The Daily Zeitgeist - Biden's Piiiiiissed, Jake Paul Suuuucks 12.22.21

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

In episode 1055, Jack and guest co-host Jody Avirgan are joined by actor, comedian, and podcaster Carl Tart to discuss Biden Admin Issues Plainly Worded, Openly Frustrated Statement on Omicron, ESPN Declares 2021 Jake Paul’s Year, What the Hell is Masterclass, Anyway and more! Biden Admin Issues Plainly Worded, Openly Frustrated Statement on Omicron Biden admin eyes a potentially stark shift in messaging around ending the pandemic ESPN Declares 2021 Jake Paul’s Year MasterClass just raised $100 million for celebrity-fueled content The Company That Took Over YouTube Pre-Rolls Just Got a Pile of Money What MasterClass Online Courses Pay to Lure Hollywood Stars as Teachers Kevin Spacey’s Online Acting Course Pulled by MasterClass Listen: This Day In Esoteric Political HistoryListen: Train Song by Vashti Bunyan Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 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 Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. 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. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network,

iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 217, episode 3 of Der Daily Zeitgeist, a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness. It's Wednesday, December... Nope. Yeah, it's Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021. I'm not even... I don't know what national, international day we are recognizing. It's a real mess today, folks. It's also the last recording of a full episode of 2021. We did it. Ending with a really good headspace. Yes.

Firing on all cylinders. guest co-host who I haven't introduced yet. Well, my name is Jack O'Brien, aka welcome to the zeit. Please drink rosé out of my skull till I feel all right. That is courtesy of Lex Lugy reference to Stone Fruit, the song we went out on yesterday, in which the best verse is about somebody being cannibalized by a woman and having their bones turned into a bed and rosé sipped out of their skull. I thought that was pretty cool. Well, I'm thrilled to be joined today by a two-headed guest co-host monster. We're going to start out with a special guest co-host who hosts the podcast This Day in Esoteric Political History

for Radiotopia. Executive produced Adam McKay's podcast Death at the Wing about tragedy and basketball in the 80s. You may have heard him hosting 30 for 30 for ESPN, the 538 Politics podcast in the past. But right now he is here. It jody abernon thank you thank you so much for having me you want to do it again with abernon nope okay fair enough i'm gonna do it that way it's jody abernon what's up jody hey thank you for uh having me on in the last episode of the year wow yeah true i'm surprised of all the of all the ways you could have stumbled and saying the date it's actually the year that i'm surprised you got right just because i feel like so many people feel like 2020 and 2021 just one this big blob of feeling

yeah just a blend just a blender well we are also thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a legendary actor, writer. You've heard on Comedy Bang Bang, one of my favorite podcasts, The Flagrant Ones. You can currently see him on the NBC comedy Grand Crew. Please welcome the brilliant, the talented Carl Tartt. You want to do that again with Tate? No, I'm just playing. Oh, my God.

They finally gave me the keys, y'all. It's been this many years that I finally gave me the keys. They gave me half a key. They gave me half a key, but I'm going to flip it and turn it into a brick. Okay? Yes. They finally got it. It's been so many years.

It's been like five years since I've been trying to take Miles' spot. And I have finally done it. This is crazy. This is nuts. This is insane. They only gave me half. Again, we are sharing the duties today of co-host. It's like when you take your driver's test and the person next to you just still has a break just in case.

Yeah. Right? Yeah. Because they know what I'm liable to do. I'm liable to run this thing into a telephone pole. I'm telling you. All right, Justin, let's go back and edit all that out. No, I'm just joking.

Yeah. It's great to have you both. Carl, wonderful to have you. You have been, you know, just subtly seeding that you would be a better co-host than Miles for a long time. And, you know, we're finally giving it a shot. I got my sides. I got my head shot. I'm standing outside of Jack's house ready to audition.

What is subtly seeding it, like him saying, you know, I would be a better co-host than Miles? Yeah. Like there are sung, you know, audiograms. There are, you know, just he'll point out every time Miles like flubs a word or like flubs the guest's name, which is, you know, unforgivable as far as I'm concerned. On my Twitter burner, I'm always the one that has something to say negative about the show. That's right. They don't know that it's me, but I'm admitting that it's me now because I finally made it here. They finally gave me half a key.

Yeah, yeah. The hats that will be worn during this now, way better quality. Yeah. Just so you know. You can see back here, right here. Yeah. Way better quality you know i i think this is gonna be great i'm so happy to be here but just shout out to the og

listeners to the people to the day ones who remember who remember me from back in the day i know it's probably a lot of new listeners but shout out to the og who've been putting up with so many subpar shows with miles as host just to get to this moment. Yeah. Just to get here. When I started doing this podcast in 1984. Yeah. Yes. You were one of our first guests. I had a long Jerry curl. Zero year old.

I believe as a zero year old was not born. Yeah. Yeah. But you were among the first guests on the, on the show back a long time ago. One of the original culture Kings. And yeah, congrats on Grand Crew, man. Thanks, man. Thank you so much. And congrats

on Flagrant Ones continuing to be a great podcast. It feels good to still be doing that with those guys. Our universe got shot. Shout out to Vulture. We got it shouted out in the 2021 Top Comedy Podcast of the Year. So that's pretty sick. Well deserved. Pretty fucking sick. Well-deserved.

Pretty fucking sick. Pretty sick night. Yeah, and then we had, just due to the general state of things, we had a guest who had to scratch last minute because their live show was like, it's a mess out there. But yeah, basically COVID related issues.

The best excuse that we've ever had for somebody to scratch last minute. I'll just say that. You've never had anyone scratch because of COVID related issues thus far? You do the show every single day. I don't think we have. That's amazing. That's amazing. No, we just make them power through.

Yeah. We'll usually just have it go to their house in a hazmat suit and put a mic in front of their face. All right. Well, we're going to get to know both of you guys, all of us, a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell our listeners a few of the things we're talking about. There's this Biden administration statement that has kind of gone viral, especially the right before it's uh open frustration with uh you know the wording is pretty straightforward so we're going to talk about that we're going to talk about uh jake paul because uh fuck this guy just the worst and we'll also ask the question

what what the fuck is masterclass uh i was surprised to see it's valued at like billions of dollars 2.75 billion dollars and i don't i don't know i guess i've heard from people who've done a masterclass but i've never heard from someone who's like this is good and worth the money so we'll look at all of that plenty plenty more. But first, Jody, I think we're going to go with you. What is something from your search history? I spent more of the morning than I probably care to admit searching the Nets starting lineup. That was my most recent search history, which the Nets have now, I guess, canceled some games. But I you know, I have a fantasy basketball team. I have a that is currently being decimated by COVID. I follow the league

and, you know, the Brooklyn Nets have had, Carl, you might know better than I do, but it's something like 11 players in COVID protocol or something. Including, famously, Kyrie Irving, who went into COVID protocol like 20 hours after he got called back to play. The day he got activated. Yeah, the day he got

activated. But, you know, just I googled Nets starting lineup and then immediately started Googling the names of those people because I'd never heard of them before. And they are now starters in the National Basketball Association. People like Kessler Edwards and David Duke Jr. And then it's gotten to the point where... David Duke Jr.? Oh, yeah. You didn't know legendary racist David Duke has a son? His son is just balling.

