant right whatever there might be enough tryptophan in there hey who knows who knows? Who knows? Who knows? We'll never know. Because you're eating too much other shit. I contend that that myth is false.

You're not just contending. That is scientifically accurate. So your instincts are right on. My instincts are right? Excellent. I like it when that happens. Alright, we're going to take a look at what is trending on Amazon heading into this shopping holiday of ours, Cyber Monday.

Happy Cyber Monday, everybody. Happy Cyber Monday. Happy dollar day. And we are going to bring in Soup's produce, Anna Hosnier, to kind of review these products with us. Oh, heck yes. Heck yeah. Because you love a good deal.

You like a good shopping. Anna's been talking about deals for weeks. Yeah. She's got deals for weeks. Yes. I love a good deal. Your nickname is Deals. Anna's been talking about deals for weeks. She's got deals for weeks. Yes, I love a good deal. Your nickname is Deals. Anna Deals Hosniak. I felt the Z at the end of that.

No, my middle name is Dilly Dilly. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. I was saying that should be the myth that that's not funny because it's hilarious. It's Dilly Dilly stuff. Come on, guys.

Yeah, all right, man. Keep it coming. All right, so we have it broken out in the categories amazon has it broken out in and we took a look at the charts for toys and games and the thing that jumped out to me is that lol surprise these toys so they take up like five of the top 25 spots these various lol surprises lols surprise and they are basically unboxing videos the home edition it's just a box or an egg that has like 40 to 60 other boxes to open inside of it okay jack you're exaggerating it's seven surprises oh okay i was looking i was looking at the suitcase one, which is 60.

Oh my God. How many LOL surprises are in that one? I think 40. It's just basically a sphere that you keep peeling away and you're like, oh, which cheap toy is in the middle of this thing? And then you end up with like a tiny little figurine that doesn't really look that fun to play with. Like the joints aren't articulated or anything. No, it's the equivalent of one of those grocery store vending machine bubble pack toys that you get for a quarter. We call that gachapon in Japan. Yes, you do. Isn't it an onomatopoeia? Yeah, gachapon, yeah.

Most Japanese words are onomatopoeia. So good. But I get this. So many Japanese words are onomatopoeia. So good. But I get this. As much as I want to be like, this is like the death of consumerism or this proves consumerism is at its end point. I get it because they've basically taken the best part of Christmas, which is the opening of the presents and like the act of opening it and being like, oh, it's a thing.

And just commodified that, like turned that into the process itself. Right. I'm sorry, and you don't view that as bleak. No, it is bleak. It's definitely bleak, but I also, I don't know. I also get why it was inevitable and why I want all five of the top 25. That's like with Hatchimals too. That's like the other kind of thing of like, it's one of those toys where you don't know what you're getting. So you put the work in to know what you got. It's also kind of like a lazy parent thing.

Like, look at this box filled with things I didn't really have to think about. Right. Yeah, exactly. And now you have nothing. Lol, surprise, your dad's a deadbeat. Give me this toy. I suppose for every parent that took extra effort to assemble a toy, took the care to go get it, drove to an extra store because it was out, and then built it and wrapped it the night before, and then the kid opens it and plays with the box.

I think next year you get them one of these. Yes. Right, right, right. That's right. You like boxes, huh? Yeah. You already got your bike that I built with my battered hand. Right.

Yeah. Now you want to skateboard. And that's absolutely true. My last year, one-year-old, his favorite thing by far was just playing with the wrapping paper and tearing it up. Oh, heck yeah. Yeah. He did not give a shit about the stuff that was inside.

You should just get him a box of wrapping paper. Can I ask this? As the parent of a very young child, isn't everything you do for them at that age sort of for you? Yes. Yeah. It's got to feel good. You're trying to keep it alive.

And it's soft just everywhere but at some point right you wrapped it so you could sort of watch it try to open it it's funny because so now i have a it yes sorry it's it until it's penny wise i don't know what else to do with babies so our two-year-old is starting to turn into a human being and so now i'm realizing how much of everything up to this point was for us because we also have an eight month old who is just like, we're like, oh, you don't, you're not going to remember. You're doing it. Yeah, you're not.

You don't have to pay attention. This guy's a joke. Yeah, this guy's a fucking joke. This guy doesn't get it. But yeah, so the Lulz Surprise are crushing it. It also seems like this is just the beginning because they're the only ones who have, it's just one brand, LOL Surprise. I guess Hatchables are like the artistic version where you have to like wait for the thing to hatch. Yeah, I don't know.

But it seems like someone needs to upscale this because they are very like cheap looking. So I'm sure somebody is going to have gift packs. I'm sure you could get adults to do this if the inside was a fun sports athlete. What am I, from fucking Mars? I had to catch myself. A fun sports athlete. A fun sports athlete. But you know what I mean? It's the same thing with those pop toys, those vinyl figures that they have for Marvel that

people lose their shit over. If you add the element of, hey, it might be a lol surprise. But I don't know. Maybe adults are too about their collecting to be like i can't risk getting duplicates okay yeah because i feel like that you could run that risk with a lol surprise you know it kind of makes me think of like a advent calendar but you know how they have like fancy ones where it's like they have i remember one year i got a lost attain advent calendar sorry just had a brain and it was like kind of amazing because like every day I got a little tiny lotion.

