The Daily Zeitgeist - New Variant Same Problems, McConaughey Out 11.30.21

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

In episode 1039, Jack and Miles are joined by Taz Ahmed to discuss WE ARE STILL IN A PANDEMIC MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES, McConaughey - na I’m good, Tis The Season For Another Probably Bullshit Food Map and more! WE ARE STILL IN A PANDEMIC MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES McConaughey - na I’m good Tis The Season For Another Probably Bullshit Food Map Listen: Kokopelli - Bug Mane Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti and I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career.

That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the

making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 213, episode 2 of Dear Daily Zeitgeist!

A production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness, and it's Tuesday, November 30th, 2021, which of course means, Miles, it is... I mean, look, it's Stay Home Because You're Well Day, Because, I mean, look, it's Stay Home Because You're Well Day, National Personal Space Day, National M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I Day, Mississippi Day, and National Mason Jar Day. A little bit of something for everybody. And National Meth Awareness Day. Meth Awareness.

Yeah. Okay. I don't know what Stay Home Because You're Well Day is. That seems like something I would have made up as a high schooler. Right. Like play hooky day? National thermometer against the lamp day? Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, or I would do is I would take a little bit of tea.

You know, like you have a little hot water in your mouth, and then use that to bring the temp up just to the right point, and then you take it out anyway. For all you kids out there around tea kettles, I get out of school. Professional. All right. Well, my name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. Nothing Compares.

Nothing Compares to Spruce. That is courtesy of Marky Markerilius talking about some Christmas trees. Some Christmas trees. Oh. Some Christmas trees. And I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray! Hey, it's Miles Gray. Oh, man. I wish, well, it's I, Hideo Noho, back on the airwaves.

I was traveling, you know, I was in New York. It was cool to wear a jacket so i think i'm still kind of riding that high of wearing winter clothing yeah so you'll have to forgive me for a lack of an ak because i see the discord is popping with them so rest assured i will come back strong we will get to you well miles we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat once again by a brilliant and talented political strategist, storyteller, and artist who has performed her poetry on stages everywhere, including, I don't know, the White House. Please welcome Taz Ahmed!

Hi, y'all. How's it going? What's up? Going well. How you doing? I'm still feeling that, like, post-Thanksgiving lethargy, so. Oh, yeah. You'rehargy. Oh yeah. You're telling me. Like my body's slow. And I didn't even really eat a formal Thanksgiving.

I went to a restaurant, but I had, they had a Thanksgiving like meal that you could have got there. But I was like, I just want stuffing and gravy. So I just said, can I just get that as a side to my other meal? So I ate a lot of stuff.

I got that. We went to Lucille's the day after Thanksgiving because we didn't have cornbread. And then all of a sudden we're like, oh, we need to eat cornbread now. Right. So it was just like a gluttonous. Oh, and then I made cheesecake last night. So it's just been a gluttonous weekend. Where are you at right now?

You with your family? I'm at my dad's house. He lives in the suburbs of Ontario. Cheesecake is really easy to make, but I've been trying to come up with my twist on it. So that's been kind of fun. Right. When you say Ontario, you mean like Ontario, like California?

Yeah. Okay. I was like, you're not in Canada, right? Okay. Yeah. I'm not crossing borders yet. No. Shout out to Ontario Mills.

Ontario Mills? Ontario Airport? Yeah. I thought that you could only Ontario Mills? Ontario Airport? Yeah. I thought that you could only make cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. I thought they had like a trademark on that. I didn't know that was a home-makeable thing. Oh, my gosh. If you look at your Philadelphia bar, the cheesecake, cream cheese.

Okay, I'm pulling it up right here. It always has a recipe in it. Yep, there it is. There it is. Oh, look at that. I'll keep one in my pocket. Right there. How many blocks do you need? Keep one me as they say yeah how many blocks do you typically need for like one cheesecake i've never made it's so funny i love cheesecake

never even attempted to make it never even watched someone make it but i used one one box for thisco but here's okay so this is like my little background. Like there's this Bengali dessert. My family's from Bangladesh. Bengalis are known for sweets. There's this Bengali dessert called Ras Malai which has like a lot of cardamom and saffron. So I've been trying to like make Ras Malai fusion desserts every Thanksgiving.

So last year I made a Ras Malai Tres Leches. That was amazing. So it was just like Tres leches with saffron and cardamom and then this year i wanted to try to do a saffron cardamom cheesecake and it worked i'm pretty impressed with myself i'm just gonna keep riding this fusion wave yeah why not baking i mean straight to the bank what's how was the uh fusion tres leches how was that how did that oh my god it was so good i'll send you all did that turn out? Oh, my God. It was so good.

I'll send you all the recipe. It was delicious. It's my favorite. My favorite. Hey, if you ever see me in the street and you want to get me something, put a tres leches in front of my face and I will smile. I think I want to try the flan next. See if I can figure that out. Yeah.

Or like a creme brulee, too. Mm-hmm. I'm just going to keep talking about dessert. I'm talking like somebody who didn't eat enough Thanksgiving food on Thanksgiving. And now we're the start of the holiday season. We're going to be eating throughout. Yeah, I know. I know. What else are we going to do?

I'm just picturing Miles being led around by his nose with his feet like an inch off the ground with some tress leches like a cartoon right away yeah yeah so are you were back home is this where you grew up are you back in the yeah yeah i grew up in the suburbs of la i went to ontario high school i went to la colleges in la but i would always come back on the weekends yeah it was kind of hard for the pandemic because i wasn't coming back to see my dad as often my dad lives here now in this house so i wouldn't come back during the pandemic but this is this was like the first thanksgiving where it felt kind of normal in like two years yeah it was still kind of scary too like we hung out but we were like hanging out outside with my cousins right right right yeah there's still i mean yeah there's still a level of edginess to it all despite you know vaccinations and you know infection rates going up and down it's always

at a constant hum in the background how are your thanksgivings i know this is on tuesday but i still gotta keep talking about i mean I mean, mine was fine. Again, New York, city of dreams, the green apple. It's true that everything in New York isn't always what it seems, right? Yeah, exactly. Okay. I just want to make sure that was still true. With the dog pound gangster click. But yeah, it's, I had a great time. I was there for a wedding. Shout outs to Jacqueline Scott. Congratulations on your wedding. That was also very, that was like a trip too, to just like kind of do like some normal thing again but other than that great time great time yeah i i we did thanksgiving dinner outdoors alfresco and i was in charge of the turkey so it took too long and so

by the time we were eating it was very out, but the turkey was very good. I both dry and wet brined it. Oh! Not in that order, which would have been a problem. Hey, Jack O'Briening over here? Yeah, yeah. It was like very last minute. I realized that we had ordered a bunch of sides and had not figured out what we were going to do for the main thing.

