The Daily Zeitgeist - Escape To The Blockbuster Video In Roku City 11.03.22

Episode Date: November 3, 2022

In episode 1365, Jack and Miles are joined by writer, speaker, social justice educator, and host of BFF: Black, Fat, Femme, Dr. Jonathan Paul Higgins, to discuss… Democrats Are Too Quiet / Defensive On Messaging (Unless It’s Against the Left), The Pelosi Attack Just The Latest In Long Trend of Normalizing Right Wing Political Violence, Roku City Becomes Escapist Fantasy According to a Depressing NYTimes Article, Reminder: Blockbuster Video Sucked and more! Democrats Are Too Quiet / Defensive On Messaging (Unless It’s Against the Left) The Pelosi Attack Just The Latest In Long Trend of Normalizing Right Wing Political Violence Roku City Becomes Escapist Fantasy According to a Depressing NYTimes Article Reminder: Blockbuster Video Sucked Netflix's 'Blockbuster' is a workplace comedy about connection Netflix Drops Trailer For 'Blockbuster' And Twitter Users Can't Believe The Irony Grab a Nostalgic Cocktail at This New Blockbuster-Themed Pop-Up Speakeasy In Search of The Last Great Video Store: A Directory Thank Mom, Pop for Video Boom The Story of a Brand: Blockbuster Video LISTEN: Thunderstorm In Surulere by Lady DonliSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just

starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture.

Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 261 episode 4 of the daily zeitgeist a production of iheart radio this is a podcast where we take a deep dive into america's shared consciousness and it is thursday november 3rd 2022 which of course means hey what are we working with there's only one thing to talk about. National Sandwich Day. Yeah. That's it. There's some other ones, but they are very gender normative.

Two of them is National Housewives Day, and the other one is National Men Make Dinner Day. What? Men make dinner? Yeah, it feels like you're like, hey, fellas, for that housewife you got, maybe you can go pick up some Boston Market. Huh? Okay. Hey, fellas, for that housewife you got, maybe you can go pick up some Boston Market, huh? Okay. Anyway, I fuck with sandwiches, though, and I think most of us do. Shout out a sandwich, a good sandwich.

My name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. Remember, Remember, the Spliff of November, that time that I tried to smoke pot. I'm Taters O'Brien with Milky White Plumpers and wish that you all forgot. That is courtesy of Fighter of the Nightman commemorating a time I tried to smoke pot, I guess, in this version of the expanded universe of my childhood. Yeah. Anyways, I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray!

Oh, on the heels of Jack tasting that new voodoo, it's... Swedish fish is almost right. Fruity pebbles, verner's bite. Something weird but not name- is in my doom shout out to scouting mcgrew on the discord with that one what so where did we at where did we end up in that song what what i i didn't quite catch the so swedish fish almost right but we're not sure you know because it was a little ginger ale adjacent but you said it didn't have ginger beer bite right so verner's does feel like a good like you're pouring got it it wasn't ginger ale then verner's is you know i wasn't picking up all the references oh okay

you're not old you never had yeah who's the first person to give you a verner's it was my grandmother verner's i don't know yeah probably i think my grandparents had some verner's in their garage it was just all dusty in those little like bottles like a peel tab top yeah came out of the bomb shelter right right right yeah but yeah the the ginger ale was medicine oh yeah yeah yeah my grandmother she's like this she's like you need to try verner she's like not canada dry that's too much it's like what but it's yeah sure all right shout out to golden sodas well we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a brilliant writer, speaker, social justice educator who's written for Ebony Complex out the root and appeared on NBC News BuzzFeed and Vox, among many others. They're also the host of the amazing podcast BFF Black Fat Femme. Please welcome Dr. John Paul Higgin!

I wish that I had a very interesting song to sing, but I will say that scam money don't make money, but freak money do. There it is. What's new, JP? Not much, you know, just trying, like I said earlier,

trying to exist in a world that's not built for me. That's it. I'm just here, queer, and not drinking a light beer. Me neither. Was that Freaky Money you were quoting? Yes, it is. Yes, so Freak Money, Don't Make

Money, but Scam Money Do, and Freak Money by RuPaul. Yes, that is such a good song. I think I missed. I'm like, it jarred something in my mind. Good job for knowing! You know what, Miles? That's why I fucks with you. Good job for knowing that. You know, I fuck with RuPaul and, you know, the Drag Race people. You know,

famously, Shangela called me her trade. So, you know, I'm out here. I'm out here, yeah. Wow, I love that for you. I love that journey for you. Yeah, I love that for me, too. We had Shangela on and I was like, Shangela, do you remember? Yeah. She was like, yes, baby. But I was like for you. I love that journey. Yeah. I love that for me too. We had Shangela on and I was like, Shangela, do you remember me? Yes. Very polite. She was like, yes, baby. But I was like, you don't. That's fine.

You don't remember me, but that's all right. That's okay. And that's okay. But that's your Texas, like that's your Southern politeness. And I will take that just as dearly, close to my heart. I love that. I love that journey. How was Halloween for you? What was the... Halloween was, you know, so sadly we only got one trick-or-treater. But we had this big-ass bag of candy that's now just sitting on top of our fridge that for the last three days I've been slowly just kind of dipping my hand into.

But over the weekend, I did get to go to the Jackson family. They have a, basically it's called Thriller Night, and they do it every year. This was the second year. Shout out to Taj for inviting me. But yeah, we got to hang out with the Jackson family. I got to hang out with Prince, and BG was there, and TJ was there, and it was a really cool night.

It was really fun. Damn. Okay. And what happens at Thriller Night? Yeah. So the good thing about it is, one, it is not just a whole bunch of who's who's that come together in the industry. It's a night for them to raise money. It's called Heal Los Angeles is one of it.

And then the D.D. Jackson Foundation, basically both of the foundations are to commemorate, one, the work that Michael Jackson did in terms of philanthropy to make sure that they are actually giving back to the community and helping folks who basically are less fortunate. But D.D. Jackson's foundation, I know T.J. and Taj, they are very much in on that one. That one is to make sure that, you know, women, specifically women who have been battered or dealing with domestic violence, they have somewhere to go and have support once they're trying to kind of rebuild their lives. So it's a night full of fun. I feel like I feel like I'm a spokesperson for it. like i feel like i'm a spokesperson for it it's a really good it's just both of the organizations do really good work and prince and taj have really made me feel like i'm a part of their family in a lot of ways and this is really cool but there's also this really cool maze so it's at the haven hearst manor and they do a maze inside the actual house and it when i tell you that maze is spooky

it is spooky oh yeah it's fun it's a lot of fun that's why i went to a haunted house over the weekend at like this like local high school where like the high school drama department was doing a haunted house and it was like like five bucks to get in and i was like let me you know let's support the kids and see what happens and before i went in i was with some people i'm like okay so y'all think this is gonna be scary or it's gonna be be a more like, oh, OK. We went in. These fucking kids went in. They I mean, it's the drama department.

