The Daily Zeitgeist - Melania RuLez, CDC WTF? 8.27.20

Episode Date: August 27, 2020

In episode 703, Jack and Miles are joined by urban planner and candidate for Los Angeles's City Council district 4 Nithya Raman to discuss Melania Trump's speech at the RNC, the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a CDC update, University of Alabama Covid-19 numbers, The West Wing reunion, and more!FOOTNOTES: Melania Trump’s convention speech was a moment of calm amid the Trump family rant How Trump could pull off another upset 17-year-old arrested after 2 killed during unrest in Kenosha In alarming move, CDC says people exposed to COVID-19 do not need testing [Updated] Inside COVID U: Hoax Parties, Pissed Roomies, and Canceled Classes University of Alabama reports more than 500 COVID-19 cases since classes resumed ‘West Wing’ Reunion Special Set at HBO Max to Promote Voting in 2020 Election They Can’t Get Enough of ‘The West Wing’ Right Now The West Wing is 20 years old. Too many Democrats still think it’s a great model for politics. The last thing America needs is more of ‘The West Wing’ WATCH: HERO - CRY BABY Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

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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, if you've been following me on social

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Do it. Hello, the internet, and welcome to Season 148, Episode 4 of Dirt Daily Zeitgeist, a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into america's shared consciousness and say officially off the top fuck the coke brothers fuck fox news fuck rush limbaugh fuck buck saxton fuck ben shapiro and fuck tucker carlson it's thursday august 27th 2020 my name is jack o'brien Hands Don't go out Don't touch me Don't touch you Please

Vote this time Bop bop bop Donald Trump is Just no good No good Please be Inclined Bop bop bop, bop

Just go vote for something blue That is courtesy of Cat Hair at Jake the Human And I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray I see a trend door and I want it painted black. No new trends anymore. I want them to turn black. I see the girls walk by masked in their COVID clothes. I have to turn my head until their sickness goes.

I see a light. Okay, now we can keep going. We could. Because this is one of the lengthier AKAs I've got, and I almost want to respect it because I actually, truth be told, I like the Eric Burden and War version of Paint It Black the best,

but that's not the style of singing it in. But shout out to Rich Jefferson at Device No. and at Jeke, apparently. It was a two-hander off the Discord, so thank y'all for that inspired AKA. It was a two-hander off the Discord. So thank you all for that inspired AKA. It's always interesting when we have like a super respectable guest on the show because I really feel the awkwardness

of our sung AKAs and my laundry list of people who can go fuck themselves. Immediately they're like, what? I'm just like, wait a second. What am I doing? We are thrilled to be joined by the brilliant and talented Nithya Raman. Hi.

Hi. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, absolutely. You know what, Zeitgang, for the listeners who are not in the LA area, okay, this is a fantastic guest because this is somebody who is taking it into their own hands to try and help affect change within the city in which they live and going up against a lot of special interests that are very heavily rooted in this city. And which seem to be, you know, the root cause of a lot of the issues we have with a lot of our citizens and our neighbors being left behind.

So Nithya, thank you so much for coming because I find you to be very inspiring as like a native Angeleno. And even though you're not, I'm not, would hopefully one day could be one of your constituents. I do not live in the district in which you are running for, but I wholeheartedly support you and like your whole vision for the city is completely in line with our show. And I'm just, it's great to have people like you on. Oh, thank you so much. You know, honestly, you guys are dealing

with the national environment and the national environment is so frustrating sometimes that I think I have in some ways a little bit easier. Like I get to deal with local stuff and change feels real here. It feels totally possible. Yeah, we've been talking kind of intermittently about how tired we are of just pointing out the problems and how much we

want to, you know, give our listeners ideas for how to do something and, you know, have I come up with ideas of our own of how to do things and it really seems getting involved locally uh we keep coming back to that as as the thing that is tangible that you can do so we're really excited i feel like uh what you're doing does speak to the national condition um yeah as well and somebody was asking me yesterday like we for listeners who don't know about L.A. politics, it has not been a place where a lot of people have even voted, never mind getting involved. And in our campaign, we've been really lucky to have tons of volunteers. I mean, people were out in the heat wave this past weekend, dropping off bags of lit and things like that for the campaign in the heat, masked and gloved and everything. And yesterday I was on a call and someone said, how do you get so many

volunteers? And I honestly think it's just a relief for people. It's like, they look at this national, what's happening at the national level, just the colossal failure on so many issues. And I think it's just, it's like, oh, I get to go have a conversation with my neighbor and tell them it can be better. I mean, they're not doing that during COVID that, you know, unless it's over the phone, but, um, but it's, yeah, it's, it's an, it's, it's a relief. It is a relief. And yeah, I, you know, I really encourage people to do it in their own places. And if you're in LA, get involved with our campaign. Absolutely. And I think it's the other thing too, is that it's not like it's a relief. And it's also like this relief in,

from like what the tone of our politics are. Like you are, you're not like some big D Democrat. Like you run on, I've been saying this, you're like a person of purpose. You're not a politician. You are being driven by a purpose. And I think that is what i think like the most universal language i think we've seen because suddenly people are like yes

that's right there are people who are you know need help and i'm in a position to help or we can do better or we can ask more of our officials and that's really resonating versus like we got to get donald trump out of here and chuck schumer should be running the Senate. It's like, no, no, no. Okay. That's one version of reality. But like here. The sportsification of it. Yeah.

Right. But yeah, in this sense, from the second your name started bubbling up as like a candidate for CD4, I was like, this is the kinds of people. This is the tone that our politics needs to head in where it's, it's really tied to the humanity and treating each other with dignity. Yeah. And I think like city, I'm an urban planner. I've done a lot of work on, you know, urban poverty issues and I don't want to run for anything else. This is my dream.

This is part of my work that I've been doing in LA on urban poverty, on homelessness. This is like the next step in that. But I don't see it as a stepping stone to other things. Honestly, just because I find that stuff just less interesting. Like I love thinking about cities. I love talking about cities. I love working at the city level. But I think one of the problems that we have is that everyone is so cynical because they're all in it for 40 years.

