The Daily Zeitgeist - No Allies Is Good! Big Tech Wins Even When They Lose 04.01.26

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

In episode 2033, Miles and guest co-host Jamie Loftus are joined by co-host of The Future of Our Former Democracy, Colin Cole, to discuss… Ruh Roh - Aint Nobody F**kin With The US-Israel War? Those Social Media Verdicts Are Bad, Actually... and more! VOTE IN THE WEBBY AWARDS for 'WE THE UNHOUSED' for Public Service & Activism Hegseth: "The president was clear this morning in his Truth that there are countries around the world who ought to be prepared to step up on this critical waterway as well." Trump Hits Out at France for Closing Airspace During Iran War Spain closes airspace to US military over Iran war, widening rift with US Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz The Big Tech Verdict Everyone Got Wrong: Social Media Addiction Trial Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They’re Actually Cheering For Section 230 is the best protection we have from Trump’s censorship What is Section 230 and why does Donald Trump want to change it? Social Media Addiction Lawsuits (2026): KGM Trial, MDL 3047, and TikTok & Snapchat Settlements Explained Reddit User Uncovers Who Is Behind Meta’s $2B Lobbying for Invasive Age Verification Tech Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms What's next in social media legal battles after a New Mexico jury finds Meta platforms harm children Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web Blackburn’s TRUMP AMERICA AI Act Repeals Section 230, Expands AI Liability, and Mandates Age Verification New Documents Show First Trump DOJ Worked With Congress to Amend Section 230 Meta, Google lose US case over social media harm to kids Landmark lawsuit finds that social media addiction is a feature, not a bug Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms AI & Tech Brief: Forecasting an AI deal Walmart Pulls Cosmo From Checkout. Plus! Guess Who’s Claiming Victory. Revealed: how a US far-right group is influencing anti-gay policies in Africa Here’s Why Not Everyone Is Celebrating Meta’s Landmark Losses: ‘The Legal Precedent Being Set Is Terrifying’ This Bill Purports to Protect Kids from Big Tech. For LGBTQ+ Youth, It’s a Grave Danger Addictive potential of social media, explained Trump Administration Takes Major Steps Toward Comprehensive Federal AI Regulation LISTEN: Vapour by MildlifeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's going on with you guys got a billionaire tax going on, right? Oh, a millionaire tax. I saw Rick Steve's post about it. And I was like, all right, Rick Steve. Wow. Oh, man. He was like, don't listen to these other fucking loop. And he didn't say it like that.

But he was basically like, they're going to start whining. And it's nonsense. This is a public good. And we can afford it. You want Rick Steve's in the blunt rotation. Oh. There you go. Oh.

That's crazy You called out of blood rotation Yeah I got the fucking And it's Easter week I got the last supper right here Oh my God How Colin

How did we do that We're just linked My God Gotta have me on more I guess Yeah people who don't get to see this I'm wearing a fucking t-shirt That says dream blunt rotation And it's that

It's that iconic painting of the last supper Who painted that? Is that one of the big Ninja Turtle name? I feel like it's a Da Vinci type, yeah. Yeah, right? Is it, oh, no. I wanted, I wanted to know the answer.

Yeah, it's DaVinci. And I go, one of them, Ninja Turtle, to me, I'm like, it's one of the Ninja Turtle named Renaissance people. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the blue one with the source. You were closer than both of us. Yeah.

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Hey there, folks. Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes here. And we know there is a lot of news coming at you these days from the war with Iran to the ongoing Epstein fallout, government shutdowns, high-profile trials. And what the hell is that Blake lively thing about anyway? We are on it every day, all day. Follow us, Amy and TJ for news updates throughout the day. Listen to Amy and TJ on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 432 episode three of the Daily Zikegast, the production of IHeart Radio.

This is the podcast where you take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness. You already know that and you already know because you're a loyal listener and Zite Gang since day one, that we also do our special icons episodes on Mondays where we just kind of. kind of do a deep dive on something fun, just talking about icons, not having to talk about gestures around everywhere and just talk about some stuff that's a little bit lighter. And it's a great one that you can tell it's a different episode because it's got a completely different logo show art. It's called icons.

Hopefully that will be clear. But check those out on Mondays. Appreciate everybody who's been listening into those. My name is Miles Gray, aka your boy Kusama, the Lord of Lancashim, the Shogun with No Gun. great to be here and I'm thrilled to be joined by my guest co-host today. Again, there are not enough hyphenates to define this person. There's not enough admiration in my heart to properly admire this person and exalt this person. Their genius is second to none, but I have the privilege to be in proximity of it.

And for that, I am very grateful. Please welcome today's guest co-host. Jamie Loftis! Bye, oh, it's Jamie. Testing on the Zamponi. Ooh. Oh, bang. Okay.

It felt so good to ask for an A.K.A. It had been too long. Been too long. Shout out to Jill Hodge on Blue Sky for that one. Okay. Oh, I forgot to say, too. It's April 1st. Okay?

That wasn't me trying to do that. Oh, yeah. Trust me. We're not doing, I don't have enough energy to be doing April full shit. This is a joke episode. Yeah, this is a joke episode. We'll talk. about,

everything's going great, you guys. Yeah. There's only good news today. Dude, it's such a cool joke when you're like, you put a frog in a cold pot of water and then gradually turn up the heat. You know what I mean?

That's us. Wait. This is the day we learn it was all a bit. I've found April Foolstokes to be very polarizing recently. Because I think there are people who want them back to feel something. And then there are others that are like, we've got enough on our plate. Yeah. We still, at the Bechtelcast, we still do April Fool's episodes where we cover a bad movie and say it's good the whole time.

