The Daily Zeitgeist - Merkin’ America Great Again, Prince Andrew Pays Ultimate Price 10.21.25

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

In episode 1950, Jack and Miles are joined by comedian and co-host of The Worst Idea of All Time, Tim Batt, to discuss… Prince Andrew Agrees To Give Up Royal Titles, Kim K Is The Thomas Edison Of Our Time - Merkin Edition, Who Is The Real World Christmas Adventurers Club? And More! Prince Andrew gives up royal titles including Duke of York after ‘discussion with king’ Jeffrey Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre, in her own words Met Police looking into claims Andrew sought information on accuser Kim K Is The Thomas Edison Of Our Time - Merkin Edition An Antifascist Movie at a Fascist Moment How P.T. Anderson Channeled Thomas Pynchon’s Preoccupations for ‘One Battle After Another’ ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Vineland’— What Paul Thomas Anderson Used and Cut Out of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel The John Birch Society Is Back Did the John Birch Society Win in the End? Masonic Symbolism in PTA Movies ABUNDANCE OF SYMBOLS IN `MAGNOLIA’ HAS FILMGOERS LOOKING FOR CLUES How do people think the Christmas Adventurers Club are absurd when Bohemian Grove actually exists Clarence Thomas and Bohemian Grove: What goes on at the all-male club? Inside Bohemian Grove Redwoods Hideaway for the Elite Goes On, but Protest Days Fade Bohemian Grove annual event is underway in the Bay Area, per the FAA Billionaire at Bohemian Grove told staff to clean his underwear by hand, lawsuit says Berkeley Law School Drops Boalt Name Over Racist Legacy Chinese Exclusion Act The Bohemian minstrel show The Bohemian Grove: Symbolism Behind the Owl and Cremation of Care LISTEN: Sana Sana by Nathy PelusoSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

is there a popsicle that's called whimsical that just occurred to me oh like if not we need that billion dollar business like a like one that that's organic you know and and for like hipsters who love whimsy the whimsical right right i like that i feel like this could work i feel like we I feel like we just stumbled on a... Organic non-GMO, like orange juice frozen onto a stick. That's made of reclaimed wood. It was my first culinary achievement was

orange juice popsicles. You should get this on a shark tank. You've missed a wonderful investment on the whimsical. Sharks, I bring to you the whimsical. Yes. Or isn't there a whim cycle? Couldn't that be a bicycle too? Oh, now we're talking.

That's just what the penny-farting should be called. The whim cycle. Oh, it's a whim cycle. This is an I-Heart podcast. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first.

interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple. Podcasts. Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz. And I'm Mark and Delicado. Might know us as Hilda and Justin. From Ugly Betty. Welcome to our new podcast, Viva Betty. Yay!

We're re-watching the series from start to finish. And talking to iconic guests like Betty herself, America Ferreira. There was this moment when the glasses went on and it was like, this is our Betty. Listen to Viva Betty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In early 1988, federal agents raced to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia. Had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and you name it. Five, six white people pushed me in the car. I'm going, what about that? Basically, your stay-at-home moms were picking up these.

large amounts of heroin. All you got to do is receive the package. Don't have to open it, just accept it. She was very upset, crying. Once I saw the gun, I tried to take his hand, and I saw the flash of light. Listen to the Chinatown Stang on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 411. Episode two of Their Daily's Lightgeist, where we give you the info. Is that what 411 and The 411, hell yeah. Yeah, the 411.

Hell yeah. Call, get a little info. It's a production of iHeart radio. It's a podcast where we take a deep dive into American Shared Consciousness. And it's Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. That seems wrong. That's too deep into October. 1021, good buddy.

I feel like I was saying 108 good bust shit like that just a week ago or some shit. I know. But it's 1021. It's the damn passage of time. It's National Apple Day. Passage of Time. That could be the answer for literally every time someone says what happened. It's this damn passage of time.

Yep, yep, yep, yep. Let's see. It's also Back to the Future Day because I guess that was the, what was it? 10, 21, 2015 was the only time Doc, Marty, and Jennifer would travel into the future. Okay, so it's a significant date for all of us that celebrate the religion of Back to the Future. It's national. A year anniversary of when they first got here and saw that we had invented 3D movies that come out of buildings and attack your flying car. Wasn't it, Jules?

That was Jules. It was like Joles 14 or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's also National Pharmacy Tech Day, National Reptile Awareness Day. I'm aware. Don't worry. Yeah, yeah. And National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day.

I think that's about making sure reptiles are aware. that there will. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, you all right? You're right. I'm sure your reptiles are fucking awake. Get them on a warm rock. You just fell out of a tree branch, my guy. Are you okay?

You fucking with benzos again? Are you on those Z bills, those Z drugs, man? All right, my name is Jack O'Brien, aka Potatoes, O'Brien. And shout out to our Irish listeners. Probably offended by my fake Irish accent. No, it sounds like, you know, the Irish fans are out there. No, I wasn't commenting on your questionable accent. No, the accent's bad.

The accent is bad. But, yeah, also shout out to Ms. Lacey Mosley, who over there, and Zykegang, Irish Zykegang came up and talked to her. I was like, I know about you through the Daily Ziteguise. And I was like, they know about us before you, Lacey? No, surely not. Surely not. What this outside of the country? I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray.

Yes, Miles Gray, A.K. Drug fires that kill babies. Before that there's mass shootings. Capital City, Washington, D.C., this deadly crime, all thanks to illegals. Now, shout out to Benny Johnson, one of the top propagandists right now in the administration who was trying to say that, yes, the feds need to invade the nation's capital because one time, my infant nearly died. in a drug fire after mass shootings. And we still don't know how that sequence of events unfolded exactly, but we do know. Or what it means. It's a lie. It's hard to even picture in your brain. That's the thing about a lie is they don't stand up to just basic scrutiny most of the time.

Some of the times, not so much. Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by one of our favorites, a multiple award-winning comedian, podcaster, producer, who co-hosts the podcast, worst idea of all time with Guy Montgomery. He's a very funny chat show host. Welcome back to this show, the hilarious and talented. Tim Baugh! What's up, fart knockers?

How are you? Oh, how dare you? How dare you? The one insult, you're speaking back to the future, you know how he can't take being called chicken? Chicken, he like freaks out every time. I cannot be, I cannot take being called fart knocker. Why?

Because again, I just don't know what to picture in my mind. I don't. Is it a door knocker? No, I feel like it's a fart huffer, but you've come up with a different word to sort of disguise so that the teachers can't get you in trouble as much. Right. They're like, I don't know what that means. They're like, I know what it means.

It means you huff farts. You huff farts. Freaky. That's the freaky thing you're up to. And that's why you can't handle it. It's too close to the truth. You can't handle the truth. I've got a bag full of farts over here, just an airtight bag full of.

Did you ever do that? Hot full dreams. Fart into a bag and then try and close it up. Take it with you to go. I'm about to. Now that you mention it. I think I had that idea when I was a kid but didn't have the follow through to actually do it. Has you done it?

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I promised myself, as soon as I turned 40, I was having to really knock stuff off my bucket list. So I did that last year. So you were indeed a fart knocker, knocking the farting into a bag off of a bucket list. It was more of a fart sommelier. I like to mess it up a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Chaparone's next single

F-A-R-T-O Well, it's good, Tim. How are you doing? Come to us all the way from New Zealand? Still? Do I have that right? Still here, still going strong.

We still exist, defying economic headwinds. We're still doing it. It kind of is fitting that it's back to the future day because I'm in your guys' future, time-wise. Yes. And I feel, it's, I don't know, it's crazy hearing you guys talk sometimes at that,

at the outset at the intro of the episode because you're American, your high energy, it's early in the morning and I am sleep deprived from having two little kitties. It's like interfacing with another realm of existence where everyone's getting adequate sleep.