There are players on the Nets who are in COVID protocol who I've never heard of. It's gotten to that point where guys have gotten called up and gotten COVID. DeAndre Bembry is not just playing for the Nets, but has been put on COVID protocol. And it's remarkable. And I'm just curious, you know, the two of you i know you follow the league are they just gonna keep finding people pulling them out of the hat to throw them out there until they get covet or what's what's gonna happen here i hope they keep doing until i go yeah that'd be dope that's right like how many honestly how what are you 238th in line you how they, you know how they have like for president,

how it goes all the way down to where like, yeah, the chain of command. Like I feel like if an NBA player is the president, like let's say my favorite team is the LA Clippers. So let's say Paul George is the president. I'm probably like the postmaster of a small county in Iowa. Yeah. The intern.

Right. Yeah. So it'll take me a while to get there. But you're in that, you're in the chain of command. Yeah. By the time I get there, let's just say it's going to be bad.

The NBA is going to be bad and people not going to be trying to watch it. Right. I feel like we're entering the replacements territory, which is a movie I haven't seen, but that I'm aware of where they were just like pulling like after the strike. The owners in the NFL were just like pulling people off the off the street to to join and play football. I feel like we're getting there. I mean, there's still like, these are still people who, if I played basketball with them, I would suspect that they were like warlocks or, you know, some manner of like mutant. They're so good at basketball. One of the guys who just got picked up by the Bulls played for Georgetown for a while,

and I was familiar with him, and he was fucking awesome when he played for Georgetown for a while and I was familiar with him and he was fucking awesome like when he played for Georgetown and he's you know four four levels deep but you know we'll see so the NHL canceled games until after Christmas like it does you were speculating it feels like the NBA is pushing through Christmas because they got a yeah I mean that's the bad right that's all those Christmas Day games are the highest profile games, the marquee teams. Now, granted, there may not be any players that anyone recognizes at those games, but it does seem really naked, nakedly transparent to me that the league is trying to just get to Christmas, where the probably smart thing to do would be to take a pause, especially since I'm a little out over my skis here.

But, you know, it does seem like this is moving so fast that there might be a scenario in which, you know, a two, three week pause really actually does sort of do some good because this this is just moving so, so quickly. And the NHL seems to have made that decision. But the league, I think I don't see any other way to view this other than we got to get to these Christmas these to these Christmas games and and you know whatever happens happens i wonder who are they consulting with on this like epidemiologists and stuff like that i think what do you think well here's let me ask you guys your concern are you concerned with the safety of the players or are you concerned with the fact that they're

doing this just to save to to make money. Right. Because here's, if we're speaking honestly, I'm going off of, I'm not, I'm no, I'm no epidemiologist, but I follow my boy,

Scott Gottlieb, like he's a big booty Instagram model. Yeah. And I listen to everything he said. I listen to, he's the guy that I trust the most because everything that he has said, everything he's predicted over the past couple of years has come true every single time. So technically, this strain that we're going through right now, this surge that we're going through is a super, super contagious one. But it's a very mild and toned down.

Right. So mild. Guess what, y'all? I got it right now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was going to ask. i meant to ask at the top anyone have it you have it i do but and and and i had i had delta so that's why i didn't get sick

and also well i got a little i had like a stuffy nose like like eight days ago really and i kept testing i kept testing uh negative constantly testing negative and i took a test like yesterday just before i went to a a clipper game it was a pcr test and i took a rapid the rapid came back negative got the pcr results later it was positive wow yeah so i just want to commend you for saving this information for 13 minutes into the podcast i mean because i'm like i don't want to make anybody panic even though we're all on but we are all in the same room right now we're all coughing each other's mouths we're all uh doing this doing a spaghetti thing yeah lady in the tramp spaghetti three-way lady in the tramping you know a usual uh tuesday morning yeah when one person's talking the other two are doing a lady in the tramp to a spaghetti thing

yeah but you know it's like it's like i mean yeah like and scott galeef said he's like this isn't going to be a a crazy one like it really is going to be more like we're we're getting into that level where it's kind of becoming into the flu you know yeah but if the league articulates that yeah sure but right now and i think everyone is in this sort of situation because you know but where you have these just barely a semblance of protocols built for basically Delta. And now we have this new thing coming along and you're trying to sort of implement any systems that you may have to something that is different, as you're saying.

And, you know, I don't know how I would feel if Adam Silver came out and be like, listen, folks, I'm Adam Silver. I follow Scott Gottlieb as if he were a big booty Instagram model. And he has told me that this is no worse than the flu. And we're just going to let this run through our players and we're just going to get past it. But if the league said that, you know, it's like, at least it's an ethos or something. I don't know. I don't know. But right now it's just like middle ground muddled,

trying to use some protocols on something that's moving so fast. And so I just feel like, especially for a league which has been i think really commendable for how they've responded yeah it's just been weird for them to just it's weird it is weird i would say let it do its thing because i mean when you got played when you got like the chicago bulls who had like nine players that one day first of all my fantasy team is wrecked oh same here unreal i don't even like playing fantasy basketball so much all, my fantasy team is wrecked. Oh, same here. Unreal. I don't even like playing fantasy basketball so much, but my fantasy basketball team is wrecked, and my fantasy football

team is going through a little bit of an issue, too, right now. And I'm like, I'm about to go into playoffs as a one-seater. And the coach has COVID. Come on, man. Come on, man. That's right. Yeah, I mean, I did like Sean Payton. I let my assistant coach take over this yeah

yeah i mean i find out i feel like we're finding out in real time like the severity stuff like that was you know yeah just on this show which does have you know our listenership is so large that it kind of shifts entire populations we We've been like, you know, at first I was just paying attention to the like South African numbers and it did seem to indicate that like it swept through the whole population at like peaked and then came down without a huge spike in hospitalizations. And so for that reason, I was like, you know, being optimistic about like severity. But then you start hearing from people being like, yeah, but COVID is like so unpredictable. And also like it just it totally depends on whether people have been vaccinated or not.