But even that, this year, it was a challenge. We covered moonfall. Oh, God. You're just like, what are we doing? What are we doing? It's two hours, 45 minutes long. Yeah. Have any company, I feel like I haven't even seen, actually, like any buildup.

Usually you hear a bunch of companies starting to do stuff where they're like, oh, no, fart flavored cookies or something like that. but even now, I'm like, a simpler time on the internet when, yeah, when KFC is like, we're vegans now or whatever the fuck. And I think shit's just too real now where you're just like, dude, shut the fuck up. You know what I mean?

It's like how I feel. The only April Fool's jokes I want to see are from like small creators who like upload something that's off brand. Yeah, exactly. They do 45 minute video essays and they do a 20 second and they're like, today I'm going to dive into the history of it. Cuts off.

Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And here. That's all I have time for. That would be nice. Yeah, it needs to be quick and dirty. Yeah.

Don't, don't make me invest time into your little joke, especially now in companies pull pranks. I think it doesn't hit the way it used to because our, which like we're talking about today, our trust in companies as like, understandably. And in all the time, like, it's completely evaporated. So if anyone's like, oh, we're going to do a little joke today. It's like, there's someone in the back saying, like, why do you take money from Peter Thiel? Yeah.

Correctly. Yeah. Right, right. It's like it's not cute anymore. No, no. The things be. I think Duncan's going to pull one out though today. That's what I'm going to call. I'm going to call it. I think the one company I can tolerate a little joke from. The little donkeys, the little donkeys, jokey. Yeah. Look, their social media is good. I got the banana coffee and I relished it. I relished every sip. Wow. Aren't we doing well? Well, Jamie, we're thrilled to be joined by today's guest. Look, we've got. We've got. you, Jamie, a creative genius. And now we have someone who has a mind squarely in policy thinking about democracy, thinking about larger, bigger picture questions, things that I can't conceive of because I'm too busy watching 90-day fiance. But our guest today is the Director of Policy Outreach and Communications at More Equitable Democracy, also the co-founder of Fair Vote Washington,

and also the co-host of the fantastic podcast, the future of our former democracy. Please welcome to our third seat, the talented, intelligent and brilliant Colin Cole. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. That's two glowing of praise. I don't do that. I mean, you were dropping a few, I think Warhammer references maybe last time you were here. Yeah, that's right.

There were a couple of things. I was like, Colin contains multitudes. It's not just a walk-munk-type shit in there. You know what I mean? Some culture in there. Like he caught your guard field. Yeah. It is so great learning what, um,

a very smart person's special interest is it never stops being interesting yeah yeah of course of course Colin how you then uh you know and I asked that in the sorry let me clarify how are you in a very narrow context personally if you are able to completely ignore the entire building burning around you in real just you war hammer yeah so ignoring the the whole context is hard you know it's you know said to cognitive dissonance, but personally, my immediate life is going all right. My family is doing well. I'm almost finished building my space elf pirate Warhammer Army, so that's great. What is that?

What, like, we're talking models? Oh, that's so many adjectives. You get the little plastics, you get the little, you snit and lose little nippers and you cut them into pieces, you glue them together. Yeah, and paint them, too? Yeah, but paintings are my white whale. I have much more unpainted models than I have painted models. I remember as a kid I got into like Civil War miniatures. Like I want to I remember I got I had like a little battlefield.

And then when I realized how like much of a real hobby that shit was, I thought they were little toys. And then my mom was like, they're pretty cheap. Are you sure? I didn't realize you had to paint them. And I do. Yeah, it's a job. So horribly painted.

I was like, this is terrible. This looks nothing like at the hobby store. I'm forget it. So my hat goes off to those that paint. I think that if he does Warhammer models or something, I've seen him with some really, yes, I've seen him with some really tiny paint brushes on my feed. And I was like, it's none of my business, but I'm happy for him. I think he does too. I think you're right.

Yeah. Yeah. If he also contains multitudes. That's true. Truly. Yes. All the time. He's also playing.

He was trying to get me back out on the ice to play hockey. I was like, bro, I've been playing hockey longer. than you've been gaming. What are you talking about? And he's like fully on this hockey team and he's like every, he's like, man,

he's like, if he plays hockey? Yes, if he plays hockey. How does he top time to go to the gym? Yeah. Yeah. They're called like the zombieies or zambonies.

Like it's like a zombie Zamboni play. The uniforms are chill. They're like purple and green and shit. I'm, and wait. Oh my God. That's so exciting. Yeah.

I hope they have ice girls. It's kind of regressive, but I, but I want. But you never played. You never played, though, right? No. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no. You're not that much of a asshole. Disappointment. Sure, sure. My brother and I are pretty useless on skates. You would have thrown elbows, though, right? Yeah, no, I would have been quite. I avoided playing because I would have been a danger to all around.

I just got out there and I would just hack people with a stick. Like, it was a long sword. That was sort of how I played. Lucky is so scary. Oh, I loved it. Because for me, if I felt like a war ham, the only reason I got into it was because I love soccer much more as a sport than I do hockey. But as a child, I was like, look how much armor.

You armor up. Yeah. I was like, there's gloves, there's elbow pads, there's shoulder pads, there's a helmet, there's shin pads, there's pants, there's skates, there's socks, there's stick. I was like, this is, because before I was like, what am I going to do wearing shin guards? I want to look like a fucking, you know. I want to look like the most jacked eight-year-old. on the planet.

