The Daily Zeitgeist - Flynn Flips, ‘Forrest Gump’ Is In The Air 12.1.17

Episode Date: December 2, 2017

In episode 39, Jack & Miles are joined by comedian Shelby Fero to discuss cutting boards, Forrest Gump, a broader break down of the GOP tax bill and how it will effect Americans, the weekly tabloid watch, Michael Flynn's guilty plea, & more. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. 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. What was that?

That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister or is history repeating itself? 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. Do you ever wonder

where your favorite foods come from? Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history.

Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and the piña colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Captain's Log, Stardate 2024. We're floating somewhere in the cosmos, but we've lost our map. Yeah, because you refuse to ask for directions. It's Space Gem, there are no roads.

Good point. So, where are we headed? Into the unknown, and welcome to Season 8, Episode 5. wherever you get your podcasts. Trust us. It's out of this world. Hello, the internet, and welcome to Season 8, Episode 5. We're in the season finale of Das Daily Zeitgeist. For December 1st, 2017, my name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. Potatoes O'Brien, and I'm joined by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray.

Oh, my God, the a.k.a.'s today are lit. Thanks to Twitter, let me get them all in right now. It's Miles, a.k.a. Miles Teller of Truth, a.k.a. the Benghazi Prophet, a.k.a. Oh Miles, Miles, oh hell yeah, a.k.a. Miles Don't Lie to the FBI. Thank you, everyone on Twitter for that. Please keep them coming because, I mean, wow.

You guys, you guys are the truth. And I've been told on Twitter that I just have to stick to Potatoes O'Brien. Like, just quit it. We like it when you say that. And we are thrilled to be joined by one of the just greatest comedy writers out there, hilarious comedian. She is the Tinseltown toothpick, Shelby Farrow.

What's up? How are you? I'm good. How are you guys? Pretty great. Pretty good. We're excited to have you here. Miles just pushed my microphone like four feet closer to my mouth. Got to get the audio right. Got to get the audio right. Shelby, what's something that you've searched in the not-too-distant past

that you think is revealing about who you are as a human being i believe that one of my last searches and i actually very rarely do this but i googled searched like armpit lump sore problem yep it's a lymph node but it could just be a strained muscle oh that's what i was trying to figure out i was trying to figure out whether i had a strained shoulder muscle or cancer. Oh, yeah, yeah. What were the two options? Well, it's not always like – I mean your lymph node could be swollen for other reasons, right? Not just cancer.

Although the internet would make you believe it's cancer every time. And I say I rarely do that because I very rarely actually have a medical thing where cancer does seem one of the main options. But for that one, it was really like, well, either something's wrong with your muscle, you're kind of sick, or you have lung or breast cancer. And I was like, okay, cool. I'm going to go with muscle strain. I was picturing an actual sore. When you said you were like, whoop, sore. I was like, damn.

That sounds painful. What's something you think is overrated? I hate to say this because I didn't even finish it. But I mean, Stranger Things is like fine. Oh, yeah. Hey. Hey. I'll say Stranger Things hey hey i'll say stranger the first season i'll say stranger things season one because i only watched the first episode of season two

okay i also do not want to say it's a bad show or that is not an enjoyable show i just think i rated it correctly which was i watched it all in one day on a sunday right i was bored and then i went okay and then i moved on with my life right right yeah that's the correct amount yeah to get it you didn't get like a justice for barbara tattoo like on your back or something oh my god have you guys seen her instagram again no no the actress is she listening right now she could be wait what do you mean almost i don't know i have like it's fun sometimes when i'm really high to go back and people's accounts who have like just gotten famous to see where the switch happens. Like on the Instagram account, when it's like 75 likes versus like 4,000 likes or whatever.

And so I went back on her account and a few pages back at the time, this was a couple of years ago, um, a few pages back, you find out that she goes to those like Christian con things like evangelical, like cow palace, like convention center, like Jesus in the house, like things. And I was just like, look at palace, like convention center, like Jesus in the house, like things.

And I was just like, look at you, Barbara. Well, well. Yeah, Barbara. What an interesting facet. All right, Barbara, praise Christ. Yeah, praise Christ. Hey, I got a story about a guy who. Who was also into some stranger things.

His name was Jesus Christ. His name was Jesus Christ. What's something you think is underrated? I guess I maybe have to say that perhaps Mindhunter is underrated. But again, by the same virtue, I happened to watch it because my roommate was watching it. And I sat down and watched the rest of it with her. And I was like, wow, that was surprisingly good. This show has the stupidest name in the world and I will never, ever recommend it to anybody.

Like I will never tell someone you should watch Mindhunter. Yeah, I am. It is a bad name. It's an appropriate name for, like, what it is, but it's just a bad. Yeah, I got through two episodes, and it wasn't like a thing where I was like, oh, it's bad. It just didn't keep me. Right. But I liked what I was seeing.

To be fair, I only watched episode three till the end so i don't know if it was bad so between the two of us yeah we've seen the whole thing and it's okay can i get a review okay too i was like it's okay and then it ended strong to quite strong yeah that's cool that's fine yeah jack didn't you have an opinion i thought you were saying yeah i like uh i like some of the performances quite a bit. Like the guys who come in and play serial killers are like a lot of spot on. Yeah. Like, whoa. The very first serial killer who they interview is like one of my favorite characters on a Netflix show.

