The Daily Zeitgeist - California Heading For Disaster? Literary Genius Meghan McCain 05.18.22

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

In episode 1250, Jack and Miles are joined by writer, film producer, and comedian Dani Faith Leonard to discuss… The Biggest Water Disaster In US History Coming To California And We Aren’t Ready, Critical Race Theory ESPECIALLY bad when taught to…Black kids?, The Sad State of Meghan McCain’s Literary Career and more! The Biggest Water Disaster In US History Coming To California And We Aren’t Ready Critical Race Theory ESPECIALLY bad when taught to…Black kids? The Sad State of Meghan McCain’s Literary Career Meghan McCain's New Book: "My Dad, John McCain" Meghan McCain’s Book Sold to Hyperion For High Six Figures LISTEN: Satin Curtains by Molly LewisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti and I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson. 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 237, Episode 3 of Dirt Daily Zeitgeist, a production of iHeartRadio.

This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness, and it is Wednesday, May 18th, 2022, which of course means National No Dirty Dishes Day. None. Exactly. Throw your dishes out it's also national hiv vaccine awareness day and it's also national visit your relatives day come on sponsored by check in moms everywhere go visit your relatives yeah hiv vaccination day is so are we close on that? The HIV vaccine? Do we, just to throw a conversation that requires loads of research that we didn't discuss beforehand.

I mean, I know that obviously the treatments are pretty, have improved vastly since, you know, the 80s. But yes, this is meant to bring awareness bring awareness around you know looking for a safe and accessible vaccine yeah yeah we need it yeah all right well my name is jack o'brien aka this country makes me lose my mind and now my baby is hungry and only cries well there's something you can do And only cries. Well, there's something you can do. You just give your baby Mountain Dew. That is courtesy of Christy Yamaguchi-Maine.

Hit it with the, you know, one of the many memes that suggests Baja Blast flavored. Or just Baja Blast as an alternative. There was the Baja Blast baby food. Right. I don't get it. I don't get what people think is funny about this. The kids love Baja Blast. It's one of our national treasures. Gives them an extra little

pep in their step. And then just a horrifying crash afterwards. What's the secret to all those gold medal counts at the Olympics? The kids are hitting that do early. Well, I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host mr miles gray okay okay hold on hold on susan collins i'm headed to your sidewalk and i hope you're ready yeah i'm going down to susan's with some chalk son this senator ain't seen a brown-skinned man since her grandparents bought one. Okay. Look, I just, that came to me in the shower.

I was like, shotgun, chalk, son. Yeah, okay, I'm headed down to Susan's with some chalk, son. And saying, hey, Susie, please, you know, maybe vote to codify Roe. But hey, you know, it's on your turn. That's terrorism. Yeah, exactly. Writing that shit with chalk.

Luckily, the police said, did not seem like an overt threat please and thank you it's not enough to just say please if you don't say please and thank you then it's a threat the the police will be called well miles that was wonderful i i anytime there's a backing track it feels like a a wrestling entrance song like oh sure sure like oh my god and i'm like oh what's happening what's happening here he's coming down from the rafters yeah yeah well we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a very talented writer comedian and film producer co-founder of the inclusion focused film and media incubator big vision empty wallet it's danny faith lennon wallet it's danny faith leonard hello i wish i had a a really cool prepared intro okay i mean look i would say next time what's your favorite karaoke song and then try and find a spin on those

lyrics that make it about you i feel like that's always the easiest way for somebody to improv a song but no pressure you don't have to do it right now yeah all. For next time. Just one, two, three. I'll spare you. I also, I need a new, I need a new karaoke song. Uh-oh. But my former business partner walked down the aisle at her wedding to Careless Whisper and I just thought that that was brilliant. Wow. That's a meme right there. Wait, but what, do you have a favorite karaoke song?

I'm not going to make the same, but just in general, just always nice to know where people are at with their karaoke picks i tend to go 90s songs that a crowd would like to sing really well it's like not that they're necessarily my favorite songs and then when i get really drunk i always seem to request the theme from full house yeah people love it i mean that's another 90s banger that the crowd is gonna appreciate it yeah but it has this verse it has this verse in the middle that we don't know right kind of like the the theme from fresh prince has the same thing it has a verse that wasn't in the oh really it wasn't yeah that wasn't in the the tv version of it is it about the uh about the cab ride that's stinky?

What happens in the middle verse of the Fresh Prince one? Oh, I don't remember. But yeah, it definitely prolongs his trip. Yeah. There's a transphobic verse in Cheers, I think, in the Cheers theme song. Absolutely. Yeah, those hidden verses where they're like, maybe, maybe not. Maybe here.

And they're like, let's just focus on the fact that he came to Bel-Air. Mm-hmm. And the other thing seems a little problematic. I don't know why that's necessary. Just say that the cab smelled weird. Yeah. There's a whole verse on it. Is it, go home, smell you later, or yo, homes, smell you later?

Yo, homes. I think it's yo, homes, smell you later. All right. Yeah. or Yo Holmes Smell You Later? Yo Holmes. I think it's Yo Holmes Smell You Later. All right. Yeah.

I think my friend's dad thought it was Go Holmes Smell You Later, and he loved to make fun of him for that. And I was like, I mean, it kind of works. It's not that bad. He is saying bye. I mean, whatever happened to predictability? Thank you.

The milkman, the paperboy, the weenie. That sounds a little conservative and regressive. Right? thank you the milkman the paperboy the ween that that that sounds a little conservative and regressive right whatever happened to

the ability the weak man the paperboy no contraception you're like wait what the fuck what are these lyrics

how did I get delivered here yeah wow what a song what a song what a song I like your altruism though as a karaoke selector, where you're like, let me get a torch song going to turn up the crowd.

And then if there's a little treat for me, it's going to be, what's the full name? Everywhere You Look, the Full House. Yes. I think that's how that ends. Anyways. Danny, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell our listeners a couple of the things we're talking about. There's a big water disaster looming over California.

And yeah, I don't know. I was reading about it and I was like, oh, you need like hundreds of different politicians to agree on this. you need like hundreds of different politicians to agree on this. I don't know. It was just one of those stories that felt like it hit a little different now than it would have even a few years ago. It feels like with a lot of politicians being fully unmoored from reality. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about the mom who went on the Jesse Waters show. Is that his name? Jesse Waters. Yeah, on Fox and talked about the evils of critical race theory when it comes to her biracial 14-year-old son. We're going to talk about Meghan McCain, my favorite author. All of that, plenty more. But first, Danny, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history?

