The Daily Zeitgeist - Detective Dr Phil, Lightly Threatened 11.6.19

Episode Date: November 6, 2019

In episode 510, Jack and Miles are joined by comedian Guy Montgomery to discuss the sneak preview of Dr Phil's interview with the Ukrainian orphan, RNC funding robocalls to fight the impeachment, the White House putting Marie Yovanovitch's safety in danger, Rudy Giuliani's associate possibly flipping, how the Amazon Echo/Google Home can be hacked by lasers, someone being killed over a Popeye's chicken sandwich, what happened to Deadspin, and more!FOOTNOTES: WATCH: Ukrainian Orphan: Child or Adult Sociopath? The Exclusive Interview RNC funded effort to jam House Democrats' office phone lines amid impeachment fight: report White House Appears to Have Concocted Threat Against Marie Yovanovitch’s Safety It looks like Trump and Giuliani's efforts to intimidate and bully the former Ukrainian ambassador went much further than publicly known Lev Parnas, Giuliani Associate, Opens Talks With Impeachment Investigators Trump Begins Paris Accord Exit, Devices Hacked With Lasers, and More News POPEYES MADNESS FATAL STABBING OVER CHICKEN SANDWICH What Happened to Deadspin, According to the People Who Were There WATCH: The Avalanches - The Wozard of Iz [Music Video] Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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America's shared consciousness and say officially off the top, Buck Coke Industries, as in the Coke Brothers and Buck Fox News. It's Wednesday, November 6th, 2019. My name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. Come O'Brien. Come, come, O'Brien. You're a butterfly. Jack O'Brien. That's courtesy of Tri-Gang, and I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray. Miles Gray, a.k.a. the Dabrador Retriever, a.k.a. Chihuahua, a.k.a. Dooberman Pinscher,

a.k.a. English Fat Spliff, a.k.a. Thoughtwiler, a.k.a. Chiba Inu, a.k.a. Border Wally, a.k.a. Cavalier King Miles Spaniel, a.k.a. St. Bongnard, a.k.a. Old English Sheeple Dog, a.k.a. Bull Matt Spliff. Boom. That is a three-hander. I see what you did. Christy Mimdono, Christy Yamaguchi-Maine came with the dog, a.k.a. Then Mostly Mutesar came in with Chiba Inu.

And then, who's that? Oh, Water Chestnut, the third. The second, Junior, came through to finish it off. Boom. That's a three-man group effort. I had a Cavalier King Charles named Miles. You did? That one was, yeah. Is that the one that we made fun of?

The one who passed? The one that had breathing problems? No, no, that was Finn. No, the one that kept farting? Oh, that was Finn. Oh. Yeah. Who was the one, I remember one time,

the one that passed away. Oh, the one that passed away at age 10 months. Oh, was that Miles? No, that was Emma. That was another Caval was that Miles? No, that was Emma. That was another Cavalier? Yeah, that was another. We kill them on the regular. Wow, so it's like Paris Hilton.

We cannot keep these things alive. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, also, I wanted to mention a joke that was made yesterday that was saying Pete Buttigieg was asexual. We should have caught that. Right. We're not making fun of asexuals.

No, no, no. Yeah, I hate to take you off. You already know the vibe of the show. We're not making fun of Asick. No, no, no. And yeah, we hate to take you. Look, you already know the vibe of the show. We're trying to be as inclusive as possible. But sometimes we get caught slipping. But God's working on all this. Yes. We are working on it ourselves.

And we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the legendary Daily Zeitgeist guest and hilarious comedian, Mr. Guy Montgomery. Yeah, here I am. Hey, welcome back. Thanks for having me back, gentlemen. We're so happy to have you. For those of you who are new listeners, Guy Montgomery gave us by far what we consider in the offices here, the greatest myth that we've ever had on the show.

And I'll just leave that at that. If you don't know, look back at Guy's first episode because it's a doozy uh well guy we're gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment first we're gonna tell our listeners a few of the things we're talking about uh we're talking about the tv event of the decade maybe uh previewing it uh we're gonna look at the fact that somebody died over a popeye's chicken sandwich, which is not okay. No. We are going to talk about how the RNC is playing dirty, how Marie Yovanovitch was being like very lightly threatened.

Soft touch. Yeah. Just a peppering of threats to her life. Rudy's friend, maybe about to flip. He was not happy when the president was like, I don't know him. He's like, what? Don't Mariah Carey these people. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I don't know her.

We're going to look at polls. We're going to look at the Amazon Echo, Google Home being hackable. We'll tell you how to hack your neighbor's Amazon Echo after the break. But first, Guy, we'd like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are?

I was recently looking up eggs. Uh-huh. Eggs. Our eggs bed. Yeah. To eat. Yeah. Like in general, just as part of your diet,

is a chicken egg not good? I just feel like everyone's constantly flip-flopping on eggs. Yeah. Where are we? Don't you feel like that? Yeah. Well, at first I feel like it's the most, I don't know if I've ever heard, it's the most complete, what the fuck am I saying?

People just said part of a balanced breakfast, then way too much cholesterol. Right. And then I don't know where, yeah, the pendulum swings back and forth. Everyone's saying, oh, eggs are great, they've got good cholesterol and they'll reduce your risk of heart disease and then the next day someone says you've got to watch out for those eggs. Yeah. Right.

So what's been the judgment so far, the most recent judgment? The most recent judgment was it was an article masquerading as having an opinion that was just a very long-winded piece of diplomacy. Oh really? It was someone article masquerading as having an opinion that was just a very long-winded piece of diplomacy. Oh, really? It was someone saying, why not try thinking about foods instead of as good and bad as maybe just foods and eating everything in moderation.

Look at eggs as part of a healthy, balanced diet. I feel like that is generally the truth about most foods, though, is that it's like we don't know. Like with some people it works with other people like it doesn't work it's very complicated there's all these chemicals and our body is like we just don't know we just don't know but for how prominent they are in you know in a lot of diets right yeah you'd think that there'd be a hard line sort of yeah this is the take on eggs now the whites have always been popular with everyone, right? The egg whites.

It's just the yolks that kind of go in and out of fashion. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I love them. Yeah, you need the yolks too. That's where the good stuff is. For that cholesterol of that, right? Yeah. Well, you can't have a deviled egg without the yolks.

No, you cannot. Deviled egg is truly one of the most blessed food forms, I believe, that God has bestowed upon us. How do you devil an egg? Just take all the yolks out and then mix it up with, you know, people use relish or mayonnaise, mustard. It all depends. Everyone's got different versions. And then you put it in a pan. No.

