The Daily Zeitgeist - Crofton's Media Blackout: It's A Wonderful Life

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

In this special holiday episode, Miles and Jack are joined by Chris Crofton to watch a beloved holiday  movie that, conversely, Miles and Jack never seen before: It's A Wonderful LifeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast, Guaranteed Human. I'm Stefan Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different. Visit Gentleman's Cut Bourbon.com or your nearest Total Wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit

Gentleman'scuturban.com. Please enjoy responsibly. I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him. Gabe Ortiz is a cop. His brother Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late. He was the head of this gang. You're going to push that line for the cause?

Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangle a dangerous past, one that could destroy everything he thought he. new. Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Who would you call if the unthinkable happened?

My sister was y'all 22 times. A police officer, right? But what do you do when the monster is the man in blue? This dude is the devil. He'll hurt you. This is the story of a detective who thought he was above the law until we came together to take him down.

I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die. I got you, I got you, I got you. Listen to the girlfriends, untouchable, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And she said, Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night. Along the central Texas plains, teens are dying, suicides that don't make sense, strange accidents, and brutal murders. in what seems to be a plot ripped straight out of breaking bad drugs alcohol trafficking of people there are people out there that absolutely know what happened listen to paper ghosts the texas teen murders on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts Hello, the internet, and welcome to this special holiday episode of DirtyEly's Nightgeist!

Yeah. It's a production of IHeart Radio. This is a podcast where you take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness and for the holidays. Mm-hmm. We like to take a deep dive into America's shared Christmas spirit. Mm-hmm. The Christmas Geist. Exactly.

Exactly. I'm joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray. Oh, Sharks, Jack. Miles Gray. Thanks for having me on, Jack. I can't do it. Mine's just Domparta. I have to, like, I got to move my shoulders.

We have watching Miles is worse than hearing him. Yeah. To get into the Jimmy Stewart. These people at home are missing something. He's having a Jimmy Stewart seizure. Fucking vocal stem right now. New vocal stem unlocked. He's having a Christmas seizure.

Oh, boy. Oh, buddy. He's just be, that's called the Christmas spirit, Chris. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. For this special series of two holiday, episodes we're calling Christmas blind spots.

We've got a hilarious stand-up comedian, actor, musician, one of the very faces on Mount Zaytmore. Oh, yeah. You can listen to his podcast. Cold brew got me like anywhere. The poetry window was open because it's Chris, motherfucking crofting! Check, check!

What's up? Hello. What's happening? Chris. Oh, just getting ready to talk about this movie, which I forgot a lot of. Hey, Chris, for the poetry window, could you just like riff a poem about how it twas the night before christmas for me real quick twas the night before christmas and all through

the house oh shit this is good right away where's he going where's he going i can't i can't think i got a shit uh what else what else that poem was actually originally in a cipher that was it came up with it off off the dome um they went around the circle yeah a rap battle a rap battle yeah um absolutely so for the first episode in this series chris had never seen Home Alone so we came in Chris watched Home Alone and then we got his initial impressions of

the film that were better than my impressions of the film because I'd seen it so many times it was like burned into the fucking back of my brain you know yeah you know I thought I'd seen more of that movie than I had you know over the years there's so many clips of it

but it turns out I really never saw most of that movie I kind of thought I must have seen it in pieces or something but I had the exact same experience of this movie i was uh so that this time we're doing a movie that is a blind spot for miles and i it's a wonderful life of a holiday classic that every time i've ever told somebody i hadn't seen it they were like what the fuck is that starts shaking me about the shoulders and neck what are your parents not white is what i heard and i was like yeah yeah exactly um yeah i just i never had but i have thought one of the main reasons i hadn't seen it

it's black and white. Another reasons that... Oh, yeah. I think it's a black and white reason I have. No, no,

it's just black and white. Yeah. Yeah, same. When choosing between there, there's plenty of holiday movies I haven't seen. And yeah,

I'd rather go with one that's colorful and cheerful. I think it's to Chris's point about home alone. It's like, I want something that's societal volume when I watch it.

That's like, I need to melt away. And I think also, as a kid when this is always on I considered black and white movies homework so I was like bro I don't know this is homework this is not enjoyable because like I have to pretend it's in color

I can't do that my very childish perception it's not something I'm proud of it's not something no no no I'm not saying you're going to get on board with this shit so like why am I on trial here no and then the other reason

is I thought I knew what the movie was about I was like yeah I get it I what a wonderful life I assumed it opened with him on the bridge. That's what I thought was going to be happening. And that shit takes a while. But I will say I was like pleasantly surprised by some of the shit in here.

Like the accuracy of the snapshot of like how capitalism works in this movie. I thought was more realistic than any like mainstream pop culture classic that I'm a aware of where it's just like man this shit will drive you crazy on purpose relentlessly it will grind you down and the first hour of the movie is much more of like watching somebody just be ground down by the forces of capital than I was expecting yeah it's how long is the movie again it's uh hour and 50 to 210 actually 2 10 yeah two 10 and it's not until at what an hour and 40 minutes in that you start to be like oh the movies is actually going in another direction oh this is the one yeah the whole time i was my first note was why is everyone so worried about george bailey sounds like he's a pretty fucked up dude everyone's just praying for you is a bad sign like again i have no i have no idea what this movie was about i just noticed jimmy stewart in the end he's like holding a little girl by a christmas street those are the only snapshots i have of the movie is like like the end like sort of frame yeah i've seen it i've seen it a bunch of times and i thought

the angel gave him three wishes or something i i had no i totally i thought it turns out i remember nothing i remember nothing about anything i thought he was on a bridge and the angel gave him three wishes and he wished for to not exist three times or something yeah i thought it was all going to be flashback you know which i guess it kind of is but instead of like having it be like I'm George Bailey and I bet you're wondering how I got here about to jump off a bridge and kill myself. Well, you know, and then flashback instead of showing that, it just shows a bunch of people praying for George Bailey and then some stars talking to each other for like a weirdly long period of time. Like is one Joseph the human father of Jesus? Because like I feel at one point someone says something about Jesus, Mary and Joseph help him or something.

It's assuming a lot of biblical knowledge on a modern viewer's part that I don't think is quite there. I mean, you got, you got to be like, give me Joseph's last name here. Be like, Joseph of Father of Jesus. Or, you know, like I would have thought like St. Peter or somebody like that because my knowledge of like how Christian heaven works is based on very old memories and just like New Yorker. cartoons where like it's always St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, you know what I mean? Who directed this movie? Frank Capra.

Right. So it's like, I think it's pretty damn good. And I think Frank Capra, you know, he must have had his reputation for some reason, you know. Everybody talks about Frank Capra, you know, or at least everybody, everybody. Everyone's talking about this Frank Capra fella. Film people talk about Frank Capra, you know, up there with like. Everybody talking about Capra.

The greats, you know, so like this movie, is pretty good, you know, in terms of like, it's pretty fun the way they structured it. Like, in the way they also the, like, even the stars talking to each other. I mean, it's some primitive special effects. I mean, but it kind of works. You know, it's like a little aluminum foil hanging off of a fishing line. Yeah.

With like, they may get light up a little bit when it talks. You know, it works. So you're like, oh, that's the one that's talking right now. It's like, oh, the twinkling ones talk. Like, I'd rather see that than Vin Diesel. I don't know why, you know, it's like somehow like seeing, something like that like um makes me maybe i'm a little bit fucked up but i'd rather see this than vin diesel um but yeah those are the two only two choices too yeah that's what it feels like

that's how i feel like in capitalism it's either like black and white or vin diesel i'll take black and white and i used to think black and white was like suck too like if i saw black and white i thought snooze fest right you know like you know like because i went to fucking school and like tried to be whatever i went to took a film class and they showed you like battleship a tempkin which is about some baby carriage going down to staircase

which was like rocked everybody's world like in 1912 from the naked gun opening scene yeah like yeah like that was supposed to be like I mean a real nerds who watch you I was like three references

because that was a reference to the untouchables yeah yeah so and then I think it was naked gun 33 and a third or two and a half black and white with like yeah like okay like this is back

when an action sequence man was was boring you know like a baby carriage going down the stairs like apparently Russia went crazy like you gotta see this this is like a this thing is crazy baby carriage down the steps that's another one where the baby carriage

going down the stairs is like five seconds in the middle of this hour long film but I was like oh the one the baby carriage better be there at the beginning middle and end the cabinet of Dr. Calgary or yeah yeah metropolis or whatever they're fine but but I didn't

realize for a long time that there are some black and white movies that are worth seeing by really action-packed directors that just happened to be around when that was like what they were doing. But yeah, I'd say, uh, I don't know. I'm a little bit fucking weird, but I like this movie Citizen Kane. Um, right. That one does hold up.