So like half of the fucking spooked out shit was just kids acting like they had lost their shit, like full voice screaming, like running, like pulling their hair. I was like, oh, fuck like the energy was too much yeah i definitely got i got my five dollars worth and i and i was kind of a i regret being a bit of a hater before walking in to be like yeah we'll see what they got yeah they actually touch you in the maze uh in the jackson maze same you don't know who yeah they were touching they were they basically tell you it is a hands-on. And there were moments where you get, you know, something will grab your leg or grab your shoulder. And that's what I think made it even more scary was you never knew where you were going to be grabbed. So, yeah. Yeah. Well, we'd love to be scared.

Love it. Love it. All right. Well, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell our listeners a couple of things that we're talking about. We're going to talk about Democrats being too quiet, defensive on messaging when it comes to the midterms and going up against Republicans. But then not too quiet when it comes to mainstream Democrats running against leftists, at least in my neighborhood, there was a weird thing happening on Halloween night where they were like, they had a 12-year-old handing out flyers against like anti-Ugo flyers, anti-DSA flyers. It was very, very strange. So just contrasting like Gavin Newsom being like, we need to be more on the offensive, less on the defensive when it comes to the mainstream elections. But that doesn't seem to be a problem when it comes to going against the left.

I mean, I know y'all talked about the Pelosi attack yesterday, but I guess I'll just reiterate how fucking scary a moment this is. That has officially been just normalized and turned into a punchline on the right. We'll check in with Roku City because that's what people are using for escape as fantasy, according to a depressing New York Times article. We'll talk about the new Blockbuster show and just a brief history for our younger listeners of what Blockbuster was really all about. All of that. Plenty more. But first, Jonathan, we like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history? Something from my search history.

Oh, gosh, this is going to be the nerd in me. A lot of qualitative and quantitative explanations. I am teaching a research course right now. And so really just trying to figure out how do I break it down in the easiest terms for students to understand. That's all you're going to find in my search history. Get more laid through.

What are we teaching the youth? What are we teaching them? Well, I think really mainly just how to do good research. I think that's one of the things about me. So in my past life, before I became an edutainer, I was an educator. And so I spent a lot of time teaching the babies how to do good research. I love research. I'm always one of those people that when something interests me, I will Google it to see where it started. And then if it means I have to go to a book or I have to reach out to someone else who may have a more fonder knowledge of it, that's just kind of me in the nutshell. But I'm a very inquisitive person. So you're going to get a lot of search history on research. And our listeners are obviously among the most educated humans on the planet. Otherwise, they wouldn't be listening to us. But can you, just for the purposes for purely academic exercise, what is the difference between qualitative and quantitative?

Okay. So, bus it. Yeah. So, bus it. So, qualitative is when you're more focused on the narrative of someone's lived experience, like, you know, ethnography, your culturally. narrative of someone's lived experience, like, you know, ethnography, your culturally. So if I was going to do a qualitative study, I could probably do something to the avail of how has your life changed by listening to The Daily Zeitgeist? And I would sit down, I would ask them a whole bunch of questions about their experience with the show. And then I would put together a narrative after I interview quite a few people about why The Daily Zeitgeist is one of the best shows that's out there. Quantitative, though, would be more along the lines of if I was to take a survey of listeners and I would ask them, you know, how often do you listen?

What times do you listen? You know, how many episodes a day do you listen to? I listen to both. I get pinged when the show goes live and then also when the trending episode comes up. So if someone's like, oh, I listen to all of them, you know, I would take those numbers and then I would do a whole bunch of, you know, it's basically a whole bunch of statistical understanding of how people basically listen when they listen, trying to figure out the times. And then sometimes people do mixed methods where they will send out a survey first, ask a whole bunch of questions in regards to numbers, and then whatever numbers look most interesting, they'll pull those in particular surveys and sit down with those folks and ask

them a whole bunch of interview questions. So questions. Yeah. It's just teaching folks. Finishing your sentence there because I knew that. Yeah. Yeah. It's basically just trying to figure out what number. So so qualitative qualitative what does your story mean how did we get here quantitative is what do the numbers mean and then sometimes you use mixed method to understand what the numbers in a story mean if that makes sense yeah and do you think that if we started you know funding research like got got some backing we could get that daily zeitgeist study yeah yeah you could also yeah you what? The study that I would love to do is what type of do people like, right?

Do they, are they regular do drinkers? Are they Baja blast drinkers like myself? You know, we got to do a quantitative. That's, those are the real questions that need to be answered. Yeah.

I feel like that. Those are the, those are the studies that have been done. They're not shared with us. They're not. That is the information that exists. Pepsi has the most advanced statistical analytics in existence about those subjects. They just don't share it. But that is what our greatest minds in science are hired and paid a lot of money to think about. Real talk, I've actually wanted to do a study on, in terms of qualitative, I've wanted to understand why certain parts, so like if you get, I don't know how, if you all travel, but if you get to a certain part of the U.S., it goes Pepsi. And then if you get to a certain other part of the U.S., it goes Coke.

And I've always wanted to understand why that is. Like, why is it that more Western cities and states tend to be more Coke people versus when you start getting into like Oklahoma and you start getting into like New York or you get into like the Pittsburghs and all of that, it's very much a Pepsi state. I've always wanted to know that. Yeah. I've lived in a bunch of different places and the one time that I was a real like, actually Pepsi would be preferred to the waiter was when I was when I lived in New York. Like New York just has real Pepsi vibes for some reason. Yeah. And then Mountain Dew obviously has a stranglehold throughout the south southeast but yeah but it's but that even though

that's a pepsi product it is like coke is the is the cola of that people prefer so interesting yeah so that's what this episode is going to be about actually let's just dive in what is uh what's something you think is overrated oh gosh i'm probably gonna get you all canceled i think taylor swift is overrated i think i saw i saw miles's eyes um no really i just i've never seen it for that lady i always refer to her as that lady and i'm sorry to that lady that lady she's just that lady to me and i genuinely don't see it for her. I think she's overrated. I definitely think she's a mean girl masked as a, I'm just telling a story, Nagra. You're being messy.