Exactly, exactly. And in Warhammer, that is the lore. Like, the space marines are all like abducted children who are force-fed steroids and growth hormone, and they're turned into jacked boot thugs. And this is fun for you, Colin? You lean into being the baggage. If you're one of the people who thinks that the space marines are the good guys, you should not be playing Warhammer.

Right, right, right. Okay. Yeah. Wasn't that like a thing too with conservatives, like kind of getting confused about like Warhammer? I feel like the last couple years? Yeah. Like once a year, the company has to put out a statement that's like, hey, just, you know, this is satire and they're bad, bad people. It's a commentary. Yeah. Right. Please don't come to our tournaments dressed in Nazi regalia. We'd really prefer you don't do that. Wow. God. It's just asking Republicans to hold two truths challenge. Failed yet again. Impossible. Well, Colin, we're going to get to know you even better. But first, we're going to just take a look at what we're going to

talk about today. First, ro-oh, ain't nobody fucking with the U.S. Israel War scoves? For the last couple weeks, like, it's just been country after country telling the U.S. in Israel, bro, get fucked and get, I don't want it. We don't want anything to do with none of this. And just in the last few days, it's starting to like cascade. And I don't think anyone who was looking at how Trump operates would, it will be surprised by this. But now it has begun to change a bit the tone coming from the White House where they're slowly trying to act as if maybe the shit's done and won already. So we'll take a look at that. And then really the really big story that we want to talk about today is last week, I brought up a headline about how META and

Google recently lost a high profile case that were a L.A. jury found them responsible for negligent design and operation of their platforms. And I was like, oh, fuck, that's great. A tech company took an L in court. I love to see it. Shout out to a few listeners who pointed out, oh no, no, no, no. That's real bad. That's actually, that's the opposite of what we want.

Shout out Johnny Rabbit, especially on Blue Sky. We had a nice interaction. And again, this is why I appreciate having a show where we were about being flexible and knowing when or wrong, because when listeners point stuff out, it was done with such kindness, and I really respect it. And either way, even if you came at me aggressive, you're like, yo, you totally fucked that up. I definitely would have looked into it because, holy shit, this is so fucking scary.

And this decision actually plays directly into what meta and Google actually probably want for how they want the internet to operate. So we will talk about that and sort of cast aside some myths about that decision. But first, Colin Cole, we like to ask you, what's something from your search history that's revealing about who you are, what you're into? Yeah, so I just pulled this up and putting aside, like, setting up my microphone for today. Little Shop of Horrors. Okay. Wait. Wait.

Oh, sorry. Well, wait. Are you going to go? Are you going to go off the way? What are you going to do? Oh, is that what's going? Sorry, I only know like the film and I didn't know that is something big is happening again with Little Shop of Horrors. I'm ignorant.

Well, so I want to, I've not seen it in a live production. I want to see it. But that's not why I looked it up. I looked it up. And so this is going to tell you all about me. Okay. Yesterday, a YouTube video essayist, Lindsay Ellis. Actually, she's mostly in Nebula, but she posted...

I also watched this. Yeah. So she put out this video about Aladdin, because there's a, you know, there's a sort of a cultural myth that it was plagiarized by a lesser, recognized creator who still did a bunch of amazing stuff, like who framed Roger Rabbit. The great Richard Williams. Wait, that's right. Who plagiarized whomst?

Well, so the allegation was that Disney plagiarized. Got it. Of course. The Thief and the Cobbler was the original name, and that it was changed to Arabian Night. But essentially, that's kind of not true. Maybe there's some animation stuff that was stolen, but with the video essay explorers is that the whole idea for Aladdin

was really the brainchild of Howard Ashman, who wrote all the lyrics to all the songs for Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid and Aladdin. He got the idea back in the 60s when he played, Aladdin in like a local theater production. And the reason I looked up Little Shop of Horrors is because I learned from this video that Howard Ashman and his like musical co-writer who wrote all the actual melodies, Alan Mencken, were also the duo that wrote Little Shop of Horrors.

So, oh, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool. Little Shop of Horrors lore is so terrific. If you ever get a chance to see a live production, it will be the most spectacular puppet you've ever seen. And I love Little Shop so much. It's so good. When was the last time you saw it live?

I saw it a couple of years ago at the Pasadena Playhouse. They did a production there. And I've never seen it off Broadway before, but I really want to. It's just like, it's so good. It's so good. Yeah, they were going to remake it a couple years ago with, like, Chris Evans. And then I think they were like, let's not do that. And I agree.

Right decision made. Let's not do that. Well, welcome to Little Shop of Horrors. Welcome to the community. Welcome to the community. It's, I mean, we were going to talk about Iran, but yeah, go on. Let's hear some more stuff about Little Shop of Horace. Yeah, let's hear more lore.

It's a great video essay, too, because, yeah, like, Lindsay is, like, exploring how, you know, how many just sort of regressive tropes that both of those movies explore. And that's like part of what frames it as, oh, well, whatever. Like, we stole, like, that Aladdin stole this from the thief and the cobbler when in reality it's just too popular racist tropes being reflected back in media. You're like, well, I don't think that Aladdin really stole that as much as it is a popular racist cultural narrative that it's reflecting. She's a genius. She's the best. She's a gem.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Colin, what's something you think is underrated? So I'm going to give two Instead of giving a thing that's overrated Because I like to spread the love You know, I want to be a positive force for humanity today So number one, video game, Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty

Came out in 2002 At the time it was like the most hated game In the franchise But I think history has really vindicated it So keep in mind it was like written in 2001 And this game goes on to criticize like proxy wars, media consolidation, the overflow of like bad information on the internet

that leads to the inability to tell what's reliable and what's not, that AI is going to step in and start making decisions for us and we're not going to be able to start distinguishing who real people are from computers. It was like really on the nose. So it's very good game. You got to go play.