Well, you are in luck because i was doing a lot of research for different projects this week i feel like going into any writer or creator or comedian search history is just dangerous and um i i've been doing research for a project i don't want to say that much about because it's in the very beginning stages and it's something I'm writing with two other people. But I was looking up Nazis on Long Island. I grew up on Long Island. There's a town that I've been obsessed with for a while or obsessed with learning more about. I'm not actually obsessed with this place. But it's called Yapank.

And until 2017, the town was basically run by Nazis. And in 2017. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Five years ago. And in 2017, there was a federal lawsuit where they finally weren't allowed to only sell homes to German Americans anymore. But in the 1930s, there was a summer camp there where they had a special train that ran straight from Penn Station to the summer camp every weekend. And it was a training ground

for Hitler youth. And it was called Camp Siegfried. And it's this crazy place that no one seems to know exists except for the people who were there. Definitely know it exists. And, you know, I was reading all of these articles. And of course, when they interviewed people in the town, they were like, well, there's nothing to see here but but it's super fascinating that's just adolf hitler street it was adolf hitler street yeah i just saw an article with that i'm like what wait for real yes the main street was called adolf hitler street there was gerbil street there was garing street not until 2017 i think they changed that earlier. Yeah, yeah, right. They're like, okay. Holy shit.

And the script is so aggressively Third Reich on these street signs. You're like, wow. And it's like a log cabin behind it on Adolf Hitler Street. I actually don't know. I can't visually place just based on you saying that the Third Reich font. Let me look it up now. Here, let me just put the link into the chat helvetica is it helvetica it's just that very like stylized like scripted handwriting like highly serifed

oh yeah yeah there it is you know like when you see stuff written in that like for me as a person of color i'm like maybe not this place they're like not just germany old germany yeah yeah yeah mother motherland germany so yeah yeah it's it it also you you will find that script at like epcot germany right right yeah yeah okay it's bavarian script probably that's what it's called like in microsoft word whatever. How did you first hear about Yap Hank, like growing up in Long Island? I definitely didn't hear about it growing up. Oh, wow. Oh, so it's like it's that much of a thing where it's like you only heard tell maybe later in life.

Like it was very. Yeah. A few years ago when I was doing research for something else, I found it. something else i found it but i i'm surprised i didn't find out about it growing up because we used to find out about all of these weird places and go to drive to them and and look around because there's like what else is there to do yeah and uh when i lived in kentucky there was a place called hell house and it was just a house that was supposedly like people had been possessed by the devil there and we would like go drive by it. And I would get scared.

And I was driving. I was of driving age. And I was like, ooh, I would drive a little faster by it. Oh, shit. Do you ever go to Gravity Hill? I don't know what that is. Oh, man. You don't know about Gravity Hill?

The magnetic hill? I mean, that sounds like some shit I would still go to. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. The vortex here is crazy man it makes it sort of like this like it's an optical illusion where it looks like this downhill slope is actually slightly uphill so when you put it in neutral you're like we're going up and you're like it's an optical illusion asshole but i'm putting this on my list

of things to do in la oh yeah gravity hill you know shout out to somar just shout out to the deeper parts of the valley so how like this is one of those things that i don't know i i assumed like coming out of school that i knew most of the cool stuff like not not that this is cool but it definitely makes the world like, oh, damn, there are, like, still Nazis out there. Like, how is this not a movie? How is this not, like, a cover story of every, like, do you have any sense of, like, why this wasn't covered more? I think there, I know that in New York anyway, I think people kind of like to pretend that New York's always been really liberal and all of this stuff was never there. So I have a feeling that that's it. But I didn't

grow up near this town. This town was in Suffolk County, so further out on Long Island. I grew up really close to Queens in Nassau County. And even in Nassau County, there was this place, Nassau County. And even in Nassau County, there was this place. It's like, it's a wedding venue now called the new Hyde park in, and I went to sweet 16s there. And I think, no, my prom wasn't there. Is that a different place? But, but I went to sweet 16s there and other like school events. And that was the Nazi headquarters of Nassau County. And so that's so insane to me and uh but but this but you know this stuff has always been there there was a big nazi rally in madison square garden in the 30s and like it was always a part of of the the history of of new york it's just you know like the things that you'd never learn about yeah i i've been thinking a little bit more about fascism in

america for no particular reason having to do with the news or anything but yeah people forget that like it could have gone either way there for for a while in the in the 30s the the business plot was dicey times and now we've belatedly decided what if we did go and what if we did decide to join up with the Nazis? So what is something you think is overrated? So this is a little bit of a complicated answer. and cons and all of the documentaries and documentary series on Netflix and the other platforms that are focused on these criminals. But I think the documentary series are overrated and way too long. And I wish that they would all just be movies. Oh, like dramatic feature films, you mean? No, even if it's a documentary. Just condense it into 90 minutes and tell us the story.

I feel like it doesn't need to be a series. And they've gotten too, too long. And I watched a really good one that's probably 90 minutes. And it really helped me realize how long the other ones are. I watched Our Father father which is about this doctor this fertility doctor who swapped out his sperm and fathered i i won't say the number because then it's kind of a spoiler but he fathered all of these children and he even swapped out the sperm of like his best friend and and and used his instead and it's like it's

insane in the beginning i was watching it and i was like like is this so bad like how is this gonna get interesting and then it like got totally crazy and the craziest part about it is that this all took place in indiana and in the end he wasn't really convicted of a crime wow and him and his best friend are still tight to this day they're water under the bridge yeah wow yeah i was watching that other documentary about that guy in the uk who was like convincing all those people that they were like on the run from like mi like from mi5 because they were caught up in shit do you know that documentary i forget what it's called it's it's another one where like the premise is really interesting but it's like yo this is

it's like fucking four episodes i feel like you could have told me the whole thing in like two hours probably but yeah i do i do find myself being like okay you found that this is a way to stretch people's viewing time a lot because i think they realize oh like we've got like a you know lost type cliffhanger ending sort of pattern we can get people into it's like oh and you gotta you gotta watch the next one now to learn who the detective is that's gonna look into it because that's a whole episode and yeah it gets a little tiring for sure yeah i i love this overrated i think that's right i think that the default should be docu-series and then like if necessary like the staircase probably i think earned its it's a long

running time even though i only watched like three of them and then got bored. But it does seem like it's very twisty turny and they were learning things as it went. But for the most part, yeah, don't don't stretch it. And albums, too, like albums don't need to be as long as they are. And movies make movies. Forty five. Yeah, it's tough. Come on. All right. Well, forty five. People got naps to take, you know. Right. We went from a two hour cab. To now 45 minutes for sure.

