The Daily Zeitgeist - Crofton vs The Matrix, Can’t Spell SUS Without U.S. 03.28.25

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

In episode 1837, Jack and Miles are joined by writer, musician, comedian, and host of Cold Brew Got Me Like, Chris Crofton, to discuss… Crofton Infiltrates Corporate America, This IS Us…Unfortunately and more! This IS Us…Unfortunately Route 66 - John T Davis Epic Documentary - Shot in 1981 - Here It Is! LISTEN: The Star by Nice Biscuit WATCH: The Daily Zeitgeist on Youtube! L.A. Wildfire Relief: Displaced Black Families GoFund Me Directory See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. God. Oh, no. You're coming in for the fucking matrix? Oh, you're not going to believe it. You're not going to fucking believe it. Wow. I can't talk about it on the show, so if this is some cold open bullshit.

I cannot. You can't. Just use that as a cold-out thing. Yeah. Hey, kids. It's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me.

And that's the name of our podcast, Beardless, D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one. And every week, we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. I'm the young one. And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid.

Could be a family show. We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out. It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless, S***less Me on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember what you said

the first night I came over here? How goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Listen to The Hook Up on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Snakes, zombies, sharks, heights,

speaking in public, the list of fears is endless. But while you're clutching your blanket in the dark, wondering if that sound in the hall was actually a footstep, the real danger is in your hand when you're behind the wheel. And while you might think a great white shark is scary, what's really terrifying and even deadly is distracted driving. Eyes Forward, Don't Drive Distracted, brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. If you truly believe in liberation, if you have to cover everybody. Hi, I'm George M. Johnson, a bestselling author with the second most fan book in America. In this week's episode of my new podcast, Fighting Words, I talk with the iconic actress Gabrielle Union about some of her pivotal roles and how to be a good parent in the face

of today's backlash against black and queer communities. If you are more concerned about what your fellow racists think about you, you've already lost. Listen to Fighting Words on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello the internet and welcome to season 381, episode five of Dirty Daily Zeitgeist. Yeah!

This is a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Consciousness? Mm-hmm. And you can tell I'm lying because I rose up at the end. Have you seen that?

There's like some woman going by, being like, if you have a question mark at the end of your statement, that's how you know somebody's lying. Like that's, I've never told the truth if that's. Wait, what by being like? If you have up speak, if you speak with up speak, everything you say with up speak is lying because you're basically, the statement you're making.

You're questioning the veracity of it. Is like you're basically asking them, do you believe me me and there might be something to that in the sense that like I don't know if anything I've ever said is true so I do speak up I do do up speak at the end but I love you I'm Jack O'Brien yeah will you Uh, it's- Will you marry me? Yeah, here we go. I think we're allowed to do that one with us, Steve. But then you're like, you're fucking lying. Oh, I guess they're lying, sorry.

But I did do I do, and she was not pleased. It's Friday, March 28th. Friday! 2025. Woo! Wow. Yeah, 328, it's National Tri- Listen, man, fuck that. That's, I think, sponsored by Pharma. Uh, it's national try- listen man fuck that that's I think sponsored by pharma

It's national black forest cake day, national something on a stick day Something on a stick day? Like corn dogs, fucking you know roasting a marshmallow, a kebab I was like something on a stick Hey anything, I mean in this photo there's a's a fucking slice of lemon slice on a stick I'm like, okay now you're just fucking doing stupid shit like on the drink Why would you know it looks like a fucking like just a lemon slice on a stick? Like that's some kind of treat for people it ain't but also hey and I can get behind this one national weed

appreciation day, but the the plant form not The plant form of weed. The anti resolve day. The anti. Fuck Monsanto day. Fuck Monsanto. Roundup and all that shit. Yeah. Roundup is the anti roundup day.

They need to round up the pharma CEOs. Am I right? Over here? Yeah. My name is Jack O'Brien AKA O'Bradley Coop. It ruined Jem's head. It ruined my head. It ruined my head. It ruined my head. It ruined my head. I'm right over here. Yeah. My name is Jack O'Brien, AKA O'Bradley Coop. It ruined gemstones when they spoiled me telling me that you were going to be on TV.

What a spoiler ruined by night. That one courtesy of HannaRamicView on the discord talking about. Light spoilers. A light spoil. night that one courtesy of Hanaramic view on the discord talking about lights. How a light split. We spoiled that Bradley Cooper is the first episode, the first scene basically. Uh, the first episode of a show. And it's in, yeah. Also, by the way, uh, just downloaded that from max and guess what the

thumbnail is for that episode. Guess who's face is in the thumbnail? Is it Bradley Cooper? It's Bradley Cooper. So I feel like you can't be too mad at us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray.

You know what it is. It's Hideo Noho, AKA Smoke Gray Otani, AKA Smokey Sasaki, because yes, it is opening day for the Los Angeles Dodgers, at least as we record this on Thursday. So, you know, just shout out to my favorite Japanese Dodgers players. There you go. Thank you so much for playing for the boys in blue, the real boys in blue, the Dodgers, although we play in gray and white.

Back the blue. Why does everybody look at me weird when I do the back the blue chant at Dodger's cat. Dodger's stage here. It's opening day today? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, technically.

The boys of summer? Yeah. Yeah. On Thursday. It was opening day yesterday? I did cop to the reality of what we're recording to just say, that's why I'm doing Dodgers AKA is right now. Sorry. Shout out to another spoiler.

Yeah. Shout out to Mookie Betts. Glad he's back out there. Is he? I think he was really sick. Oh, is he still sick? Yeah, he got really sick. He lost 15 pounds.

Yeah. And then he said his body was eating itself from the inside. I was like, Jesus Christ. Oh, And then he said his body was eating itself from the inside. I was like, Jesus Christ. Oh, he says he'll be ready after. Yeah. Okay. We'll see.

I mean, look, having your body be eaten from the inside isn't the best preparation for opening day, but hey, to each their own. That's like how I would describe indigestion by the way. Like I'm so dramatic. My body's eating itself. Babe, babe, you either kill me or just get out of here. digestion by the way, like I'm so dramatic. My body's eating it. Babe, you either kill me or just get out of here. My body's eating itself. How many bowls of cereal did you eat?

It's like the whole box. 14. The whole box. Then I started on a second one. The cereal or a boros kit, No Man Can Escape, Miles. Yes. In our third seat.

A hilarious stand-up comedian, actor, musician, like Pitchfork rated 7.2. I know that's right. You can listen to his podcast, Cold Brew Got Me Like Anywhere. Speaking of Cold Brew, I believe he is the only guest we've had where we had to stop down a recording so he could eat a hard boiled egg because he was too cranked up on that demon mud water.

His book, the advice, King anthology is available now anywhere. Fine books are sold. The poetry window is open because it's Chris motherfucking Crofton. Wait, what's up? That someone sent me a, AKA. Okay. From Victoria G. Okay Vicky G.

But I don't know if I can do it, it's pretty long. The feed's now live, the mic's turned up, and long ago for break the clock was struck. But he's sipping his cold brew and slinging advice and opening the poetry window. He's going the distance. Oh, okay. I was going to say, Hey, can Miles and I guess what the song is? But I think it's pretty self-evident. I know it sounded like a Gregorian chant up until then.