Yeah, no, the Catholic Church was definitely the first lol surprise. We've all been saying that. But yeah, I just feel like eventually somebody is going to put something in there that is like, it's all Apple products. Also, shout out to out to monopoly still in the top 20 but only because they managed to just add like co-opt another brand or ip to make it

sellable so fortnite monopoly fortnite which is amazing i was in big bear and like i was at a tourist store that just does like big bear t-shirts or whatever and one just had a like one of the fortnite characters on it and just said Big Bear on it and I was like what the fuck this is lazy now I was like hey man if it says Fortnite

people are gonna fucking buy it it's a skin and maybe that's for a really out of touch parent because as a kid who's playing Fortnite being like you know what I really want to do

is put down my fucking game controller and play Monopoly that will go on for ages for many hours yeah I don't know that is definitely exclusively a gift.

Do you think Fortnite came knocking on Monopoly's door? No. Or is there someone who works for Monopoly that's just like the hustler? That's just going out to every brand. Like, come here, Golden Girls. Not only are you Clue, you're gonna be Monopoly. They're just thirsty. They're like, hey, man.

Come on, man. Let's do a Game of Thrones Monopoly, man. I'll make you a shoe. I'll make you, you could be the iron. I'll kiss you. You want to be the iron. Yeah, I'll kiss you. Anything, man. Please, Monopoly's dead.

Jenga's still on the list. Yeah, Jenga. There are some classics that are still on there that's kind of, I don't know if it's reassuring. Do you think years ago, Jenga just made 7 billion Jengas and was like, eventually, these will all be gone. We'll just change the box. Play-Doh is still on there, just like the 10-pack with just tiny bits of different colored Play-Doh.

Lego is still there, but it's a Star Wars branding thing. But Lego, it will always. They're just an ever-present, I feel. And Miles, we- Lego gives me hope for the future. The unboxing thing made me a little bit sad, but I'm pretty sad and angry about my position in capitalism in general.

So that just tapped into a deeper well of pain and rage. But Legos make me happy. I think on a past episode, I talked about how my favorite Christmas gift of all time was a magic set, like my first magic trick magic set. That's a great Christmas gift. And that is number 14 trending on Amazon currently, my first magic set, like a My First Magic Trick magic set. That's a great Christmas gift. And that is number 14, trending on Amazon currently. My first magic show, but it's probably a better version than the one-

Cup and ball. Cup and ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you lose the balls immediately. Yeah. I'm really into this game called Don't Step In It, and it looks like you lay it out and there's little shit pieces everywhere, and then you're not supposed to, you blindfold yourself and then- She is not joking. And then you're not supposed to blindfold yourself.

She is not joking. That is the number 21 thing. And then you try and not step in shit. That is white. That is an invented problem. Oh my. If that's a level of excitement you need in your life. That you have to pretend to risk to step on shit.

If that's where your excitement comes from. That is a deep privilege you need to examine. You are comfortable as fuck. You can buy fake shit to feel the rush of maybe stepping on shit. Of being a barefoot person. Blindfolded poop dodging fun. Yes, and next to it is Don't Step In It Unicorn Edition,

where the poop is just not brown colored. It is multicolored, like a unicorn frappuccino. Genius. Play with friends or dodge the poop solo. You can say it. It's not brown colored. It is like multicolored, like a uniform Frappuccino. Play with friends or dodge the group photo. You can say it. It's gay shit. That's the gay shit. For the gays.

It's fine. You know, you get it. I'm here. I know what tradition I'm getting. And I'm going to buy it. The Spirograph is still up here. The thing that like spins around and you draw little patterns on it. We're becoming parents.

Our generation. So we're like, we're just like, it's the cycles, yes. We're just like, the cycle's coming back. We're like, yeah, I used to fucking use a Spirograph. My kid will like that and Jenga and Monopoly and all this other shit. I feel you. Skip it. Most definitely. I mean, half of that stuff is things our parents gave us.

Right. Except for the skip it. Right. I mean, you filter in the toys that you brought to the table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's all, if it's blocks that stack, it probably wasn't our generation that built it. That's something that we inherited.

Something that is newer, at least was not my generation that we talked about at the end of last week is the elf on a shelf or the elf on the shelf, a Christmas tradition. And this is one of the top trending quote toys, but it's clearly a thing for parents. Behavior modification tool. Yeah, behavior modification tool. Miles, can you explain? Because we had a Zeitgang member explain this a little bit better to us. Yeah, cultural exchange opportunity.

Someone tell me. And Tom Barrett was kind enough at TomBarrett82 was saying that Elf on the Shelf is about influencing kids' behavior. It moves at night to return and tell Santa that the kids have been been good all day if it doesn't move they did something naughty and yes you can find fun locations in the house side benefit if you forget slash fail to move it go hmm what happened to school yesterday so i guess yeah that makes sense if you could just gaslight your child into believing this elf is no is omniscient and uh sees you and there's no daily gift giving, correct? From what I understand.

I don't know. Maybe really spoiled kids get gifts every time the elf moves. I heard Cousin Sal on the Bill Simmons podcast be like, and then you have to give him a gift every day? I was like, what the fuck? No. That's how you make a shitty fucking adult. Yeah.

This is all bad. None of this is good. First of all, like, I have to give respect that Santa is a totally manufactured holiday illusion. Right. Only wears red because of Coca-Cola. Kinda only been around since the 50s. Like, whatever. Right.

But hats off to the brand that's like, not only are we going to do the same thing with Elf on the Shelf, but we'll make it Santa's evil assistant. It's not like Santa's trademark. You don't have to call Monopoly to ask first. You can just fucking make that. And to make it just as a gaslight for your kids. Crazy. There's a Brazilian tradition that it's basically their Santa Claus, but he is constantly surveilling people. So it's not like he knows when you're magically.

