The Daily Zeitgeist - Hogwarts Trendgacy 2/6: Hogwart's Legacy, Grammy Awards, Kyrie Irving, Turkey & Syria Earthquakes

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

In this edition of Hogwarts Trendgacy, Jack and guest co-host DJ Danl Goodman discuss the new Hogwart’s Legacy video game and the surrounding discourse, the GRAMMYs and the never-ending internet take machine, Kyrie Irving getting traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Dallas Mavericks and the two earthquakes that rocked Turkey and Syria causing fatalities and massive property damage. Donate to the Earthquake Emergency Response Team: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QGVWWJWYRJWZ8See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine 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 Jess Costavetto, 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. 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 Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of Hogwarts Trendgacy. But that, of course, is the music from Hogwarts Trendgod gwertz trend legacy more like hog wash am i right hod gwertz that's those are the comedic stylings of today's special guest co-host dj daniel goodman it is a your boy mr steal your ariel in in the. Happy to be here. Ready to... Is Ariel like Ariel from The Little Mermaid?

It is, yes. Yeah, call me whatever that dude's name is from the movie because... Prince Eric? Prince Eric, thank you, yes. Because she's about to grow some legs and be like, I need some of that. No, no. No, I'm taking it. Did not like that.

Isn't her Ursula Mr. Steal Your Ariel? I guess so. Yeah, really. Yeah. Steal Your Ariel's voice. Hey, there we go. Oh, God. Make her silent so that Eric can fall in love with her.

Aha. That's the trick. Because of toxic masculinity, Ursula thought, thought ha she'll never find love while she's silent but because of toxic masculinity eric was like oh my god yeah wow she's a perfect bride perfect bride i don't have to worry about anything she might say ha ha ha ha ha all right there's there's a bunch going on yes the discourse is uh a blaze fraught a blaze bubbling bubbling bubbling hogwarts legacy is trending it has crossed my desk yes i know everybody sees gaming news what does jack think what's jack gonna say about it is it out on switch is it out on

switch the answer to that i of course know but i'm not gonna say it here i appreciate that because i'm not gonna date the show because it might one day you know you never know and then evergreen or it might be right now uh so daniel yes pretend pretend i'm an idiot sure who knows so i close your eyes uh just imagine a world where i'm a complete fucking idiot don't know nothing about who doesn't know shit sure about the world of gaming absolutely what what's going on hogwarts legacy is it a is it a sandbox game what is it very good jack so uh hogwarts legacy is a open world world RPG developed by Avalanche Games or Avalanche Studios for all your contemporary, quote unquote, next gen systems. It is a Harry Potter RPG that if you ask IGN, is the game that every Harry Potter video gaming fan has been waiting for. And I'm sure to a certain extent

that they're, I don't know, maybe right. But the release of this game has gotten so many people to crawl out of their hidey holes to participate in a discourse that is absolutely fraught with bullshit and throw out takes that are completely ridiculous. And I want to talk about them very briefly for a little bit. And I want to start with the idea. Oh my God, he just unrolled a whole long ass scroll. You guys, when he said, I want to start actually, it goes behind me. It just rolled out the door. And then I heard some cars get into a car accident outside when it rolled into the street. So that's what we're dealing with. But I cede the floor to you. I'm just going to go for a jog while you get this one underway.

I'm going to get my soapbox out of the way here. The long story short here is that it brings up a bunch of topics that sometimes come to the forefront. Things like separating the art from the artist. Things like we need to support X person. Things like, well, that's the way business works. And blah, blah, blah. All of these like trends that, you know, are easier to tackle in like confined packages.

Where it's like, you like music from this person, but they're also an abuser. How do you handle those two things? That's a conversation that we can have another time about whatever. But with Hogwarts Legacy, this is a game that is about the wizarding world created by J.K. Rowling. This game was produced and released in a world completely aware of her own, you know, horrible thoughts and beliefs, her turf nature,

like everything about J.K. Rowling that we now really know. It's also something that is forcing, quote unquote, forcing the hand of media giants and game reviewers to participate in the discourse of talking about this game. Some people handle that well. Some people absolutely are not. And I think one of the people that handled this really poorly is IGN. IGN is a company that has been reviewing games for years. It's a huge, huge, huge company. And they gave this game a 9 out of 10.