He's going the distance. He's commanding the feed. He's not alone. Not alone. On his zeitgeist show, because he's ranting and raving and blowing through time. He's a poet, a thinker who opened your mind. He's going the distance with cold brew in tow, finding treasures in the mud where the water's slow. Ooh.

Where the water's slow. Hell yeah. No idea. I didn't write this. Thank you, Victoria G. That's great. Yeah, Victoria G. Shout out Kate. All in all, it's just another brick in the Chris Crofton. Also, yeah, the classic Crofton, aka. All in all, it's just another brick in the Chris Crofton. Crofton. Hey, Crofton, leave cold brew alone.

That's the other one, you know, when you have to eat that boiled egg. Yeah, so that happened. I was listening. It was the episode that you had Kristen when you have to eat that boiled egg. Yeah. So that happened. I was listening. It was the episode that you had Kristen on my friend Kristen to me. And that was a great episode. And, um, I heard, yeah, I heard you guys talk about that. And I was remembering, we called it a brain wipe. Brain wipe.

Yeah. It was a brain wipe. My brain went blank. Like, it was just like a short circuit. It was just too, too much, uh, voltage going through at once. And it was only a couple. It was only a a short circuit. It was just too much voltage going through at once. It was only a couple of times. Only my second or third time on the show, maybe even my second.

I think you guys thought maybe I was about to fall out. We knew that the first episode we were recording. I was like, oh. I was in the middle of talking and then I was like, I can't get my train of thought back. I need to eat. And that's when we're like, we got to keep having this guy on. And this is when I was eating, like on a regular basis, I was eating those Starbucks compartmental, like Starbucks lunchables.

Protein. Right, right. Like I was drinking a huge amount of cold brew and eating that every day. So I had that with me. I showed up, it was my lunch box for Daily Zeitgeist. Yeah. It was the soulless, joyless, capitalist version of bento boxes, whatever that is. Yeah, right.

And I took the high-priced slice of government cheese and smashed it against the hard-boiled egg and shoved it in my mouth, and then I was back in action. Then you were back, baby. It was crazy. It was like something, I feel like that would have been a cure that Hunter S. Thompson, like when he'd be like, we need to get hard boiled eggs in this man. You know, like he's like on too many drugs. It's like Irish.

Yeah. It's Irish stuff. It's like, yeah. Yeah. Smitty went down, get him a potato. Get a potato in him. Shoving a heart, a baked potato in someone's mouth. He's only had eight beers. Get a potato in him. Rises up from the ground. That's the Irish model for real. There's like, get something in your stomach. Just folk tales. Yeah. That's all it is. Yeah. That's all it is.

Yeah. And I forgot. I forgot to get something in my stomach. Yeah. That's all it is. Yeah. Yeah. That's all it is. Yeah. It's not that I forgot. I forgot to get something in my stomach. Yeah. You broke rule one. A fight club. I've been there. I've been there. Well, we're thrilled to have you.

Thanks. It's fun to be here. It's been a while. Yeah. Coming from undisclosed locations. Yeah. I'm at a crazy location. I'm at my new job.

Yeah. Mystery location. On a break. Mystery location. Yeah. And I work for one of the evil empires. One of the famous ones. Like I'm not actually. I mean there's so many. The American. Yeah. Yeah. Empire. On a break. Mystery. And I work for one of the evil empires, one of the famous ones. Like I'm not actually. There's so many.

The American Empire. Well, this one is. I mean, we don't need to. Let's. Let's. Just for our own conscious, we would rather you not divulge that much, Chris. Yeah. To bleep that part out.

Please. I'm in the back room of an old Navy. There you go. It's that much crisp. Yeah. Just bleep that part out. Please. I'm in the back room of an old Navy. There you go. There it is. That's even funnier knowing where you are. It's like, I'm in the back of old Navy. Don't worry, dude.

We're switching out seasons right now, so nobody's going to miss me. But you are in the heart of capitalist empire. That is true. And the vibes are good. I have to imagine good. They're taking all the money, right? So I'm on like a camp, a campus type thing, you know, where it's like the,

the, you know, like it looks like it'd be a lot of fun, you know? I also know nobody at this place is going to listen to this podcast. These people don't know anything about anything except for like, what's wrong with the copy machine and they don't know that's not, that's something they don't know, but they want to ask every, you know, like that's one of the main topics, like what is up with a copy? Circling back, read the copy machine. Yeah.

Anyway, I just like fun benefits, whimsical benefits being, it's just like, it looks like it's going to be fun, you know? And then like, it's just like it looks like it's gonna be fun, you know, and then like it's just I don't know it's like no matter how much soft ice cream you give to Like a Fun orange couches Gulags had soft serve machines and fun orange couches. What if a Gulag had like, yeah, like had like, you know, something, so like, said like live in your best life or something on this.

I mean, it's like fucking it's not, you know, and Gulag actually would be a funny comedic device if it wasn't like at the front of our actual news. Yeah, right. But yeah, this is not a Gulag, but it's, it's just, it is interesting that I've been trying to figure out What's weird about it? It's just like a really fun looking building, but the but there's no no laughs And it's what everyone just kind of like eyes straight ahead like just getting the work done or like the socializing is very superficial Because everyone's I mean I get it everyone's toy dry off threat of being unhoused and uninsured

So it's like I fuck it man, I'm just gonna do my work, just do my work. I think it's mostly work. Yeah, I think they have huge amounts of work. Like a real ton of like closely monitored work. Like there's- I love that you're sneaking off to record a podcast right now.

This is your, I guess I'm like, they got a lot of work, dude. If I got fired, I'd be fine with it. Like, I mean, I don't care. Like I'm doing my job the best I can. And I did find out in the last couple of years that like being freelance as a, you know, I don't even know how to discuss this without like sounding like, um, like you, I would consider myself to be sort of a success at what I do, but, but this

kind of whatever this is, like, um, you know, is not, doesn I do, but this kind of, whatever this is, doesn't pay. It doesn't pay enough. It pays like, I'm so grateful for my Patreon I have for my podcast, and I'm grateful for the occasional thing I'll get, like a tour or something like that, but it's not something that you can count on. I had a tour that was supposed to happen last fall

that was going to be a lot of money. But once again like what I think of is a lot of money, but isn't a lot of money You know, it's like sure less than I don't want to say how much it is, but let's just say it's like Yeah, it's not a living wage. It's not enough, you know And it's like that fell through and then I was fucked So it was like an emergency like it cuz I had that lined up and I was like, oh my god The universe is like providing you know, I mean like right emergency, like it, because I had that lined up and I was like, oh my God, the universe is like providing, you know what I mean? Like, right. Like, oh, it's true what they say, just manifest your, you know, just get in a good mood.

And, and, and, you know, and, and that happened at a time where I was like, oh my God, this isn't going to work out. And then it was like in the mail, like an offer from some people I like saying, come out and do this thing. And it just didn't, and I'm not mad at them. It just got canceled. and that's that. But that was the end of then all of a sudden it was like, oh, I can't manifest my way out of the fact that I have like $200. You know what I mean? So it's like, so I had to get a job.

So I'm at a job and I'm very grateful to have it. But I will say that there's not a lot of room to move up anymore for anybody. You're sort of in your job and that's what it, like there's not, I don't feel like there's much excitement. You kind of know, you have a basic idea of where you're going to go and it's not going to be too far vertically. It's going to be maybe, you know, I don't think the spirit, I don't know. I'm sure like there've been a million jobs like this, but, but they don't present themselves as fun. Usually. I think that's the difference.