He just knows. He's tapping your phone. He's bugged your fucking bedroom. Right so they basically just put that into a plastic figurine and we're like here you go. And we are going

to make millions off of our version which just has a little camera in it. I mean I sort of assumed that the Elf on the Shelf had a camera in it by now. It's a collaboration with Ring. I do like the universal truth that children lose respect for their parents. Literally every culture that's had kids has a myth about some external beast that watches your kids, judges their behavior, and then acts accordingly. Right.

Whether it's like a Krampus, like an evil sort sort of thing or a santa a rewarding sort of thing parents throughout all ages have had to use a mythical external figure to manipulate their child's behavior who no longer has any respect for them who knows when the respect cut off comes in the middle ages was it younger older who knows but at some point parents need a myth to make their children behave. Carrot and the stick. Except the stick in this case is coal. Even children inherently know coal sucks as an energy source. Oh, yeah.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with electronics, camera, photo, video games, and books. camera, photo, video games, and books. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere,

a podcast that unhearts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months.

These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago, when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore.

The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean?

The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. A lion. It's right here in black and white in the prints. A lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. On segregation academies, when civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools,

these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. So electronics is not super interesting because Amazon has either ruthlessly weighted the list or the product offerings so that you only see Amazon products because all of their top 50 is just different Amazon products. There is a single Apple product, which I guess this is a new development that they're selling Apple products at all. Yeah, I think they're just starting to combine forces of like, hey, you can sell our shit on your behemoth website. Yeah. So not a whole lot to see there. There's a bunch of Echo's Dot and other things.

A lot of Fuji Instax stuff. Well, so Camera Photo is its own section, and it's just of Fuji Instax stuff. Well, so camera photo is its own section and it's just all Fuji Instax. It's those little instant camera, Polaroid cameras that are really fun at parties and leave you with a giant stack of pictures that you'll never look at again unless you get some sort of display receptacle. So that would be my recommendation to anybody who is investing in some in stacks uh is get like some sort of frame or something i i'm going by o'brien your your business how mad are the good people at polaroid right now i mean a 15 year drop off in interest led to the total devastation of a company that like was one of the last ones

to employ people for their whole career it was just sort of the sunset of the whole age of our economy and now just through nostalgia some like i'm sure the people who own insects are not this but in my mind they're like 19 year olds on a one wheel just speeding down a giant hallway past an open concept office this has nothing to do with Polaroid? No, it's Fujifilm. Polaroid is its own company. Right. And I think,

I don't know if they make the cameras anymore, but they do make the film. Like, the film only just came back because I think when they shut down, everyone's like, oh my God,

there's not going to be Polaroid film anymore. Oh, people went a little crazy and had to buy, like, you know, kind of their doomsday supply of Kodak film. And they're back, baby. There are 10. Polaroid film. Polaroid is actually at number nine. Like, you know, kind of their doomsday supply of Kodak film. And they're back, baby.

There are 10. Polaroid film. Polaroid is actually at number nine. Like, they're color films. Creeping back. But there's like 10 Fuji just ripoffs of Polaroid ahead of it. It's a cruel world. It is a cruel, cruel world.

That's the first thing you need to know about capitalism. Yeah, so get frames for your Fuji in stacks. Let's move on to video games, guys. is i am like a person from mars uh or an alien a fun sports athlete yeah a fun sports athlete put one of those in your gift box uh but i'm kind of coming at this from an outsider's perspective miles you were explaining to me that because it it seems like PS4 and Nintendo Switch are dominating and Xbox is a little bit sparse. Yeah, well, I think that just, we're looking at Amazon's sales.

Because once, you know, everyone is going to do sales on every conceivable video game product. I mean, the top thing is always like, if you play PlayStation, getting that PlayStation Plus 12-month membership, you always buy it on Black Friday because it's usually like $30 more or something when

you don't have $20 more. And then, you know, the games that the childrens are playing. I'm a little pissed if I had just waited a little bit longer, I could get Red Dead for cheaper. Yeah, duh. That's just how it goes down. I have more dudes who left work early to try to play that game all week. Yeah, the insanity that that game caused.

Yeah. Anna, what's your take on that? You saw your significant other. Yes, you know, while I was working on my pooping cross-stitch last night, my partner was playing the game, and it seemed like you were just living a life. It was not, I don't know. Like there was parts where they were just like

he was buying and you know getting rid of a horse and buying a new horse because the other horse was a little lame and tired and then at one point he goes to some weird old guy who was like hanging out at a farm and he's like tell me the story of something some guy and then the old cracky dude was like i ain't telling you anything until you shovel my shit and so then you shovel my shit yes so then he had to in order to get a story he had to shovel some shit and then in the end they just decided that the old guy was full of shit anyway like they were like you don't know anything like it was like what game is this it just seems there's a lot of there's a lot of activity you can do around the main story that would be very tedious It was like, what game is this? It just seems to be a game.

There's a lot of activity you can do around the main story that would be very tedious. Because I remember when Yusuf was on, he was talking about the Zelda game. He was like, you're just cooking and eating and shit. And there's a lot of that in Red Dead. We were like, hey, I'm going to sit down and cook this game. Big game meat I got. And eat it. But when you get into it, though, there's plenty to do. There was also a part where he just had to uh lay like

a trap for a bear and then just wait yeah for the bear to come i was like this is the game like that's it who do you kill anyone he's like in-game whittling yeah the thing i've been most amused by with red dead is following like tweets from people frustrated by how apparently complicated the controls are. I think it was Andrew Overdahl that said something like, great, instead of ride off with all my friends after this heist, why don't I just punch my horse until it falls down?