Literally the night before. I got like a nine pound turkey and was like, all right, this will do. What did you use for the brine? So we have some rosemary in the backyard. We have a lemon tree in the backyard. So I just did some rosemary and lemon and some fresh thyme and then just a shitload of salt and water and you know boiled it up let it cool was up until like one in the morning the night before doing it because it was you know i i figured out i was doing it at like 10 o'clock as all foods was closing so very well it's all about preparation yeah i'm bad at that so it was it was a bit of a mess and we didn't have a kosher salt so i used himalayan salt so for a while the turkey was like bright

pink uh which was kind of weird people are like okay is this cooked but then yeah cooked down it was good it was nice yeah and i'm i'm glad to hear that even though it was delayed, it came out more succulent than even you could have hoped. That's my favorite line from Seinfeld. Yeah. Describing the duck. It was more succulent than even I could have hoped. And shout out to Sharon. My mom, we once again used her sweet potato crunch recipe.

My mom, we once again used her sweet potato crunch recipe. It's one of those like old school 70s recipes. It's just like various, you know, grocery items mixed together. But it's fucking bomb. Love it. Hits every time. All right. And we have my in-laws here. And it was fun.

We also had some Korean beef along with the turkey. So it was really good. You gotta love the Thanksgiving table that has like different we had biryani also on thanksgiving so we had turkey during the daytime and then dinner was like biryani it's funny though too like my mom she's japanese she'll be like do you like as a kid be like should i make a turkey and i'm like well i mean you could make like some other japanese stuff as long again i like, just have the stuffing and the mashed potatoes and we could fusion this shit up however we need to. Seriously. All right, Taz, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment.

First, we're going to tell our listeners a couple of the things we're talking about. We're going to just check in with where we're at in the pandemic. We got the new variant, you know, all that good stuff. So we're going to just how how do we feel? What, how should we feel? What, what are we, what's the signal in the noise, all that shit. Matthew McConaughey says, nah, I'm good about running for Texas governor. So we're going to, you know, just congratulate him on that wise decision. It is of course a holiday season, congratulate him on that wise decision. It is, of course, a holiday season, the holiday season for many. Christmas is upon us. You know, we all did the Mariah Carey Thanksgiving evening change into

a peppermint candy themed outfit at midnight. So we're going to we're going to ask the question, what are America's favorite Christmas candies by state? nope you know it's it's every holiday we have to look at a probably apocryphal chart claiming that every state has a has wildly differing candy preferences this one's actually boring enough that it might be true yeah so we'll talk about that all of that plenty more but first we do like to ask our guest Taz what is something from your search history you know I was cooking a lot this weekend so for my search history it's a lot of recipes a lot of googling of different types of fusion foods I made a list I was trying to figure out what was I mean I think oh besides you know Thanksgiving related searches the other thing that I've been like really digging into I'm really into

Moorish architecture right now so I definitely went into the the rabbit hole looking for different buildings in LA that were inspired by this Islamic Moorish they call it Moorish revival and it happened actually actually it happened because when they used to have the world fair by this Islamic Moorish, they call it Moorish revival. And it happened actually, actually it happened because when they used to have the World Fair out in Chicago, they used to bring, have like an example Taj Mahal-ish architecture thing. And then people would come to the World Fair

and then say, I want that house. And then they would make it. So this was like, I'm really into this because i was working writing a script where my characters get really involved with orientalist tropes that you see in palm springs and in the the desert out there so then i i jumped into it okay i will say one of the if you i i know you're both in la if you haven't been to the Glendale Library yet, the Glendale Library was actually a house that,

I feel like his name is Brand. You know, the Brand family, they started Glendale. And he had this Moorish architecture castle built out in the mountains of Glendale. And if you go now, it's just kind of like, it looks like a library that's like inside a mosque. It's fascinating to just, I don't know, for me as a Muslim woman in L.A., I didn't realize like we have this kind of connections to Islamic architecture around Los Angeles. So that is my rabbit hole that I've been digging into. Oh, yeah.

Because now I'm like I was first like Googling like Moorish revival architecture. But I'm like now that I see the Glendale,'m like oh yeah the glendale library okay to try and put it in our listeners mind like what what are features of moorish architecture it's kind of like over the top because it's not really how architecture is in india or iran or wherever these kinds of pieces are being inspired from. It's like the white imagination of the Orient, which is my fascination of it. Because it's kind of like, I think the way that I've been thinking about it is like growing up as a Muslim girl in Southern California, the mosques we would go to were like in these strip malls because that was what our community could afford. like in these strip malls because that was what our community could afford yet here you have like these luxurious homes with moroccan detail right domes arches and that was just like their home

and i i like seeing where that contradiction is that like gray space between the two yeah right and yeah like that's like sort of like you were saying i didn't realize there was like that sort of like chinoiserie like orientalism stuff happening in palm springs i have to look closer but yeah it's always oh my gosh it's so deep in palm springs there's the city of mecca which used to be called something else and they changed it to the city of mecca because the u.s department of agriculture they brought in dates from the Middle East, basically, to grow. This was back in the turn of the century. So they were like trying to figure out like how to make the desert a farming land.

So they brought in these dates. They started farming dates out in the desert. They renamed the city a city to Mecca. They renamed, you know, this beach along the salton sea they called it bombay beach because they thought that would make it look like exotic right indio right indio county wow it's like india but it's masculine right but indio high school their mascot is are the rajas or the or something like that. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Coachella has the mascot of the Arabs. I don't know. They're just like this. I'm just really fascinated by all of that. Right. Of the Western gays. Mm hmm. Yeah.

They even have a date festival where they, you know, how they have like those pageants. They have a pageant where they the winner is called the Queen. Queen Sharazad is the name of the pageant winner. OK winner is called the queen queen shahrazad is the name of the pageant winner okay oh well and just i don't know it's just wild i'm just so fascinated by all of this right that's like so entrenched and like people like have doesn't is this just all taken uh just accepted or is anyone kind of looking back in the history and be like oh right i didn't even know i just thought queen shahrazad was just a thing you won and at the at the date festival they used to back in the day for the day festival they used to dress up in orientalist attire and if you go to the date festival still there's they

have like arabia play i don't it's it is pretty it's particularly wild to me because that region of Southern California is deeply Islamophobic. There's been a lot of hate crimes out there yet. So on one hand, it's like deeply Islamophobic. On the other hand, they're like exotifying and right. You know, glorifying the culture or their imagination of culture. Ain't that right? Yeah. Yeah. Shit often. I Ain't that the story of this whole place? Yeah.