Like if he worked at like, you know, I don't know, there's something. Yeah. I like the Ford factory in the seventies or eighties or nineties. Yes. And like this will be fun. Henry Ford, like also like, even though he was probably a horrible employer and I think he was like, he's a Nazi.

Striker and everything. Yeah, yeah, okay. So, but you know, he still didn't like, he didn't like, he didn't like wear a Speedo. He didn't like have a Henry Ford like action calendar, 1938 where it showed him on his boats and stuff. I mean, they didn't rub it in like I mean they did but it was just like

Different way you can see these these guys that are running your company now in bathing suits Like just being like fuck you. You know what I mean? I mean, you know, it's like that is not like a lot of the jobs at this company require a lot of like ability, but you're serving people who are like, you know, you know, they're not good. They don't even pretend, you know, they don't even pretend that this is, this is just a transactional, you're just working for something that has no goal other than money. There's no other thing they're even talking about.

They're not even trying to disguise it, you know, except for with the live in your best life neon. But even that it's like now that Trump's in office, all that rings completely hollow because all of these oligarchs just lined up all these guys who put up the, you know, all these like we're inclusive and all this bullshit is like, it's completely, was all just, just whatever. They read the room at the time and said, we have to put up this kind of shit because this is what's happening because we got a democratic president. Now, oh, fuck, fuck all that.

Yeah. And that's disheartening. I mean, I don't know, you know, I mean, you can be in here and make money at this, you know, this old Navy store that I work at in the mall or, you know, but I mean, just because there was a foosball table in the break room with this old Navy, they're not going to trick me into living here or, you know, being here forever.

Yeah. And I am not really at an old Navy, but somewhere in between an old Navy and, um, and a world bank basically somewhere in between old Navy and Raytheon. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right.

I mean, I think it is, it is something when just thinking of like your, like your point about mobility right now and opportunities for employment and the ones that you have, it's like some people are lucky enough to work at a place that feels like it's doing the right things and most of us just work at the Death Star, you know, and like it is what it is. But the other thing too, it's wild that with all this going on, like you constantly, I keep seeing these headlines like, what are the chances of a recession? The recession that markets it's it's

we're getting close to recession territory. I'm like, anecdotally, from everything I'm experiencing and seeing around me, I would say this is a recession that we're Yes, right. And like to and we're just doing the thing or the media is doing like the mainstream media is doing the thing of like, you know, like, it's rocky right now. And things are a little bit harder for consumers and borrowing rates or blah, blah, blah.

But you look at what the situation is for people, it's hard to say that this is anything but that. And we've been there for quite some time now. It's more about what's the Wall Street definition of it. But I think just in general terms- Right, the stock market isn't technically in a recession. Yeah. So ignore that.

I'm going to go back to the vibes economy. You know what I mean? Right. The vibes economy is in the fucking gutter. And I think a lot of people like, yeah, it's, it's just very, very, the job numbers are predictable. Okay. They don't indicate a recession, but the jobs are bad and they're not allowing for upward mobility, the jobs number, meaning what's the number of jobs

you got, right? Exactly. We got 17 jobs for this guy. So that really helps our numbers. Like this is like the Jamaican family sketch from in living color, like from back in the day. My coworkers are younger than me, which is not surprising. As I'm the oldest person in the world. But I will say that they have side hustles

that are not going to make them billionaires. And they, I think, kind of hold out hope that they are going to. But I'm, from the outside, I find it also sort of like, I mean, you have jobs where you have to have these dreams that, that, you know, and I'm not faulting someone for having a dream at all, because those are the things that keep you going. But at the same time, looking at it as an older person, looking at a younger person in this environment,

trying to have a side hustle where they really think maybe they can, but they have no connections and no family money, it ain't going to happen. It's not like you can just do some mom and pop store when the rent is like this, and you can start some online ordering thing maybe, but I mean, you could start something where you're selling crafts or whatever, but it's like, but then it's not going to get you consumer confidence is low.

People don't have the money to even buy these things. It's, it's also connected and yeah, it's. Yeah. Like whether your business does well is very much connected to, could you do a go fund me and raise a hundred thousand dollars? Right like it's the same. It's all networks now. There's no anyway, it's just sort of hard I think it's hard especially for young people because

You know there was a shot at when I was younger at renting some storefront, you know Because it wasn't five grand a month. It was probably like $300 a month or whatever. I don't know. I'm making this shit up. I've never had a business, but um, it's okay. I like that. I like that number. Yeah. You used to be like, I'm gonna start saying some horseshit. When I was growing up, you could start a bowling alley for $60. Start a bowling alley. It's so believable though, too, because I mean like we always hear about what people bought their houses Yeah

Yeah. Hello. Is it? Too much for the houses. We got to give them leave them money for their bowling league. So it's $60 It's $60 for the whole building. Okay. Yeah, I saw that. All right. Yeah, I like the looks of it Is it long though? That's too short. Thank you. Bye bye. Trying to do a bowling. Buyers market for anyone looking to start a bowling alley. It's the deeper we get into this, the more it feels like it's really bad and bleak And in America, like people don't allow themselves to say that.

And so there's no like community being built around it. There's nobody, like instead you just have to have a side hustle where you fool yourself into being like, this is my meal ticket out. And then I'll be one of the like one in a million that like gets out of the bleak situation that we're all in. And I think that's the thing that separates America is that you have, you either believe that you're going to succeed or you are like told it's your fault, I feel like is like, because like everything's a meritocracy.

That's why we all swallowed. Yes. Culturally too, like to be an American is just to participate in this like constant perpetual act of self denial over the fact that you're vulnerable. Right. You know, there's no, like to your point, like we, we don't have a culture that embraces being honest about how bad things are actually. Right.

And I think when we're not, and like you can see that how that's reflected, even how politicians like message things back. Like it's the people that are saying like, it's so fucking bad right now, you won't believe it, that are getting more attention than the people who are just trying to kind of couch everything in this sort of like faux optimism without being really realistic about like, what is ailing us? It's the mayor from jobs. We're, you know, we're just like, not good. We're good. Everybody could go swimming. We're good.

We're good. Everybody. You guys are naysayers. Yeah, well, I mean, everybody has got three jobs to say they're trying to do two side hustles and their regular job or two regular jobs and two side hustles. They don't even know. Like what I'm finding out is most people don't even know what's going on at all. Like they're going to be so, I told my coworker like, God, can you believe Elon Musk coming for social security?

And she was like, Elon Musk, what does he have to do with social security? What do you mean? What would he have to do with social security? Right. you mean? What would he have to do with Social Security? Right. You know, and I was like, oh my God. Let me tell you. Yeah. I didn't, you know, I mean, people who have kids,

this is a person who has kids, they have no time to even fucking, they're working every minute. Then like, usually if they're at work 10 extra minutes, they have to call their mother to go pick up the kid because they can't be there right on time because they need it. Yeah, because it'll be more expensive if they're there after hours. Yeah, it's like 15 more minutes, they have to call their mother to go pick up the kid because they can't be there right on time because they need it. Because it'll be more expensive if they're there after hours.

Yeah, it's like 15 more minutes, you don't stay 15 minutes after work. So that means I have to, that 15 minutes screws up my entire hair. I don't know how to put it. Like, you know, everything's so close together. Like you can't miss any. The margins are so thin. Yeah. So it's like, I can't, now that I have to stay five more minutes, I'm going to miss my daughter.