They're going from city council to assembly to state Senate to Congress, you know, even the person I'm running against a year after he got into this seat, he thought about running for Congress. It's like, well, like, let's do this job. This city matters. It should, it should be your biggest priority, you know? But my dad's real estate, my dad's real estate empire is at stake though so i think this is the best way to help relieve the pressure is if i get into the house of representatives i'm not gonna add david rue to the laundry list up top this episode because i don't want to put you in that position but i think he might have to he might have to go join join the tucker carlson's

we're here for nithya you know what i mean we're here for nithya for sure even if we're not in the district and i really encourage people like it's like the one bright light in LA politics at the moment thank you you guys are so kind I'm so happy to be here no I mean just I'm I'm just as grateful to see people like you know this is you like you know your shit and you are saying i know enough to do better it looks like the people who can do better are either not interested or not able so what is going on because what i see is a lot of pain and suffering out there and for whatever reason these people are fine because they can you know turn their blinders on to the suffering in the streets and you couldn't and that's really like the most like one of the purest forms to like engage in

and to, you know, be an ally for people who don't have any support. So yes, thank you. And, you know, I encourage anybody who's like feels they're looking at their own city or situation like this. Don't be bashful about it. Like if you have a vision

and your heart is in the right place, like you damn sure better explore that because there are a lot of people there who don't care. Yeah. Can I say one thing to your listeners? I don't know what your demographics of your listeners are, but I, you know, I'm 39 now. When I was, when I first ran or decided to run, I was 38 years old. It took me 38 years to step up. And I just want to tell all your listeners, you don't have to wait that long. I hope you find the courage to do it before I did. It took me a long time just because I didn't see models

for that in my own life necessarily. I didn't see a lot of women of color who were like me who were in office and things like that. So it wasn't my thing. But I hope that young people get more excited about getting involved in politics. And don't wait as long as I did, kids. Yeah, yeah. You can start rocking the boat as soon as – the second you're 18.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I'm glad you're speaking the language of the kids, rocking the boat. I said the boat. Wait, what's rocking the boat? Hey, I like that though, Jack. Hold on. Write that down. Rock the boat.

Hey, kiddo, you can start rocking the vote as soon as you're 18. Hey, now. I'm not mad at that, kids. Now you're speaking my language. If you just put a little guitar riff behind it, maybe we'd get some people voting here. Am I right? Oh, yeah. All right.

Let's tell the listeners. All we need is mud honey to be the face of this campaign. All right. We're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment, Nithya. First, we're going to tell our listeners a few of the things we're talking about today. We are going to check in with the RNC. We are going to look at polling that says that Trump's position is improving nationally. Actually, I'd love to get your thoughts on polling, Nithya. We're going to talk about the militarization of white supremacy in Wisconsin. A couple nights

ago, we're going to talk about the CDC. We're going to talk about how COVID is affecting the return to college in schools like University of Alabama. All of that, plenty more. But first, Nithya, we'd like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are? Oh, boy. I did look for the writer of Erin Brockovich. Ah.

The screenplay? Yeah. I'm like, is that a book? No. Ah, the screenplay? Yeah, it was like. It wasn't, I'm like, is that a book? No, because I was looking at movies, looking for movies recently. And yeah. What about Erin Brockovich that you're like, I need, this is going to take some Googling now. What was sort of that pathway? Well, I, you guys told me that I was going to have to talk about something that was overrated and underrated.

Is that right? Right, yeah. Yes. So all I've been doing recently is watching things I've already watched before because my mind is unable to process new things just because of the, I think, the immensity of everything that's happening in the world. I can only turn to the familiar, like reruns of old TV shows, movies I already seen and so aaron brockovich was on that list and i was like well who wrote this masterpiece yeah who is it who's susanna grant i can't remember is it susanna grant yeah i had to look it up as well yeah um that is truly a masterpiece uh great great most she wrote Pocahontas damn wow interesting

in her shoes Charlotte's Web okay catch and release alright Susanna Grant yeah yeah Aaron Brockovich also it sounds like it could be a Russian novel maybe

except for the Aaron part but the Brockovich yeah that sounds like yeah yeah spinoff of the Americans. That's right. What is something you think is overrated, Nithya?

Well, so I've been on this old movie, Kick. And recently I watched Sleepless in Seattle, which is amazing. And I basically wept from the beginning of it till the end of it. It's so sweet. So beautiful. The structure of it is amazing. And then I watched You've Got Mail thinking I would get more of the same. of it till the end of it it's so sweet so beautiful structure of it is amazing and then i watched you've got mail thinking i would get more of the same and i was sorely disappointed

right oh that's also nora effron right yes yeah it was the follow-up yeah giving you giving giving the people what they want i mean that, that was all, it's so confusing. Like when you actually think of like what Meg Ryan's arc is as a business owner and her relationship to Tom Hanks and like the Fox Empire inside, it's like, yeah, you know what, dude? I don't care if you're like edging me out. I love you. Right.

We're good with that. Yeah, that's true. I'm like, this man is coming for your business. You've already identified Fox Books as the destroyer of independent bookstores. And now, even though there's all this subterfuge, you still love him? And he lies to her. Yeah, constantly. Yeah.

The whole time, he knows. Yes, like the capitalism issues, the issues with the business politics of it are really weird. Right. Hi, I'm Jim Barneses and noble and i would like to put your why does this little boy keep spelling fox in front of me f o x shut the fuck up man i can't know we're part of fox books and then also like the dad has like all the wild young like partners and things it's the whole thing i was like wow this is something else is so creepy yeah but then but i think the more the more troubling thing is that he lies to her for the entire movie or right you know and then she's like okay cool yes i'm very into this right i was like i wanted

it to be you that part where she says i wanted it to be you like that sticks in my mind because i always remember like my stomach sinking a little bit and just feeling like why yeah well also let's not forget a stellar performance by dave chapelle as like the confidant friend of his too like dave chapelle what is i watched it i think recently like in the last two years or something because i was sort of on a similar kick of like just kind of regressing and watching these 90s rom-coms. And I was just like, and Greg Kinnear was, didn't he suck? Wasn't his character weird too in that? I just remember not being very moved by anyone

on second viewing, so. Yeah, I mean, even in Sleepless in Seattle, there was some weird politics around the partners that they had. Right. I forget who was the guy who played her partner, Meg Ryan's partner that she amicably said bill pullman right yeah and his like fatal flaw was that he had a lot of allergies

all right dork get out of here all right like she introduces him to her family and he sneezes and you're like oh this is this is fated to end. Right. What a loser. What a loser. It's like, okay. And he's too nice. That's his other thing. At the end, she's like, I got to go see about this guy I've never met. And he's like, do it.