What's something you think is underrated? I think this is like, this is going to make me sound kind of old fashioned because this is something that my mom, this advice that my mom would have given to me. I feel like it's going someplace by yourself is underrated. I think people should get more comfortable going to things like comedy shows by themselves and just going to the things that you want to go to and not waiting for your friends to want to go with you.

Oh, okay. I got you. I think we should get more comfortable doing that just right. And, and, you know, so that people, people feel like, like that's something that they can do. I did a show in LA a couple of weeks ago and I met someone after the show who came by herself. And even in my head, I was like, Oh, you came by yourself. And then I caught myself doing it. And I'm like, no, that's totally normal. You should be able to go to something by yourself and then i caught myself doing it and i'm like everything good no that's totally normal you should be able to go to something by yourself because you wanted to go to it even if no one else wanted to go you should take yourself on a date and um and this is also advice that my therapist gave me last week so perfect figured i would impart it on other people yeah oh no that's that's

my favorite thing to do on the show is like, let me tell you what my therapist said last week. And I'm going to give you for y'all for free. Okay. But yeah, that is like, I definitely find myself in a place where I'm like, okay, I want to go to this thing. Who's going to go with me and people like I can't make it or whatever. I'm not interested. And then I'm like, well, I guess I'm not going. Right. Versus just being like, well, then I guess I'm going at it alone. And I do that from time to time. But I typically like ask first to see if there's a coalition of people willing to go first. I'm going to a movie by myself is one of my favorite things to do in the world. To the point that I don't really ask people anymore. I just go by myself. And then I stay in the theater for the next one. It used to really depress me to see people eating by themselves at a restaurant for some reason. Till I did it. Yeah.

But then like, I love doing that shit. So I don't know. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I, I,

I really like, I like this underrated because I, I've definitely enjoy, like if I'm in a new city being by myself, walking by myself in a new place like it's always fun to share that experience with somebody but there's also something that feels really like an adventure when you just you're like okay new city i'm going out with my backpack on i got my air pods in i'm listening to some music cruise around and like show me what you got like

that's one of my favorite active i walked across across the Brooklyn Bridge like three times when I was in New York, just on foot. Cause like, whatever, I got time. I'll do this. Like, let's just have a good time. And I really, really enjoyed myself and even had a meal by myself where the host was like,

their maitre d' was like, oh, we don't have any openings for like a table or two. I was like, it's just me. And they're like, I could eat right here with you. Yeah. There's that bar seat open. I'm like, yeah,'s fine that's fine right look at my phone and read a

little bit you're good yeah they and like with with the judgments of i'm talking to you danny like with the judgments being like oh you came by yourself oh no but like i do that shit i i'll but then that's my favorite thing in the world to do so i think let's just let people do it and not be sad for them unless they tell you to be sad for them what do you if you eat alone what do you do what do you do you sit in silence do you read your phone do you watch something or do you just try and be like i'm gonna fucking act like i'm just gonna be so present with this meal right now. I,

I try to be present as long as I can and then look at my phone. Like a normal person. Right. Because in my mind, I'm like, people are going to think I'm weird if I'm just eating here with no phone out by myself. Like they think I'm preparing for something weird or something like that. No,

I pretend I'm on a very loud, very funny phone call with a celebrity. And I just keep name dropping the celebrity that I'm talking to. And usually that impresses people. Oh, my God. Colin Farrell, you are so funny. You are too much, Colin Farrell. What? All right.

Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and talk about 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 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds, Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised 150 grand,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared.

And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. My reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest,

a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest 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. Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay.

And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that is guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like our recent episode with dancer, actor, host of Dancing with the Stars, and now novelist, Julianne Hough. I feel really whole. I feel like the last few years, I've really unraveled a lot, which is part of what this book is about. And I really feel so content, which is a word that used to scare the crap out of me. And I love that word now.

Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And yeah, there's a story in the New Yorker a couple weeks back about like California's looming water disaster. That isn't drought based? It is drought based, Miles. Oh, I was hoping for another water disaster that maybe wasn't drought based. That is a drought-based? And, you know, land that is like wetland is now sinking. And so that puts it below sea level. And there are levies, levies, Eugene levies in place to prevent, to separate the seawater out. But the people who are like experts on this have been saying for about a decade now that like it's going to take one earthquake to you know for those to

fail and then all of our fresh water supply is inundated with salt water you can't drink it you have a major disaster i feel like that the reason i wanted to talk about this mostly is because it's just a different experience to read a story like this where the solution is some form of like there was a similar story um i think it was like 15 10 years ago called the really big one that i made everybody read that was all about like you know everybody talks about san andreas being the fault that where the big one's going to come from. But there's this Cascadia subduction zone up along like Northern California, Oregon, Washington state that is going to like goes off every hundred years and has, you know, unleashed some of the biggest earthquakes

that like the world has ever seen. It like sent a across the Pacific, and it reached Japan. And it was called the Ghost Tsunami for a long time, because they didn't know where it came from. But it turns out it came from this earthquake all the way in Northern California. So the article's all about people have been aware of this for about 10 years. Nobody's really doing anything. And that was frustrating to read then but like reading about this looming disaster and i still don't think anybody's like done what they need to do to prepare for that the really big one but reading about this one is like an extra layer of urgent and scary because there's so many people now that don't seem to exist in reality like they're just

you know like you can't oh the talk right yeah you mean like in terms of the political yeah the people we have in place who need to come to some consensus to figure out a problem that will that will affect every single person in the state, not just on a partisan level. Yeah. They're, they're focused on like stopping Disney from grooming children and like overturning the 2020 election. And like, they sure as shit, aren't going to compromise with like the, you know,

the, the people who they think stole the election. It just, it's a, it's a fucking mess, but like it does just, it's the, the article keeps it does just it's the article keeps being like each problem makes the other problem worse and they're talking specifically about

how like the land being drier makes the land sink which leads to it being below sea level like just these like kind of cascading things problems that like build into other problems. But like it, they don't really mention the politics of it all. But that's, that's another thing like Robert Evans and the Cool Zone Media folks talk about this a lot on there. It could happen here. They call it the crumbles where it's like, you know, small, major, like horrifying disasters happen and they like build on each other because of climate change. But, you know, climate change is also tied into, you know, the rise of fascism and extremism. And I don't know, it's, I just feel like we need to be acknowledging like all the interconnected ways we're in danger, you know? Right. And there's, and there's so many. And I mean, like,