Then you pipe. Hard-boiled white. Have you never had a deviled egg? I've had a hard-boiled egg. Okay, so what you do is you take a hard-boiled white. Have you never had a hard-boiled... Have you never had a deviled egg? I've had a hard-boiled egg. Okay, so what you do is you take a hard-boiled egg, you cut it in half, and then so you have your two halves, you take the yolk out,

then you put the yolks in another bowl and you mix them separately, and then you have a bunch of halved egg whites that have been boiled, and then you pipette the mixture, the yolk mixture, back into the already-made egg form. It's delicious.

And then do you put the egg back together? So it's like a treat? No, they sit open-faced. Yeah. With like a little like curly Q of whipped yolk. Why don't you just put sauce on the eggs? Yeah, because it's an ancient delicacy. When do you think that started?

Like 50s party food? Yeah, 1940s, 50s. I see. It's a cookbook telling everyone look at what i did yeah 100 yes because i'm sure i mean but i guess there is some fun in it right because the yolk isn't hard and it's almost like a moose like a whipped moose yeah yeah but at the end of the day i'm sure if you just took all the ingredients in a bowl and just fucking pulverized it yeah just drink your milk your Just drink your egg milkshake.

Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to see the people at high-end parties in the 40s sipping their egg shakes. Right. Yeah, yeah. A little egg shooter for me? Well, anyway, the jury is still out on eggs. Yeah. How do you feel personally on eggs? I love them.

Yeah. Yeah. You better believe I have one this morning. Just one? Yeah, I have one inside of a sandwich alongside a moderate number of other ingredients. Oh, fantastic. That's why I'm looking so damn good. Yeah, you're glowing. It's that one egg a day. What is something you think is underrated? Watching movies on planes. Okay. I love watching movies on planes

and whenever I tell people I watched a movie on a plane, they go, oh, what? On that little screen? Right. Yeah, that's the screen they give you on the plane. But I just think it's a great viewing environment because it's one of the few places where you're totally untethered from the real world. And so there's no opportunity for distraction. It's either that or your thoughts. What's gonna win out a movie yeah because i watched i watched jupiter rising

i watched uh parasite on the flight over here from new zealand oh they had that already yeah yeah i was on the plane and i was like holy this is because everyone i've been talking about i wanted to see it yeah so you know here's a perfect opportunity right and i was so pleased and i told my friend i'm staying with and she said why would you watch it on the plane yeah because it was on i was an opportunity the movie was on the plane so we've talked about the other side of this where we sort of side with the directors and the cinephiles where uh there's the netflix watching movies at like 1.5 speed. That's bullshit. Don't do that. But also like people who are like,

you must see it on a full screen. Like it's glorious. It all depends. Like as it was intended. I don't, unless it was shot in like large format and I get that, but it doesn't, I don't think it necessarily, if you're only relying on the fact

that you shot it in large format, then maybe your movie's lacking a little bit. Right. But you know. I think it's like so much in life. It's not binary. If you tell people you watch movies on the plane, they go, what about screens, movie screens?

I can still, it's like having a Kindle or something. Right. And it's like, well, I just could never read on a Kindle. I love the feel of a book. No one is stopping you from buying a book. Right, right, right. It's not one or the other. And at the end of the day, if we've both read the book,

maybe me on the Kindle and you in the paperback version, we will still have the exact same conversation. That's right. And I will have the best takes. And everyone will praise me. Someone goes, whoa, whoa, I think he read the Kindle version. Right. You can just kind of tell the way he's thinking. You can tell when someone read that.

Yeah. But I love that on airplanes, though, it feels like the perfect time to get a lot of just cram movies in that you normally wouldn't have time for. Absolutely. And it's a blessing. And I think you're more emotionally invested. Like, I find I laugh harder or I'm more susceptible to cry at movies on the plane.

I think something to do with the altitude. Everything's heightened. Yeah. I remember I got off a plane. And I something to do with the altitude. Everything's heightened. Yeah. I remember I got off a plane. I thought, what's the movie? Was it called Why Him? The Brian Cranston, James Franco vehicle. Yeah.

I was like, this is the greatest movie of all time. Why Him? And I was shouted down for that take. Yeah. Well, it happens, you know? I think the bar is lower. And I've never, you know, it's funny. A lot of times I'll start something on Netflix and be like,

this is trash, I can't watch this anymore. Never done it on an airplane. Yeah. I'll sit all the way through and go, what? Absolutely. Maybe the boy car will get with the girl car. A little fun of the Concords reference there. Yeah.

Have you been able to unsee, like, your experience with Why Him? Or is it still, like, one of your five favorite movies I would never watch it again okay I don't think the movie independent of that viewing experience holds up to scrutiny I was gonna say you actually kind of have to see it on a full screen yeah you miss a lot of the site gags otherwise Franco's performance what is something you think is overrated well It's in the same bracket but Wi-Fi on planes. Get it out of there. Get it out of there.

No one's that busy. No one's got that much on. Who freaking cares? Just take however long the flight is to yourself. I hate it and people who say, well, just don't use it, obviously are projecting the idea that I have the self-control

not to use free Wi-Fi onto me. I just don't think it's necessary. I'm sure that there are people who, yeah, sure, it makes sense if you have something going on urgent. But we were surviving before playing Wi-Fi. Split it into smoking sections and Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi or even entirely independent flights. If your life is so busy, you need to go on a Wi-Fi. Split it into like smoking sections and Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi. Or even entirely independent flights. If your life is so busy, you need to go on a Wi-Fi.

You get on a Wi-Flight. That's right. But I don't want to see people on their laptops sending emails when I'm trying to enjoy Why Him. Yeah, yeah. Drives me nuts. Facts, facts. The thing I don't like is when you start people doing Instagram and Snapchat stories like in the flight. And I'm like, okay.

The thing that bothers me is people, there's a lot of people with uh spreadsheets open I'm just like how the fuck are you like getting that type of work done on a plane it's always their jobs are overly demanding it's never anything to do with them that's always a personal attack on you right yeah no I ask them they're like hey, hey, hey, hey, sir, over here. Yeah, exactly. Full spreadsheet. I got like 17,000 cells I'm working with. I just think planes are pretty much all we, you know, is one of the few shared spaces we have left.

Yeah. And I don't know. I don't want them to take it away just yet. What would you tell someone who's, let me play the role of someone who says, but guy, I'm a high-powered dot, dot, dot. I need to send emails, man. That's like the latest dot-com billionaire'm a high-powered dot, dot, dot. I need to send emails, man. That's like the latest dot-com billionaire. Yeah, dot, dot, dot, dot, ellipsis X.

What do you say to me? I could be losing valuable work time up here. Well, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Yes. I don't really care about your situation, sir. Okay, fair enough. It's not my problem. Will you answer me this?

Do you have any spare change? Yeah, I got pockets full of coins. Right. Now, one thing, one devil's advocate there would be Delta is now editing their movies. So what was the movie directed by Olivia Wilde? Booksmart. Booksmart. They edited out like a same-sex love scene

and the word lesbian from that movie, Delta. Wow. So that's one thing. Yeah, that's when it gets weird. Yeah, it's like Delta, beam your propaganda into my brain if you don't have Wi-Fi. That's crazy. Yeah.