And I think that that's something that I wish more people saw. I see through her. I really do. Oh, you say, okay, you're like, you're doing a good job, though. You're doing a good job. Well, I mean, she's been able to capitalize on on it so obviously she's doing a really good job but i genuinely just don't see it for her i genuinely believe that she she is that so i'm gonna say this she is that girl that when you were in middle school constantly did things and everyone else got in trouble but her

she's she is that girl in my opinion she's getting away she's already getting away with it and she knows how to manipulate people to she basically yeah she just personifies what white feminism is in my opinion i said what i said yeah you said you said it loud who do you think should be be? Who is the person who isn't getting the Taylor shine? You know who should be getting that shine? Is this artist. The person who is not getting the Taylor shine that they deserve. I see people doing the challenge on the TikTok.

Victoria Monet, I think, should be getting all of the love and the shine that Taylor Swift is getting. It's just I think she's a great performer great writer and she doesn't bother people like she does you never hear anything negative about victoria monet in the in the news but yet for some reason she's not as big as you know taylor is and i don't get why so it'll take time sure we'll get there well the good news is right now fans tend to be pretty measured and, you know, reasonable. So we should be good here. Use a lot of qualitative and quantitative analysis with their opinions. Absolutely. I feel like right now, though, Carly Rae Jepsen is like overtaking Taylor Swift or like Twitter.

I see way more people getting turned up over CRJ, which I'll fuck with her, too. Yeah, I do, too. Yeah. OK. Yeah. What is something you think is underrated okay so this is i wrote this with my partner in mind my partner is you know i i love you babe if you hear this episode which i'm sure you probably will in the house someday but my partner when we go on vacation he is notorious for booking every single day with a million things to do.

And it's like, girl, we're on vacation. Like, why are we not resting? And so, like, I come back from vacation more tired than I did when I actually went on vacation. So I'm a believer that when you go on vacation, you should do nothing for at least one to two days yeah like the like outside of going to get food outside of maybe going to like a like i love going to hawaii or i love going like to mexico places where i know for a fact that there's like near water and there's a setup like outside of going outside to do that like i don't know i don't want to go boating i don't want to go fishing i don't want to do any of that like i't want to go fishing. I don't want to do any of that. Like, I just want to rest.

So, resting on vacation. I notice people have divergent vacation styles. Like, I know people who are fucking, when they go on trips, it's a fucking journey. It's an adventure. And I'm like, what the fuck? Y'all walked how many miles up a mountain? You hiked yeah no girl

i'm staying home vacation comes with an unofficial checklist and it's like how many items can i get on this checklist and knock off of this chest checklist yeah because you know i have to do this too like when i'm planning a trip her majesty will be like i want to you know she's like i don't want to just lay around all day. And I'm like, okay, I get that. Because I'm a layabout type person. Same. And so I'm like, look, okay, we'll balance it out.

How about we get the activities done in the morning? That way, the rest of the day, we can chill. And that works out because then we both get our feel of like, we didn't do nothing. But then also, I got the rest of the day to just be like, hey, let's eat. Let's go swim or whatever, you know yeah take a leisurely stroll but not all this other hyper activity stuff no yeah like going on a cruise oh at eight o'clock we gotta wake up and do this at nine o'clock we gotta go do this no i want to sleep in i want to call room service and i want to be fat on the side of the boat with two ice cream cones that is

a vacation for me right i don't want just one like i literally the last trip that i went on i stared at the guy as he was giving me ice cream and he put one in my hand and i looked at him like where is the other one excuse me i don't know if you see this other empty hand on the other literally just looked at him like he was like oh another oh, another one? And I just gave him the like, yes, that is what this vacation is for. I plan to be fat on that deck. So, please. Amazing.

Alright, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk some news. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.

Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling first-hand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration.

It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.

When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner.

The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it? Like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah. Rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil.

I ain't really near them. Why is that? I just come here to play basketball every single day and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly

ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.

I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session, 24 hours. BPM 110, 120.

She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything?

You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and criticizing the central Democratic strategy when it comes to this latest midterm election run-up. He's couching it as, this is just, I'm making pragmatic statements about how the Democratic Party is losing the messaging to the Republican Party ahead of the 2022 midterms. But for framing something as pragmatic, first of all, it seemed a lot like second guessing as the Titanic is two feet away from the iceberg. Like it's it's late, man. It's late to be saying this shit. But yeah, his his quote is we're getting crushed on narrative. We're going to have to do better in terms of getting on the offense and stop being on the damn defense.

So, you know, when a politician says, damn, they mean business. They mean business. He didn't say darn. He said, damn. He said, it's not that serious. Oh, yeah. If you went to darn, I'd be like, whoa, whoa. What's going on?

Where are we at? What level are we at? Threat level midnight. He acknowledged the midterm environment feels like a red wave. Democrats have sought to tone down the possibility, but he's coming through now and being like, hey, I'm just being pragmatic. This looks bad. And I don't know, it just feels way too late. I don't know. It just feels way too late. And I also just I had a weird experience. My house gets a lot of trick or treaters. Our whole neighborhood was blanketed with these flyers about former guest Hugo Soto Martinez that are, you know, it has Hugo's face photoshopped onto like a communist mural and it's just it's real like over the top wake up district 13 you are about to have a socialist puppet running the neighborhood vote no on ugo uh photoshop on photoshop on the back is a socialist is a puppet of the democratic socialists of America. But it was weird. It was like being handed out by like a 12 year old kid was like dropping it in people's like candy bowls and on people's front lawns. It was such a wild, like dark arts

of politics type move. Like, I don't know what the aim was of having a child do this but it does it just does feel like the democrats mainstream democrats are willing to get in like go on the offensive when it comes to going against a candidate that is to the left that's always been like you know we it's it's like that self-preservation mechanism because anything anything to the left of where the mainstream or like you know the established democratic party is isn't has to begin to confront capitalism that's just the that's all it is like when you cross that line you're gonna get cooked that's right like and i think it's really simple there when you have somebody who's like i'm not gonna get played like in the same way mitchell farrell is and like what we need to do is support people have less police and all this other stuff and like really talk about investing in the community.