I want this for you. Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize You Got Mail is based on a book called The Parfumery. Yeah. It's also funny that it's just like that very edge of the internet being discovered type of like optimism that this is all going to be great uh anonymity on in personal relationships is going to be great and it will in no way lead to uh men being horrifying to women and lying to them and stalking them so So that should be a fun premise for a rom-com.

Yeah. This guy's gaslighting this woman, man. All the while her whole entire business is at stake. And he's the guy destroying it. And he gets her in the end. That's how good this story is for the guy. You're going to love this. But it makes sense that that was the most successful of the Nora Ephron

movies because it is like America wins in the end like the version of America that people had in the 90s wins right you know big corporation is lovable and Tom Hanks by the way shout out to uh Gabby Hoffman the actress from a bunch of great stuff. I didn't realize she's the little girl in Sleepless in Seattle. Yes, I was very delighted to see her face. She's so good. She's so good. Gotta start somewhere.

She's so good. She's such a talented actress. I know, already. That role was awesome. I know. She's born for this. She was amazing. What is something you think is underrated?

Well, yeah, the thing I think is most underrated in the world is soup i love soup wow what is this with people two days in a row but somebody said soup yesterday people who are who are like politicians at the municipal level we had a uh someone from the city of Athens, Georgia. Right. She lingua franca lingua franca. Uh, she had her exact thing was soup too. I'm like,

yo, this is like the wisest food. Then like the people who are getting active and involved, it's like the new Gatorade is like soup. It's very practical, you know? Right. I want to be,

I want to be like Mariah Parker. That I feel, well, I feel unoriginal having had soup. No, not, no. It's very original. They weren't the first person to say soup either, but I'm always, it's just this overlap of like younger people getting involved in an office at the city level and like their love of soup.

I'm just feeling it right now. And I would, yeah. And that, you know, we already talked about how important it is to get involved locally, but I feel like that is underrated too, but soup is more important, I think, sometimes. What is your favorite soup? Oh, my God. I love soup so much there's like categories of favorites.

Which rap album is your favorite, Jack? Yeah, you can't say it. What's your favorite noodle soup would be a better question. Okay, I'm going to ask you that. What's your favorite? Okay, so COVID favorite, current COVID favorite for noodle soup is there's a soup from India called Maggi. It's like a Maggi ramen packet. And we make it at home.

Now it's like our easy COVID dinner. And you doctor it. So you like make the soup and then you add all kinds of toppings, like whatever vegetables we have in the house. We add a fried egg on top and it is the best meal, the best. So that's my current favorite noodle soup. And if the world was out there and the restaurants you were able to patron, you'd be a patron at where, where is this?

What's a soup you've been thinking about? there's two soups that i love one is um the there's a thai restaurant in silver lake called night and market song oh yeah yeah yes yes yes yes and uh and that has a really good noodle soup curry noodle soup which is incredible and then the other one is a restaurant called au lac which is in downtown la it's a vegan restaurant and a lot of their foods are raw and they make this raw uh raw soup which is called i think it's called it has like spirulina in it it has it's just the most incredible i've've never tasted anything like it. Wow. So good. Yeah. Sounds good.

And finally, what is a myth? What's something people think is true you know to be false? Okay, well here, can I say something serious for this one? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Please. Okay, well, so one of the questions I get most in my campaign is about unhoused people, about people experiencing homelessness. And a lot of people say, oh, I hear from folks that,

or I think a lot of people who are homeless don't want a house, that they are, quote unquote, service resistant, which is a term that you hear in the papers, and said that they don't want services, that they don't want to get into a shelter bed, that they don't want to get in. And I feel like that is the biggest myth that we hear on the campaign trail. And I'm always talking about ways in which I can prove to you that that's wrong and that if we actually made beds available, if we made housing available, if we made sure people were able to stay in their house, we would not be in the situation that we're in in Los Angeles.

This is not about resistance. This is about lack of provision of services and of tenant protections. That's it. Is that myth kind of born out of like a very narrow thing? And then that sort of became the overarching theme in terms of like how unhoused communities are looked at? Or is it is it just a very disingenuous attack from like the people who are like the NIMBY folks or, you know?

No. And I, you know, I don't think so. Or for the most part, I don't think so. I think, of course, there's always people who are, you know, saying this in bad faith. But I think for the most part, people have just seen a homelessness crisis that has only grown in their, in, especially in the last few years, right? Like our unhoused population here in LA has gone up by 78% since 2013. Yeah, Jesus.

Right? It's just like staggering the amount of growth. And I think people see individuals living in encampments in their neighborhood that they've seen for years. And they just get into this thing of, okay, well, they don't want to go inside. You know, I'm sure that I'm paying all these taxes

for homeless services. They must be getting the help that they need. And they're saying no, when in reality, that's so not the case. And, you know, one fact I always share with people, which I feel like really, really makes people step back is, you know, New York City has a larger population of people who are homeless, right? But so many fewer people who live on the streets because they have the number of shelter beds that they need for every person experiencing homelessness in New York. That's part of a court case that was in the city of New York that forces them to do that. And so because of that, you just see much less visible homelessness. And so when you tell people that you're like oh yeah

that's right and la has less than a quarter of the shelter beds that we need so a big part of why people are on the streets and continue to be on the streets is because they don't have a place to go and so i think that really it really helps to open up the conversation about not about anger towards people who are living on the streets but anger towards the city that's done wrong by them of course but by all of us you know yeah that's so uh deeply american to blame the individual rather than the system like that just seems to be the way the story that uh americans want to tell ourselves yeah it's like they're sort of like the worst rhetorical habit we have when engaging in an issue like that it's almost like it's never like the

normal you'd be like yeah well what's wrong with them and brandon what is the conditions in which this occurred right because that is actually more important than hey what's your story do you like living on the street no there's there's a whole path that got there they got there and a number of failures occurred on long the way to end up there and i think yeah we just have this lack of wanting to like say our parents are shitty or something that like that the politicians or the country could be better and then it's better to be like well it's got to be them because i'm doing okay and so that, it's not the system because I'm okay in it. Yeah. And I just want to say one thing about Americans, which is this is not an immutable fact about Americans, right? Because the campaign has been so successful at pushing back on that. And I feel like people want to push back on that. They want to believe the best about other humans.