Because I watched Escape from Dannemora on the plane, and they left all that raunchy shit in there. Yeah. And I look like a really perverted guy on the passenger. The dude next to me, I'm watching a scene where, what's his name? Was it Patricia Arquette? Is just having fucking jail sex with Paul Dano and shit. And the guy next to me was like, what the fuck is this? It looked like I was just like,

bro, it's a show, man. Mind your own fucking business. You should have turned to him and been like, don't tell anybody. Yeah. But that would have only made things worse. If you haven't seen that, that's a... Yeah, Escape from Dan Amour.

From Benicio Del Toro's performance that is just go google it i've seen it i just deliberately acted like i haven't seen it to spare us embarrassment uh what is a myth what's something people think is true you know to be false well now i don't know if you boys have heard this, but there was once a nymph who lived in the woods named Echo. And Echo was a delightful nymph, and she loved to natter. She was always nattering away. Natter. Do you have the word natter here?

It's like chatter. Chatter. Okay. And one day she was just nattering away, and Hera. Do you know who Hera is? Hera? H-E-R-A. Queen of the gods, wife of Zeus.

She was out on the hunt for Zeus in the woods. Okay. I believe all this so far. Yeah, yeah. This all seems to be above board. Yeah. And she comes across Echo, and she says, Echo, have you seen Zeus? And Echo is just so obsessed with nattering as Echo.

She goes, da-da-da, and keeps interrupting Hera. And Hera becomes very frustrated and says, Echo, I'm really trying to have a conversation with you here. And Echo keeps nattering away. It's so good to see you, Hera. You're looking delightful. Right. And Hera says, this is really the bloody final straw for me.

Yeah. As punishment, I curse you. Oh, no. You can no longer speak your own mind freely. You have to, you're a life damned to eternity for just parroting back, repeating what is said to or around you. Got it. And Echo was obviously devastated by this and took a long walk in the woods.

So demoralized was she. But thankfully, while she was walking in the woods, she saw a handsome man. Okay. Narcissus. Okay. And he was taking a stroll. Oh, my God.

All my favorite characters were in this one. Yeah, this guy, he was handsome. And he was taking a stroll along, and Echo wanted to say something but couldn't say anything because, you know, she can only repeat what is said about her. Right. And she followed Narcissus who found a body of water. And he looked into the body of water and he saw a reflection of the most beautiful damn face he'd ever seen.

And he was looking at it and he said, I love you. And Echo from her hiding place repeated back to Narcissus, I love you. And Narcissus was like, oh, my God, this beautiful face loves me. And said, I wish I could, you know, sort of starts falling in love with the face and eventually plunges into the body of water and drowns. And Echo was so heartbroken by this turn of events, she stopped eating, she stopped drinking

and eventually she withered away until only her voice was left. Anyway, the whole time've thought that echoes are caused by a reflection off a relatively even surface shows you what I know so you're correcting the myth that echoes are caused by reflections sound waves off of a

yeah I've actually seen that documentary that's a good one the more you know the sound waves off of a yeah I've actually seen that documentary the more you know yeah indeed they were talking about Echo the Dolphin yeah that is a

I didn't realize all those myths were so closely tied together wow yeah well all those all those stories all those true stories were so closely tied together I kind of did my head in Can I ask you a question? Yeah

Could we please talk about the dang news? I think we need that as a drop When we start the episode every day Fire up the news machine uh well we have to talk about what is shaping up to be the television event of 2019 oh yeah maybe the 2010s uh it is uh dr phil uh talking to well you we've covered the story before. We'll just play the clip. For a guy, I don't know if you remember or heard, there was a Ukrainian orphan who was adopted by a family. And this family claimed that she was actually,

at the time, much older, wasn't actually an adult posing as a child and was trying to kill them in their sleep, kill their kids in their sleep, poison their coffee, had like a very advanced vocabulary, like did not want to play with other kids. And they're like, this child is actually a schemer who's trying to kill my whole family. They then abandoned this child or they said, because this child is an adult, we actually

don't have to look after this child anymore. So we're moving to Canada. Yeah. And putting that, putting this, putting a six-year-old up in their own apartment for the time being. Now there's a lot of the reports. There's all kinds of things that say, is she actually 22 and not this child? Is she pretends?

They said that she was having her period or had pubic hair and these other things that they were saying, we don't buy that this is a child. So after a lot of searching, obviously, the Daily Mail was on top of this as they normally are. Dug it up. obviously the daily mail was on top of this as they normally are dug it up uh and now dr phil has secured a sit-down interview with her and her and her new adopted family and the teaser for it i'm i'm i'm beyond shook clear your fucking schedules yeah because dr phil handles this with the skill and grace and elegance that only an award-winning journalist and actual doctor who's not a doctor can uh achieve i don't know where i was i was supposed to end that sentence but check this out was this adopted ukrainian orphan are you a 33 year old scam artist masquerading as a

six-year-old child i guess it comes down to whether or not you are an evil psychopath demon child that's come over here to murder everybody. That question is asked directly to her face, and you get her reaction. And it is like, wait, what? Like, very... Very much like I would react if somebody asked me that question. In the account that's been relayed to me me and even the trailer for this television event, we've not heard a peep out of the supposed either demon child or just ordinary child. Yeah.

She says a couple of things. They weren't as interesting. Right. I'll be honest. We edited that. But on the initial charge before her family relocated to Canada, I mean, surely there'd be a counter-argument where you'd say, no, I'm six.

Right, that's what she says. That's what she basically said and then had a tear come out, a single tear, and they're like, are you trying to kill these kids? She's like, no. Right, single tear. Now, look, she could be a master finesser, scam lord, or she might be a really terribly misunderstood child. And it gets at a thing that I hadn't really thought about.

But you can't, if you don't know a person's birthday, you can't confirm their age. Like there are tests they did about like bone density. But like some of the tests said she was six. Some of the tests said she was like in her 20s. So it's just like yeah you just can't tell there there's no way to know but also the uh the real mom from ukraine also came out was like no she's a little girl right but we don't know how far this we don't know how deep this thing goes you don't know how high up this thing goes if she is a little girl it's fucked up that

all this has happened because she's a child and she can't legally even be shown in newspaper articles 100 yeah and then you think at some point there would have to be serious consequences for that family who are just like i don't know because at that point if she is a child was she actually saying this stuff or were they just trying to make up another story so they could be like ah we weren weren't really feeling this kid? This doesn't feel tied to our reality. I mean, even amongst all of how crazy news cycles generally are now, this entire thing is – because there's no way of age testing.