Like that, that is one where you like watch it and you're like, this just feels like it was shot yesterday. Well, yeah, I was wrong about this. I found that. I mean, I wrote a whole column about how you don't want to, I won't, you know, I won't go on a date if it's a black and white movie or some shit like that. And it turns out that, like, a face in the crowd, that movie, a face in the crowd directed by Ilya Kazan, that movie is like so fucking awesome and modern and incredible. And that's the one that like turned me like, holy crap, am I stupid?

Like this movie's unbelievable. Talks about Trump, basically, you know, or that phenomenon of an egomaniac taking over the country. And it's just in black and white. But just go see that movie. If you like this movie If you think that's something Yeah You like these guys talking about values

Wait till you see this movie about this Chris Andy Griffith How often did you see this movie? It's a wonderful life Wonderful life I thought I'd seen it like almost like every year for a while I thought I mean like but were you tuning in Like I know it's a tradition in an American broadcast TV

I must not have seen it that many times Because I really did think the beginning was like The Bridge same kind of thing with Jack Like I thought it was like The Angel was involved from the beginning I thought the, I thought it was like a modern Ebenezer Scrooge type thing, like where they take them around. The whole movie was, I thought was that. I didn't realize the movie was like a anti-capitalism hour and a half with just like some, you know, some fun stuff at the end for

like the kids or whatever or some value stuff. But mostly it's a really, yeah, it's a really understandable critique of capitalism, which I did not remember, which of course I didn't. I saw it when I was a kid mostly and you're not going to remember that part. That part's the worst part. There's a lot of emotional nuance that I feel like if I, if I, I saw this as a kid, I'd be like, this movie sucks. Yes. But I was watching it now, I'm like, God, damn. Like, it was, the movie is so heavy to start.

I was almost like, this is a lot. Yeah. But I'm looking at it in the context of the 40s or whatever when it was made. And I'm like, okay, this is probably like, this is like laugh out loud fun. They're like, oh, yeah. I think I saw the sound of music. Yeah, right, right, right. I think I saw the sound of music more times.

Like, I think that was more like our family thing. Yeah. Like, then it's a wonderful life. think we watched sound of music over and over again. Brian the editor is pointing out that there's a classic Tom and Jerry episode that is based on this where the cat is like wants to kill himself and then like it's saved by it and all sorts of wild shit happens. And like I think that is, that's the version of it that exists is like Guy on Bridge,

angel visits, shows him his life without, shows him the life without it. but it yeah so it doesn't happen until fairly late in the movie just a a little bit of background that I didn't know just looking briefly into it is that this movie fucking tanked at the box office when it came out it like did not do well um and then it was just like cheap to put on TV and they just put it on TV every year and it just slowly by slowly like it was nominated for an Oscar it wasn't like a movie that like didn't exist yeah yeah it just didn't go see it. And then just by putting it on TV,

which is like a new technology at the time, they were like, oh, I guess we like this now. It was sort of like to America, what Home Alone is to Romania, as we covered in the last episode. Yes, yes, yes.

Where they show it every Christmas Eve. Oh, Home Long was, I was probably trying to think of like my next joke or something. So we talked about that last time. Yeah. Romania and Poland both. I thought you'd be like Home Alone is what we talked about last time. I'm like, Mr. President?

Are you okay, sir? No, no, I just met that part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like the way certain things are popular, like, in only some countries. Like, there's a song called Boys Do Fall in Love by Robin Gibb. And it, it didn't chart anywhere except it, like, went to, like, number one in Italy or something in, like, 19776. Isn't that funny? And it's just like, yeah, it's like Italy had some, had some screw loose for that song.

Yeah. Yeah. Should we do the little rock through like we did with Home Alone and see what's happening in the movie and our impressions as it goes by? So you covered the opening. The opening where it's like we see the earth. We hadn't been to space yet. So it kind of looks like shit. Yeah.

The version of the earth. They're like, I don't know. It probably looks like a big ball of like Gumby. Like Gumby was smashed into a ball. And we see prayers coming out of the earth. and then the angels are the stars and the bones are their money and they're talking to each other

and they're like, we need to help this guy George because people are praying for him and the other guy is like, well, what's his deal? And he's like, well, journey with me, won't you? Yeah. And takes him back to see some scenes from his childhood

at first. fucking head. Also, the flashback to the childhood, I was so jealous and frightened at the same time. Because one of my first and was like, damn, look how much fun these kids are having on a shovel. Yes, the shovel. The shovel sledding on a shovel.

And the set looked like they act, there was maybe, that shit looked like ice, like that they had that they were actually sliding on. I was so into the production value of that winter. I was like, okay, was this a sound stage? And then I was like, okay, this is at RKO Studios, is where they actually shot this. Yeah.

So, yeah, his brother, Harry falls in. He saves him. And it causes, like, just hearing loss in his left ear. Yeah, he loses the ability to hear in his left year, which is going to become important later when World War II happens. Exactly. Exactly. Because they like people who can hear war in stereo.

Yeah. So, yeah. Then, like, there's just another moment that I like to have, like, him and all his friends are, like, walking him to his after-school job. I'm like, I'm like, my fuck your. 10 years old. Yeah. And they're like,

all right, man, get your ass in there. Time to go to work. He works at a druggist. Yeah. Mr. Gowers.

Hammered both in, within the story and the actor is hammered apparently while making this scene. Oh, really? Oh, is that so? So he is accidentally poisoning people

with the drugs that he's providing them. And Jimmy Stewart, George Bailey as a child is like I think you're I didn't really follow how this all came together like I had a hard time yeah how he figured out that it was because he watched he watched

him bag it up you watched him bag up the capsules and he saw the big skull and crossbones John he's like wait bro what the fuck the fuck you're trying to do and so he tells the druggist hey you just like poison that kid and the druggist just started

beating the shit out of him which apparently was not fake. The druggist was actually drunk and slapped that kid so much his ear started to bleed. No, it isn't. Yeah, that really... Where did you see that? Are you serious?

Wikipedia, yeah, yeah. That kid's bloody ear. He really was smacking the shit out of that kid? Yeah, he was really smacking him. And then it's like the 1940s version of like a happy ending for a child actor. He then hugged him after the scene.

So it was like cool. Wait, so how did his ear start? the fuck how his ear was he was his ear was bleeding yeah was his ear bleeding he's like it's my bad ear yeah yeah i mean yeah there's like there's like oh wow i didn't and then yeah according to people on the set and who knows if they were just throwing this actor under the bus to well that actor was like playing that his son had just passed away right that was the idea like his son had passed away and i think the idea was normally this guy was a nice guy this gruggist and he was just having a bad day was the idea.

Yeah. Right. He just was like his son died and so what are you going to do if your son dies except for slap the shit out of his dog boy? Yeah, exactly. And then poison a lady who has diphtheria or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, everyone knows what happens when druggists grieve.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm poisoning. Put on a helmet and don't take any of your pills. The one thing that I thought was very old-timey and point. The druggist dog died. Was when I think it was Mary, he was given some. ice cream too and he's like you don't do you want coconuts and he's like you don't know where coconuts are from and my boy little george pulled out a full on nat geo magazine from his pocket like

it was a smartphone yeah and he's like you know what we had back then that's my childhood too pulling a magazine out and i'm like there you go miles you don't understand i'm not kidding no i mean i definitely had i mean i was carrying around slam magazine the source double excel like i definitely had things like that in my back but i just love the idea of like how he's like Within my pocket, I have this magazine with information about coconuts. There's just so many of these sort of bygone era things that I was like, these are really nice textures that I'm like, we've lost touch with humanity completely. And the fact that coconut was like this exotic thing to them.

It was like, you want to try coconut? Oh, Mary. Mary. Oh. Yeah. Well, that's because they were starting from square one. They fucking wiped out the Native Americans who could have told them all about coconuts probably except they were starting from the scratch like what I discovered

yeah exactly yeah yeah have you heard about porn I'm gonna call it maize that would be great if he tried to pass it off as his own discovery I mean it really was like it was like that's why white people are so out of controls because they think that yeah like they started with this clean slate that was artificially cleaned by them right yeah yeah they're like let's start the slate now yeah yeah right now it's like libertarianism like when they're already rich and you want to you're like now the time now the government now everybody should be able to fend for themselves now that i've acquired an unfair advantage yeah yeah yeah uh truly like they uh wrote out of history the fact that everybody had just died from the plague they were

like it's it's amazing like america has these wide avenues in the middle of the forest just naturally right right no you're walking through a post apocalyptic city right now right uh it's amazing. We pulled up to Plymouth Rock and there were all these houses with like dishware. They were just like there for us to use. It was so cool of God to do that for us. Yeah. All this. Imagine

like a black like because the people in this movie that are black are well there's barely any at all and they're all service. And they have to listen to these kids lecture about coconuts from like their fucking home country. Yeah. I like how Andy was like

are you listening? She's like yeah. I don't know if there's anything worth listening to. She was giving it back. Shut up to Mary. But then, but then Harry was smacking Annie's ass. I'm like, this is all a fucking mess, y'all. I was so mad that fucking Annie was given this motherfucker her money at the end. I was like, do not give George Bailey your money, Anne.