I have to do this. Then that means my daughter's going to be over at my mom's house and I have to pick her more minutes. I'm gonna miss my daughter I have to do this then that means my daughter's gonna be over at my mom's house I'm gonna pick her up over there and it's just an endless and then in the middle of that like I'm just a single guy Who's like have you heard about Elon Musk? What is he doing? I thought he was just some rich guy With cold brew breath kept keeps asking me about Elon Musk Kep keeps asking me about Elon Musk. Do you know about Elon Musk? Get the hell away from me.

You hear about this? Why are you so old working at Old Navy? Well, I guess it's on brand actually. It's in the name. They're trying to live up to their name. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Imagine you're scrolling through TikTok. You come across a video of a teenage girl,

and then a photo of the person suspected of killing her. And I was like, what? Like it was him? I was like, oh my God. It was shocking. It was very shocking. I'm Jen Swan. I'm a journalist in Los Angeles, and I've spent the past few years investigating the

story behind the viral posts and the extraordinary events that followed. I started investing my time to get her justice. They put out something on social media so I'd get calls in the middle of the night all the time. It's like, how do you think you're going to get away with something like this? Like you killed somebody. It's the story of how and why a group of teenagers turn to social media to help track down their friend's killer. This is their story.

This is my friend Daisy. Listen to My Friend Daisy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? How goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend.

And Santi was gone. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Hmm, pillow talk. The most unwelcome window into the human psyche. Follow our out of his element hero as he engages in a series of ill-conceived,

investigative hookups. Mama always used to say, God gave me gumption in place of a gag reflex. And, as I was about to learn, no amount of showering can wash your hands of a gag reflex. And as I was about to learn, no amount of showering can wash your hands of a bad hookup. Now, take a big whiff, my bra. ["I Heart Radio App"]

Listen to the hookup on the I Heart Radio App, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. ["I Heart Radio App"] Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me.

And that's the name of our podcast, Beardless D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one. And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid.

It could be a family show. We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out. It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless, S***less Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. You get your podcast.

September, 1979. Virginia's top prison band, Edge of Daybreak, is about to record their debut album Behind Bars in just five hours. Okay, we're rolling. One, two, three, four. I'm Jamie Petrus, music and culture writer. For the past five years, I've been talking to the band's three surviving members.

They're out of prison now and in their 70s. Their past behind them. But they also have some unfinished business. The end of their great eyes of love was supposed to have been followed up by another album. It's a story about the liberating power of music, the American justice system, and ultimately second chances. Listen to Soul Incarcerated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back. We're back. And we might get to some news stories, but we also are going to get to know you, Chris, a little bit better by asking you What is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are? Well, I'll tell you one quick one so we can get moving. It's just I was searching what I do sometimes as I go on YouTube I don't know if you guys I'm not sure. I just search that.

Sometimes I go on YouTube. And is that that's just the letter you and then tube. I'll send you the link. Okay. Okay. Cool. It's yeah, it's this great thing. Anyway, I have a tattoo I got during the pandemic.

I have a big back piece, a YouTube back piece. So I was on YouTube and I searched something I do. I just searched documentary and then like a random year. So I searched documentary 1981. And it's also so I can get content from our brother's website. My brother has a website called channelnonfiction.com and he like, he loves, we both love documentaries. And we kind of bonded over like Grey Gardens in the 90s.

You know, it was like, I'd never the first time I ever saw Grey Gardens. It was like, I don't want to watch any more regular movies. Yeah. This is about two people who were related to the Kennedys and were like former heiresses who just like lived in a dissolving, dilapidating, dilapidating, in real time, overgrown manner in where, what it was like in the Hamptons, right?

East Hampton, yeah. And they, they had like, they both had, you know, I don't know, depression, clinical depression or something. They let the place fall around them. Agoraphobia, I think maybe with the mom. Yeah. And also that thing where two people together both get crazy like called like You know those two Swedish twins who went crazy and like yeah, they're like on the motorway or whatever

You say Siegfried and Roy? Well, it was a different set of codependent twins. Yeah, they're not even twins. Siegfried and Roy were conjoined. That's the difference. That's why they could share a hairdryer. Yeah. But, um, this, this was like, uh, when two people are together, they're psychotic. And if they're not together, it doesn't,

it doesn't like manifest until they're together. And I- Well, now you're talking about our podcast, Chris. Okay. That's three of us. That's true. So, okay. Anyway, so great gardens is a great documentary by the Maisel's brothers, same guys who did gimme shelter. And I was looking up

documentary, and I found such a great documentary, I couldn't believe it. Because if you put in 1981, I don't know, you'll end up getting a lot of like best of the 80s documentary that was made like last year. And it's just like, oh my god, 1981. What happened in the year 1981 Atari? Yes. Right. It wasn't 0.7 million views. I was stunned that I found such a great one and it's called route 66 and it came out in, I guess it says shot in 1981. And it came out in 1985. So I don't know why it was shot.

And I don't think it was shot in 1981, but anyway, it's like a, someone just ripped it from a DVD or something and it's called route 66 and it was made by John T Davis, that's the director. And I'll send you guys the link so you can share it, but it is a shot on film, almost two hour documentary that was made for British TV about Route 66 in 1984. And this guy was a socially minded filmmaker. So he interviewed all these down and out people, stuck the camera in all these old bars and talked to

the regulars and stuff and talked to people in motels, talked to some guy from Texas who wanted to wanted Texas to secede. It was talking about all the same shit that's being talked about right now. And you realize basically America is in the exact same spot it was in 1985, except now no one is making documentaries like this because the five people that

fund everything have no interest in them, in them being made. Right. So that's what knocked me out. Like things were really bad in 1984, but the difference was like things are so much worse now, but they feel better because we do not see it. We do not see that all those towns that are in this, that all these towns that are like under financial pressure because the factory's closing, those towns are now boarded up and full of people overdosing on opioids. And we just don't know about it.

And while they cut funding to PBS and stuff like that, I mean, this is part of the plan, make everyone, you know, cut, make it so no one can go to college, make it so no one knows anybody's poor, make it so, you know, everybody stays. Yeah. Hide the rot. Hiding the rot. Yeah. You know, anyway, so this documentary is a beautiful documentary, but it's also well-made in the

sense that it talks to a lot of fucked up people who are suffering in 1984. And it is so much worse now, but it's really funny because it just doesn't get reflected back to us in the media. But it's also great because I love seeing people hanging out in bars in the 80s. It's tons of- It is your favorite thing. You like to see the bar vibes over the decades. It's so many cigarettes and they're so long and they're so white. Everyone's smoking a cigarette that's like four feet long.

Just, I don't know this country. This country is fucked. Dude, I'm smoking a Benson and Hedges 6000. This country is fucked. The only thing that's good about this country is the cigarettes are long as hell. I do miss those hits. I do miss those hits. They're very yard long. Didn't those old nostalgic cigarette vending machines that were like wood paint, like wood

grain paint? Oh, I used those. Chunk, chunk, chunk. Yeah. Those old, yeah. Oh, man. I pulled those from, like my wife depended on it. They had the same arms. Did you say like my wife depended on it? My wife depended on it. Oh like my wife depended on it

They're the same arm as the pinball machine I feel like oh, yeah My arm was overdeveloped back then from pulling on cigarette machines. Yeah, just a huge right trap. Yeah I think this machine stuck and get the Yankee in here Yeah, I think this machine stuck. Hey get the Yankee in here All the real men all the real men of the 1980s had overdeveloped arms from pulling on one-armed bandits cigarette machines It's all we did arm wrestling. Yep and play And playing vicious Pac-Man tournaments Chris what something you think's underrated how funny Republicans are Chris, what's something you think's underrated? How funny Republicans are?