I don't know. But I think the overall like conceit of the show is that these people are profiling. They're able to, like, profile someone's psyche and, you know, use that to hunt them down. And I've – there's a Malcolm Gladwell article about, like, serial killer profilers that just basically says it's a complete con game. Like, it's not actually true. Is that true? That's what – Malcolm Gladwell? if it comes down

from lord gladwell right so i don't know malcolm godwell i had a little trouble buying into the like central conceit that you know we can tell from what these people say to us like and how they commit their crimes like exactly like different things about them um but they but it's such an interesting subject like they talk about how um these crimes like bubble up from like things that we have wrong with society and like all these like interesting cultural criticism things that are really cool i just don't know if i'd buy it as a crime fighting technique no i think the only thing or the thing that comes out of it that has only ever seemed like interesting or important to me is stuff like how they found out that if you can make

like a personal connection or get them to see you as a person, maybe they won't kill you. Like whenever there are those weird cases where they're like, for some reason they didn't kill this one. Like that's the only thing that's interesting. Yeah, that is interesting. Also, Jonathan Groff looks old finally. He's never looked old before.

Which guy is that? He's the main dude. What's he from before? He was in Glee. He was on Broadway. He was the king in Hamilton, right? Was he? I don't think so.

I'm not doing that well to have seen Hamilton. Yeah, exactly. I was like, sorry. We can't all go see Hamilton whenever we want. I was walking through my neighborhood and someone in this, like, when you cross over this main street, you get into a nicer neighborhood in the

area that I live in. Just Hamilton billboards everywhere. People, like, on the light post are like, I gotta get rid of my Hamilton tickets, $3.50 a piece, let me know. And I was like, God, $3.50. On the other side, someone just, like, screaming at a shrub. Yeah. Give me my shoes back. Yeah, but you cross Melrose the other side and it's like. I like to imagine you just like quietly backing out of the neighborhood.

Like once you saw. Oh, yeah, exactly. Walking backwards. Back to the bad side. I am not built for this neighborhood. Also, Mindhunter is a show where most of the acting is pauses, which I appreciate. It's a lot of pausing. Well.

Right, right, right. Dramatic pause. Yeah. All right. Let's a lot of pausing. Well, right, right, right. Dramatic pause. Yeah. All right. Let's get into the format guys. We're trying to take a sample of the ideas that are out there changing the

world, whether we're looking or not. We talk about politics and the president and news, but we also talk about movies and supermarket tabloids because those still get in front of millions of people every day because people still need to buy milk. And most of them have eyes. And also, sometimes they get stuff right. The supermarket tabloids. They told me before anyone else that Steve Jobs was dying, that Swayze was dying, that John Edwards was having an affair. They caught O.J.'s shoe lie

about like saying that he didn't have a pair of these shoes. They found a picture where he was wearing them. So they're worth looking at. They led us to question whether Matt Lauer was the next sex crim to drop like three months ago or like we I guess we think it was a month ago, like a year ago, practically. Yeah. So we're trying to take a temperature of what's out there affecting the national shared consciousness. And I've had a thing that I've noticed that's very like zeitgeist firmament based. So I've noticed that Forrest Gump jokes are suddenly a big deal. Yeah.

Forrest Gump references. I was on a text thread this morning. My friend Blake made a we're talking about uh trump and he referenced the line and that line son of a bitch johnson and like it stopped the thread people were like haha great forrest gump reference and i was like the conversation came to a screeching halt as we all clapped for this exactly but then i had noticed like two weeks ago that on Saturday Night Live, there were two Forrest Gump references within like a five minute period. Like two separate sketches, like Weekend Update and the sketch right before Weekend Update. Both had Forrest Gump references in it.

That might be. They've been doing the Jeff Sessions Forrest Gump joke where they dress Kate McKinnon up as Jeff Sessions on the park bench. Forrest. I forget what they were. They've done that for the cold open a few times. And the other day I was listening. I think it's because I'm looking for it. But on the radio, this kid was talking about how his teacher had adopted him.

And the final climactic line of the story was the kid going, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. And I was like, wow, really like went out on that that's like you you that's like such a cliched line but like i think there's just like some forest gumpness in the zeitgeist right now i think you're on to you know what i'll say and i think you're on to something hey it's a seminal film i think for people who grew up in the 90s and when that film came out certainly like everyone watched i mean i know that movie, really well despite not watching it many times. Although that, like, Lyndon Johnson line is a deep cut.

But I like that your crew is like, damn! With that fucking Lyndon Johnson line from Forrest Gump. I would say, though, that for most of, I feel like, my young adult life, it was sort of hacked to make a Forrest Gump joke. It was definitely, like, played out and, like, boring. But I feel like, are adult life it was sort of hacked to make a forest gum right though like it was definitely like played out right like boring but i feel like are we what 30 years out is it like maybe 30 years and then 20 20 years and then it's suddenly sort of like hey remember that movie we all used to like like you know it's cool again to start talking about it but it's not like in the early 2000s we're like making weird science references from the 80s or something it's weird like that wait but we were but back to the Future was like pretty fucking hot when I was in middle

school and high school. It's something about Zemeckis. It's like Zemeckis just has... That's a movie. Bobby Z. There's something about Zemeckis. 25 year life. But yeah, he has like these movies where that take over our cultural imagination