this is something I remember hearing from like a friend's like spooky conspiracy theorist dad, like when I was in high school and it's like, you know, the Delta only needs like a real specific earthquake and it's going to mess up the whole state. And I was like, okay, sure. And then as I like read more about it and then like when i got into like more interested in like state politics and i was like asking around i was like oh right that okay this is very possible i mean i guess on one hand it's a you know significantly blue state so they're probably on a state level probably easy to find some consensus but when you get down to like the

individual water districts that are involved in california those everyone's got a different agenda there and i think yeah that kind of makes it a little bit alarming too and we're also talking about how much the agriculture in the state is using the water as well but meanwhile we're like hey man don't fuck me maybe wash your clothes like every other week or something like what right You fucking tell the almond people to cut the fuck back on using water. You know, and I think we have, like you're saying, there's all these sort of skewed priorities when it comes to the water management and what we think is the way out that, yeah, we have a very simple thing that we need to tackle first. It's so hard to get people to care about climate change when it feels like it's something that's so intangible. But drinking water is something that's so tangible that you would few years ago when it looked like specific wines were in danger. Like it was like, oh, like Republican ladies care about white wine, too. And, you know, all of these grapes aren't growing in France anymore because of climate change.

So clearly this is going to be the thing that the people are going to to come together around and then they're going to see that this is a thing but there never really seems to be that moment where people care about climate change for more than five minutes and like i i hope that maybe this could be a thing right yeah that could at least bring some people together you know and, and, and I, I like, I w I read the article and I liked that. It's not, I mean, it's not like any of us are questioning climate change at this point and these articles aren't being written to prove that climate change exists. It's like, that's the given and you know, this is the impact and we have to fix this right now. Right. But it's all very scary because I feel like people are on such a different wavelength

with it. And even for those of us who understand that it exists and what the impacts could be, I feel like there are so many other things to focus on that. It's like I think about climate change real hard for like a week and then suddenly I'm off to thinking about abortion. Right. You know, it's hard to keep my attention to. The model in my mind, like you were referencing, like maybe this will wake us up.

past you know 20 years was like well you know it's a problem but as it gets worse like humanity has a history of like coming together to solve big existential threats like this um not this big and existential but like close enough and now i'm like that's that's why i wanted to bring in the politics because i don't feel like like if this crisis happens and if like suddenly all like California is out of fresh water and like, you theories. That feels like where we are right now with social media being as prevalent and unregulated and just companies and capitalism being as unregulated as it as it is. So that's yeah, it's it's a scary situation. Yeah, that and I think, you know, the history of our country is we don't solve problems until like it's absolutely destroyed a ton of people first. We'll never get out ahead of anything. It's like, well, wait a ton of people first we'll never get out ahead of anything it's like we'll wait till millions of people die and then then it's proven that we have to do something about it and i mean the one benefit is like you do see like in states that have been hit

like that are dealing with climate change like republicans are slowly being like, fuck. Yeah, it's, I'm old enough to remember this wasn't normal. You know, like in like, for example, like North Carolina, like, like,

like last year they found like some bipartisan consensus on more renewables and things like that, because even Republicans came to the table to talk about climate change, maybe not in the most authentic way, but clearly it was enough that their voter, their, their constituents are like no you know because there was a clip last week from the outer banks where a house just fucking went into the washed into the sea you know that was like almost a four hundred thousand dollar home just fucking the sea just ate that shit and just said but this is mine now and i think for people who see that they're like, man,

I remember when the sea level wasn't that high up when I was a kid. And I think a lot of those things work on people, but it's only happening like very specific places where people are having to confront that shit head on. And I think because of the fact that all of those things aren't necessarily equally distributed experientially, it's easy for many people to stay like you know like you know so many republicans i think like less than 20 percent are like climate change isn't a big deal there's a it ends with an interview or like sort of uh mentions this guy michael george uh whose title is delta water master so first of all people need to just be given cool cool titles like that and maybe motivate them to solve this shit. But his background is like as a water lawyer, water company CEO, public utility executive, investment banker, college guest lecturer. Like that was weirdly and depressingly the moment of the article. There's also like this beautiful long description of how San Francisco Bay, when

white settlers first got there, the water was so clear, you could see like shoals of fish swimming at the bottom of the bay. And so many salmon migrated through its waterways that the sound kept people awake at night. And then they found Golden invented a water cannon for hydraulic mining that could kill a person from 200 feet away so but like there's all this beautiful description but the thing that made me most hopeful is that they somehow got a water company ceo to like pitch in and like granted like he might still have connections with that and it might be fucked but he is like working on help like that. I feel like that is what we need is to attract the sort of people who go into investment banking and fucking being water company CEOs into like finding smart ways to actually like regulate and control capitalism and like bring, you know, like steer it in a direction that isn't going to fucking end our entire civilization hey use that hedge fund brain to find an efficient way to solve our water crisis yeah and like you

know figure out how you're gonna balance the relationship between like big agriculture and the other you know stakeholders that are the biggest users of water and maybe they'll be enough for people to wash their bodies yeah maybe yeah as long as my golf course looks good though that's what that's my i mean that's the thing like yeah when are we just gonna start just cutting off the water lines over there we're like you don't even let us use these fucking green spaces and they get that shit, like, at a bargain. They get the water. Yeah.

Yeah. That is how we'll take down golf courses is by cutting off their water supply. And, like, we need to do that shit soon and then turn them into public parks. Thank you. Yeah, 100%. Like, if every golf course in the city was a public park, oh my God. Los Angeles would be, like, one of the great cities in the world. And instead, it's fine.

Instead, it's a brittle fucking pumice stone with nice buildings on it. All right, let's talk about Jesse Waters. The Jesse Waters Show. Must watch TV if you just want to feel your life just better. as stone with nice buildings on it all right let's talk about jesse waters the jesse waters show must watch tv if you just want to feel your life just bled out of you your will to live just a true piece of shit i remember like the first time i saw this motherfucker on tv he was like bill o'reilly's like intern and i was just like oh this motherfucker is going to be a problem like right away he just so confident and so dumb and so racist yeah sure of his racist horrifying worldview but he weighed in on critical race theory as he is want to do yeah um first off got it again for everyone knows

this but the disclaimer that critical race theory is not being taught anywhere outside of a college lecture hall. So let's put that on the side. Now, if you're just mad that teachers are talking about just general inequality and you just want to call that this other thing, fine, then, you know, do your thing. know, do your thing. But in this Jesse Waters clip that was just going around on Twitter, it's one of the more like pathetic appearances I've seen from like a concerned parent, quote unquote, who's like, I'm here to help, you know, further this narrative that you want to keep broadcasting on your television, which is critical race theory is ruining my child. And in this clip, there's a concerned mother from Virginia of a biracial child who she, the mother is white. The father is black. And she is in a state of utter shock because her 14 year old son is starting to form an identity at 14. I don't know what's going

on here, Jesse. Is it this critical race theory stuff or is it puberty? I don't know what's going on here jesse is it this critical race theory stuff or is it puberty i don't know but i'm gonna say critical race theory and let's just listen in because it's uh yeah just just hold on to your butts your your son is uh the father's black you're white and he'd never mentioned issues with race before, you're saying? What exactly changed? Right. We didn't have issues before. He's in eighth grade. They introduced this critical program, and now he's having racial issues. What kind of racial issues does he have?

