The Daily Zeitgeist - Humane Policies Actually Work?!? 10.18.22

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

In episode 1353, Jack and Miles are joined by L.A. City Councilmember for Los Angeles's 4th district, Nithya Raman, to discuss…. How To Be A Progressive In Modern America, Unhoused in L.A., Crime, White Supremacy and more! Myths and Realities: Understanding Recent Trends in Violent Crime Rural America Reels From Violent Crime. ‘People Lost Their Ever-Lovin’ Minds.’ Murders Are Rising. Blaming a Party Doesn’t Add Up. The Red State Murder Problem Community and the Crime Decline: The Causal Effect of Local Nonprofits on Violent Crime LISTEN: Baianá by NIA ARCHIVESSee 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 Podcast, 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, 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 259, episode 2 of The Daily Zeitgeist, a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness.

It's Tuesday, October 18th, 2022. You know what that is? National International Legging Day. So it's not just for the people in this. If you rock with leggings, it's your day. It's National Chocolate Cupcake Day. National Noging Day. So it's not just for the people in this. If you rock with leggings, it's your day. It's National Chocolate Cupcake Day. National No Beard Day. And National Pharmacy Technician Day.

Shout out to the people working in the back. Shout out to the pharmacy techs. Was that a no beard day? Yeah, I don't know if that means just shaving it off. It just says, yeah, just being clean shaven. You know, this probably, probably again it's about way to about time we got some recognition out here yeah or without those of us or like me who cannot grow a beard so i'm like yeah every day is no beer day for me uh well anyways my name is jack o'brien aka

guess who's back back again stalin's ghost tell a friend uh That's Curse of Christy on Gucci Mane. Talking about, who was that who said Stalin's ghost? I think it was Cernovich. Mike Cernovich. Weird Mike Cernovich. Coming back. Coming with the strange attempt at poetic license. I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray.

Yes, it's Miles Gray. Straight from the Mile High City, but keeping his title of the Lord of Lancashire, Hideo Noho, North Hollywood's very own. Thank you so much. In the building. In the building. Well, we are thrilled to be joined in the building-ish.

Virtually. Virtually. In the virtual building of the Internet Zoom Protocol by an urban planner, former executive director of times up entertainment and currently the city council member for la's fourth district welcome back to the show nithya roman welcome welcome thank you that was such a great that was probably the most enthusiastic reception i've ever gotten hey we we go off here this is. Very happy to be here. Thank you so much. Hey, the last time you

were here, you were running. And in what the LA Times calls a political earthquake, you won. I'm sure you've probably heard that by now. But yeah, you won. Congratulations. Thank you. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. Yeah. So now you're just wielding power for the past couple of years. How's that going? Anything new going on in the city council? I haven't had the most stressful week of my entire tenure here so far. Yeah. We're just getting started.

You stayed and you kept your appointment to appear on our Second Rate podcast. We are truly grateful. Well, I disagree with you that it's a Second Rate podcast and I'm very delighted to be here. Because it's Third Rate. Thank you. All right. Well, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. We had Ugo on, by the way, recently and his underrated was Little Nicky. So just so you know what the bar of this Sandler movie, the Sandler movie at Little Nicky was like, I don't know, man, it's just like my favorite movie. I can watch it repeatedly. said it was his favorite movie i think he said it was his favorite or like one of his favorite movies of all time and like didn't really he wasn't like you know because of this or because of that he was just like i just really love that movie it was kind of awesome um i did endorse him and now i'm rethinking yeah yeah you gotta you gotta ask what his favorite sam the latter day samler film yeah yeah i it was interesting because of that i was like

looking at where it falls it was like right before punch drunk love very interesting and yeah after water boy and he was like you know what i'm gonna go full funny voice for all two hours of this movie anyways that's not what we're talking to you about we going to ask the question of just like how to be a progressive in modern America, like the just generally, you know, we struggle as a podcast. We talk about how American society seems to have an immune system that is allergic to anything having to do with socialism or progressive social policies and that is addicted to profit. And so just as someone who's been in there for a couple of years now and like almost a couple of years, yeah, almost a couple of years coming up on a couple of years, like just kind of getting

your stories from from from what it looks like from the inside. We're going to specifically talk about, you know, the unhoused crisis in L.A., white supremacy, which has been a subject that has come up a lot with regards to L.A. City Council recently, crime, all of that. We might even get into Rainbow Fentanyl, the latest Halloween freakout on a national scale, which, just spoiler alert, is a bullshit media panic.

But the DEA guy said. I know. It's rainbow. They're going to give it to your kids. Drug dealers love giving fentanyl away for free. Anyways, before we get to any of that, Nithya, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history?

My recent search history? Yeah, just whatever you're willing to divulge. Well, before the grimness of this last week, and I want to avoid that week's very dark search history. But I was most recently Googling and surprised to find that The First Wives Club, which is an old movie, whether it was actually about president's wives, as I thought it was. And it turns out it's not. It's about the first first wife that was divorced from the wealthy guy. And how those first wives got together and exactly revenge oh okay which is like a way more fun movie premise and i was delighted to find that this was the case because it kept being promoted to me because i've been watching a lot of like i can't watch anything new

it's too much to process i've been watching like when harry met, Legally Blonde, Clueless. You've Got Mail, maybe. You've Got Mail. This kept getting promoted to me. And I was like, why would I want to watch this movie? And then it turns out, oh, my God, it's perfect. Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan start robbing banks together. Like a set it off type scenario.

The tipper gore can't get in the crew. Right. A lot of tension there yeah yeah oh i kind of like first like first wives that like that version did you not watch that film i didn't watch that film no i just remember the posters because they were all wearing white like they were their outfits there was like their the marketing was like here here we are. It's because Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton and Bette Midler, right, I think are the three? Yeah. Yeah. But the thing is, like, if they're all wearing white, doesn't that make you think that it's about, I don't know, suffragette?