A 9 out of 10. And the criteria for a game being a 9 out of 10 is this. If we call a game... A 9 out of 10 means it's amazing. If we call a game amazing, that means something about it seriously impressed us. Whether it's an inspired new idea or an exceptional take on an old one. We expect to look at this game as one of the highlights of its time and genre. And I just wanted to quickly pull out a couple lines from the actual review of this game,

just certain lines that stuck out to me as maybe things that go counter to that very review. Not reflective of a 9 out of 10. Not reflective of a 9 out of 10. Not reflective of a 9 out of 10. In the IGN tradition. Correct. It may not be the most impressive technical achievement, and it is certainly cursed with a lack of enemy variety. One, Legacy's plot has more holes than a fishnet stocking and sort of just expects you to accept

that its magical world makes no sense. Two, if you're like me and you roll your eyes during moments when you're introduced to 100 years worth of dead characters lettering you from paintings. Three, Legacy's dicey performance suffered from just about every issue that makes IGN's performance review team cry. Frame rating consistency, weird issues with the lighting, aggressive pop-in, and more. Every door in Hogwarts has a brief loading screen. We're talking about stuff that is just like some of these things are day one patch stuff, where it's like this stuff is going to get fixed. It doesn't really matter. But then you have things

like the plot doesn't make sense. The enemies are boring. The world is just full of exposition and nonsense. Stuff that on a very base level takes a game out of the category of amazing or unique and that's only looking at this game on the level of it's just a regular game with no other political issues around it at all and ign does a very very short skirting thing of well here's how we talk about this game and i'm not going to read the whole thing but the long story short of their little like And I'm not going to read the whole thing, but the long story short of their little like, you know, of their of their small piece about why or why not they're reviewing this game is because their whole thing is as a company, we have to talk about the video game as a video game outside of politics, outside of discourse and just how it presents itself as a video game. And that's something we have to do. Right.

And I think that is bullshit. I don't believe that at all. I think the reality is more along the lines of another thing that I have linked in the stock here. And I promise I will get off my soapbox shortly, which is this. This is a tweet from Patrick Klepek. Watching gaming outlets jump through rhetorical hoops to justify coverage on Hogwarts Legacy isn't surprising. But to be

more honest, if they played it straight and just said, quote, our shaky business model does not allow us to ignore any game that might sell 10 million copies. And unfortunately that is the truth. We're talking about so much lost

revenue if they were to not cover this game, that is undoubtedly going to sell well because there are certain Harry Potter fans who, despite the fact that there are tons that really felt touched by the, you know, the book's narrative about, you know, finding your truest and best version of yourself and striking down the forces of evil. of yourself and striking down the forces of evil how that applied to their own lives and their own you know self-realization and self-actualization despite all that they're still going to cover this game that directly supports this awful turf woman who you know is making so much money off of this game and that sucks yeah um and it's just, yeah. So, you know, long story short, people are really going out the woodwork to say, well, it's okay if I review this game or it's okay if I play this game. Because, man, it would sure be bad if all these developers who worked on this game weren't able to eat. First of all, they get paid no matter what. It's not like all of them are getting royalties. And second of all, if that's your stance, you have to go and support literally everything.

Go see every movie. Eat at every restaurant, read every book, listen to every music album. Because God forbid the people who did the work on those things don't get the support that you think they deserve. And that's the end of my rant. Well, speaking of music albums, which is what we call them here. Yeah. The Grammys happened. The Grammys happened. here um the grammys happened the great was happened and another thing that is just has the take machine uh in overdrive oh my gosh running it's just so it's it's lost its equilibrium um

yeah i don't know it's it was one of the those moments to where it really seemed like, oh man, this is something that I don't care that much about, but that everybody was in on it, felt like. Or at least there was a lot of people who were surprised when the best album Grammy went to the wrong person, for instance. the wrong person um right for instance um when song of the year instead of going to beyonce or lizzo right although lizzo won record of the year which is also the categories are fucking confusing they're really ridiculous record of the year is actually song of the year but as like including production where a song of the year is just about song writing they went to bonnie rate which is an artist that my parents were into when i was 12 like so she was

like old a mere six years ago songs i've like listened back to and i've been like they're pretty solid but like i anytime the winner is announced and I have to be like, oh, I'm looking at the wrong year. This is a past year's list of winners. Right. It's always just tricky. I don't feel like Bonnie Raitt's return captured the Zeitgeist necessarily this year. Maybe it did.

