The Daily Zeitgeist - It's Trendy To Rock A Zeit 4/25: University Protests, SCOTUS, Harvey Weinstein, Thermonator, 'Atlas'

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

In this edition of It's Trendy To Rock A Zeit, Jack and Miles discuss the widespread pro-Palestine university protests, SCOTUS's arguments in Trump's immunity case, Harvey Weinstein's NY conviction getting overturned, that flamethrower-equipped robot dog, the new J.Lo movie 'Atlas' (basically 'I, Robot'… but with AI tho) and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. 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. Hello, the internet and welcome to this episode of It's Trendy Tuesday.

Guys, Tuesday. Guys, Tuesday. It's Trendy. It's Trendy. It's Trendy. Oh, man. Max R on the Discord. Thanks for that one. Yeah, Max R. Shout out to you. That R on the Discord. Thanks for that one. Yeah, Max R. Shout out to you.

That's a good one. That is a good trending show title. My name is Jack. That is Miles. This is the episode where we tell you what is trending. Heading into the end of the week. It is Thursday afternoon, of course.

Miles is the fascism? Like, there's, I've been told, we gotta be worried about this fascism. Look at this. The orange Cheeto, if he wins, gonna do fascism to America. They're gonna stifle your ability to dissent, to exercise your right to free speech. They're going to arrest journalists for merely covering what is unfolding in front of them. We're going to become hostile towards intellectuals, professors, students, bar them from entering campus. students bar them from entering campus um yeah we're talking about the protests uh that are kicking off around campuses i don't know man looking at this shit it's like you're tasing fucking students you're pepper spraying student journalists for merely being around while the fucking administrations call up the cop goons to come through and clear

out encampments or protests um i mean university of texas my god like they really i mean they it was a bunch of fucking nonsense unfolding and brutalizing you know again peaceful protesters yeah which is wild too because while they did that to try and disperse the protest that was on wednesday today thursday there are reports that that crowd these are reports i don't know officially what but they're saying that the crowds are up to five times larger today yeah because fuck them you know yeah like that's um it's a great way to like you know grow a movement um of really brave people uh and also great way to to court the youth vote biden killing it yeah well done sir yeah and not and really have nothing to say too i mean like we're talking about you know if you look at what's happening

the actual like student protests they're calling for really simple man they just want to stop the genocide they want their schools to divest from anything having to do with Israel that could potentially profit off of what is happening uh in Gaza and yeah we're treating the the I mean again you look there's it looked like there are more people out there breaking up college protests than there were fucking january 6th yeah you know what i mean and you get every time january 6th i'm sorry yeah yes yeah yeah no no no they're not worried about january 6th yeah this is just like with their money no exactly they're like no no these people are good like they're they're down to ride for the status quo these younger people who are they are voicing their absolute um displeasure to put it lightly with what is

happening with the not only the united states foreign policy but their universities fiscal policies yeah they don't like when you try and get involved in like the fiscal stuff because that's that's where my money don't fuck with my money don't fuck with my money and now like we're seeing a hedge fund with like a um you know academic apparatus attached to it exactly but yeah like we're seeing encampments in princeton cornell george washington university ucla i mean there were people were getting arrested at usc uh yesterday it's it's this movement is only growing. And my God, Joe Biden, you got fucking work to do, fam. If you think you're even getting close and all this fucking fear mongering around authoritarianism, it's playing out in just full view of people right now.

So stop playing in people's faces and maybe and see him. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I'm like, do something because i don't know if the president even has the appetite for this but again i know that staying in office is ultimately what is the you know the ultimate outcome for politicians you better figure out how you're going to stay in office because now you're not only are you dealing with people who are just not on campuses who are absolutely opposed to the foreign policy of this country but now there's a huge student movement growing and allowing police to brutalize them is not a fucking winning strategy at all um and like banning fucking apps

i mean like we're it's just authoritarian creep yeah just creeping on the down low because it's yeah it's playing out meanwhile on the other side and i don't feel like it's probably completely disconnected right the supreme court give you the full picture of the united states right now yeah so on the other side the supreme court heard oral arguments uh this morning in the case of trump's presidential immunity which found his lawyer john sauer uh doubling down on his previous argument that a president could order the military to assassinate a political rival because that would count as an official act it counts it counts count it that counts from way down um if the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military to assassinate him is that within his

official acts to which he has immunity asked supreme court justice sonia sotomayor and uh sauer responded uh no of course we don't no i'm sorry he responded uh that could well be an official act yes yeah um yeah it could be it was just like they just kept being like wait so you're you're saying he could like bribe and like just break all these laws yeah for personal gain yeah but what i'm saying is unless congress impeaches and convict him, he's safe. Yeah. Then it's safe. Then he's safe.