Well, he's seen himself just as a black man. He's seen things that don't go his way as racism. And he's finding safety in numbers now. So when you're saying he gets a bad grade at school, he blames racism or a girl rejects him on a date. Racism. Are those the kind of things you're seeing she's smiling yes i ask him to clean the house racism yes you're kidding right are you serious no i'm serious they have totally changed his perspective they have put him in a box so your 14 year old son is talking back. Yeah. Mm hmm. And again, that's never happened before. That's weird that a teenage son would talk back to their parent to your mom who told you to clean your room.

I've never done. I remember when my mother said that as a half black biracial child, I didn't say that. I didn't say it was racism. I just said, I don't want to do it, mom. And I run out the house. But we didn't have the same vocabulary to use, I guess, as these kids do. But the program. Ma'am, you are racist.

So he's right when you when you just when he says that it's racism. But not when other parents ask their kids, but you are a racist piece of shit. And you have some issues. are a racist piece of shit and you have some issues so the program that he was participating in was one that was around encouraging students to have open discussions around race race now this was in the like aftermath of the george floyd murder so they're like we want to have you know brave conversations about race so it wasn't some like kill your masters type shit they were just saying hey we want these young people. We want to facilitate, you know, healthy conversations. So these young people can begin to have a

reckoning with our country's culture of discrimination. Pretty easy stuff. Like it's not again, not on the extreme that this woman is sort of making out to be. And naturally, like everything, we see the backlash of it and time and again. And so a couple of things, we see the backlash of it and time and again. And so a couple of things, you know, he's this kid is 14. So the little baby that you were used to, like, you know, is absolutely in the period of their life where these questions are being asked, right? You begin to explore who you are, what that means to you, what your own identity is, what race means to you. You know, what she I think she may consider her son, I think half white white and she looks at it that way, but he is also half black. And I'd imagine he isn't completely white passing. So even though

she may see her son as this, the rest of the world does not. That's just the facts. And there's no amount of proper speaking I could do or polo shirt wearing I could do to suddenly look different to somebody who has a bigoted perspective on race. That's just unfortunately the stakes of how it means to be not white in this country. So there's just kind of this whole thing where I'm like, do you even I'm curious if this mom clearly is probably very disconnected from the idea that what it means to raise a black child in in Virginia, even. And what all of that means. Yeah. Just in America in general. And that's when I'm like, Jesus, we just watched you come out here and use your son as like a fucking pawn in an optics win for bigots.

Like, what the fuck was that? That's where I'm like, really? It's disheartening for me to see that about like, wow, you really have no idea what your son is about to go through or is going through. Right. Because you're like, I don't, she referenced like he was never having racial issues. Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, even if your classmates aren't bigoted, you know, outwardly, there isn't the fact of the matter is he's existing in a country that is sending a lot of signals to him. And he's probably beginning to see when you say he's finding comfort in numbers or something like that. What the fuck does that mean that he's hanging out with other black kids? Is that wrong? that, you know, a time where people are wrestling with just systemic and like murderous, like

violent racism in the country, that his response to that would be, first of all, like incorrect for him to like have feelings about that, but also that it would be like the school's fault and not the fault of what is actually happening, the reality. It just assumes that there's no such thing as racism, so they must be getting this idea from school because

that's the only place they could have learned it is a very blinded perspective. He's 14, so it's not like he's first discovering his identity now right if this has been a process and he probably just never felt comfortable speaking with her about it because of the environment that she created like if you think that people start discovering who they are and forming an identity at 14 that That's not the case either. I don't,

I feel like whatever was going on at school, maybe finally made him comfortable to say something to his mom about it. But I also like, I don't understand how they always have these parents on roster to speak on these shows where, I mean, I'm sure they find them on Facebook now, but they've always had disgruntled parents just ready to go on all of these shows about whatever the topic might be. But it's so crazy to me.

It's typically like these law firms will look for aggrieved parents so they can represent them in a lawsuit. And that's kind of how they end up to that next level where the Fox producers end up saying, oh, like, OK, like, you know, like, hey, man, we got this mom. She's suing the state of Virginia for critical race theory because like her her son, who is black, now realizing he's black. So that's that's pretty that's all kinds of fucked up. Right. That's because I'm sure I'm pretty sure that was sort of like the segue or the introduction to this piece is that she's suing, know on behalf of her son or her her own rights as a parent but yeah the it's it's really disheartening to see a parent like that who you she even said she's like he sees himself as a black man i'm sorry what can we can we unpack that a little bit? Like from your perspective, Miss, what does that mean and what is wrong with he is he not? And in your mind, are you telling him he is not? Is that why you're upset? Because you've been conditioning him to deny that he's black and that he's living in some post-racial like utopia that actually doesn't exist.

I'm that's what I'm really curious about. Like like it really feels like my son was not black before this right and there's also like a patron like there are parts where she's like grinning and laughing and i like it like you said it's a parent who is having a difficult time getting their mind around the fact that it's that's not your like eight-year-old child anymore. And they are growing up. But just that is so fucking toxic. And I don't know if maybe she's completely scared of the idea that, oh my God, that's right. My son is black and he's living in America in 2022. Yeah.

