The Daily Zeitgeist - In A Geist Room 10/23: Mookie Betts, Peak COVID, Mitch McConnell, Papa Shaq

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

On this edition of In A Geist Room Jack and Miles discuss the incredible athleticism of Mookie Betts, the US is experiencing peak COVID cases right now, Mitch McConnell looks severely ill, and Shaq is kind of an asshole sometimes! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Check out our recent episode with Grammy Award-winning rapper Eve on motherhood and the music industry.

No, it's a great, amazing, beautiful thing. There's moms in all industries, very high-stress industries that have kids all across this world. Why can't it be music as well? Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you.

Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister, or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm.

Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart Podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hi, everyone. It's me, Katie Couric. You know, lately, I've been overwhelmed by the whole wellness industry. So much information out there about flaxseed, pelvic floor, serums, and anti-aging.

So I launched a newsletter. It's called Body and Soul to share expert-approved advice for your physical and mental health. And guess what? It's free. Just sign up at katiecouric.com slash body and soul. That's K-A-T-I-E-C-O-U-R-I-C dot com slash bodyandsoul. I promise it will make you happier and healthier. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of

In a Geist Room with Zeitgarten. That is courtesy of Joe Fox. On the Discord. J-O. Broom with zeitkartons. Bum-a-bum-sum. That is courtesy of Joe Fox. On the Discord. J-O. So, thank you, Joe. Joe Joe. Guy Fox.

Descendant of Guy Fox, I believe. Yeah. Did you want to just say that? Yeah. It must be. You a big Cream fan? Yeah. Love Cream.

Yeah? I actually... We're talking about the food, right? Yeah. Yeah. What else... We're talking about the food, right? Yeah. What else would I be talking about? Just love some cream. Oh, no, I'm not talking about the other guy. Some fatted, salted cream.

That's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That's right. A different guy. Yeah, he's the best. All right, let's tell the people what is trending. Have you seen this tweet about Mookie Betts? No. Going around?

Yo, this dude is... So, like, it starts off with, like... I'm about to watch it. Starts off with a video of him just, like, juking somebody out of their cleats on a football field. And the text is something like, he's a good athlete. Oh, shit. Then it has him dunking a couple times. Then it has him dunking a couple times.

Then it has him bowling, and he rolls a strike, and then they're like, and that was a 300 for Mookie Betts. He just bowled a 300. He bowled a perfect fucking game in bowling. Dude, the confidence of that roll, too. The second he leaves his hands, he's celebrating. Yeah, he turns around and is like, uh-huh. And then somebody told me that he took up golf and was a single handicap within a year. The dude is just not... So for people who don't know who Mookie Betts is, I think we talked about it on an episode last week or earlier this week, but he's

the best player on the dodgers in the world series right now and you know makes all sorts of absurd athletic plays uh but this dude is just it's oh man this is like i love seeing shit like this when you're like this guy's just a pure like so in control of his body like in every might as well be have mutant superpowers like the difference between him and me is the difference between wolverine and me like okay but dude is just is he unbelievable i'm wondering if by being in a very like hand-eye coordination centric thing especially throwing sport like baseball if that helps him be in tune. Like with bowling, I can see connections.

Like, right, he's got the vertical because he's just a naturally gifted athlete. So that's not necessarily like a basketball skill to have like a great vertical because he's a great outfielder. But it's the golf one too. That's also like the, I don't know. It's part of me is like baffled trying to explain to him like, well, you know,

that overlaps. And then part of me is like maybe he just is the, you know, just sports Jesus. I don't know. Can he slackline? That's the question. Can he slackline? That is the question. Then I will fucking believe.