I guess there's controls that are kind of... I've been in terrible horse accidents in that game. That's one thing they did change. Before, you couldn't just run into a tree. Man, I've nearly died many times on my horse just from hitting a pole or tree branch or whatever the other thing is at one point he just has like a deep conversation with another character in the game where he's like so do you miss debbie and he's like yeah

you miss it but you know sometimes when you're in the life you talk to get out like it was a whole thing where i was like male emotion i was like wait so who's dead and like my boyfriend's like i don't know like i was like wait so i think this guy's crazy too is there an option to run or call the police those are the parts i was interested in because i was like oh my well the cinematics yeah they put a lot of time into so it plays out like a movie yeah the top The top game is Super Smash Brothers, which, as I understand it, has very little backstory or whittling. Yeah. It's just a cult phenomenon. Yeah.

Just Dance. Yeah, Just Dance. So there's still a Nintendo Wii game on the fucking top 25. Hell yeah, Wii. Keep on rocking. Yeah. Wii the people. Just Dance 2019 edition.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe I raided Amazon's old PS2 equipment and bought myself a very cheap dance mat so I could play my old copy of Dance Dance Revolution. You can never shelf that stuff for real. It's always going to come back. And your downstairs neighbors will never like you. Right. Sometimes you just got to dance.

Oh, man, I love it. All right, we want to move on to books, which are mostly children's books, and we actually have a small... Because adults gave up. Yes. There's also Becoming Michelle Obama and other... Children's book. But there are... I should not interpret

that title as sexually as I do, but I'll be honest that I've over-sexualized the Obamas for a decade, and I haven't stopped. I don't know how to stop. That's healthy. So we wanted to play a game called Kids Book or Sex Thing because these kids books have very strange titles that could easily be sex things.

Yeah. And we wanted to see if, Caitlin, you could tell the difference between them. So we'll just run through a couple that are somewhat obvious. Dirty Sanchez. Oh, that's a kid's book. Yeah, that is.

That's a shitty mustache. Yes. Okay, fine. Wonky Donkey. Oh, man. I'm already on the fence. Wonky Donkey? I'm going to say sex.

Kid's book. Number two kid's book. There's so many donkey things. I can already think. Like donkey was a throw. That's a distraction. They knew exactly what they were doing. What's that kid book?

What is that about? What is the wonky donkey in Kid's Land? It's about a silly little donkey. Who had one short leg. Yeah. I don't know. We honestly don't know. It's just the number two book overall and the number one kid's book.

Congress of the Cow. That's a book? Nope. Sex thing. What? I didn't expect to do so poorly so immediately. This one should be easy. The Screaming Goat.

That's a kid's book. Yes. Okay, good. I don't have a child. What is the Congress thing? What's the sex thing? That's just some sex move. I think that involves the milking of a woman's breast too that makes it the cow thing.

I don't know. I just remember it from Best in Show. Oh, okay. It's a throwaway line in Best in Show. I should have known that. Yeah. But I believe when I- I'm assuming that's a Fred Willard utterance.

No, it's, what's her face? Catherine O'Hara? Parker Posey. Oh, Parker. Okay. Thank you. Did you know Catherine O'Hara just got honored in Canada yesterday? I'm sorry to interrupt with this hot piece of news.

Yes. It was last week for your listeners. Catherine O'Hara just got honored in Canada yesterday. I'm sorry to interrupt with this hot piece of news. Yes. It was last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For your listeners, Catherine O'Hara got a Canadian honor, some kind of high Canadian honor. I mean, she's a fucking national treasure. Their ceremony is the most Canadian thing I have ever seen. It's so polite.

It's just a little tiny room. It's very official. It's so cute. It's YouTube-able. I recommend it. Okay. For sure. Congratulations to Catherine O'Hara.

100%. The Pout Pout Fish. The Pout Pout Fish? That's a book. Yes. Okay. For sure. Congratulations to Catherine O'Hare. 100%. The Pout Pout Fish. The Pout Pout Fish? That's a book. Yes. Okay, good. Thank goodness. Hot Lunch?

That's a sex thing. You got it. Okay, yes. What is it, though? All right, you are on the roll. What is the Hot Lunch? Hot Lunch is like a very- It involves a handstand and just burying your face in some of these-

It's a very involved way of eating ass. It's eating ass. Nice. Nice. Nice. But like upside down. I imagine if you caught someone doing like a somersault midway and you're like, now I'm eating your ass. I'm literally twice the size of my partner.

Many of these are more possible than ever before. Okay, great. Look it up. Oh, The Hungry Caterpillar. That's a book. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. That's also a book? Yes.

Okay. I wish there was a sex movie. Those are old books, right? I might have had those books. I like The Very Hungry. No, that's a sex movie. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. That's also a book? Yes. Okay. I wish there was a sex movie. Those are old books, right? I might have had those books. I like the Very Hungry. No, that's a sex movie. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The Star.

Oh, no. That's a book. That's a sex movie. God damn. What is it? Sorry, man. It's very, it's just an elaborate form of- You can't just bring up a sex movie and then not explain them.

It wasn't interesting. When I saw it, I was like, you're calling this The Star? It's just like a variation of the issue. It sounds a bit like When I saw it, I was like, you're calling this the star? It's just like a variation of the issue. It sounds a bit like Sickie, okay, yeah, gotcha. Spread out. Brawl of the Wild?

Book? Yes. Okay, great. All right. The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving. Oh, I've done that one. That's a sex movie.

Don't try it in the back of a car. All right, let's move on to the history of Black Friday. Yeah. Just Black Friday is the great grandfather of Cyber Monday for all you kids out there.