Yeah, like, what the fuck part of the planet is this? It's like, oh shit, that's right. There are people out there doing it, doing the damn thing. That's you guys. I'm like Tim really likes my Irish accent, Miles. Based on that. The offensive bit was potato for me. And as someone with Irish heritage, you know, my mom proudly states that we had family members who were hiding members of the IRA in the attic.

Yeah. Oh, wow. Hell of you. Okay. Okay. The potatoes, O'Brien, is in fact a dish that I came up with. No, it's an actual dish that you can like go to your local grocery store in the United States. And in the frozen food aisle, there is.

a bag that says potatoes, O'Brien, on it. What? And at the risk of derailing, the whole show. What is that dish? Diced potatoes, onions, and pepper, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Also called home fries in many places, but they were like, how do we make this a little bit offensive to the Irish? Very cool. And so, yeah, there it is. Tim, we're thrilled to have you here. We're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell the listeners

a couple of the stories that we're talking about, today, if they can even listen to this because the internet is apparently down. Amazon Web Services is down. We're not going to really be talking about that, but I am going to reference it just now. I think they've got it back online. I could have played fucking Roblox this morning. It's fucking terrible, man. That's why I have all this pent-up energy.

I didn't get on Roblox and fucking yell at people. You know how I get it, bro. When I get on the blocks, man. Yeah. When ain't robo-tripping? We're going to talk about Prince Andrew, who still. named Prince Andrew, but no longer will be using the Duke of York title because of his alleged sex crimes. Wow.

Potentially, this is related to the fact that the posthumous memoir by the prince's alleged victim, Virginia, Jewfrey is coming out on Tuesday and was recently excerpted in The Guardian and is harrowing. Based off that excerpt alone, he was like, Duke, Duke, Duke of York, nope, no more. No, nope, no more. Oh, yeah, Duke of York. What are we doing out here? And meanwhile, in the United States, Mike Johnson continues to delay confirming or swearing in a member of Congress to avoid releasing the Epstein Fowles. It feels like it's, I don't know, sounds like they're approaching being cornered a little bit even more intensely. For people who must have known that they were in these files, like, everybody's really bad at, they're just like, I vigorously deny this, but because people keep saying, I did bad stuff, I guess, I guess I'm going to do it.

And, like, with Trump, just being like, what, Epstein, what, what, what was that even mean? The financier, it's like the Jim Downey. Yeah. I saw a funny bit of stand-up online, and I am saying that I kind of. credit whose joke this was, but there was a guy who was like, do you know how I know Trump was involved? He has never mispronounced

Jelaine Maxwell. He's like sailed past that silent S every single time. Well, I remember when we first saw, we were like, Jis Lane? What the fuck is this? Yeah. It's actually Gieland. It's actually Gieland. Yeah.

Correcting reporters. But he did. Yeah, the first thing he's never mispronounced. I've never met the woman before he did i do remember him when it was first like coming up him being like i don't really know her but i really wish her well yeah like you like you do with all he's a kind-hearted soul we know this about your president good heart he's a benevolent man we'll talk about uh kim

kynchian being uh miles i think you put this well the thomas edison of our time when it comes to face sleeves and uh now merkins but she just invented them. I like the way she, I don't know, at least based on this variety snippet. It sounds like she had never heard of a Merkin until she thought it up. And in that way, I salute the great minds of our

time. That's all our best billionaires. That's what they do. Can you? I mean, like, Elon Musk. Yeah, we'll get it. We'll get into it. We'll get into it. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, we'll talk about that. And then we'll talk about, in the Paul Thomas Anderson film, one battle after another, he posits this

wacky idea that There is a secret all-male white supremacist organization controlling the government called the Christmas Adventurers Club that have had a role in shaping history in shadowy rooms behind the scenes. And we're going to just ask, where do you get crazy idea like that? I mean, this guy's brain, you know? Where does he come up with this stuff? Turns out history. It turns out the question is not whether or not there's a real world Christmas. Adventurers Club, but just which of several groups inspired it. There is one that I think

is the best candidate. We'll get to that in our third act. But first, Chris, first, Tim, we do like to ask, I was still a Christmas Adventures Club on my brain. Tim, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history? So I searched the Vivo X300, which is a cell phone. I'm obsessed with getting a cell phone that'll actually, like, fit my hands. Phone's too big now, gents. Oh, yeah. Phone's too big now. Phone's too big now.

P2B. Yeah. You, Jack, you strike me as a dude who'd have big hands. Oh, huge. Yeah? How tall are you? Oh, they look pretty normal, actually. Jack, put a ruler between your thumb and your pinky.

You don't want to see that. That distance between the tip of his thumb and his pinky. Nasty. 12 inches. I am six foot. Like six foot. Six-o? Yeah.

What about you, Miles? What are you rocking? Six-one? Six-one, maybe? Six-two? You're sitting on my shoes? Yeah, you, in person, you come off at six-two. Thanks, thanks.

Based on how tall you are, mainly. Based on that thing at the convenience store by the door that measures your height if you're running out of the store. Yeah. Wait, so you got, you're what, I mean, the thing that I hate mostly because I have big thighs, is I putting a phone in my pocket? It's just like renders the pocket useless. And also everyone's like, what do you got in your pocket? I'm like, it's a phone, obviously.

But that's because phones are too big now, you see? Yeah. We need to get back to like phones that you can actually get your thumb around the whole script. I bought such an expensive phone for the stupidest reason. So I've got one of those Samsung folding phones. I think he's come on and talked about the superiority of Android phones versus iPhones before on this show. I would have been dragged kicking and screaming into that conversation because the amount of comedian friends I have in New Zealand who have mocked me relentlessly about being an Android guy over

the years. I can't tell you. That's the most bullying I've received in my life. It is, it is like the most ubiquitous form of discrimination around the world, I feel like. It's most acceptable now. Dude, the shit went green, dude. The fuck? Hey, I think there's something wrong with your iPhone. The shit just went green. Are you a Wi-Fi? How old is your iPhone? Don't send it as SMS. But I, so I got the, um, the fold. six, which everyone hates, because when you fold it up, it's really skinny. But I'm like, this is what I want. I want a real skinny one because I can get my thumb around the whole phone now.

You look so comfortable with that in your hands. Right. It looks kind of big, Tim. I'm not going to lie. It's thick, but it looks thick. She's a thick boy, but that's because you're folding a phone in twain. Do you use, do you actually use the, do you unfold it? dude literally for one thing only and it's to use it as a Kindle that's it

wow okay but the but the thing that's missing on it is it doesn't have good cameras and I read you know like my kids growing up I want to be able to take good snaps quickly I don't want to carry around like a proper freaking camera with me I'm not going to do that I want a phone with a good camera so this there's all these Chinese cell phone brands they like they bring out these awesome phones that very real yet released internationally but there's finally one that looks like it could be a good little phone that's got really good cameras on it. So I want to buy that. It's the shout out. It's the Vivo X-300. Sponsor me, Vivo. Give me money for this. I want to, I feel like, yeah, I really want

to get a dumb phone. The closer and closer, I guess the more and more news that I'm trying to escape from, because I already have to look at the news all the time. I just want a phone that's like, if you need to reach me, you can text me. If I need to take a photo, I can do that. Otherwise, Guys, let's get into that for just one brief moment, if I may. Like, because you guys really have to stay on top of everything all the time. How disciplined are you at putting your devices down at any point in your life? Oh, terrible, terrible. Yeah?