It's safety. But yeah, if not, then it doesn't count. Even Amy Coney Barrett was like, okay, but like, what if it's revealed after they leave office that they've committed a crime? Does that also mean that they get away with it? And Sauer was like, well, I mean, you know, like if you think about the, how the framers of the constitution looked at it sour is like well i mean you know like if you think about the how the the framers of the constitution looked at it like obviously not every you know crime is going to it's like the like it's again it doesn't matter what these

arguments are because the whole point of this was just to delay the trial till for his main trial with jack smith until after the election so this is all just fucking puppetry it's puppet show puppetry it also i mean i think reveals where his head is at where trump would like things to be um and i do just feel like it probably makes it easier to justify you know for biden to justify his like nixonian arresting of peaceful anti-war protesters when the other guy is like telling the supreme court like i could literally like just reiterating what he said to a crowd once and we were like he's joking he doesn't think he could kill someone and get away with it and now he's like in front of the supreme court and his lawyer is like yeah no that what yeah of course what did

you not yeah right he could kill people right president yeah come on have you not seen that clint eastwood film absolute power of course right killed people yeah i it's just like i'm god yeah that you pick your poison man you got one guy being like i can too sell nuclear secrets and yeah like to your point it's like the juxtaposition of what is going on with trump Kick your poison, man. You got one guy being like, I can too sell nuclear secrets. And yeah, like to your point, it's like the juxtaposition of what is going on with Trump allows Biden to be like, well, I'm not telling. I didn't tell NYU to call the cops. It's like, yeah, but do you want to, as president, show some leadership? Are you here to just stick up for the voting blocks that you think will get you into office? Because I'm telling you, you do have an opportunity here if you're going to be fully transactional about it um but no i don't i don't even know what

the that yet it's just like like what is it gonna look i'm just thinking about like when our kids are older like what the what's going to be the norm then i mean and our kids can be so sure there will have been such a backlash that uh it's no longer that way but uh i think in the middle distance it's going to be pretty bad it's gonna yeah yeah and again we're talking we're just talking about like we see this all the time peaceful protests whenever they threaten the the power of the state um or the status quo in this country it is met with just brutal violence yeah um like luckily like ucla there's an encampment that just popped up today it doesn't seem like the cops are being as heavy-handed as they were at usc and which is so weird like you wonder like what the

fucking universities think is gonna to happen. Like you, by doing this, you're only creating, it's your own. It's just Steven Monticelli, who's a reporter for the Texas observer, I think was just saying, it's like,

it's like the fucking Streisand effect over here, man. Oh man. Yeah. And it's, they like, they have things on their official, like on Columbia dot edu where they're like, and we do, of course, deal with our problematic past.

And, you know, in the 60s, Columbia cracked down on peaceful anti-war protesters who were obviously on the right side of history. And, you know, that but that is long in our past. And they're repeating the exact same. Locking the gates. Locking the gate, like doing all the same steps they did back then. that, but that is long in our past and they're repeating the exact same locking gates, locking the gate, like doing all the same steps they did back then. Um, it's yeah.

When it seems like it would be so much easier to not do those things. Right. Um, but here we are. Yeah. Um, yeah. Uh, so let's, uh, let's take a quick break and we'll, we'll be right back. But here we are. Yeah. Yeah.

So let's let's take a quick break and we'll we'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration.

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

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

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

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She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.

dangerous about what you're doing they're just dreams dream sequence is a new horror thriller from blumhouse television iheart radio and realm listen to dream sequence on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and we're back we're back other good news that uh people got hit with this morning uh harvey weinstein's uh conviction in new york was overturned good news just yeah no i'm saying like it's looking all bad out here everything holy shit like it's oh like the conviction was like so is there going to be a retrial like a mistrial he can be retrialed um he's not he can be retried he's not out of jail they overturned it on the grounds that like they claim the judge shouldn't have allowed witnesses to other crimes to testify right but

you know a lot of people were pointing out it's very common when establishing like the character But, you know, a lot of people were pointing out it's very common when establishing, like, the character of, you know, an assailant. Right, right. Where it's like, this guy stole something. Assault trial. Yeah, exactly. This guy stole from me. It's like, well, that's not relevant to this case. Where he stole in a very similar way from a very similar person in a very similar position.