That's true. I thought that too. There was another black woman too who like, when everybody's given money, she's like, oh, this is for you. I'm like, don't, no, this. Girl. Not for fucking George Bailey. That guy mansplains. That guy mansplains co.

I remind me to tell you where licorice comes from. Oh, you're not going to love this, Annie. But apparently there's a tree called a rubber tree, Mary. There's sugar as a cane. All right. Let's take a quick break. And yeah, we'll be right back. I'm Stefan Curry, and this is gentleman's cut.

I think what makes gentlemen's cut different is me being a part of, you know, developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different. Visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com or your nearest total wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit gentleman's cut bourbon.com.

Please enjoy responsibly. Dad had the strong belief that the devil was attacking us. Two brothers, one devout household, two radically different paths. Gabe Ortiz became one of the high, highest-ranking law enforcement officers in Texas. 32 years, total law enforcement experience. But his brother Larry, he stayed behind and built an entirely different legacy.

He was the head of this gang, and nobody was going to tell him what to do. You're going to push that line for the calls. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry is murdered, Gabe is forced to confront the past he tried to leave behind and uncover secrets he never saw coming. My dad had a whole other life that we never knew. knew about. Like, my mom started screaming my dad's name, and I just heard one gunshot.

The Brothers Ortiz is a gripping true story about faith, family, and how two lives can drift so far apart and collide in the most devastating way. Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Who would you call if the unthinkable happened? I just fell and started screaming. If you lost someone you loved in the most horrific way. I said through you got 22 times. The police, right? But what if the person you're supposed to go to for help

is the one you're the most afraid of? This dude is the devil. He's a snake. He'll hurt you. I got you. I got you. I'm Nikki Richardson, and this is The Girlfriends. Untouchable. Detective Roger Golubski spent decades

intimidating and sexually abusing black women across Kansas City, using his police badge to scare them into silence. This is the story of a detective who seemed above the law until we came together to take him down. I told Roger Goluski, I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die. Listen to the girlfriends, untouchable, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

For 25 years, I've explored what it means to heal, not just for myself, but alongside others. I'm Mike De La Rocha. This is Sacred Lessons, a space for reflection, growth, and collective healing. What do you tell men that are hurting right now? Everything's going to be okay on the other side, you know, just push through it. And, you know, ironically, the root of the word spirit is breath. Wow. Which is why one of the most revolutionary acts that we can do as people just breathe.

Next to the wound is their gifts. You can't even find your gifts unless you go through the wound. That's the hard thing. You think, well, I'm going to get my guess. I don't want to go through all that. You've got to go through the wounds you're laughing. Listening to other people's near-death experiences, and it's all they say. In conclusion, love is the answer.

Listen to sacred lessons as part of the Maikultura Podcast Network, available on the iHeart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast And we're back We're back So cut forward to high school And this is The weirdest depiction of high school

A good Early example of some shit we would be doing To this day Where they got someone who's 40 playing 18 I think he's supposed to be, right? Harry's graduating high school in that scene. His little brother.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, his brother is? I thought he was about to go off to college. Yeah, yeah, but also, if you remember, there's also that big party that starts off is Harry's going to his high school graduate. His younger brother is going to his high school. So he's like 20 then. Yeah, yeah.

He's just a little bit older. Yeah. He's, you know, this is the first time we get James Stewart playing the role, who is 38 when his mom. movies made playing serious yeah playing 20 playing 20 yeah um i was like is this because everybody back then looked like shit and drinking and smoking all the time like is this just what like 20 year olds looked like but no he was 38 when when they made this this was after the war and uh apparently like he and peter fonda couldn't find work for some reason and so he was like yeah heck you all do your movie

hell yeah this is also where he's he's talking about how he has big dreams to get out of this one one horse town

and at one point utters the line I feel like if I didn't get away I'd bust I'd bust well you can bust at home

you know what I mean that's right don't worry about it he can he can ultimately bust at home I can bust where I want

anytime you could say that anytime back then you know you could say you want to bust you're about to bust

nobody said it about to bust. Yeah. Everybody's like, I know. Yeah. Well, like,

because this is like the theme with George is that he has these dreams of seeing the world, but at every moment he has to sort of seize that moment,

he takes the road to sort of choose stability to choose what's better for the group than the individual. So the first one is his dad dies of a stroke. Yeah, right as he's about to go away.

Yeah. Like truly, he's like, all right, I'm off to. What? Dad? Oh,

boy. And then you got this asshole Mr. Potter in here being like, I want to dissolve the fucking company. It's interesting fact. I didn't realize that guy is like Drew Barrymore's like great-grandfather. Lionel Barrymore, the guy who plays hair like Mr. Potter. Oh, is that John Barrymore that? Lionel Barry.

We're going further back. We're going even further back. The acting dynasty. So Mary goes away to college. His brother goes away to college. He stays back. Just jerking his shit. To run the building and loan.

So his dad owns this, runs this building and loan, which is like, I don't even know. You know, I know so little about economics that even this was like hard, just even the basics of this movie trying to explain a building and loan. But it's some kind of community owned bank. So anyway, he stays in town because his dad dies. And so he stays to run the building and loan even though he wanted to go look for coconuts. Right. And also he gives all of his, like, college money to his brother. He's sort of like, hey, man, I'm going to have to sit back and, like, hold down the family

business, you go and get an education and you go do your thing. Yeah, you go out into the world and bust for the both of us. He's the opposite of every person alive now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. He is a good man. He is a good, speaking of, like, the level of biblical literacy of the people then compared to now, like I was reading about the casting of James Stewart and Frank Capra was like, You know, I was, like, thinking about who would be the best person to play a good Sam.

I was like, good Sam. And he was using that for short for Good Samaritan. Because they were talking so much about Good Samaritans and other, like, biblical figures that they had like shorthand for it. Yeah, like, if you said Recommendash, they'd be like, what that fellow say? What did you just say? Good Sam. What the? That guy's bats.

So, yeah, he says, Harry, you go live a life. And the agreement being, look, bro, you go get educated. When you come back, I have to get the fuck out of here. Okay, like, I have to get the fuck out. You will run the business, baby, don't worry. And then here he comes back, fucking married, yeah, with a job from his new father-in-law. George now, quote, resigns himself to running the building and loan. And George and Mary begin to rekindle their relationship.

Yeah. In a scene, so he's like, a lot of his big, moments come from just like drunkenly wandering around the town yeah yeah yeah like he's like drunk and wanders over to his future wife's house and it's an interesting so like it's a time of like weird morality around like kissing and sex like it's much looser when it comes to being able to criticize capitalism i guess but the movie takes place in an alternate universe where kissing like hasn't been invented yet so they like push their faces to There's lots of face kissing

Like at first kiss you kiss First you kiss like someone's cheeks like six times And then you move over to the mouth Yeah Yeah Yeah, I think at this point we get you arrested I don't know what person Yeah, it's like much grosser

Then just like they just like kiss on the lips With someone who started kissing their head Yeah So they are For a while They have this moment where they're like Fighting and then they're like Getting together and then like

Yeah they just like do this like animalistic like hug where he starts kissing like the side of her eye and like her forehead and then like moves down to her mouth and even like I wrote my note was what in the Jim Crow was that kissing style

because it was like but also there was a moment when her mother is like what are you doing down there Mary she's like having violent sex mother I think she said some she's making violent love to me mother yeah I was like oh I must have got their attention.

I must have gotten Hayes' attention, the Hayes code. But that scene, I will say, the scene where they're on the phone together, you know, and the kissing, like, they're on the same phone. One of those phones, you've got to hold two parts. Oh, yeah, yeah. One part goes up against your ear and the other part you hold and talking to. Yeah. That scene made me cry because I thought it was, it was so kind of, like, I really thought it was effective, like the two of them, like being in love with each other, but they, She was, like, with somebody else, you know.

It was on the phone. I just made me cry. You're not trying to steal my girl, are you? It was just sort of like, I don't know. I thought it was fun that they dwelled on that. Aside from, like, yeah, like being like, why are you kissing the back of her head or whatever? Before you kiss her, before you kiss her mouth. It just, it looks like they're making up kissing.