Terrible. I tape it to my head at night. I wish I could quit this fucking thing. No, I mean, I really, I've since probably around, I'm trying to think. When did it really kind of get hairy? Maybe like January 6th. Oh, okay. Now, COVID was hairy, but like once we started being like, oh, we're really not doing anything about anything in this country, are we?

Yeah. And everything started to get more brazen. I definitely have given myself the when at night, no need to look at the news because I'm going to wake up and I'm going to consume every single thing that's happened overnight. So I've definitely, I'm still on my phone, but I don't look at news after like 3 p.m. Yeah. Okay, 3 p.m. That's pretty good. I'd say similar.

Like, yes, because we've had to do this for so long, I've gotten to a place where I have an ability to, like, kind of regulate it. But it is an active regulation. It's not a thing where I'm like, oh, today I ended up spending three hours scrolling Twitter. You know, I just, I have to put it down consciously. I do. I remember that when I stopped working in radio,

and it was like such a relief that I didn't know. I've kind of never returned because I was a bit of a news junkie. You just kind of have to be a little bit. And then God, it was such a relief getting out of there. So anyway,

praying for you boys and your beautiful brains. Thank you so much. We'll see how it goes. It's just like a rotten, like a fruit that you open it up and it's like there's spiders inside. Yeah, yeah. Like a passion fruit that's been off the vine for a year

that's just filled with a little baby tarantias. It's all right from the outside. and then just, yeah, whole family of spiders and a snake, somehow? What's that snake doing in there? It's cohabitating with the spiders. They've gathered for warmth. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I will say the most impressed I've been by a phone with a camera on a phone has been a non-eye phone. Like, I feel like there are some, it's my, my sister-in-law is a lifelong, like, she doesn't fuck with iPhones, and she takes the best pictures of, like, anybody I know. Fellow traveler. But they're all big.

All the good ones are big, and I need, I need, and I feel like we've got the technology now. You know, this is what is piss me off because I, I just feel like all the people making the stuff, they don't listen to what we want, you know, and it's the same with them putting AI in absolutely fucking everything and everybody, nobody wants that shit. All I want is a little fine that'll fit in my hand that's got a good camera on it. And I don't need four cameras. I'll tell you why we're not doing that, Tim. I'll take two.

The profit margins on that, no, no, no, no, we're not doing that. I need to make as much money as possible on that thing. You would think if they could crush it, they'd sell heaps. But again, maybe I'm just wrong. Maybe it's not what the people want. Maybe it's what Tim want. Well, because I'm sure, like, from a macro level, it's like if they emphasize dumb phones,

then they lose the ability to track all of your activity. Right. Using a dumb phone. You know what I mean? And really, the juice is in seeing all of your activity and tracking all that shit via modern-day apps and things like that. Do you know what, though? We've got to take some goddamn person of responsibility,

Because I'm kind of sick of the conversation going this way where it's like, oh, they can't make any money off dumb phones. They still exist. We can still get one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm saying there's no push for it. You know what I mean? Because they're like, well.

From them, no, but there should be a popular uprising. No, I think there totally is. Younger people. Just from people trying to, you know, stem a health crisis. Looking at their parents who basically look like fentanyl victims because they're on their phone 23 hours a day and going like, you guys have fucked yourselves. I'm going to get a little.

Motorola that doesn't have the internet. It's like, yeah, the beginning of Sean of the dead. When the metaphor was everyone on their phones, basically, just droning on. Yeah. Hard. Yeah, I don't know the name of the smartphone. My sister-in-law uses, I will say she had to operate it using a steady cam device. So it was pretty big.

She couldn't hold it herself. What is something, Tim, you think, is underrated? Fireworks, guys, and I'm sick of hearing otherwise. I like fireworks. I like them a lot. It's exciting. It's beautiful. and it's kind of one of the few things that I feel like the citizen,

I mean, over there you guys got guns. So, you know, we don't need to get into that this episode unless you want to. But over here in New Zealand, like, we don't get access to a whole bunch of, you know, things that explode at the citizen level. And I feel like there's this one time of the year, which is around about now, because we've got a mandated legal period where we can have fireworks over our version of 4th of July is Guy Fawks. I don't know if you guys know much about that, but a guy tried to blow up British Parliament.

in I think the 18th century, and now we celebrate his terrorist actions with a fireworks day of our own. But it roughly, roughly, roughly coincides with Diwali, which is the Indian Festival of Lights as well. And we've got a huge diaspora from India here. So they go crazy on the fireworks. And everyone, like, there's always every year,

there has been a conversation for the last 25 years in New Zealand that this would be the year they ban fireworks. And it'll just be public displays, but you won't be able to buy them yourself. and I'm in the increasing minority. My little group of people go, like, man, fuck the dogs. I don't care. Fuck the little kids.

I like fireworks. I like that they exist. I like that we have them. Yeah, we've talked a lot of fireworks on the show, basically going back and forth. I think the place I've landed is I really like catching a fireworks show in the wild. Like, right, if I'm, like, walking and, oh my God, there's fireworks. It's like atmospheric. but going to a fireworks show and sitting there with my kids and just watching it and being like,

you know, in many ways this has a three-act structure. Like, it just doesn't really, where I prefer, like, I do love the fact that in Los Angeles, you are, like, on Fourth of July or when the Dodgers win a particularly big game, like you're driving down the street and there's just ambia, it looks like a Bas-Lerman film. Like, it's just, like, going wild. I do love their use sporadically. Again, that's probably not that safe. It's not good advice.

I will say also, just based on what you just said, I didn't know that you could do a fireworks show without also shooting your guns in the air. I thought those two went hand in hand. You've got to believe in yourself, man. There's a way to separate the two. It is possible. We've proven it.

There's, I mean, I don't, you guys, do you, Are there people doing like rogue fireworks in New Zealand, like in L.A.? Define. Well, no. Making shit, you were like, how did you, well, what did you just do? What we lack is a version of, I guess, like, Mexico effectively, because we are an island nation. So everything has to be brought in by boat and it's pretty strictly controlled. Though when I was a teenager, I was in, you know, again, in the minority, but not the only one.

I was disassembling fireworks and making bombs out of them and like making coal. shit. There you go. Getting shit done. Yeah. Yeah, a little Tid Kaczynski on it. There's, I, because over the summer, Jack and I were talking about fireworks. Remember, I sent you that one of, it was basically like a military munition that

goes off in L.A. Look, let me just get, this is what some shit people are setting off in L.A. in the summer. This guy, this one's called the Dodger Rona Grand Slam. Just the sound of this is going to be terrifying. Please put your

This is a large baseball firework. Being launched out of a parking cone. On a bottle rocket. The guy's running like 40 feet away from this thing. It's running. Holy shit. It's in the air. It's airborne.

It is screaming like a surface of air missile. Holy fucking bad. God. It is set off every car alarm within a 10 block radius. It's like a scud missile, man. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Not good, not good for the environment, but when you watch it, if you go, whoa, I don't know what it is. There's something so primal about little bang-bangs going off. That's the thing. And I, I do like reattaching to that, you know, childlike excitement of thing go boom.

Yeah, yeah. For whatever reason, it's like, yeah, wow. I think I just, I think I just really harmed an animal. But it was made the car alarms go off. Yeah. I felt powerful. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be. be right back. Here, you're overrated and get into some news. We'll be right back. The forces shaping the world's economies and financial markets can be hard to spot. Even though they are such a powerful player in finance, you wouldn't really know that you are interacting with them. And even harder to understand. Donald Trump's trade war, 2.0, is only accelerating the process of de-dollarization. which in a way is jargon for people turning away from the dollar.