Ghosts. We went two different. It was either suffrage or ghosts. It was either suffrage or ghosts. Well, that's what, like, I was trying to picture, like, a club made up of first, you know, the first women, first ladies of the, from U.S. history. And, like, I feel like to get any sort of critical mass, you would have to go to the afterlife. So that's where my mind went, was ghosts. Right.

Yeah. Okay. Right. Well, look, it turns out we were all wrong. Right. Well, look, it turns out we were all wrong. Right. And it's about women exacting revenge for being divorced. From beyond the grave. What is something you think is overrated? So I, you know, well, I guess we might talk about this later, but my district in city council is pretty large. It now stretches from

northern silver lake to recita and so i spend a lot of time driving and i'm always late and i feel like here's the thing i've learned i do my makeup in the car so i think doing makeup at home is overrated wow you're and you're able to be able to drive and do your makeup? I do it at stoplights. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'm not dangerous about it. Okay.

Because I remember. Yeah. I remember sometimes like seeing like when when I was in the midst of like my long commutes when I was like working the west side and I lived in the valley going over the 405 creeping. There are always people doing their makeup. There are always people doing their makeup. And I was always like, man, with the stop and go, I always admired people using like a eyeliner pencil so close to their eyeball while like hitting stop and go traffic yeah, my foundation, my blush, that's kind of all I wear. But yeah, I'm not reckless. Are you thinking about all the times you did your makeup in the car, Jack? Yeah.

No, just like all the stories. The other time I hear like these commuting hacks is from like people in medical school. time i hear like these commuting hacks is from like people in medical school like and it's just like ways to squeeze things in on your commute like to multitask and like when my wife was going through medical school like their trick was like on the commute when you're at a stoplight you like now you put the car in park and nap until until the car behind you honks. And then that's what wakes you up from your nap. Because that's just how it's it's truly crazy that that's how we've decided to train doctors is like, we're gonna we're gonna make you sick, both like physically and spiritually. And that's the only way you get to take care of people right

that is so much darker than yeah yeah i've definitely had the same thought that like why i'm gonna start seeing people driving behind the other direction with eye patches because of how frequently i see people doing makeup while they're driving you know, apparently it can be pulled off with aplomb. Yeah. Yeah. What is, what's something that you think is underrated, Nithya? So, I have been really enjoying Bosch, the TV show. Okay.

Yeah. And I actually, I don't know if it's underrated. I think the people who find it really like it. Yeah. But. The people of LA really like it like i i feel like it's a there's a strong appreciation in that and people i know who are like really into la as a city love bosh because right isn't it i i have not dove in yet but it does like feature

it's like shot on on location throughout los angeles right i'm like well it's shot on location throughout Los Angeles, right? Well, it is shot on location throughout Los Angeles. I will also say that a shockingly high percentage of the murders happen in and around Council District 4. Oh, wow. Which is not true, actually, for crime stats. Right. Running an op on you. Okay.

Yeah. They're like, just look at Bosch. It's out of control. It's out of control. Look what's happening to Sherman Oaks. People are dying at the Hollywood Bowl. People are dying. Yeah.

That's right. People are murder. Another murder at the Hollywood Bowl. That's what it's called. For people who aren't from LA, that's like the premier concert venue. It's like that, the Greek, and... Then obviously like Staples or the Forum for Jackie and Tor events. But yeah, the Bowl is like our, you know, any video game that depicts L.A., you have to build the Hollywood Bowl when you're rendering for sure.

But it's also weird the idea of someone getting murdered there like i think this this i think believe that this individual was murdered in the pedestrian tunnel on the way to oh going underneath highland yeah yeah yeah yeah okay yeah but anyway but there's like a lot a lot of council district four references so it's right yeah and do you when you're watching that are you like or or you're just kind of you're you're able to buy into the to the fantasy of like do you do you are you ever like i'm kind of bosh i could i could turn my job as a city council member into like going around and murder she wrote in so some various crimes i It's a totally voyeuristic. Escapist. Yeah, escapist.

Yeah. For sure. I think if it was like too close to what we were seeing in LA, I think I would have more trouble with it as a relaxation. Right, right. And the other, actually, can I do a serious one that I find underrated? Yes. Right. Right. And the other actually, can I do a serious one that I find underrated? For sure. Which is there's a documentary series called Philly D.A. about Larry Krasner. Mm hmm. And that's it's one of the best things I've watched in the past like two years. And it's

it's amazing. And it was so real and so potent as a piece of filmmaking. I had to pause it numerous times, you know, just because of what's happened. You know, it was like too much for me to process, especially given all that, you know, all that's happening in America right now. I just was like, oh, my gosh. Yeah. And I think very aligned with some of the questions that you were asking Jack earlier about. Right. Oh, yeah. Progressive politics and the future of america and

progressive da's yeah they that feels like the it's like the low-hanging fruit for a lot of people to go after or trying to explain away certain hills to be like well it's the progressive da that's the issue actually right right and we've seen that here in los angeles with the attempted recalls of george gascon and you know i think it's really relevant for a lot of what's happening but it also talks about his office and management and you know it's it's a complicated complicated thing that he's dealing with over there right right and yeah and the given the recall of San Francisco's D.A., and like that just the idea they were like, that's he's lost control of the city. Like, I feel like the rest of the country was so all over this narrative that progressive D.A.s in California were like, you California were causing an apocalypse. And now when you talk to people from outside of LA, they're like, how do you live there?

It's crazy. I live in a version where I'm actually, I know my neighbors and stuff. It's not as freaky as the people with an agenda want to make it seem. But yeah, there are issues that definitely have to be solved. Like anyways. Yeah.

And I don't, you know, I don't think you ever, you don't ever, you know, I don't think you get anywhere talking about crime and people's fear and sense of safety in a city by dismissing it. I think you talk about what are real solutions to addressing it. But anyway, yeah, the fear mongering is also very real. And I think there was a little bit of just creating a bogeyman around these. Right. Because, you know, they put in a new DA and the same things are happening as before.