Well, it's that it's that classic thing where if you look at it at an individual level for many people, especially if you've been vaccinated and boosted, it means one thing. But if you look at it as a system-wide level where our healthcare system is already taxed. And so if you look at the denominator of the number of people who are getting what may be a milder version of COVID, even a slightest uptick in hospitalizations puts just an impossible strain on the healthcare system. And, you know, the NBA is connected to the rest of the world. People go to arenas and walk out of those arenas and interact with people who are unvaccinated. And so at some basic level, I think we still have to realize that we are connected and that somewhere in the chain. I got it from Justice Winslow last night. Right. There you go. Exactly. Yeah. You were Justice Winslow last night. Right? There you go. Exactly. Yeah.

You were Justice Winslow. The pictures of you guys doing the Lady and the Tramp thing were... It is adorable. It was cute. Yeah, it was cute. How's Justice Winslow playing, by the way? Not good, Brother Jack. Shit.

He reminds me. Not that I have any experience with this sort of thing as a fan but one of those guys who comes into league and everyone's like amazing athlete like so good at like defense and all these things and he'll figure out how to shoot and sometimes that just doesn't happen so sorry let me ask you one i know we need to move on but one quick question if you are one of these players who gets caught up in the middle two weeks of December 2021, and you play in the league because nine dudes got COVID, 10 years from now, do you get to just tell someone I played in the NBA?

Yeah, that's a great story. All 40 of my kids will know. Yeah. And then they'll say, why? And you just sort of mumble and walk out of the room. Right. Yeah. Keep that jersey. Frame it. and then they'll say why and you just sort of mumble and walk out of the room right yeah yeah keep that jersey frame it put it on the wall yeah all right carl i think we're going to you for overrated what's something you think is overrated overrated let me tell you what is

overrated the virtual check system on your banking app the virtual deposit right now i i know know that everybody, if you only get one check every two weeks, it sounds like I'm flexing, but I'm not. If you only get one check every two weeks, that system might be super convenient for you if the lighting is right and you got it on a specific type of table and you got to do this and you got to do that. See me, I'm an actor and we get a bunch of $38 residual checks, probably like 20. Right, so depositing 20 checks all worth less than 50 bucks is sometimes much less than 50 bucks

sometimes so much less they're worth no bucks but you don't have to deposit those of course but if like that app when it doesn't catch right when when the flash don't flash right, when the number at the bottom ain't numbering, that machine does not work. And it's overrated. What's the smallest residual check you've ever gotten? $0.0. They send you a check. They sent me a check. Worth less than the paper it's printed on.

Worth less than the standard. $0.0. What was that for paper it's printed on. Worth less than the stamp it was sent with. $0.00. What was that for? $0.00. Like no penny? Not even a penny. Not even a penny.

I've gotten checks for two cents. I've gotten checks for five cents, 37 cents. Right. It's opening up residual checks is like, especially when, like, so I get all my mail, like at my mom's mailbox spot, because we just have had the same address forever. I don't live with my mom, mailbox spot because we just have had the same address forever i don't live with my mom ladies but uh we still meet her when we go pick up my checks yeah yeah when we go pick up my big stuff but i won't go over there for like let's say i don't go over there for like a month or two months even sometimes and i'll have like a stack of like 25 envelopes from sag

and it's like it's like playing scratch-off lottery ticket. Because you never know what you're going to open up. You might open up one from a job that you forgot you did. Ooh, I did a two-line bid on Late Night with James Corden four years ago. Here's $98. That's cool. Is that just based on the

chaos of, okay, suddenly this has 5 million views on YouTube? Or is it like they're they're selling the rights to something or you know what uh i got some checks when they when they sold when comedy bang bang sold the rights to hbo max i got a couple really good checks from being on the comedy bang bang show and i was very surprised by that because that job doesn't really pay but do you ever try and like write the story backwards and be like man i'm you know a bunch of people must have watched this random thing for some random reason over the last month?

Or is it usually because of some transaction? Let me check my star meter on IMDb because it must be going up because I'm getting bread. I got $7 from Girl Meets World. I'm breading out here. I'm breading like a chicken strip. But the first time you did that remote check thing did it not feel like magic because I remember being pretty blown away by that I was blown away by it and then I deposited a couple checks and then a couple of them like bounced back to me later because the lighting was off in the end of deposit thing and stuff like that and so that's what's so frustrating is you have to like

check back on it to make sure that they like got it. And sometimes they're just like, oh yeah, that didn't, that didn't take, sorry. Yeah.

Yeah. That's very frustrating. One of the first stories that I ever did at ABC news was being like, guys, these camera phones, having cameras on our phones are going to be, it's going to be a big deal. It's going to change how we live.

So all of this shit feels like magic to me because I'm old as fuck. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back and talk about something that's underrated and get into some news. 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. In a galaxy far, far away.

No, babe, that's taken. We're in our own world, remember? Right, in our own world. We're two space cadets. And totally normal humans. Sure, totally normal humans. Embark on a journey across the stars, discovering the wonders of the universe one episode at a time.

We'll talk about life, love, laughter, and why you should never argue with your co-pilot. Especially when she's always right. Right. And if we hit turbulence, just blame it on Mercury retrograde. Or Emily's questionable space piloting skills. Hey!

Join us on In Our Own World for cosmic conversations, stellar laughs, and super corny dad jokes. Listen to In Our Own World as a part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't worry, we promise to avoid any black holes. Most of the time. How do you feel about biscuits?

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 the prints of a lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch is a leader. You choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I just take all the other stuff out of it. 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. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packers star Kabir Bajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. KGB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player,

devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning. In a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved.

You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked. Voila! You got straight away. I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And what do we think is something that's underrated i don't think we determined who's going to give us the underrated but you got one i'll give you one call yeah crockpots crockpots crockpots you can cook anything crockpots man yeah i mean you can't

like fries that you want fried stuff but any type of soups and dips and things like that you literally you don't have to stir it before you cook it. You just put all the ingredients in there. And then when it's done, you give it a stir and it's ready to go. Okay. So quick rankings here, right? We have crockpots. We have instapots, the pressure cooker thing.

And we have Dutch ovens. Mm-hmm. Where you still, you ride with the crockpot? I'll put the crockpot on top of the instapot and i'll put the dutch oven last although the dutch dutch oven is classic you know and it's also really cool when you do like when you heat it by putting it's a little bit more taxing sometimes with a dutch oven i mean you can't put enough but like i've seen people in my family we used to have a real old cast iron when I was probably from like the 1800s or something that you would have to put like coals around it and coals on top of it.