of... And I think we've talked about on this show like we've made Forrest Gump references in the past too i think talking about lieutenant dan or other things yeah there's just things you can't get away from about like standing at the on a boat in the middle of a hurricane shouting yeah god yeah right exactly that's a lot of fun forrest gump by frank ocean in the back of my head thinking is forrest gump cool again right if frank ocean says it then absolutely um it's gospel so uh that's the sort of shit we talk about and shelby we like to open up by asking our guest if there's anything specific to their experience uh that gives them insight into a specific thing that's

like broadly believed by uh the culture that is a myth whatever you'll see what I'm about to say. I found out a few months ago, like my whole life, it's always been like if you're going to cut raw meat, you use a plastic cutting board. And if you're going to cut vegetables or fruit, you use a wood cutting board. You never put raw meat on a wood cutting board because then the juice is getting the wood and then bacteria grows, blah, blah, blah. And then like my friend was like cutting meat on that. I sort of like did this sort of like, hey, I don't want to be a bitch.

Like, hey, like, I don't know if you're supposed to do that. And he was like, I don't think so. And then we Googled it and I was totally wrong. Like, it's not a thing. Oh, really? I guess. I don't know. I thought you like chicken is the one you don't want to do on wood.

Yes, exactly. Like any but like apparently that's not a thing. Apparently, like you just put it through the dish. Like, it doesn't matter. You just wash it. Like, like at least the first Google thing that came up was, like, one of the most, like, widely believed, like, myths about, like, cooking in the kitchen is that you have to use separate cutting boards. And I was like, oh, I feel full. And what website was that?

Salmonella.com? Yeah. So that's a myth for you guys. Busted. Busted. Big Salmonella. I'm sure someone will come at us at some point. Someone will be like, I got so ill this weekend from following your myth.

Yeah, also direct all your lawsuits at Shelby Farrell. Yeah, because I did not give you that bad advice. All right. So what are we talking about today? Today is Bloid Day. Friday is always Bloid Watch. Bloid Watch. We also have an update about this guy Flynn.

Apparently National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has something going on with him. But we wanted to start off talking about taxes because that's a fun subject. Yeah. But that's something that apparently we need to know about. Yeah. something that apparently we need to know about? Yeah. I mean, look, everybody is having a fling gasm over this whole thing today because, you know, he took a guilty plea and great. Yes, as it should be. But more importantly, Mitch McConnell today was like, we have the votes to pass this horrific tax bill. And, you know, we're trying to figure out the best way to talk about

this, like whether we just go like line by line and why it's so terrible. I think most people understand that it's terrible because the GOP is sort of saying like, you're going to get tax breaks forever, which is true if you're a corporation or a wealthy person, but not if you're a middle class person. And this bill does many, many bad things. First of all, it makes the debt real trill. And when I say trill, I don't mean the Houston way of like something is trill. I mean a trillion dollars is being added to our debt based on the math that even the Senate has done on this bill, which makes it – like you'd imagine for someone who's a conservative, that would be a nonstarter. You don't want to add a trillion dollars to debt. But I guess when you're in power, it's easy to sort of –

Look past that. Yeah, yeah, or rationalize it. Yeah, you know, look past that. Yeah. Yeah. Or rationalize it. Yeah. And I mean, they have specifically come out like Lindsey Graham came out and was like, man, I've heard from our donors that like, don't even call us if you don't pass this. Yeah. So that's just not a thing you're supposed to say publicly. No, it's just for the donors. Right. It's a pure race. When they say like we have the votes, does that mean they're going to push the vote or that? Well, you don't know if I mean, unless you're on the Senate floor in those meetings, you don't know what the vote count is at.

So that's just a way of saying like, OK, that's true. I guess we're approaching the like viable vote. If I knew I had the votes, I for two weeks would be like, oh, I don't know if it's like I guess we'll find out like, oh, what a surprise. We had the votes. Oh, no, they have to do it because they have to get this done as soon as possible so like you have to have this accelerated and also like if they're undecided people that'll just let them know it's like look you can take an l and be on the wrong side but either way it's to signal abstain if they want yeah it's it's to signal that look it has come together there's enough support for this bill and look it's going to

like i said it's going to add over $20 million to the debt. You know, the other big thing is that people don't realize this is, again, another attempt to completely kneecap Obamacare. Oh, yeah. They're just cutting all the Medicaid or Medicaid. Well, they're going to repeal the individual mandate, which requires people to, you know, to buy into Obamacare to offset the cost for people who are sicker and need the help. So, again, it goes far beyond like the taxes because all they want to sort of go around is parade. It's like, hey, you're going to get a tax cut, which is temporary. Right.

And again, they're also trying to say that it's going to stimulate the economy. But even like when you look at a lot of the analysis that's been done, the bill would maybe boost the economy by like they're saying less than 1% over 10 years. And so what's crazy is that this bill objectively on its surface like is terrible and the only people that are saying it's good are the people who are counting on their donors to keep filling their coffers to get something done because these people like you've got the house of senate in the white house and you still can't get shit it's not a popular bill it's it's pulling it like 20 something percent. But even like the wealthy people who

you'd imagine being super into this, and there are rich people who are super into this. And in that one thread that I had, the Forrest Gump thread, as we'll call it, you know, one of my friends is like a hedge fund person who's like, this is a no brainer, thing for the for the country uh he he thinks that cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 is going to like offset all this stuff because uh entrepreneurs will actually keep their businesses in america but there's like that's not this entrepreneur yeah and also this entrepreneur uh like came out in the new york times and was like look like i i just created a business that is now worth $500 million. I'm what is known in politics as a job creator.