Right. Yeah, yeah. In San Francisco. Of course. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back to dig into how to be progressive, how I am be progressive. They've broken my brain. I don't know how to even deal in the modern United States. So I want to hear how you're thinking about that in one moment. one moment. 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 L.A.-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. have followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Some people won't give you the real talk on drugs, but it's time we know the facts. Fentanyl is often laced into illicit drugs and used to make fake versions of prescription pills.

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I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that is guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like our recent episode with dancer, actor, host of Dancing with the Stars, and now novelist, Julianne Hough. I feel really whole. I feel like the last few years I've really unraveled a lot, which is part of what this book is about. And I really feel so content, which is a word that used to scare the crap out of me.

And I love that word now. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Yeah, so something that we just kind of keep coming up against, whether it be with regards to, you know, crime statistics during the pandemic that we've already kind of made reference to and that a lot of that got blamed on progressive DAs. A lot of it got blamed on the Black Lives Matter movement. And, you know, and now the statistics are coming out and, you know, people are actually looking at things and seeing that crime went up everywhere in the United States, whether it was a progressive DA or a judge with a noose in like the woods somewhere, like the crime went up all of those places and in urban areas and in rural areas yeah that's the other you know like i think actually homicides spiked in rural areas even more than they did in urban areas right and you know it's it's starting to seem like a lot of these informal and formal you know social networks that we all have with going places, seeing people, these like third

places that aren't our home where, you know, once those went away and people just had more time and were shut up in their home and also everybody started buying more guns, like, you know, those things were all contributing factors. And also a bunch of crime statistics disappeared for for the year 2021 well more so that they weren't like you know jurisdictions in like florida and pennsylvania and california which are massively represent like a lot of these statistics weren't using like the new standardized way of reporting that the fbi was asking for as they put together their annual statistics and that's why they're like, even now, if you want to make this sort of claim, like you're dealing with incomplete data at best.

But right. I didn't even know that. Yeah. So so just like so we have this narrative, like we say, like there are these policies and these social, you know, things that we should be investing in that went away during the pandemic. And it turns out they're enormously popular or enormously important. And without them, like things get really bad really quickly. Very straightforward story to tell people about, you know, progressive politics. And instead, the version that comes back to us in the mainstream media is that it's either progressive DA's or it's that like the police were defunded even though they were still super duper funded like it's just like i that story in particular where there is a truth that is pretty straightforward that can be told and answer all these questions and that just like doesn't get told is one of the examples where

i just feel like america like the body of america rejects anything having to do with socialism and is addicted to this idea of violence and anything that can drive a profit like militarization of the police can so i don't, like, just sort of a vague, like, you know, comment. Yeah. Please. Well, you know, I, I, what I can speak to is what I've been dealing with here in Los Angeles. And I think we had this very heated conversation in 2020 about police and the role of policing in Los Angeles and a call for, you know, real changes to how we respond to or utilize policing here, here in this city. And then, you know, I think in the, in, in, after the election in, in November of 2020, slowly there started, you know, becoming a backlash around really talking

about increases in the number of homicides, increases in crime across America in Los Angeles. And what is very true is that those numbers have gone up, as you mentioned, and that they've gone up regardless of jurisdiction. They've gone up in urban and rural areas. They've gone up across cities regardless of their policies, regardless of whether they have progressive or non-progressive DAs. I mean, there has been a rise in homicides across the entire country. And that's the reality of the moment that we're living in. And so in response to that increase, there has been a push locally and nationally for more police, more police on our streets,

more money to policing. And so you had this kind of, you know, whiplash moment where after this intense conversation around the role of police and how you deploy them in cities, you had this very intense backlash that came forward. And for me, what's been really, I think, as someone who's trying to navigate these conversations and legislate in these conversations, is that here in LA, we couldn't hire more police even if we wanted to.

The LAPD is facing such intense staffing shortages and they're not unique among city departments, right? So across the entire city, as in the private sector, there are intense staffing shortages facing the city. And in fact, LAPD has been allocated for a certain number of positions in the budget and hasn't even been able to fill them because of attrition and because they're not able to hire up fast enough. So retirements have been so many that they haven't been able to hire up to match that retirement numbers. Like when I go out and talk to constituents and constituents are telling me, you know, I feel anxious. I'm seeing the news. I'm seeing all these. I really want to talk to them about, OK, we're in this moment. The solutions that have been proposed for decades, which is let's add to the police, let's add to the police, let's add to the police in response to your fears. That's not that's not possible right now because of this moment. So how do we think about what is really going to make you feel safer? And I think a lot of those things that were discussed in 2020 are exactly what we need to be investing in right now. It's, you know, how do we respond to homelessness without police involvement? I hear from my, the senior lead officers that are kind of in charge of various parts of our district that 40 to 60% of their time is spent

responding to calls about homelessness that are not related to violent crime or assaults. It's just, there's an encampment here, you know? And so they're going out and doing that work. But are they the right people to be responding to that? Is there a better way that we can be responding to calls about homelessness that, you know, that really tries to get those individuals who are on the streets on their path into a home. If you're talking about traffic response, you know, what are we doing in terms of monitoring traffic safety when you have a collision? Does armed police need to come out and respond there? Or can we send someone else? Or is there ways of doing traffic enforcement that doesn't involve armed police as much? Because there are DOT traffic officers, Department of Transportation traffic officers as well. But how do we think about that in ways that really remove

police from areas where they have been before? Mental health crisis response. Are there many, many situations where we're sending armed police out when we don't? And so I think for me, it's like, let's have a conversation about safety. You know, let's have this conversation about what it really means to have a response to safety that that that really responds to the needs that we have in Los Angeles and response to the conditions that we're facing here. that we're facing here that doesn't just go to this you know ultimately if you're hearing from politicians that oh you're not feeling safe we're going to add police like that's at this point i can tell you that that's a lie in la right because it's just you're saying functionally not possible it's not possible because it's just not possible we can't go to that well anymore right so so in order to have a conversation about what response to the very real challenges that we're facing in Los Angeles right now need to be, I think we just have to have a very different conversation. And I think we have to be real with constituents about that. We have