But you could bake cakes in that thing. Right. It's just a lot more taxing. I think the crock pot is just, first of all, it's very easy to clean. That nonstick bowl that you pull out of there and just rinse off a little bit after you make your rotel. That nonstick bowl that you pull out of there and just rinse off a little bit after you make your Rotel. I'm going to go ahead and say that just the nonstick technology that kitchens are coming with these days, like with the, what's that? The Vitamix blender?

Yeah. Have you guys ever used one of those? That shit just slides off. You just like tip it over and everything slides off. That's how I clean the Vitamix blender. There's like all sorts of pots that have just, they're so much easier to clean. Yeah, we don't want to think too much about the reason they're so non-sticky.

Yeah, I'm assuming it's not giving me cancer. Yeah. That's giving me a little flavor. Yeah. Cans are so good, make you want to slap your mama. Are all the things that you mentioned, crock pots, instant pots, Dutch your mama um are all the things that you mentioned crock pots and pots dutch ovens are they all things that you just plug in and then well the dutch oven you have to apparently be in 18 1800s and put coals around yeah dig a hole in your

backyard get some get some coals that one goes in an actual oven or on a stove top the others yes you just plug in and they won't you know raise the temperature in your house by 15 degrees. And there's something about like the pressure cooker one, whichever the one, whichever is the one that you can like turn into a pressure cooker like that. Yeah, that's the only time I've had like chicken breast that was like tender. I feel like chicken breast usually if you cook it, there's like a one second window of cooking it where it becomes like too overcooked. Don't turn the heat up too high. Yeah, if you leave the chicken

breast in there, let it rock for like three hours, it's nice and tender. Pretty impossible to overcook in that thing. Yeah. And then you can rip that chicken breast up with a fork. Yeah. A little shredded.

Put some ingredients in there to make a nice buffalo chicken dip. Come on. Come on now, y'all. Give it to me, Jeff.

What are you dipping in the buffalo chicken dip? Chips. Chips? Yeah. Chips in the dip. Okay. Chips in a dip.

You're telling me chips in a dip? Come on, man. What are you dipping in a buffalo chicken dip? I actually don't ever make buffalo chicken. Crostini is good in something like that too.

You gotta have to have the good thick chips that really hold together. You dipping your hand in there, Jody? Yeah, just straight up. Straight up. Get your big paw in there. Yeah, that's especially timely right now. People are good with just sticking your fingers

and dips at this holiday more than ever now more than ever i know that's what i'm doing today at all the holiday parties i'm going to so you seals broken for you why not you know shit i was already out what am i gonna do get covered yeah you can't shit does that like fuck up your holidays i should ask no no no here's why i don't think it's fucked up my holidays number one we got a whole week i have a whole week first of all today is literally like the eighth day from since i felt symptoms i guess right if you will right and my symptoms only lasted like three days last week so even though the test was very i mean i was testing all week i was i was doing my due diligence. I'm not out here just take one weak-ass rapid and then getting out on the streets.

I was doing my due diligence. I did my part. I just got got in the end, you know. I played myself. But I'm already on like day eight since the first sign of symptoms. And I have no symptoms right now. Yeah. No, I'm just kidding. But I have no symptoms right now. No, I'm just kidding. But I have no symptoms right

now. I've already gone through the sickness that I did have last week. So I'll be good by Saturday. I'm sure I'll test negative. Yeah. All right. Well, speaking of Omicron, let's just talk real quick. There does seem to be a shift in how the Biden administration is sort of communicating around this wave. And it seems like there's a hint of frustration and just not fucking aroundedness has entered the tone. So on December 17th, there was a White House press briefing from the medical team that's supposed to be leading the executive response to the pandemic. It was pretty strongly and plainly worded to the point that Snopes had to verify that it was real. In their post on this, they had a Twitter post that said, Still struggling to believe this is real, but it is.

White House gov. We're intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You've done the right thing, and we will get through this for the unvaccinated you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm which is you know it just feels like a very kind of us first them yeah Yeah. Like, hey, motherfuckers. Yeah. Anger. I'm all, I mean, I'm all for, I am team vaccination.

Yeah. And team get your booster. But I think that's crazy to say that. Yeah. First off, Jack, can I just say that every day when I go on Twitter, especially in the evenings, there's always one tweet

that makes me like literally log out of Twitter, not just close evenings, there's always one tweet that makes me like literally log out of Twitter, not just close my computer, but like log out of Twitter until the next day when I manually log back in. And this for me was the tweet two days ago. And just the discourse around this tweet that made me so thank you for dragging me back into this headspace, because it was just such an unproductive, both screenshot and conversation that broke out around it. Right. You know, I have some thoughts about the tough, the tough language here. I think it is worth pointing out that like this was in a briefing, this was spoken on like a call and it was

immediately followed, you know, this language of for the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals that you may soon overwhelm, which I think is basically a factual statement. But it is immediately followed by in this briefing by saying our message to every American is clear. There is action that you can take. You can wear a mask. You can get vaccinated. You can get your kids vaccinated. You can get a booster shot. We are prepared to confront this. We have plenty of vaccinations, booster shots, you know. So to me, I mean, at some level, this is like classic Twitter, like literally take a screenshot out of context, post it online.

And funnily enough, I think was like picked up by both left and right to get upset with this this this sort of language. I mean, I saw it in like lefty circles as people being like the Biden administration has given up on trying to take it you know do lockdowns or sort of take measures that we know can work and then on the right it's like biden people are telling you know red state unvaccinated folks that they right should die which i think is just a really bad faith way of interpreting this language i mean it is not saying we want you to die it is saying actions, your individual actions have ripple effects and

you have an out and you have a choice here, which I think is true. It is still striking language. It's definitely, yeah, it's notable for like the change of sort of tone. There's a guy on CNN yesterday, like one of the hosts that I criticized for, you know, he had a medical expert on who was like talking about the dangers and like, you know, passing it to the unvaccinated. And he was like, well, the unvaccinated, that's their fault. Like, well, let's move on to the vaccinated. And I feel like, you know, I think this is a probably a smart way for the people who are in charge of policy to be communicating, like you said, at like, in in in the context of so go out and get the vaccine like we have the vaccine that's the difference between this and when the outbreak

was happening to spring or last spring but i i do i i get where some people are coming from the the lockdown thing is nonsense because that's just that ship has sailed. We're never going to get people to buy into a lockdown like a lockdown is something that has to be everybody has to buy into. You know, it's not like people are going to voluntarily just not go to work or go to the grocery store. That was already now. Yeah. People are just done with that shit. So, Carl, I'm curious or both of you, I'm curious, you know, what you think about to some extent in reading this language. I mean, there's clearly exasperation, I think, on the part of the Biden White House and just in general. Sort of. Yes, I think there's an attempt to have tough love here.