I guess it did among the elderly folks who vote on the Grammys. Yeah, exactly. Is the point. Among the representative body that makes these decisions that do not matter. But alas, here we are. Bad Bunny did not kind of get a lot of snubs despite having what a lot of people thought was... It feels like this will be a year that people look back on and say, well, bad bunny is, this was the artist who like, whether it was reviews, you know,

one of the best reviewed albums of the year. When you look at Apple's like most played songs or Spotify's most played songs, like across the year for like six months after he dropped his album, like there were like five songs off this album in the top 10 it's bad bunny yeah bad bunny all the way down yeah it's bad bunnies all the way down um so i don't know it but again i'm just like so ever since they gave the first best rap album to Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff over Public Enemy and gave

Macklemore best rap album over Good Kid, Mad City. I mean, that's it. That's it. That's it. So that's the only Grammy coverage I need. That's it.

Or ever since they picked a fight with Frank Ocean because he wouldn't go along with their weird like the grammy musical performances and we're going to talk about one of them which was like iconic that happened this year like their big production numbers it's very cool that these things are happening because they're able to get like amazing talent together because they are the powers that be in the music industry quite literally but the production is weird and overwrought and it's always like i don't know you can tell that there are live like music performance producers or like something who whatever the fuck that is called that they're producing there are people who are like that is really what we want to be the star of the show right yeah and not frank ocean so they picked a fight with frank ocean and we're like frank

actually doesn't like he he's his own worst enemy um and we did not like enjoy working with him and whatever yeah it's just like shut the fuck up shut up yeah but anyways they did have a big thing the rap 50 years of rap because rap's 50th anniversary debatable but some people believe it's coming up shut up cool her yeah cool her a back to school party that cool her and his sister through that had like that, that was where the seed was planted according to some people on one side of a very controversial subject.

Exactly. But so they did like a, you know, 20 minute or I don't, I don't know how long it was cause I can't find a clip of it cause they're, they're logging this shit down. So I just find like individual clips of people taking shots from their phone of the TV for 20 seconds.

I've seen multiple clips and it really seemed to be something that people were responding to. And again, I ask those people, why are you watching the Grammys? I guess for moments like this. Yeah, exactly. the grammy i guess for moments like this yeah exactly it's uh you know i think uh the i think one of the things that invites so much controversy as well because i know another thing that uh people were getting their little twitter fingers hot about was harry styles going up there and saying this doesn't happen to people like me often and it's just like man you really

walked into that one because you could very easily just accept your award, hold up the trophy and go, hey, thanks. And no one would say shit. Yeah, they would have. I mean, probably. But it's like, but it's not like you stiffed Beyonce. It's not like you stiffed Bad Bunny. All these people are releasing music and it's like, that's just, it's their job. They're supposed to release music.

Like, it's not like Harry Styles is being is being like well i better not release this album because i don't want to step on beyonce maybe getting a grammy that's not how it works but you know you do get to choose what you go up there and say and how you represent yourself and um i think everybody can take a lesson uh take a big old slice of humble pie and just remember don't go up there and say anything. Just don't, don't say anything at all. This voting body is only here to present awards to people for whatever reason. It never makes any sense.

It's never good. But when you insert yourself into the discourse by saying some shit like that, Harry styles, Ooh, baby. I mean, this is,

you know, you reap what you sow and that's what happened there. Just go up there and shut the fuck up and take your trophy and get drunk on the free meal and then go home. The other moment that really seemed to stand out to people, or at least me, was singer and songwriter Adele was presented with an award for best pop solo performance category. Hell yeah.

And presenting that award was, of course, Dwayne The Rock Johnson. The Rock. Well, the one and only. Dwayne The Rock Johnson, who handed her the gramophone. And in announcing it, he opened the envelope, read it, and said, Get up here, best friend, Adele. Which is how humans talk to one another.