So we wanted to talk about just these sort of exclusively consumerist holidays. Yeah. Where they got their start. You know, it's got all kinds of origins. I mean, if you believe everything that J.R. Smith posts on Twitter, you would believe that it stems from slavery, which is not true. That's where I get most of my historical information. J.R. Smith posts on Twitter, you would believe that it stems from slavery, which is not true. That's where I get most of my historical information. J.R. Smith, yep, exactly.

But, you know, obviously Black Friday, as Americans know, is that day after Thanksgiving where everyone just throws all their money away. recorded version or context seems to come from the 50s, where a lot of people would call in sick after Thanksgiving to try and basically get a four-day weekend. And then other people said that it was used in Philadelphia because cops would refer to it because it was the day before the annual Army-Navy football game. So a bunch of tourists came into the city and traffic was a mess. See, this makes sense to me because I was always like, well, why would they call it Black Friday? Like calling any day black seems like it would have a negative connotation, but people are like, no, it's because like businesses are in the black. That's another one that people point to.

Yeah, so we don't really know. But again, look, this is what we're calling it. But it wasn't around until the 80s that it caught on sort of nationally because I think everybody was high on cocaine and the economy was doing all right so people were like yeah let's fucking go let's fucking make a fucking sale all about irrational exuberance oh yeah just overall they were like okay how are we gonna win the cold war we are gonna win it by just fooling ourselves into like a spiral of optimism and and the soviet union won't be able to keep up with us. We'll just be like, we're fucking winning, man. We're winning. There's also the thing where

if the looming threat is annihilation, then spend it while you got it. Smoke them if you got them. But once the aughts came around is when we really started seeing the fucking mania that we sort of see now.

Well, because we survived survived we made it out of when we should have been annihilated and now we have nothing we spent it all we smoked them all and we don't know how to keep going right now we can't turn the cycle off now we have to smoke them all yes basically uh yeah and like i didn't realize in 2008 a walmart employee was trampled to death oh doesn't people die every year i i don't know if it's every year. Oh, there's a death count, isn't there? No. Just one person?

The whole thing is somewhat of a, it's an extremely, yeah, it's a Snopes-y thing. It's an extremely slow news day is the origin of all those stories. And like back at Cracked,

I wrote an article where I tried to look into all these different like famous stories. And the Walmart employee there was a Walmart employee trampled to death it was like a crazy thing where they kept everybody in the parking lot all night and like taunted them the Walmart employees taunted them and then like there was just a giant riot and a guy was like trying to push the doors back and

it collapsed on him and it wasn't like then everybody went in and went shopping and just walked on his body yeah everyone was like oh my god what happened oh my god yeah so that was like most of the times people don't die another story that was reported that same year like in the same paragraph as the person dying was that there was like a fight at a toys r us that ended with people being shot and they made it seem like it was a fight over a product right but it was just like an unrelated gang shooting right it was like happened to be near a toys r us but the media fucking loves this idea that like we become capitalists werewolves and just like try and kill each other well yeah

that's yeah i mean i, the potential is there. How many images of people standing in that crazy line in a parking lot and then rushing? Why was everyone in a Walmart parking lot that night? There's a lot of questions that go back. This is not a good look. Right. I don't think the entire phenomenon is totally made up.

I think it's exaggerated by a media that is desperate for news that they can just get out of and not worry about. And I think that's what has led to the spread of this phenomenon. Because then I think in our writer, JM, who looked into this for us, it kind of started bubbling in Canada in 2012 and then the UK around 2014. and then the UK around 2014. And I think a lot of that is born out of everyone, you know, just seeing our news clips of like, look at these maniac consumers literally busting down doors for a TV and like knife fighting over a blender.

It's capitalist running of the bulls. Yeah, exactly. Except it's not because it's just poor people. Like it sort of is, but like rich people aren't in that scrum. This is just... Well, this is the funny thing because now like, you know, the media does sort of make it look like this Hunger Games. Like, it does contribute to sort of this, like, class warfare thing where the media loves to go, look at all these people who, like, probably need to, like, the only way for them to be able to get gifts or things is because of these sales.

And so, like, let's just watch them. Wow. The fuck out. You know, I'm like, let's put a compilation together of the best fucking fights at a Walmart or things like that. Calculate what wage would hold them in that position and then make sure we maintain it across an entire class, the largest class of people, and then watch them all claw at each other for a limit to TV. Right.

Exactly. And I think that's what the media coverage always often ignores is like, why would someone be like, want to take it this far to provide gifts for their family or whatever? And then you also think about how inflated the actual prices are because like we're, we're basically gas lit the whole year into thinking that the price we see is what the fuck, what shit costs when really that sale price is still calculated to still be profitable for the store. The same profit by scale. It's not like you'd reduce your profit. It's that if you sell enough, it all winds up the same. I mean, also the rage pushing my voice right now is that I will post

mate on Friday and I have my fingers crossed that I have $30 extra to buy a pair of shoes, which would be half price. That's my concern. I can't buy get, I got nothing this year. I have my fingers crossed that I have $30 extra to buy a pair of shoes. Right. Which would be half price. That's my concern. I can't buy get. I got nothing this year. I have good problems. I drove a Postmate order past the billboard for a show I wrote on. But I have good problems.

I'm just in between. You know, life is what it is. But yeah, I deliver a lot of food to rich people who don't tip me. And then I have to hope that I have enough pennies to buy shoes without holes. So yeah, like I'm not in a line at Best Buy. Maybe that's next year, fingers crossed.

But like, I know the, the trap of not having enough to buy shoes until they tell you you're allowed to buy shoes on this day. Right. Yeah. Well, cause that's the thing. It's,

it almost seems like this is the day when you're, you're buying shit at the price. It probably most likely you're actually paying closer to value is right. Like, cause it's this one day. I mean, closer, but yeah,

closer. Yeah. And they put an artificial limit on it. They're like only five TVs. So of course people are going to fucking fight over it. Like, yeah, that's not fair because none of us have enough.