You know, to me, part of it is just trying to get at what I think is a persistent gap in a real understanding of what's at stake here. And I think like even for a lot of America still, there is not a real deep understanding of like what the severity of COVID is. You know, we don't see really like the inside of hospitals. We don't really have a sense. I mean, I feel like I live in New York. I feel like so much of my experience of COVID and so much of why New York has high vaccination rates

is because we saw the freezer trucks outside of fucking funeral homes like i i heard sirens non-stop for three weeks because i live near a hospital and i do think like for a lot of america they just don't feel it that's not an excuse for not getting vaccinated because you should think outside yourself and so this this language starts to make me feel make me sense a little bit it's like trying to grab people by the collar and be like this is real like like close that gap like understand what's at stake here. And I'm just curious if you think that's effective or if there's other ways to get people to really just

see, see this for what it is. I personally think it's ineffective. And here's, I'll tell you why, because I have some close family members that I've talked to in the past who aren't vaccinated and refuse to be. And, and I asked why. And a lot of the reasoning was because I don't like being told what to do and told that I'm stupid and told that I'm killing people and told, and it's when it's not true, I haven't gotten any. And their, their arguments were, you know, individualistic. They weren't like thinking about the group they were thinking about, well, Hey, I don't know nobody that got it. Or I,

the person that got it in my family was old and they, I didn't give it to them. I did my due diligence i stayed safe and i wear my mask and i i just don't want to get that you know and so i think with the world that we live in now where where you know especially like a place like twitter is so like everything gets attacked you can say anything on twitter and it gets attacked you know and so everybody is on the defense nowadays so i think language like this when you when somebody's being told something like this especially they're already on the fence like people are growing highly frustrated with the biden administration so they don't want to hear him talking about and go get vaccinated go put this thing in your body that honestly people

i think a lot of people don't even have the capacity really to go and research heavily enough to know if it's safe or not and so they're just leaning to i don't know if that shit is and why do they keep telling me to do it there's this doctor who like did this long like twitter thread of like 22 tweets where he was just like this is how i approach it with people who are anti-vax and there's just and again this is like i understand where they're coming from especially because these are like medical experts who have seen the inside of hospitals you know the seen doctors killing themselves because like how awful this shit has gotten you know it's it's bad for doctors bad in

hospitals it's bad at the peak of these things the doctor who I'm talking about has this like very patient, like he treats people's doubts like they're valid, I feel like. And that's, and he's just like very patiently, like your questions aren't dumb. Like your questions are understandable. Let, let me answer them one by one. And I don't know, like it does, it does feel like there's. Yeah, it's not a productive kind of approach if you take into account like where we're at. Granted, I understand the frustration like that. I'm finding myself more and more just being like, like, I totally see where everyone's coming from. It's it's fucking awful. Like we're we're in a really bad. Yeah. I mean, the whole, you you know the horse is out of the barn i mean it's not like the problems to this were

seeded way back when donald trump was president and was mismanaged and sort of put an air of disinformation out there and so just there was there's just no base level of trust i mean you know my wife teaches in in a public school in in New York and a number of her students are unvaccinated and have a lot of the same sort of doubts and misinformation and disinformation and all these things. And, you know, A, I think she's absolutely borne out that you just have to meet someone where they are and talk to them. That's really hard to do when you're talking about hundreds of millions of people, you know. Sure. people, you know? But also, I think at the end of the day, for a lot of people, it does come down to some of these, you know, trade-offs between just, can I live my life in a quote-unquote more normal way, or do I have to get a vaccine? You know, a lot of people I know who were hesitant

when it then says, okay, well, you know what? Like, if you're unvaccinated, you don't get to do these things. Or if you're unvaccinated, you have to quarantine when you hung out with someone who was vaccinated versus if you were vaccinated or who had COVID, whereas if you're unvaccinated, you have to quarantine when you hung out with someone who was vaccinated versus if you were vaccinated or who had COVID. Whereas if you were vaccinated, you get to go on and live your life. Then all of a sudden people are like, oh, can I go get the vaccine now? It's like, well, it's a little late, but sure. And you see just sort of that raw calculus get made. But of course, once you start to do that, you dip into this whole other tricky territory of mandates and lockdowns and impositions, which has gotten politicized as well. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is kind of stupid, but I

like what one of the very first things that you read when the pandemic was happening was that the president is generally supposed to step back, let a like leader or like some like doctor or health expert kind of become the face of the thing and just kind of keep hitting the same simple communications and like i was hoping that the biden administration would like kind of create a new fauci or someone that like people that would that would be the person to like answer, answer those questions. Like, have a fucking dialogue with an anti-vaxxer instead of, like, this statement. Like, have a dialogue in front of, like, you know, the press corps where it's, like, a very understanding patient doctor who can become the face of, like, the messaging around this. Or Olivia Rodrigo, you know, that they tried with her. Or Olivia Rodrigo, you know, that they tried with her.

But, you know, like find somebody who appeals to both sides and have them just hit the same message over and over again. But hopefully not in a way that like is kind of accusatory or kind of alienating to one half the population. That's my pitch. Al Michaels. I don't know. Yeah. Who is that person? And also. Al Michaels could do it. Yeah.. Al Michaels? I don't know. Yeah, who is that person? And also... Al Michaels could do it.

Yeah. Maybe Al Michaels. But also, as soon as that person... Is it like one of these things where as soon as that person steps into this, then they will become politicized? I mean, that's the sort of story of our era right now is that you can take anything and it can turn into a political wedge issue. I mean, look, y'all saw the video last night of Bill O'Reilly and Donald Trump saying they

were both boosted. And they got booed. From like Donaldald trump people who get trump tattooed on them were mad at him because he got a booster shot right yeah and trump was actually making i think if he had made this argument and then shut up you know 12 months ago 15 months ago uh maybe it would have made a difference but you know he was basically saying like this was a win for me we should own this don. Don't cede this ground. It's like, it's not just, hey, let's get over our culture war or our politics war. It's actually, hey,

this is something we could have used to win our culture war and politics war is that this vaccine was developed under my watch. And I do think he's just, I just don't think he's smart enough or disciplined enough to have actually take a W when he has it. But he could have said, called it the Trump vaccine and just written that. And I think it would have made a difference and i think it would have really and then we wouldn't have gotten him yeah exactly well that's the whole other thing i mean yeah i think any version of that would have come down to him naming it after him and like turning himself into like god emperor and like the messaging around it like that he's just incapable of anything that consistently goes off the message of him being like somehow the the center of the universe if you want to get the madonna it's the the madonna the trump vaccine if you want to get

pfizer's is obama vaccine and nobody's gonna like it and nobody wants it and nobody wants it around this is such a this is such a good idea, Carl. It's like when coffee shops put out two tip jars and you vote, right? And it's like, all of a sudden it turns it into a game. It's like, but you're actually just still tipping us either way. If they had turned one of these vaccines is for blue, one of these vaccines is for red, everyone gets vaccinated. I'm getting that motherfucking Obama vaccine.