And what's the best way to do that and who needs to be paying for that? It's just not going to work because, you know, the way our the way our our elected officials, you know, enter office most of the time is on the backs of, you know, large dollar donors who are like, yeah, you know, and you're going to look out for my shit. Right. When you get there, they're like, yes, absolutely. And that's why, you know, we have such a bizarre, you know, balance of power in the city between, you know, like there's so many activists are like, these are all the problems in our city. And then like people who are like, well, Rick Caruso paid me money to say it's all good and we just need to do a couple of things and then we can ignore the unhoused. Right. Like the Democrat, the mainstream Democrats are also have a, you know, run for the mayorship that is between somebody who's clearly a Republican who just claimed just parties last minute is a billionaire, a real estate billionaire.

just parties last minute is a billionaire, a real estate billionaire. And they're not fighting very hard against that dude. They're not, I'm not seeing these flyers dropped like, like from a plane basically to push back on Rick Caruso. I'm seeing them dropped to push back on the progressive candidate. Yeah. And I mean, it's, yeah, this is, I mean, this is just, this is like, like history runs like this all the time. You know, like liberals are going to just turn their backs on leftists. The fucking second the shit hits the fan like there's I'm not you know, like there's so much from history to say this is what is going to happen. And we've already kind of seen like you already see how the Democrats are already shying away from so many really existential battles that exist for people in the country. Like, you know what I mean? Like, we're there.

They're barely saying shit about gay or trans people right now. They're fucking nothing. Barely. They haven't said anything about the cost of living. They haven't said anything about gas being so high. Like, people are barely making it at this point. gas being so high, like people are barely making it at this point. I want to say I am looking at this picture and I have a qualm because it looks like somebody did it on Microsoft Paint.

I would, when canvas is right there, like it just, it bothers me that it looks like somebody did it on paint. That's just the only looks like someone came up with the idea that night and was like we gotta get these flyers out like it's like it's an 80s movie where they're trying to like save the there's no whatsoever oh no somebody who organized hotel workers for a better life is trying to take that same energy to this and apply that to the city oh no that's like and again then they're using all this dumb shit about socialist puppet like okay thanks fox news we get it it's all the shook rich people who are like like they're coming for us yeah yeah

it's it's so disingenuous but again I'm not surprised in a city that like constantly protects people who are just there to uphold the status quo. And that's just I think it's that's everywhere. And I think that makes it more important, massively important for people to understand like what the stakes are and know who who's who is saying what when they try and get your vote or what they think they're going to be able to achieve in office. to achieve in office um because for too long it's always been like what is it like most people really are just blue no matter who and that's it they're just like i don't know i go in and boom done yeah don't know what don't know what they're talking about but right which is better than the alternative but still like the alternative of red no matter who but it's still the status quo i think at that yeah it's the status quo and the fact that the democratic party is incapable of fighting hard unless it's fighting against leftists for some reason or you know it's incapable of fighting against this status quo that public energy has turned against public it can't well the thing is they are the status quo right so they

can't do anything except fucking grunt to protect the status quo that's all it is it's that simple right it's that spider-man meme where they're all pointing at each other but it's literally them they're pointing at themselves right status quo oh oh oh wow okay we thought oh we're maybe not superheroes and i think that's why the impulse well, who are these people who are trying to fuck up the status quo? Correct. They're not welcome here. If you're here, if you know how to talk and you know what fucking time it is, then sure, come aboard. Welcome.

But if you're talking some real, you know, like real liberation type shit, they're going to be like, Whoa, Whoa, this guy's a socialist puppet. And I think it's really fucked up. And the other thing too, I just would just to kind of address something that Gavin Newsom's talking about. He's like, man, like,

you know, that's like this, this red wave is coming. There's a lot of talk of this. And there's only recently has there been a lot of like actual analysis, quantitative analysis into how the Republicansans are actually like because real clear politics and uh 538 basically do like a like a an average of public polls like republicans have been really like being like yo we need to put out more polls to see if we can shift things a little

bit and change the numbers and a lot of people have been like they're they're averaging a lot of weird polls in there not to say that there is no red wave or the democrats are like don't worry about anything but there's like misinformation or just pressure campaigns from like every fucking dimension right now going into these midterms that it's just so much that even like democrats like what the fuck is the poll saying without really looking at it and then being like what have we been not doing when again it's just the solution is always simple it's just you know invest in people who have less but yeah and if you're unequivocal about that it's gonna it'll resonate more than saying shit like these whatever like whatever fucking political buzzwords either party uses, like like everyone is so afraid of like just speaking really clearly.

And that's really all. I mean, I think that's that's the magic in communicating to people. But because our political, you know, the way we speak or at least people who are running for politics or in office is so like well defined that the second you deviate,'s like, it's just sets off fucking alarm bells for people. I just wanted to get this point in, as I'm listening to you all talk about this, the thing that has been bugging me the most about watching all of this is, I find that I always say this in certain iterations

and people are always like, wow, I never thought about this. And I just wanted to drop this dime here or drop this piece here, that I think that we, even as though we're trying to talk about democracy, there's still this conversation of folks who are invested in privilege versus liberation. And I think that's the thing that's kind of getting everybody all messed up, right? There's this notion that, oh, well, I'm democratic or I'm a, I'm, you know,

I'm, I'm a dim. So I do this, this, that, and the other, but I'm going, but are you still rooted? Is your work being rooted in making sure that, you know, we have liberty, that we have justice, that we have access, or that we even can just fucking live? Like, at this point, so many of us are living check to check, especially here on the West Coast. And so there's all of these things that folks are saying, but I'm still going, yeah, that's rooted in privilege. That's not rooted in the idea that you want to actually do something about the issues that we all as marginalized people face here on the west coast but that's neither here nor there i just wanted to drop that no and i think that is an important distinction for people to make within themselves right because there's one version which is like

well i just want stability and like this person seems like they're offering it and there's another where you say i I cannot abide while so many people suffer and we have to fucking get our heads out of the fucking ground and realize we need to pursue what you're talking about is liberation. The idea that the, that you can liberate somebody or free them from an oppressive situation they're in, that that is the end goal that people do not have to experience an existence like that and if that if you center that then a lot of the shit politicians say look like bullshit and sound like bullshit because you're like wait because it is talking about yeah right exactly because

you're saying oh you know what that's that's not really liberate they're not talking about real liberation here they're just talking about policy to help sort of alter the status quo in small ways to sort of keep the temperature down that people aren't like man we got to blow this whole thing up like this whole system that we have is completely fucked up and we need something different and i think that's why right now they're fighting so hard against people especially younger people who are less religious and want like are like yo man we've been fucked over by y'all policies for a minute now i think we have some new shit we want to bring to the table that's why so much energy is put into being like now shut these fucking people down shut them the fuck down

yeah and the death of the energy behind the like it's just the the republicans i mean this kind of ties into the you know attempted assassination of n of Nancy Pelosi that is being like turned into just like a punch line on the right. Right. And just, you know, the mainstream media is reporting on it. But it's I don't that side is the only side that is preaching a message that is an alternative to the status quo. Because, yeah, the Democrats are still the funding is behind the status quo. The you know, the entire industry of Democrat, you know, political consultants is behind the status quo. behind the status quo, they're using old data to be like, well, the Democrats just need to capture this broad middle by being centrist and, and staying, steering clear of socialism and like that word being, and that's where all the money is, but that's not where any of the, any of the energy is. And so the fact that the only energy that is outside of the status quo is this like fascist violent movement on the right is it's just a really you know we've talked about that that like the only alternative that's

being offered to the mainstream republicans and democrats is fascism on the right like that's dangerous and this is what you start to see is that people see you know the sight of someone breaking into a mansion and it's something that like both sides have been you know saying to some degree is like you know the only time they'll start listening is like by going into into mansions and and making them listen and like the fascists are the first ones to get there and it's it's just like a really dangerous time you know because like there is that energy and like that they're downplaying an attempted assassination and getting away with it because that that's they are acting on the thing that Steve Bannon saw in the lead up to the 2016 election and a lot of people saw in the lead up to the 2016 election, which is like America needs an alternative that's outside the mainstream system.