to be real with Angelenos about that. And I think I would imagine that many other cities across America are facing these same challenges. Right. And I'm curious because, you know, like with with police budgets, I know you voted to increase them. And I know there's probably more nuance around it than some people. I feel like some people just say, I can't believe she voted to increase police budgets. Yeah, just full stop, because they felt maybe on the campaign, this was something you were fully invested in. felt maybe on the campaign, this was something you were fully invested in. But for one reason or another, that there are things like caps on how many people can be, you know, hired or the ability to hire more people or that certain raises are built in based on like union agreements. How like you like earlier, you were saying it's like you're now you're in this position where

you're trying to navigate that and legislate based from that position. How do you sort of what do you put forward to people who may have been like really looking at the idea of police, like increasing police budgets bad? So therefore, I can't I'm not going to think much more about it because like you said, 2020 had a lot of people just very invested in this one or at least one dimension of altering how we respond to certain emergencies in our city. Yeah. And the first, I think I really want to say that I receive a lot of criticism about my work. I also receive a lot of support, but I receive a lot of criticism. And I'm very,

if people are disappointed, I just want to say, this is not me saying they don't have any right to be disappointed or whatever. I, whatever. Like I understand. And I'm, I'm out here trying to navigate this in the way that one person out of 15 can and, and really deliver the best results for the people of my district at this moment. And during the budget process, I put forward some, you know, long pieces of writing about why I, you know, what my relationship to the budget process was. But the one thing I do want to say about the Los Angeles budget, when that budget vote is not an up-down vote on the police budget alone, it's an omnibus budget. So it's like all these things.

And there's a huge amount of negotiation that happens as we move through it, where you're saying, okay, how much money am I going to get for the planning department? How much money am I going to get for building affordable housing in Los Angeles? How much money am I going to get for active transportation? I'm really a big proponent of bike lanes and traffic safety measures. And I actually can't get those implemented in my district because we don't have staff at the Department of Transportation to design those measures on our roads. And one of the big things I fought for in that budget was more people to work on active transportation measures. And I got that. I got that as part of the budget process. And yeah, like the police funding was a big part of the budget. It has been historically a big

part of the budget. And there were raises baked into it that increased the numbers of how much money we were committing to the police force. And looking at that and looking at what I was able to get out of the budget, I moved forward with it. Because I think when you're negotiating on it, you're saying, okay, I'll support this if we can do this, this and this. Right. And I get like, you know, it's like any, like, you know, there are omnibus bills at the federal level that, you know, certain items are like poison pills for some legislators and some aren't. For you to see like a version of Los Angeles where we can legislate in that way. And we are saying like, without, you know, all of like the, to address all of these needs that we have while really being able to like have a laser focus on, you know, realizing, well, the direct increase in police budgets doesn't correlate to our increase in our safety. How are we able to sort of streamline the process? Because I'm sure there's many, there's so many voices that come into that process that I'm sure it's, it becomes chaotic. Like what are,

you know, like, I think that's why a lot of people, when we look at how we can change things, we always see how the established process is basically the biggest hurdle into like meaningful change. And I'm curious, like, what's the version that we need to be thinking of that allows us to have these conversations where we can't say, you know what, we have enough votes on the city council. We know that like having more invested in social services and people who are trained in responding to crises like this, that we can do that in a very easy way. But I get that there's so much entrenched power, but I'm curious as someone wrestling that what's, you know, like, what's the vision of that for the future? So I think one of the things that people have to understand about the way that the LA city council is set up, and this may not be relevant for your national audience, but is that

a lot of the work of determining what projects move forward and what programs move forward is done through committees. And I don't sit on the Public Safety Committee, but I think the people who sit on the Public Safety Committee will have a lot of power over what happens in terms of our response to public safety issues in LA. So the key things are the council president assigns people to various committees. And if you've been following the news, you know who was our council president until very recently. Yes. Nuri Martinez. Yes. Nuri Martinez. And so she assigned me to the housing committee, to the homelessness and poverty committee. So these are all committees that I think are really important. But I'm not, I don't sit on the public safety committee. And I think that committee is really responsible for trying to bring up and ensure that departments are following through on alternative responses to public safety, right? Right. And without that committee's leadership and its chair really pushing forward on those, it's going to be hard to see progress. So the reality is a lot of the power on those issues sits within that committee. The committee chair determines which motions get heard by the committee and move to the full council. have right now a coherent alternative response system in place in Los Angeles, right? So that's

the other reality of the moment that we're facing right now is that there's all these great ideas. There is a pilot program in Hollywood and Venice called the Circle Program, which is supposed to take some of the 911 calls that are coming in and moving them to unarmed response. There is a mobile van that's supposed to be housed at fire stations and go out from there. So there's all these different pilot programs, but there's no coherence around thinking about what are these programs doing? What are they actually changing as we move forward? Are they effective? What's the most effective? How can we really invest and expand in them beyond the pilot phase? I actually put forward a motion earlier this year, which just is making its way through

the committee and the council asking for exactly this, you know, and I think this is, in addition to thinking about police budgets and police presence, I think we also need to be thinking about how do we actually fund staff and increase the capacity of these alternative systems to actually respond to issues in Los Angeles. And that's, to me, that's like the thing that we do need to be focusing on in a very real sense. Like, you know, getting back to your first question or the introduction that you had, Jack, is like, how do you exist as a progressive in this space? I think one of the things that we need to be doing as a movement, as a progressive movement, as a big tent progressive movement, is to be talking about what we want to see, not just what we don't want to see. And I

think being really clear and focused about what those goals are, and then going out there and fighting for those things, wherever they show up on council or supervisorial or county agendas, you know, that that's the kind of work that I think we need to be doing as a movement in order to really move forward. Cause it's not just about saying we don't want this. It's about building the world that we want to see. Right. What do we replace it with? I heard you talk about like seeing somebody.