That is where the big take from Bloomberg podcast comes in, to connect the dots. How unusual is a deal like this? Unprecedented. Every weekday afternoon, we dive deep into one big global business story. The biggest story of the reaction of the oil market to the conflict in the Middle East is one of what has not happened. Katie, you told me that ETFs are your favorite thing. They are. Explain that. Why is that the case?

and unpack what it means for you. Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved,

until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say

that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County. A show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In early 1988 federal agents raced to track down the gang

they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia. We had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and you name it. But what they find is not what they expected. Basically, your stay-at-home mines, we're picking up these large amounts of heroin. They go, is this your daughter? I said yes.

They go, oh, you may not see her for like 25 years. Caught between a federal investigation and the violent gang who recruited them, the women must decide who they're willing to protect and who they dare to betray. Once I saw the gun, I tried to take his hand and I saw the flash of light. Listen to the Chinatown Stang

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz. And I'm Mark and Delicado. You might know us as Hilda and Justin from Ugly Betty. We played mother and son on the show, but in real life, we're best friends. And I'm all grown up now. Welcome to our new podcast, Viva Betty!

Yay! Woo-hoo! Can you believe it has been almost 20 years? That's not even possible. Well, you're the only one. that looks that much different. I look exactly the same. We're re-watching the series from start to finish

and getting into all the fashions, the drama, and the behind-the-scenes moments that you've never heard before. You're going to hear from guests like America Ferreira, Vanessa Williams, Michael Yuri, Becky Newton,

Tony Plana, and so many more. Icons, each and every one. All of a sudden, like, someone, like, comes running up to me, and it's Salma Hayek, and she's like, you are my ugly bitchy. And I was like,

Like, what is she even talking about? Listen to Viva Betty as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And we're back. And Tim, we do like to ask our guest, what is something you think is overrated? Okay, democracy, but you got to hear me out. Oh, no. It's always fine.

No, just, all right. Cool. Let's get our first story. Agreed. Yeah. The version that we've got at the moment doesn't seem to be going great. And I read this thing online recently, and it hasn't left my head since I read it, that if you picked out some random people in the street to be the government, statistically, you would probably have a better bunch of people running the country than the people who would, you know, ultimately get in under our current form of democracy.

And I was like, damn, I wonder if that's right. So I've sort of taken. into, when I'm at a cafe having a cup of coffee or something, I'll just look out the window and just sort of see the next 30 people walking past and be like, and what if they were the government? Would they do a better job? And I sort of

think there's something to it. Because there is, the incentives are set up to gather the most bad people in a lot of cases, right? I mean, it's slightly different New Zealand in America. I think in America you can pretty nakedly say, like it's just a

some pretty straight up and down terrible people to put their hand up to be part of that system

why do they have so much unending stores of energy to do their job because like they are just fucking

motivated by power like just having power like coursing through their veins they're just like I am so fascinated by that

like just the fact that because what Trump's like 80 now right 79 yeah 79 yeah 79

the dude just keeps going and he doesn't really sleep and he's just he's up all the time doing shit but anyway so I think this idea of like if you just got random people

out of the electorate to run things because I saw there was a theory that I think got proved out with Jacinda Ardun who was our prime minister during COVID now our country turned on her like a fucking dog and we effectively chased her out of the country and now she lives I think in New York State

teaching like governance and government and stuff like that. But she was an incredibly begrudging leader who only got in because the Labor Party in New Zealand fell apart immediately before an election and she kind of got thrust into the leadership position. And then turned out she was really good and won and kind of shocked everyone. And I feel like those are the best leaders. The best leaders are the people who do not want to be there.

People who kind of get thrust into it. Because the people who really fucking want it are the least, they're the people I want at the bottom of the list to put in charge. Well, I think because, like, the difference is someone like, Jacinda is probably looking at it is like, this is an incredibly complex task to keep a government together and nation together, provide for them and sort of do what's best while also balancing all these other things. Whereas, like, you know, in your example, like in America, someone who's attracted to politics in America is like, yeah, I want to be the fucking most powerful fucking person to tell people what the fuck to do. And that's it. Like, it's like, there's no thinking of like, well, what do I owe my constituents? What do I owe the people who I'm representing?

No, it's like, what do I fucking owe on my fucking mansion, my yacht bill or some shit? Like, they're genuinely, there is a huge problem now where the job itself is awful for many reasons. Like, you just are attacked relentlessly in the media because that's sort of the environment that we've created. The people who you're serving alongside, by and large, are pretty fucking cooked as well. The type of person who would put their hand up for it, you know, like they're not good sound. of mind people like a person who's actually smart and wants a good life and even somebody wants to contribute to their country or society whatever they took one look at the reality of being a politician these days to be like fucking nah dude i can find another way yeah i can find another

way i mean yeah that was like my experience with like lobbying and organizing too was once i saw like the machine of it all i was like oh oh then part of me is like you naive young man you You really thought. Think about it. So we have jury duty in the United States where it's randomly selected. And the reason, like, think about a world where juries are comprised of people who have been, like, lobbying their whole life to, like, get on a jury. And it's like, why, though? Like, what is your, what's your deal? What do you? Oh, because their lives hang, their lives hanging my hands. That makes me horny. Don't tell anybody that. really got my juices flowing about the potential to end a man's life. Yeah, right. Exactly. It's like, what's your angle?

This is my fifth capital murder case. I've been. And you essentially have that with anybody who's the president on purpose. It's like, that's, you know, unless you got a Dave, the only good president has been Dave from the movie Dave. Yeah. Well, this jury duty is the perfect analogy for this. I guess that's what I'm getting at, is that we should apply that sort of a method. to finding out leaders.

The indigenous way of leadership of like, no, you're not going to be the head for the whole year. We're going to rotate. Yeah, yeah. Everybody's going to have a different task and nobody just, you will learn what every function of this society is.

And then when it's your turn, you can operate from that perspective. Show a hands. It wants to be the leader. All right, all of you get the fuck out of here. Yeah, I like that. All right, you guys leave. One, two, three, he wants to be the president.

Go. All right. fucking throw them away. Well, I've always felt that my leadership quality, get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out. Let's do a lottery. Saying something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. I think that would be way, a very worthy experiment. Because it's just a probability game at that point. They're not always going to be amazing, but on average, they'll probably be better than what we've currently got. Oh, yeah. And the amount of, like, as we're going to talk about, the amount of, like, insular, like, circle jerk policy that is ruining.

all of colonial Western civilization is really is not good. And it seems like it's just the fact that it's like a group of guys standing around a fucking bonfire where they also like spank each other and do

weird shit and making decisions that only benefit them. As far as they know, they're also usually wrong. Taylor's oldest time, man. I know. Let's get into some news. Let's talk about royal alleged sex criminal Prince Andrew, who recently announced

that he's given up his royal titles including his use of Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke Duke of your Duke while vigorously denying the allegations against him, he still gets to be a prince. Apparently that is like you can't unprint a prince.

That's just if you are the kid of the royal person, then you're just does. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But that Epstein's royal friend claimed that this decision was made in discussion with the king and my immediate and wider family

adding that we've we have concluded and continued the continued accusations against me distract from the work of his royal majesty and the royal family and then immediately was like I vigorously deny like it's very shit yeah yeah but I'm still my titles

or the honors which have been conferred upon me as I have said previously I vigorously deny the accusations against me. So this is all. It's like a kid like being like, I'm giving up all my honors even though I didn't do anything. It's like, oh, okay, so he's fully and gracefully accepting his punishment. Good to see. A punishment for what? That would suggest maybe some kind of transgression that you're owning up to? Oh, yeah, yeah. Can we name check a

couple of these things that he's stepping down from? Yeah. Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order and Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. I mean, we're going to be getting into the Christmas Adventurers Club later on.