And, you know, I work with nothing but entrepreneurs. And nobody has ever not started a company because the taxes were too high. That's something you consider. It's just not something that happens. And so this idea that suddenly you lower the corporate tax rate and people start like starting new businesses and, you know, like coming up with all these great ideas and making more money for the economy is not something that's ever happened. And it doesn't seem like people who, you know, are involved with that sort of thing don't seem to think it's going to happen. Yeah. And a few CEOs have come out and said, look, any tax break we get, that money is just going to go back to the shareholders.

Like they've been really transparent about that. They're like, yeah, we're going to start investing it. And what's crazy is like Gary Cohn, who's like the economic policy advisor in the Trump administration, he was at a council of CEOs like with the Wall Street Journal. at a council of CEOs, like with the Wall Street Journal. And the guy who was sort of running the panel, like goes to the audience and asks like, Hey, it's a room full of CEOs, right? The people who are going to supposedly create all these jobs. He asks how many people are going to actually like start investing. I think we have a clip of it. And it's so awkward because none of these guys, all these CEOs are being honest here. I think we have a clip. Can I ask you all a quick question? If the tax reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase investment, your company's investment, capital investment?

Just a show of hands, the tax reform goes through? Okay. Why aren't the other hands up? Why aren't the other hands up? Oh. Yeah. Rooter bagger, rooter bagger. Maybe three hands went up. And like in a room full of maybe 50 people

and like gary colin's like oh shit was he the one saying why aren't the other hand yeah because he's the one out there touting it right goddamn hands i was like nah fam you know as well as we are we're not i'm not gonna fucking invest more well it's legally against the law for them to just like give all the money back to the workers because their job under and this shouldn't be the case but if you're a corporation your job is to make as much money for your shareholders as possible so like yeah they're just gonna fucking give the money to their shareholders and the people who own stocks like i think it's 50 of stocks are owned by the top like 0.1 of earners in the country. It's not like helping Americans.

It's still just going right to the one person. This guy is so the kinds of people that are touting this are so out of touch with like what the reality is for people who like don't have millions of dollars. He was saying, you know, if we allow families to keep another thousand dollars of their income, what does that mean? They can renovate their kitchen. They can buy a new car. They can take a family vacation.

They can increase their lifestyle with a thousand dollars a year not a thousand dollars a day no no no no it's like that's not rent yeah exactly they're like you know you could maybe buy like three of your kids new shoes and like five dinners right and again they're also writing this bill in secret and who knows like you know kamalaala Harris tweeted that she still hadn't seen the bill that they've been like furiously rewriting that could potentially be voted on like as soon as tonight. Like she hasn't seen the final version. No. And I don't think even the Republicans voting, they're not going to really have time to read the bill. Right. So it's all being done in the dark. It's just fucked. They keep talking about it being a win. They just need a win. Exactly. That's basically, I think, you know, we were talking about earlier, like that's, it's just a tribal thing.

Like the reason, Shelby, you're asking why they're like telling people we've got the votes is I feel like that's the whole rationale for this is just like, we're going to win. We need to win because we haven't done shit. Like, I don't know. I just can't imagine anybody anywhere is like, yeah, no did it except for like rich people or it's it's fucking not for anybody and look even ceos are like now like it's not really gonna do what you say it's gonna do trump like earlier i think it was today or yesterday he was trying to say that like the why the democrats are pushing back so much is quote quote, because they think it is too good.

Yeah, that's why I never do stuff. Yeah, that's too good. Yeah. I'm saying it's so fucked up because it's too good. Right. That's that's the main argument, I think. Yeah, I think so. So, look, again, it's not the end because still this is going to have to go back to the House and either they'll vote on the bill as it is or it's going to go into conference but again this is like a very significant step towards

basically like blowing up our whole tax model and you know like services for people it has so many like far-reaching effects that i think you know i wish more people realized or maybe we're just so distracted they don't know you know to like get on the phones and call as many of their senators as they can. Even looking back, like, oh, okay. How do we get out of the eighties? Like, what did we do after Reagan gutted all of our like programs? The truth is a lot of people died.

A lot of people got sent out on the streets and they're still there today. Like it's, it's really frustrating to be like, this has happened before. So what, so what, what do we do now? You know, like it's gotta be actual concrete, like on the lower level things to do you know reagan's interesting because he did this and i think it was 81 it gave americans and rich americans in particular a huge tax break with the idea of supply-side economics that it was gonna uh you know all flow back into the economy and i like how they don't even say flow they say say trickle. That was always my favorite thing in history classes. I was like, wait, they try to make it sound appealing by going,

no, no, it will trickle down to you eventually, like tiny little dots of water. And that worked so well that Reagan had to raise taxes eight times during the course of his presidency. So one tax cut and then eight tax raises to, you know, to be like, oh, there's no money for things. Right. Yeah, exactly.

My bad. All right. We are going to go to a quick break. We'll be right back with things to distract you from all this bullshit. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who, on October 16, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhearts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks.

Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks everywhere 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 this right-hand woman. 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. 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. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. Season two. Season two.