I remember when it came out, I was like, no. Because I was so, I was so, when the reboot first came out on PlayStation. Yeah, I was like, oh, yeah, on what grounds did people not like it? So, you want to say, Miles? No, no, go ahead, go ahead, please. All right, so, so it's a sequel to the first game where you play solid snakes, solid snake, the world's most badass super spy. I knew that.

And so in the second game, you start off as Solid Snake. And you're, you know, your world's most badass Super Spy. and then about an hour and a half in, they pulled the rug out from under you and they tell you, actually, for this game, you're not going to play Solid Snake. You're going to play a green rookie who's on his first mission ever,

who's a little whiny and a little emotional, and he spends half the game having a fight with his girlfriend on the phone. That's awesome. Yeah, people didn't like that. People didn't like that. Yeah, I mean, I get why people didn't like that, but I just love when they're like,

no, you're going to be punished, and I refuse to explain why. I love it. Is there another Metal Gear coming out yet or no, probably would the Kuchima break up? Oh, they just did the re-remake of Metal Gear Salt 3, but I don't know if there's another new project in the pipeline. Because like, Phantom Pain is like the latest, right? Right. And that's the one where Hideo Kijima was taking too long to make it.

So they took it away from him and then it got released unfinished. And yeah, it's this tragedy. I had a good time playing that one. Although I started growing a horn because I was being really. that a snake. Sorry. A horn of shrapnel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just grow. Wait, a literal horn.

Because, like, you can, like, you can sort of, you can incapacitate your enemies and then, like, extract them to your base or you can just off them, you know? Is this what I sound like when I'm trying to explain, like, little shopping horse? Feminism. Yeah. You know, and you grow a horn and you're like, yeah. Growing a big horn. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like a visual sort of texture that kind of shows like, oh, this is your play style. And you're covered in blood. You can't think it's also the other visual element of that. All right. What's the other thing you think is underrated? Other thing, dropout.tv, baby. Hey. Oh, yeah.

Game changer, play it by year, smarty pants, dimension 20. Relatively new show called crowd control. Crowd control, huh? Huh? So true. So true. We see you. We see you, Jamie.

We see you, Jamie. We see you, Jamie. We see you, Jaycee. We, and, you know, we see Sam, despite his, his vertical challenging. nature of being relatively short. We still see you, Sam. The fact that they promised to not raise prices and a significant chunk of their fan base was like,

please, though, can we pay you more? And they had to add an option to pay more in exchange for nothing, I think, is just a real testament to the fact that they're doing business in a way. No one else has before. Yeah. Profit share too for everybody.

It's like, profit share. It's really cool. Like, I feel like there's, like, everyone's always like, Well, what's the secret? You're like, they tell you what the thing is. Everyone's a person, you know, that works there. Yeah, treating people like people.

It works. It's, I mean, I think. Surprise. Yeah. Yeah. That whole evolution, like from college humor to now drop out and just seeing like how that, just how that audience has evolved into something so gigantic to then, you know, dimension 20 is selling out Madison Square Garden.

It's, yeah. No small feet, I got to say. And I think it's such a, again, like, I think it's such a, again, like, I think it's such a great, you know, testament to being like, have your philosophical guns and stick to them. And like if you're actually centering humanity, ends up being a pretty good model. So, yeah, I got it. I'm also such an admirer of everything they do over there, big fan also. Yeah.

And Jamie, you know, are you, have you done, have you done anything else since crowd control? You do anything else over that? That you can talk about. I have done something and I can't do that. I actually, yes, yes, yes, yes. Well, yeah, okay. It was so much fun. Walk your subscriptions, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've always been like, because I know a few of the people on Dropout over there, I'm always like, yeah, we actually need to have more of them on. But the fun ones are so busy because they're so fucking successful. Madison Square fucking garden. I'm like, Brendan, come on, please. I'm like, okay, you got 700,000 things going on.

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. If he can go on a song Piker show, he can come on here. Come on. No, no, absolutely. No, it's not like, it's not shade. Nothing's shady. You're starting a public beat.

Yeah, with one of the most liked people on the internet. I don't know if y'all heard about this guy. No. He just makes little shoes all day, is what I mean. Yeah, exactly. American girl dolls. Exactly. Exactly.

All right. Let's take a quick break. And when we come back, Iran. Right after this. Why hasn't a woman formerly participated in a formula, one race weekend in over a decade. Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age.

What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Waggageddon change the paddock forever?

That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on No Grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishap, scandals and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You look at the top four number one seeds. What do you think UCLA is going to do? Break down that for me, my friend. Obviously, Yukon is the overwhelming favorite in this tournament. But I'll be honest, I think people are kind of sleeping on Texas. Experts are suggesting that UCLA is the number one challenger to Yukon

and that right after that would be Texas. S&C is so deep and so thinking just about everything. It really is annoying. So it's UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, LSU. Only ones that could possibly upset Yukon. On Flagrin and Funny, we're giving our unfiltered takes on the biggest moments the conversations everyone's having. So whether your bracket is busted or you just want the latest on the tournament,

we got you. Listen to Flakron and Funny with Carrie Champion and Jamel Hill on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHard Women Sports. I'm Lori Siegel, a longtime tech journalist. and consider my new podcast, Mostly Human, your bridge to the future. Anyone can now be an entrepreneur, anyone can build an app, and it's very empowering. Each week, I'll speak to the people building that future,

and we're going to break down what all of this innovation actually means for you. What I come to realize is that when people think that they're dating these AI companion, they're actually dating the companies that create this. We're experiencing one of the greatest tech accelerations in human history, and let's be honest, That can be messy. There's no playbook for what to do when an AI model hallucinates a story about you. But it's my belief that we should all benefit from this moment.