You're just putting the word of a six-year-old or possibly 20-something-year-old scam artist against a Ukrainian family. word of a six-year-old or possibly 20 something year old scam artist against you know a ukrainian family who have you know like because the possible outcomes are so different if it is a six-year-old then all of your sympathy goes toward the six-year-old right if it is a 22 year old scam artist then you've got to feel for this ukrainian family right yeah yeah american family yeah right it's an american family oh they're an american family yeah yeah, right. It's an American family. Oh, they're an American family. Adopted in Ukraine. Yeah, yeah. Who adopted her, yeah. Her birth mother in Ukraine came out and said no. So they moved from America to Canada.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they have another son who's autistic, who's like a math genius. So they moved to Canada so their kid could be closer to this institute to keep studying math. Yeah. They had a, was it 60 Minutes did a story

about their family in the past already because they had this child who suffered or who has, I think, autism. Yeah, yeah. But is also like a genius level mathematician. And you see the Ukrainian orphan as a supporting character. In the background, not an orphan, I guess.

Anyone who watched the initial 60 minutes they thought I know exactly the narrative here I know who the main characters are but the train spotters would have said I'd like to hear more from that Ukrainian girl exactly is she putting bleach in their coffee?

that was like one of the charges pushing the mom into an electrified fence that would be fun to comb through that 60 Minutes footage. Yeah. Like the raw footage. Yeah, the raw footage. There'd be a whole body of everything. They're like, what's she doing back there?

I don't know. She's like smoking a cigarette. She's like, I don't know. It could be like the gray and the pink dress where one person just sees a six-year-old doing a jigsaw and another person sees them like lacing coffee with arsenic. Right, right, right. There was another one of those, too. The shoe that was just as confounding to me.

The dress thing. But we didn't get into it because I guess we're over. The shoe that one, like it looked either pink and gray. Oh, another one of those? Yeah. Right, right. I don't know. I still find that to be.

They're just different pictures. A rip in the fabric of reality. But I think one thing, like we were saying, the medical tests can't determine, the bone density tests can't determine. I think one thing we can all agree on is the one way to determine this

is just to come right out and ask her. Yeah, just like that. Are you a psychopath demon child? Yeah. Came here to murder everyone. Yeah, just ask it in a totally open and objective way like that. It's a yes or no question. Yeah, I can't believe Dr. Phil's been sitting on the answer this whole damn time.

All right, we're going to take a quick break, and we'll be back to get into some news. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha Libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha Libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance. It's tradition. It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish

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The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. with the culture makers who inspire us. Like a recent episode with Latin Grammy winner, podcast host, and TV personality Chiquis about making a name for herself as the eldest daughter of beloved singer, Jenny Rivera.

I'm not afraid. And I think that that's why I've been able to kind of do my own thing and not necessarily stay in my mom's shadow because I'm not afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone and shaking things up a little bit because that's the only way I feel that you're going to make history. Listen to the bright side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

and we're back and it's time to check in with the impeachment inquiry so the rnc the republicans have been funding an operation to jam democratic phone lines yeah real look they're pulling out all the stops right now. They've already spent like over two point some million dollars on fighting the impeachment inquiry with television ads, print ads, robocalls and things like that. But we've just found out that they paid for nearly 11,000 calls to like 30 some house Democrats basically to like pressure them into back off, backing off the impeachment inquiry, uh, and to like clog their phone lines with the high volume of calls. So maybe other people can't get to them. Um, and a lot of people are like, hold on, what the fuck are these robo calls? And they were very like coy about it. Like, well, they're not robo calls. Like a robo call would go to someone. And then if they,

Like, we're not robocalls. Like, a robocall would go to someone, and then if they answered yes, they are against the impeachment inquiry, then we would say we will now forward you to a House Democrat so you can complain. Right. But they were real people that they had reached out to. That's what they say. But it sounds like, you know, half astroturfing nonsense, though, too. Oh, yeah. But, I mean, the bottom line is whether or not – I mean,'m sure there's there's clearly 11000 people out there who are against it. But like the idea, it's very cynical to be like, let apparently now that Trump has all the money in the Republican Party,

he's just taken over complete control of the party. Oh, yeah, 100%. So, yeah, this is going to— He's the captain now. Yeah, that's right. It's incredible, and I use incredible, even though it traditionally has positive connotations I actually, I would like it to have negative connotations

in this instance. The lengths that this guy will go to I don't know if you guys have been keeping your finger on the pulse of the news but I'm starting to get a feeling this Donald Trump goes no, no good at all. Bad news. How's this all play in New Zealand?

Frustratingly, quite loud. You know, it's the, I mean, not surprisingly, I suppose, it is internationally probably one of the biggest ongoing news sagas. But it's just, it's chaos. Like, and the amount of speculation and noise around the actual proceedings which is so common i think with uh specifically american politics it's just it's i know it's not modeled off of sport but the outcome if it's only peripheral not that the the impacts are only periphery peripheral for everyone but you know like if it's not specifically where you are i've been in new zealand for the last

couple months but you still keep you know it still comes into your vision but it's not specifically where you are, I've been in New Zealand for the last couple months, but you still keep, you know, it still comes into your vision. But it's just like the number of, it's the same with polling and like all of the anticipation around the 2020 election. So it's just the number of people in a variety of suits and dresses cluttered around tables, you know, talking about something without enough information to actually have a firm opinion it makes no sense that our system is as winner take all as it is other than that it creates an incredible media spectacle every four years like it doesn't make it's just like born out of that manifest destiny kind of attitude of like there are fucking you win or you fucking lose yeah i was just talking about how strange it is that the primary like there's such a huge difference between like you will either be remembered as your party's candidate who ran for president or you'll be completely forgotten like when you look back at people who like who ran in primaries and didn't win the

nomination it's like just they just go away. Yeah. But that's, honestly, as it stands, I would imagine a more desirable outcome. To not win? Yeah. So you're not, you don't go down there. Well, like Beto O'Rourke just pulled out.

It's like, oh, it looks, you know, being a multimillionaire who's running to be a presidential candidate and having to withdraw from the race looks pretty good. What do you got left? Millions of dollars in time on your hands. You can literally do anything you want except be president. But otherwise, it's a pretty long list. Right. Well, another thing that we're learning this week in the impeachment inquiry is the Democrats are starting to release transcripts from the closed door hearings, right? Yeah. Well, they're doing it, you know,

very strategically where they're just, it's partial bits, but each one is like a, just another damning dimension on like what was going on with the white house, what was going on at the state department. And especially with Maria Ivanovich, who was the ambassador to Ukraine, who Trump was like, on that July 25th call, was like, she's a problem. Said something about it. Some things are going to happen to her. Because she was a career diplomat

who was like, no, I'm not interested in this underhanded bullshit shadow campaign you're trying to run. And was being pretty hard about it. Like not hard, but kept her, stood her ground, which made her a problem when you're dealing with a bunch of snakes.