Like, if I had to, if I had to guess, like, the first time someone kissed someone for, like, the, when it was invented by human civilization, it probably looked like that, you know? Like, it was just like, ah, I. don't know. What if we did this? It was probably some form of eating. Right. You're like, I'm eating your face. Yeah. And someone's like, okay, yeah, that leaves marks. That's kind of what it looks like. That seemed for me, I had a different reaction. I felt like if I didn't get away from that scene, I would, I'd bust. Oh, man. I seriously, I was crying because I was like, I don't know, probably because I'm having a nervous breakdown, but, but, um, but I just, there's something about it was romantic to me. Just like the idea of that

I thought it was a nice... Because the tension is there. You know what I mean? Yeah, the tension is there. It's been built up. George is there trying to get... Yeah, the other Wayne Wright. What's the guy's name?

Was that guy's not named George, right? Whatever his... The other guy. The crazy dude. Sam... The guy was like... The rich guy. The guy...

I need all your money, George. I tell you right now, this is the next big thing. And he was like, getting into plastics. I was like, hey, George, you know that. He's not fucking lying. No, no. You better get in plastics. nice guy needs to borrow money is the message of this movie sadly and I'm living it wasn't there also a beans

story where like somebody was going to a bean factory or something I feel like it was just kind of funny it was like everything was just being discovered for the first time oh bean factory I thought there was like a bean thing a bean subplot maybe that was another opportunity he had to make money and that was another maybe that's where his get rich quick off beans oh I'm sorry to like work for his father-in-law's bean no he was because he's really good at research that's what it was he's doing research for her father's company it's not going to be much now

but it has a good future that was what the beans I thought there were beans in the goddamn movie they're crazy I'm like but he did I will say also like the reason why that 38 year old thing isn't it works because I think the other actor is 38 too they look age

appropriate no she was she was like 25 or something okay so they both looked older than definitely looked older than 18 or whatever this is when you're also like damn this is what like lead and pollution and all these other things and like child labor

due to a person's face at that age we're like fuck bro I thought you were 48 I'm not gonna lie but somehow they were saner than us they all knew to Nazis were bad yeah they're weird like that we need more we need to put lead back in gasoline so we can all agree the Nazis are bad

so we got in a fucking violent streak in us to We should all start smoking again immediately so we can be nice. The one thing that was really funny was before he goes drunkenly over to Mary's house is when he sees Violet in the street and she's like, oh, hold on, fellas, I think I got a date. And that one guy's like, we'll be waiting for you, baby. I was like, I've heard that as like a non sequitur a lot.

And I'm like, God, so much, like, I realize how influential this film is because I have friends who say that. And I'm like, oh, this is, they're fucking voting this movie. Yeah. Wait for you, baby. But then Violet, she's just trying to hook up with George in that scene. and he's like, oh, well, I got an idea of Violet. Why don't we go up to the mountains

and take our shoes off and why? And she's like, bro, what the fuck? Yeah. Yeah, that was his fault. That was his fault. They made that seem like she was the weird one. He was the one was fucking weird. But this would be my first part of all the times George fumbles the bag. All right. George, you're scaring the hose.

George, you were scaring the hose. We need a scaring the hose fumbling the bag. We need a scoreboard. We need to scoreboard behind Jack with the how many times fumbles The guy from the movie Plasic could have gone in plastics At a time He would have been fucking making bills

Okay You could have earned them You could have owned the first Lambo bro Could have got both of those chicks Ding Steadie says something weird About running through the fucking grass Sounds like a hippie

Talking about touch grass Fuck out of here Yeah So then they get married Right it's like kind of a smash cut They're getting married They're about to go on their honeymoon I wish I can see the smash cut

of this movie. You know what I'm saying? Jesus. Just that kissing, huh? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're just something. Hold on, Jack. What are you looking? Are you looking at someone on your phone? He's just watching the kissing. Sex is bad. My hands are right here. My hands are raised here. I didn't ask about that. Why are you only putting one at a time? Like, you're, like,

a hot potato. Sex is not as good in black and white. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I actually wouldn't know. I've never seen sex in black and white. You know, but one of those porn sites where I would, like, sometimes they'll show you like, yeah, like they could. Yeah. Turn of the century pornos. You look up vintage porn, you know, or something like that. I don't know why someone. I don't know why someone would.

I don't know why someone would Google vintage porn. But if they did, there's an acceptable area, like, you know, like the 70s and the 80s. And then there's like, you know, you don't want to see 1920s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like Degera type pornography, if possible. You can't see the, you can't see what's, what's happening, really. There's too many shadows. So, again, another moment shows up.

George is about to, just like, babe, we're going to go everywhere. We're going to go to Timbuktu in Paris. Drink all to champagne. And they've got all this fucking cash. He's insane the way you look when you do that. You got, I mean, you're God. Like, there's no way.

It's fucking insane. He looks like a Muppet. He looks like an actual human Muppet. He is inhabited. You got to throw the head to get that vibrato on it. He's inhabited by fucking. Oh, God. Boy. So they're about to go on their honeymoon.

They got all this cash. And then they look, there's a fucking bank run on the bank on his bank yeah because again this is some shit with Mr. evil fucking potter owning the bank calling in a loan and being like

you got that money on you bro no lies detected no lies detected I mean do they specifically say that he's waiting for him to go out of town to do to do some shit like because that what that does seem like what would actually happen is he be like all right this motherfucker out of our hair. Let's go. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Another moment shows up. He could have gone and drank the oldest champagne and just say, you know what, brother, maybe the building alone just

needs to go down and I don't give a fuck about these people houses. But he did it, came back, don't know the cash. They have their honeymoon and an old like burnt out, uh, the spooky haunted house. What are the, what are the tenancy laws back then? Because it just felt like they're like, yeah, you know what? I'm having this old abandoned house. Honey, put up the fucking wallpaper. It's kind of like the next bit. of that whole sequence. I was thinking they bought it, but I guess they never really...

I'm sure they did. They didn't ever establish where they bought it. But I guess when the cops... For 50 cents. Yeah. Yeah. When the cops say you have your honeymoon in there,

I got to say, that technology, they deployed the record player rotissory. Did you catch that? I didn't. The turntable, like the needle was hooked up to another cable

that was rotating fucking two chickens on a rotissory. I was like, this is... This was peak technology. Yeah, they couldn't get in, they couldn't go on. their honeymoon. So the townspeople, who they were all friends with, because it was a small

town, you know, really small town. And they knew everybody, so everybody knew he couldn't go on his honeymoon. So they all got together and, like, turned their house into a hotel, like, with the, with the local people pretending to be the bellboys and the concierge. And then, like, you know, it was like all touching. And that made me cry again. It was very nice. Because you, yeah, I was, I was also, I was, there was a moment at the end, I was actually the most. move. Yeah. Then he comes up. Yeah. I mean, it's impossible. They were beating the shit out of us till our

ears bled until that last turn and then they gave us a hug. And we're like, oh, okay. Yeah, but the movie's about like this guy named Potter who's like a modern billionaire except smaller back then there were just billionaires that ran towns as opposed to the whole earths.

Yeah. He was doing the original work so that our billionaires could be billionaires. You know? Yes. He was consolidated. He was doing evil bootstrapping but he ran the town in the sense that he had so much money hoarded that he could um just interrupt any plans like he could offer like when the when there was a run on the run on the bank he just offered cash to the people who needed their money yeah he offered 50 cents on the dollar and they almost took it but he had to make a speech george had to make a speech to all

his neighbors and say listen if we that's not how this works if we go get our quick money from this billionaire or this millionaire in this case, this evil guy, we're going to ruin our chances for the whole future. This is a moment. We have to like side with each other and we have to like rely on each other because if you take this easy money, there's no turning back. And that stuff I did think that was that was one of the scenes I knew about the run on the bank. And I thought it was like run on the bank straight to the bridge. Then we get like the fantasy seat once a down. You really He just kind of poked your head in from this movie. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

All right, cool, cool. And who's this guy? But so then, then you kind of get, George starts to kind of win. Because the next sort of shift you see is that he started Bailey Park. It's like a whole housing development and then like fucking evil Mr. Potter's like money goons. Like, hey, man, you should look into this Bailey Park place, you know?

Like they're doing better than your fucking slums. So Potter hatches a scheme to basically close the building. He's like, hey, let me just give you this job off. so I can shut down your building and loan operation and force people for my slum. It is slow move. Like, it's just, like, very much about finance for a big stretch of this movie.

It's really just like, yeah. And so it's like watching someone play Monopoly where it's just like, all right, and then he bought this, and then this guy tried to buy him out. All right, all right. But what you have to understand is this is a leveraged buyout and he's actually going to give him bad rates.