Mostly Human will show you how. My goal is to give you the playbook, so you can benefit. The reason I say agency is because, like, if we can give power back to people, then I think that's probably the best thing we can do for your mental health. Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I was, hi, dad.

And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen. She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is a badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom. Yeah. On the senior show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations

about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more.

I'm an alcoholic, and without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free I-Heart radio app. Search the CETO show, And listen now. Hey there, folks. Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes here. And we know there is a lot of news coming at you these days from the war with Iran to the ongoing Epstein fallout, government shutdowns, high profile trials. And what the hell is that Blake lively thing about anyway? We are on it every day, all day.

Follow us, Amy and T.J. for news updates throughout the day. Listen to Amy and T.J. on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And we're back. And just the state of the U.S. Israel War against Iran, it, even though Trump is like uploading videos like, whoa, look at that bomb that we just dropped on an ammunition depot. Isn't that crazy? That's about the only feel-good factor there is, I think, for people rooting for the U.S. is that you can just root for like 360 kill cam footage and be like, yeah, this is sick.

because, I mean, I think if anything else, this has been a fantastic stage for the world to see American hegemony begin to crumble in real time. And traditional allies have noped their way out of getting tangled in the strait of Hormuz or any kind of offensive actions in Iran. And have flat out just said no again, like to any kind of military action. When now even more European nations are flexing their sovereignty as they are want to do in other ways to make a point that they don't want, fuck, anything to do with this bullshit, even as the illegal war affects their energy supply. So on Monday, we learned that Spain was not allowing any American aircraft involved with attacks to fly over their airspace. And you're like, oh, shit, okay, well, you know, Trump's like, it's fine.

Anyway, we'll remember, I won't be buying any more Spanish things after this. Then we found out France didn't allow planes carrying weapons to Israel. to fly over their territory. Trump responded to that with a tired-ass truth social posts that was like, we will remember. Sure, dude.

You can't even remember what fucking year we were in. I thought he was going to try to pull out a freedom fries. No, no. He's been threatening. He's been threatening like, the thing is like,

oh, so you don't want to get entangled in this? I'm going to remember that. Oh, you'll see. Like, it's just like this veiled threat that's like meaningless. And the nonsense, you know, the unnecessary war that we started for no reason that we said we've won 14 times that he still also says NATO isn't coming to our rescue. Like, why do we need a rescuing? Right. Last week I played a clip where he was like, that was a test when I asked NATO allies to come to the Strait of Hormuz. And they failed. And you're like, dude, no. You asked and they said no and you're humiliated. So now you're doing this like petulant teenager thing. It was like, I actually didn't even want it. And it was like a test. And they're all bad friends anyway. So they're not coming to my birthday. All right. It's not a petulant teenager. That's an in-cell. Yeah, right. Exactly. Truly. And then we found out it wasn't just the French, the Italians.

are also not allowing U.S. bombers to land at their bases before going to the Middle East. Hmm. Okay. And finally, we just found out, too, Poland just denied an informal request from the U.S. to relocate the Patriot missile defense systems to the Middle East because the U.S. has just been sending up all kinds of basically money that could be used for social programs in the United States in the form of missiles that are exploding because they're fighting. They're like using like 50,000 missiles to take got like $300 drones and the math ain't really math in there. So it's all, it's all just a terrible blunder that every administration has seen coming and why this was never happening until again, as we found out, he thought the, the, the Venezuela Maduro kidnapping went so

well. He was like, oh yeah. Okay. This is the exact same thing. And it was not and is not. And also, this just felt like all of the resistance to being caught up in the illegal war just felt so long overdue, especially when you consider the Trump and Hegseth, like, threats to invade Greenland and like other fate, like threatening other NATO allies. And now they're blundering in Iran is just going to lead to like untold amounts of chaos and suffering. Not to mention like how difficult, how prices are going to go up in the region, but then USAID being cut back all over the world. this is going to manifest in a lot of instability that I think Trump is just merely trying to cocoon himself into thinking like, oh, the line is going down in the stock market or gas prices. Like it's so much more complex than that. And I find it now interesting that the world is like kind of making it clear that Israel and the U.S. are on their own. Trump has also begun really earnestly talking as if the job is done. Like Caroline Levitt reiterated what he said was that the Ope Rewt, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is no longer a, quote, core objective of the war,

I mean, not war, military operation. You got a Friday operation. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, even now, like on Monday, there was that truth social post where most people were like, is this market manipulation? Because on Mondays, he does like a market manipulation post. Right.

And Fridays. Yeah, and Friday's right after the market's closed. Right. Oh, there's a schedule. Yeah, exactly. That he goes in and then came in and said, great progress has been made to end the war. The Iranians are like, who are you talking to?

All the bad news comes out on Friday after markets closed, and then every Monday he makes up some bullshit about how things are going great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Hopefully, you know, stabilize things. And now, like, even people like Hannity and, like, other propagandists and influencers are all saying some version of, oh, this war is actually going to be over in a matter of weeks. So then we'll just move on. It's just truly like an L, you know, like of the highest order.