Are we recording? Are we good? Oh, we push record, right? Okay. And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Saying that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and the piña colada from

Puerto Rico. So, all of these things. We thank Latin culture. There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey that dates back to the 9th century B.C. B.C.? I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura

podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. or wherever you get your podcasts. Acquire, Globe, National Examiner. Okay. In Touch. We got them all, baby. Got them all. Shelby has been quietly reading these magazines all day. Disgusting herself. Yeah, just like shaking her head. It's not even disgust.

It's just, it's mind-blowing. Like what, how vapid everything is or just how petty the tabloids are? Again, maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I don't remember from when I would read these as, like, a kid. But I remember always being sort of like, these are ridiculous. But they were so obviously ridiculous or so obviously, like, regressive or reductive. And now they're, like, this weird mix. I was saying to Jack, like, this weird mix of, like, fake woke but also trashy.

Where, like, they have a whole insert about, like, Lena Dunham and Jenny Conner, like, basically backing up that writer who was accused of sexual assault and being like, Oh, Lena puts her foot in her mouth again, like with an emoji, like, and then on the opposite page is like,

Oh, Beyonce and Kim Kardashian feuding. Like, it's just so bizarre. Right there. It's going to be a hard sort of balancing act to continue to be right as tabloids. What like in an era when everything is like woke and people right

yeah because eventually like you're like trying to make fun of people for being overweight or skinny like what oh yeah this is not okay oh my god they had a thing as we said before they had a thing on tara reed that was like is tara reed too skinny like is she gonna die in three months why are you posting this which is just go pick her up go take her somewhere because in the national inquire too they say skeletal terror read facing jaws of death tinseltown toothpick terror read terrifying weight loss it's mad alliteration again shout out to the inquire globe and examiner because they fuck with the alliteration so hard alliteration is just such shitty writing i'm sorry yeah no i mean i love it because it was it's like the first literary device you learn like when you take a english class as a kid and then you're like whoa i didn't

realize there was a word for using the same like like consonants is good but uh alliteration this was sorry this was also my favorite uh it's a whole weird insert on good deed of the week but it's all stars saving other people's lives, I suppose. In which magazine? In Touch. Okay. Thank you for asking. Yes. This is Tom Cruise, 55, saved his mummy co-star Annabelle Wallace's life after a parachute got stuck around her neck during filming. It was literally choking me. Then with two or three seconds left, there he was, the hero,

gushed the 33-year-old actress. I feel like I'd be like, yeah, it was choking me. Out of nowhere comes Tom Cruise. Not like, with two to three seconds left then he showed up yeah like i was about to die then tom comes waltzing out of nowhere with a knife and also two to three seconds left like you know exactly how much like time you how much it was about two to three seconds i was being choked out for about 90 seconds before anyone came to help me so one odd trend uh is that jenny garth from 90210 is just all over the covers.

Really? And for different reasons. On Star, they're talking about her third marriage exploding. And then on the cover of Us Weekly, they have holiday at home with your favorite stars. And it's a picture of Jenny Garth. My favorite star. You asked me what my favorite star is, and baby, I don't even have to think twice. Jenny motherfucking Garth.

There she is. I mean, that's what we were saying. Is her publicist team that lit that they can keep her head above water? Or is this showing you that she has a hold over Gen Xers? I think it's the Gen X thing. Or older millennials. 90210 is such a touchstone. Could you show me who Jenny Garth is?

She was like the coolest one. I was in love with Jenny Garth growing up. She was Kelly Taylor on 90210 from Urbana, Illinois. That's the same place where Little Giants takes place. Deep cut for y'all. I mean, another thing I've, you know, with like the super trashy tabloids, which is the Inquirer, Examiner, and Globe, we've always known that it's definitely geared towards an older audience, but it's so like just transparently clear that these are for, you know, like septuagenarians,

octogenarians who still think that like these are actual newspapers because every single thing's like garlic and vinegar cure arthritis. That's not for me. What about the grandparents guide to safest and most dangerous arthritis like that's not for me oh what about the grandparents guide to safest and most dangerous toys that's not for me farewell 63 stars we love it's like glenn campbell aaron moran don rickles i'm like bruh all the greats why are we talking about a little peep uh whoa sorry i'm just looking at it i'm sorry i keep getting distracted by the advertisements there's another in touch advertisement for InTouch magazine in InTouch magazine that has the cover that is like telegraphing Matt Lauer going to get fired months later as their like promo cover.

Yeah, we talked about it. We were turned on to the Lauer-ness of it all a month ago. lourness of it all a month ago. I do think that things like the Globe or Inquirer or Post or whatever have a pretty valid place in our news sphere. I feel like you kind of need the trash people saying whatever crosses their desk

because then there are a few times where you're like, yeah, that one might be right. I don't know. I feel like you need the fringe people pushing stuff and then you have the establishment people vetting it and actually then picking out what's real. Competing reality is a slippery slope because as we've already seen like there are people who i think fully operate in the reality of like the national choir that's definitely bright bart kind of thing and that's the problem the

problem is when it becomes like the accepted reality for people instead of the obvious like this is the fringe reality that may or may not be real it might be fun to think about but you can't actually put stock in it. Right. And we've mentioned before on the show that all of these tabloids are owned by a single company that is run by a guy who is like best friends with Donald Trump. So that's why you never see. There's actually a cover. The National Enquirer this week has a cover that is like exposed Capitol Hill of horrors. And I immediately miles like, oh, they're going after Trump because there's a picture of Trump on it.