I think they were in your district having a mental health crisis and a solution finding somebody a way to call somebody who could come help that wasn't a police officer pointing a gun at that person and so and i couldn't find it yeah i couldn't find it by the way so i and this is as you were you were a city council member i'm a sitting city council person and i'm i'm i'm watching a person have a crisis on the streets and i call the department of mental health which is controlled by la county so I'm a sitting city council person and I'm watching a person have a crisis on the streets and I call the Department of Mental Health, which is controlled by LA County. So mental health response in LA is not controlled by the city. It's controlled by the county.

I called LA County and not only did they not come, they never even called me back. And the reason is because despite the fact that we have an enormous homelessness crisis, despite the fact that some, although not all, certainly not all people who are experiencing homelessness have mental health vulnerabilities, some of them do. And the reality is that we need street based mental health outreach and street based response to mental health issues. Right. And despite the reality of that, that we've been grappling with in Los Angeles for many, many years now, the county has almost no mental health outreach teams that are rapid response like this and has no capacity to respond to calls for help in that way. And so for the entirety of the San Fernando Valley, for example, that enormous area, there is one mental health outreach team that the Department of Mental Health funds. Yeah. Pardon my English, but yeah, it's, that's bullshit, you know? Yeah. I think you were saying that like when you talked to somebody, they were like, we're still like dealing with yesterday's calls. And it's like, that's, that doesn't really, it doesn't help me. It doesn't help us at this moment. And so like that and that, and you know, when I ran for office, one of the things I really talked about was saying, I want to have a system of responding

to homelessness in my district, which tries really to move it into the hands of trained professionals. Right. Is there is there like a tension? Right. Because we all know it's like we don't need the cops to be responding, you know, like and they're like, you know, we'd love to not be responding to this. But is there. They say that. They say that. I know. But they say that. Right.

And then. But they're like, we need more money. But they like this. We need more of that. Like what's how how does where does the rubber meet the road in trying to get the stakeholders to understand? It's like because we talk all the time as observers of just the news and looking at, you know, crime statistics or how crimes even reported like breathlessly by the LA times or in Los Angeles magazine, that absurd publication, like at what point are we able to really get this message through? It's like, you know, that we always talk about. It's

like, if there, if there was a correlation between how much we spent in crime, there should be negative crime. Right. You know, like, so that's what I'm curious to see how those conversations play out. Like, because obviously you have a living entity as like the police department who's they're saying, like, well, we need this money. And do they look at giving away some of this responsibility as making them more vulnerable to like saying, well, then what do y'all do? You know, like, i'm curious to know how they're rationalizing or the debates that you hear when there are people who advocate for this is why it needs to be this way this is why it needs to be this way when you know logic or basic analysis would say like it seems like

there's a myriad of other ways of things we can try because we've been doing it this way forever and the results are the same i mean we even heard joe biden in a speech be like we don't need to defund the police we need to extra super duper fund the police because they because they do because there are mental health counselors and like giving listing all these things that they're bad at that they shouldn't do that they don't want to do. So it's like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I think for me, like I'm always trying to think about this and how you talk to constituents about building support for a better way of doing things, a more logical way of doing things. And I think one thing that I would say is that I think often when you're talking to constituents, a big complaint that you hear is, you know, I had an incident of violent crime or I witnessed an incident of violent crime or I witnessed an incident of violent crime or I had something happen to me and the police didn't come fast enough, you know? And so when I hear

that, I think one of the things that that's a moment when you can say, okay, look, you had armed violence happening. That may be a space where armed police are appropriate responders, right? But for everything else, we want to make sure that we are taking that off of LAPD's plate. And I think in that conversation, so that they can respond more quickly to your instance of armed violence, where you didn't feel like you were supported or you felt safe. And so that's like, for me, didn't feel like you were supported or you felt safe. And so that's like, for me, in terms of trying to think about building a case for that better world, that's not just an argument that I think has a lot of power. I think it's something that I think instinctively people understand. I think we don't move forward as a city unless we're able to really have conversations about

safety and about these issues in ways that don't undermine people's fears. And I said that before. I just think that that's like an important way, a part of how we move forward in building that new future. Even if, you know, you may not think that those fears are legitimate or based in the statistics, or I just feel like in order to have a conversation that's really fruitful, I think we all have to respect each other's kind of where you're coming from. And I think we can make real progress, real measurable progress on doing exactly those kinds of things and taking armed

police out of mental health crisis response on taking police out of, you know, your everyday homelessness response. And you're going to have real widespread support for that. Those changes that can transform people's lives. I mean, like, let's just be clear that if we're talking about vulnerability to police violence, and that that's something that you care about, making sure that police are not your first line of response to calls about homelessness is really important because I think, you know, last in the last count, a third of all victims of police violence were homeless in L.A. Right. You know, so how can we have how can we make concrete progress on these issues? How do we do that? which is like well what do you you don't feel safe because of x y and z well this is actually how we solve it because i feel like this la is really or i think most cities are at this place where people have either the really aggressive violent solution to a problem and then there's a group of people advocating for something that like acknowledges the people's like someone's

humanity as a solution to it so like for example like again in la there's so much talk of like there's such a weaponization of the unhoused people like the unhoused community here for political points i have neighbors acquaintances around the city that seem to not be interested in solving the issues that accelerate the growth of the unhoused community like they don't really care about a fort like they don't understand they don't understand stuff like they just see homelessness and they go, oh, my God, what are they fucking doing over there in City Hall? And that's where it ends. And there's like a really specific type of Angeleno, right? Votes Democrat hangs all the right signs outside of their home. But when it comes to talking about the unhoused, their only idea to contribute is some version of get rid of them or like, I don't want to see them or they are dangerous. And right now there's like this Caruso supporter who's like going around LA videotaping people that are living on like on the street and just like shaming them and narrating to the camera.