And if the only person offering that is a fascist, that's what they're going to go with. And it's just I don't see where this turns around. Like this is kind of the darkest outlook I've ever seen for the country because we're we're at that place that we had feared we would get to when fascism is the only alternative outside of this thing that nobody believes in and now it's being kind of normalized like fascism and fascist violence is just being normalized it's a it's a really dangerous scary fucking place i know you guys talked about it yesterday but this is just me hopping in and saying, yeah, man, this is fucking scary. Like Bryn Tannehill, there's a piece in the New Republic called We Don't Have a Political Violence Problem Like Republicans Do. And I think it's from Tim Noah. But Bryn Tannehill was referencing in this tweet thread because the work that she was doing, just being in Iraq, watching that place completely tear itself apart. And she's saying like it this is this is quite literally how it starts. You know, you have an aggrieved party that's going to come in and retaliations will begin and people will begin to be like, OK, like even increased fracturing as like this kind of stuff becomes more normal.

priest fracturing as like this kind of stuff becomes more normal. But just saying that it's it doesn't take much for things to completely go south like this. But also the idea that Republicans that that they are also miscalculating that they that the idea that they could just come to power and everyone will accept it and that there will be no resistance. That's happened in some places. But there's also a lot to say that this is also the time when insurgent groups really also begin to develop too and also start enacting retaliatory violence against the party in power. And then away we go.

And once that happens, as you said, it's like once the toothpaste out of the tube, that's it. What do you do? Yeah. Right. What do you do? I was Right. What do you do? I was going to say, I think the biggest thing that I've been watching is, I mean, for, was it six, seven years, we've watched certain people in positions of power do things and there was no, you know, there's no repercussions for it. And so that's the reason why we're seeing so much of this happen.

It's like, well, you know, if this person in privilege is not going to get in trouble for doing X, Y, and Z, then I'll just do it too. And I think that that's where that privilege conversation comes from too. Like there's, we're talking about the issues, yes, but no one is talking about the way that white supremacy has moved and continues to move to tell people that they can do things and get away with it. And I think that's the thing for me where I've been sitting with for maybe the last, you know, we see kind of glimpses of, you know, people getting thrown in jail or people being subpoenaed and we having this, but I think that's why so many people were so upset with that January 6th kind of, you know, council that they put together because they were saying, why is it taking so long for somebody who clearly did this terribly heinous thing to be,

you know, to be treated as a criminal. And so now you have people making criminal and doing criminal things and being like, well, if he didn't get in trouble for it, then why, you know, why will I? It's whatever. So it's just, you know, I agree. It is a very scary time. And especially for someone like myself, who is queer and Black and very vocal about it. like myself who is queer and black and very vocal about it it just it always makes me wonder you know who's watching me or who's watching other folks like myself who are doing the work yeah there's an interesting stat you know that she talks about how like 45 percent of americans

are ready to basically are just in favor of the idea that america should be a christian nation but then you couple that with the fact that young people are much less likely to be religious at all. So on one side, you'll have a group of religious people who feel like this is the identity of the country, plus probably like a numerical majority of people who aren't looking for like some to live in some kind of theocracy and talks about how that you're going to have an increased population to of young people, a largely secular majority of young people who have little economic prospects, no say in government and no hope for peaceful change.

What the fuck do you think is going to happen? Because this is pretty much an exact description of the situation in Iran, except there are 390 million guns just lying around. That's right. Yeah. I mean, when you read there, there's a Guardian article where, you know, some yet another expert is like, That's right. were america this was in the guardian so it's somebody from you know at least the article is from an overseas perspective being like it's pretty bleak over there and there's something really interesting too there was a just there was a another a poll recently about like the concept

of the threat to democracy that each like how each party sees it right right? Democrats see the 79% believe that there are threats to democracy. And when they follow up with qualitatively, what does that mean exactly? The answer is candidates not accepting election results. That's the biggest threat that they see. 76% of Republicans also believe that there are threats to our democracy. How would they define that they divide define that as quote votes not being counted accurately so you see like how there's this there we're looking at this same coin you know what i mean but just from both sides and it's and it's like it's really toxic because we're throughout all of this the chaos of it all too

we're also like leaving we're leaving out the big part of what fuels a lot of this move towards this shit which is again inequality which is lack of opportunity which is if people are so destitute and i referenced this yesterday that psychologically people will be more open to someone who's like hey man i got these fucking rules and there will be control. And people say, you know what? I kind of like that because I feel I felt way too out of control and felt way too chaotic for me. And if I have to give up some rights, then so be it. Yeah.

The one thing I will say is like to watch young people rally around each other and like support each other. Like in high schools, you see this like with like a lot of kids, kids like you know with there's some kind of bullshit anti-lgbtq policy comes in and you see students actually organize themselves to support each other that is an intangible that i look at i'm like that's interesting for sure i don't know where that goes but again like to the point that brintana hill's making is clearly have young people who are looking at the world a different way too. And they also, they're like, these people will become older and will become adults and living under a situation like this again. Yeah. To her point is like, it's not a good, you, this isn't a recipe you want. And to your point, psychologically, we're dealing with two massive things that are draining any energy, any ability of people to get behind energetically the status quo.