Yeah. Yeah. And the dissenting justice in overturning it was overturned i think three two one of the dissenting judges pointed out that this group of appellate judges seems to keep overturning a lot of convictions around sexual violence oh so yeah okay that's uh very cool that that jumped out of me uh and then it's also just you know when someone's wealthy enough and can pay their lawyers enough to just keep pushing and keep pushing um they can eventually uh get these things overturned that's kind of the the greatest bias in, or one of the greatest biases in the U.S. justice system. He's got enough money to just keep going.

I'm sure they will try to retry. I think they'll attempt to retry him. But I guess what you're saying, because he's also been convicted in L.A. So he's also been convicted in L.A. So he's still in jail. That conviction carries a sentence of over 10 years. Right. la so it's not so he's also been convicted in la uh so he's still in jail that that uh conviction carries a sentence of over 10 years uh right so i think it's in the teens so um but i know there will be time but potentially i know that they are saying that like this could affect their appeal in

the la conviction too it could yeah yeah so i mean it's not it's not good news uh all around it's really uh it's that two tiers justice system trump was talking about screaming about how unfair it was again earlier i think so yeah mainly it's unfair to just donald trump yeah all right uh there's a lot of images of this uh flamethrower equipped robot dog going around i i don't know why people seem to be interested in this it's not that big a deal uh it's called the terminator um yeah the world's first ever flamethrower wielding robot dog named of course after the uh american pie character the shermanator uh and it's equipped with bluetooth connectivity so you can control it with a smartphone it's not like out of control out there you know yeah yeah yeah sentient um it's it's also not affordable it's only nine thousand four hundred twenty dollars so that's an interesting number yeah uh yeah this is like so fucking like when i saw it i was like wow we're fucking

it's just all like this country's cooked like every day i'm like oh we're cooked man this we got we got you can buy a bluetooth enabled fucking killer robot dog yeah um it's uh you know a hot dog can be cooked with this thing because they pitched it as a um something that you could use to like impress your neighbors at a cookout yeah he said quote we always had the makers of this uh throw flame yeah great name uh we always have the people who just want it for fun impress the neighbors at the barbecue another one of the other creators said quote most people use it just to show off to their friends like going out in the open to shoot fire in the air setting up stuff you want to burn yeah go out in the open that's what that's always their first thing that

responsible flamethrower enthusiasts do is uh go out in the open and do that thing and they're just the type of person that this appeals to is also the type of person who's very responsible with fire safety oh yeah yeah anyone who's responsible fire safety goes you know what i need a fucking flamethrower to prove a point yeah okay it's responsible flamethrower owners that are getting a fucking bad rap because we're people who keep their all out loosey-goosey attached to a robo dog so i i think the first question that might appeal to a lot of people or is it a back ordered can i get it now yeah is how much what how quickly can i get it ordered no the question is like how

would that how would something like that be legal like if if that thing is coming up your street shooting flame and you kind of look and there's a person just controlling it with their phone behind them you would think no that's this is a bad dream this can't be legal uh it is actually legal uh 100 legal in 48 states just not california and maryland restrictions around uh flamethrowers and just fun in general well california is like well you can have a flamethrower that only throws 10 foot 10 feet of flame whereas Whereas this one does something like 30 fucking feet or some shit. It's fucking horrifying.

Yeah. It's so counterintuitive that flamethrowers would be illegal that one time Joe Biden was giving a speech about gun control. And he was like, I mean, it's not like you're allowed to own, you can't own an automatic weapon. You're not allowed to own a machine gun.

You're not allowed to own a flamethrower. People are like, actually, you get three Pinocchios on that because you can own a flamethrower. And shit. Depending on your state, you could probably get a fully automatic gun, too, at a gun show.

It's not a firearm because a firearm is defined as, quote, a weapon that expels a projectile by the action of an explosive, which is not how flamethrowers work. Love that loophole. Love that loophole. Love that. Also, this thing is also, you can use napalm with it.

Has anyone even seen a Vietnam documentary at all? Yeah. And napalm and how, okay, whatever, but you can, lots of Vietnam documentaries coming up right now for some reason. I don't know why.