And subconsciously, that's making her uncomfortable and it's coming out this way. I don't know, that might be an overly charitable, you know, analysis of where she's coming from. But, you know,

it's clear that she was not thinking about this at all until her son was, you know, probably articulating things where he was like, I'm identifying,

I can, I see my blackness and I see how people like me are treated in this country. It hurts me because that is me. I am part of this group of people. And yeah, now I'm realizing how much, how much things I maybe ignored up until 14 that now I'm realizing we're actually pretty fucked up, but you always told me, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. But it gets to a point

where you actually, you can't ignore that anymore. i think you credit to him on his journey figuring out who he is and you know the the culture that he's part of but wow what a fucking shitty mom yeah yeah you already think your parents are the worst when you're 14 even when they're not but when you do have the worst mom in america like that's got that's gonna be tough like this poor kid is probably getting flamed right they're like yo was that your mom on twitter i saw on that jesse waters clip wow and he's like bro i told you that's why like i'm just uh it's hard growing up in that house with that mom or whatever but that's i can't i can't imagine that mom or whatever, but that's,

I can't, I can't imagine that her appearance there did any good for him either, you know, on TV. Like the fact is already, you're already, you're already suing the state or the school district. So already,

like I remember being in school and you knew when somebody's parent was like doing some wild shit, trying to like cause a problem at the school where they're like, yo, so-and-so's mom is suing the school because the seesaw was like too wobbly and said that's why his little sister like hurt her wrist and everyone's like like people just like that shit gets out in the ecosystem of a schoolyard so i can only imagine at this point you're on fox news too that that's probably not creating more friends for him no in my school that was always about sex ed

like we always knew the the students who weren't allowed to take sex ed they had to go to like study hall or something during right and in i grew up with like basically abstinence only sex ed anyway but still and that was because of parents complaining jesus but even so we always knew about the parents who were coming up to school and yelling about something and it was almost always that right and uh yeah it definitely it didn't make it easier for those students which i haven't really thought that much about but they probably were so they were probably embarrassed that they weren't allowed to go to sex ed i just didn't really think about it at the time no i went to a lutheran k through eight school and i remember in sex ed like there were those kids who like absolutely couldn't be there for the outdated

slideshow from the 60s where like the the like female reproductive system was like triangles and circles and lines like not even close to looking medically accurate. Like I like we've had this like fucked up vague version of sex ed where like the parts were named, but I couldn't I couldn't accurately tell you what anything looked like because it was like, and then there's a uterus. And also, guys, it doesn't matter because y'all shouldn't be having sex anyway. Yeah, we watched Philadelphia. Oh, my God god to learn that if you have sex you'll get aids oh my god what yeah yeah and i had i ended up writing a show about this and i host the show mostly in new york but now i've done it in la too uh called adult sex ed and it's because i had this sex ed

in school and then my mom was the opposite she She was actually a sex ed teacher, not mine. And we had this really open home. And so I had this totally mixed experience. But I feel like the way that these parents are being interviewed on TV now about critical race theory reminds me a lot of in the 80s and 90s. They would have parents being interviewed about sex ed and how that's going to ruin children's minds right not that they're not doing that today too but it's like the generational thing it's like well back then they weren't taught about sex so then when it comes up they're like oh but then parents now are like man we're fine with sex like

we're so online porn brained like that that that chest that being chased idea isn't necessarily like as pervasive but now it's a generation of people who have never had a reckoning with racial relations right and so that's the thing it's like well i've never talked about that and that shit makes me so fucking scared much like how my parents who never talked about sex or had satisfying sex thought it was the end of the world if we learned about sex that it's like now this is the next cycle which is like well we didn't talk about our race i don't know if this is good because it makes me uncomfortable but yeah it's it's wild to hear because like i we were constantly just told just don't have sex i grew up with this idea that like yeah if if you ever had unprotected sex you're

going to get sick and have a child immediately like there's no there's no fucking middle ground and i like through my life i was like yeah i was like scared shitless the the movie scene progression is unprotected sex woman holds stomach and then woman throws up and that's those are the three steps to prove that okay there there's a pregnancy happening here. Yeah. I will say I grew up in the wild early 90s and sex had really radicalized me, I'll say. Really turned me into a freak. Those medical diagrams. I was on the fallopian tube fix.

Those medical diagrams are about as sexy as like the diarrhea diagram and pepto commercials like they just yeah they're just like the human body like in right and i feel like that parents should have been like like for me like at the time a bunch of teenagers like kids that they're like most sexually curious or just like they're like even looking at that like this is so confusing to me and i don't think it's doing what you think it's going to cause some perversion in us we're like looking again at drawings from the fucking early 60s that you're putting up on a stupid slide projector and the and like like the colors are like like not even human it's like the uterus is blue

and like the ovaries are green and you're're like, man, this looks like a bunch of geometry. It looks like a Mondrian painting, let alone anything. I can have some like functional knowledge of anything. Yeah. Dare worked though. We do. We can't say dare worked. Oh, what was it?

Cause you know how they're, they're out in the streets again. Dare. Yeah, that's right. So I was out and I was out the other day and they're like, Hey, Hey, Hey, you want to hear about dare? I was like, actually I do. What's going they're like, hey, hey, hey, you want to hear about D.A.R.E.? I was like, actually, I do. What's going on? Like, why are y'all out here? Because it's like I thought the drug shit was a wrap.

Like y'all remember y'all lost the drug war and all that. And they're like, yeah, I mean, it's about that, too. But it's also a lot about mental health now. And we're like, oh, interesting. OK, well, I don't know what other subversive messaging you might have. But that's that was sort of what they were pivoting to. Like, look, we get it. We've completely lost on the drug front.

But now, at least maybe we can be a force for good. Still run by the police? I have no idea. At that point, I was just like, what are y'all pivoting to? They said mental health. And I'm like, thank you. I have to get out of my way. Were they like high school students?

No, they looked like normal people who were like signature gathering, like, you know, like mid-20s, early 20s type people. Buzz haircut, chewing gum backwards, a hat on. Flip upside down visor. Run a motorcycle. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. 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 L.A.-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. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds.

Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. I mean, my reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes.

We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest 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. Some people won't give you the real talk on drugs, but it's time we know the facts. Fentanyl is often laced into illicit drugs and used to make fake versions of prescription pills. You can't see it, taste it, or smell it. Suppliers mix fentanyl into their products because it's potent and cheap,

and the dealer might not even know. Keep yourself and others safe by knowing the real deal on fentanyl. Get the facts. Go to realdeal deal on fentanyl. Get the facts. Go to realdealonfentanyl.com. This message is brought to you by the Ad Council. And we're back. And yeah, so I did want to get to, you know, my favorite American author, I'll say, because, you know, I like I like Shakespeare, too. But my favorite american author i'll say because you know i like i like shakespeare too but uh my favorite american wordsmith is probably megan mccain and the new memoir that she dropped it's called bad republican watch out and it sold uh 244 copies uh in its first week out. And that, you know, it's probably like people might have realized they could spend the same amount of money on literally any other book by any other human being. the cover. In chapter nine, on and off campus, she uses a contentious 2012 speaking gig at liberal Reed College as the canary in the coal mine for the looming threat of cancel culture.