I could talk on and on about this. If anyone's interested, just tweet at me. I'm like such a nerd about this kind of stuff. Yeah, that's super interesting. What is something you think is overrated? Pete Davidson. Oh. Not Pete.

What about him? Something should be specific now. Just him dating Kim Kardashian. I think the relationship thing is overrated. I think that shit's fake. You think so? I don't know. It just seems...

It feels like a Netflix algorithm relationship. Like an algorithm was like, you know what would turn the fucking internet up put pete davidson with kim kardashian uh there's like just such a energy around it that i've just like become suspicious of what what their whole thing is but yeah there is a theory on twitter that chris jenner manufactured this relationship to get eyes off of Travis Scott. But wait, but no, but they were together before the Astroworld thing. She knew it was coming.

Because she also planned that. Yeah, she also planned the Astroworld disaster. Yeah, where's that Twitter thread? Yeah. I do wonder how much is, you know, maybe it's not like externally orchestrated. Maybe it's not externally orchestrated, but if you are very smart at knowing the culture and part of your life is being naturally, magnetically drawn to fame, there's something in her or her mom's mind or Pete Davidson's mind where they're like, okay, this relationship will hit super hard. So like,

therefore I am drawn, like sort of the internalizing of the algorithm, right. As opposed to like the algorithm having to tell them what to do. Right. Whereas like normal people are like, I'm lonely as fuck. I like this person and they like me

back this is great where but when you're in the public eye that's sort of like these third and fourth layers of analysis of like okay now what does this do with my outward persona does this benefit me okay check box that's a step up is it gonna get a lot of people talking and keep me relevant check box and it's like almost the same thing as like, are they caring? Do they listen? But yeah, I mean, yeah. What do you think they talk about, though? Like, I just don't.

I can't imagine what they're having a conversation about. I guess they're not having conversations. I mean, maybe he's really into like legal stuff like she is and they have deep deep debates over you know the state of like our carceral system and things like that or maybe they just bone a lot and just say i love you and realize in a couple months they actually have nothing in common i don't know yeah i mean they're always doing like i guess by this i, I've seen one picture of them on a roller coaster. So that's a good day to go on with someone who you're attracted to, but like don't have a ton to like talk about. You just talk about the roller coaster that you just went on.

That was so fun. Yeah, that was fun. Right. Right. Oh, my God. That one part. Oh, when it dropped. Yeah.

Like I was I was like on the way up. I was less scared. But then when it dropped exactly that was oh my god you too right that was that that was the part that scared me and this is what i'm saying like we have so much in common like this is crazy our comic because again i would love to see a posed photo where she's like, I'm reading Foucault's pendulum. And he's like, and I've got thoughts, too. Like, you know, but I don't know if what, you know, I don't know.

That's a problem with even trying to dissect, like, these sort of celebrity relationships. But I do agree with you. Like, I'm definitely I'm done talking about it. Yeah. In that sense. Whereas I feel like there's a lot of still topics. Funny guys, dude. When this was all in the news last week,

apparently Kim had chartered an airplane for the Afghani soccer team to go to the UK. But that wasn't in the news because people just wanted to talk about Pete Davidson wearing Skims pajama pants. But what Kim did was really great.

That was so wonderful that she chartered that plane for them. So I wonder in that sense if it is real because you're like, it's fucking up the things that Kim is trying to magnify a little bit more about where her career is headed. Where she's trying to be a little more philanthropic and like activist oriented when meanwhile it's like dude look at that fucking hickey he's got dude oh shit and that's all the news but yeah good point multitudes yeah right exactly he's like i will save these kids and i will eat his neck like a vampire. What's something you think is underrated? You know what? I'm like not working right now. Not working in the conventional sense like a lot of

LA folks do. And I think that's underrated. Like this whole like I'm part of this great, what were they calling it? The great resignation. I left my job in March and I've been spending the summer just working on a script and a memoir and writing and making art. And it's been amazing.

I highly recommend if you can figure out a way to just take advantage of this pandemic in that way to not do anything. It's I don't think we spend enough time letting ourselves get bored. I don't think we spend enough time letting ourselves get bored. As an artist, I feel like getting bored is so important for us to let our minds wander and work on art and writing or whatever. And we're just not giving ourselves the space to do that. So getting bored, being creative, taking naps, that is so underrated right now. And I'm here for it. I encourage to to not have things to do yep i didn't mean to tell you this jack but uh trying to have some shit i'm not doing right now so might be it i was just reading an article i

think it was in the american prospect about you know the great resignation and sort of the thresh was like that there's been a lot of like a lot of explanations to say it's because of enhanced benefits or it's because of this or it's safety or whatever and then it's like so i decided to like talk to people and it's all like yo man i work for fucking pet smart because i like pets and i wanted to be a groomer and then they fucking had me working like seven days a fucking week and also like working with dogs who are like like who are prone to epileptic like seizures and things that could harm the dogs or like make

shit sketchy for me i lost my whole fucking joy of shit so i had to fucking stop because the because at that sector especially when you're being paid like lower wages, it just felt like I had no time or dignity or nothing. So I'm fucking off that. And it's like, wow, it's like that. So it's like dignity. It's like the overworking of this, because a lot of these companies that you think of like PetSmart or Petco that are sort of like publicly owned or traded. It's all the very similar ethos of like, man, pay these people nothing. Get the fucking most out of them. It's like, you know, just like how Amazon and like, you know, it's all the very similar ethos of like man pay these people nothing get the fucking most out of them it's like you know just like how amazon and all like you know it's the

norm now and people are really pushing back against that and you know realizing that life is too precious and then for this woman she's like i'm starting my own fucking grooming business because like i don't need to work for them i can do like this. I'll do it for myself and I'll try that at least. So it's interesting. I was incredibly burnt out from working in the political movement and activism space. And I just, you know, like I'm really jealous of people that have access to unions.

I, I, as an organizer, didn't have access to a union to fight for the things that I needed. So I was just like, you know what? Screw it. I'm just going to take a pause, focus on myself, and figure out what I want to do next.

Nice. Yeah. But that's always the best part. Nap ministry. I've been following the nap ministry on Twitter and Instagram. If you don't follow her, she's all about resting. And I'm all about it. Nap ministry?

N-A-P ministry, NAP ministry. That's dope. Have you both not been following her? She's amazing. She's been preaching all about like the importance of napping, which feels silly, but like she talks about it in a like political perspective. I need to hear that.

Well, right, right, right. Of like how it's, I've, I've completely lost sight of like napping in any way. Yeah. I need way. Yeah.