So we're going to try to make the difference, you know, later on Craigslist when you miss this. Because that's what happens after Cyber Monday and Black Friday is the proliferation of the three-quarter sale that exists on Facebook sales. Right, right, right. Well, yeah. I mean, the one thing, though, that I thought was really interesting is like they're even – like travel agencies have put together tourist packages for people to come from abroad to get in on this and like you say is the capitalist running of the bulls because people are like oh wow i want to

fucking see this shit go crazy or whatever and i guess also too there might be certain products that if you obviously are have so much disposable income you can fly to another country to take advantage of an in-person sale day uh great more power to you and just feast on the corpse of this dying empire. To be fair, I would love to watch from the top row of the Mall of America eating walleye on a stick just observing, but I'm not going to buy a flight package to do it. And just like, wow, look at all these crazy Americans buy all these ships. Oh my goodness. Look at them try so hard to be happy.

Oh, yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll have more Black Friday, Cyber Monday stuff in a moment. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.

My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today.

And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday.

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do.

One session. 24 hours. BPM 110. 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that?

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They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from?

Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. Season two. Season two. Are we recording? Are we good? Oh, we push record, right? Okay.

And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Saying that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and the piña colada from Puerto Rico. So all of these... We thank Latin culture. There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey

that dates back to the 9th century B.C. B.C.? I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And so producer Nick Stumpf just informed us that there is a little bit of a wrangling going on in the story of Polaroid and Fuji film. Because there is a lawsuit from Polaroid or from Fuji.

I don't know who's suing. I think Polaroid is definitely suing Fuji. They're coming for their check. And Fuji in their filing was unable to profit from their original IP and in the death throes of their shitty business, defended her. They come for us. Yeah, so that is going down.

Help them out, they opened the door for you Fuji. Yeah, don't be rude, dance with them, who brung ya? Thank you, who brung ya you one of the details of black friday that i especially liked from that article from years ago is actually black friday determined when thanksgiving is not the other way around are you fucking serious yeah so thanksgiving was originally set as, originally it didn't really have a set date. And then Abraham Lincoln set it as the last Thursday in November. Right. And he wasn't thinking, duh,

that sometimes there are five Thursdays in November and you're going to really shorten the shopping season. And so they actually set it on the fourth Thursday in November to extend the shopping season so that you would never have it on the fifth. Right, so you would never have a very short shopping season. It was FDR who did it in 1939 because they were trying to get out of the depression and they were like we really can't afford a short shopping season and so that is how we got thanksgiving on the day it is is because of black friday essentially holy shit yeah well you know as long as sense i mean that's that's yeah if you're trying yeah and also if you're

trying to get out of the depression you know we had to do a lot To get out of the depression Yeah Fight a war or whatever But you know Get the machine moving baby Yeah World War II Is a false flag

Oh yeah Just so everybody knows Yeah You know how many times I've said that When people remind me On December 7th I'm like okay

Pearl Harbor Alright Right right right Okay Really short in the shopping season Yeah really short Really took a damper in the shopping season. But yeah.

Except for bullets, weirdly. Yeah. Yeah, that did pretty well. Oddly enough. Bullets are crushing it. So since that day, it's always been that Thursday. The fourth Thursday. There was like a weird little civil war where certain states were like, no, we're doing

it on the previous day that we used to celebrate it. And there was like some back and forth. It was like a very lethargic civil war that happened for like two years. And then they were just like, nah. They fell in line. Yeah. Fine, whatever. Yeah, Arizona.

Just do daylight saving times already. Right, exactly. Yeah, fucking, God, they're so independent. Yeah. But yeah, I guess this is just a good time to think of your local Amazon worker or just any. Well, yeah. Well, that's another thing too actually about Black Friday is like that also did spur on a lot of activism within employees who worked in Amazon warehouse, especially in Europe, like in Spain, where they were like, fuck that. Like we're not doing a fucking thing till you address the working conditions.

And, you know, I hope they can address that across all of the Amazon facilities. Don't worry, they won't. Yeah. I mean. It's just a sorry to bother you world. Don't worry. We all know how this ends. The darkness of the Black Friday.

Yeah. It's I don't know. The darkness of the Black Friday. Yeah. I don't know. I told you I'm a, you know, you already know that I am a gig economy worker at the Mo. And I've done retail. Man, good jobs and bad jobs.

You know what it takes to sit in this seat. Right. But yeah, the way people behave, the entitlement that people have to your time because you wear an apron and a name tag in this season is terrible. Your barista knows you. Your behavior and the way you conduct yourself on a day like that, on a holiday, on the day after a holiday when somebody is giving you literally the most valuable thing,

literally the only priceless thing in the world, their time, and you treat them like garbage, it just shows. It's one of those things that if you're buying a great deal on that day, the person in front of you that's conducting the transaction is not with their family and isn't doing anything that they want. They are suffering for you to enjoy this giddy discount.

It's just a terrible, terrible time. And that frenzy of like, oh boy, I get to go shopping. It's like you're not everybody everybody who goes Black Friday shopping, there are, I'll put a low number at a dozen and as many as 50 people who gave their time to you that day. The person who, you know, the ticket taker at the parking garage,

the person who like waves at you at the beginning of the mall, the 10 employees who asked you if you needed anything, the five that ran you up, those are all miserable people not earning enough money to justify taking away their time. It's just awful.

Or yeah, just consider they're taking that shift because they'll get holiday time and a half pay, especially because some places open as early as fucking Thanksgiving Day. Of course. You know what I mean?