And I think they want to be able to respond to this issue and every other issue with, And I think they want to be able to respond to this issue and every other issue with compassion. Most people do. And I think if you tell them we have failed in providing evidence-based compassionate solutions here in Los Angeles, but we can. They're like, oh, yes. Okay, perfect. Let's do that. They don't want to be – I mean, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe that most people felt that way, you know? And also there's sort of a disconnect with younger people and, you know, millennials and Gen Z that I am really hopeful that that is going to be a relic of of the past. That that idea of like individualism and the idea that socialism is like a bad word.

All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. We'll be right back. One session, 24 hours. BPM 110, 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it.

That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm.

Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image loves the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County rebels will stay the Boone County rebels with the image. It's right here in black and white and prints. They lion.

Individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch is a leader. You choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When the civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot.

You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everyone. I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm Amber Ruffin, a better Lacey Lamar. Boo. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber Show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network.

You thought you had fun last season? Well, you were right. And you should tune in today for new fun segments like Sister Court and listening to Lacey's steamy DMs. We've got new and exciting guests like Michael Beach. That's my husband. Daphne Spring, Daniel Thrasher, Peppermint, Morgan Jay, and more. You got to watch us. No, you mean you have to listen to us. I mean, you can still watch us, but you gotta listen. Like, if you're watching us, you have to tell us. Like, if you're out the window, you have to say, hey, I'm watching you outside of the window.

Just, you know what? Listen to the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine,

and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance. It's tradition.

It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Santos! Santos! Santos Escobar. Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport

from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, network on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you stream podcasts and we're back and uh let's check in with the rnc uh media

loves them some melania they were i mean look look pick your poison it was either people were either talking about the numerous hatch act violations or melania trump uh then it's so i i can't believe how badly the mainstream media wants to like melania trump like it's so bizarre to me because on one hand i think we all remember her i don't care really like trench coat that she wore when she was going to the border um but yet when she goes and makes a speech and just because there weren't any racial slurs or plagiarism that suddenly we're like oh yes we found the moral center the moral heartbeat of this country uh it was really surreal um because it truly everything she said was quite like absolutely the bare minimum of what you could say as someone

who's in a position of power amidst a pandemic when hundreds of thousands of lives are being lost right i i wonder and and the other thing was the flagrant uh hatch Act violations. It seems like this is a feature of their plan and not a bug, right? Like this is, the idea is to break the law in a way that is distracting and gets the media outraged because trolling the media is the whole game now, I feel like.

Sure. I mean, yeah, the, you know, Mark Meadows, the chief of staff said, he's like, honestly, nobody outside the beltway cares about the Hatch Act. Really, it's really nothing. It's a non-issue. And really, the whole idea behind the Hatch Act is that you are not allowed to use government resources in a partisan political campaign or election context. That's what you have a campaign fundraising arm for. So you're not using taxpayer money to boost your chances at reelection. That's the

whole point here or using your position in office to help an elected official or someone who's running. So, yeah, but again, I guess because the Trump thing has they're trying to make it be like no one cares. You see, it's like, no,'s like no no because that's the slippery slope you want to go down where no one cares and you can begin to blur these lines of like well what's actually you know how is this system being taken advantage of and how is it not right um sometimes i feel like the media does plays both sides of this too you know like they get really upset about the hatch act but then they also complain that they can't write about the Hatch Act because we don't care about the Hatch Act and violations. And, you know, so sometimes I get a little bit frustrated, too, watching all of this because I think, well, make us care. Tell us why this is important.

Tell us why the stakes are high. You know? Right. Yeah. We're like, oh, that's that's the old school media. We don't we just kind of tell you what happened these days. I go that far to help you yeah don't do that right now that's not the time for that yeah it's it's it's really frustrating then on top of that you had mike pompeo literally beaming in from israel uh to give his speech about how King Trump has won the ISIS war and,

you know, loved Kim Jong-un so hard. He may be in a coma right now. They like it. The whole thing was so hollow. And I keep using that word because it's really just these empty sort of bullet point checklist thing. They go down.

And when you think about it, you're like, I don't work for Raytheon. Like that, that accomplishment doesn't help me. I'm not an arms dealer. I'm not part of the military industrial complex or the prison industrial complex.

I don't benefit from these reforms, quote unquote. But again, it's just to get this drum going of like, this is the leader. Don't worry about how bad the last four years are because he's macho. And it's, yeah, but I guess it seems to be their whole entire strategy now. So that brings us to some recent polling, both like some specific polls that came out, but also

just polling averages that FiveThirtyEight, you know, uses that suggest Trump's position is improving, that Biden didn't really get a convention bounce and that now it's a closer race and i find myself like unhealthily addicted to checking this shit but nithya as somebody who's actively running like how what how do you think about polls well so uh you know in the primary we couldn't really even afford polling so we had no we had no polls right right i know the person i'm running against did some polls but a lot of the polling that's done at in in races you know obviously at the at the at the federal level it's really different but at the local level it's about messaging right it's about what lands with

what audience so should i be talking about this issue in this way so you're actually polling not an outcome but what your policies should be and so for me it's like to me polls are really unhelpful because if you're running because you want to change things if you're running because you want to see particular policies put out into the into the world right that's what you should be focusing on right and and uh and i do think that talking about the issues like talking about this horse race between trump and biden like what if we just kept talking about the fact that we're not getting that six hundred dollars anymore that expanded ui right wouldn't we just win the, wouldn't the Democrats just win the election? We're like, we're going to win.

We're going to give you $600 if we win. Right. Like Trump had his shot and he actually knocked that benefit down. He took it away from you. Bring it back up. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it just like, who cares about these numbers?

I don't know. That's, but that's just how. But I think that's the difference between this new generation of politicians who are entering, which is, again, most old school. Like when I was working in politics, you would look at polls and be like, you would say something like, well, the Affordable Care Act isn't polling well. Like maybe we need to change tack based on all this research we're doing. need to change tack based on all this research we're doing but it's again you're if you're being dissuaded by the polling now you've completely lost your sense of purpose which is give the people the ability to have a health insurance they can afford um and yeah there there are moments where we find ourselves being like at the end of the day sometimes the intent really has to sort of

be the overarching theme but again with this polling it's to your point of like, it helps you dial in your messaging. I think it's clear what the Trump campaign is seeing is that like, hey, man, let's just go pedal to the metal, white supremacy, xenophobia, every phobia out there. Because that seems, depending on the audience, I'll talk to suburban housewives in this way. I will talk to working people this way. But it seems like it's all coming from the same putrid buffet. Yeah. Putrid buffet. I love that.