So when the things that we found out, obviously we knew there was an intense pressure campaign to smear her, to try and make her look bad. So she would inevitably have to leave. But there are these other things that have come out. So she asked Gordon Sondland, who is the guy who bought his ambassadorship from Trump with a lot of donations. Ambassador to the completely inconsequential EU. Yeah, exactly. He just bought that. Okay, great. And she said, what should I do? What's going on? I feel like there's a lot of pressure on me. is what he said yovanovitch testified that sonlin told her she needed to quote go big or go

home end quote she added that he said quote you need to you know tweet out there that you support the president and that all these are lies and everything else end quote what the fuck wait you need to you know tweet out out that you support the president and then all these are lies and everything else. Right. That sounds like some shit someone's drunk is trying to try and give you some advice. Yeah.

Nailed it. Go big or go home. And then they basically threatened her security or they threatened her safety, right? Well, it was coming. So then more she was finding out weirder stuff that people were saying the shit about her that other people in in ukraine were like something rudy giuliani's bad fucking news like i don't know what's going on it's like i don't know i'm the ambassador but

i don't know what the fuck this guy's doing so she found out from a foreign service official uh in two different calls that was like kind of a warning she said in the first call this uh foreign service official said that she was giving me a heads up that things were going wrong, quote, kind of off the track and wanted to give me a heads up. She didn't know what was happening, but there was a lot of nervousness on the seventh floor and up the street. And Yovanovitch clarifies that up the street meant the White House. Something's going on at the White House. And then when asked, did you understand what she meant about nervousness? White House. And then when asked, did you understand what she meant about nervousness?

She says those answers eventually came. She called me about an hour later. So now it's 1 a.m. in Ukraine. And then was asked, what did she say to you then? She said that there was a lot of concern for me that I needed to be on the next plane home to Washington. And I was like, what? What happened? And she said, I don't know, but this is about your security. You need to come home immediately. You need to come home on the next plane. And that was their way of getting her out of Ukraine. But she did not get on that next fucking plane. Right. Because she was like, fuck that.

But at the same time, other people were getting, were like, I don't know, like, you may want to come back. Right. And was hearing that they were still going to try and go after her, whether professionally or whatever. But just all this weird shit kept popping up which eventually she was like okay i guess and then the president recalled her you'd be so devastated you know you finally fulfill your childhood dream of becoming the u.s ambassador to the ukraine right and then this absolute maelstrom of shit explodes around you and you think god damn it i just want to be a down-the-line U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Yeah, right.

And the unfortunate part is because of all the murky overlap with oligarchs in Russia and Paul Manafort's business dealings in Ukraine, it ended up being a focal point for a lot of this fuckery that's been going on. So another thing that she was also talking about is that the president also did the same scheme like with the old the last ukrainian president petro poroshenko basically saying like hey i know you need these javelin missiles to fight russians on your border how about you like bury these investigations into this the black ledger which is that like that list of like two billion dollars that had illicit payments uh to the like

pro-russia regions and then also paul manafort that was the reason why paul manafort had to like uh leave his position they're like why don't you uh bury that and then uh maybe we'll get you some javelin missiles right and it happened it fucking happened so they she she pointed out that ukraine's investigation into those payments and manafort's role stalled just days after Giuliani visited Ukraine in June of 2017 and met with the inspector general and the president at the time. The Manafort investigation was handed off from Ukraine's anti-corruption unit to Lutsenko, and the Kiev Post quoted a former Ukrainian official saying, It is clear for me that somebody gave an order to bury the Black Ledger. A little over a week later the u.s made a sale of javelin anti-tank missiles to ukraine and i mean combining like the fact that

her security her safety was being threatened with like what we see on that memo of trump's conversation he says like what a person would say if they were ordering someone to be killed. Yeah. In, like, in a movie. What did he say? Like, she's going to go through some things? Yeah, she's going to go through some things.

Yeah. After talking shit about her, he said, well, you know, she's going to go through some things. So, I mean. But that's his whole, you know, that's his whole identity Or his whole operating system Is just downloaded From a composite of like

Movie villains Yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah it seems like And also like Piling around with this mob lawyer Roy Cohn Back in the day

Like he kind of learned the ropes From like Legitimate organized crime people Right So And you know Just the way he runs it He really does

He's like That's how you That's how you run an organization. He's, yeah, look, I'll stand behind what I said earlier. I reckon the guy's, he's truly up to no good. It's just crazy to get the job on the, you know, like the amount of ignorance it seems like he entered the office with in terms of not just stuff that has unfilled since he was in the White House,

but the number of misdeeds and wrongdoings that have littered his entire life, the point that they continue to catch up and pile up, it's like the messiest escape route where he just keeps papering over these lies. It's almost not untraceable, but it's like there's so many balls in the air. There's so many distractions from everything. Is there a Fox News equivalent in New Zealand?

We are not big enough for that. Right, yeah, so it's just you just get the objective facts over there. Yeah, there's a couple of like sort of fringe blogs on either side, but in terms of a mainstream news outlet, we've got one and then we've got Channel 1 and we've also got Channel 3. Oh, okay. What happened to Channel 2?

Channel 2 doesn't broadcast news. It's owned by TVNZ, who also own Channel 1. It's a public broadcaster. Okay, like a BBC. And so they play, at the same time the news is playing, they'll play a soap. Oh, nice. Either one.

TV 3 is a subsidiary of a company called MediaWorks who have had a profitable radio branch and a television branch that has been hemorrhaging money for years. Uh-oh. And right before I left, MediaWorks said, if TV3 doesn't find a buyer before Christmas, the whole channel's going to fall. Oh, no.

So we're going to go down to one news. One news. We'll have two channels. Yeah. Literally one news. Well, the good thing for the president is that the people that he has criming for him. Thick as thieves.

Are loyal servants who just will go to the mat for him. That's the thing about criminals who love crimes of opportunity. Right. Is that they are loyal. They stick to their guns and then they flip when the pressure gets too much to them. Yeah. So this is what's happening with Lev Parnas, who is one of the two Russian-linked guys that Rudy Giuliani has been running around with. Him and this other guy, Igor Fruman.

Now, these guys, they got a subpoena from the house impeachment inquiry saying, we need you guys to come through and talk to us. This is a subpoena. They LOL did away and said, yeah, we'll pass booked one way tickets to Vienna. And then the feds arrested them on the jet way being like, where the fuck do you think you're going? And so since then they've been allowed, they don't, they, they haven't been locked up in the meantime, but you know, they've, they're here to answer for some crimes because it seems like they were funneling money in from foreign sources into different campaigns and things like that.