Come the fuck on, dude. What is this stuff? Get out of him. He has to give up the Night Grand Cross? The Royal Victorian Order? The Noble Order of the Garter sort of this tracks. I feel like you would attain

you know, membership to that club by being involved with Jeffrey Ebson. It's just so funny, too, that he's like, God, I mean, I'm caught up in one of the most terrible scandals in modern history. And I'm just going to say, I'm no longer Royal

Night Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garder. That's my punishment. Just like, come on, y'all. Like, what about jail? They're still mad? Did they not hear that I gave up my Knight Grand Cross? Oh, I didn't know that. Of the Royal Victorian order. Yeah. That one.

Jesus. Did you guys get into much of like when Virginia Goufrey died, that was really weird. Yeah. She was like living in Australia and I think, and I'm kind of going by memory here. I could have it slightly wrong. She got hit by a car or she was like walking home and then they were like she's about to die. And then she didn't. And then she sent out like some weird messages on Instagram and then I think her dad swooped in and was like, oh, she's not doing well. And we didn't hear from her for like four months.

And then she died from something else, I think. It was like unrelated. She took her own life. Right. Right. But like after getting hit by a school bus, I think, in an unrelated incident within six months of it, it was like the whole thing was just fucking, I don't know, I feel like there's not been a whole bunch of chatter about the last, you know, six

months of her life. Yeah, that sequence. And it was pretty fucking weird. Yeah, because at the time, it wasn't a major car accident. That's right. Yeah. She was like, she like walked away from it. But her face, there was a picture of her face.

I think it was all bruised up. Yeah, and then she said, but then, uh, went into renal failure and then given four days to live. Okay, they make sense, of course. And then passed away from taking her own life. Yeah. Michael Clayton-esque, I don't know. We don't know.

We don't know. But again, I mean, just like anything, there have been a lot of people in orbit of this scandal who have passed away. You're like, hmm, well, that's odd. That's odd. That's interesting. Yeah. That's just interesting.

I don't know. Super, I think, amazing of her to write a book that, you know, she knew she wasn't going to derive any benefit from to just kind of get the word out there. Yeah. And this thing's coming out what, like in a week? Something like that. Yeah, this week, and The Guardian just published a excerpt that is harrowing and, you know, describes the Prince Andrew stuff.

Are you guys going to read that book? I'm going to read that book. Yeah, I think we might have to read that book. I mean, I'm definitely curious what comes out of it. I think I don't relish in reading all of the details, but absolutely am curious what revelations come out of that. Because I think in the one of the excerpts, too, She alleged that, like, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, also assaulted her. So, yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, there's, it sounds like there's definitely a lot in there. And it's like, just off the strength of that excerpt that this guy is like, I'm going to give up my most noble order of the Garder Knight Companion. Yeah, a week before the book comes out. I guess I'm coming from a place of black, yeah, I'm with you. I don't want to be all juiced up for this horrific, you know, this life that she's led. But it is interesting. detailed in this book. But I don't kind of trust the news anymore, really, to represent

like what's in the book at this point. Absolutely. No. I think every organization will have its own little slant on what's reported in the book. And now for stuff like this, you kind of got to go to the source. The next morning, Maxwell told me, you did well. The Prince had fun. Epstein would give me $15,000 for servicing the man the tabloids called Randy Andy. That's an excerpt from the book. Like, that's the thing. Like, just how this. worked, you know, that they were just like, okay, you've done your duty. And yeah, it's fucking really weird. But to your previous question about her passing away, it's not like there's any suggestion that anybody has done anything to sabotage her, oh wait, just days after losing

his title, the police are actively looking into reports that Prince Andrew tried to dig up dirt on Geoffrey through his police protection order, uh, protection officer, because, you know, that's one of the things that I think he might be giving up, but like all the royal guards and shit that are available to him using his security forces to be like, he is a dumb motherfucker. Yeah. You got to have a cutout. I know this and I haven't been involved in anything shady. Don't go to your regular guy for stuff like that.

You fucking idiot. That interview he gave where he was like, oh, I can't sweat. They were like, you're sweating down. He's like, no, no, no. So sweaty right now. I used to not. I couldn't sweat briefly. Yeah.

I had a brief period where I couldn't sweat. Damn Falklands, man. It was, and there's one of the most insane, and we've been treated to some crazy TV interviews over the last 10 years, but that's got to be top three. Oh, yeah. It's up there. Oh, I mean, that was the one that I was like, oh, yeah, this whole thing is very real, just based on how shook Prince Andrew was and how unable he was to pretend like this wasn't as insane. insane as the whole thing is. I mean, yeah. We'll see it because, I mean, like, meanwhile, like in the U.S., right, we're trying to get

these Epstein files released and the speaker still won't swear in someone who won a congressional seat because they will be like the final signature on the petition that would force a floor vote on releasing all the Epstein files. And I mean, I think along with obviously all the tremendous damage that the shutdown is doing, but I think it's also pretty clear Mike Johnson, this has, it serves two purposes too. It prevents or at least slows down the revelations potentially that would come out from any kind of, you know, release of the files. I will say, and I know we've been talking about it probably longer than you guys wanted

to, but I think people also need to kind of be realistic about what the Epstein files actually means, because I keep seeing online people like, where's the list, where's the files? It's not like there's one document. There's not like some PDF. Did you see the list? Yeah, that the CIA has got in a vaults that'll get released, you know, when the Congress takes a vote on it. It's like there's a collection of evidence of criminal wrongdoing that is from disparate sources, most of which I'm assuming has been destroyed by now. You know, like I would be shocked if it had adequately been archived or kept safe somewhere at this point.

I mean, I also don't trust the United States government to release a bunch of evidence that would potentially disrupt. up to the, like, the power structure of the entire country. Of course, right. And I think people do need to go, like, we've got quite a lot of stuff to work with. Like, if you don't kind of, if you haven't been provided with enough evidence already, I don't know that there's something coming that's going to convince you. Yeah, I think that's where just, we've said this in the past, too, I think both people on the left and the right, they, you know, people on the left or liberals think that this will be like,

and that'll be it for Trump once the Epstein files. come. It's like, yeah, they're going to release the thing that means that's a wrap for no. It's not. And whatever do they, we're not going to get that. And also the Republicans and conservatives are not going to get like Barack Obama's sex party mix tape as part of the Epstein files either. But I think at the end of the day, come on, Miles. I mean, the most sense of Christmas, just Christmas adventure. The most sort of potent or at least moving thing was just hearing all of the survivors speak in front of the Capitol. And from I'm curious what they have to say also because I think that is also very powerful bit of testimony that it's about them ultimately right and it does we all lose sight of that but it's like the reason this is such a big deal is because there's victims and some of those victims are here and they're talking and yeah yeah the focus should definitely be on them I mean one of the women that was speaking was you know like introduced to Trump as a model in London and then he that I remember like I forget which English paper was.

They, they sort of described her moving to New York as being installed in one of these. She was installed in one of his apartments. And you're like, oh, guys, that, oh, okay. There's a lot. I don't know, I'm not a big language person, but that, that does a lot of, informs a lot of what you're saying by saying someone was installed. You're supposed to have two different verbs to describe an HVAC system going in and a person moving in. Yeah. That's right.