This is why we need to vote for Caruso. And the comments are like an intellectual war zone, like on these videos. But you know, I'm curious for someone who's been advocating for trying to solve this in a way that makes sense and isn't just, well, ship them out somewhere or like just be more brutal and say, hey, you either take treatment or you live on the streets again or whatever. You know, a lot of people have all these really messed up mantras. I'm curious if you've seen a shift in these kinds of attitudes or what,

how do you even connect somebody who's like seemingly being like i understand all these other problems but i just can't quite cross the intellectual rubicon into seeing an unhoused person as a human being that is unfortunate and is worthy of some kind of help rather than saying this is a nuisance because it's either a nuisance or someone in need of help is helping right and i think we can never abandon the base. You know, I think my entire campaign, my entire time in office has been built around the idea that you if you center unhoused people in your response to homelessness and if you center their dignity, that that we actually have, you know, that that of all, that that is a moral imperative, you know, no matter what, right? That is a moral imperative. That's just step one. But the incredible thing is that if you do it that way, if you respond to homelessness in that way, that you actually address homelessness more effectively, than, you know, there's two dances

that we put unhoused people through here in Los Angeles. One is a sidewalk shuffle, where you break tents on one sidewalk, people move across the street, and then they move back. And then there's the movement from sidewalk to jail and back to the sidewalk. There's the movement from sidewalk to jail and back to the sidewalk. And neither of these actually addresses homelessness, neither of them. And so if you want a long-term solution to homelessness, if you want to see our way out of this crisis, there's no way through it that doesn't center the dignity of those people who are living on the streets and ensuring that your response is tailored to those individuals needs. And I think I think one of the challenges that that I I feel like I push back on and that I always have conversations with residents across the district about is like I have no I believe that homelessness is not a good thing for LA. It's not, it's worst for the

people who are experiencing homelessness, but it's bad for our entire city. Like I want, I'm here because I want to end homelessness, you know? And I think just, just making sure, like, I think that people understand that the goal of this work is not to keep people on the street, but rather to much more effectively help them navigate their way off the streets. That alone is a game changer in having those conversations. Because I do think there is a bogeyman there. You know, am I saying that word right?

Is it bogeyman or bogeyman? I've always heard bogeyman, but bogeyman also adds like a, I think it's appropriate for like our top gun zeitgeist because bogey is like the the bad plane that's gonna come shoot you i like mispronounced words all the time and so i just realized this i was like this is the second time i'm using it and probably mispronouncing it again i like it but yeah but like to me it's really just there is this i i think persistent feeling that if you are fighting back against the sidewalk shuffle or

the jail to streets circle, that what you're actually advocating for is for people to remain on the streets. And in fact, it's exactly the opposite. It's exactly the opposite. I mean, you've talked about structural kind of problems with regards to addressing homelessness that feel like they then trickle down to the individual level, like with the sidewalk shuffle. District by district, when you entered office, there was not... There still isn't. There still isn't. District was... Okay. so each district is responsible for addressing homelessness within their district which leads to makes it very easy for your answer

to be move them to a different district right yes like exactly so and and the incoherence of this is mind-boggling so is that something like how how are I guess I'd love to shift to things that you are seeing work and things that are giving you hope for like addressing this as you're coming up on like the two year mark? Like what are you seeing work and actually gain traction? Well, a lot of that changed this last week. Right. Sure. Yeah. I mean, let's let's talk about this last week and just like what it was like from your perspective, because I mean, they were talking about redistricting you on in that meeting where they were also just using cartoonish, you know, movie villain, anti-Black racism in a way that seemed like it was just

the the accepted culture like i mean abhorrent language and and and homophobic tropes yeah you know over and over again home of the use of homophobic tropes it was so upsetting the use of anti-black language by the way also you know they they made fun of Oaxacans in Koreatown. So it's also anti-Indigenous, anti-Semitism. It was covered all their bases. They hit it all. Yeah. So, you know, it was abhorrent. It was an abhorrent conversation. And, you know, I think obviously my first instinct and response was to just the level of outrage that I felt on behalf of my colleague, Mike Bonin's son and his family. Mike and his husband, Sean, knew no bounds. backgrounds and I think just and I was heartened to see that so many people showed up in whatever way online in person via emails via phone calls just to say like we reject this so wholeheartedly like this is so not Los Angeles you know so I think that I just want to say that it was really

like moving to be witness to that. And yeah, that's important to note. But this, you know, I think obviously I'm still grappling with it, grappling with the implications of what happened. And a couple of things I wanted to share is, you know, as you think about what we've been discussing in council for the past year and I don't know, I don't mean I'm I think I'm at month 20 or 21 right now. I can't remember on the council and the priorities that we've been discussing on. So, you know, Kevin DeLeon chaired the homelessness and poverty committee. Gil Cedillo chaired the housing committee,

which also encompasses renter protections. That's where we discuss, you know, keeping people housed, you know? And then Noreen Martinez was the council president, which means she set the agenda for what we discussed in the full council. And I think about some of the discussions that have occupied us and that have been some of the most conflict-ridden over the past almost two years. And I think about our focus on enforcement as a response to homelessness and our constant discussions on how we expand the scope of enforcement with regards to homelessness. And that occupied so much of our time on council. what those priorities would have been had the people setting the agendas not expose themselves as racists. How would that,

how would our agenda on homelessness and poverty look like if it was being set by people who had, who had the best interests of every single person in Los Angeles at heart? Right. You know, and I think, I do think it would look different. I think for me, I've identified over and over again that a key part of why we're not able to address our homelessness crisis is housing. We simply do not have the shelter beds or the housing units to

house all of our homeless people here. We don't have a we don't have a system that's designed to do that. New York City has more homeless people than L.A. County, but way fewer people on the streets. They have only like 2000 people who are on the streets. And the reason is because they have a court case that mandates that they create the number of shelter beds that they need for every single person who is experiencing homelessness in that city. And so they've had to do that and they've just done it. And here in L.A., we've never done it. And here in LA, we've never done it. Even right now, despite the fact that we've made more investments in shelter and in housing over the past few years than we ever have in Los Angeles city history or county history,

for that matter, we still don't have enough units, beds, whatever, to house our entire homeless population. Houston, which has reduced its homeless population by an astonishing, I think, 60% over the last few years, has three times the number of housing units that they have unhoused residents. So you see the difference that we have in our response and you think, why weren't we talking about this the entirety of the time that I've been here, instead of the other thing, which is telling people where they can or can't camp. Right.