I have multiple things, but, you know, two things that just aren't acknowledged is one, the steady state of economic inequality, like starting with the 2008, like, you know, economic crisis and the fact that the people who were running a scam just got away with it and got bonuses. And that can that system continues to run the economy just feels like it's an underrated reality that everybody just kind of moves past. But that's I think that's where a lot of this energy started. And then the climate change that we talked about earlier this week, that climate change is this massive existential problem, like couldn't be a bigger problem that the powers that be the current like status quo powers have just continued to kind of ignore or kind of not do anything about while acknowledging that it's an existential threat like psychologically like those any you know energy you try to pour into the mainstream status quo like democrat or republican, like those are pretty big drains. Like those are,

that's going to sap, sap energy pretty quickly for any type of solution. But it just, it feels like it's been sort of digested and like built into how we talk about these things. But those are, I think, big reasons why young people are having to come up with alternate solutions faster than the mainstream media is ready to even acknowledge. And that's why aliens won't visit us.

They've stopped. They're slowing down, in my opinion. I'm like, please, come on, we'll get it together. Come back, please. Help come back please but help us like please help us we don't know what we're doing please take me on vacation i will gladly pay an alien to abduct me at this point take me away in your jean jacket i I don't give a fuck, man. Please. I don't give a fuck anymore. I've seen everything but God at this

point. But, you know, like, where the fuck was I going to go? Oh, so like, you know, just like this generational divide, right? You have this, all of our leaders are like septuagenarians who have managed to say, you know what? My greedy

ass managed to get it this far thinking like this and do all this shit. What's really the problem with it? Then you have another half of the fucking world who was either trying to get on in 2008 or were children in 2008 and said, why the fuck are my parents crying? Why the fuck do we have to move?

Why the fuck are we in a van now? Why the fuck is, why did this happen? Why the fuck is why did this happen? Why the fuck did my why did we go broke? Because my grandpa got sick. A lot of people are growing up in that reality, too, and they don't realize there's no amount of propaganda that will erase like the actual human experience of like witnessing suffering firsthand. And as these people who are looking at the world a little bit differently Like shit I didn't benefit from Reagan's tax cuts I didn't benefit from this other shit I mean I grew up in an environment there

But my lived experience as someone trying to become an adult Go to Get a job after college and do all this other shit That whole idea of How the world works was completely Just exploded And so a lot of us Come into adulthood being like well all this

shit is wrong and that's kind of like the tension that we're you know like that we're really experiencing between you know leaders and younger people but again the sort of the the reaction or the instincts of those in power is like okay okay, this is just like my grandkids. They're spoiled. You know what I mean? They're spoiled. And the body politic of America is allergic to socialism and it lacks any similar allergy to fascism. So it's going to, that is going to take 10 times the energy to push for leftist reforms than it will to get fascist reforms. But yeah, I mean, like when you start off being off being like yo god told me i could kick y'all the fuck out of here right is the fucking is in your

dna yeah i don't know how the fuck i don't know how the fuck you turn that clock back right i honestly don't you know what i mean like that is probably like this, that idea of manifest destiny and chattel slavery and like all of that to build this that so you know and i think that's that's why a huge part of not having to teach history or have these reckonings is you know helps people kind of go along with things and be like yeah it seemed to seem to work to this point yeah all right well speaking of turning the clock back a new netflix series is turning the clock back to a time uh we're going to talk about Blockbuster, the new Netflix show. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the

host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses

never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions.

Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100 percent of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them. Why is that? I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports.

Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture.

Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session.

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That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back and yeah so blockbuster which depending on your age is like sort of a an old

it's like atari for a younger generation where it's like i've heard y'all talk about this i don't really fuck with it it sounds bad but I can see your nostalgia for it. But they were the big person on the block when Netflix came around and Netflix tried to sell to them. And Blockbuster, I think, literally laughed them out of the room. Laughed in their face. Laughed in their face. And now Netflix, now Blockbusterbuster there is one blockbuster left netflix made a little documentary about it that was like oh look at this cute little guy still

still sticking around right and now they turn that because that was very popular into a whole series which yeah i mean our writer jm was like it's a little like if luke skywalker made a sitcom all about the day-to-day operations of the death star because it's just y'all are supposed to be enemies but right so like after he blew it up he comes through and is like and then let's make this silly show about what it was like to try and find love in the death star moments before but it's also a little bit like if somebody made a sitcom you know 20 years from now if amazon just eats all walmarts and walmarts no longer exist if everyone's like remember walmarts those were the days and and makes a sitcom about like you know fun quirky the last little quirky walmart in existence they had humans

greet they put the old people at the front to say hi wow yeah was that before after the robots oh before before before which i guess is the premise of superstore right it's like a quirky every day a lot day in the life look at a walmart even though it's called cloud nine but yeah i think i don't think it's like man this place is great i i actually haven't seen superstore but i'm assuming it's not like man these this is this is where it's american dreams go to live and right we have such 90s nostalgia though right now you know what i mean like very that aren't people i remember this summer kids walking around with like blockbuster fucking shorts like all over print blockbuster shit and i was like what the fuck is that like

there was somebody at the party this weekend dressed as a blockbuster guy like he had on a hat and the shirt and it said blockbuster and it looked original like i don't know if he dug it out of like his you know one of those random places like a storage unit or something but he genuinely had on all the apparel from blockbuster and was carrying around a blockbuster like tape box with him yeah it's really interesting it's just i don't like it's like everything is like sort of a nod to like remember you said like see people yeah i think Yeah, it's really interesting. art project but then they don't really mention any art other than people like in tweets speculating about what it would be like to live in roku city but they do suggest which i think is probably accurate like it kind of this meme blew up when we were in the pandemic and we were just looking

through our tv screens at a city that still seemed to be alive and that shit was a screensaver it's a screensaver it's not like like a metaverse yeah yeah they're like wow yeah avengers tower is back there if you have a roku tv or like a roku box or stick or whatever like it's like a screensaver within that so if you you know if you're using like any other system you're not yeah like apple tv has the kind of gliding drone shots that are overhead you know it's like that except instead of being like a photographs or you know video of real cities they've invented a crudely animated like city that has you know giant robot attacks happening and uh volcanoes going off and little um little easter eggs to you know real hollywood right so it's basically like that wall that they're building did you hear about that that long strip and they said it's going to take like 90

minutes to get from one end to the other and they're like putting all these millions of people in this wall and they're not supposed to. I don't know if you heard about that. That's what it feels like to me. They're building, and they say it's actually happening. I think it's somewhere in the Middle East, but they're trying to- Oh, it's in Saudi Arabia. I think so.

The line? Yeah. The thing that just looks like a big mirror in the sand? Yeah. The mirror city. Yeah, I guess. But that's what it feels like like or at least that's what i'm hearing no no this that is way more futuristic like roku city feels like like uh it's more like

a hand like animated looking so it feels a little less like hyper realistic and more just like it's like looking in a snow globe on your teeth ah okay and be like wow good people of roku city i wish i could live there yeah it's's kind of the vibe. Some people tweet shit like that. Yeah. The New York Times article, interestingly, interviews the person who designed it. But they're like, we had to interview them through a Roku, like a series of Roku executives because they no longer work for Roku. They now work for Pixar.