My new favorite, my favorite kind of buffet. And they're going for seconds. And they're going for thirds now. Yeah. Eventually. All right. Let's talk about Wisconsin.

You know, we've talked before on this show about this sort of fantasy of protect your property with firearms. They'll even go out of their way to make fake memes that suggest looting is a problem after hurricanes, as we talked about. The media will focus specifically on any property damage that happens during peaceful protests. Because then you don't have to talk about white supremacy. Then you don't have to talk about white supremacy. And it seems to have killed two people in Wisconsin last night. There were reports of armed civilians, like armed militia,

who explicitly showed up to protect, you know, like gas stations in their neighborhood. And one of them started shooting protesters. It was captured on video. The person is jogging down the middle of the street with a assault rifle and people are trying he had apparently at that point had shot someone and been heard on his phone saying I just killed someone then he's jogging down the street people come up try and disarm

him he shoots them and then runs up to the police with his hands up and it's like they're like what are you doing man you're good you can go along you waved him off walked off into the night yeah and it wasn't apprehended um the contrast you know like within that city you have a black man with no gun with his back turned right he gets shot seven times you know he's now we find out he survived but he may not be able to walk. And you have somebody out here just straight up killing people and just could walk right through the police with protesters saying that man just shot someone.

That guy with the gun shot someone and he can just take off like Kaiser Sosa. It's I mean, you know, it really is is this is this this really morbid rhythm of this country so horrifying yeah and it keeps intensifying you know and it's of course we there there's this like non-stop drum beat especially if you're like on the right wing of like these people are coming to tear the cities down and all they can do is just narrowly use this footage of people outraged not because they're there to tear your city down but because of generations of mistreatment is now manifesting into these protests and these uprisings and things like that and it's just used to sort of to your point jack just do this thing where the one context where americans

are like well i can shoot anybody if it's in the private property like i can use my private property defense and that is like that one arena that is really this weird thing where there's people on top of their businesses the cops are like hey like you have guns up there get inside what are you doing and they're like officer this is our business and the cops are like okay carry on then right what did that so what you know it's a really terrible cycle. Nithya, for you, and I've heard you speak about this, and especially like when a city like LA

that is just given the cash away to the sheriff's department and the police department, you know, the whole idea of the defund the police, it had a sort of a moment where people were sincerely engaging with this discourse this idea of how to actually better fund our communities but um you know looking at this and seeing like what the essentially the kind of climate you'd be walking into as a city council member you know what do you think are sort of like the

highest priority in terms of sort of like this de-escalation with a police force that just brutalizes the poor and, you know, non-white? Well, you know, one thing I want to say is that we don't have, we're not seeing, at least in LA, this kind of paramilitary force or, you know, this kind of thing. So I think it's a very different situation here. But for me, a big part of thinking about policing here in Los Angeles is thinking about how our police are doing things that they were never supposed to be doing. So here in LA, a lot of what is the primary interaction between, for example, our unhoused population and our city ends up being the police. And that's how we set up the system to function.

In fact, when I worked at City Hall briefly a few years ago, I found that almost 90% of the spending that we were doing on homelessness at the time was spent on putting unhoused people in jail, right, instead of actually providing people care. And that we had created a system through which LAPD was always our first responders for homelessness, even when there was no violence. In fact, most of the time, it's not a violent call for service. And that's not just true related to homelessness. That's true across police calls for service, not just in L.A., but across the country. And yet in response to these calls for service, we were always sending police who were not trained to address the root cause of why someone would be drinking in public or having a shopping cart or would have a tent up during the day, which is that they don't have a home. Right.

And so if we had set up a system through which we were actually sending people out who were trained to do outreach, to do homelessness response, to do any of that stuff, then we would have a very, very different system here in Los Angeles. And, you know, I think we would we wouldn't need this the police to take up so much of our budget because we would be spending on systems of care that actually address the root cause of the issues for which people are calling the police about. Yeah. So I think that's really the priority in L.A. going forward. Because what's the statistic in the county of actual like sort of crisis intervention, social worker type people we have that we can send

to calls like that. Isn't it something like under 20 or something like that? Well, so when I worked at the city, we had invested in a total of 19 outreach workers for the entire city and county together, right? And that's to do sort of the work you're talking about is to say, rather than sending a police officer, call this person who can approach them, understand the human being they're dealing with rather than the nuisance or guy who's drunk in Yes. Yes. punishment and policing as opposed to care. And I think we can really push it in a much better direction. And we should. I mean, it's not just about a moral issue. It's also like this is what is going to work to end homelessness.

Yeah, it's efficient. Right. Yeah. When you look at specifically the Jacob Blake incident where he had stopped to try to de-escalate a conflict between two people and then the cops came in and somebody ended up getting shot seven times that de-escalation that like you know acting as a mediator in your own community like that that's what we should be trying to have people like have resources that can do that as opposed to calling somebody with a gun to come in and,

you know, cause absolute havoc and end up, you know, trying to murder somebody. Yeah. All right. Let's take another break and we'll be right back i've been thinking about you i want you back in my life it's too late for that i have a proposal

for you come up here and document my project all you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session. 24 hours. BPM 110. 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that?

You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board

a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television,

iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In a galaxy far, far away. No, babe, that's taken. We're in our own world, remember? Right, in our own world. We're two space cadets.

And totally normal humans. Sure, totally normal humans. Embark on a journey across the stars, discovering the wonders of the universe one episode at a time. We'll talk about life, love, laughter, and why you should never argue with your co-pilot. Especially when she's always right. Right. And if we hit turbulence, just blame it on Mercury retrograde. Or Emily's questionable space piloting skills. Hey, join us on In Our Own World for cosmic conversations, stellar laughs, and super corny dad jokes.

Listen to In Our Own World as a part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't worry, we promise to avoid any black holes. Most of the time. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packers star Kabir Bajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. KGB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. What he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian,

now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning. In a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron, and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church, and then a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked. Voila! You got straight away. I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible.

Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everyone. I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm Amber Ruffin, a better Lacey Lamar. Boo. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. You thought you had fun last season. Well, you were right. And you should tune in today for new fun segments like Sister Court and listening to Lacey's steamy DMs. We've got new and exciting guests like Michael Beach.

That's my husband. Daphne Spring, Daniel Thrasher, Peppermint, Morgan J. and more. You got to watch us. No, you mean you have to listen to us. I mean, you can still watch us, but you got to listen. Like if you're watching us, you have to tell us. Like if you're out the window, you have to say, hey, I'm watching you outside of the window. Just just you know what?

Listen to the Amber and Lacey Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And it's time to check in with that whole COVID thing, the global pandemic. Do you remember that story from a couple weeks ago? I do. Was that before or after Hunter Biden and Ukrainian won? I guess all of the things that they tell me on Fox, I guess it's so confusing. Yeah, you know, it's pretty clear.

I think all the common or all the accepted research around it is that, you know, if people who can get COVID-19, it can cause completely asymptomatic infections. There are people who can have it, carry it, and do not have any symptoms. And actually, and they can spread it to other people. And some people can still spread before they show symptoms. So pre-symptomatic transmission is also a just studied phenomenon, proven thing about COVID.

And a lot of the modeling that we've seen says that like pre-symptomatic transmission could in fact be half or even more of a lot of the spread that's happening. So when the CDC comes out and says that they are no longer essentially recommending that people who have been maybe possibly exposed to COVID but aren't showing symptoms, actually, you don't need to get tested, it turns out. If you don't have symptoms and you may have been exposed and you're not showing symptoms, don't worry about it. They changed it completely. And on August 22nd, this is what the CDC website said. It said, quote, testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of the

potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested. Suddenly, they've completely scrapped that. All that language is gone. Is it because it's just they're giving up on containment? Or are they just, they just want their numbers to be in a better position heading into the election? I think a lot of people have, there are some people that said, look, this is clearly coming from the president. You know what I mean? There's no, why would people, people have, I mean, prior to this, the CDC, you could bet that they were, you know, learned people of science who

would let their research guide what their decision-making is. But because this slowdown of the government, because they're unwilling to actually address the situation and their thing is like, let's just like get rid of all the testing stuff. So people can at least go out for a little bit. The economy can like get a quick jump and then we'll probably shut shit back down. Um, but with this, you know, the, uh, one of the administrators at health and human services, uh, they were like, why are you telling us about the CDC's like recommendations? And they were just saying like, look, it telling us about the CDC's recommendations? And they were just saying, look, all of this decision came from public health experts,

the CDC, and there was no direction from the president, the vice president, or any other administration official. And I think a lot of people are having a really hard time believing that. Because it's not even like saying that you know the the sort of very narrow logic is that they're the reason that they didn't want to have testing for people with uh without symptoms was so that way they didn't avoid testing too early after an exposure that way there could be a a negative result before the infection actually had enough time to develop etc et cetera, et cetera. But either way, just continue testing no matter what is just a, it should be a feature of how we get a handle on this,

the spread of this illness. And yeah, again, they haven't really even established what a timeline would look like for asymptomatic testing after an exposure. And they're kind of also just leave that language like, well, you know, if your city or your state or local county like needs it, then guess you can test but like we're just saying you know it's up to you cool it's perfect timing because now we're opening schools so uh perfect timing to not test people who have been exposed to uh the disease so that we can just let that spread, let the disease spread asymptomatically among age group who is most likely to have it without

showing symptoms. Right. I feel like here, you know, here in L.A. even, I feel like, you know, California did better with this stuff. You know, you read this stuff from the CDC and you think, oh, my gosh, is the Trump administration interfering with CDC advice? But even in L.A., I feel like we've had changes in guidance being given to us, changes in the reopening schedule, changes in what we're supposed to be doing with really no acknowledgement of the fact that this is what we thought before. Here's what led us to make these changes and here's how we can operate under our better information going forward in ways that make more sense and i feel like if at every level of government i mean of

course the federal government you know i don't even know what there but at every level of government i feel like this same kind of uh it feels like we're being gaslit sometimes with the instructions that we're getting about COVID and about what we're supposed to be doing. And I feel like if they were just a little bit more transparent with us about here's how things have changed. Here's the new advice that we have for you. Right. Because it goes to just like very like bulletin, like, and here are your instructions going forward. It's like, yeah.

Wait, but this is disruptive to me and you're not even telling me how we arrived there. Right. Yesterday was the complete opposite of that. And yeah, it is just for the benefit of the people's long-term faith in science, you know? So, because I think if you're not really willing to engage with what's happening and things

are fluid because we're dealing with something, an illness we've never seen before, and it's like happening in real time, a lot of people just seem like, well, what'd the doctor say? And now they're saying this? Well, which one is it? And I think, yeah, by not explaining and things like that, you allow to just be like, okay, I understand that was different than last time, but this is how this is working. We found this out and that we're adapting because we're being proactive about this yeah it really does have this uh it can be it can be really really frustrating and i think yeah looking at the colleges now it's just like a whole they're

dealing with like just like you know uh the exuberance of youth and like the nihilism of people spending this money to get an education, enter an economy where it's like, what do I do with this degree now? Like, is there a job for me? Like, what am I doing here again? Let's just party. Let's just party. I don't know. A combination of energy and lack of perspective. Yeah.