That's the question that's sitting in everybody's mind right now. Yeah. But, yeah, bowling, like you're throwing an object. Like I know what you're saying it's still just like a level of yeah like i don't know it's just you know i i guess baseball might be one of those things that it's just like if you are naturally like have some extra level of athletic prowess like i know ted williams uh was like the best hitter in the history of baseball and then like when he went into the military he was like uh like a lights out fighter

pilot it's just like hand-eye shit like right right like next level um but that stuff's just fascinating to me that like somebody have you ever tried to like play outfield in baseball and like gauge a pop fly like yes yo that and that shit just like flies over your head like i yeah i had like you know in softball uh back when i worked at abc news like we had like softball league again where we played against like cbs and like somebody hit a pop fly that i like charged at. And then I went like 40, 40 yards over my head. Like it's so hard to gauge that shit. Like that is just like the amount of like complex geometry that is going on in the mind of a baseball player when a pop fly is hit at them and they're

just immediately know where the thing is going. Like without even thinking. Yeah. But at a certain point point like you get enough reps in like it's just going to become second nature to know like the speed it's coming off the bat and your relation to it love like totally but yeah i remember the first time i was like in fourth grade i went from right field to fucking right behind the dugout like not even in the dugout they're like yo bro you blew the game right there i'm like look i don't i laid out for this motherfucker, and it was still 15 feet behind me.

You're jumping, and it's like landing in front of you. I'm not joking. I was laying out like fucking Chris Carter, trying to get an epic one-hander. And if there were fail videos back then, it would have been an early fail video. They're like, this dude laid out for a ball 15 feet behind him peak covid uh is trending because it is we are like at the worst it's been in america yeah um you know where people are going inside and schools are opening

the trump administration is trying to open things i also like how you have to wonder you're seeing these rallies that are supposedly the biggest he's ever seen according to him in that uh 60 minutes interview but it makes sense that people more people than ever would be coming to see him because we've all been cooped up and you know his stretch run of his campaign is their first excuse to like party and like throw it in the face of liberals and just like let it out let us know what they think of our book learning but they're they're saying that like they've had uh hot spots like crop up after in like cities after he leaves so it's like these are super spreader events just like you would expect them to be based on like just all available evidence yeah there's a

whole i mean there's plenty of uh analyses being like yeah so the campaign stopped somewhere and then there's a surge in its wake they say in at least five places yeah uh so that would have been blue earth minnesota lackawanna pennsylvania marathon wisconsin uh dolphin pennsylvania i'm probably fucked up the pronunciation of that in beltrami minnesota so yeah that's where they saw new cases just in the weeks after um and yeah in the midwest in particular it's terrible i know like in ohio they're really concerned because they're not even their modeling can't even predict when their peak like what will be the peak at this point they just know they're peaking but they still don't yeah and they're like i think it could be then yeah so just only the more reason to please take this seriously and

it's so also reckless because the president treats covid like a fucking as if it were like a telethon fundraiser or something or it's like all you hear is covid this covid that like as if he's trying to be like i'm ready to change the channel on this already it's like it's not a thing like that and a lot of people i think are also when you hear that deep in whether or not you are like believing the science or not like it does work on your subconscious to a certain point like i'm just over covid right like i've definitely heard people say that and i think he said that in the 60 minutes thing where he was like i think people are ready to like move on i think they're you know they're over it right okay we're opening up in the next couple weeks we're you know and i'm sure that people afflicted with it also could

feel the same way if they're infected or like you know what doc i'm just really i'm kind of done with this so yeah if you can just tell kovat to go that'd be great um but it unfortunately does not work like that it's so annoying how there's not enough oxygen in my blood and I'm going to probably pass away. That is just like so lame. And it's just like, we get it. Okay. Yeah. Speaking of,

we get it. Uh, Mitch McConnell can get it. Cause, uh, he's looking good with that. Uh, looking like a,

looking like a blue pen exploded all over his hands in his mouth. Uh, but it, but it's it's it's we we don't really know medically like what is happening here like it looks like he died in certain parts of his body like when when when like a dead body is laying somewhere for a long time and like blood pools in in like wherever it's laying like that's what his hands and mouth look like. He looks like an Uruk-hai orc from Lord of the Rings.