She came out and was like, look, this book was released seven months ago exclusively on Audible. People listened to it. It has strong reviews, 4.4 stars, over a thousand ratings. That's true. Those are numbers. That's an app. Those are numbers that you can, you know, futz with. And like, if you want to look at like actual appetite for a book, this is a legit book being sold by major retailers like Barnes and Noble. It is, you know, it was a fairly by internal metric successful audiobook, so they probably aren't hiding it away in the back of the Barnes & Noble. And exactly 244 people across America were convinced to buy it. So there's also the fact that she posted a photo on, I think it was Instagram, with her holding a child behind John McCain's grave. And her book is propped up on his grave.

I mean, the picture is so hard to look at. Yeah. Like, because it's so it it's like, you know, like when people are like are like are guest on like cable news shows and like they're clearly also wrote a book because it's like somehow the one thing facing outwardly on their bookshelf right by like next to their head. And you're like, OK, we get it. You just wrote a fucking book. And there it is like this is like that except you're like desecrating your father's gravesite with it with your fucking ego so we wanted to look back at her literary career uh her first work was literally called my dad john mccain it was a children's book all about the life of John McCain, such as the time he bombed villages in Vietnam.

I'm sorry, that's in the book. Yep. He just dropped his bombs on the target when a missile blew the right wing off his plane. The plane flew out of control and crashed. Oh, my God. I'm just going to skip forward a little bit in the writing. He didn't get the right kind of medical care for his broken bones, and the food was really bad.

Once he found a chicken foot in his lunch. What the fuck? I feel like chicken feet is a food that people eat. They're pretty yummy. Yeah. Is this bedtime reading? Yeah. It looks like the bedtime books that I read to my kids,

except not as many planes plummeting from the sky with flame and smoke trailing behind them. I mean, when do you want to introduce your child, Jack, with some bedtime reading where you say the line, he didn't get the right kind of medical care for his broken bones. Huh? She's writing it in like a childlike way that is, but also racism,

you know, he found a chicken foot in his lunch. The food was really yucky. The fact that like, that was a detail she threw in is like, you know, i i'm pretty sure he was not treated great but the fact that that's what she came up with makes it sound like he's just very spoiled and a tourist in vietnam who's like yuck what is this they eat that we

don't even sell those in the store the grocery stores in america wow i thought we just grind them up and eat them in hot dogs there's like something interesting too right about like there's so much nepotism like nepotism is just like at the heart of like everything she does and even john mccain to a certain extent but like with because he was an admiral's son like in your the thing she was talking about being the you know the canary in the coal mine for cancel culture she's talking about how quote after describing how angry students accused her of nepotism and mocked her for being ignorant about tax policy, she laments the rosy days of civil minded debates. And that theme, like it's actually like she touches on her father's nepotism in the even the book, because after the thing

about the chicken foot in his lunch, it said, quote, But then my dad got a chance. chance most prisoners didn't since he was an admiral's son the vietnamese who had captured him said they would let him go home like i guess you're being honest dude right like and it's true because he was an admiral's son he was afforded a something that the other prisoners of war weren't yeah because i'm they had his daughter you're reading this book right now. And yes, again, my dad, John McCain.

Her first book was like a six-figure bidding war. Oh, six figures, okay. I just want to so it says

from this article from the time, John McCain's 24-year-old daughter Megan has a book deal! Exclamation point. They're excited. Sources say

Hyperion has prevailed over at least three other publishers in an auction that began earlier this week following a round of meetings during which the in-your-face young conservative and the literary agent she shares with her father, Sterling Lord Litteristic, President Flip Brophy, discussed a number of possible approaches to the book with editors around town. All right, Flip. So Sterling Lord Leteristic is the label or the agency? And then Flip Brophy. Hell yeah. So in that book, they were like, we got to give them fucking something.

You're so boring. Do you have any crimes you committed? And so she divulged this one that when... I forget which campaign it was. It was one of her dad's presidential campaign's primaries where he was going against Giuliani. She was out in the field stealing campaign signs off people's lawns. Never thought anyone would enforce this, nor did I expect we'd get caught.

But just as we had pulled over and I had shoved a ton of Romney signs, so it was 2012, I guess? 2012, maybe, yeah. Yeah, Romney signs into our trunk. Another car pulled up and blocked us. A super dorky guy in a suit leaped out of his car. He was pissed as hell. See, that is a sentence that you don't read in most books. He was pissed as hell.

What campaign are you with? He yelled, Giuliani, we said. He pulled out a notepad, proceeded to take down our license number. This is when I started freaking out. McCain daughter arrested was the headline that I saw in my head, uh, getting arrested on the day of the New Hampshire primary. Oh man. I imagined the look on my mom's face. If only we could get away. Um, then she like yells at the guy to move his car. He was such a jerk. And when he wouldn't move his car, my heart started to race. And I was afraid for a minute that I might do something even worse than stealing a bunch of romney signs whoa but anyone who was lame enough to pull over and harass people on election day for stealing signs was probably lame enough to follow up and bring some new hampshire state police and then she blames it on she like gives a phone number she gives the guy a fake phone number which is like her one of her dad's aides and then is

like hey don't be mad at me but i like sort of gave your phone number to somebody when i was caught stealing yard signs because i'm like so incompetent yeah wow so good what a fun time yeah what if i get arrested for stealing lawn signs? Wow, the stakes are so high, Megan. Yeah, I think she like said she found the one campaign intern who also had blonde hair and was just like, yeah, we'll be able to pass it off on her. And like literally says that in the book. First of all, I'm surprised that only one campaign intern had blonde hair. Right.

Yeah. That sounds kind of shocking. In the Republican primary? Really? Oh, man. Yeah. It makes me happy that my dad never did anything spectacular. Right. Because I have, I think because I work in film, I'm surrounded by a lot of nepotism, but I have, I have friends who have famous parents and it affects them in so many ways. And some of them handle it well,

and some of them don't. And, you know, there's, it, it creates this interesting, you know, conundrum with some people of like, what's the, you know, how can you, without being given something unfairly, how could you carry on a legacy? Like it's, it's something that I'm glad that I never have to think about. Yeah. Yeah. And just naming, just reading books. My dad is this person, the book. Yeah. You couldn't like, that's like such a hardcore distillation of a book about nepotism where you just go my dad is this guy the book yeah wow yeah just such a like naked psychological profile of like somebody who has never like really done shit, gets famous for who their parent is, and then is like so insecure about that, that when people are like, you don't have any insight into the thing you are here to talk about.

She's like, cancel culture. Like, no, we're like talking. We just think your policy understanding is very lacking. You're trying to cancel me because of because i'm conservative yeah yeah it's a tough it's tough road she was given that first book deal when she was 24 but who has anything to say when they're 24 anyway yeah i mean like i can't imagine what my 24 year old book would have been about the section the one interesting section feels to me like a college essay where you're like um what, what else? Well, there was that one time where I faced adversity because I was terrible at doing a thing. And it's like a draft that gets that your counselor's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. One time, my sense of white privilege almost got me in trouble. So that was kind of hair raising.