Right. Because ultimately enforcement like, you know, that that helps the police stay busy. That also helps people who might be, you know, maybe averse to building affordable housing or getting behind that, too, that I'm sure they're like, well, let's I'm into enforcement because I'm I'm sure there's also I mean, I know there's plenty of NIMBYism going on, too, where people are like, well, there's no way I can live. But, you know, with these people in my community, I but you're so your solution is just to kick them out rather than to say, well, there is a way for them to actually move out of, you know, being unhoused and potentially to be able to have a job or not be living on the street. Does that seem like a good option? But it seems like a lot of people just immediately see also help as being like, well, that's going to mess up my property value. Well, and I just, yeah, I just want to say one thing, Miles, which is that I have a, I actually think Los Angeles is better than what we heard on those recordings.

For sure. You know, and I think you're right that there is NIMBY pushback on specific homeless housing units. But I actually think if you look at the history of our votes on resources for homelessness, on making sure that people have what they need in terms of addressing the lack of shelter beds or housing, like we vote for it in droves. We vote for it overwhelmingly. Like Los Angeles is a city that gets behind housing and resources for homelessness. And I don't wanna let the actions of these three people

take that away from us. Like we were, this is a, you know, I really believe in the city. And I think that they were misguided in thinking that the agenda of the city needed to be focused on these issues. And I just keep being struck by real estate, the real estate industry's role in this. And just it feels like real estate is so such a powerful force in L.A. And the real estate answer has always been, you know, just anywhere but here, like use the police to take the problem the crime the unhoused person anywhere but here like is is that something you see like on the ground like in in these meetings like that that you're on like do you do you see like those forces at play or is it like more kind of cellular down to the dna level than that or

how do you think about that like the relationship between the real estate industry here and how we respond to homelessness yeah yeah and affordable housing and everything because it's yeah so you know i'm so i'm an urban planner by training and i've looked at the history of affordable housing construction in america for a long time yeah and I will say that we've built more affordable housing here in Los Angeles over the last few years because of things called basically density bonus programs, right? So the way that it's been happening is that you basically provide private real estate developers the capacity to build a little bit higher if they add affordable units to their existing constructions.

Right. And as a city right now, again, I'm just operating within our existing context. I don't have the capacity to fund a huge amount of public housing. In fact, I have almost no money for affordable housing. And so these density bonus rules are really the only way that we're creating any kind of affordable housing stock here in LA. And that's the reality of the context that we are in right now. I think if the president or at the federal level, they made changes so that they were really funding a public housing program the way that they did in the last century, I think

that we could make real progress on building more affordable units here in Los Angeles without having to rely on the private real estate sector. But we're not in that context right now, right? And so, you know, I think for me, the role of the private real estate industry is a very complicated one. I think there are people who are very focused on policing as a response to homelessness, but I think there's also a lot of nonprofit developers, even some for-profit developers who are trying to provide Section 8 units who are saying, we want to partner with the city in doing better and responding better to this issue. And I think what we need to be setting up is a system where

we don't have the private real estate sector either bribing their way through city politics, which is what happens all the time, or having outsized influence on decision-making in the city. And I think those things can be achieved through smart interventions in campaign finance reform and in really changing how we organize our ethics commission and our rules on lobbyists taking part in these public conversations. And I think that that's how we minimize the role of any profit seeking industry on how we decide our priorities for the city. Right. Right. Yeah. Well, your job sounds hard. I feel like I talked way too much. I mean, this is like, but this is kind of what we're always talking around on this show as we're, you know, talking about like observing and making strange human body based metaphors about what's wrong with America.

It's very, very interesting and, you know, complicated and just good to hear from you now, you know, 21 months into the job and hear the challenges and where you feel like you can improve and just what it is, what it's like in there. So I appreciate you taking the time. Yeah, and for me, like, again, in thinking through that initial question that you brought up around progressive power and what it means to be a progressive in America, one thing I really want to think about and talk about as we move forward is, what does that look like in terms of material change

for the people of my district and the people of my district and the people of Los Angeles? And how do we design a policy agenda that gets us there? You know, and that's, that's what, that's the conversation I want to be having with people who care about these issues going forward. I want to be having that with you and your audience and with the public and with constituents who care deeply about this. And the exciting thing for me in some ways, you know, this has been a very hard time, been a very hard be and how we coalesce around that shared agenda and really use our power at every moment of decision making here in the city to push for that change yeah vote for ugo let's get let's get more progressives on the city council for sure

but did he leak the tapes according to los angeles magazine is that what they said oh yeah dude like front and center. It's like absurd. That's why like this city, again, that's what I'm like. It's just the most ludicrous, ludicrous conspiracy theory. I'd hate to be a politician in LA because there's just so much, so many ways for people to try and derail like a legitimate push towards something that's constructive and even like the same way they're trying to even undermine like the coalition they're like oh black and latino the alliance between blacks and latinos have already been

fraught until now and it's like ask anybody who's actually in the streets or any activists like they're people know what time it is like you you have to be arm and arm with each other that's the only way things are are moving but it's interesting be arm in arm with each other. That's the only way things are moving. But it's interesting to see how even with this controversy too, there's a lot of like, you know, fuel being thrown on the fire to try and make, you know,

make it seem like something else. I also just want to say that I think the system is really gross and awful. But Angelinos are amazing. That's it. That's it. That was my only comment. Okay. Bye everyone.