I mean, holidays are, if you work in retail, the idea that you're celebrating the holiday, that's just giggle-able. That's the best joke I would have told on any podcast this year. You're not doing it.

You're working. You're working. We expect you to be extra cheerful on this day. Yeah, uh-huh. You better have some big, bright smiles. Right. Yeah. It really is the thing that I first noticed when being abroad and then coming back to America,

the way that Americans treat employees, just the person behind the way that americans treat like employees just the person behind the counter that they're buying something from is just it's different than the way their people are treated in other countries we have this exceptional attitude about like well if i'm the consumer the customer is always right and the customer is always a raging demon asshole to people who are working that was the the, like the biggest difference that I noticed. It's just like this imperceptible, but like, it's really there. Well, it's so weird. Like you're saying like the second someone dons a uniform or something and it's like in a retail space or server space or whatever, it's like, oh, you're not a person who might be my relative or me at some point.

Right. And I think unless you've actually done retail, like, you know, then you might not a person who might be my relative or me at some point. Right. And I think unless you've actually done retail, like, you know, then you might not have that perspective. And, you know, I would urge people who have not had the opportunity to work a job like that.

I certainly, you know, worked at the mall during holiday season. We're just fucking out here too. Right. Now I'm a second rate podcaster, but yes, there is something just sort of,

it just, it sums up the American attitude to have just sort of like, well, I'm here in this capacity to give my money to you, which means I'm afforded these luxuries of treating you like garbage. And yeah, I guess if you're out shopping on Black Friday, and you have a shitty job, maybe you're not treated all that great all year. And you want somebody to lavish you with attention. That's about you. And nobody in the neighborhood owes you that. I just think it's a dark, like,

sure, enjoy the deals, have fun with your family but there's always an edge to Black Friday that makes me so sad. yeah. It's just such a,

blech, gross way to celebrate anything. Take a walk. Well, that's what like REI does. Like, I don't think REI is open then. They're like,

hey, go outside with your family. Right. Which I'm like, oh, look at you, RE rei but i think a big reason that amazon is now the biggest company and jeff bezos is the richest person in the history of the world besides vladimir putin is because people are able to avoid that interpersonal interaction where they have to like you know see the person right and understand now you just get to have like that supply chain of 12 jobs where people are being treated like shit

just behind a closed door yeah it's a very sterile shopping experience never have to see them yeah um yeah it's they're pissing in a bottle somewhere and they're doing it right right yes sorry capitalism makes me sad. You caught me on a dark day just trying to make sure that like. No, but that's like the double edged sword of this, right? It's like on one side you're like, oh, deals. And the other side you're like, oh, capitalism. And why do I have these problems?

Because I, a person with a college degree who is white and extraordinarily privileged, have decided to, air quote, chase my dream. And why are these couple of months super hard economically? Because, baby, I'm writing a pitch. I have a show to sell. Like I have good problems. All problems that I have chosen and still looking at the world on a Black Friday or a Cyber Monday is just a chilling, it's a chilling glimpse.

And if you happen to be on the bottom of the shoe, it is an ugly world. Enjoy it if you're the one walking, but the people under your shoes are, it's a long day. It's a long day. Be aware, you know the one walking. But the people under your shoes are. It's a long day. It's a long day. Be aware, you know, especially during the shopping season. Oh, my God.

Tip your postmates. But what you were saying about how your barista knows you, that was one of the types of articles that Robert Evans, who hosts Behind the Bastards, started writing these, like we call them personal experience. But basically we would just interview people with jobs and they were like, yeah, people just don't see us. So we're able to just sit there

and witness people's behavior. Some of the most interesting articles we had were just from people who worked at a high-end hotel and they're like, people are fucking barbarians. Here's the sorts of behavior you see. But it's just because i think there is that american feeling that i've earned this so you don't have to exist as a human being to me i've also been guilty of this that i think none who walk among us can say they've never done this

that yeah we as americans not unique but it's cultural to us that we have this well of rage that just exists from our daily lives because it naturally makes us angry. And occasionally it feels really good to let it out. And sometimes you just do it to a service professional. My apologies to phone representatives that I've contacted from companies that made me mad. The nice lady who answered the phone at Hewlett Packard did not deserve my ire over my printer. But have you tried turning it on and off? Have you tried plugging it in and unplugging it?

Did you reinstall the drivers? I just felt like screaming unintelligibly at somebody, and then my printer worked again, and I felt better. That poor person didn't, but we've all done it. We all carry stress and rage that's really fun to let loose on someone like a barista, but I promise you I could tell the difference between the grouchy nurse and the entitled turd that was just ordering a fucking nonfat vanilla sugar-free decaf atrocity.

Right. Of course. My dog's whimpering again. She can feel my stress, right? There you go, yeah. But give her the treats. Well, Caitlin, it's been wonderful having you. Well, y'all are the best.

Thank you, Zeitgang. Where can people find you, follow you? Venmo you even. Oh my goodness. You know, this holiday. Where can people find you, follow you? Venmo you even. Oh my goodness. You know, this holiday season. Let's get you a pair of shoes. I'm pretty sure I'm CaitlinIsTall on Venmo. At CaitlinIsTall, C-A-I-T-L-I-N-I-S-T-A-L-L.

It would be so hilarious. And nobody's obligated. I told you my problems are mine because I did this to myself. I built this world. But yeah, I'm pretty sure that's me on all the things. Oh, Jesus. I'm at Caitlin-Gill-3 on Venmo. That helps no one.

What's your avatar look like so they know? It's my stupid face with a mohawk. I'm in a black v-neck. Oh, yeah. It's a shot by Kim Newmoney, incredible photographer. She photographed Hillary Clinton. The highs, the lows. What a life I lead.