Yeah, that's actually a reason. Smart people are like, I want to know what's in the Trump vaccine. What they getting? I don't like him, but I'm getting that one. Right. Yeah.

Or like, if they started charging money for it, if they were like, all right, we have a new vaccine that costs $300. I feel like people would trust that more than one where you go to a parking lot and the government gives it away to you for free. I mean, but Jesus, that that line of thinking, oh, it was done too fast and effectively and it's free.

So I don't trust it. Like, yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back 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. Hello, everyone. I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm Amber Ruffin, a better Lacey Lamar. Boo. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share.

We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. You thought you had fun last season. Well, you were right. And you should tune in today for new fun segments like Sister Court and listening to Lacey's steamy DMs. We've got new and exciting guests like Michael Beach. That's my husband.

Daphne Spring. Daniel Thrasher. Peppermint. Morgan J. And more. You got to watch us. No, you mean you have to listen to us. I mean, you can still watch us, but you got to listen. Like if you're watching us, you have to tell us, like if you're out the window, you have to say, Hey, I'm watching you outside of the window. Just, just, you know what? Listen to the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber

show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, 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. 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. 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. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado,

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It's a dance. It's tradition. It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar.

Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. And we're back. And all right. So ESPN had a big article that declared 2021 Jake Paul's year. Whether you like it or not, 2021 was Jake Paul's year. And he earned it or some shit like that.

I don't know. I hate that ESPN is turning into clickbait bullshit. Yeah. Just like take machines where they, I don't know. It sucks so much. Like, I love sports. And sports media back in the day with the Stuart Scots and people like those lady with the glasses, the blonde lady. Not Doris Burke, but like the lady who worked on Linda. Yeah.

Yeah. Like back in those days, like, man, it was like it's just like how regular media is now. Like it's so leaning in certain ways and it's hot take culture. And like, if you follow sports center on, on Twitter or on Instagram or whatever, like it's always some, like everything that happened in 2021 sports wise, and you're going to give it to Jake Paul who rigged a bunch of fights.

Right. Are you kidding? But that's because, I mean, look, I'm as a former ESPN employee here, I'm not going to, I'm not going to keep for ESPN,

but it's the case that, you know, the, the, the ESPN that you're talking about here is one in which they could fill a one hour show with 80 percent of it could just be playing highlights that no one had seen before. And now everyone has seen every highlight already. So you've got to find something else to talk about. I mean, that's the basic change. And so they're scrambling to create storylines and find other things, other takes. And so you end up, yeah, you end up with the Jake Paul stuff. Giannis brought a championship to Milwaukee. Yeah.

I don't give a shit about that, Carl. Whether you like it or not, this was Jake Paul's year. Okay. So what's the rationale for making it Jake Paul's year? That he dedicated himself to boxing. He became a legit boxer. And I mean, that's, yeah, I don't't see yeah i don't see how that rates i mean maybe with the fame aspect of like how you know media covers pop culture where it's like well if people

are paying attention to this it must be valid like he hacked that assumption and is just like rising and rising but like the the thing he's doing in boxing he's fighting smaller people like there's a reason that there's weight classes in in boxing and there's also you know i think there's a obvious racial undertone that espn doesn't like mention in this yeah like where he's fighting you know black men and you know the like doesn't mention it, but does mention it kind of. And then they like throw in the detail that he's not fighting boxers, like it makes what he's doing more exciting

instead of like a fucking roadshow. They're like, all right, let me just read from the article. This has been a year of silencing naysayers for Paul, who is still only 24 years old. Many still exist. And Paul has still yet to fight anyone with real pro boxing experience. But Paul's massive right hand

with an exclamation point on a remarkable, or put an exclamation point on a remarkable stretch. Over the past 12 months, he's won three times with two knockouts and perhaps most importantly, emerged as one of the most bankable pay-per-view stars in combat sports. Yeah. Is there any evidence that this is actually increasing interest in

boxing because i feel like i don't haven't followed boxing throughout my my life very much but i feel like the story of boxing in since the 70s or 80s has been basically since mike tyson has been this notion of oh so and so is going to bring boxing back and the interest is going to grow and it just never happens it seems to be fleeting interest in one particular person because they're you know they have an interesting storyline and then it doesn't ripple out from there is jake box is jake paul leading to a resurgence in interest in boxing not for me i'm not gonna pay no damn 60 to watch that because i knew what was gonna happen i knew exactly what was gonna happen and i'm trying to watch him not fight people who are actually fighters right i i'd love for deontay

wilder to get his to get his get back with jake paul like because he's been you know he's been getting beat by tyson fury i will say this has been the year of uh white men beating black dudes in fights right and we taking l's this year between marquise morris and yokich jack paul winning tyson fear beating up on deontay wilder i think we need did yokich win that fight or was that just like yeah i think he won it in the in the court of public opinion in the narrative absolutely in the narrative he won it because people wanted him to because and you know i and and and jody you might i don't know how you feel about this i don't how do you feel about pat beverly jody i think i like him i was you know no are you listening to my podcast no oh you are you are you a beverly fan i'm a huge beverly fan

yeah yeah but i but i also came for players like Beverly where I'm like, when Beverly pushed Chris Paul in the back, ugly move. Ugly move. But he just pushed him with two of his hands. Right. What Jokic did to a much smaller human being was egregious. And it's overstepped. But everybody praised him.