Actually, we did forget to take our second break. So let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and say our official goodbyes. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.

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And you were just saying that the system's gross and that's all you have to say on that. The system's gross, but I also I think that Angelenos are amazing. And you're absolutely right that people on the street, they don't, they absolutely don't agree with what that vision of, you know, of a contentious fight between black, black Angelenos and Latino. Like it just doesn't, that's not how they read the world. That's not how they read the city around them. And it's clear that at that level for the Nys and Gills and Kevins of the world, that's their worldview

of how power works. And there's clearly another version where people look at the ongoing issues and say, well, these aren't actually the solutions to these and working to them, like working with each other sincerely is actually how we're going to

get some like material change, as you're saying. Yeah. And that's the only way but yeah yes exactly yeah it's a really troubled time but you can see that there's a lot of possibility on the other side and i think that's at least the part i lean into without becoming fully nihilistic about being a lifelong angelino yeah well where can people find you follow you all that good stuff nithya uh yeah you can follow the council office. You just look up CD4 Los Angeles on any of your social media platforms.

I do some of my policy thinking on my personal stuff. So I'm usually at you can just look me up Nithya for the city or Nithya V. Raman on Twitter and Instagram. And I also wanted to plug the United to House LA ballot measure, which is amazing. And it can actually give us the money to build exactly the kind of affordable housing and homeless solutions that we need to get us out of this moment of crisis. And that's going to be on your ballot. You should already have your ballots at home if you live in L.A. And it taxes real estate sales over some number of million dollars. I mean, it's not going to impact ordinary people. Right. And it's going to generate a lot of money for all the good stuff that we need to be building, the concrete stuff that we need to be building. So United to House LA, vote yes.

There you go. And is there a tweet or some of the work of social media you've been enjoying? Oh, gosh. Or a show. I mean, you know. Some other work of social media that I've been enjoying. Social media is art.

Is your currency. What are you enjoying? Oh, allow us to tell you that. Yeah. I want to hear from you. I need enjoyment. Tell me what you're enjoying. We'll give you a break.

I will. Look, you can find me at Miles of Gray on Twitter and Instagram. Also, check Jack and I out on Miles and Jack got mad. That's a basketball podcast. also check jack and i out on miles and jack got mad basketball for our podcast and also if you like 90 day fiance check me and sophie alexandra out on 420 day fiance it's the predictions episode this this week because the season is beginning for the nba yes yes wait for some real off-base predictions from us um some tweets that i like let's see see. First one is from Koss at Koss Stein CAAA underscore tweeted as a hater.

I'm so happy Tom Brady came out of retirement. Watching him go out sad is even better than I could have imagined. And I was liking that one. And then Miss Hollywood at Carter for real tweeted

a fake passed out on my three year old daughter and she still didn't call 911. She punched me in my face and yelled, you can't die right now. That's ridiculous also like maybe my worst nightmare as a child you know what i mean like right when i i should be like watching my parents sleep and stuff oh man okay yeah they i'm i'm always tempted to do that to be like like, how'd they react? How would they react? But I don't. Yeah, they don't need that comment.

Yeah, I've yet to pretend I was dead for my four and six-year-old. For your weekend at Bernie's emotional test? Yeah, yeah. All right, some tweets. I've been enjoying old Tom at Yucky Tom tweeted. Got high and went to the gym and I turned to my buddy and said, who's this guy supposed to be, Steve Pineapple? And when he said what, I realized this was a character of my own creation from deep within my subconscious

and not a reference burn anyone would understand. And that just brought me back to the weirdness of being high back when I was also not good on pop. Big spooky dad tweeted, I went to the silly goose convention and they all knew you, which is just a good thing to say to people. And then on the subject of local politics, you know, as this is a good way to put put something in terms I can understand.

Brent Tadarian tweeted a picture of a T-shirt at one of the baseball games that was happening this weekend. Said this shirt makes a really good point. and the shirt says the mayor from jaws is still the mayor in jaws 2 it is so important to vote in your local elections facts how he how he weathered that storm of being like we're keeping the damn beaches open shark attacks be damned and then like three people got eaten in front of everyone. It was a spectator sport. His comms team must have been

putting in work. Spectacular comms team. One of the best to ever do it. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, DailyZeitgeist.com, where

we post our episodes and our footnotes. Where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Hey, Miles, what's a song that we think people might enjoy? Oh, man. I'm telling you. Okay, so this is... I'm back on my drum and bass thing. Okay, I know sometimes you were like, Miles, why... I'm back on my drum and bass thing.

Okay, I know sometimes you're like, Miles, why are you listening to so much drum and bass? Because sometimes it feels freeing to listen to drum and bass while you're bicycling around the city. Okay, and this one is a fantastic mashup of a Brazilian track that I think is... I want to say... Let me just make sure I know who the original track is

oh yeah so Barbatoukas who's like the Brazilian version of Stomp they have a track called Baiana and then this artist called Nia Archives did a drum and bass remix to it and just as somebody who loves Brazilian music and drum and bass it was just a very pleasant surprise to hear so this is Baiana

by Nia Archives listen to it while you bike maybe do a little freestyle you don't have to freestyle over it surprise to hear. So this is Bayana by Nia Archives. Listen to it while you bike. Maybe do a little freestyle. You don't have to freestyle over it. I'm not trying to put people in danger out there. Especially if you can't freestyle. Maybe freestyle, bike, and put on your makeup. All at once.

That would be truly amazing. If someone was doing their makeup while cycling. If so, send video for proof. The Daily Zeitgeist, 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'll talk to you later. Bye. Bye. 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 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.

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. 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.