I need to. Okay, I'm following that now. I mean, to this point, I've mostly followed Nas on napping. I never sleep because sleep is a cousin of death. Right. So that's, it's unsustainable. I found that version of that approach to sleep philosophies. But yeah, I mean, this, I'm reading this David Graeber book, The Dawn of Everything, and it's like a history of a retelling of history of prehistoric humans and also encounters between what's come to be called Western culture and other cultures and this version of humanity where humans are deprived of their humanity and their context and put into these market systems that force them to work and do things that they don't want to do. Like all these things that are

absolutely like ingrained into us at a very young age as like being just part of life are actually like very rare. And, you know, when the natives in the Americas like interacted with the French, they had like very like poetic insightful philosophical like critiques of American or of French values that like then got taken by a bunch of you know European intellectuals and like that became the enlightenment but it's largely like they they the thing that they did not accept is like the idea of ownership of anything right like that right they're like wait for that it's a big levels to your shit yeah and then if you don't have nothing like you could you could be like fucked over like that doesn't sound like freedom at all and they're like okay uh sure and they walked away they're like fuck they were right

man we might have to let's don't give them credit don't give them credit though yeah say we thought of this shit even the writers at the time would give them credit and then like other western intellectuals would be like well they just like said that they got those ideas from them but it's actually like clearly them masking those ideas that they have themselves in the mouths of the quote savages. And the other detail I've talked about before, but it's just like brought up again in this book that anytime you had Western cultures interacting with like what they called the savages, the Western like like there would be a huge, you know, problem for Western societies of people fleeing Western cultures and going to live with the non-Western, like what is called going savage. But basically, like nobody wanted, once they saw the two options, nobody wanted to live in the, know european culture right and the only reason that we ended up with the one we've got is because of germs and that's it uh it's not because

of like some superiority or whatever the fuck white supremacists like to believe it was it was really called going savage yeah that's what they call it like there's this letter ben franklin wrote to a friend where he was like we like the main problem that we have in the americas is that it seems like nobody who interacts with like native culture or uh savage culture like wants to continue to live amongst us like they it's just a one way street and we're losing we're losing people constantly and there's no

there's nothing happening the opposite way like everybody is just like fuck this man like when they get a taste of our life they don't want our Christianity they don't want our christianity they don't want our weird fucking fiat currencies what is this what is this shit oh man yeah so it's like the the hater attitude towards it like oh another one dave went savage too right

we got a problem here folks we got a big problem here yeah like even people who were like kidnapped in battle you know raised with with the tribe that kidnapped them and like killed their family they would come back to western culture and like maybe last a year and then just like go back because i mean right because it's truly like to wake up you know in our society we wake up and the first thing is like i gotta i have to start doing things to live or i will perish whereas you know and anything that's more communal it's like yep i'm waking up and i know that i'm going to contribute to this group thing. And by doing that, I know other people are acting in reciprocity that it makes the whole thing work because we're all kind of on the same page and not having to sweat all this other stuff and shit. I can only imagine how like, yeah, what what people in our current times, if we gave people like another way or a new way to think about how society could

function i'd be curious to see how you know how those things would move although pretty strong media apparatus to kind of keep those kinds of ideas out of people's minds you know what all this reminds me of it reminds me of those white women that would go to india and then they would find like their rickshaw driver and then get married to the rickshaw driver and then they would just move to India permanently. It kind of reminds me of the hippies, I guess, the white hippies from the 70s that would go to South Asia. What do you think the appeal was for those women in terms of what the mindset was? Yeah, not being a part of western society i guess right i don't know i've always like kind of been like why but right hey there's a whole like 90 day

fiance right isn't that show like based on this kind of like concept yeah i mean there is a woman uh jenny who is trying to marry her uh indian, although he will at every turn find an excuse not to marry her. But spoiler alert, they do. All right, let's take a quick break and we will come back and talk about the pandemic, but probably keep talking about these ideas in the context of that.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again.

Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job?

Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it? Like you miss a hundred percent of the shots you never take. Yeah. Rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil.

I ain't really in here. I just come here to play basketball every single day and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black.

I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network,

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was

kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back.

And we are still in the pandemic. It turns out I was feeling very comfortable having, you know, the relatives around. I got my parents coming out for Christmas. I was like, all right, we're back to normal. But it feels like, you know, there's a new variant. Omicron. Is that it?

Am I pronouncing that right? I don't even know. Omicron. Omicron. Omicron. Omicron sounds like it was on the list of names that the writers of the Terminator, of like Jim Cameron, put together for Skynet. Like, Omicron. But it's, yeah, it's new.

It's highly transmissible, I guess. But we don't really, it doesn't seem like we know that much other than that it's out there and spreading. know that much other than that it's out there and spreading? No, I mean, I think the only thing that you can say is that there's a new variant that does have significant mutations that they're now saying, OK, well, we need to watch this because the mutations they're saying with that, that means does that make it highly transmissible? Does that mean it's possible to even evade vaccines and, you know, that our inoculations might not be enough to deal with this new variant? But it all sounds very bad. But again, we're still very much trying to learn what's happening.

And like, when you think about it, there have been many variants of concern that spring up. You watch. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't but at the very least it's worth you know obviously for the world health organization and anyone everyone who's invested from a scientific perspective they're very much looking at this closely but when you look at kind of like what the nations are doing we're kind of making the same shitty mistakes like over and over these like knee-jerk reaction of just saying like well because they

south south africa identified it first in their laboratory we're just going to ban everyone from south africa and surrounding countries because that's because they found it right and it's like okay that's just because they're they have the like labs to actually look at this stuff because not to mention it's also been found like in hong kong and parts of europe i think it seems like a natural reaction to try and make your country safer by saying like okay well now we gotta huddle up man we gotta make sure we're watching the exits making sure we know what's coming in or etc for safety but if it's that serious then like a lot of people are like why aren't you testing inbound passengers from these places first rather than just saying like oh it's a full-on ban there's nothing else we can do we just got to stop that if it's that serious then you should actually be screening people who come

in at all to understand okay what's everyone's relative like risk factor but again it just sort of makes for good optics not really really good, essentially like real safety. It's not going to affect our safety because a lot of people pointed out that by the time a lot of these sort of travel restrictions go into place, it's already in the country. the fucking shop door why don't you make it fucking rain vaccines on every fucking country because that's really our way out of this or one of our more potent ways out of this is to make sure that we're able to provide vaccinations to the developing world rather than treating it like this like you know petri dish for mutations yeah it seems like if we just mobilize like it was World War II, like we were talking about at the beginning of the pandemic, and we're just like, all right, this is all hands on deck.