And I was like, no, Trump is the one doing the exposing. I can guarantee you. And then the sub headline is Trump's secret probe nails perv politicians, military brass and VIP bureaucrats. This dude ain't doing all right. He's a 70 year old man with dementia. But yeah, I mean, they do actual it's both trash in terms of like how we should regard it. But also like that's a journalistic technique. They do.

They go through stars trash. Like that's that's a type of journalism that they do. It's just, you know, and a lot of the stuff we've pointed out is like sources say. but then the source speaks in the exact same voice as the tabloid. They're like, sources say this Tinseltown toothpick. I love that one. Is that really how sources speak? They're just sitting there like, she's about to die of anorexia. What to call her?

What to call her? Tinseltown toothpick. What to call her, what to call her. Tinswell Town Toothpick. Despite the elderly bend to the National Enquirer, they do have a story in here that's basically saying Kimye play homegrown Game of Thrones, where they're basically trying to say that Kim and Kanye like to poop around each other and talk while they're pooping on the toilet. That's cool. That's their story. And they're calling it a Game of Thrones.

Now, see, what's the one next to it, which is Woody Allen whips Kate Winslet? It's just that he's an oddball director. Oh, that's it? Oh, he's just a little bit of a kook. Well, because that's one next to it, which is Woody Allen whips Kate Winslet? It's just that he's an oddball director. Oh, that's it? Oh, he's just a little bit of a kook. Well, because that's how they do it. They want to draw you in with, like, the weirdest thing. Like, and then when you start reading, it has nothing to do with what they're teasing. It's important that you actually read the story that you see the headline about before drawing any conclusions. So, Star, one of the trends you'll see in these magazines is they want movies to be real.

They want stories from movies to actually happen in reality. So they have a story that is Julia moves out, exclamation point, about Julia Roberts leaving her husband. Shows her with like a suitcase. And then there's a picture of Richard gear. And it says she runs off with pretty woman, co-star Richard gear. So when you go and actually read that story, the only journalism they have is a picture of her husband parked like across

the street from like, they have a small house that's across the street from their mansion. They're like, he spends a lot of time there. Like're probably having trouble that's it and there's no her running off with richard gear the richard gear thing is that they seemed to have chemistry in 2015 when they appeared on the today show together although you know what she's probably fucking richard greer yeah i mean based on This is amazing. Wait till that story drops. This one says, this is from OK.

OK. USA. They added USA, I feel like. That used to be OK, man. I think you can buy two versions now in the States. Really? You can buy the UK version, too. Oh, interesting.

OK. Well, this one, it just says, Ben faces the heat. He thought he'd be fielding softballs about Justice League on his press tour to promote the superhero flick. Ben Affleck's interviewers had way dear topics in mind. Basically, he's being asked about Harvey Weinstein and stuff like that. But the picture of him, his face is super red. And the little caption is, leaving the late show with Stephen Colbert on November 16th, Ben looked like he was breaking out in hives.

And watch, I bet you it's the same photo. It looks awful. See? Look, they all use the same photo. So that same photo is also in the National Enquirer. They say he's a boozy Ben. Face rash, a red alert for boozy Ben. Floated star stumbling his way back to rehab.

Booze hound, Ben Affleck. See, they love the alliteration, baby. I love that John Mulaney joke about how every Enquirer story or whatever, it sounds like you're like old neighbor or something, just like telling you the news, like booze hound. Right. The royals are obviously everywhere. Yeah.

And there's a story that Meghan Markle is pregnant that seems to be making its way like into the headlines. But there's no evidence for it. And so is there a there are a couple people trying to push that lie right yeah oh yeah the in touch cover just goes palace bombshell megan pregnant it's why they got engaged getting married before baby and then in quotes we're an example to other young couples like as if they're telling other young couples to get pregnant before they get married right and even in the national examiner saying queen forbids harry's wedding why royals refuse to accept actress megan markle i'm like sounds like you're saying that yeah and it's really just like that they think because she's a divorcee that like

they don't like that or because she's a commoner right like so there's it's again it's all they're like the queen probably yeah essentially that old bitch probably hates her. Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they're like, look at her skin. She's like smiling with her. Yeah. Yeah, otherwise, just updates on Anna Nicole Smith's family. Apparently, it would be Anna Nicole Smith's 50th birthday. So clearly aimed at a specific demo. You think there are people still out there who are really torn up about Anna Nicole Smith's passing?

I don't think so. Maybe the people who used to sell Trim Spot? Right. It seems like they're trying to make her like a Marilyn Monroe figure. They're like, to mark the tragic beauty's 50th birthday. I will say, I have nothing. That seems totally fine to me. But sometimes when they do the thing of like, they would have been like 98 today.

I'm like, probably not. Probably would still be dead. They probably would have been, like, 98 today. I'm like, probably not. They probably would still be dead. They probably would have died five years before that. Yeah. But it's weird, too, because they want to act like they held Anna Nicole Smith in such high regard. Yet back when she was alive, it was like, look at this fucking mess of a human. Oh, yeah. They, like, contributed to her, like, dying.

So it's like garbage human being. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's almost a like complete business cycle you like drive somebody into like eating disorders and like madness and then like when they die you're like oh but let's do the story about her man we miss them birthday yeah all right we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered.

There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere a podcast that unhearts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state and she paid the ultimate price Listen to Crooks Everywhere 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. 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.