We've got different words for those things. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be, like, I think a big part of the power of it is watching them react to it and watching them trip over themselves to be like, never heard of her. What, the Epstein files? Yeah, I don't, the words that you're saying actually,

like, don't even make sense to my brain right now, man. Like, why are people still talking about him? He's dead. I love that it feels like there was a talking point at one point where they were like, okay so one of the things we can try is just saying he's dead there was bill gates yeah right bill gates but also trump trump has bill gates did that and that was like one of the weirdest things anyone said about epstein die he's like i don't know he's dead so uh why are you still asking me about it yeah that sounds like someone whom yeah sounds like the bad guy in a

movie do you know more no but he's dead so what's the what's the problem so let's keep it moving and then trump like broke that out was like i don't know why we're still talking about this guy been dead for years, wasn't that consequential while living. It was like, wow, wow. Yeah. The leader should have been. I mean, I don't think you'll get anything more definitive than the leader. I think the other thing, well, you've heard members of Congress keep referencing these

photos of Trump with like half-naked women or like naked women. And when Pam Bondi, you had to go to a Senate hearing was asked that directly, she just milked her way out of that one. Yeah. And actually, the best point I saw someone bring up, I think, is part of those. congressional hearings was, are you going to, because the letter was released by the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, which means if it's fake, someone infiltrated basically the state and forged a document with the sitting president's signature on it, and sat on that for ages and

then release it to the media, and they were like, are you going to seek prosecution of whoever fraudulently created this letter if it's a fake? And it's like, oh yeah, I didn't think of that. I guess we should. I guess if he's saying it's fake, I guess we should do that. Good point. Good point. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to do that too. We're going to get to the bottom of this. But I feel like with Prince, Andrew, what we're seeing is, you know, a creaky old institution? Like, what would happen if these leaders didn't have the entire force of U.S. imperialism and capitalism, like, trying to protect them? If it was just like somebody who was a part of the royal family where, like, the people who work in the palace are just like, to talk shit about the royal family and, like, spill secrets? You're underestimating the most noble order of the garter, I think. You're doing so at your peril. All right, let's take a quick break.

We'll be right back. The Big Take Podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout?

There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her.

From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In early 1988, federal agents raced to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia.

We had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and, You know, David. But what they find is not what they expected. Basically, your stay-at-home moms were picking up these large amounts of heroin. They go, is this your daughter? I said yes. They go, oh, you may not see her for like 25 years.

Caught between a federal investigation and the violent gang who recruited them, the women must decide who they're willing to protect and who they dare to betray. Once I saw the gun, I try to take his hand, and I saw the flash of light. Listen to the Chinatown Sting on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz. And I'm Mark and Delicado.

You might know us as Hilda and Justin from Ugly Betty. We played mother and son on the show, but in real life, we're best friends. And I'm all grown up now. Welcome to our new podcast, Viva Betty! Yay! Woo-hoo! Can you believe it has been almost 20 years? That's not even possible.

Well, you're the only one that looks that much different. I look exactly the same. We're re-watching the series from start to finish and getting into all the fashions, the drama, and the behind-the-scenes moments that you've never heard before. You're going to hear from guests like America Ferreira, Vanessa Williams, Michael Yuri, Becky Newton, Tony Plana, and so many more. icons each and every one.

All of a sudden, like, someone, like, comes running up to me, and it's Salma Hayek. And she's like, you are my ugly bitchy. And I was like, what is she even talking about? Listen to Viva Betty as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We're back. We're back. And a real quick update that Kim Kardashian has a new product or had a new product on the market that was sold out. Sold out in moments.

A few minutes, as she says. Yeah, as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. And Kim Kay must have needed a bunch of pubs recently because last week she dropped a line of what she calls faux hair micro string thongs on the world, aka fake pubs. A.k.a. a Merkin. Okay. Volcher gave a brief history of the Merkin in their write-up because I was like, yeah, I was always like, that's the thing in a movie, so they can just have the pubes there. But no, Merkins were first developed in 1450, per the Oxford companion to the body, and were created so that women could shave off pubic lice without sacrificing that fabulous bush.

And then sex workers continued that for the same reason through the 17th century. So, well, I think most people have been able to deal with pubic lice in our modern. era. But I guess everything moves in cycles. And Kim said she had a light bulb idea on a set one day. She said, quote, that was just a fun idea that I had. This is just so funny. Let's talk about a murkin. That was just a fun idea that I had. There was a shoot and someone wanted to like have their down, have hair down there once. And I was like, couldn't this just be easy and have it on a thong? And so we made that happen. I had no idea would get that reaction and sell out in a few minutes. What a fun little idea. I was picturing like actual underwear with like hair stuffed

in the front, but it seems like it's actually like the micro thong of it all. It's like invisible string that's just holding it in place. Holding the murkin in place. Got it. Okay. Now like using duct tape like the old days, you know, like our ancestors had to. I'm taking a position to this of like, why not? Yeah. You know what? Porcena los dos. Shaved or not, porcena los dos. You know? Have a two pay down there. You know what I mean? If the mood strikes and you say, you know what? Maybe I'm aware of this one backwards today. Do a little cotton tail. Is it cold out? Yeah. Let me just, let me just toss this on. But I mean, I'm sure everybody's dying to look like me and have a big bush of hair in the back there. Yeah. They call you Jackie Cottontail. Jackie Cottaintail.

That's right. Twitch my little bunny tail. Oh, God. But I mean, unlike Elon, one of our other great inventors. She actually follows through when she mentions something, like the nipple bra, when she was like, you know, we're also going to do. Nipple bra is pretty genius. Nipple, giving you that, that peak Rachel from Friends look. You know what I mean? Also in pierced, if you want pierced or unpierced nipple bra, she had that. And then the other thing that she came up with this face bra that is truly, part of me is like, this is brilliant because this is probably made for 14 cents and you're selling it for like $60 probably. Yeah. So the margins are insane, but you're basically-

It's the thigh of a pony, or sorry, it's the thigh of panty hose, like that basically, with ear holes cut out for some reason. It's a knee, it's like a neoprene knee brace. Yes. With a big face hole and some ear holes cut into it for sure. Are you supposed to wear that out? I think it's supposed to train your face to stay in that position, which I don't think is how faces or physics works. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know what that would do in terms of improving your face over time. I'm trying to, I'm looking at the photo and I'm supplanting on top of that, the biology and physics. And I'm going, what is the end result of wearing panty hose? We're being told it's a night-dying thing. Okay, good to know. Yeah, yeah. Which, you got to, it's got to tighten the face and improve your facial contouring. You know, that's it.

It's that easy. Yeah. Just chew gum. I reckon chewing gum would probably be more effective. Get your jaw line popping. Yeah. Remember, who was it? There was that alpha male?

There was that fucking weird thing where they were doing that to try and make their faces more caveman face. We're like, dudes are chew, like, just chew this thing. Get your fucking jaw muscles all freaked out. I do 20 burpees every morning. And then I do 30 eyebrow lifts where I just, like, do my eyebrows up and down. And it actually gives me that chromagnum. muscular forehead. Hell yeah.

Hell yeah. Oh, yeah. It was the thing of just moving your jaw out a little bit over and over again. Oh, yeah. I had seen some of those videos. I'm like, that's crazy stuff. Can I ask you guys a quick question? We've had this phenomenon in New Zealand.

When I was a teenager at high school, so I'm 38 years old now. I was born in 87. And when I was in high school, like teenagers did not go to the gym. There would be like maybe two students in my high school of a thing. students who would go to the gym and they were like kind of elite athletes trying to get into some crazy team. You played football if you were one of the gym in my day. But now it seems like pretty widely widespread that the kids, the teens are going to the gym.

Is that in America as well? And also, did you guys have the same thing back in the day where it wasn't that common, but like now it is? I'd say yeah. I'd say it's gone. from being a thing that like the various sports teams were like in the gym lifting weights and now it feels like everybody like there's a whole you know subculture of people who like are working out and like focusing on their macros and like you know just figuring figuring out like

300 grams of protein a day so that I beef mixing yeah yeah you don't have to be on the football team. You just have to listen to Joe Rogan. I don't like it, man. I hate to say it. I listen to a podcast yesterday where they're going through like a dude who researches the social habits of teenagers essentially and he was like, you know, kids aren't partying

anymore, teens aren't partying anymore. And I'm like, fuck man, I know it's good that they're off booze, this generation coming up, but we might need to get them a little bit back on booze. A little wobbly. The cost something. The flip side is too much.