So they're on the hook a bit here. So now Lev Parnas has said, you know what? I see that you started to connect dots between myself and this guy, Dimitri Firtash, who many people are like, we're pretty sure this guy is very high up in the Russian mob and is also bankrolling your entire operation. Because people are like, we don't know where these guys' money comes from. Right. But they're paying Rudy Giuliani for some reason. Like, they paid him $500,000. Like, what is your business exactly?

Doesn't matter. You know, whatever. It's murky. Right. Anytime a question is asked of Rudy Giuliani, I just picture him doing the handcuff dance that he did on Laura Ingraham one time. That's just his answer to everything. So then comes out. He got rid of his lawyers, got new lawyers because John Dowd was his lawyer, the White

House lawyer, now has a new lawyer. The lawyer said, we are willing to comply with the subpoena to the extent that it does not violate any appropriate privilege that Mr. Parnas may properly invoke. So maybe he's going to fifth it up. Right. Up there. But also a lot of the speculation is he could be angling for immunity. Right.

To sort of leverage that against Rudy Giuliani, essentially. But then it's weird because if he has immunity in one place, then what does that mean for the criminal charges he faces? It's kind of the same thing with Ollie North. Right. So it's, I mean mean obviously there'll be some legal working but at the very least this man will sit down in front of them and you know what donald trump says if you're invoking the fifth amendment means you did something wrong right um so either way it's gonna even if he doesn't say it's going to probably look uh great. And all of this because when he was arrested, there are many photos of him, of Donald Trump with this guy,

Lev Parnas and the other guy, Fruman, that this lawyer said, Mr. Parnas was very upset by president Trump's plainly false statement that he did not know him. Yeah. Imagine just the lay of the land. You give a bunch of money.

You're sitting with him at apparently intimate dinners. You're seen waving at him at fundraisers and him waving back. You're somehow recruited by Rudy Giuliani. And after all that, spending a heck of a lot of money on Rudy Giuliani traveling or whatever, you're sitting in a prison cell waiting to be bailed out. And you learn that the president has completely distanced himself from you. Of course, you'd be upset upset hell hath no fury i mean that's i i think that's a media myth that's pretty pervasive not as pervasive as guy's myth about uh echo obviously but uh the the idea that like

there's this honor amongst thieves and that like you know the whole idea of the crime family being this thing about loyalty and all that shit. When you ask cops and people who are experts on these things, they generally say that a lot of that is bullshit. And people just are kind of turning on each other because you do crime out of desperation. And if you have desperate people they will you know they're fairly easy to manipulate i just love that that the tipping point might be if you know a fragile ego like it's very satisfying to think that the thing that might undo is trump is just it's just you know the same thing that guides him which is could you imagine like if history would have taken a completely different trajectory if in that moment trump said i think he's a great guy yeah what

they're doing to him is just a shame great man okay let's keep it moving and then we never find out uh all right we're gonna take a quick break we'll be right back When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance. It's tradition. It's culture.

This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds, Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised 150 grand in prizes to four finalists, but the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. I mean, my reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure

across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president.

One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current.

Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that is guaranteed to light up your day.

Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like a recent episode with Latin Grammy winner, podcast host, and TV personality, Chiquis, about making a name for herself as the eldest daughter of beloved singer, Jenny Rivera. I'm not afraid. And I think that that's why I've been able to kind of do my own thing and not necessarily stay in my mom's shadow, because I'm not afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone and shaking things up a little bit, because that's the only way I feel that you're

going to make history. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And it turns out my Amazon Echo, your Google Home, can be hacked with laser beams. Yeah, it sounds like something you would say to scare an elderly person. 100%. And I would bring a laser pointer with me. I'd be like, you see what I'm doing?

Like, don't hack it. Oh, I'm hacking it. Oh, I'm hacking this thing. Get back. The headline alone was enough to pique my interest. But it's all based on these researchers. They found that the microphones in these things, they respond to frequencies of light as if they were sound. So taking that information, they've really figured out how to use lasers with these different frequencies to send these, quote commands from outside your fucking home if you even had to if you could if you had a clear line of sight to

it and they could do things with it based on the frequency like opening garage doors making online purchases and nearly like a myriad of other things basically based on total use of the the device essentially yeah with a laser beam i feel like if someone figures out how to do that that is a shared echo or google home at that point that is not your problem if there's someone in your neighborhood is that good with lasers right share the damn thing all yours yeah yeah you did all this homework yeah i'm not gonna let you use mine oh yeah like luckily it's like a lot of work you should just buy one you can have mine i'll take this yeah it's like are you the one who keeps ordering toilet paper like every other weekend with a laser beam yeah from three houses down it's like also you're not

even good at it because i've just thought i was auto ordering this stuff because i needed it right and you were okay well so i'm really really sort of good Samaritan with a laser who's just, you know, picking up all the balls that you're dropping. Right, right. Looking around your house like, oh, okay, they could use a new hose. Looks like they're almost out of broccoli.

A rake. Okay, let's just get these. And we're moving on. But yeah, it's research. I think we're looking at the security aspect. I don't think it's necessarily quite met the, reached the level of scammers, laser-based scamming yet.

But hey, if you're an enterprising laser enthusiast, fuck around with your Echo. See what you can get done. Yeah. Why don't you stop torturing cats? Yeah. And start having some fun with other people. It's so fun to torture a cat, though, with laser. Well, not even torture.

Playing. Yeah, just play. And also, I have two cats in my house. I'll try and see how high up the wall I can get them to run that's a laser and i've been thoroughly impressed at times how high up a wall two meters like maybe no not two meters maybe 1.6 meters 1.5 for that's still high yeah of like just scurrying up a wall and chasing a little red dot. We should enter domestic animals into track and field style events. Right. But do you use lasers to enhance their performance?

Would that be a performance enhancing laser at that point? It would be. Yeah. But I don't know. I think they should also just let athletes use steroids. I think they should at least have separate Olympics for it. Yeah. So that it's just like what the human body can purely,

is purely capable of before the bones just shatter. I mean, look, this is a conversation that happens a lot. In fact, I was having this conversation with DJ Daniel yesterday. And yeah, I would be down to see it. However, you know know so many people would fucking die right because they would do the most experimental like out of this world shit that without knowing what the dangers are to themselves like you'd be like holy smokes this guy ran a four second flat hundred meters and his heart exploded at the finish line right but or a dope way to go

but that four second hundred meter dash Would be like watching Captain America In Infinity War Instead I feel like we're just watching a bunch of athletes Who have a very small amount of the same drugs In their body Like blur the line between what is possible Oh so it's just It's administered by the league

Or something Everyone gets the same amount of PEDs I don't know i just think it's it's pervasive anyway so why why fight it well i guess i wonder how many people were sort of like well if they didn't test i would actually be doing this right yeah you know like because i'm sure testing has made people figure out how to like sort of cut corners and things like that but i wonder what it's fully stopping them from it's like god damn if i figure this thing out i would be on what's the like athletes careers are

lasting you know what's the relationship between say Tom Brady or even in tennis like Federer and Nadal these guys who are so old and are achieving things that has never been done at the age within a sport just without the relationship between like the whatever the technology or the conditioning and all the information you have and you know whatever extra stuff is available yeah I mean I guess they it's more prolonged suffering. Yeah. It's like what Tom Brady has just had to not have fun for two decades

and just like eat garbage balls and leaves every day. That seems fine. He doesn't seem fun. Yeah, and get whack-ass kisses from his son. Right. Remember, he had a MAGA hat in his locker one time. Yeah. No one even talks about it anymore. Well, because had a MAGA hat in his locker one time. Yeah. No one even talks about it anymore.