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I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning. In a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked. Voila! You got straight away. I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back. And we're back. So big news this morning. Michael Flynn has taken a plea deal over two charges of lying to the FBI, which is in some ways people are responding like this is huge news. But I think people have been expecting this for for a long time. Oh, yeah. I mean, back in March, his lawyer basically put out like a statement saying General Flynn certainly has a story to tell. And he very much wants to tell it should the circumstances permit, meaning like, hey, I'm ready to plea out. Yeah, that's a good way to indicate that. You know, and then last week, Flynn's legal team again notified the president's legal team that, you know, they would no longer share information strategy, you know, about what's going on with the Mueller investigation. So that was another indication that, OK, he's like literally about to cooperate.

I feel like this would just be a really great time to be like, let's add a couple amendments. Like, let's you know, let's figure a couple things out and make sure this can't happen again. Yeah. But the problem is like with the Republicans in power, like they're trying so hard to act like this isn't happening. So it's like we can't legislatively really do much. And even in the White House, they're saying, well, you know, this is this only deals with him.

It implicates no one in the White House. But again, you know, when you look at his plea agreement, he's talking about how he'll cooperate. He'll testify. He'll do whatever to stay out of jail. This makes the special counsel investigation like it gets one step closer. Like Manafort was, you know, sort of on the outside, but still like an inner circle person. Now they got Flynn. And he was saying like part of his thing was that he was told or directed by someone who was a very senior member of the transition team to speak with the Russian ambassador or speak with Russian diplomats. So Donald Trump.

I mean, that only leaves a very small number of people, whether that's Jared Kushner or Mike Pence or Donald. We don't know, but there aren't many people higher up once you get to the Flynn level. Right. He would only be willing to let Flynn plea out if he was giving him someone higher up. And if only Mike Pence goes down for this. Do you know how funny that would be? Mike Pence is just the old like just the patsy boy. Yeah. Man, I just got just go back to blogging about Mulan.

Right. It makes the whole situation look really bad for Trump and Trump world because, look, Obama, when they had their face-to-face meeting, he was like, yo, look out for Michael Flynn. Like, something is up with this dude. Sally Yates, like the day after he lied to the FBI, like went to Don McGahn in the White House, was like, yo, Michael Flynn just lied to the FBI. Michael Flynn just lied to the FBI. And then they waited, like, I don't know how many days, 24 days, or he only served 24 days. But they sat on this information before saying, oh, he lied to the vice president. Right.

Motherfucker, he lied to the FBI. Right. But also, like, I feel like these were the conspiracy, probably not conspiracy theories now, in retrospect, that were coming out, like, during the election. Like, we knew Manafort was, like, a creep during the election and was doing, like deals with like I don't know like Ukraine or something yeah Ukraine like like I don't know it feels so weird to be like we all kind of know this and even if we don't know for sure they've definitely done enough bad stuff like precedent wise that I could see them doing these things like it's just like how much how much more how much more do they have to do yeah before someone just like literally goes and just like sits on the senate floor and just is like no i'm not leaving this is crazy like we have to talk about this like what's going on it's uh there's just so much power at stake which is the crazy

thing and we i feel like we talk about this all the time it's the same reason why people don't out like if you're trying to defend someone who's a sexual harasser within your company because they have such a high position because you depend on them. It's the same way with this. You sound like you're talking about me right now, by the way. He's like he turns fully away from me. Well, sometimes you don't want to out someone. He writes the checks.

No, but again, it's like you thought maybe like these anti-Muslim tweets this week, like we'll see how long they're willing to hold on to this thing before it literally drags them totally down. And again, it doesn't look good no matter how you look at this. Like you don't want – you're someone who's serving as a national security advisor, you know, pleading guilty that he lied to the FBI about like talking to Russia. Amongst the other things that are still up in the air, like his work with the Turkish government, possibly to like kidnap somebody and, you know, send them back to Turkey. There's many, it's just,

how could they get out of it? Like, I feel like that's what I was asking myself whenever something like this happens is like, okay, honestly, what would they have to do to get out of this? Like secretly kill Mueller?

Like not even kidding. Like what is it going to take? I could not see. I honestly cannot even imagine our president fucking donald trump like leaving the white house of his own accord if he was ever voted out like if he in four years we actually managed to have a free election and he does lose i can't imagine him leaving the white house i imagine him like sitting there like going limp and being like you can't you can't take it out of me yeah like a four-year-old that's toys r us having a tantrum exactly the way i see trump getting out of this is there's nothing connecting exactly him

to the russian thing so you get everybody else but there's no smoking gun connecting him and then he just pleads ignorance um which is entirely possible why won't he leave like why like i really think right now it must just be like, well, you're there. You can't. I don't know. You're crazy, negotistical and whatever. But, like, there's so much to me that's like his life would be better and he would like his life more if he left, if he was not president. But he would have to admit defeat.

No, he doesn't. He doesn't have to to himself. He can pretend like he was too good for America. He's too vain. He's all about the optics like even if he knew that to be true in his heart he i don't think he could live with the fact that if he looks like a guy who gave up on being the president right i had the most like i know it's a fantasy i know it's stupid but like thing right before the election where i was like i need

someone to tell him or lightly imply like hey you know if you you know back basically pulled out now just like when hillary clinton win and then like sold out all the gop people and all the russian connections and then totally tanked all their careers who were such assholes to you like you can retire a hero like we'll just call you a hero fuck it we'll just be like yes you're great now yeah that would be the coolest thing he could have done. That would actually make the country be like, all right, I guess we have to like him now. Yeah, right. But I do think he is – he believes the stuff he says. Like he is racist.