Like, it's just this generation that's riddled with anxiety that is struggling to socially connect with each other because they were, you know, in our country, at least, like big time, lockdown during the COVID period during that really important time. That's the, that's the double-edged sword of, you know, what social meet are not even double. It's it. It's fucking people up. I mean, it's the amount of fitness influencers, too, that kids see from a young age where they're like, oh, this is. Because I remember, like, if you were muscle bound, like, when I was 10 years old, you were a wrestler or you were like a fucking football player. Even the basketball players weren't, like, jacked like that. And anyone you were like who was quote unquote, like the cute men of the era weren't ripped dudes.

They were just kind of like these little skinny, floppy-haired guys or whatever. They were non-threatening effeminate dudes. Thank God. As a man who was 510 and, you know, 65KG soaking wet, thank God that was the case. Yeah, so I think a lot of it, too, is just, you know, the, it's just the normalization of, like, the gym talk kind of content and just seeing all these dudes starting to take fucking human growth hormone or fucking testosterone, like, and... That's, yeah, it's crazy because I feel like we vanquished some version of this where we had that incredibly damaging celebrity magazine culture where it was like, you know, heroin chic, where being incredibly skinny was put on the front of every magazine cover. But we've sort of, I guess we'll just always have some version of this, like horrible messaging to the kids. Right.

But I don't know, man. It does seem like, I guess on the scale of things, a Merkin from Kim Kaye, fine, whatever. Yeah. Can I wear it on my head? That's right. I'm going to get one from my head. Yeah. What about that?

Yeah. It's called a toupee, man. They exist. Yeah, but if it looks like pubs, that's got to be off-putting. You got three Merkins just like striping your head kind of? Dude, what would it look like? If I wore three Merkins on my bald head. Just I can go out one day.

Or his eyebrows, two Merkins of his eyebrows. Just plain staying alive as I walk down the street, like the fucking beginning of Saturday fever, just with my Merkin head. Wagling the eyebrows. That's why I was doing those eyebrow lifts, man. Got to have power. Yeah, I do think it's a good point. Like, it also everyone, like, we talked about this article and linked off to it last year called

Everyone is Beautiful, Nobody is Horny, or like, nobody's having sex, and it's just about how, like, these, every movie star looks like they spend 20 hours a week working out. Like, and it doesn't, it's not just action movies. It's every type of movie. Like, there used to be different body types. And now it's just like, everyone, you get famous for being. like Chris Pratt got famous for being like a sort of every man type, you know, he was like the pudgy dude in Parks and Rec and then he got shredded and now he's like really ripped. Which not to throw shade, but yeah, considering the obesity statistics in America of the general

population, it's just becoming like increasingly, it's kind of like the wealth divide, right? Like, there is just an increasingly concentrated and divided gap between most people, like, you know, 90% of people and the 0.1% that are either in the movies or have all the money. Right. All right. We need to get to the Christmas Adventures Club guys, because I do think it ties in really well with what we've already been talking about here, which. So the movie, one battle after another, suggests there's a secret, seems like all-male, white supremacist organization controlling the government at the, It's called the Christmas Adventures Club. And, yeah, as we said, no question as to whether or not there's a real world Christmas

Adventures Club. The question is mainly which of several groups inspired it. So I assumed this is like such a Thomas Pinchon idea based on like, you know, the amount of Gravity's Rainbow that I've been able to get through about 200 pages, you know. And then crying of lot 49. Thank you for doing the one short one, Thomas Pinchon. But it's such a Thomas Pinchon idea that it, I assumed it was from Vineland because, like, he loosely based on Vineland. But this is a Paul Thomas Anderson original and is, but like kind of inspired in spirit by the work of Pinchon.

The first one that jumped to my mind is John Birch Society, which was this far right anti-communist group that people are generally like talk about more as an antecedent. to, like, QAnon these days and not something that's, like, actively out there, although people, like, at their peak, I think they had 100,000 dues-paying members, 60 full-time staff, and, you know, were just focused on, it was, they were basically, like, we're here to fight communists at a time when America was, like, guy that was killed in China, right? It's, like, named after a guy who would, like, I think a missionary or someone who was killed over there. Yeah. And it was at a time when America was hallucinating communists everywhere. And so they

had a nice little run there, but seemed to have died out. There's also, Paul Thomas Anderson has been into masons. There's like a bunch of Freemasons symbols in the movie Magnolia, which, you know, with specifically the talk show host, I don't know if you guys are Magnolia fans. I haven't seen it in a long time. When I saw it, I loved it so much that I made my dad go see it with me. When he came and visited me in college, and he immediately was like, are you on drugs?

Like, what the fuck is going on with you? Why would you think I like that? But there's Mason, Mason reshit all over, like, symbolism all over the place, which... Also, there is a Freemasons Lodge on the corner of Vineland and Magnolia. There you go.

How about that? Yeah, somebody who grew up in North Hollywood. I'm like, yeah, there's a lodge right there. Freemasonry, I will say, oftentimes when you, like, start digging in, doing research on that, it gets real anti-Semitic real quick. Like, the Freemason conspiracies are like, and you know who runs the new world order. When you, like, dig deep enough, it usually gets pretty anti-Semitic. That Magnolia was, I think, one of the best movies ever co-written by cocaine.

Like, you know, and he seems like, he's like, yeah, I don't know. no, I just like heard the idea and I was kind of interested in it. I'm actually really looking forward to doing a deep dive into the, into, uh, free masonry. And it's like as the movie is coming out. Right, right. The one that makes the most sense is the mysterious elite, all-male gathering, known as Bohemian Grove. Mm-hmm. Started with like artists and journalists and was immediately taken over as most things. that America are by, like, the powerful elite.

Like Burning Man, you know? Yeah, exactly, exactly. We're witnessing this exact same thing. Artists getting wild, and now Peter Thiel is doing deals with some government in a trailer there, yeah. We just have to wait for Burning Man to soon become invite only, and Peter Thiel, you know, controls the guest list. But, yeah, between rituals that are, you know, very strange, involve, like, the burning of,

I think an owl one. Some effigy. Yeah, Alex Jones taped that once. He like Alix Dren's greatest hit. Yeah. This was back when Alex Jones was not just, you know, a right wing reactionary and was just like, that's weird that all those people go up there and meet. I'm going to go

and get some footage of it. But it has the actual like pedigree. It's pretty much acknowledged that they hatched the idea for the Manhattan project there. Cool. Okay. All right. So they're getting shit done. Go on. Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon decided who was going to run for president first there at a

Bohemian Grove. Like they're just there planning the world, like dealing out the presidency, like it's a hand of cards, basically. They're like, all right, you first. Members have included every Republican president since Calvin Coolidge, current participants, include George Bush, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, David Rockefeller, and I think some of those people are dead now, but at the time of the reporting. And let's not forget, remember when the Clarence Thomas, Clarence Thomas likes to take. Because Harlan Crow was like, hey, Supreme Court Justice. Yeah, why don't you come through to just a group of like-minded individuals here? Journalists not allowed anymore, but people who own media companies sure are.