We're all working to, you know, do whatever we can to get vaccines out. That's the way to stop this thing. It would save millions and millions of lives. And there's just not the, the will to do that. It seems like. And again, I think back to sort of this idea of how disconnected we are, our lack of even like sense of duty to like our fellow human beings is just

sort of, you know, it's highlighted with this idea where it's the fucking earth is, it's just one big fucking cell. And the idea that you's the fucking earth is it's just one big fucking cell and the idea that you think your fucking borders is going to stop anything or you know the country you're born in is going to prevent things i mean to a certain extent that might but you know that is runs completely counter to like how we're supposed to approach this that if we're we have to mobilize as human beings, then we should be

making the vaccine as widely available as possible in order to begin to protect the individual points of contact like that, that allow for a virus to spread, but it isn't. And we're still looking at just this very, we're just watching greed sort of dictate how we are even working within the pandemic. And that's why it's like it's so such a hard thing to watch, too, because a lot of, you know be rendered moot because something has mutated past the point of like what we've been able to counteract with vaccines and things like that. And, you know, on the tail end of that, while that's just like very disconcerting because you're like, oh, God, like, is it are we going to fully go back? Because you're already seeing on conservative media, they're like, hey, man, I think the Democrats, I think they're behind this. OK, I think they've got something in hand.

Or I even read stuff from like anti-vax people or people who are like stealth anti-vaxxers who are like secretly vaccinated. They're like, see, it's stuff like this. You got a new variant. And now there's going to there's got to be more vaccines. I mean, come on. What's going on here? And I'm like, that's not an argument. Like really that's, you're just saying the idea is inconvenient, but however, you're completely missing the point that you are in a situation

outside of your control. This isn't that someone saying like, all right, folks, it's time for a virus season. Now, which ones are we going to give the people? And then how can we then make the most money off it? Although that is a worldview that seems to be pretty popular at the moment. The microchipping of people. The great chip vaccine. You're telling me that the flu mutates every year and I need a different flu shot every year with a flu? Okay. Right.

All right, George Soros. Right. Like, no, see, I don right like no see i don't like this i don't like this so then what's your alternative sir yeah i'm just not gonna do it and that's gonna protect you from the virus i'm hoping haven't thought that far i'm hoping if i don't agree with the virus that's enough to protect me so yeah and it's just it's it's a very, again, very tenuous situation. And we're constantly reminded, I think we have these moments where it's easy to like exhale and be like, Oh, man, like, that's right. I'm I can kind of be around my elderly relatives or people with like,

that are immunosuppressed or whatever, I can just that it feels a little less risky. And then we're kind of right back into like worrying about things but although i think the main thing that experts are saying is like please let us do the research don't start buying up everything don't start panicking but we do need to just you know get a handle on the research yeah yeah i do think that there's like this element of like what's what's real? Like, we know that the government health officials are using the news to spread awareness about vaccines. So, like, you have to kind of take it with, like, a little grain of salt. Like, it's... These conversations aren't for us people who are vaccinated.

They're really trying to, like, scare people who are unvaccinated into getting vaccinated with facts and figures and just trying to figure out like how else to do it. So I just like, I don't know. I mean, it feels really silly to say this, but I don't know what is real or like, it's been such a hard two years of like the up and down of like the pain, like the virus is awful. And then now all of a sudden, like we're not wearing masks. And then we are wearing masks and we're traveling and not traveling. And like the whole up and down of the past two years has been. Yeah. It's been hard to figure out, like to make the proper risk assessments. Sure.

Yeah. And it does feel like and then you'll go to like you'll even go to like a town over and you're like, oh, nobody wears masks here. Yeah. Right. It's very like other places. You're like very regional over and you're like oh nobody wears masks here yeah right it's very like other places you're like very regional everybody's masked the fuck up yeah and yeah like i think that because they're because everything's so fractured if there's no way to have like consistent messaging and then on top of it yeah like rightly so it's like well the same news

channel that's telling me that the labor shortage is causing inflation that i completely disagree with is also telling me this other stuff and i'm like okay well let me compartmentalize because i don't need your take because you're a wall street goon and you're talking about the economy bring the doctor on who's not a fucking liar and then you're like okay i like this this feels good i i trust the science and luckily, there's like another recent survey that said, faith and science has grown up very significant over the last year.

So, is that true? I think we're just living in one of those weird places where people are like, science? Right. I mean, that's great. But overall, I think there's a lot of gratitude. And then to that point, too, is you know, there are two therapeutic drugs for COVID that seem very, very promising, because at this point, we've all just been sort of like, man, if you get it, and it's bad enough,

there's only so much that you can do. But along with like the preventative medicines, like through vaccines, there are also now therapeutic drugs that are showing some pretty significant results for people. like you know like when they get a positive test by taking it it really can lessen the damage that the virus can do so we got it's up and down folks up and down yeah i hope we can figure this out sooner than later yeah yeah uh can we get to that asap world uh can we just like kind of you know get rid of the one second i'm trying to figure out how to get the fuck off this rock yeah then i'll get back to you i mean i knew we were in trouble when we lost russell brand did you guys hear this he's an

anti-vaxxer now oh man he's so cool that I mean, he doesn't give a fuck about anything. So it's like, what? All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil,

the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers

have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again.

Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes.

Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep.

Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them boys. I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on.

From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better.

This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president

was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago, when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore.

The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And we do, you you know we were talking about how matthew mcconaughey was polling better than either candidate in the texas governor's race and he had voiced you know interest in running for governor it feels very much you know, if he was flirting with somebody like just in a friendly way and they were like, we're going to get married.

You see that? He fucking loves me. Yeah. It's just like, you know, politics is like the star power here is off the charts. Right. He's into it. Let's get him in. Let's get him in here. And he was just like, oh, no, sorry. I wasn't serious about that. It's basically where we're at. Yeah.

He I think while many were like, oh, wow, look at that. He's putting the smash on Greg Abbott. He definitely he had to announce, OK, that he's as much as y'all wanted it. He might not be able to deliver. He just tweeted from his Twitter account, an American flag emoji with this video clip. Hey, everybody, McConaughey here. Listen, over the past two years, I've been working on the answer to the question of how I can be most useful in this life going forward. Useful to myself, useful to my family and to the most amount of people.

One category of service I've been exploring is politics. I've been considering a run for the governor of Texas. I've been listening, I've been learning, been measuring, been studying Texas politics and American politics. What have I learned? A lot. That we have some problems we need to fix. That our politics needs new purpose. That we have divides that need healing. Okay. I mean.

We need more trust in our lives. All right. He's teasing us. He's shining a light on our shared values. He's going to run. The cross party lines. The ones that build bridges instead of burn them. But our children are our greatest asset. greatest asset so hey let's be as good

as we can be okay all right anyway so all that to say wait does that like that that's a three minute long video does he eventually say but i'm not going to run what the fuck yes all that to be like but i'm off this. Okay. Look, and I think that's what we should, I think we should have expected nothing less from Matthew McConaughey because he loves a monologue. He loves a monologue, which I'm also surprised. That's all you get to do when you're a politician, Matt. Right.