Yeah, this was around the time when I was writing in my notes, I can't believe how long it's taken to get to the attempted suicide. Yeah. So then you get Christmas Eve and there's going to be a hero's welcome for his brother who is like now a Navy ace, like fucking star. He was a, like as if being a football star wasn't enough, this fucking guy prevented a kamikaze attack as a Navy ace. and he got the fucking medal of honor. And you're like, oh, one thing I was like, that must have been, you must have been so popping

if you were like a football, like a college football star, then like combat ace. Right. They were like, bro, this is, this guy can do a fucking all. That was like Charles Lindbergh. Oh, yeah.

Was he a big, he was the biggest celebrity in the world. That guy, he had secret families all over the world. He was the eugenics guy. He went crazy like Elon Musk and tried to have as many children as he could because he was like, I am of the superior race because I flew an airplane across the ocean.

Oh, I love it. Charles Lindberg was like, that was how he got famous back then was like pioneer crap. Jimmy Stewart was a decorated naval aviator, military. He flew missions. Oh, he killed people? Oh, great. Oh, I killed the crouts and the, do you know who's? Wow, Jimmy.

Thanks for the restraint there. Then we get to like, this is where it starts getting wobbly because Uncle Billy, who I didn't realize, like, I noticed late in the film that he had a pet raven. Like, I was like, oh, that's, he's got birds, loose, loose, birds. Oh, yeah, who? Yeah, he has a pet. That was, that raven. That's what I aspire to in my old age, just have a raven, ravens following me around.

I was reading about that raven. That raven was like in, according to the handler, like, over a thousand things, uh, because the raven was so, like, useful and could do anything. And he described that raven as being able to do anything an eight-year-old child. could do and do about like 500 words to say so look they didn't give that raven a speaking part but they could have so then this uncle billy scene he's trying to go to the to potter's bank to drop off a eight thousand dollar bag of the building and loans money and there's a moment where he's like hey look mr potter bumble number 17 he tries to just smear in mr potter's face that bailey park is doing so well but in the process drops the fucking

$8,000 bag with the fucking newspaper. He wraps it in the newspaper and then it's like, here's your fucking you think the Bayleys aren't cool? Well, check this out and like gives it to him and I can't remember that he did that. Yeah. Yep. So then...

He's a doughty old man who's friends with Ravens. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So then obviously Mr. Parti keeps the money because he's a evil piece of shit. Billy can't find the money. The fucking bank forensics expert is there to be like, where's your fucking money? And that's when...

Where's your money, punk? This is when it gets fucking wobbly now for George Bailey. They try and find the money. They can't find the money. And, you know, that's when I think Mr. Potter's like, oh, you're being loose with my money. You know, I'm actually a board member. I'm going to call the fucking cops on you. And we get to see how, you know, that just, just that, the way he's putting pressure on old

George by being like, this is kind of like a hostile takeover, but I'm also going to use my board position to put you with legal jeopardy. And just like the gaslighting that comes. along with capitalism, where you're just like, they make you feel crazy by just using their power to fight. Yeah, what'd you spend it on? You spent it on some gambling?

Some women. You got a secret family, George? Playing the market? No, I'm honest. I wasn't. Yeah, George is just too earnest to even, like, think about that. He's like, oh, I know you think that I did, but I didn't.

He was showing the headline about George's brother getting the congressional Medal of Honor. That's what it was. That's what it was. That's a show to the newspaper to say, like, Not only is the building and loan kicking ass, but the Bailey boys are at it again. Yeah, Bailey, George Bailey.

You're about then Bailey boys. No? We don't George Bailey. What's his name? Harry Bayley. Harry Bailey. Yeah. Harry Bailey.

Yeah. So then, okay, he's like completely destitute. He's like, we've completely fucked this up. What am I going to do? George is like he's getting drunk at the bar. He's trying to figure out what he can do. He realizes he's got a life insurance. policy that maybe he can offer his collateral.

And Potter's like, he has in his pocket, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he's just so desperate. He's like, what do I have? Mr. Potter, you can take this. And he's like, well, how much have you invested already? He's like, $500. A $15,000.

And he basically says, you're worth more dead than you are alive, Potter. And this is where the spiral really, really begins on this dark Christmas for him. He goes home and he's like real mean to his kids. and then he like balls out his kid's teacher on the phone. Oh, my. Oh, thank you used the term that her husband did. Yeah. My wife has never been bawled out like that in her life.

That scene kind of fucked me up because I was like, damn, bro. Like that was, that was real regardless of like what a specific situation is, like, parents under financial stress, completely unable to be present because of like the fucking crushing weight of having to toil and survive. It's just being like, oh, and you kids don't know anything's going on. You don't know shit. You don't know shit about money for a Lambo. And, yeah. So then he goes out to my- That scene was like, that scene was like,

stress. I said to the person I was watching with it, I said that was like my house, like, every day. Oh, God. It really was. It really was. It was like my father had kids and had no idea. Right.

He just had this idea. My father and mother. But my mother had some idea of what she was getting into. My dad had none. And so once he was in that situation, he just acted like George Bailey on his worst day every day. He just came home from work and was just like, this is a disaster and I have no money. And you guys are all like annoying and why did this happen and all that sort of stuff, except he did it like seriously like every day.

So it was like, I was like, wow, that made me actually feel like kind of like some stuff. Oh, like that scene really made me feel. feel like I had not seen that, like, played out. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, it was pretty believable. If I watch it as a kid, I'd be like, whatever, whatever. Now being older, being a parent and all this other stuff, I'm like, oh, like, so much of it. I was like, this shit is so fucking head.

Like, this guy's life sucks. Okay. Like, every time he's trying, you think he's going to do the thing he wants, he ends up fucking, like, putting it off, kicking it in the future, more resentment builds up to the point that he just, like, resents his own family. and then ends up going to a bridge about to jump, but then Clarence dives into the river and George rescues him.

Who rescued him? He's like, this is his one superpower. He jumps into water and saves people. So I'm going to take advantage of that. Do you know what he did? Did you see him dive into the water? He does. He goes head first dive.

I was like, that was nice. He was kind of nice with it for sure. Do you do your own stunts, Jimmy? That had to have been. Jimmy, right? They didn't pay you stunt people to die. Oh, well, I can dive with the best of them. And he probably did. That was probably not the best idea.

I would go feet first if I'm jumping off a bridge. If it's on a sound stage, too, it's like, Jimmy, you're six four. This tank is only five feet deep. Back when there was a middle class, like, you know, it was like, there was a lot of time to talk about, like, which, like, teach kids, like, which salad fork was for the salad, you know, which fork was for the salad, how to dive, dive properly. It was like a big thing. Like, you don't want to be caught diving improper. I would have done, tried to dive in head first, but like over rotated and landed on my back and just been paralyzed. An angel has to like, it's like, fuck.

Or you just kill Clarence because you land on him. Like your reason not to date somebody? Like I was going to marry George, but I noticed that his diving is extremely wobbly. And that makes me think that he's not going to be a good provider. There are these little glimpses of a better world. like the gym is on top of a pool. It has like that there's a there's a part like the meat cute with George and Mary is like the night of a big dance and like these guys prank them by opening up the gymnasium floor which has like a beautiful pool underneath it. That's Beverly Hills High.

Yeah, which is in Beverly Hills High. But they're just like, yeah, I mean, sure, this this makes sense of the normal high school thing. I love that too. I was like, what the fuck is that? I was like, this is smart, dude. what the fuck is this relatable is this relatable holy shit do i want to fall in a pool doing the fucking charleston yeah i thought about how many tuxedos that just like they must have had on standby but then i realized that

like everyone back there then wore a tuxedo all the time you wear a tuxedo it was not casual Fridays it was tuxedo fridays right yeah right so you wear a suit monday through thursday fridays you wear your dining outfit your piece of shit so yeah that's when Clarence saves or, you know, Clarence goes in the water, he gets out and you, he's, and Clarence slowly starts to reveal that he is an angel, but like, everyone's like, shut the fuck up, you weird piece of shit with your weird underwear. Yeah, you drunk. Yeah.

He looks like a cartoon drunk. He looks like a cartoon drunk. He looks like WC. Fields. Oh, yeah. Rummy. For current reference. But that like weird, his underwear that he wrote is like, oh, my wife got me this. I'm like, in the fucking.

1870s? What the fuck is that? But again, that's just me looking at it from 2025 and not understanding anything. And that's when sort of like the whole thing of like George saying, look, bro, I, I'm probably just, I wish I wasn't around anymore. Carl Havoc. Yeah. I'd just rather not be around. My favorite thing is that in the favorite part of the whole movie or favorite actor in the movie is the guy who's trying to spit tobacco, but he keeps like doing a double take because. The angel keeps doing supernatural shit.