Cause I was thinking about this DJ. I mean, this is a lighter look. We can, because there's nothing funny about Republicans really. No. But, but also Republicans don't understand how these like crazed libertarians took over their party cause they actually thought they were about balancing the budget at some point. You know what what I mean like my mom was just like I'm just for fiscal responsibilities. She's like what the fuck is this? They're laying off the entire

Center for Disease Control? What does that have to do with anything? You know what I mean? That costs money, Center for Disease Control. Yeah so she doesn't you know like she doesn't understand in a good way like Republicans are like waking up but it's a little too late you know I expected Republicans to jostle, you know, like she doesn't understand in a good way, like Republicans are like waking up, but it's a little too late. You know, I expected Republicans to jostle or, you know, come awake a little like who cares if you wake up now it's too late. Oh wait, you know, anyway, so they're not even close to waking up. I feel like still, right? No, not really.

I think they're in that part where like you're dreaming and you think the alarm clock's going off, but you're still in the dream. You're like, I don't know. Why is the fire truck here? Why is the fire alarm? Why am I going to the bathroom in this dream right now? Yeah, exactly. They're in the, why am I going to the bathroom?

So, so what is funny about it is like, like they don't know anything and they think that that's a good way to be like, basically they're like, I don't need to know anything because I'm a white supremacist and white supremacists don't need to know anything because white people automatically know everything when they're born. It's all loaded in there. And we already know everything already. So we don't need to know anything else. All we need to do is they forget, of course, that the reason why white people have like this huge advantage is because it seems to me looking at

the history of the last few hundred years, they're uniquely violent. And that is the part of them that makes them able to do all this stuff, not competence, not competence. It's not competence, it's violence. So like they, they like do a bunch of violence and then they ride around on tractors and be like, this just happened naturally because we're so inherently smart. Look what we did. We created this lawn. Look at these nice open fields.

We invented the lawn. There was no such thing as a lawn until white people made it up. Except that lawn was where Native Americans used to be. They kept it long. They didn't cut it short like you, you trying to order the world to match it. Ah, this lawn is going up my pants. I want to keep it a little shorter

because I want it to match my pants. So anyway, so I was just thinking about how this Signal app thing, because I grew up in, or I grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut, where these people were, you were bullied out of doing anything that required any thought. If you thought about anything, they were like, what are you doing? You thinking?

What, are you an asshole? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. They're just like, oh, look at Mr. Worry. It was back to Rumsfeld saying, this guy is falling, Henny Penny, this guy is falling, which it was in Iraq. He was like, oh, the insurrection, everybody's afraid of the, all the liberals are afraid of

the insurrection, you know, cuts and 10 years later, us like running away. So I just think this signal app thing is like putting pepperoni on a pizza. Like, like it's like when I was in Connecticut, if I said I want a pepperoni, people were like, Ooh, the like Mr. Cultural, like what pepperoni? Like, cause they're like white people eat plain ooh, the like Mr. Cultural, like what pepperoni like, because

white people eat plain pizza. That's good enough for us. Just plain old pizza. We don't like anything fancy. That's part of our white smartness. I mean, that's no, these are part of our white smartness. We have inherent knowledge that we do not put things on our pizza. We keep it simple. That's why Kevin from Home Alone is the most, is the original white supremacist. So, exactly. I don't even know what that means. So, so. The guy who famously had seen

No Home Alone. I've never seen. He's never seen. Oh my God. I've never confessed that. I've told a lot of people I've seen that. Don't, don't air that. I've gone on a lot of dates and I'm flattered about seeing Home Alone.

Oh, are you kidding me? The main central character is a kid who all he wants is a plain cheese pizza. It's the inciting incident. It's how he gets sent up to the- Attic. Attic to then get left behind and forgotten. Also going along with your theory that that is white supremacist position. The only person of color in the entire movie is a cutout of Michael Jordan that he uses to scare the robbers away.

Scare off someone. There's not another person of color in the entire film. That is funny thing you meant. It's like, it's a shadow of a black man. Exactly. You better run. Well, I know most of that because I read, before I go on a date, I read the Wikipedia for that movie. Uh-huh. Just to make sure that they know that for that movie. Yes, yes.

Just to make sure that they know. The wet man that you're down. Of course. Yeah. Uh-huh. So, any, this is all crazy what I'm saying. I mean, like in this, the way I'm trying to tie it together is I just thought like Signal, okay, Signal app that they talked about the war on, you know, talked about

the war plans, like in detail, which we've all seen now. Like liberals, like people who worry would have been like, Hey, that's not, Oh, the liberal thinks it's not okay to use signal this app. Right? Like, guess what? It's a secure app asshole. And we all use it.

I use it all the time. I've sent all my, I cheat on my wife and I send all my through there and she's never seen it. She's never seen one bit of it. And also my friend Doug started signal and she's never seen it. She's never seen one bit of it. Also, my friend Doug started Signal. This thing is a security. So you get bullied into everybody's on Signal because everyone's like, yeah, these liberals think you got to use these hyper secure things.

Also, white supremacists thinks no one's coming to get them because they think no one else in the world is capable of doing anything except them. Well, yeah, right. We are the apex predators. And we're one month into this and those fools got on a publicly available, quote, unquote, encrypted app and the whole world, for the first time that I can remember, and I'm sure in recorded history, someone, some country put their actual war plans into a text with emojis. And I just think it's so perfect because Republicans actually, and white supremacy in general, gives no credit to anybody except for these fools,

that these four, you know, any, like, little group of white men get together and decide that they're impenetrable because they're just like, we're all together, we're all cool. There's no, no one can hack us, not really. And they got hacked immediately. By the way, you're all cool. There's no, no one can hack us, not really. And they got hacked immediately. By the way, you're welcome.

Not even hacked. Oh, not even hacked, yeah. Just on their, just cause of their own ineptitude. Like they're the architects of their own downfall. Yeah, a forced hacking. They forced the hacking themselves. They added somebody who didn't. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't mean to go crazy. I got a little crazy, but that is like- Your famous catchphrase, I don't mean to go crazy. I got a little crazy, but that is like. But that is like. Your famous catchphrase, I don't mean to go crazy. I got a little crazy there. But white people are apex predators. Well, no, but I mean, it's like really, I think they thought like, yeah, we can use signal.

I mean, really, who's out there? I mean, you think they, liberals think everybody's doing all kinds of stuff all the time. Right. Like they think other countries have like intelligence services, but like, you know, Hegseth's not going to let us get hacked. Are you Hegseth? You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Hell no. Look at Hegseth. Where the heck put this pepperoni on pizza, man? What is that? What is pepperoni anyway? Yeah. Pepperoni Mexican.

In Asia? So yeah. So Hegseth, you know, those guys are like, we can't be hacked. Look at Hegseth's hairdo. It's that kind of thing. And I want a button where I can make Hegseth bald. Yeah. And he would be fired immediately. Because they do everything based on central casting. That guy looks like, you know, some guy from a movie that looks like this.