Like he had just taken down. It was like, it reminded me of the oj verdict you think that you're the only person to draw this connection ever maybe so i think i draw the oj verdict connects to everything that's true people don't want to get this vaccine it's reminding me of the old jay the the yokish thing was so interesting because it was like so violent on his part and then yeah again again it's underestimating the importance of a size difference in when it comes to like an act of violence they were calling for pat beverly's head when six foot one pat beverly

pushed six feet tall chris paul like in the back they were saying he could have broke his neck he could have killed him pat beverly needs to be kicked out of the league this is disgusting and i'm like calm down and then when yokish did that which is like he tackled like he blindside tackled him like but people understood it in the context for what it was they know that morris has been kind of asking for this for a long time so to speak and you don't agree with that but i'm just saying in terms of how the narrative plays i mean i just think the nba is small enough and everyone knows sort of the narratives and the personalities and the beefs and how they've built up over the years that people tend to like take that into account when there's incidents like this. I mean, that's, you know, that's the sort of story.

It's this sort of soap opera that everyone kind of understands all the little things that go into a particular moment. I also think that I think it's a likability thing, too. I think players that people like are going to get get off scot-free when they do asshole shit and players nobody likes pat beverly i'm the only pat beverly fan me and his family and and the fact that the yokich brothers had their little moment in the sun was the best part really that they should be the honestly they should be the the athletes of the year 20 you want to talk and you i see and that's why why Jake Paul won it, because it takes like that. Yeah. So basically, I mean, this is he started as a sort of YouTube sideshow, got people's attention. And then because he has so much attention now, ESPN feels like they have to take him seriously.

And they're doing it in a way that like is kind of approving, which I think is just generally I don't like it. Yes, he seems to see the matrix in terms of like what works to build fame and success in America. So did Donald Trump. We don't have to act like that's like a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I find it very frustrating. I don't know. I find it very frustrating. But is part of the storyline also that he does seem to have put in some real work and does seem to have some capacity for boxing, right? I mean, maybe he hasn't proven it against real boxers, but I think he maybe set the bar, set expectations so low in terms of, is this a serious person who can dedicate himself to something real that he seems to have cleared it just by becoming a content sponsor. Cleared a very low bar.

Yeah. And clearing a very low bar got him It's the American way. named the person of the year by ESPN instead of Giannis, who went from selling socks on a boardwalk to being the NBA champion. Giannis ain't never dipped Oreos in milk.

Come on, man. Incredible story. That shit was so amazing. Incredible story, man. I'm flagrant ones. They were talking about how he, like, wasn't it a young kid? Yes. He was like teaching.

Some kid told him about it. And he was like, oh my God. And then the best part of his quote was he's like walking around to people and be like, why didn't no one tell me about this before? What's up? Like, what the hell? I've been eating Oreos dry the whole life. No one ever told me.

Yeah. Yeah. The honest, like we need to hold tight to the things we can feel genuinely good about in 2021. And I feel like Giannis is, and that Bucks win. I mean, I don't know. Don't spoil it for me, but I felt, I just felt unabashedly good about all that,

and I'm not a Bucs fan. Now let me tell you something. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. No, I really felt great about it, too, for a couple reasons. One, the Suns and their fans turned extremely villainous

over the course of the playoffs from their stupid-ass fight in Denver. The Suns and Ford guy, I never liked him. I never liked the praise that he got. I think it's just like how the Jokic brother the course of the playoffs from their from their stupid ass fight in denver the sons of four guy i never liked him never liked the praise that he got i think it's just like how the yokich brother gets pray for some reason on the internet people on the internet people love to call out assholes but also praise assholes i don't get it i don't get it man these assholes are our heroes but then let another person be an asshole and they're like nah you gotta go like wait a second like so but i i really wanted that that bucks team everybody on that team it felt like it was such a second chance team

like bobby port is showing out the way he did like it was it was so feel good and fun and everybody on the team is cool you love pj tucker he's a second chance guy he's got great shoe collection and just overall cool dude like it was it was that was such a fun win and it was dope to see like chris paul not get a ring and uh and i love chris paul yeah i did love him that's a scorned that i'm a scorned lover of chris paul yeah but then once he flopped when pat beverly pushed him like that you were i was done i was done i was like you're about to ruin like, you're about to ruin Pat Beverly's career. Nice try, asshole.

You're about to ruin Pat Beverly's career for this. Yeah. But I was very happy for that Bucks win, so you can revel in that. We can all revel in the Bucks win. That should have been the sports moment of the year. Fucking Jake Paul. Yeah. All right.

Do you guys want to talk about Masterclass? I do. Okay. I know we spent a lot of time on sports and basketball. I do. I know we spend a lot of time on sports and basketball. So $2.75 billion is the valuation of this product that presents itself as an online learning platform in which you pay a subscription fee in order to access tutorials from Martin Scorsese, Gordon Ramsay. So you got Martin Scorsese teaches filmmaking Gordon Ramsay teaches cooking or Bill Nye

teaches science I like that one Bill Nye teaches science Bill Bill Bill Bill

he has a TV show that does that right yeah that doesn't cost you $180 a year to watch but it's just name

teaches and then whatever the simplest noun that describes their profession is and Bill Nye is the science guy But it's just name, teaches, and then whatever the simplest noun that describes their profession is. And Bill Nye is the science guy, so it's just going to be teaches science. Carl Tarr teaches how to do a daily podcast. Yeah. There you go.

On one minute notice. How to replace the long-running host of a beloved daily podcast. Yeah, that's what I take him down. It's funny, though, because, like, some of the stuff is who was it's like a successful author who was teaching like how to how to write and like be a successful author. But it was it was David Sedaris. But like the stuff was about like how to deal with a publisher and stuff like that. It's like, well, that's kind of jumping five steps forward. Well, to negotiate with your publisher. Jumping five steps forward. How to negotiate with your publisher.

Can I just say one thing to sort of take half a step back here, which is I have a text message thread with my friend Ian in which we basically write all of the things that we're unwilling to put on Twitter or say out loud in company. And just sort of like it's our safe space to test out takes and so forth and i i swear to god a week ago i wrote him a note saying i don't know why but master class seems like really scammy to me and i want there to be just a big takedown of it for some reason it just gives me those deep deep theranos vibes um yeah and you know and to be fair like we'll we'll work through we'll work through this conversation a lot of the research you've done maybe has has changed my thinking a little bit but you know, and to be fair, like we'll work through this conversation. A lot of the research you've done maybe has changed my thinking a little bit. But, you know, I feel like a big part of my last especially five years or so has been like if you smell a scam, it's probably a scam. And like the people who seem dicey to you are probably sketchy and trust that. And Masterclass just gives me all of those vibes.

So that's my starting point for this conversation. Yeah. No, I think that's my starting point and ending point. It's just, it's, the business model is pretty clear. They dominate YouTube pre-roll advertising, like basically on any video where you're trying to learn how to do something for free. And, you know, they use the celebrity name to kind of draw you in. For free. And, you know, they use the celebrity name to kind of draw you in.