Like from those in the diplomacy, military world are all calling this a strategic defeat. And you're like, oh, yeah, it was. I mean, like, that's where you end up worse off than where you started. And somehow your adversary is now in a stronger position than when you started. That's called a strategic defeat. You completely self-owned. And now, you know, Iran is like, oh, maybe we'll just start taking polls through the straight-of-horn moves. I mean, yeah, why not?

Well, why not? Like, the U.S. is completely blundering. What's to stop anyone? So, yeah, unclear how this is going to end, but Trump seems to be, like, looking for a way to cut his losses and act like everything is fine. And then in the meantime, it's, I think, conservatively, over 1,500 Iranian civilians are dead because of the U.S. and Israel. I just, I've felt like, I mean, the way that this war has been spoken about online versus other conflicts, I found very, I'm curious what you both think about it, because I feel like it's both very under-discussed. And also, you know, obviously this is in conversation with so much of what the U.S. and Israel have been doing together for, for years and years, but particularly over the last couple of years. And I'm not the people who were vehemently defending Israel's genocide in Gaza and the U.S.'s involvement with it are awfully quiet about Iran, almost as if it is indefensible and incoherent, like, what they're doing.

But maybe it's just like my feed in particular, but I'm not even seeing an attempt at defending. Um, it's, it's just sort of a like, I close my eyes and I don't see it, which of course doesn't. I feel like just generally I've seen the appetite to defend at least people who are huge defenders of like the IDF and everything militaristically that Israel does. Like that enthusiasm, like just on a continuum has just gone consistently down. And I just, even with this, I didn't there were obviously, you do get the people who are completely bought into every bit of propaganda. And they're like, no, this is to ensure the safety. of not just the U.S. but Israel.

And people like... And to spread democracy and also to... Yeah. And did you hear there's one homophobic person? And that's why we had to kill 200 children. That whole... Yeah. Meanwhile, you found out...

I don't know if you remember that thing where, like, there was a headline about how U.S. intelligence had, like, some kind of learned that the new Ayatollah was gay or had, like, a relationship with a man. And, like, that was completely just manufactured because the shitheads in the White House were like, that might be like a weird thing to put out. because like they would maybe people wouldn't be accepting so I don't know let's just throw

anything out absolute nonsense um yeah completely incoherent yeah and this isn't exactly a spicy hot take but the the fact that in I think Trump went going in maybe he personally thought it would be a Maduroa situation will kill the Atolla we'll get in we'll get out and then we'll just do a little regime change but it seems pretty clear that that's not Israel's goal and and the fact that they went on to kill like the second and third and fourth person in the line of succession, and that Trump was like, oh, I don't know who's going to run the country? They're all dead. I didn't know Israel was going to do that.

The one we were talking to got killed. Right. Yeah. But there's also, there was a report from The Guardian at the end of February that there were also Israeli strikes on the home of Mir Hussein Masavi, who helped lead the Green Revolution back in the 2000s. So he's like one of the most credible. opposition figures in Iran who, you know, has organized for, well, he's been on house rest for 20 years. But the fact that they're even going after opposition suggests that like Israel's goal

isn't to put a better government in place. Like they want Iran to become a failed state. 100%. They, they prefer to have a failed state than anything. And that's a victory for them. And again, for Trump and the Pentagon, I'm sure, I mean, obviously the people who have been in the war business long enough for like, too. We're getting pulled into some nonsense, but they can't tell that to Trump because he'll throw a fit, and they have to keep just presenting it as like, here are some things that blew up today and we're doing good, okay?

Right. There's no other dimensions to really consider. We blew up a girl's school, but it was just collateral damage. It was an accident, so we can move on from that. You don't have to acknowledge it. It was the AI made a mistake. And you come to find out, like, there was an analysis that was botched by, like,

the programs they were using it. Like, oh, my God. I the the AI the AI excuse was so bizarre where you're just like I thought you wanted us to to like that like I recognize that it's a lie but yeah and they just did their whole big sales pitch about why they need to move from Anthropic to open AI so they can use AI for the military and then they say oh but military isn't very good at using AI turns out yeah which is it yeah how about you how about you just come to grips to the fact that the AI is bullshit to start off and stop propping up that entire, you know, leg of the economy that's built on AI growth. Let's call it a bubble, not a leg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a bubble leg.

Unfortunately, that whole, all your weight is on a, you think it's a leg. It's a bubble. So I wouldn't put all my weight on there. Because if that goes, poof, you're going to take a big tumble. Because, I mean, that was, yeah, with the SORA announcement, a lot of people were like, oh, your little video stuff. flop machine is shutting that down. I hear a little.

I did think it was so satisfying seeing that announcement being like, hey, if you made something on SORA. It was meaningful. It mattered. You're so valid. And then everyone was like, no, it didn't. Like, it was. I mean, that was like a montage of Sam Altman getting kicked in the balls here or whatever.

Right. Exactly. Yeah, or just like those dancing JD Mans, J.D. Vance or whatever. You're like, those images, you're like, those images. you made of Mickey Mouse, like, fucking Lightning McQueen's tailpipe. That was so valid. And you're like, it is valid, but you should pay a real artist. Yeah, absolutely.