Yeah. Yeah. By the way, I think white supremacists think nobody is coming to get them with their conscious mind. With their unconscious mind, they know they suck and they're insecure unconsciously, but they don't let that rise to the level of the conscious mind, I think, is how it works.

That's where a lot of the fear and anger comes from, is the knowledge that they're wrong lives somewhere deep down in the dream world of the unconscious that words don't reach, but they know it, it's there, and that's why they're angry and violent all the time. Yeah. And they're dropping bombs while they're like, they act like it's like they're not worried about anything, but all they do is bomb people because they're terrified really. Right. Right.

Anyway, that's my underrated. All right. So underrated. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll get your overrated and definitely get to a bunch of news stories. We'll be right back. Imagine you're scrolling through TikTok, you come across a video of a teenage girl, and then a photo of the person suspected of killing her. And I was like, what? Like it was him? I was like, oh my god. It was shocking. It was very shocking. I'm Jen Swan. I'm a journalist in Los Angeles and I've spent the past few years investigating the story behind the viral posts and the extraordinary events that followed.

I started investing my time to get her justice. They put out something on social media so I get calls in the middle of the night all the time. It's like how do you think you're going to get away with something like this? Like you killed somebody. It's the story of how and why a group of teenagers turn to social media to help track down their friend's killer. This is their story. This is my friend Daisy. Listen to My Friend Daisy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me. And that's the name of our podcast, Beardless, D***less Me.

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We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out. It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless, ****less me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. You get your podcast. September, 1979. Virginia's top prison band, Edge of Daybreak, is about to record their debut album, Behind Bars,

in just five hours. OK, we're rolling. One, two, three, four. I'm Jamie Petrus, music and culture writer. For the past five years, I've been talking to the band's three surviving members. They're out of prison now and in their 70s. Their past behind them. But they also have some unfinished business.

The end of their break, Eyes of Love, was supposed to have been followed up by another album. It's a story about the liberating power of music, the American justice system, and ultimately second chances. Listen to Soul Incarcerated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back.

And Chris, as we do about this time in every episode, we like to ask our guests, what is something that you think is overrated? Well, overrated, and I'll make this, I really will make this quick. It's fine. Chris. That's what you said for everyone. What made me think of this was what made me think of this whole Republican thing and pepperoni

is like deep knowledge of music is also like pepperoni to them. Like it's like too exotic. Like we just need the normal bands. I don't need to know about a million bands. I need to know about Pearl Jam. I need to know about the Allman Brothers and Government Mule.

I need to know about quality good bands. I just need about four bands to get me through four standard bands that go with my go. Yeah, they go with my pants and my general attitude. Bands that can't be hacked. Right. So music bands that are too cool to be hacked. So anyway, that this I had this radio show on college radio and a Republican kid who went to Vanderbilt. Kate had a show after ours and it was called the Cocktail Hour. And he was mad. But they put it on at 11 a.m.

Our show was on like eight to 10 or something. What was your show called? Best of Bread. Oh, OK. Got it. OK. That's best. Yeah. And it was on from 2005, 2009 at some point in there, most of the students at Vanderbilt, you know, don't aren't, aren't interested in college radio. So the whole schedule is wide open.

So we had a whole, the whole schedule was like locals and this, but this kid was from Vanderbilt and he was a preppy kid, you know, he dressed like a golfer or whatever, and he, and he, and he came in and he was like, and he played. First of all, he's like, man, I wanted the show's called cocktail. I was hoping they'd put it on at five, but he didn't understand. Like you don't get to choose. Like he's like, they put me on 11 AM kind of ruins the concept. And we were like, yeah, it's a great concept, but yeah, it's ruined.

Cool. It's a crazy concept. You should give up. You should stop. It used to be called happy hour. So anyway, here's the thing about Republicans. It's very much like choosing a commercially available app to transmit war plans

or not having pepperoni on your pizza because you think it's communist. The these guys, this guy played normal music on college radio. He played, like when you listen to his set as we were driving away in the car, he played like honky tonk women. Wow. And then he played pink by Aerosmith. My favorite color. And then that's like standard. That was in 2005 or 2009. That is what is on most

radio stations. Yeah. Republicans are idiots. Yeah. And they don't see it because they convince themselves like, yeah, I don't need, I don't need to go crazy and find out about every band when there's a perfectly good band called the Rolling Stones. And ladies and gentlemen, anyway, so he played, he played honky tonk women on goddamn college radio. That's what Republicans do.

Yeah. That's right. I'm playing. I don't know if you guys heard this little banger from REO Speedwagon, but we're playing Can't Fight This Feeling. I think it's the first time anyone's heard this one. Yeah. You're not going to believe this.

It's a live version of REO Live from 1997, but he doesn't even know it's like with all the wrong band members. He was like, right. The, all the wrong band members. The original REO Speedwagon. So that's it. That's it. I don't know. Yeah. That's, I don't know if I proved my case, but I think Republicans are so stupid.

Yeah. And it overrated is the cocktail hour. That overrated is Republican DJs. Overrated as Republican DJs. That guy probably has the number one podcast in America right now. And obviously both parties are horseshit, but I mean, like in general, like being a Republican has always been like bragging about knowing nothing and thinking everything was going to work out just because you fucking, you know, use the right, because you use ivory soap, but it

dries your fucking skin out. Right. I don't need, I don't need moist skin. I don't need moist skin, you liberal fucker. They don't even know their skin's dried out. Right. It's just flaky. Let's talk about a news story, shall we?

Yeah. Over the past couple of weeks, we've seen a bunch of legal residents of the United States and students being disappeared because they either looked like gang members or they had the decency to speak up against a genocide. Yeah. And they're getting, like in some cases they're just like people in masks are coming up to them. Yeah.

I'd say almost all cases these people are hiding their faces. And like the tattoo, I was just reading about a guy who had an autism awareness tattoo for their little brother, and they use that as grounds for being gang tattoo. Another guy had a soccer ball. Anyway, and now we're seeing more students, you know, then like even students who weren't like necessary, like as if as if organizing a protest is worth having any kind of attention on you from authorities. But like there's another student at Columbia named Ronjani Srinivasan who left to Canada because they were just like, oh,

they found out that she found out her visa was being revoked and had ICE agents knocking on her door. And she was just like, I wasn't even participating in the Hamilton Hall protest. I mean, I have like, I have openly supported the Palestinian cause, but I wasn't necessarily at the rallies or organizing or speaking at them. But yeah, she left because she was just like, this is fucked up. at them. But yeah, she left because she was just like, this is fucked up. Then like there's so many stories like this. Another we also touched on Yun-Seo Chung, who's like another student from South Korea, who's been here in the US since she was seven, but again, deigned to have any kind of opinion on genocide. We've seen this with lecturers at universities. And one of the most recent ones was like this disappearing of this

PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk who was at Tufts University and again she's getting a lot of attention because of her brazen daylight kidnapping that was caught on fucking video and it looks like some shit out of a movie like she's walking on the sidewalk she's on her way to a friend's house to break her fast and one one by one, masked agents pull up, start pulling badges out, start clawing at her, taking her backpack off, putting their masks on, and throw her in the back of an SUV. And we see all these things. We see what's happening with the government.