That's what he thought he would only get to do as the governor, though. You know? Right. And then the second he's like, he's like, I don't know. I feel like people should decide if they want the vaccine but what the fuck you're talking about all right um not all right it's not just one-way monologues like i thought so yeah all that to say is he was just saying you know he's a simple man and you want he considered the path of political leadership and it's humbling but he's deciding to not take it at this moment.

So he's not going to be throwing his sweat-soaked workout bandana into the ring. Do we think that the people that were behind him are going to go to Beto? I don't know. Beto definitely had worse numbers against him. So that could suggest that there's like more room to grow with McConaughey leaving the race. But it also feels like. I mean, like, hey, look, he tried, man. He tried.

Beto tried. I don't know if there's he's going to get some better strategy behind his campaign to try and make uh you know get a different result but i mean it it feels like i think you've we've we've rang that rag dry whatever you're gonna get out of in terms of you know his his ability to like win in texas i know a lot of people support him but it just seems like there may maybe some newer ideas. I don't know. Yeah, I think generally that's just the problem with people running Democrats is like it's there's there aren't many exciting like, you know, in terms of like spotlighted candidates. There's not a lot that you're like, oh, maybe that. No, it seems to be coming from like the newer generation of younger politicians that have like something a little bit different to offer. Well, who who else is running? Right. This is the selection is going to the primary is going to be March 1st next year. Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be Beto or Abbott.

And, you know, as a podcast, we haven't decided who we're going to officially endorse endorse there. who we're going to officially endorse there. Yeah, I mean, Beto, obviously the lesser of two evils, the far lesser of two evils, so hopefully people do kind of get in line behind

him. I just don't know how much enthusiasm there's going to be for him at this point. I mean, I don't know if, let's see i think is julian castro my how he might run okay so so i mean you know he used to be the mayor of san antonio i think he might have a he might i well who knows he could have a good shot i it's i think when you just look at sort of the politics there and like the way campaigns are going to be run it's, I think when you just look at sort of the politics there and like the way

campaigns are going to be run, it's hard to really imagine like rhetorically what this thing's going to look like and who's going to be best suited when you're like, when you're debating someone who's like books, make little white kids feel bad, change my mind. Right. And you know,

that's sort of where the limits are of the discourse. Yeah. I mean, as important as that race is, and that's sort of where the limits are of the discourse. Yeah. I mean, as important as that race is, we do have to move on to an even more important state-based competition, and that is, of course, America's Favorite Christmas Candy, brought to you by CandyStore.com.

It is another one of those maps. You say that like this is SponCon. I know. It did sound a lot like SpawnCon. Yo, fuck that. They're not giving a shit. It's a bad map. Fuck these maps. There's something that I probably couldn't say if it was SpawnCon.

Brought to you by CandyStore.com. Fuck them. Yeah. And here's our favorite candy. But you guys probably go to the page rather than, and again I sound like I'm just, just go to the page and when they ask for your information just like don't that you can trust them just surrender it yeah but it's uh they did ask 23 000 people from across america what their favorite candy was and then you know

organize that data based on state cross-reference it with manufacturer candy manufacturers to make sure sales back up the findings and it's you know it does feel like it's a little bit more like rather than the one the the ones where every state has a different like candy that they like right feel like they it has been edited in order to make it as interesting as possible here like it's the answers are pretty like appropriately boring it's yeah peppermint bark is like not is king peppermint bark is king i yeah i like that it is it feels like things if you went to the store in the can like christmas candy section it's like these seven things that you went to the store in the Christmas candy section. It's like these seven things that you're used to seeing. Because some of the other

maps are like, what's everyone's favorite Thanksgiving side? And there's these wild esoteric ones like, man, they like candy pig's hooves. And you're like, what the fuck? Is that even real? This definitely feels like a CVS aisle or a Walgreens aisle of candy. Because I

think there's some that are missing. Why is fudge not on here? I feel like holiday fudge with peppermint bark, but that's not something you get in. The main ones you see are Reese's Cups. Sure. Reese's Pieces in the little...

Reese's Pieces! Thank you, sir. In a candy cane form, like a plastic cone cane or cane. Then like the holiday colored Hershey kisses. This all shit that's normal. And the candy canes, like whatever. That's like when I was a kid, I used to like them because that was like free sugar that you could find like available at a store. But it always reminded me too much of toothpaste.

It was just like, what? This is like a toothpaste popsicle the fuck out of here with that oh look they just hardened this toothpaste and put a little candy swirl around it they got me it's like toothpaste except it rots your teeth instead of cleaning them my theory is that they that peppermint bark has is they they call it like the hard charging peppermint bark because it's like taking over a bunch of states that used to be reese's cup strongholds and they're saying that like it's the biggest grower and i'm wondering if it's because they have all this equipment to make

candy canes but like most of the country has found out that there's other candy besides candy canes like they don't think that that's only Christmas candy. So they're like, all right, what if we dropped it and then just picked up the pieces and glued it onto some low-quality chocolate? Now you got something. I like peppermint bark.

It's funny because I haven't had the first time I had it was like seven years ago. Yeah, it's a new... I was pretty ignorant to the peppermint bark game. It's a new kid on the block. The first time I had it was like seven years ago. Yeah, it's new. I was pretty ignorant to the peppermint bark game. It's a new kid on the block. Yeah, but it's like... Can we talk about the reindeer corn that's on this list? Yeah, that's the one weird one.

It's so weird. It's like... I've never heard of candy corn in Christmas colors. Yeah. Which is what it looks like this is. The Deep South is having a tough go here on this map. We got Louisiana and Oklahoma are both candy cane strongholds, like one of the few. And then you've got reindeer corn, number one in Alabama.

Reindeer corn is candy corn with different food coloring, just a red, green, and black. Lie. Lie. I mean, though, we're just looking at green and red M&Ms, and it's a completely different product, too. So, okay, fair play to Ranger corn. I can't hate, totally, but, yeah, it looks not good. Also, Florida, what are you doing?

I mean, Skittles? There's holiday Skittles? Holiday mix Skittles which what that is something i did not i was not aware existed i don't know like what is a holiday so is it like apples and like oranges and pears like the things that you get in like a fruit gift basket or something like what what is a holiday skittles mix? It is. I don't know. I think it could just be different colors.

Okay. It's a Christmas flavored. No. Okay. So flavors include banana berry. Gross. Kiwi lime. No, thank you.

Mango tangelo. No. Pineapple passion fruit, strawberry star fruit, berry punch, melon berry, raspberry, strawberry raspberry strawberry and wild cherry so there's a lot going on there oh so it's like from the blue pack right isn't that aren't those the blue skittles flavors from the blue pouch okay so you know what this is i would that i was actually reading a skittles mashups wild berry and tropical candy so ignore everything i just said but don't edit it out, please. It's important to me that everybody hear how stupid I am.