But, you know, it doesn't seem like the celebrity teachers actually teach you as much as they like talk about themselves on camera while seated in a comfortable room for a few hours. It's like that $500,000 or dinner with Jay-Z conversation. Right. You can buy a lot of Jay-Z albums albums same thing he's gonna tell you you go like i'd take the 500 000 right yeah buy buy decoded buy a couple of his albums and uh you're good yeah i do wonder if people who take a master class really feel like they're trying they want to learn or if it's really like this is a ted talk with a slightly different angle to it, you know, but at the end of the day, it's just spending some time with an interesting person and hearing someone

who you, who like, who you like talk for a while. I'd be curious to see what the exit surveys are like, but yes, I mean, to be clear, like to your point,

like they do all seem to contain mostly just someone talking through their biography and telling compelling stories and it's, you know, the high production value, but it's got this, it's. And it's, you know, the high production value, but it's got this, it's got this good hook, you know? Yeah.

It seems like that's it. A hook that doesn't really have a ton to do with what the, the product actually does, which I think is usually a sign that like something might be off. Like they have Chris Hadfield, who's an astronaut and he's going to like teach you how to be an astronaut, I guess. Come on, man. Yeah, that's definitely scammy. Masterclass

reminds me of the OJ tribe. Uh-huh. Thank you. I'm kidding. So it's $180 for an annual subscription fee. You get access to the library of content. If Masterclass was basically saying to you, you get to watch interesting talks by some of the most interesting people in the world for $180 a year.

I don't, that doesn't give off full scam vibes to me. But something about the like class thing, the teaching you thing, the like, you know, prosperity gospel thing that sort of wrapped around all of this is where it starts to. But they also seem to have a lot of subscribers. They are, as you said, valued at a ridiculous number. So who am I to criticize? Yeah. Listen here, fellas. And I'm saying this to everybody who's listening and to y'all.

You want some prosperity teaching? You want some uplifting? You want some healing? Go watch TD Jake's videos on youtube for free td jake yeah hey i'm not i'm i'm only kind of joking i think if you're ever feeling down everybody everybody feels down sometime you ever feeling down go check out td jakes do it yeah i mean there's more, much better shit available. Just like find somebody who's good at curating YouTube videos like Carl Tartt.

Oh, man. I'm a YouTube king. People are also pointing out that Masterclass has a diversity problem. Three quarters of the instructors are men. 80% are white. So it's like a very specific point of view. And then, you know, they had to pull Kevin Spacey's class was like one of the most popular for a while. They had to pull that.

And in 2022, they'll be adding new instructors like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. So not problematic at all. I can't wait. I can't wait to see what those two got to say. I hope they do it together. I can't wait to see what those two got to say. I hope they do it together. All right. Well, guys, thank you so much for both joining on this last full episode of 2021. Jody, where can people find you and follow you? People can listen to the main thing I do is this Radiotopia show.

It's called This Day in Esoteric Political History. We a couple times a week, a couple times a week, a few times a week, talk about an interesting moment from that day in political history and try and put it in context and learn some lessons for now so people can find that wherever.

And then I'm on Twitter. Even though I log out every single day, I do tend to log back in at Jody Avergan and people can find my work there. You ever delete the app? Like just press it? Oh, I've deleted the app. I there. You ever delete the app? Like just press. Oh, I've deleted the app.

I'm just logging in on the browser now. Got it. Yeah. It's a whole thing. I do that with fantasy quite a bit. Like when things aren't going well, just delete. Delete the entire app and then add it back like 15 minutes later when I want to catch the score. Is there a tweet or some other work of social media you've been enjoying?

You know, I will say, as serious as I'm taking COVID, and as these jokes, there was a round of jokes when it first came. I still get a kick out of every Omarian joke that gets posted on Twitter. And there was a video from one of his music videos that shows him dancing and then passing the dance along to the other dancers. it was like this is how this is how the omicron is spreading how the virus is spreading and i i do continue to get a kick out of all those jokes yeah yeah carl tart thank you for joining as well thank you for having me where can people find you follow you uh watch you on national television you can watch me on on uh tuesday nights at 8 p.m

on nbc the show is called grand crew it's also on hulu and peacock if you want to watch it there if you don't if you don't if you aren't sitting at home on tuesday nights at eight o'clock you can watch it there and uh i'm on instagram at damn it carl i deleted my twitter uh early early in the pandemic yeah man i had to get rid of it before it was cool. Yeah, it was just it was just doing it was doing too much on there. Like, I think I think that that app is a breeding ground of nonsense. Is there a tweet or some other work of social media you've been enjoying? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. There's one that says I saw this one. If Jake Paul says, nigga, who gonna stop him? There you go. I mean, it would probably be good for his career. That was a tweet that I saw. Yeah. Oh, so you still see tweets.

Also, here's another tweet for you in case you want to cut that one out. My classmate was damn near in tears ranting about how much Kurt Cobain's meant to him and how he wanted to include that in his documentary. And I was like, damn, drinking my cup really changing lives out here. But he was talking about Kurt Cobain. Very funny. Yeah. Tweet I've been enjoying, Trash Jones tweeted, well, well, well, if it isn't my absolute breaking point.

And I thought that was a good summary of how people are feeling. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at The Daily Zeitgeist 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 a song that we think you might enjoy. Today I am going to link you to Vasht and Bunyan's Train Song, which is just this haunting single from 1966. She was Columbia's next big folk singer-artist, dropped her debut album, and it sold so few records that she immediately quit music. And then like it got a cult following.

She made like a little mini Sugarman-like resurgence in 2000, releasing new songs and albums. But it's the, I only know it because it's the theme to season one of that Amazon Prime show Patriot, which, you know, just in general, we talk in our year-end episodes about just all the weird-ass ways we discover music now. You know, For the Night was one of my favorite songs this year. I first heard it when Giannis was singing it during the championship celebration to his brother. Anyways, that's a good song, though. It's a classic. Everything you need to know about how Jack is ending the year is that he's recommending Train Song as the last thing going into a new year.

Exactly. Just anytime you want to picture me, just play that song. Picture me staring off into the middle distance. All right. The Daily Zeitgeist, the production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That is going to do it for us on this Wednesday morning.

We're back this afternoon to tell you what's trending. And then we will be gone for a little while, but we've got a bunch of year-end episodes. We'll tell you more about those later this afternoon. All right. That's going to do it. Bye. I'm Kerry Champion, and this is Season 4 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine 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 Costavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.