And I think I definitely, all the time, just sort of internally and outwardly, saying shit like, oh my God, what is this? Nazi Germany? And a lot of people do say this kind of thing, but I was just reading this piece by Daniel Besner, who's like a historian and he's been on Zeitgeist before. He wrote a piece in Jackman that kind of gave a little bit like some perspective that I really needed. He sort of points out that, wow, this is all very disturbing and terrible.

And not normal by sort of like what we believe to be the everyday comings and goings of, you know, America. It isn't some kind of like freaky fascism that is happening here that comes from like European history. This is all actually very American and the laws being used are not coming out of thin air. used are not coming out of thin air. They are American laws. And that just sort of gives a lot of these examples to sort of help re-center like what we're fighting against. Cause I think it's, it's very easy to be like, this is some foreign malady that's landed on our shores.

And what, what do we do about this? Rather than giving ourselves a little bit of historical perspective and understanding that the way out of this is truly like through reckoning with how we actually, how our own laws are constructed, how our own systems of oppression are constructed. Like talking about presidents that act unilaterally without congressional oversight, you know, you point to the fact that while typically Congress was the body that was empowered to officially declare war, the last time Congress did that was 1942. And since then we've threatened or used direct force over 200 times at the behest of the president or illegally.

Those weren't officially wars. You know what I mean? Sure, sure. So we didn't, we didn't officially lose them either. That's undefeated and like illegally detaining and deporting people. I mean, look, we've seen it in world war II with what we've done to Japanese American people. This was, look, we've seen it in World War II with what we've done to Japanese American people, this was also happening during Woodrow Wilson's presidency.

And it goes on and on and on. And I just think, again, his point isn't that we just need to sort of chill out because this is all just very par for the course of the United States. But again, like to frame it as this thing that isn't uniquely American is not, is counter to like effective resistance effective resistance when this is truly also about reckoning with what has been constructed in the United States and actually figuring out how to dismantle those things as well. Yeah. I think it's hard for Americans to... The Israeli, quote unquote, settlers who attacked the Oscar-winning filmmaker and they had masks on as they did it.

People were like, oh, it's like the Klan again. But then when there's these masked police officers or whatever, these masked ICE agents who are kidnapping people off of American streets for having the wrong opinion, I feel like people aren't as quick to make that connection, even though the Ku Klux Klan is the origin of American policing. You know, it's definitely interested. And also thinking about the people who are of high status, which is why they even

covered their faces when they did that, because they couldn't, they knew this was something they couldn't reconcile that with their outward personas or identities. But yeah, it's just, I mean, I think the point being too is like, because I think a lot of people are like, oh, we just got to get rid of Trump. But if we don't get rid of the rule set that we just have in the United States, Democrats use these same laws to justify these same kinds of actions as well. So it's not, I think that's like a larger point that we really need to think about.

And also really take a second to really sort of settle with that because right now it's students who are who have visas who aren't technically United States citizens that they're mistreating with impunity. The logic in history only suggests that this will then extend to actual citizens of the United States too. And to think that maybe this is like, well, it'll certainly stop there and it won't come to us, I think is really, really dangerous.

And we really need to look at what's happened, especially with this student at Tufts. Like I think the only, again, charged without a crime, no crime, she wasn't charged with any crime. They're just like, material support for Hamas. And I think the only thing they can point to is that she was in a byline in the university paper that doesn't even mention Hamas.

It just asks the administration at the school to recognize what is happening that the international court called this place, the situation in Gaza for a high risk of genocide, acknowledging that and divesting as appropriate. And this is what's happening. And I think that's very fucking scary. It's very frightening and sadly very American. This is the moment we have to move beyond

the two party system or we have to abandon both these parties at this moment. I don't know how we're gonna do it, but I think most people, well, not most people, but a lot of people realize that we're appealing to the Democratic party at this point is pointless. And all you have to do is look at the history of the Democratic party for the, even the last, like 20 years or 15 years.

Um, you know, Obama, I cried when Obama got elected. That's how invested I was in party politics back then. And that was not long ago. And I, and I, and I, and I really thought something good was going to happen. And then they told us something good was going to happen. I mean, no, I say, I got no transparency. really thought something good was going to happen. Because they told us something good was going to happen. Yes. They said hope and change. No.

I said, yeah, I got to know transparency. Maybe I'm going to prosecute the bankers. Maybe I'm going to prosecute the war criminals from the Bush administration. I said maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. Anyway, and that was like quite the opposite with Obama. He, I don't know the stats, but I know he was doing tons and tons of drone attacks,

you know, accidentally blowing up weddings. And deporting and going after whistleblowers. So this is the thing, whistleblowers haven't been deported because they're American citizens and maybe, maybe that's like a bridge too far or it was then, but they did everything short of deport. They ruined their lives. Like the people that people that broke the story that the CIA was still collecting Americans' phone data

or like illegally, the NSA, CIA, those guys were like, hey, there's a whole room in this building where they just have this thing that's copying the whole internet. And they said they stopped doing that. Those people all were ruined. Like, I mean, I forget the name of the guy I wish I had on the tip of my tongue, but that was a snow American citizen guy.

Well, Snowden had to leave. I mean, reality winner, anybody who tries to do the right thing generally. Um, yeah, gets fucked like hard, not just a little Democrats by Democrats, just as hard as Republicans. So that, if we really want that to change, you know, there has to be and we may be able to pull out like an AOC

or a Bernie out of the we might be able to pull some like greatest hits out of the Democratic Party to start a new party, but I'm suspicious of even that. But I mean, we really need a third party or just I mean, those parties are done in my opinion. Yeah, I've seen the absolute failure appealing to Democrats now is just like, anyway, so I think because we still look at like America as like this house that like we still want to live in. And it's like, we're nostalgic for it without really realizing how dilapidated, rotten and violent it is. And we're like

insisting that it can be fixed. And we're, but we're all, we're all living under the same sort of oppressive cage and trying to think that like, well, maybe if we can just reform this, it'll work rather than like what activists have been saying for the last thing. Like you can't, we can't reform our way out of this. Like this has to be left behind because we're seeing what the status quo for both of these, both sides of this political spectrum, how that plays out. And it's not beneficial to normal people at all. It's basically two flavors of oligarchy.

Yes, one one has like better marketing and the other is just more in your face with how fucking just brazen it is. So I think, yeah, to your point, it's every time people like I mean, like so many people are like, God, the demo, what the fuck are they doing? Like, we can't even fuck like these people don't even want to have a fight. That energy has to kind of extend to also realizing we cannot let these people, you know, continue to try and convince the rest of America that like they are the solution to this problem, that they are also the cause of.

And that's why I'm here. We've got to, everyone's got to run until there is third party. That's what I'm saying. Like, dude, you running is amazing. Uh, cat Abu Ghazala running in Illinois's ninth district to against Jan Shikowsky. That's great. The, the home that is running for mayor in New York, Zorin Mamdani, who is just again, talking that real shit about like we are leaving normal people behind and we are emphasizing the wellbeing of corporations

over really simple shit, like being able to afford to get around the city or pay your bills or eat food and whatever free speech we have left, we've got to use it. I mean, like right now you can still run for office. It's not even hard. And you might not get elected, but you will get to speak to people. That was for me, like just getting invited to events where they gave me a microphone. You know, that's huge. Like being on a podcast is also huge.