Okay. It also looks like Pez has made the list. Oh, where are they at? Who's Pez-ing it up? They're second and third in Louisiana, New Mexico, New Jersey. I gotta say, I was a big pez fan growing up this is a great stocking stuffer yeah yeah i like pez because it's like it was

like a toy you know what i mean like it was the closest thing because you'd be like oh shit look it's fucking superman yeah or fucking gumby yeah think, did I have a Gumby pest dispenser? Anyway, all that to say that these kinds of candies, though, I feel like chocolate should be king of the holidays, but I'm very biased. Okay, so what are your favorite holiday candies? Mini Reese's Cups, Reese's, PC's, any M&M. Do they have to be in that triangle, like the tree? Or do you like just generic circle? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Tree-sis? You mean tree-sis? I actually take the little mini cups and build a life-size Christmas tree out of them and then just eat it as fast as I possibly can. Bit by bit. I love peppermint bark i'll fucking eat that shit all day because it reminds me like andy's chocolate you know mint chocolate yeah that's and i think as a kid that was like my favorite little kind of you know wrapper chocolate that you could get with like at someone's house or whatever at a grandparent's home so yeah

peppermint bark invokes that. I like thin mint. So mint chocolate chip ice cream. Whenever you're mashing mint and chocolate together, I'm here for it. You know who is fucking up is Andy's and whoever's in charge of their marketing because Andy's should be here instead of peppermint bark

or Andy's should have peppermint bark. Exactly. Or York. Shouldn't York peppermint patties be here? Yeah, peppermint bark exactly or york shouldn't york peppermint patties be here yeah i mean they're fucking up too yeah york and andy's they need to like you know squat up and then pull up to peppermint bark's house and just spray the shit out that place you know what i mean let them know it's war so i'm arkansas has a new winner and it is starburst merry mix gross cherry cheer and strawberry blitzen are the two flavors and it's all red and green just added a word to the regular

flavor and made strawberry green come on y'all. What are we doing here? I mean, look, it's all marketing, but Peppermint Bark, number one. Yeah. Well, shout out to Peppermint Bark and, you know, whatever a candy executive was like, dropped through a candy cane in fury at how bad sales had become and then like saw the shattered pieces and were like, everybody sit down. I got an idea. It sounds like the plot to a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Yeah, I mean, could be. Miles, how are you doing, by the way? I feel like I'm falling down on the job asking you this late in our first post-Thanksgiving episode. How are you feeling about the coming Hallmark Christmas movie season?

Coming. It's been happening for the past month. I haven't really, I haven't checked out the Hallmark stuff. I started off by trawling Netflix for the ones Netflix has made. I watched the Prince at Christmas switch three with Vanessa Hudgens, a little, it's just,

you know, that one's getting away from them. You know, I hate to say it, hate to say it. That one one's getting away from them. I hate to say it. That one's gotten completely away from them. I don't know what the point is of it and how it relates to Christmas. I watched the other one with Jimmy O. Yang

and Nina Dobrev. I haven't watched that one yet. I kind of bailed on it. If I'm not fucking with it by the end of the second act, I'm like, I don't even need to see the third act. I'm off. I just like the vibes. Then I watched another one that was about santa's daughter who avoid this one was well santa's daughter it's like treated like a shakespearean thing where like they have to like she's almost being betrothed to the the jack frost

family in order for santa and frost to like have a tight bond but then there was also like talk of like teaming up with the tooth fairy it was a very bizarre thing so her solution is just to go to college and try to be a regular person got it got it and that one was super all over the place but overall yeah i'm i'm fully in it. Are there any good Hallmark ones, Tess, coming out? Yeah, I just watched the first Indian full cast one last night. It's called, what was it called? Baking Spirits Bright. And it's about this South Indian woman who's making her mom, sorry, her nanny's plum fruitcake.

And so they have this whole fruitcake business. I don't know. I'm, I'm obviously for people that know, like I'm really into Hallmark movies for, I don't know why. And it was, it was cool to finally see representation in Hallmark.

There's usually more representation in lifetime Christmas movies than Hallmark, but it's been cool. That one was okay. There was also like Boyfriends of Christmas Past, which has an Asian American female protagonist and her love interests are all

multiple races. So that was also cool. Yeah, that's like the one with the Jimmy O. Yang one. I was like, okay. I'm like, they got him and the one from, what's Never Have I Ever. That guy who is like the japanese guy so i was like okay look at look at the i've that was the thing i've always been like when are we gonna see asian

people in these movies yeah when i feel like we're we're making a like a turn has been made and maybe our scripts will finally get picked up and to that one i mean to ask you you said you're working on a script. I didn't want to be like, is that the holiday movie one? No, my holiday script is done. I wrote the Merry Muslim Christmas rom-com back in 2018. I just, pandemic happened

and I don't really know how to sell scripts. But hopefully I can do something with it now. Nor does anyone. Marvista Entertainment. They take pictures all the time they do a ton of the Christmas movies

were you working on a Christmas script? I was, I pitched it to them and it didn't work out they passed on it and then I kind of see my idea popping up I'm not saying nothing but I will say that it's also

very the creativity my idea popping up with other stuff i'm not saying nothing but i will say that it's also very though the creativity amongst the christmas films is pretty limited so there's a you know there's two colors that you're working with red and green and your starburst can be green and red or red and green there's a new one coming out on comedy central next week that features two Indian girls. I think Cal Penn's in it too, so it's like a Diwali Christmas mashup.

What is your favorite Christmas movie lifetime hallmark or otherwise? Otherwise, it's Edward Scissorhand. Edward Scissorhand. The prequel. The prequel. He's only got one hand. Still pretty good good he doesn't face he's just hey man we should scissor this other hand

oh man that was that is exactly what my dad would call it he can't he can't get pluralizing anything brad pitt is brad pitts and edwards scissor hands is edwards scissor hand for sure edwards He can't get pluralizing anything. Brad Pitt is Brad Pitts. And Edward Scissorhands is Edward Scissorhand, for sure. Is Edwards. Edward Scissorhand. Edward Scissorhand. That would be if there were multiple. If there was a multiplicity type situation and you had multiple, Edward Scissorhand.

What's your outlier Christmas movie, Jack? Diehard? I mean mean that's such a wacky answer but die hard was for you know the portion of my life when i was uh thought i was too grown up to say jaws was my favorite movie i said die hard was my favorite movie so i do really love die hard also really love die hard 2 which is pretty absurd and over the top and also very Christmassy. But yeah, I mean, I think I,

I like the classics. You're Scrooged. Yeah. Well, it's funny because the movie love hard with Jimmy O. Yang is called love hard because like kind of one of the, the sort of thrusts of it is like they bond over the, their love for diehard as a Christmas film.