The hands that were peeking out of his jacket, I think there's a photo from earlier this week. I have no idea what's going on. He looks so... It's so discon... I can't even believe i'm saying this i'm worried about this man not in a way that like i want you know oh god thoughts and prayers but like objectively you're like that is not good for anybody to look like uh and but it also looks

like someone who is literally rotting from the inside out so it might just be all of our suspicions about him being dead inside and just being like animated by like coke money could actually be a real thing but he's out here swearing up and down uh that he has absolutely no concerns uh about his health and he's totally fine the uh conversation between him and the reporter where the reporter was like no but seriously man is everything let me see your hands real quick oh come on now don't don't don't make me lift my hands they're yellow okay well something's going on i don't know do you know what it is i think it's a curse it could be a curse it could be because my karmic debt is so my karmic debt load

is so heavy uh this is what's happening to me i it's i it's a thing i didn't know could happen to someone uh unless unless his hands were like smashed in a stone crusher at the same time that a pen exploded in his mouth like that's the only if they are related and somehow like all the blood can start pulling in your hands and mouth of all places like that's that's confusing or he just like took a beating like his wife was just like yo like i am so tired of you um but she's there she's making so much money off of him being you know senate leader so yeah i'm sure i i honestly and a lot of people point this out imagine if this were nancy pelosi walking around with her hands blacker than a fucking virginia coal mine and her fucking mouth

looking like it's just lost all life in it it people the headlines would be absurd but i don't know i look like this just shows you how much shit we're dealing with that we can't even we don't even have the mental bandwidth to talk about the fact that mitch mcconnell may be necrotizing before our eyes yeah and finally papa shack is trending shack the daddy is trending because all right so shack is very lovable yeah he is he's got like you know andre the giant vibes he's a seven foot four uh house of a human being who people you know love um but i've always heard that he's kind of a dick i've never heard shack was the nicest man ever i've never heard that you know what i mean like that's you know some people you hear they're like oh my god they're I've never heard Shaq was the nicest man ever. I've never heard that.

You know what I mean? Some people you hear, they're like, oh my God, they're so sweet. I've never heard anything like that about Shaq. Shaq does cool shit. He'll go to a big box store and be like, all right, I'm buying everybody, buying toys for all the kids. He's a big, lovable dude who loves to be loved i think yeah he also like cosplays as a cop way too much for me for my liking also i'm like okay and speaking of cosplay he i've always assumed that he doesn't like dwight howard because they both made a claim

to being seven foot tall superman uh shack would always wear Superman clothes or Superman shirts, and then Dwight Howard tried to be Superman. And now Shaq, let's just play the clip. Shaq's being real petty. For people who don't realize, Dwight Howard plays for the Lakers. The Lakers won the championship, obviously. NBA basketball. NBA basketball. NBA basketball.

I don't know if you guys heard. I don't know if you listened to the show the last spoken month. But yes, he had an Instagram post in which he was basically telling people do not give up on their dreams. And there's just a quick juxtaposition of Dwight Howard's just sort of emotional,

like motivational comment that he made after winning the NBA championship and salty old man Shaq Diesel. Don't ever give up on your dreams. You can't fucking do it. I swear, just keep fighting. I swear to God, don't ever give up on yourself. I'm not a lot of like as a player, though.

What's that? There's a lot of players on their little Instagram bragging like they were the reason they got the championship. I ain't going to say no names. There was a lot of that going on. I ain't going to say no names. You don't have to. You don't have to.

Sit your ass down. You didn't do nothing. Stop it. Oh, come on. And he keeps going on. Take a picture. Sit your ass down. Yeah.

He's like, he's like, starts making the voice and is like making fun of uh dwight howard i mean is it all because of the superman shit because they were i don't know well wait was the dwight howard thing like in the locker room yes he's holding the robert o'brien trophy you know and he's got his champagne goggles on and he's on ig live just telling his whole like just telling everybody like don't give up. You know, people fucking said I was trash and I came back. I mean, obviously there is a redemption arc here, especially for Dwight Howard as a Laker, because we went all in on this motherfucker and he was trash daddy. Yeah, everybody on a host name points out like when the Lakers signed him, everybody was like, this dude is such trash. Like, you guys are making a huge mistake.