But it sounds like they did it on as a freelancer they were just like yeah i just like kind of you know pulled a couple things didn't think much of it pulled a couple like old designs from other projects i had and suddenly it's like he was like someone said to me that it might be the most viewed piece of art ever because it's just constantly on in households that have Roku and a lot of households have Roku. And it is like it turns on. You can't escape it. If you're in a household that has Roku, it's going to pop on. You're living in Roku City, baby. Yeah.

So there's only one option, which is wild. But yeah. baby yeah so there's there's only one option which is wild but yeah anyways just a you know la they're also going to do some blockbuster nostalgia they did a blockbuster themed pop-up speakeasy for those of you who want to get drunk while wandering aisles filled with dvd copies of the pelican brief and Kangaroo Jack. Oh, fantastic. Fantastic film. That's something that I feel like any of these reminiscences of Blockbuster are going to leave out

that an entire wall was filled up with whatever new release there was coming from. Like, Titanic took up half of the just it was sore really yeah it was somewhat surreal because it would just be thousands of copies of the same thing it's like couldn't y'all just be like ask us if you're looking for titanic and like we you don't need to just put a thousand boxes of it out because it's that yeah there's a lot of titanic boxes and it's on two tapes oh yeah oh god yeah good good god yeah i think it's just that that was the setup though you know what i mean like they just knew when a movie came out we knew what you

were they'd have 700 000 copies of it yeah and fuck your local video store because blockbuster had all that shit you know i mean like i remember we used to go to this one place called video west where it was like they had art like art fucking movies and my dad would want like you know shit like that but then you could get like a ninja turtle tape or whatever for me and then once blockbuster pulled up like two blocks from my house we're like oh fuck that like they got fucking everything and you could buy fucking goobers okay yeah okay blockbuster and they got a refrigerator case and i think that was you know i think what also happened there too is like it also was like there

was a lot of other shit that wasn't available anymore at block like when you went to a blockbuster like it all sort of sort of conformed to like what the whatever mainstream entertainment there was that was out there yeah i just want to know when we're going to get the story behind hollywood video when are we going to get that right now yeah what oh did they have hollywood video out by you anyway was hollywood video nationwide i i think so it was okay yeah i mean i i'm pretty sure they had ho Video in Lexington, Massachusetts when I lived there. Oh, yeah. No, it looks like it was.

Yeah. They had many, many stores. But they came after Blockbuster, right? Yeah. When we started to see the downfall of Warehouse and Blockbuster is when Hollywood Video kind of swooped in. They became kind of like the best buy to what happened to Circuit City. Right. So.

Yeah. I mean, our former guest, Kate Hagen, was pointing out that Disney Plus and Netflix combined only has about 40 percent of the collection size of your average local Blockbuster. Wow. So. I mean, I thought blockbuster was light yeah holy shit it's yeah i mean i i understand like and and it's cool to just like yeah like you said earlier see people smell candy i'm telling you everything there's i've read so many studies recently that are just talking about how just so much normal shit is gone like the idea that like

you gotta go you gotta run out for something which inherently meant you were out in the street like you were around people or like that there were places that you would like gather where the main function of gathering wasn't to buy something like we don't really have spaces like that in the u.s like there's no there's no town square or whatever. Like everything's like you go to a bar or you go to this, like whatever you go to the movie theater and things like that. There aren't just like places that like the idea or we've moved away from just these other things,

like in other cultures that are much more prevalent about being like, we meet up at this place and then we kind of shoot the shit, talk, somebody brings beers or whatever. We get to smoke cigarettes. Like, like you know people just do their shit there's just all these like really small things of like interaction that are just slowly slowly eroding away and i mean i can only that has to be a huge part into why people are so invested in like this nostalgic stuff i know i am because that is what i think about i think about not necessarily that

i'm like man i didn't know shit about geopolitics when I was 11. I want to go back to then. I mean, shit, I would like to. But there was also something about like the idea that like I felt like there were just more I felt like there were more possibilities rather than like they're like, I don't know you going out to do these three things. Then why are you going out?

Right. And I think that's like yeah there's like i don't know i read that article too and it made me think about related but not related the same notion of like um i saw an article about how malls are dying and like the malls becoming a thing of yesteryear and i was thinking that like it used to be a thing saturday you would go to the mall you would spend all day you know trousing through all of the different stores listening to music at you know sam goodies or whatever and then at night you would go to blockbuster get your video and you know invite your friends over and you would watch movies and it just nothing feels like that anymore like i even find myself being like man i miss those days

of like yesteryear really of being able to go into blockbuster getting the smell and also that little tap thing that they would put on your you know that they would pass you when you forgot to rewind something or it was late right you know so i like the little green tab that that basically you said you didn't rewind your movie like that that for me is what i miss yeah i don't know yeah there is and i get like other places where i think la is particularly fucked up in this sense because it's so sprawling it's so poorly fucking planned it's like hostile if you don't have a car so marry that because of that like we're we're experiencing that like in at an accelerated pace but i think that's i think that's just the other part of it is like you

realize there are a lot of things we take for granted that like, oh shit, like I just have to put the effort now to be like, Hey, you want to go to the park? You just go kick the fucking ball, man. Let's go fucking do like just some other shit that were, that was like less tied to consumption really. And I think that's just like a really fucked up part of like living in America is like, because we were hit with so much marketing and shit, everything's about like, what are you doing? Are you on your grind?

Oh, are you balling? No? Then what the fuck are you doing? And it's like, what? Get to the bad culture. Got to start waking up at three to work out. Right, right. It's like, how about just talking?

Are you Lambo? Yeah, how are you getting to Lambo? How you get to Lambo, yeah. Oh, let me check my update. Am I Lambo? Nope, you getting to Lambo? Yeah. Oh, let me check my update. Am I Lambo? Nope. I am not Lambo yet. So sorry, man.

I can't talk to you about your problems because I'm not Lambo. That's right. Right. Right. So de-Lambo your fucking mind. And really, like, I think, you know, like, that's what I'm like. People I used to play music with. I'm always like, yo, let's jam.