The fact that you guys are talking about this stuff fearlessly is huge. I'm so excited every time I hear someone telling the truth because it's dangerous right now, but it's a risk that has to be taken. You know, it has to be taken. And, and, and, you know, I, I anyway, yeah, what you're saying is correct. I mean, it's like, uh, I'm just as, I mean, I'm still wishing the Democrats would, would do something. Cause I'm grew up in this country.

Yeah. So I'm like, Oh God, Chuck Schumer really dropped the ball. Whereas there's a lot of people are like, he's a professional. Yeah. Yeah. His job is to drop the ball. You know, did you forget what you said yesterday? You know, because you keep wanting to go back to, because everyone just

wants to have some fun and like raise their kids, they don't want to deal with all this fucking bullshit. He's like the Washington generals. The Democrats more and more just seem like they are intentionally there to have their pants pulled down as the Harlem Globetrotters put spin the ball on top of their head and then one bucket of confetti on their head. Yeah, it's literally called controlled opposition. Yeah, it's literally called controlled opposition. Yeah Well Chris Crofton such a pleasure having you as always on the daily zeitgeist. Thanks. This was like a mission I'm on a secret mission. I'm not really in the back of an old Navy

But I had to run away or do the daily zeitgeist, but I will tell you this I love you guys and I love this audience so damn much We love you, man, that I would if ever there's some job where I cannot do this podcast, I will quit that job and I will do that. I'll do that. We'll just change our recording time to that. No, we need to comment. I'm not kidding.

I value this. This is the stuff that, that keeps me sane, you know, telling the truth. That's what keeps me sane. Telling the fucking truth. And, and, and, uh, and that's all anyone. I don't know what the end of that is, but something, something, something that's all anyone I always love. Whenever I get off the phone, I'm like that too.

You have a great day. And also that, I don't know. So that's all we can hope for. You go get them. Yeah. And with your spirit and also with you, Chris, where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff. They can find me on Instagram, sadly. They can also find me mostly on Instagram. You can find

me on Blue Sky. That's where I do the poetry window. You can very shortly, the audiobook is finally actually finished completely. I can't even tell you how long it's been, how long it's taken, but it's going to be on the market in a couple of months. I will once again, keep you all posted. My album is on the way. It's going to be out in a couple of months as well. And the documentary about me is coming out, uh, premiering, uh, next month in, uh, no, in May in, in, in, at the bell court theater in, in Nashville. And I don't have a date yet, but I will let you know that too.

So, um, lots of fun stuff. And the other thing is go read my advice king about golf. I wrote it's the newest one and it's so fucking funny. It's my, it's about golf, making Republicans feel like farmers. Nice. You gotta go read it. Will take a couple strokes off my game, dog? You gotta know, not at all.

Nothing about golf of any use in there. I say that the game of golf was invented in 1962 by William F. Buckley Jr. and it was originally called 18 Reasons to Put Your Kids in Boarding School. So anyway, go find my golf. It's called How to Improve Your Golf Swing. And thanks again. Thanks again. Amazing. Is there work of media you've been enjoying? Oh, yeah. One thing. I found something. So since I had to run away to do this episode, I figured I should be prepared Of course, I'm not really exactly. Oh, this one is from a cry

You guys might be familiar with crystal Bay one Ever heard her crystal Bay Crystal Bay, you know like Bay like your boyfriend or whatever Crystal crystal Bay, you know like Bay like your boyfriend or whatever Crystal Bay one and she said salmon good as fuck. I see why bears just grab them bitches out the river It's true Sam's good so good cooked so good raw to salmon is just So delicious. It's very good. Wait. why do you think we would know Crystal Bay one? Because I looked at her account and she has like 15 zillion followers and she's just always yelling and screaming. But I love that. Just the simplicity of that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I always love when you find black Twitter, Chris. And see, I do that on black Twitter more than anybody. And I think that I think I think are you thinking of that fake George Orwell quote when he's talked about telling the truth? Because there's that fake Orwell quote that's like, in a time of deceit, telling the truth can be a revolutionary act. I wasn't thinking about that.

But yeah, because of Instagram, everybody's screwing up all the quotes. It's like Weird Al Yankovic probably said that. Yeah. It's actually Kermit DeFrog. Exactly. Yeah, like, yes, the Rainbow Connection, George Orwell, or whatever it is. Wonderful. Miles, where can people find you?

Is there a work of media you've been enjoying? Yeah, man, find me everywhere at Miles of Grey. You find Jack and I on the basketball podcast, Miles and Jack got mad. Boosties, a great episode if you're a Laker Hopium Snorter like I am the light somebody was like, okay, Jack you think the Lakers are the dark horse team? I was like what yeah, what do you mean? Yeah In that they're not supposed to be

On their team yeah, that's like if you're playing 2K or something, right. And you're like, dude, I'll pick that team. I'll beat everybody. Anyway, look, that's the fun about talking about sports anywhere out loud. Is those guys take a nice math? Also find me talking about 90 day fiance on four 20 day fiance. I like a couple of things over at your little boyfriend posted. If you're white, you can't crash out.

You can only go bonkers. That's right. And I thought that was correct. That was a crash. I'm going bonkers over here. You're not crashing out. You're bonkers. You're bonkers.

And I said a form of that like four times today. And then Maddie Lupchansky at Maddie lupchansky calm on blue sky Posted an ass that won't quit and also cannot be easily fired due to an ironclad collectively bargain contract one by the ass and her union comrades That's good. That's fucking good. That's good You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien and on blue sky at Jack OB the number one. I was enjoying that. So discussing film posted first look at Chad Michael Murray and freakier Friday in theaters August 8th with like a screen cap from a movie and Paige at boner wizards tweeted

can only think about this click hole quote. And it was a picture of Chad Michael Murray and it said every time I do good. They let me have another boy's name Chad Michael Murray Shout out the click hole Yeah, you can find us on Twitter and blue sky at daily zeitgeist. We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. You can go to the description of this episode wherever you're listening to it, and you can find the footnotes,

which is where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode. We also link off to a song that we think you might enjoy. Hey, Miles, is there a song that you think people might enjoy? Yeah, this is a bit of modern-day psych rock from UK From a band nice biscuit. The track is called the star. It's got a nice little Dreamy positive vibe to it to start your weekend off. I think that's good kind of music So if you're looking for something like that throw this in your fucking tape deck and I said put that in your tape day

Yeah, the star nice biscuit. Let's go tape deck and I said put that in your tape. Yeah the star nice biscuit Let's go tape deck and smoke it Alright, well we will link off to that in the footnotes today These guys does a production of I heart radio for more podcasts from my heart radio visit the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows that's gonna do it for us this morning and this week That's that's the week another week in morning and this week. That's the week. Another week in the books. Swish from the logo.

We'll be back on Monday to tell you what was trending over the weekend. And we will have a best of episode over the weekend from this week's episodes. So look out for that and we will talk to you all then. Bye. The Daily Zeitgeist is executive produced by Katherine Law. Co-produced by Bae Wang. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Edited and engineered by Justin Connor.

Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, dickless version of me. And that's the name of our podcast, Beardless, Dickless Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one. And every week, we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language.

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In this week's episode of my new podcast, Fighting Words, I talk with the iconic actress, Gabrielle Union, about some of her pivotal roles and how to be a good parent in the face of today's backlash against Black and queer communities. If you are more concerned about what your fellow racists think about you, you've already lost. Listen to Fighting Words on the iHeart Radio app,

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