And that's still more impressive to be like, no, I commissioned this sloppy art piece. Being a pervert like that should be financially ruinous to you. Yeah. And it should keep an artist's life going. Just to talk about like possible exits here, because I think to start off every, foreign policy person was when the attack started, they're like, you have no off-ramp now because you've put the entire Iranian government in an existential moment now. And there is no off-ramp if you are in an exist-if you are cornered in an existential situation. There is no, there is, and again,

but the escalation is going to be straight of Hormuz. Now what are you going to do? You can't do anything unless you just meaninglessly kill a bunch of people. And people, not many people in the the U.S. have the appetite for that, as the polling suggests. And now you're dealing with the fall out of the gas prices, which Trump has to fully fucking own. So the Wall Street Journal report a few days ago, quote, President Trump told AIDS he's willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran, even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran's navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would

press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the straight. So they now want to act like a puppy who shits all over your house, makes everything unaffordable, and then says, all right, I'm going to take off. This is all your mess, right? You got this? Mm-hmm. Cool. Cool.

Hegsef is now making all kinds of sounds about how he, like, you know, being asked by his own Pentagon press corps that are all hand-picked stooges, mind you. And like a lot of times you see Pete Hagseth up there and he's like, here's the thing you got to understand. You think like, oh shit, there's some journalists get in there and ask like hard questions. Like, no, these are your own sick of fans who are just asking like basic questions that they think. Yeah. You got to be able to answer this, right? This is when he was asked about like, okay, so given this idea that like, you know, Trump also said it's like, it's up to you now, England, go get your own oil.

He's like, I've already laid waste of the whole place. You just got to go and get it. Hegseth was asked like, okay, so you're saying it's everyone's responsibility for the mess that we created and here's his answer about, you know, who should do what now? I think the president was clear this morning and his truth that there are countries around the world who ought be prepared to step up on this critical waterway as well. It's not just the United States Navy. Last time I checked, there was supposed to be a big bad Royal Navy that could be prepared to do things like that as well.

So he's pointing out. What is the point of that, like, trying to shame the UK and this? Last time I checked, there's a big bad Royal Navy. That's a fraction of our fucking Navy, our Navy, because we spend so much goddamn money on the military. It pales in comparison to our Navy. Like, it's not even comparable. But he's still doing this thing of like, well, but it's a big bad and royal.

Right. Last I heard. It's like, yeah, you like, it's like you set someone's house. like an apartment complex on fire, and you're like, oh my God, you're going to put it. I was like, I don't know, dude. Last time I heard, you guys got a fire hose up there. Maybe you should do something.

Yeah, I started it. And I'm not going to do anything about it. This is the whole thing with NATO that he like fundamentally doesn't understand because he's always been like, oh, like we're putting more into NATO than anyone else. It's not fair. Not understanding that that was a strategic thing that U.S. did on purpose back in the 50s and 60s, thinking, oh, if we invest in NATO, we can have the world's dominant military power. Right.

Yeah. And so they don't have a military because of U.S. foreign policy goals. Yeah, yeah. But I didn't know that. Right. This what Pete Nek said could probably say. Well, this is beside the point, but just in the source tweet there, on truth social, do you call your post truth? Yeah. I rolled my eyes at that too. You sure do. He shared his truth this morning. Because I was like, at first it sounds religious, which is how. Yeah. Yeah, he's like in his truth this morning. I'm like, that sounds like something a priest would say.

But then I was like, oh, that's just what, it's like the equivalent of a tweet. Yep. And you read truth. It's truth. Yeah. You reach. And I retruth that truth. Oh, I'm going to walk into the ocean.

Truly. That's brutal. That's terrible. I'm happy that I've made it this far without acquiring that knowledge, but really devastating to know that that's what's going on over there. I mean, because then he was even asked to like a simple question about like, you know, the president's acting like objectives have been achieved that it's a success.

So what does that mean for like what the end is here? This is him just being like, it could be anything. Guidance and things were military objectives that were moving toward and things that we look at. This wind up,

you can just tell he's so full of shit. You know what I mean? And then you're just like, objectives and you're like, you're about to just say a dumb lie to me. But okay. You're saying a lot of words. Okay, points for that.

He said four to six weeks, six to eight weeks, three, it could be any, any particular number, but we would never reveal precisely what it is because our goal is to finish those objectives. And we're well on our way. And the chairman and I look at this every single day. It will be the president's determination and the president's determination alone. That's not true. Right. But go ahead.

Also, he's saying we have a real number, but we're not going to tell you because it's secret. And it'll be whenever the president. decides. So is there a real number? It's, there is. It's the one the president decides, but we won't even tell you, dude, because that would be dumb if we told you we were going to be done in two weeks. You get that? It's, it all makes sense when you think about it. Yeah, yeah, seriously. What a fucking frightening prospect. So that's the state of things right now. The blundering continues at the expense of human life. And I mean, the build, the troop build up in the region is terrifying. There's like over, I think over 50,000 troops right there in the region. And you already

have people being like, they're not going to do anything. He's just trying to show force. It's just, this is what you do. You pull your fist back and you're like, oh, don't make me kill all these innocent enlisted people. But I'll do it to make a point. Yeah. It's, I mean, that's the part that's like really terrifying because yeah, yeah. The president is such a narcissist and egomaniac, and he's senile and has no grasp of what the actual situation. is that it's purely whatever like sort of very overly positive

description that he's being fed by Heg Seth or other people in, you know, his cabinet to be like, they're like, don't fucking tell him this is the worst fucking thing that ever happened. You say it, we blew something up and that was good or else he's going to fucking lose it. And that's the person

who has the ultimate decision here. And that's right. It's like someone who we demonstrably know is very happy to kill innocent people to save faith. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about just those social media verdicts being actually pretty bad. If you take the longer view on it, and we'll do that right after this. Why hasn't a woman formally participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year. He still smelled of podium champagne

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Follow the Amy and T.J. Podcast, a one-stop news and pop culture shop to get you caught up and on with your day. And listen to Amy and T.J. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And we're back. So as I mentioned up top, last week we talked about the decision that was made or the jury verdict against meta and Google that they were found, quote, negligent in the design and operation of their platforms. The case was brought by a young woman whose addiction to their social media platforms, quote, exacerbated her depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, and, you know, thoughts of self-harm.