I also want to believe that in my head, one of his people was like, just call her bestie because that's what everybody likes these days. And he was like, what does that mean? It's your best friend. He's like, okay, cool, I got it. Yeah, for sure. Get up here, best friend. It's like, it was supposed to be bestie uh swain just disconnected amazing

uh all right let's take a quick break we'll be back with a couple more things i'm jess casaveto 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% 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.

radio 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? Just come here and 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 and we're back and that so the big kairi trade happened yesterday woes bomb shamstrop Shams drop. The woe just of woge bombs happened. Um, and Kyrie Irving, who famous anti-Semite. Oh, right. Yeah.

Okay. Yes. Who, you know, then was like, Oh damn, my bad. Yeah.

Oh, kind of. I talked to a rabbi and it's all good now right anyways uh you know requested a trade at that towards the end of last week uh the nets were like granted gladly good sir no problem and so he got traded to the dallas Mavericks, who have one of the other best offensive players in the league, Luka Doncic. Mark Cuban is the owner. Mr. Cubano.

Mr. Cubano himself, one of my least favorites, just in general, in terms as people go. Sure. Just from his Shark Tank- ness and listening to him interviewed he's got big he's just got that that smug billionaire-ness rich dickhead energy billionaire-osity yeah but he apparently so there was somebody who did a mural of luca looking lonely and was like come please mark cuban bring luca help he needs help type thing and mark cuban reached out to the muralist and said told like reprimanded them and told them that they were being rude but then i yeah but he's just like so soft bitch he's so he's so like insecure but like in

a way where he wants to you know project security and like strength so fucking baby i know so he then immediately went and made a questionable trade because neither of them play great defense they're both like ball dominant offensive players uh kairi irving has alienated every team that he's ever been a part of um it's the mess i yeah you can always you know get get an initial idea of how a trade has gone by how audience or how the fans of the various teams are reacting. And let's call this a win for the Nets. My homie,

Adam, big Nets fan. Shout out. Adam was like relief. Finally relief. Just so happy. Relief. It's like,

it's like, yeah, it's like the, the, the room has quieted down everybody went oh yeah wow peace peace at last yeah i don't know man be with you and also unto you yeah fans yeah i also think i mean i don't know how much time is left in luca's contract but something tells me that he's pretty frustrated as well and like wants a wants a chip wants

something or his gtfo getting the f out of there interesting that's what that stands for yes these are the things that you need to explain to me yeah and obviously uh you know there was a horrible earthquake that happened uh two of them Turkey and Syria. Um, yeah. Killed more than 3,400 people. Uh, we link off to, uh, a place where you can donate money to help people in those regions, uh,

in the footnotes or show notes. But yeah, I mean, just a horrifying tragedy and one that, uh, we should all be keeping our eye on yeah and it speaks i mean you know just just very briefly as like you know of course a cautionary tale is that like you know it was two huge earthquakes back to back and you you see you know this is this is how fault

lines work is that like it's so rarely just one quick action that is, of course, it's scary, but it's just something to keep in mind and be prepared for. This might be a very LA-centric thing here, but it's always a constant reminder of earthquake safety and the importance of mutual aid. And it's like, we need to be able to reach out and help people when they need it. These natural disasters strike at completely random times, and it's awful. So if there's ever a time to reach out and help your friends across the world, now is the time to do it. So please help out.

As a lifelong Angeleno, is that something you remember, like experiencing an earthquake and then being like, oh, it's not done? Oh, vividly. We had an earthquake probably a week and a half ago where it rocked at first and then for the next five or ten minutes i was like hold fast and there was and there was another there was another aftershock not long after i mean thankfully it wasn't very strong it was it was a you know the whole thing was okay but you know it's it's something that you always think about it's always in the back of your mind yeah i think i have earthquake blindness like my equilibrium is just such that

i don't notice earthquakes when they happen my wife will wake up and i'm just i have my hands up like i'm on a roller coaster you know all right those are some of the things that are trending on this monday february 6th uh we are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other, be kind to yourselves, get the vaccine, don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Deuces.

Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine 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 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. 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 I heart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast presented by capital one founding partner of I heart women's sports.