What else? Like this other thing, which I think is maybe the only useful thing that was in that book, was her talking about living in sketchy hotels on the road. Quote, for instance, after six months on the road, whenever Shannon and Heather and I checked into a cheap hotel where the campaign was staying, we just assumed that there would be pubic hair on the toilet seat or on the side of the bathtub. We had a technique for dealing with it. We used a blow dryer to blow the hairs off if the electrical cord was long enough.

Genius. Oh my God. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. No one, like, see, now where is that information in your new book? That also is a terrible solution to that because you're just blowing it elsewhere. Blowing them around? You're just blowing it around.

You're more likely to get a fucking pubic hair on your lip or something. Like, no, you just get a handful of toilet paper and pick it up and then throw that in the... Or move them towards the bathtub and run the shower and let the water do the job if you're so inclined. But hey, we have a technique for that. I haven't been following it that closely, but I know that Steve Schmidt wrote that really long Twitter thread recently about Meghan McCain being kicked off the campaign and all of that. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, but this is someone who many people have found to be insufferable for a long time. Yeah.

I only follow her literary career. I don't actually follow any other aspect of her. Right. And I think she, didn't she call him a pedophile, basically? Like, in response? I think she clapped back in a very odd way and we're like oh we're doing that it's advanced internet only elon musk and meg mccain are at that level right i don't know so yeah i mean steve schmidt is another one of those people

who's like remember when i was republican but look i don't like trump though so let's forget anything else i may have said prior to that and just say I'm one of the good ones now because I don't like Trump. But then every now and then I will show my big GOP butt on TV like it's, you know, that I haven't left the party like that. Well, Danny, such a pleasure having you. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? On the socials. I am Danny F. Leonard, which reads danny flenard i know that that's that sounds kind of silly and uh and that's the best way to find me and um hopefully i will

have uh some new comedy shows being announced soon the show i mentioned earlier adult sex ed is the one that i'm doing the most frequently and And then I have a film that I produced that came out recently called Coast, which is on demand now. So you could find it on iTunes and Amazon and Vudu, Google, all those places. Hell yeah. Is it about roller coasters? Is it about the sea?

No. Oh, that makes me wishes about roller coasters. It was filmed on the Central California coast, but it's also a euphemism for kind of coasting through life and it's a it's a coming of age story uh that takes place in a mostly immigrant farming community in california and uh it's about a 16 year old girl who whose life is upended when a traveling rock band gets stuck in her town, and she has to decide if she should stay or if she should go. And it has a really killer

soundtrack, and it's super fun. So people should definitely check it out. Awesome. Is there a tweet or some other work of social media that you've been enjoying? I'm a really big fan of people who made some kind of a pivot during the pandemic and found something else that they're really good at and aren't necessarily doing what they did before. And there's this woman who founded a YouTube channel where she works out and does workouts for senior citizens. And it's called Yes to Next, Y-E-S, the number two and next. And it encourages fitness and joy at any age. And

so I received an email about this and I went on the YouTube channel and I'm not going to do any of these senior citizen workouts, but I might watch all of them because they're so adorable. So that's my, that's my piece of media that I'm really liking that YouTube channel. Yeah. Miles, where can people find you?

What's the tweet you've been enjoying? Well, find me on Twitter and Instagram at miles of gray. Also the basketball podcast, miles and Jack got mad boosties check that out we got a new episode coming out thursday it's gonna be wonderful uh and also for 20 day fiance if you're a fan of 90 day fiance check out that pod i do as well uh tweet i like uh first one is from tatty tatty mason at no underscore goblinsins just tweeted people who claim they don't poop in public. First of all, you're lying.

Second of all, how? Look, I don't I can't explain how we do what we do, but our bodies just don't. They just don't enter that mode in public. It's like a governance chip on a car like some cars know when you're on a racetrack and now it says, OK, you can use all of the horsepower in the engine. For me, my body says, says man if you ain't on home court we're not playing and then as you're approaching the front door does it just like start to break down and you're like oh boy oh no well look we don't have to talk about that part but let's just say you're spot on and then another thing the body knows another tweet I like is from Rachel at nurse underscore ratch tweeted

McRib and in parentheticals, my chemical romance is back. Two great things. McRib and the return. The return of the McRib, the return of my chemical romance. Two things to celebrate.

You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien and also on Miles and Jack, I'm at Boosties. Some tweets I've been enjoying. Noah at Noah do not care tweeted MSB wearing Dior but not deodorant. Al

Wobotka tweeted men sure love yelling let's go at literally anything that goes the slightest bit positively. We do. Because we only have one mode of expressing positive feelings, and it's only in an athletic context. Let's go. So it has to map to anything. Hell yeah.

Dude, what? The food got here early? Let's go. Hell yeah. Dude, what? The food got here early? Let's go! And then Kenny at EvilBeast382941 tweeted, I love saying I don't bite to people because low-key I be biting people.

You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at TheDailyZeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, Daily 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. Footnotes. 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. Miles, what song do we think people might enjoy?

Okay. This is a track from an artist, Molly Lewis, who's kind of big in L.A. She's from Australia originally. But she's man, the tracks she make are like they sound like super like retro stuff, like, you know, like almost feels like something like Stan Getz would be on or just like this kind of. It's very retro sounding and it's done in such an authentic way that when I first heard it, I was like, what artist is this from the 60s? This is from now. And you know, her tracks are featured like on like in Atlanta and other things like that. So this is like kind of, you know, very, very interesting artist. So check this out. It's a very haunting but like sultry song. It's called Satin Curtains. And it's all instrumental with like her doing like this spooky sort of humming falsetto song. It's called Satin Curtains. And it's all instrumental with her doing this spooky sort of humming falsetto thing.

It's really cool. It's good texture music in the background. It's not too lyric intensive, so enjoy that. Satin Curtains by Molly Lewis. Pumpkin. Sultry. I feel like that's like a movie review of Ghostbusters 2. Yeah. Why was I review of Ghostbusters 2. Yeah. Why was I thinking of Ghostbusters?

I was thinking of Sigourney Weaver. Yeah, exactly. Anyways, our brains are both melded and broken. The Daily Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for us this morning. We're back this afternoon, though, to tell you what is trending. And we will talk to you all then.

Bye. Bye. 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. Thank you. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry, Caitlin 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. 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 to Harry poor. 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 I heart radio 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.