Yeah. Like we keep talking like he's this opportunistic person who's just saying whatever is going to get him like, no, I think he really thinks, you know, the racist stuff he's tweeting is true. And he, you know, is an ideologue. He's I, oh, I disagree with that. I think he agrees with it as much as he can personally agree with anything in a given moment. And I think he's an extremely, whatever you want to call it, evil, narcissistic human

being who like at any given moment, if you just make someone look weaker than someone else, he'll be like, ha ha. Right. Yes. Like his side is just like power. Yeah. You know, like he definitely doesn't hate like rich Saudi oil magnets. You know, like that's definitely not the problem. Yeah.

He definitely does hate Obama and is just trying to erase his legacy. That's pretty obvious also. That was the thing about the pee tape that no one talked about where everyone was like, oh, ha ha ha. Like peeing during sex. Like, that's funny. I was like, no, no, no. That's not what happened.

He paid them for him to stand away and watch them pee on the bed where Obama slept in. Like, that's different. And everyone just made it like a funny sex kink. And I was like, that's not what this is. Like desecrate this bed. Yeah, exactly. I was like, kind of like an evil like thing thing he should be wearing like an eyes wide shut mask well just like sitting there like watching himself yeah for some reason yeah um but yeah i guess

look the flynn thing it's it's definitely a step forward and again the white house trying to be like whoa looks like it's going to be swiftly ended look motherfucker looks like they're getting closer to you right really and so i think when you also look at it we're talking about this too beyond like pleading out to probably protect his son you know the legal fees of trying to defend yourself from a federal indictment those bills stack up and if you were like found guilty like you could lose your pension like mike flynn has a lot more to lose because unlike manafort those guys have spent their entire lives getting rich and like working as like political operatives. Flynn was in the military for the longest time and only really got into like this, you know, private wheeling and dealing maybe like two years ago.

He doesn't have the same resources to defend himself. So I'm sure after a while he's like, shit, I'm not gonna have any money. I'll be in jail. I have no pension. I think he openly said that. He was like, look, we don't have a ton of money so yeah they couldn't pay for like lawyer fees or something i thought we'll we'll cooperate oh that's right yeah and he was even like yeah just begging like first to see if trump would help him

out and then they're like yeah nah fam we can't help you with your fees he's like all right i guess i'm gonna sing right so so uh yeah i guess we'll see where it goes and hopefully try not to be too, too distracted by fantasies of him being taken down by. Which is crazy. How do you think people would react if he showed up dead? If Trump showed up dead? No, no, no. If Michael Flynn.

Again, I'm not proposing it. I'm just saying I really feel like that's the next step for our government is to start to like overtly doing shit like that. I feel like it wouldn't be too much different from how everything is responded to now. Like it seems transparently evil. Like when he tweets like propaganda, fake videos, you know, Muslim people and we're like, how can this be happening? That's he's clearly wrong. And, you know, people just are living in separate existences. So I that's that's the scary thing is I don't think there's anything stopping it from becoming more just over the top and insane. insane i'd be interested to read about like people's mental breaking points and like like collectively if like when you get to the point where you're like well fuck it we're gonna revolt

like we'll fuck it we gotta do something like i feel like if these people just rely on the hope that if they do something so absurdly crazy or so absurdly evil most people will kind of like either ameliorate it within their own heads or put it out of their mind because it doesn't match their worldview of the world being like a sensible place that makes sense to them you know like so you just sort of go like well he must have a reason or like it can't match their worldview of the world being like a sensible place that makes sense to them, you know, like, so you just sort of go like, well, he must have a reason or like, it can't be that evil where it's like, no, it, no, it can be like, as soon as you accept that into your life, we can move on. That's why we're like on this slippery slope of beginning to like normalize everything

where we're just like, oh, yeah, it's just so tiring. But yeah, I think again, it's, we'll only see any action from a legislative standpoint or from the Congress once it only threatens these Congress people and senators' chances of being reelected. We'll see. It's very exciting in the ongoing Mueller saga. But again, let's stay grounded. Let's stay focused. Shelby, it's been a blast having you. Where can people find you?

They can find me online at Shelby Farrow. Or just around. Cool. You know, just hanging. Around where? Oh, LA. Famously one of the best followers on Twitter. Am I?

I want to publicly apologize to everyone who follows me now because it's just become like a retweet calling account for things that I want to go back and read later in the day. That's all I do now on my Twitter account. Miles, where can people follow you? You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Miles of Gray. You can follow me at Jack underscore O'Brien. You can follow us at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page that is The Daily Zeitgeist.

We are at Just Daily Zeitgeist. Just at Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page that is The Daily Zeitgeist. We are at just Daily Zeitgeist, just at Daily Zeitgeist on Twitter. And our website is dailyzeitgeist.com where you can find all our episodes and footnotes where we link off to all the sources

so you can tell that we're not making shit up. And that's gonna do it for this week, Season 8 in the's going to do it for this week. Season 8 in the books. We did it, you guys. We did it. We'll be back next week with Season 9. Bye. Bye.

Thank you. the culture of crime and corruption. They were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. 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. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister, or is history repeating itself? 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.

What happens when a professional football player's career ends, and the applause fades, and the screaming fans move on? I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straight away. They try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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