Yeah. Yeah. Are we in a similar time? Time loop. Except will the hippie movement be able to evolve into the yuppie movement because of the financial incentives that are available to that group? I don't know. They need to cut us in

that's it you better cut us in bro in bro but yeah i mean elon musk had the idea to sell flamethrowers as a joke but then like did it for the lulz and tried to like fuck with restrictions by uh calling the flamethrower not a flamethrower, even though it was clearly a flamethrower. Yep. And that ended in disaster, but not a disaster that gets publicized very often. Right. One American was thrown in jail in Italy

for having a flamethrower in Italy, which is a country where flamethrowers are obviously illegal guy in england had his house raided by the cops more than 1 000 purchasers of the not a flamethrower had their devices confiscated by customs officers or local police and in the u.s the flamethrowers were implicated in multiple criminal investigations um oh yeah this will be fucking weird yeah like so remotely deploying i don't know this is like just something so fucked like why are we like this is a fucking killing machine but or barbecue grill dude just all how you it's all how you friend impressing contextualize yeah cool cool cool cool cool, cool, cool. Very cool.

Very cool. I like this. I like flamethrower dog. Everything is very healthy in this country. We're all doing okay. You can buy this for the low price of $9,420. Truly, I can't think of something that would have been more impressive to me as a child. Oh, my dude. I, if I'm 14.

Yeah. I'm like begging my parents to say, I would be like, I don't need to go to college. I don't need to go to college. Can I have some of them? If you saved any money for college, can I use that for a flamethrower dog?

Right? Like no motherfucker. Get, get the fuck out of it. I like though that again, like to your point, like the common sense around flamethrowers is like, yeah,

that shit can like fuck you up destroy you right uh is like that but that to the point where like in 2016 a fucking congressman had to fucking introduce a bill because flamethrowers are so unregulated that the bill was literally called flamethrowers really act yeah the flamethrowers really act that's where we fucking are um yeah but again that didn't didn't get too far i guess we have a right to like literal firearms too yeah also don't be cute when you're like fighting like a really terrible law yeah don't be like uh america's having a normal one with flamethrowers yeah look thank you so much congressman chandler bing but uh we could have done with maybe something a little bit more just to the point but i get it too it's like probably meant to bring attention because it

does feel like one of those things like how the fuck are they still illegal yeah yeah and around we go well in better news there's a new j-lo movie that is coming out this year and it is a sci-fi film called atlas which seems like it was created just to make humanity be cool about ai yeah um it's a buddy flick it's a buddy flick. Yeah. So basically, there's an evil AI, which no surprise, Hollywood has a major anti-AI bias and they've been giving us evil AI. But this one, J-Lo's like, I hate that bad AI. I need a buddy, a cop buddy who can help me. They're like, how about this nice AI?

So it's like a boilerplate buddy action movie, but with AI playing a major role. Yeah. I like that the logline is, quote, a brilliant data analyst with a deep distrust of AI finds it may be her only hope when a mission to capture a renegade robot goes awry there you go that's kind of a poem actually yeah when it finds my opinions to go awry

yeah it also feels like you can also like just swap out like when a racist cop who would never befriend a minority like is on a mission like on a case but realizes they might be the only way for him to capture a renegade person of color or some shit it's so fucking weird and i like that it's the whole thing is predicated on someone having this like intellectual turn change of heart around ai when we're in the midst of being like man fuck all this shit stop feeding us algorithmic horse shit we don't want it and i think rightly people are pointing out it's like are you just trying to like soften people up to be like no we fuck with ai it's like i robot if the robots were also good guys which i guess they i think there's good guy robots and i i robot but it's yeah, or it's like Knight Rider. You know, I feel like Knight Rider prepared

us for the future where AI are our buddies that we get to like solve crimes with. At least that's what I'm doing in my spare time. I don't know about you guys. In Knight Rider, was Michael Knight a cop? I think he was a drifter.

I'm pretty sure they used the phrase drifter and uh but it was like he was like part of some organization that was like okay we're gonna make you like give you a fake identity and you're gonna like oh no fucking hell dude this is so fucking like cia So fuck. It's like CIA. A billionaire rescues a cop after a near fatal shot to the face, giving him a new identity by plastic surgery and a new name, Michael Knight. Lilton selects Michael to be the primary field agent, the primary program of his public justice organization,

the foundation for long government flag. That's a red flag. Yeah. Yeah. Why did I think he was a drifter i don't know that's more fun that somehow drifter has this like magical sentient car yeah he's like yeah i'm solving crimes i don't know there were other shows that i watched around that time like highway to heaven do you remember that show oh michael landon yeah like they were essentially just like drifters. They just like hitchhiked on the highway

from town to town. Um, anyways. Uh, those are some of the things that are trending on this. Thursday, April 25th. We are back tomorrow with a whole

ass episode of this show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourself. Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye.

I'm Kerry Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in.

Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series,

Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.