Let's jam. I want to fucking play. I want to fucking do some just like get together and like just connect more than like let's go to let's get together and check out this new restaurant yeah let's do stuff yeah but i mean anyway just to close the loop on blockbuster i think because this is a story about the last blockbuster it's going to make blockbuster seem like a indie video store um just for the sake of posterity. Blockbuster was the Walmart of video. They put everybody else out of business by having economies of scale,

doing deals with the studios, giving the studios a percentage of a cut of rentals for new releases. They also caved to the pressure of right-wing evangelical customers by banning nc double a nc 17 titles from their stores meaning movies like requiem for a dream and crash the good one the cronenberg one had to release censored r-rated versions that didn't really make sense that and they also just didn't have scorsese's last temptation of christ and i think that like hurt that movie's ability to kind of enter the blood stream of the of the zeitgeist because it just wasn't it wasn't on video you know you don't say

christians evangelical christians are controlling what we see yeah the the point of this is obviously to go back to a time when everybody felt safe but you're still subject to a lot of the the same bullshit it just wasn't as overt as as we're seeing more and more today yeah and see if you went to video west they would have that uncut version of Requiem for a Dream. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's right. Well, Dr. John Paul Higgins, what a pleasure to have you back on the Daily Zeitgeist.

It's always a joy. Where can people find you, follow you, hear you, all that good stuff? All right. Well, when I am not dancing around a Krispy Kreme, you can find me on social media by using the handle at Dr. John Paul. You have to spell John, J-O-N. It's not J-O-H-N. I get that a lot. Hey, so it's D-O-C-T-O-R-J-O-N-P-A-U-L. You can also visit me at www.drjohnpaul.com.

There you go. And also on the Black Fat Femme Podcast. There you go. And also on the Black Fat Femme Podcast. There you go. We literally drop every Tuesday, and it's a lot of fun. So, yes, head over to Black Fat Femme Podcast on the iHeart Network. And is there a tweet or some of the work of social media you've been enjoying? Yes. So, I enjoyed this tweet today. It's someone yesterday said, well first trash jones said what is your

most benign unpopular opinion i don't mean like the earth is flat type of unpopular opinion i mean like i think golden retrievers are annoying unpopular opinion someone quote tweeted that by saying eggplant is not good and i it was lindsey boylan who said that and i agree 100 eggplant is nasty and y'all keep trying to push it on me it is not good it tastes like it tastes like skin it just is like if you like it just i'm not gonna ask like any no well i i lovingly bite my partner. I lovingly, like, you know, kind of like, have you ever seen that gif with the hippo who just goes and bites the lady? Like, kind of lovingly bites.

That's kind of what I do is I love bite my partner. Yeah. Well, I don't bite them, but like, that's what an eggplant feels like on, like, my palate. It feels like skinny. I don't know. It just, just it doesn't it's gross to me so i love that tweet is your is your husband an eggplant you know what somehow you know what you're gonna open that door so i was gonna say uh but with that being said no my husband is not an eggplant my My husband is a human. But overall, I just find eggplant to be very disgusting.

I also don't like squash. I also don't think any form of squash. I just I don't like those. Like, I don't know. What is it called? What do they call those? Yeah, with the squash is a gourd. Slimy inside.

Yes. I don't like cantaloupe. I don't like any of the stuff with like the hard outside and the soft on the inside. It's gross. Oh, interesting. Okay. I love eggplant. Yeah.

No. Does that go for banana as well? Well, but I enjoy banana. I think banana's good. Yeah, I do love banana. Yeah. Yeah, I don't really fuck with eggplant either. Yeah, I'm going to bite somebody and then have a bite of eggplant and see if I can connect the dots

there. I'm going to try. Miles, where can people find you and what is a tweet you've been enjoying? You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Miles of Gray. Also check Jack and I out on our other podcast, Miles and Jack got mad boosties, our basketball podcast episode dropped today.

And also, Sophia, Alexander and I on our 90 Day fiance podcast for 20 day fiance. Uh, some tweets. I like first one was from BET at BET. It was just a gift of a takeoff. It just said black men deserve to grow old. Uh,

yeah, I felt that. Um, and then another one is from a burner at burner. Don't ask tweeted Jordan Peterson. And then, you know what he asked me in my own YouTube comments? You know what he asked me?

If I'd tried Ligma. Joe Rogan. Wow. I haven't even heard of that before. What is it? Jordan Peterson, tears welling in his eyes. I replied much the same. You know that's the setup for ligma balls uh and that's

for people who don't know that troll uh quality response shit you do on the internet that or bofa um and then m night m nate chamelon at m nate chamelon tweeted uh if we all pay eight dollars for a check mark and change our names to elon mus I'm confident we can Jeremy Renner app this shit to death in a month. So, yeah, that might help cause a lot of chaos. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. I really liked some of the responses to the benign unpopular opinion tweet that Dr. John was talking about.

One, five should be considered an even number is one that i happen to agree with i got a lot of a lot of likes and then what hold on what is what is the in your mind how explain walk me through that i don't know man it just feels so so easily divisible it goes into 10. Because it's like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. 10 is the most even number. So it feels like the number that, you know, is part is, you can count by fives and hit a 10. Yeah.

It'll never fuck you up multiplying. It's like, it's either going to be a five or a zero at the end of that one. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. There's just something very even. The vibes are even. Okay are okay even vibes even vibes and then guy frera uh tweeted we ran out of fentanyl half an hour ago and we're still getting trick-or-treaters i thought 45 000 worth would be enough but i'll need to get even more next year which yeah so somebody tweeted was like they

it actually happened because i guess some police force somewhere was like they someone accidentally handed out some nerds ropes with thc in it and they're like so we were right that drug dealers were going to hand out fentanyl to people's system someone high whatever did you see those tweets that were the dude was offering people were offering a potato versus candy like they put that in the bowl just to see what kids would do just like amongst the candy would be like just a fucking like a rusty potato golden potato in there and they said we'll let you know like the findings that one person was just like one girl proudly proclaimed potato she walked away from the door a lot of kids are fucking with the potato i guess that's amazing uh all right well 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 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. We link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode as well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Miles, what song do we think people

might enjoy? I think they're going to definitely enjoy this track from Lady Don Lee and the Legos Panic. It's called Thunderstorm and Surul lee and the legos panic it's called thunderstorm and surulere and lady don lee she's dope she's like born in the states but grew up in nigeria and like has been going back and forth between like nigeria london and like canada it's just like they you know i think she calls up the pan-african rock star and i think that's a good description this song is really dope because it's got like very like you could tell the like afrobeat influence in it but also like kind of that rock feel and i just

think it's super interesting her music's dope so this is lady donnelly d-o-n-l-i and this is called thunderstorm in suru lere s-u-r-U-L-E-R-E. Amazing. Well, we'll link off to that in the footnotes. 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 is going to do it for us this morning. Back this afternoon to tell you what is trending.

And we will talk to you all then. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to

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Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

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