No, it really is. I mean, that's the thing. And lack of perspective. Yeah. No, it really is. I mean, that's the thing. So right now, with this whole push to go back to whatever normal is or just to get the economy looking a certain way, you know, we're seeing all kinds of school or university reopenings. At the University of Alabama, they reopened on August 19th. And they said, according to their own university's COVID dashboard,

there have been 531 Corona cases since they opened. 531. And that's like from self-reported results. That's from like the infirmary or whatever the school health office is. That's what they're dealing with already. And I can only imagine what similar schools look like that haven't actually put in, you know, take the time to actually think these things through. There's a daily beast article just sort of kind of giving, looking at a few different schools and what sort of culturally is happening on campus. Um, Mariah Parker, who we had on, uh, she, she was telling us about UGA. There's another thing about UGA, uh, they're saying that like on Twitter, students are posting like screenshots from student groups and you can tell like there's a lot of misinformation and anti-masker stuff going on. Even within the students,

there's one comment read quote, no need for masks when you're six feet away or at all. But Hey, if it helps your psyche, wear a hazmat suit. That's one. This is another one, which is,

I think one of the most dangerous fucking comments they could have had on there. Media way over exaggerates numbers. The number that matters most is that 99.9% of people recover from COVID. People being out of work, the fear and anxiousness that is running rampant is far more damage than this virus. Don't live in fear, folks. It's not healthy. 99.9, remember that number. I mean, that's an absolute right-wing talking point. But again, a lot of younger people seem to be also

catching on to that because it might not be reflected in their reality seeing what the devastation is of COVID. Yeah. That's like just hearing that is a very specific feeling of helplessness that I'm experiencing a lot on social media when it's not usually people that I'm encountering, but people that people I know are encountering and, you know, posts that are getting spread. It's like, oh, I see why this is effective. Like, I understand why you want to believe that and why that has the ring of truth, but it's just, I don't know how to counter it. Like, I don't know.

Do we just end internet? I don't know what to do. I mean, I think, but the thing is, I mean, you know, these talking points are like, you know, like the whole thing of the idea of like the, you know, shutting down the economy is causing way more damage. That's not coming from a student who's looking at, you know, he's that's some that's like a talking point that, you know, the business owning class helps formulate to be able to like sort of wrap your head like no one is like the economy.

Oh, my goodness. We're not we're not. That's not our vested interest. The people who are yes to them because the workers are not there to create the revenue for them and they're saying that's the damage to me but i'll let you you know you'll build a parasocial relationship with the billionaire class and then you'll stand with me and say it's messing up the economy uh so but again we even think as people are younger it's like well there's no way they're like they're they

got to be smarter but you know at the end of, well, there's no way they're like they're they got to be smarter. But, you know, at the end of the day, like there's also this feeling to like you understand there's a sense of nihilism for that generation as well, where they're looking at whatever their future prospects are. I'm probably like, I don't know, like, is it? It seems bleak, possibly to like what what what's going on. Right. Yeah. what what's going on right yeah there was another uh sort of anecdote from a university of chapel hill and it was like this person got like the most predictable gen z response of like trying to be like a like a person of authority um there was like a a party at chapel hill and like right after

like there was an outbreak going into the school year and there was, I guess, a sorority that they were just going like house party to house party. And like one of the like house moms of a fraternity basically said that

when she had approached some of the students to be like, hey, you know, please like remember to social distance or wear a mask. They called her a quote boomer and a quote bitch.

Cool. That's the fucking like they okay boomer to this person who I'm, I don't know what generation they're in, but like they, that was just like their response. Like I'm looking, please consider the safety of other people. Like,

yeah, I fucking boomer. I'm going to party. It makes it, it makes it very like you you realize too like that really is the attitude uh of someone sort of you'd think that it would be received a little bit better than that but we don't know we don't know what the interaction was i think i feel like we're asking kids to do the right thing right and we should yeah like university of alabama

should be doing the right thing unc chapel hill should be doing the right thing. UNC Chapel Hill should be doing the right thing. That's not being governed by a bunch of 18-year-olds who are really, really excited to party. But they know that they're coming. Right, exactly. Like when you open up UNC Chapel Hill, you know who's coming there. Right. It's not the like stay at home and let's play Settlers of Catan crowd. It's like, no, dude, you're in college.

You want to get litty. But the thing, too, is a lot of the students have been saying that exact point, is that yes, while there are students partying, why don't, talk about the school that had no regulations in place, knowing you have party-hungry kids

who have been like cooped up at home over the summer or like even before that, maybe they're entering their first year of school or whatever and yeah they're going to be coming in there with a lot of energy that you're going to have to figure out how to like maneuver or redirect but when you're playing it's just sort of like i don't know half online classes and half in person and you can wear a mask if you want that's enough it's yeah it really is It's a it's a bad, bad faith argument against the students. All right. Let's talk West Wing, because the West Wing is having a reunion for some reason. They are going to end. When did that end?

Nineties, I think. Oh, no. No. Maybe a little bit. No. After that, because there was- 2006. 2006, okay. Yeah. Yeah, so this is held up by people who are on the big D Democrat side of things, the establishment Democrat side of things, as the peak of Western culture, I think, in a lot of cases. Yes. And cast reunions are big things right now, so we're getting a West Wing reunion where the cast will restage an old episode

with new original material written by the Sorkin, Aaron Sorkin, all in service of a When We All Vote charity, which voting is good. No complaints there. But were you guys fans of the west wing i like kind of watched an episode here and there i was never that into it i was never converted to the the religion of president bartlett uh i actually just watched the west wing during the primary of this campaign. Oh, really?

Yeah, for the first time. It was part of the whole, like, I can only watch things that I'm really familiar with already. I can't watch anything. Oh, right, right, right. Was it instructional? Do you credit the West Wing with your successful taking it to a runoff? No, I think it was just, you know, it felt like simpler times. Right. It felt like simpler times right simpler times you know it was just it was comforting right i didn't get into it i just i don't know my head wasn't

in that place like i don't care about like politicians right now but uh yeah it's weird because when i was a few of my co-workers I was working in politics, love the shit out of the West wing. Like it was their fucking like Beatles. You know what I mean? And I was like, I don't know. And I was like, you got it.

You're like, you got to watch it. And I get, I think I just, whatever episode I saw, I was like so confused. And I'm like, yeah,

this, this, this, for whatever reason, it's not quite speaking to me, but I get, you know, people it's, uh, you know gave us bradley whitford huh who would have voted for obama a third term

that is such good casting yeah apparently uh they were originally hoping to cast sydney poitier uh to play the president and then What? Yeah. And then the first episode ended up having not a single black character by the time it made it to air. So I had no idea. Yeah. Right.

I really, yeah, because I just saw every photo I see there's like this one black man I see in the photo and I don't know what his character was. But the actor is Dulé Hill. And I was like, what was his character? What was his character? His character was the president's body man.

He took care of the president's problems. Like a valet? I think more like Michael Clayton. He would solve the problems in a way. Oh, like what's the dude on Kevin Spacey's show, Doug? Like Doug? I don't watch Kevin Spacey's shows. Yeah, well, that was way back then.