Oh, interesting. Wow. And it's meant to sort of be like this hot take that like, she's like, no one believed me until you. And the whole, the whole conceit of it

is kind of interesting. This dude, Jimmy O. Yang, you know, from Silicon Valley, you probably remember him. He basically was catfishing Nina Dobrev with another dude's picture. And she thought she was like with this like other guy.

And so, and they've like, they kick it, they hit it off over phone and text and they've like they kick it they hit it off over phone and text and shit like that and then he's like hey why don't you come to he's like or he didn't invite her he said oh i wish i could spend the holidays with you and she took that as i'm gonna go surprise him so then she pulls up and realizes like you are not the gentleman from the fucking photo and that's where the hijinks ensue but But she's acting like this is the first she's ever heard of somebody claiming that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Wait, no, I mean, like, her thing is, like, she argues with people who don't believe that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

And then they're like, it is a Christmas movie. It's the perfect Christmas movie. And you're like, OK, thank you. Very specific. My outlier pick for Christmas movie. I guess if it's an outlier, I don't know. Bad Santa. It's still, there's something about how fucked up he is,

and it puts me in the holiday spirit. And more traditionally, love Jingle All The Way. I've never seen Jingle All The Way. Oh, my God. I need to watch that. Jack never seen Jingle All The Way. Oh, my God. I need to watch that. Jack, you got to get a Turbo Man doll for your kid. You're going to be a bad dad. That one.

And also Home Alone 2, man. I like New York. I fucking love New York in the winter. So there's something about Home Alone 2 I fuck with heavy. Also, I think it's the idea of, I think as a kid, I like the autonomy in the city as a child that Kevin experienced in Home Alone 2. And be like, oh shit, look at you, like duping people with your talk boy and shit. And I thought that was really cool.

And also the idea that you could just get room service and eat a bunch of ice cream. It just still resonates with my childish brain. And you said that it's your favorite cameo of all time is? Donald Trump. Donald Trump showing up. You said that's when you knew he was a star you said that's when i said i remember as a kid i said this guy about to be the president what's the matter store wouldn't accept your stolen credit card is a fun movie quote. Yeah. They only let Trump onto that movie because they wanted to film in the plaza. Like that was the stipulation. Yeah.

He was like, deal. If I can play Kevin. I mean, or just show up, you know, whatever. If you don't like me for the role, it's fine. I'll just show up. Perfect idea. He passes me. We lock eyes.

He realizes I'm him in the future. And I realize that's me as a boy. And then we can go off on a whole other narrative where I'm the king of New York. There you go. Sticky bandits. Put him in jail forever. And there's a new Home Alone, too, with a little kid. It's on Disney+.

I haven't watched it yet. Yeah. Is Anna Kendrick in it, too? Yeah. Yeah. But that one, is it still in the tradition of the Home Alones? You know? I think so.

I think, I'm not sure if they're trying to redo the first one, or if it's, like, the third chapter. Oh, it's Ellie Kemper. Ellie Kemper, Archie Yates, hey, Ashlyn B, my past guest, Rob Delaney, Pete Holmes. But yeah, I think that came out

earlier this, or last month. And yeah, they, whoa, Mikey Day, I guess, wrote this too? They got a lot of interesting comedy things going on there but that one says a married couple tries to steal back a valuable heirloom from a troublesome kid and isn't that the spirit of Christmas

the wet bandits are a married couple now I mean yeah if that's not progress I guess it's not anyways Taz such a pleasure having you on the show as always. Where can people find you and follow you? I'm always down to talk about Christmas movies.

I am at Tazzy Star on Onsla Socials. I'm actually out in a book that just came out a couple of weeks ago. I have a story in this book called New Moons, Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims. So you can find me in a bookstore too. Oh, I got New Moons, Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims. So you can find me in a bookstore, too. Oh, I got New Moons. Is there a tweet or some of the work of social media you've been enjoying? All right. Tweet I've been enjoying because we're still on residual Thanksgiving.

They're from at Daniel Silliman. Fact of the day, pumpkin pie became a popular dish during civil war era celebrations of thanksgiving because pumpkins were grown on small farms not plantations making the pie a symbol of abolitionist virtue oh there you go and then it continues the thread continues with um the history of abolitionist history of Thanksgiving. I thought that was really interesting. The persistence of turkey and pumpkin pie, even though they're both, you know, fine. But it's inspiring that the people continue to fuck with pumpkin pie and turkey all these generations on.

Miles, where can people find you and follow you on what's a tweet you've been enjoying find me on twitter and instagram and miles of gray also the other show for 20 day fiance obviously if you like 90 day come listen to me yell about that uh this one is from lauren huff at lauren the huff h-o-u-g-h and again to your point taz about sort of this this hangover from the holidays and again i think intersecting with just kind of having boundaries when you're working. This one says, none of y'all motherfuckers better be answering email on Sunday night. We are not ending the weekend early. Hold the line. Which is true.

Like, come on, y'all. Give yourselves fucking time. You can actually say, yeah, I'm not looking at this shit till Monday. Hold! Hold! Yeah. So hold the line. No, you don't need to. yourselves fucking time you can actually say yeah i'm not looking at this shit till monday whenever you can just really hold your boundaries because that's all we got right now all right let's see some tweets i've been enjoying miami they tweeted everyone who didn't post their urban dictionary name should get $100. It's a bell tweeted. Funny men attract hot women and funny women attract hate comments on Twitter.

And then Whitmer Thomas tweeted. I just want to feel what the guy singer in the B-52 feels. And I just read. Put that guy's blood in my veins. If you see a faded sign at the side of the road, that's 15 miles. Woo! Yeah, fuck that. If they could bottle up that Fred energy, I'm off drugs.

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 a song that we think you might enjoy. Myles, what song do we think people might enjoy?

Oh, this one. This is a very interesting rap track by Bugmane and Borka B. And it's called Cocopelli. Cocopelli. and Borka B and it's called Cocopelli I just think of the like Cocopelli but these guys like it sounds like they sampled

maybe some like Incan like Peruvian Pam Flutes kind of band stuff and like the chorus is like I follow me I am Cocopelli it's kind of a weird it's kind of a fun song I mean

although I have not looked into the lyrics too much because they're not saying a whole lot but this is Coco Pelli by Bug Man alright well the Daily Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio for more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to your favorite shows that's going to do it for us this

morning we're back this afternoon to tell you what's trending, and we'll talk to you all then. Bye. Bye. Bye. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.

And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion,

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

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

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Mori Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.

And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.