Like, the guy who's in charge of, like, taking money at the bridge. Oh, oh, yeah. That guy's the fuck for me. He deserves a cat reward. That guy ruled. If anyone wants to watch it again, a breakout comedic performance, in my opinion. He just, because Clarence is revealing he's an angel to George. And George is like, I don't believe you.

And he's like, George had been punched in the mouth when he was drunk. And so, like, he had blood coming out of his lip. And then the angel's like, check to see if the blood is still on your lip. You've never been born. You've got your wish. You were never born. And so he checks his lip for the blood and there's no blood. And then the bridge guy keeps trying to the bridge tender, which first of all is another missed opportunity for me, born too late.

I would love to be a guy who collects money and some fucking bridge. You know, no one's coming by at night. Just making sure that nothing goes down on the bridge. Sitting in there and chewing tobacco. And that's my guy. What are we going to leave this bridge unattended all night? But yeah, that guy's like, that guy's performance. where he keeps being about to spit the tobacco

but then he double takes when something else crazy happens and then eventually just runs away. That guy was uncredited. That guy ruled. Tom Fadden is his name and he was like a vaudevillian guy. So makes sense. No joke. I was like, that guy. Holy shit. What a great job.

Also, he really cashed, he really earns that check when Clarence is like, I rents AS2. He's like, what's AS2 man? He's like, Angel's second class. That's what? Yeah. And then he's like, I couldn't have just made that up. There were a couple more moments of, like, morality that probably wouldn't make it in a modern movie.

One was, I'm not a prank. Like when Jimmy Stewart, before he goes to the bridge to kill himself says, like, I'm not a praying man. But, like, I don't know, like, help me out here. Which, like, I feel like there's no way that a modern movie would have the person be like, in a movie that's like this much based on, like, got him. and like, I'm not a praying, man. But then also when he's like checking his pockets to be like, where's my ID? Or Sousos Pettles.

He said no 4F card, which is the card that said you weren't fit for military service, which may be like, I think the only way they got away with this is because Jimmy Stewart was an actual war hero. But like the fact that he has to stay home because of like his ear from the war, I'm just like, are they trying to make me as an American hate this guy? you know doesn't believe in God doesn't fight the Nazis because of his ear but it does I do feel like those details feel like an interesting window into like a pre-Cold War world before the U.S. went completely insane where you could just be

interesting slightly godless and not have like been a word heroism yeah you know what year was this 46 I think 46, yeah. Okay, so yeah, it was before the Cold War kicked in fully. The Cold War really created a great opportunity for introducing caricatures of how to be. Right. Yeah, like it was a great moment. And I don't think people realized it.

That's an interesting point. I didn't think about that. But you're right. There were these moments between wars, like after World War I, when people were like, well, we're not going to do that anymore. we're going to have we're going to be nice because we know what the opposite of that is we know what being mean leads to it leads

to what we just went through and we're not doing that again no way you know but then these same bad actors like create these calamities like fucking what's his name does in this movie this rich guy like he basically keeps trying to cause trouble he doesn't want there to be stability he wants people to be unstable

so they can create emergencies and then drain like a run on the bank it's a run on the bank I'll give you 50 cents on the dollar for everything you own. And they're like, okay, okay. And we're going through that right now. We're going through that right fucking now. I mean, we are being sold this fake fucking emergency that's convincing everybody to be mean. And yeah, that's a very good point. I didn't think about that. But you're right. There's a moment there where people are like, listen, I don't care if you believe in God or not. We all fought this war together. We fucking did it. We're now going to be good to each

other. Yeah. It's in many ways like watching Home Alone and then this, like we were talking about like, how is the family from home alone so rich? It's like the dad from home alone might as well be like Mr. Potter's grandson, you know? Right, right, right. But it's just like, this is where we'd rather live now. We'd rather live with the really rich people who've like succeeded and are isolated from the realities of day to day life. And we'd rather like sit with them and laugh at the working class people as opposed to like

having a movie where the guy believes this absurd. dream that he can like help his town and the people who work there like live a normal life right yes and that was a dream a dream that was like when these were smaller scale problems at least somewhat believable like when it was like a local millionaire against like somebody who was trying to do something good but now it's such a jam because we're dealing with like forces that are not um surmountable by some just good natured person it has to be like a billion good natured people yeah having some weight awakening yeah right yeah all right let's take a quick break and yeah we'll be right back i'm stephen curry and this is gentleman's cut i think what makes

gentlemen's cut different is me being a part of you know developing the profile of this beautiful finished product with every sip you get a little something different visit gentlemen's cut bourbon or your nearest total wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cup Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit gentleman's cut bourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly.

Dad had the strong belief that the devil was attacking us. Two brothers, one devout household, two radically different paths. Gabe Ortiz became one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in Texas. 32 years, total law enforcement experience. But his brother Larry, he stayed behind and built an entirely different legacy. He was the head of this gang, and nobody was going to tell him what to do. He was going to push that line for the cause. Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it.

When Larry is murdered, Gabe is forced to confront the past he tried to leave behind and uncover secrets he never saw coming. My dad had a whole other life that we never knew about. Like, my mom started screaming my dad's name, and I just heard one gunshot. The Brothers Ortiz is a gripping true story about faith, family, and how two lives can drift so far apart and collide in the most devastating way. Listen to the Brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Who would you call if the unthinkable happened?

I just fell and started screaming. If you lost someone you loved in the most horrific way I said through you shot 22 times The police, right? But what if the person you're supposed to go to for help is the one you're the most afraid of? This dude is the devil. He's a snake.

He'll hurt you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I'm Nikki Richardson, and this is The Girlfriends, Untouchable. Detective Roger Golubski spent decades intimidating and sexually abusing black women across Kansas City, using his police badge to scare them into silence. This is the story of a detective who seemed above the law

until we came together to take him down. I told Roger Goluski, I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die. Listen to the girlfriends, untouchable, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. For 25 years, I've explored what it means to heal, not just for myself, but alongside others. I'm Mike De La Rocha.

This is Sacred Lessons, a space for reflection, growth, and collective healing. What do you tell men that are hurting right now? Everything's going to be okay on the other side, you know, just push through it. And, you know, ironically, the root of the word spirit is breath. Wow. Which is why one of the most revolutionary acts that we can do as people just breathe. Next to the wound is their gifts. You can't even find your gifts unless you go through the wound.

That's the hard thing. You think, well, I'm going to get my guess. I don't want to go through all that. You've got to go through the wounds you're laughing. Listening to other people's near-death experiences, and that's all they say. In conclusion, love is the answer. Listen to sacred lessons as part of the Maikultura podcast network, available on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast

and we're back we're back i did have that question of like because uh of like how small scale it is that an eight thousand dollar getting lost like sinks to the bank essentially it was like what what is that in today's money like by comparison i think it's it's a hundred and $40,000, which seems low to sink a bank, but it's also like, oh, but also we don't have banks like that anymore. Like I have no frame of reference for like what a local bank would be sunk by. Yeah, right. Because Potter won. Right, right. It's like, you're not going to pull your money together to fucking help each other. What are you fucking dumb? Welcome to Citibank. I also do think our inflation, because they were like in 140,000 in 2024 is probably like

$280,000 in 2025. Yeah, so I call that $7 million now, for sure. It's been a bad year for people who aren't billionaires. So then we're now in this alternate timeline. We're in the alternate timeline where he's never existed. And I think one of the first stops he takes is what? He's just kind of, where do they go? I think they go, I don't know.

I don't have it in order. I think he goes to the bar at some point that used to be. martini's and now it's nix and now the guy behind the bar is like hey I don't know you buster why are you talking to me all familiar see yeah yeah it's like no one knows him

martini is like fucking gone he's like an afterthought and the evil guy's name is the first thing he hears is the name of the town is pottersville now it's called pottersville yeah so he knows it's like being called Trumpville so so everybody in Trumpville is in a

in a corresponding mood they're all in a horrible mood and they're all mean as snakes. I do like, though, just how cruel they were, like when old man Gower came in. He's like, get out of here, you're drunk and hits him with the seltzer. And I was like, ha, ha, ha, ha. I'm like, bro, this guy is a, he lost his son to the flu 20 years ago and he was, this help this man. It's ice agent shit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then also, to the point about the tuxedo, I love how divey Nick's bar was, like the door man was the one guy in a tuxedo when he's like, show him the door. Yeah. And he's like, of course. And a guy in a tuxedo is like grabbing him by the collar. I'm like, oh, well, he got a tuxedo on. So, you know, they keep it formal. They keep it formal.