Well, because I think most Patriots fans, like, I mean, there's- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The fucking Patriots, man. Yeah. Not the fucking Kneelers. That's right.

The Oakland Kneelers. That's right. Let's talk about Popeye's chicken sandwiches back. Oh, man. Unfortunately, that has caused a tragedy in Prince George's County in Maryland. There was an altercation at a line, possibly because someone cut in front of him. We don't have the actual details, but somebody was stabbed.

A 28-year-old was stabbed and died at the hospital later in a line for a Popeye's chicken sandwich. That's, we've... Yes. It's wild because this is a whole genre of societal chaos video I see a lot on Twitter twitter which is people fighting at popeyes yeah there's so many people fighting at popeyes over these chicken sandwiches uh what are the ingredients um i'm not sure i think we're gonna have to look into that now what the hell is in there yeah i think i don't know it's just one of those things where it became very popular

and it was a good thing and then I don't know if people have just gone to a hysteric level of enthusiasm or what or it's just sort of another symptom of people already being stressed out and that spilling over

and it just happens to be at a Popeyes. As far as we know, we don't know fully what happened, if these people knew each other or not. But the fact that most of the reporting seems to be over someone cut somebody in line is just hard to fathom. Yeah. I will reserve, not reserve judgment,

but just because that seems like the sort of story that no matter what the fight was about, they would come up with a way to tie it into the chicken sandwich. Yeah, right, right, right. Like the consumer loses it over like trying to get to the same product story. Every Black Friday, they make a big deal about that. Yeah. Every Black Friday, they make a big deal about that. Yeah. And it turns out we looked into a bunch of those stories back at Cracked, and a lot of them are like it was a completely unrelated shooting

that happened to happen in the parking lot of a Toys R Us on Black Friday. Right. And so they say it was over a toy. It's a great opportunity to put a product name in a news story. Right. Yeah, exactly. And it's masquerading as a story, but really it's a PR thing, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Yeah, I'm sure the kind of PR Popeyes does not want either.

Right. I mean, at the same time, it makes it look like their sandwiches are in great demand. It certainly does. Yeah. With obviously, you know, as much respect as can be reserved for the outcome of the situation. Right. It does make the sandwich undeniably categorically look pretty tasty. Pretty tasty. Well, I verify.

We verified. Yeah. It's delicious. It's really good. What, you've eaten the sandwich? Yeah, we've eaten the sandwich. You don't know the ingredients? No, don't ask.

It's just... I think carbon. You mean, yeah. Mostly carbon. Yeah, I think it's a carbon-based food. Carbon-based food item. Is there coleslaw in the sandwich? No.

It's just a really well-executed fried chicken breast. Man, this is the stupidest fucking country in the world. Facts. Thanks. Yeah, it's just sauce, pickle, bun, butter. It's the same sandwich that everyone's eating. Everywhere. Oh, but it's so good, man.

It's real good. What kind of fried chicken you got in New Zealand? I don't know. Is fried chicken big in New Zealand? Yeah, it's popular everywhere. Right, right. But are they all eating KFC? KFC is big in New Zealand in a way that is,

I almost think, unique to how it is big here. KFC is, we don't have a variety of the smaller fried chicken outlets. And so the relationship between New Zealanders and KFC is a very fervent one. Storied relationship, right. They're everywhere. Right. So KFC is synonymous with fried chicken. Like those are kind of the same.

You don't get fried chicken anywhere else really? You go to the corner store. There's country fried chicken at the dairy. It's available at fish and chip shops and whatnot. But KFC would be, if you're thinking about fried chicken in New Zealand. But, I mean, you know, I don't think, I don't know. To be fair, the Double Down, did the Double Down break news here when it was released?

Yeah. So that happened in New Zealand as well. Right. And then there was a time about five years ago when a very popular chocolate company released chocolate milk. And, I mean, I make fun of America, but that did send New Zealand into a frenzy and it sold out like in all of these stores and there were lines out the door to just have some chocolate

milk it was who's who's who uh whittaker's and it was really good chocolate to be fair what a really good chocolate what a stupid fucking country yeah absolutely it was a chocolate company so the quality was coming from the chocolate not not the milk? Yeah, well, it was like a boutique chocolate company met a high-end sort of organic milk company. Got it. And essentially, I think they were melting high-quality chocolate into high-quality milk, and people couldn't handle that. Right.

But, you know, at the same time, I feel like we derive a lot of the way that our media landscape works from larger media landscapes that we've deferred to from the outset, namely you guys and Britain. Yeah, we were talking before we started recording about the fact that you guys, even though Christmas is in the summer for you guys, the ornaments still have frosting. All the marketing materials would suggest

that it's happening in winter. That's amazing. I mean, there's a few, we have a bit of fun with it. Sometimes you'll see Santa in just some red shorts with a white cuff trim. Shirt off, sunnies on. Oh, shirt off, okay. How's he look?

No shirt. He looks good. Yeah, all right. Yeah, but even we have that sometimes, like the idea of Santa on a tropical vacation or something. Right. Because there's also parts of the country during, you know, quote unquote winter that are still warm.

So, you know. But we, yeah, we take a lot from other places. It's just what happens when you come from a small island nation. Yeah. And even, so come to America is crazy because if I hear an American accent, you know, in the wild,

I think that the sole function of the person talking is to make me laugh. Or wind up. Or entertain me. And then if I hear a British accent in the wild, I immediately think they're in charge. That's amazing. All right, let's talk. Can we talk about deadspin real quick uh yeah we'll say rip to deadspin so basically all of their editors and writers left on the same day for people don't know huge sports website great

sports website i mean basically the ethos of the site was this guy, Will Leach, like a decade ago, probably more, realized that nobody in the sports world was talking about the Michael Vick story about, was it Ron Mexico? Ron Mexico, how he used that at Planned Parenthood. Yeah. And like how he had this alter ego that was giving people herpes or something. It was just this like really strange story. But he realized that because the media has to work with these athletes and these coaches on a daily basis, just like anybody you work with, you are not going to be fully objective and say something bad about them because you have to see them at work the next day. And he was like, well, we'll just hire really funny, great writers and kind of have a punk rock ethos and cover sports. And it was just a really great site that had a lot of really

funny writing on it. Didn't they first start publishing Donaghy's book at Deadspin too, like showing us excerpts before it came out or something? I think there was something like that. They also had like some really deep reporting occasionally, just randomly. But anyway, so they were purchased by a venture capital company. The venture capital company was hired or installed as CEO, the guy who was in charge of Forbes.com when Forbes went from being like a magazine that you kind of assumed was respected to being like blog spam and just like top five money ways to get money. To yacht yourself. Yeah. And just like slideshows. So the guy who basically diminished Forbes brand, they were like, he should be the CEO of Deadspin. He came in and was like, only sports and articles should be about this and stopped talking about politics and just tried to basically turn them into ESPN.com and was just doing all sorts of shitty things to the staff. And it just seems like it's the thing that is happening everywhere.