He was on the NBA rejects pile. And he came through and contributed when they won the title. I think that's the difference, right? He made contributions. And I think that's no reason that you can't discount anyone's contribution on the way to a championship because you take those contributions away. That might change the trajectory of a given series or game. But, you know,

I, on one level, I, I hear Shaq because I'm also like a deep down angry, like angry at Dwight Howard type Laker fan. But at the same time, like I also respect like what he's gone through, even though he's a,

even though Dwight Howard's like a-earth anti-vaxxer. That's a whole other conversation. Is he really? Yes. All right. So you get your wins where you can take them, everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah.

So here's a story about Shaq versus everybody or something where like people had to compete against Shaq to do athletic feats. And it didn't make sense because Shaq is not particularly athletic. He's just a monster. He's just a giant human. And like the things that they were doing was like beat him in a sprint like you know like things that yeah that it's just like you you don't even have to be like particularly athletic to do that to beat him so the story behind that is apparently this was when Shaq was on the Phoenix Suns was teammates with Steve Nash who is a Mookie Betts-style athlete. You hear he's great at soccer.

He's great at... He'll beat you in tennis with a frying pan. That's the story that... So he was pitching that show to ABC as Nash versus the world, where people tried to beat Steve Nash at various athletic feats and like, makes sense. He's a great, like all around athlete who like you would want to see

do all these wild things. Like he beats you at golf with a wiffle ball bat or something like that. And Shaq was around the ABC executives and just like couldn't take them giving attention to somebody else and so like scooped in and like started like you know get just drinking up all the oxygen in the room and then you know started uh you know suggesting like I don't know why you would do a show with Steve Nash he's not very charismatic whereas you got shack right here shack right here come on seven foot two and that's how that godforsaken stupid show ended up happening uh is a combination of shack's monster ego and abc television executives not knowing shit right um about what makes a good tv show but it's just so funny to me though like that he just stole the idea and you get like you know steve nash he's

like six what two three he's like the perfect size where you could see him like yeah fuck it actually he might work out as a wide receiver or something like he's got he's sort of like in that sweet spot height wise whereas shack is just too like you would have to rearrange everything. So it's like, can you push over a tree as quickly as Shaq can? Can you eat, you know, seven Papa Dia's from Papa John's in two minutes like Shaq can? It's just like, yeah, well, good luck to you, Shaq. Please, but please watch the salt in your diet. We're worried about you, man.

The other story you hear about him is just monstrous feats of eating. to you Shaq please but please watch the salt in your diet we're worried about you man the other story you hear about him is just monstrous feats of eating just like dude will house an entire roast turkey at like one sitting I love it I'd rather watch that I'm more yeah for sure that's more interesting than yeah watching Mookie Betts bowl like a 300 I'd rather see Shaq eat a fucking turkey like in one go I'm sorry like I've seen bowling bro I've not seen many people just eat a fucking turkey like it was a chicken nugget Shaq vs Joey Chestnut

like that would be dope yeah exactly exactly that's your show right there Steve Nash holds the record for free throws like that's he's just the type of dude who like if you asked him to shoot free throws with golf balls, he would probably still do better than anybody else in the world. He just got that hand-eye thing.

Nash versus Mookie Betts would be a fun thing to watch. But it's tough because Mookie's 28. You know what I mean? Yeah, now Mookie would kick his ass clean across the court. After just watching that one clip of him just trying to shake the cornerback on coverage in a football, just running a route, I was like, dude, Steve Nash would get twisted up violently. The dude ends up out of bounds. Yeah, and doing like, whoa, slip and slide feet.

All right. That is what is trending on this Friday heading into the weekend, y'all. We are back on Monday with a whole ass episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay inside.

Don't do nothing about white supremacy. We'll talk to y'all on Monday. Bye. Later. Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed

to light up your day. Check out our recent episode with Grammy Award winning rapper Eve on motherhood and the music industry. It's a great, amazing, beautiful thing. There's moms in all industries, very high stress industries that have kids all across this world. Why can't it be music as well? Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing.

They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture We'll see you next time. Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Señora Sex Ed is not your mommy's sex talk. This show is la plática like you've never heard it before.

We're breaking the stigma and silence around sex and sexuality in Latinx communities. This podcast is an intergenerational conversation between Latinas from Gen X to Gen Z. We're your hosts, Viosa and Mala. You might recognize us from our first show, Locatora Radio.

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