I will say the time travel rules, they're pretty loose in terms of like, so his brother drown without him there to save him. But he was at that same sledding hill on that same day, even though he didn't exist. Yeah. Like,

I feel like if I had found that out, I'd be like man maybe i don't matter like so he ended up doing all the same shit and it's just like i was just there to save his ass kind of yeah yeah yeah that's one way to look at it that's one way to look at it uh but this is the 1940s jack so let's just let's not you have enough you have too much contacts with time travel

uh and then he goes to his house and he sits in a cuck chair and watches his wife He watches his wife Fuck her successful husband From the plastics factory What is a cuck chair Is a cuck chair just any chair that faces a bed? Yeah

So you can watch So the partner can watch the other partner But it's not especially designed chair or anything No I mean it doesn't need to be Okay I don't know if you've seen the chair and burn after reading But that can

I can make it a little more fun Definitely I haven't seen that either But, yeah, so Mr. Gower, he's, he went to jail for manslaughter. Yeah. His mom doesn't know him. The city of Pottersville now looks like a Christian person's version of hell. Because it's just like, it's all dancing and music and bars.

Yeah, a lot of girls, girls, girls, sons. Yeah. Oh, Buffalo, Gals, won't you come out tonight? Come out tonight. I was, I've heard that melody. I had to Google it. I just like, what the fuck is? And so it's like, it's a runner from.

the it's what i think it's what they're dancing to when they go in the pool and then it's what they're singing as he's walking her home that scene is also probably worth mentioning that she loses the robe robe that she's in because she had gone to the pool and so she's naked hiding in a bush and he's like well i've never had this much control before i could sell tickets here hold on maybe i'm a piece of shit let's see come on out barry but but yeah so she's she's singing it they're singing it together and then when he goes to see her she's like got it playing on the she's like kind of holding it carrying a torch for him and so he's got it playing on the record and then when she gets mad at him she breaks it so it's like their song yeah in a way that's like deep buffalo

gals was sung by minstrels in minstrel shows and it was talking about the dancers because buffalo was the western terminus of the eerie canal so all the port men had their cats by the time they got to Buffalo. So they're all like, Buffalo, girls, would you come out tonight? It's basically, and then apparently in these minstrel shows, they would, it was like local comedy. So if they're in New York, then they'd be like New York City,

like New York, girls, won't you come? We're like, Mississippi girls, won't you come out tonight? And it just became that kind of a thing. And I was like, of course is minstrelsy. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Of course I knew that was the deal here. Yeah. Buffalo Gals is like, I'll tell you one thing.

you know some of the some of the things that were good back then you know some of those things were like maybe you could the local businessman could still fight the the junior oligarch um there is one thing that has improved and that is fucking music uh because man oh man imagine trying to have sex to that song which obviously it would be implied that i'd have a nightmare there They would crank up the Victrola. Yeah, right, right, right. And they would listen to that while they fucked. Oh, I'm getting hot, George.

I mean, for God's sake. Yeah, I mean, we've seen the way they kiss. So if they're putting on Buffalo gals and bumping ugly, so I don't know what the fuck that looks like. But good luck to them. Yeah, like think about, I mean, just how much better off we are, sexually speaking. Yeah. Well, I think once they let black people perform as themselves, that helped a lot, I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That would help a lot. But like, and really for a long time, like we are in, we are lucky to be around for some fucking rock and roll and some fucking funk because for a long time, people had to fuck to she'll be coming around the mountain. Old gray bear she ain't what she used to be. And they were pumped because, I mean, it's still sex and it's still going to be good. But you had your kids play the piano downstairs. But my God. Play the pianola. Well, mom and I are upstairs for a little.

better. Like, if you're listening to a song like that and fucking, you're probably okay with sawdust being on the floor. But if you're listening to like Pony by Genuine, then you say, let's clean up in here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It can't be a total nightmare in here if I've got Genuine on. Throw an oily rag

over the light and throw on Buffalo Gals. If it starts smoking, they'll get the rag off the lamp because it'll start a fire. Are there any better rhythms than this? No. This is the only one we found so far. have they invented lube yet what you're not an engine what would you need that for lubrication oh so then we find out other things the building in loan is failed uncle billy as a result of the building and loan failing was institutionalized bailey park is not a neighborhood anymore it's a cemetery and then he also discovers again like you said brother gone um his brother died was there

that same, yeah. Exactly. And the druggist poisoned that kid. Yeah. So again, he really might as well not have existed. Everything went exactly the same except for like the two good deeds that he did. But like otherwise, nobody fucking noticed he wasn't there at all. I didn't think about it that way, Jack.

He was just. Yeah. I mean, they hadn't discovered chaos theory yet. So they didn't know that that wasn't realistic. I was wondering maybe the angel could like, snap and take him around with the magic of film editing instead of having to wander around everywhere. But it's effective. They pack it with all sorts of details. He does ask where his wife is. And they're like, well, why that old spinstress? She's out at the library. Closing it

down. And we get the first that I'm aware of, probably not the first one. Example of hot babe and glasses is no longer pretty. And it's now just like an hugo. Everyone's just like, yeah. she never married she's a loser her cornea's a odd shape that's why she's nearsided okay corneas what the fuck is this but i do that scene when he sees married like mary it's me george come on he's not getting it by the way he's really not getting it and she is freaked the fuck out she's like a runs to the fucking bar and again i like that he's crashing out in this bar like that's my wife and all these like dudes surround him one guy in the crowd just a odd line in the crowd and like they're trying to restrain george bailey from going at mary who she's like i don't know

this man one guy's like it's a crazy guy hit him in the head with a bottle that's what we do here yeah it's like we still aren't past our conflict resolution methods with people having some kind of crazy like fucking attack him this guy's lost it uh and then i love that the cop pulls up and just starts blasting from the hip indiscriminately down a crowded street. Again, it has everything bad about America. Predatory capitalism. Police who shoot wildly onto a crowded street.

Except in this case, the police officer is like his old friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was really, really something. Knowledge being associated with being alone. Right, right. Like a librarian. Yeah, exactly.

The worst thing. Why, she's the worst thing she could be institutionalized, a librarian oh my god but that was like kind of george's thing too like wasn't he headed to the library one of those scenes like where you yeah that's what he said i'm going to the library i'm like all right fucking loser dork library all right bag fumble number 90 fucking 98 dude i fucking hate this guy fucking george dude fucking loser it does give me hope that this is like an american classic because it is so anti-capitalist it's just like that that sentiment is there and people People's hearts. They know what's happening. They know that there are potters out there and they're fucking people up. But yeah, it's just wild. It's really laying dormant and has been for 80 years now. Yeah, that reminds me of something I thought of when I was watching this, which was when I grew up, I was in this play in first grade called Stanley. And I played a caveman that was like shunned by the other cavemen because he liked.

like to decorate and um he wanted to sleep on a pillow instead of using a rock and he danced with a mouse like in the play i danced with a mouse you know and like the other cavemen were like you know thought that was stupid mice are something we squash like what are you talking about what are you dancing around with a mite and i'm like the mouse is nice you know what i mean and so like the message of the play was obvious then the message of the book which is a book well, by Sid Hoff called Stanley. And it's about being nice. And the main thing, and being nice, also all the cavemen come around at the end because it turns out like he builds a house.

And they're all used to living in a cave and they go in the house and they're like, this rules. It turns out Stanley's a smart one and we're a bunch of idiots. And so that is what you learn, right? Then seven years later, if you were good at playing lacrosse in my town, you were above the law. like how did that what is the first part for right if we throw it all out the window yeah and that's what's happening to me every day in america now i feel so sad because i just feel like what is all this talk about being all this stuff we were raised on what was it all for and and how could we all be so easily just from eight years of this idiot

have that all shaken out of us. I mean, I know it's more complicated than that, but the basics of, you know, ICE is wrong. What they're doing is wrong. What Trump is doing is wrong. Trump's way of speaking is wrong. Trump saying that he's going to take people out of things out of campaign rallies on stretchers is wrong.

How did we manage to shrug off a million years of, not really, but, you know, 50, 60 years of like, like what we supposedly celebrated, which was the morality of the United States, which is, of course, always questionable. But there was at least the idea that if you see someone on the street, you help them out, you don't say that they're a security risk or, you know, call the cops because you want them taken away to Guantanamo, you go and see if they need help. Like, how did that change, you know? What's the rhetoric that's changed, right? To describe those people now, it's not like someone down and out. It's like a potential threat or these other people.

things where you completely are misnomer's yeah all you need to get is the media on board with that and then it just takes away all that stuff we learned but i mean i also know that yeah like it was very like i don't know what the point of it all is i guess just to make people feel better once they start doing the bad stuff they said well a long time ago i talked about what was right to do yeah right welcome to pottersville motherfucker yeah yeah right interesting so at that point we've reached the part where george bed was like i actually want to live god I can't stand this anymore. You got to bring me back.