It's a type of journalist. Former CEO of Times Mirror Corporation, William Randolph Hearst, of course, Jack Howard and Charles Scripps of the Scripps Howard, newspaper chain, Tom Johnson, president of CNN. Yeah, just a lot of people who, and they were also just sued by three Bohemian Grove employees, which I, of course they have employees. Like, I never, I always pictured it would just be like them like blindfolding a pianist, you know, who like comes up there. Right, right, right. But apparently there are people who, like, work on the grounds, and they sued, three of them sued Bohemian Grove for violating California labor laws. One employee claimed that he was mocked by club members for complying with a request from famous billionaire William Koch to hand wash his underwear. So that's the sort of vibes.

I don't know. Mocking the staff for following through with a humiliation request from a billionaire. Part of me is like, it's obviously on brand to exploit the people giving you their labor at your place. I'm like, of course they would be. But also for a secret society, like maybe you'd, you know, pay a better wage to try and get some silence out of people. Absolutely. Just be better at this, you know? Like, dot the eyes and cross the teeth.

It's never been their strong suit, guys. Never been their strong suit to in any respect ever pay anyone a living wage. Yeah, they're like, what? We'll threaten them with death. They've specifically been responsible for hatching racist government policies, including in 1877 when the club's president gave a speech in which he argued that non-assimilated races couldn't live together in harmony unless one enslaved the other. And since slavery had recently become unconstitutional, the next best thing was to keep Chinese people out. And that led directly to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Like, that's where they come up.

That's where they like design racism. It's crazy that this information is just out in the world. Yeah, right, right? Yeah. I mean, they do their very best for it not to be. Because then people read it, they're like, it can't be that. It's that these other people are getting together and doing this where there's no documentation of it.

It can't be the thing that's well documented. Right. QAnon is essentially, yeah, like people like point at, like, gesture at this with the conspiracies they come up with. But they're having to invent facts when there is, like, documented facts of all of these things. Yeah, yeah. The, I mean, the John Birch thing, too, is, I mean, like, to your point, their whole thing was about conspiracy theories and, like, real wacky shit. And when the conservatives were like, well, we can, like, align with them a bit to get them on our side, like, that proximity just ended up is really, like, the poisoning of the party, too.

Like, that's, again, how that thing evolves into then full-blown QAnon stuff because you have enough of this John Birch. society ethos just swirling around the party. And, yeah, eventually the John Bridge Society didn't really go away. It just became the modern Republican Party in many ways. I think you can track that, that whole phenomenon through watching, like, Alex Jones across the last three decades, because he used to, he's never a good guy, but he used to be a different guy. Yeah, a different kind of guy.

He was like a very much, like, everyone can get fucked, like everyone in government is against you, everyone associated with both the Republican and Democratic Party is, you know, vying for one world government. Like, he was a real pox on both their houses, dude, right up until Trump came down the elevator.

And it is kind of like a very specific boiling down of like a lot of complex forces. You can watch it, you know, a version of it all happen in Alex Jones aligning with the Republican Party and actually getting behind a politician.

and him getting in and then like watching kind of both sides of that wager fuck themselves and have to settle and sort of sell themselves out like both the Republican Party as it sort of does this Faustian bargain to court conspiracy theorists

to become a voting block for them and then the conspiracy theorists who then have to be like we're pro government now kind of. We love the president? You know the guys we told you not to trust you know with your children forever and They were like reptilian shapeshifters who were trying to steal your blood and take your guns off you.

Well, you also need to vote for them now and get all your friends and neighbors to as well. It's an uncomfortable partnership that the Epstein thing, like, that is where the Epstein thing is, like, so dangerous to Trump and, like, his legacy is that, like, it's the most clear evidence that, like, he's exactly the type of person you guys are talking about. Yeah. Right. The documented evidence that is being withheld that allegedly may or may not implicate him in the very scheme that you guys have been. I've read a lot of articles that implicate him. We're all trying to find the guy who did this.

That's right. Yeah, exactly. Tim Bat, such a pleasure having you on the Daily Zekegeist. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? Tim underscore Bair, I am pretty sure, is my Instagram. There will be some glorious stand-up clips coming out soon because I'm getting back on the wagon after a couple of years off the circuit, raising my kids. My kids are now old enough where they can fend for themselves. So back in the comedy world.

And Guy and I are actually right about to release in maybe a couple of weeks from now a brand new season of the worst idea of all time for the first time in quite a while. And a little bit of an exclusive for you guys. What we're doing this time is we moved ourselves into. New Zealand's only full-time comedy club and watched Joker 2 14 times and kept reviewing it and it's a thing that we call method film reviewing where you sort of enter the world of the film

to properly critique the film. I haven't seen it once. And you needn't. I do need to listen to that season. Yeah, I'm going to listen to this podcast. I don't need to see Folly, I do. I'm amazed. Do you know the name, Miles?

It took me like four watches to get the title, You're like, wait, what's this one again? Is there a work of media that you've been enjoying? Oh, yeah, this is good that we can end on a bit of a lighter note. There's an Instagram account that my algorithm has learned I enjoy very much. It would have pops up. So I'm kind of getting, you know, like all sorts of nasty stuff. And then this one genre of video will come up and lighten my load.

I don't know how to pronounce this account at A-M-O-E-B-A-M-O-B-A-M-O-B. Amoeba-M-M-A-M-B. And I think, and I don't even know 100% if these are the guys making the videos or if they're just sharing them on their account, but it is, it'll come in with like a thirst-trap video of a hot girl doing something, and then about three seconds into it, there'll be a screech of an eagle, the guitar solo from Freebird, Leonard Skinner, comes in, And then it's just about trains and how fucking awesome trains are. And it's just train gifts and it's awesome.

It's so good. That's so funny. Miles, where can people find you? Is there a work of media you've been enjoying? Yeah, find me everywhere at Miles of Gray. Find me talking about 90-day fiancé on 420-day fiancé. One post I like at Ryan hates this.biscite.com. Posted just a little screen cap of it looks like maybe it's from

wired. It says, can AI avoid the inshittification trap? And Ryan, quote, posted, can the Manhattan Project avoid building the nuclear bomb? Oh, shit. That's amazing. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien and on blue sky at Jack O'B, the number one working media I've been enjoying. I have been enjoying the chair company, the Tim Robinson show on HBO. We're two episodes in, and episode two really uh really got my ass man oh shit i highly recommend getting on board now just a a gift factory my tim robinson fan friends are just they're like we got a new batch you can find us on twitter and blue sky at daily zeitgeist we're at the daily zeitgeist on instagram you can go to the

description of this episode wherever you're listening to it and there at the bottom you will find the footnotes Which is where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode. We also link off to a song that we think you might enjoy. Hey, Miles, is there a song you think that people might enjoy? Yes, actually. Okay, so I don't, do you remember around January 6th, or around, when January 6 happened, there was someone who posted a thing because this, like, artist named Matthew Paluso was trying to promote their album, like, on that day, but she's not American.

And so someone was like, everyone was like, quote tweeting this. to like, Nathi Paluso, get out of the Capitol. Because that is Nancy Pelosi. Well, Brian, the editor sent me, like, one of her tracks, and he was like, I don't know if you heard Nathy Paluso, but this one track kind of goes hard. And it sort of does. It's called Sana Sana. And it sounds like a Tyler the Creator slash Farrell collaboration type beat.

And just off the instrumental alone, I was like, oh, this is interesting. Now, I have no idea what she's about outside of just that one tweet. so forgive me if she's controversial, whatever. But this is Nathi Peluso with Sana Sana. All right, we will lick off to that in the footnotes. The Daily Zykeyes is a production of I-Hart Radio for more podcasts from I-HartRadio visit, the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for us this morning, back this afternoon to tell you what is trending,

and we will talk to you all then. Bye. Bye. The Daily Zykeyes is executive produced by Catherine Long. Co-produced by Bay Way. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Written by J.M. McNabb. Edited and engineered by Justin Conner.

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