You can find me at Caitlin-Gill-3 at Venmo. You can find me at CaitlinIsTall on Instagram and RobotCaitlin on Twitter. You can also find me, if you're in the LA area, on the 29th at the Good Night in Burbank or on December 1st at the Hollywood Improv Lab. Nice. Wow, shows to plug. What do you know? Miles, where can people find you?

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at Miles of Gray. How about in person? In person, I don't know. Just wherever. On the streets, probably. When are you hitting a Vons? I'm more of a Ralph Sky. You don't have a live show coming up?

Oh, yeah. We got a live show coming up this week, Thursday, November 29th, at the UCB Sunset Theater. Doing a live Daily Zeitgeist show with Jack and I. The whole gang will be there. Even Jamie Loftus. And then on December 1st, we will be in Chicago doing a Daily Zeitgeist live show at the Chicago Theater Works.

Yo, those tickets are about to get sold out, so buy your tickets now. And guess what? One of y'all will come on stage and give us an over, under, and myth. So don't be a lame. Get the tickets just the same. Thank you, capitalism, baby. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. We didn't do our favorite tweets.

Does everybody have tweets that they want to share? Let's share some tweets with her. I have one tweet. All right. Give us one tweet. Well, one tweet was actually referred to me by a Zeitgang member, recommended to me by Erica Averill. I think you are the woman who named her dog after me.

Her dog named Miles. That's a huge honor. That's a huge honor. That's a huge honor. And the dog is wonderful looking, so I'll take it as it comes. But I love her, Dr. S, and her reference was, I feel like this was written

just for you, Miles. And the headline is, Report, The Average Woman Fucks Nine Spiders Per Year. All about fucking spiders, mate. Yeah, we're not here to fuck spiders, mate Sorry

Come on Do you have a tweet that you've been enjoying? Yes I say it as if you've enjoyed it over a long process You've just been thinking back to it Do you have a tweet you've been enjoying? Well, recently, and because I cooked And have been cooking

Here's a tweet from Talia Jane Can't sleep because I can't stop thinking of all the people who don't know how to take care of their cast iron. And that is deeply true. Condition that shit. What's funny is that I opened the tweet to read the thread thinking

that we surely had the same strategies for taking care of our cast iron, and we did not. Wow. And I consider her instructions a betrayal of cast iron tradition. But however you take care of your cast iron, you care about your cast iron. Be good to your cast iron.

Be good to your cast iron. If universally agreed, don't put it in the dishwasher. Oh, my God. Do people do that? People do that. Did you hear the pain in your voice? Ridiculous people do. Thank you, everyone.

Respect the cast iron. Some tweets I've been enjoying. John Boyce tweeted, idiocracy is basically a frickin' movie at this point. Everett Byram at Rad Milk tweeted, On a mission to eat all 50 state birds, which I thought was appropriate for today. That's a good one. I like that. And the Mountain Goats tweeted,

Sing us a song, you're the piano man. Everyone who plays piano can sing. Don't argue with me, I'm a real estate novelist. Reasonably sure that's a thing. Wow. Because that song makes no sense. Can I offer

from Nathan Lund, this is deeply in the past, but this is one of my favorite tweets ever. Welcome to Mar-a-Lago. This is my dad's resort. I think about that tweet every day. Every day. That might be my favorite tweet we've had.

This is my dad's resort. All right. You can find us on Twitter, Daily Zeitgeist. We're at TheDailyZeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, DailyZeitgeist..com where we post our episodes and our footnotes where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode as well as the song we write out on you can also find that information in the show notes on whatever podcast listening application you're listening on miles what song are song are we going to write out on? Welcome to Mar-a-Lago.

Nepotism. No reading. I think I would do today's song. We will do... Can't wake him up for the policy briefing. Oh, man. Oh, my God. Wow. See, we're going to have to pop a little shit.

Extend this and write that whole song. This track is going... Let's do one by a band called Show Me the Body. It's called Metallic Taste. That's just a, I feel like just for this dark mood we're in. But this is actually a cool band. Can I say something sweet to your audience before I go that I love the Zeitgang? I love coming in here. Your fans are always really nice on Twitter, which is a rare quality for any fan.

Also, thank you for indulging my past tense, post tense. I don't understand how time or holidays work. I hope you had a rare quality for any fan. Also, thank you for indulging my past tense, post tense. I don't understand how time or holidays work. I hope you had a lot of fun over Thanksgiving, and it's a pleasure to spend this holiday time with y'all. Oh, and it's an honor to have you. And yes, we're thankful for the Zeitgang too, because I don't know how we don't have a toxic fandom yet. You truly don't.

And it's, I don't know Zeitgang, if you know how rare you are out there, but Zeitgang, you are powerful, and you are splendid. And you're making a hula hand, hot lips hula hand. Hot lips can barely take it. But, yeah, this is Show Me the Body Metallic Taste. And this has been an end of the Daily Zeitgeist to reward all the people who listened to the end

because that was a fun end. You guys are the best. Okay, Lennon Miles. All right, guys, we're going to ride out on that. We will be back tomorrow because it is a daily podcast. We'll talk to you guys then. Bye. Bye.

Cheers. Happy like it did out in Rockaway. I still see when I hit the grave. Sailor's moving on his next wave. The next wave could be metallic taste. Metallic chains, metallic ways Can't be that in the day But shit has changed

Take that to grade instead to grace They got me thinking about my next wave And I'm leaning with the blade again Stuck losing friends, broke teeth sinking in My dad said shit is bad, don't get better than shit. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state.

Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare.

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