I miss my family. And here comes Bert in the cop car. And he's like, George, we've been looking all over for you. And he's like, Bert, you recognize me? He's like, of course I do. Anyway, so he's back. He exists. His mouth is bleeding.

He can't hear out his left ear. His fucking drunk driving accident is still there. And it's okay because your friend is the cop. And let's not forget, George is technically a banker. So it's not like, he's also sitting pretty. It's like just because he's a community. He's like, hey, ma, I'm sitting on all this capital. Let's be real.

Okay. Hey, man. They're waiting back at his house with the media. Because it is two bankers by definition also, if you kind of think about that. But again, the values are still, I think the point is still there. And then he gets home. He's like, he's so happy that he doesn't even give a shit that the cops are going to fucking arrest him, that he doesn't have the money to fucking keep the home and loan solvent.

He's just so thankful that, you know, he's here and he gets to enjoy this. he gets home and then we come to find out that his uncle has been going around telling people we're in trouble and everybody in town came through with the cash that he needed for everything to work out because he had done that when there was a run on the bank he had given them the money from his wedding and that's when i i got really touched by that part was because he i think he began to realize too he's like damn like i my life i've actually been doing so much good i just there hasn't been in a moment where that was, like, reflected back to me with such clarity that I could understand what that was. And I felt like I was similar, I felt similarly when I lost my house in the fire and like all these people were helping me out.

I was so, I was at a, it helped me understand. I'm like, shit, bro, like people give a fuck. And people have a reason to because I'm trying to be a good person as it were. And I just thought it was a very, I was like, I was really touched by that. I was like, damn, they can't do. But I was also like, Annie, do not give him a fucking scent of your one. you don't owe him shit oh man i had a nice experience with that scene too because or just like his general joy um because i'm under financial pressure right now you know um as i think anybody

or most people not anybody but a lot of people are it really is an effective way of like his joy at just simply being like alive again even with a huge amount of debt um was like I don't know. It felt heartening to me. I mean, it felt heartening to me. It really does, and those are the parts of that movie where I feel like it's a really great movie because it really manages to get these things across in a way that's pretty entertaining and light, really.

I mean, you still mostly are laughing or maybe not laughing, but you're certainly engaged in the story and you don't think of it as a morality play. But then there's moments like that where it's like, wow, I am like, what if I do, what if I am in credit card debt or whatever? like it doesn't make any fucking difference and what and when I let it get too big in my head and uh you know it's so those that's pretty serious stuff uh for a black and white movie you know yeah yeah yeah um so one thing i was looking into is that the FBI did have their eye on this movie under j Edgar Hoover yes I mean I have to assume like the fact that it was it's been an

American classic. Like, you know, since, you know, a few years after it came out once it started like rerunning, I think. So like it was, it was on TV during the Red Scare. Yeah. So this is what happened. Quote, this is from Smithsonian Mac. An unnamed FBI agent who watched the film as part of a larger FBI program aimed at detecting and neutralizing commie influences in Hollywood, than Hugh, uh, said it was quote, very entertaining. However, writes scholar Johnny notes that the agent, quote, also identified that they considered a malignant undergrine. current in the film. As a result of this report, the film underwent further industry probes that uncovered that, quote, those responsible for making it's a wonderful life had employed two common

tricks used by communists to inject propaganda into the film. These two common, quote, devices, as applied by the Los Angeles branch of the bureau, were smearing, quote, values or institutions judged to be particularly the American. In this case, Mr. Potter is portrayed by Scroogey misanthrope in glorifying, quote, values or institutions judged to be particularly anti-American or pro-communist, in this case, depression and existential crisis, an issue that the FBI report characterized as a, quote, subtle attempt to magnify the problems of the so-called common man in society. And the FBI and the people with all the money proceeded to win that battle, to use those

suspicions to make it so that now you look back and you're like, man, it's weird how, like, decent the values are and how instinctively anti-capital the people are. in this movie you know now we're just like huh that seems seems weird that they got away with that how can you make a movie so iconoclastic and you know anti-establishment as it's a wonderful life right right right right i really recommend a face in the crowd by ilia kazan to anybody in terms of like another movie that um i wrote off because it was black and white and um has a really heavy message that's applicable to now and also makes makes you feel better because you realize this shit is it's like a hundred times worse now, but it's never been good in this country.

And it's always been a battle between the people who run the FBI and the New York Times just constantly sewing doubt whenever anyone says, let's be nice. And they say, well, we can't do that because that would ruin the whole project, you know, as if this is some grand project rather than a labor extraction pyramid scheme. There's an interesting thing, though, that a copyright laps enabled royalty-free repeats of the film, which is why it was played so much. Yeah, it was just an accident. It was just like it, bro. Play the shit out of this.

Fucking Jagger Hoover dropped the ball on that. Yeah. You should have jacked up those rights costs. Well, because other people were just pointing out to like, some people were saying it's actually two capitalists with different visions of capitalism. Oh. So it wasn't because apparently Hoover's whole thing was it had, it was a black or white thing. Like, is it subversive or is it not?

And I think there was enough nuance that he didn't send it to the un-American Activities Commission, basically. But this was the like sort of beginnings of the Hollywood witch hunts and the course. He was ordered everybody who made it, followed for the rest of their lives and probably gaslit into things that crazy. And Ilya Kazan actually did, I think Ilya Kazan did end up naming names, which ruined his reputation in front of the committee, the Joe McCarthy. the Hollywood hearings, he reported on people because he was a communist. But it's just so funny that communist turns out to be the good guy. You know, I mean, not the communist, like in the cartoon way that they try and scare us, but the idea of just like one person can't have all the resources.

Just simple. Just the idea of being slightly suspicious of the institution of capital. Chris Crofton, thank you so much for showing us this Christmas classic. Because I truly had this not been for an assignment, I don't know that I would have gotten through. it. No. But then I was rewarded. I really, they stuck the landing. I was tearing up when his, when he was like, you know, back with his kids and his family and his wife. And I did have the question, like, was he a little quick to be like, I might as well just kill myself. Like, after he's like done his whole, his whole thing and like had this amazing, uh, community around

him. Like, shouldn't you just talk to a couple more people? And been like, hey, man, could you get me out of this jam? Dude, men would rather be haunted by an angel on Christmas. Eve than say that they need help yeah so that's that's true that was very American he's like well I'm not going to share this with anyone yeah yeah but overall you know a plus ending

well done I get it I get why people love this movie I enjoyed it too and uh you know I don't know if I can watch it again I feel the same about a home alone I mean I thought for a long time I thought it was um you know I didn't really get it like I thought

it was just like I was like just consumed with how much stuff this kid had. But then by the end, I was like, oh, I get it. Like, it's sort of, it's just a thing you can go watch and feel like a sense of place when you watch it. And that's, that's, that's the best art, really, is somewhere where you can go visit, you know, and feel like better. Yeah. They do nail, like, just the, you know where every room in that house is and, like, the geography. And you kind of do in this town, too, a little bit.

Like, you kind of know where everything is and feel like. It was archaves. RKO Studios, Encino, California, and La Cognada, Flintbridge, I think we're like the main shooting places. Well, uh, thank you for joining us, Chris. Thank you listeners for joining us. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night or whatever. And you better keep an eye on Miles. That's about to say. I love you. He's going to say, he's, this is going to spill over a regular daily zeitgeist. I'm fucked up off the Jimmy Stewart, everyone. Holy cow. Sprung off that Jimmy.

That's a fucking face and L right now outside. Yeah, this isn't going to stop. No, no, no, no. I'm not. Bye, bye. Bye. The Daily Zykeyes is executive produced by Catherine Law. Co-produced by Baye Wang.

Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb. And edited and engineered by Brian Jeffries. I'm Stefan Curry. And this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product

with every sip you get a little something different. Visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com or your nearest Total Wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly.

I know he has a reputation, but it's going to catch up to him. Gabe Ortiz is a cop. His brother Larry, a mystery Gabe didn't want to solve until it was too late. He was the head of this gang. You're going to push that line for the cause? Took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. When Larry's killed, Gabe must untangle the dangerous past, one that could destroy everything he thought he knew.

Listen to the brothers Ortiz on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Who would you call if the unthinkable happened? My sister was y'all 22 times. A police officer, right? But what do you do when the monster is the man in blue? This dude is the devil. He'll hurt you.

This is the story of a detective who thought he was above the law until we came together to take him down. I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die. Listen to the girlfriends, untouchable, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And she said, Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night. Along the central Texas planes, teens are dying, suicides that don't make sense,

strange accidents, and brutal murders. In what seems to be, a plot ripped straight out of Breaking Bad. drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people. There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.