Like we lost all these newspapers when the Internet became a thing. And it's not being replaced by an equally like diverse and extensive online ecosystem, media ecosystem. I think there were people who were willing to have lost leaders in the past just because they knew the media was an important institution. And now we kind of have the opposite where billionaires will put Gawker out of business for being mean to them. Right. Like, so they're like act rather than, uh, you know, creating their own, uh, works of

propaganda. They're just like killing websites and they're also creating their own works of propaganda, but it's a bummer. I mean, I, we kind of saw it happen. It cracked when they were owned by Scripps and Scripps didn't really know what to do with them. And it happens to a lot of websites. Hey, can you make more videos for less money? Yeah, exactly. Every company when they're bought, it's like, okay, this looks good on paper.

How do we get this same thing and operate it with half the budget? How do you do a scale? How thing and operate it with half the budget how do you do a scale how do you do it at scale man that's no you have it wrong we're not thinking like that that's why this is doing well that's why this is good yeah yeah so i don't know it seems like back in the day i think we talked on a show last year about how marketing had sort of taken over the Hollywood story development. And that's kind of what was killing a lot of theater going and the movies kind of being one dimensional. And it seems like marketing and also people who know even less from the finance side are coming into the website industry and the newspaper industry.

And it's just, it's going to be, it's really bad already for our society. Like the, just the lack of local news, local reporting. Like we're counting on, you know, local like social media to fill that void. Oh, right. Exactly. That we're just like, I don't know what's going on in my neighborhood. Let me see if Twitter knows. Right.

Oh, right. Exactly. That we're just like, I don't know what's going on in my neighborhood. Let me see if Twitter knows. Right. Or like those horrible websites that are all about like the crimes that are going on. What's fucked up in your neighborhood? Yeah, exactly. And just like scaring the shit out of you instead of, you know.

I got hired by one of those sites to do some of the crimes. Some viral marketing. Yeah, yeah. It pays great. Yeah. Just putting bleach on people's lawns and like cuss words

there's one American family I was doing and I set it up so that they it looked like it was one of their children six year old the whole time

putting bleach in their coffee yeah yeah Guy Montgomery it's been a pleasure having you man hey

people find you? Please find me online at Guy underscore Mont on Twitter and Instagram. And is there a tweet you've been enjoying? Here's a tweet I thought was pretty funny from this morning, which was, can't believe Leonardo DiCaprio yelled, I'm on top of the world from the Titanic, a ship that was at sea, at sea level, the scientifically lowest altitude in the world. He was nowhere near the top.

He was literally at the bottom. What a stupid idiot. And that was by at Rudy underscore Mustang. All right. Do you have anything else you want to plug coming up? Yeah, I'm actually in this Sunday, November 10 at 5 p.m. at the Lyric Hyperion in Los Angeles. I am doing a solo show.

It's an improvised hour of stand-up comedy called Watch Me and My Huge Muscles Get Super Ripped for Summer. And there are still tickets available. Wait, so improvised stand-up? You just – Yeah. Pull the curtain back a little bit. I've just finished touring my last hour-long show, like the Comedy Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festival and whatnot.

And I'm tired of all the material within it. So you chuck it away. And then this is part of building a new hour. So I've done this show in Sydney and Auckland and Wellington. And you get prompts from the audience. So they write down a word or a phrase or something. And then you just pull them out of a bowl and riff around. Start riffing.

Oh, wow. And so it's definitely cheap and potentially outstanding. Hell yeah. That sounds incredible. Miles, where can people find you? You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Miles of Gray. Tweet I like is from at Krolge. It says, I got into leftist politics the same way as any other 31-year-old,

by listening to Rage Against the Machines guerrilla radio as it appeared in 2000's Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 shortly followed by the war in Iraq that's great Jesus Christ some tweets I've been enjoying Zorgus Borgus

I just got hit by the love bat tweeted and it's driving me mad vote Sam Wiles tweeted fats domino chubby checker call me when you play a real legend like lard ass tiddlywinks and

Andrew Farmer tweeted from 1995 to 2001 I cannot properly express just how healthy I thought sun chips were. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist.

We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, DailyZeitgeist.com, where we post our episodes and our footnotes, where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as the song we write out on. Miles, can you come up with a song that's going to make Anna not yawn? Yeah, maybe something that'll maybe bring some life into her, her spirit, her soul.

This is a track from The Avalanches from Australia, unfortunately. Are they back? Maybe. I think this is a new song. I have not checked up on them in a minute, but it's called The Wazzard of Iz. And, you know, they like their samples. Also, I remember DJ Dexter,

who was in the, I believe, 1999 DMC World DJ Championships, had a great set, and that's how I first heard about The Avalanches. That's a bit of esoteric. Oh, is that one of the members of the Avalanches? Yeah, yeah, yeah, DJ Dexter. Or just Avalanches, not The Avalanches. Are they The Avalanches?

They're called The Avalanches, yes. The song Frontier Psychiatry is one of my favorite songs of all time. That boy needs therapy. And that's what you hear at the beginning. It goes, Dexter, Dexter. That sample is an allusion or the reference to DJ Dexter. Yeah. They built an entire album just out of old records and random open sample or open source samples.

And it's like a classic. Yeah. Again, DJ Dexter, DMC World. He does this one part where he puts a bit of tape on the record, so this one section keeps looping, basically, by resetting the needle on the grooves, and then he uses that to do this whole other thing. I think it's one of the best ones. I think Crave's won that year, but let's be real.

I thought DJ Dexter was very musical in his set. I've always agreed with that sentiment. The Daily Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for today, guys. We will be back tomorrow with more podcasts, and we'll talk to you then. Bye.

Here we go! I have been over the rainbow and I've found nothing there But fairies in air I'm watching you. My 16th and tail 12. She's like water, real and hell. I sold dope to stack up. And if I hate birth from tail 12, then these ain't make my jail bell.

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