But yeah, okay. So is there an actual position for that? I'm looking right now. Oh, personal presidential aide and deputy special assistant to the chief of staff. Right. Interesting. Yeah, I think it's like he is unofficially like he's more of a Michael Cohen. Maybe. I don't know. I never watched the show. Nithya, is that is that accurate? Yeah, it's like he was like he's like a P.A. Oh, OK. Who is more like not like a problem solver, but like, okay, the president's schedule is like, he's got to leave this meeting, excuse me.

And, you know, ushers along, makes sure that he travels with him all the time. He makes sure that he is meeting both his personal obligations and his professional obligations. He's kind of. Like the Tony Hale character in veep yes exactly oh no exactly yeah yeah okay okay yeah that's that's that's i think right um at least that's how he was on the show and then he moves over to cj's office to work in in comms and press got it yeah yeah and then there's also the issue of you know this was happening during the bush administration and uh they there's a war with a fictional middle eastern

country called kumar kumar uh that is like a cartoonishly evil melting pot of Islamophobic stereotypes. And yeah, just kind of that was their way of dealing with that whole 9-11 thing. What would we do if this was helping to be a salve for liberals during the Bush administration? How do you do the 2020 version of something like this? Or like, how about this alternate leader thing? And would it just be completely slaps? Do you think we would still treat it

with the same reverence? I'm curious, I'm just thinking of like how you would even engage with a show like this anymore, given like the climate we're in and like what, you know, what aspects of it we're seeing now. I think it's very telling that our version of this show now is Veep. Right. You know what aspects of it we're seeing now i think it's very telling that our

version of this show now is veep right you know what i mean like that is what we have right we're just like yeah like whatever they're clowns or jokers man we've seen it i think i think that makes sense and i've heard people who work in politics say that veep is like the most accurate representation of what federal politics are like in washington dc at least well then we need we need a more local version that's what we need to do is we need to start glamorizing you know at the local level because i think that's the thing again with everything that's going on in the world yeah but that was different but i think like you know i like kind of like you know nithya let's like work on something. You know what I mean? Yeah. Let's make a show about you.

Let's see what happens in November and November 4th, you know? Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And then you'll be like, sorry, I really can't do that. Yeah, I'm a little tied up. Hopefully I'll be tied up. Yeah, you're like, I could do that. I could do your little podcast when I was candidate.

It's not a really good look for me. Nithya, it has been a pleasure having you on the show where can people uh find you follow you join your movement uh nithya for the city.com or you can follow us on social media we're really active on twitter instagram facebook instagram and facebook we're nithya for the city and And on Twitter, it's my name Nithya V. Raman because I had the all-important blue check before we started this race. So I kept it on my name. Nice. Yeah, Nithya

V. Raman. But if you just Google N-I-T-H-Y-A, I am the first Nithya that pops up now. There you go. Who are you in competition with? In this election? Oh, on the Nithya. There's an Indian actress named nithya manan okay yeah who was really beating me out still active she's still an actress yeah and so she was beating me out for a bit but

now yeah not when you're making not gonna get those clicks from the city of angels that's right and hayes davenport who is a former guest on this show works for your campaign right uh he's a volunteer he's volunteer josh androski who was also a guest yeah it works on the yeah he works on the campaign nice yeah a lot of a lot of good overlap between the campaign and the the wild world of podcasting yeah and comedians too like it's just so funny how much like every it's like almost like if you're in comedy like you know you know what time it is it's nithya for the city like it's just weird you got that demo locked in yeah yeah we really do um we really do which i think is good i mean

listen how do you make local politics fun right it's gotta put bring this some comedians into it well especially now like yeah without, being able to do shows, like, people are kind of getting more in touch with other things, and I think it's great to see people get in touch with their humanity and duty to serve. Yeah, exactly. And is there a tweet or some other active social media you've been enjoying? Well, every – I was just talking about this with someone recently,

but there's a really hilarious tweet that I think it was the L.A. County Department of Public Health put out or something. But it was like a lot of messages about COVID. It was like social distance. It doesn't save lives. It saves life. And then followed by a series of other slogans. I was like really spending that messaging consultant money here from la county department of public health uh miles where can people find you and what's tweet you've been

enjoying twitter instagram at miles of gray and also my other podcast for 20 day fiance talking about 90 day fiance the trash hit with Sophia Alexandra. Let's see some tweets that I like. First one is from at Mighty Monica, and she says, I don't know if you remember the MTV show True Life, but her tweet is sort of in the construction of

a True Life title. Hers is, True Life, my dad yelled at me for laughing at him when he said he was afraid of Antifa. Another one is from at Gwen Thomas 33. She says, my only fans? You mean my parents? Which is cutting because, yeah, some of our parents are our greatest fans. And then the last one is from at Cameron J. Awesome.

His is, if America isn't racist, why doesn't Nikki Haley use her real name? That is interesting. Yeah, a lot of the times we have people out here like America is not a racist country, but a lot of the times

we've seen it with our own eyes, the Narnia of American racism. Jared Goldstein tweeted, it's weird when a hot person likes the song Jolene it's like you're Jolene Dan Hopper

tweeted a screen cap of a I think it's from New York Magazine website you've read your last free article join today and he said right before a website beats the shit out of you and then dan

chamberlain tweeted quite and then attributed that statement to a british man having an orgasm uh 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. We link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode as well as the song we ride out on, Miles. What are we riding out on today?

Oh, this is, you know, I'm a hero. Is this this artist? I keep looking at all the work, the body of work, and I'm liking everything. And there is an album, Cry Baby, where I shouted out a couple of songs from there. But this is the titular track from the album, Cry Baby. Cry Baby by Hero. And again, it's just got that very nice electro synthy vibes, but still has soul. It's just a great, it's threading many needles at once.

And I love it. Yeah. People really feeling the, the hero ride out songs, the hero ride out songs, heroes getting the TDZ bump. Um, all right.

Well, the daily zeitgeist is a production of I heart radio for more podcasts from my heart radio. Visit the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That is going to do it for this morning. We'll be back this afternoon to tell you what's trending, and we'll talk to you then. Bye. Oh baby, I'm always beside you Oh baby, I'm always inside you Oh baby, could you leave me if you tried to? you know until we get old i decide who's in control k hasn't heard from her sister in seven years i have a proposal for you come up here and document

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