And, you know, at the time, people are like, oh, yeah, I mean, we've all seen the different, there was like the meta whistleblower who was like, no, no, no, everybody at the company knows how bad this is. We just have to ignore it because it's all about engagement and revenue. So, like, oh, no, we know it's bad. Like, we won't even let our own kids use this crap. So on the surface seems like a win, right? Because we're sort of in this era where it feels like corporations,

especially tech companies, like running roughshod over everything in our rights included. So big tech company, punished for profiting off children's suffering. I think that could work. Again, shout out to everybody who brought my attention to really like the larger issue here. And also there's a great video from Taylor Lorenz and Kat Ten Barge from Smithfire News for calling like just total bullshit, especially on how the mainstream media was covering it because the narrative was so misleading. Like if you, the headlines were like, whoa, huge decision going against these social media companies. I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. It was effective.

I mean, I think it's partially because it's, it benefits from everyone's like the general understanding that that is true. and the desire to see literally anyone, any institution care about it. So it's like, I don't know. I fell for it. Yeah. Well, I think also we're such in an era where we're trying to find some green shoots of hope emerging that feels like, okay, we can fucking hold on to this. Maybe this can turn into something. But again, like, I think off my Jamie, you were saying it's like, now there's like, we can't even believe there's ever fucking good news anymore because it's like it's like, it's, like, it's.

shrouded in some other things. So I also talked about how there was a decision in New Mexico where Meta Facebook was, you know, they had to pay a fine of like $375 million for, you know, not adequately protecting children. Well, that case in New Mexico stemmed from an investigation into child predators on Facebook that was called, and I'm not joking, Operation Metafile. So, yeah, exactly, yeah. They take child endangerment seriously because we're doing mad magazine punts, okay? That's how you know this is a real thing. And again, I'm not trying to defend Metter or Facebook,

but their reps were even pointing out that the sting operation was pretty, pretty more unethical to begin with, and involved in trapping people with real life pictures of actual children obtained without their consent. But their defense against that, and they were like, well, it was fine because those kids, quote, lived outside of the United States. Jesus Christ.

Which is such like an American view of like, Oh, well, I mean, American children. That's one thing. And even then there's, that's not even sanctified. And then there's a lot of asterisks about what we consider American. Yeah. Or children. Or children.

Or children. Or life. You know, it's like, because we don't do anything with mass shootings. But it's, it's so selective. It's fucking disorienting. Yeah. The second that I started to like read the story, you're like, oh, of course there's nothing to feel good about.

Of course this is like, yeah. They're like, we gotcha with other kids' pictures. And it wasn't because. It wasn't because they found crimes or something. They were just like, we're doing it to catch a predator operation, and this is how it's going to work. Related all this, so this is hearsay. Maybe I fully misunderstood something here, but I was reading about how Heritage Foundation is actually one of the big groups pushing for mandating teen accounts, you know, for on Instagram and Facebook. And it's part of their, like their 40-year plan in the same way as they start in the 80s their plans to overturn Roe.

they want to start with teen accounts and they want to start with banning porn and that eventually leads to banning no cause no fault divorce and restricting women's ability to make decisions. Yeah, I mean, everything is just to take out any like ability for people to have community over something or whatever, especially with the internet. I think they found that that's like a huge thing because they're losing the propaganda wars. I mean like even like even broadly like the U.S., like there was a thing Marco Rubio sent out to all the embassy is saying like you need to begin engaging locals who will amplify America's stories because like we have to battle the disinformation that exists about America and you're like,

sir, they're eating the dogs. Yeah. What do you mean? What do you mean? The only way out of this is if you change some shit like on an actual, you know, policy level. It's not because you're going to get people doing selfie videos like at the fucking mall at DC and be like, this is such a beautiful country.

Like, no. Yeah. Did you see that Trump said the other day that communism doesn't work in theory, but it does work in practice in China? No. That's pretty magnificent. There's so much stuff like, oh my God, every day there's something. It's funny too, like my appetite for like whenever he says dumb stuff, it's falling off really hard in like the last two months. Like there's still some stuff where he says some dumb shit.

And other times I'm like, this guy's just saying fucking. crazy shit all the time because he's needs he shouldn't be anywhere near anything like decision making one thing you just figure out how if you want large fries or a large diet coke when you go to McDonald's like do that stay the fuck away from everything else but so the big outcomes with these trials those two trials specifically is that they will ultimately benefit the same tech companies they ostensibly punished and also some of the worst people on the planet so for one thing in all of these cases, the plaintiffs were pushing for online age verification to, quote, better protect kids. And we've talked about how like online age verification laws are like disastrous. And

they also just help giant companies like Google and Facebook because, quote, they are the only entities with their resources to build costly compliance systems and absorb potentially massive fines. So smaller platforms, on the other hand, will simply be forced to shut down because they can't comply with these new laws. And this already happened in the UK with their online safety act. There was just one specific example, like a place called Hamster Forum, had to shut down because it just didn't have the means to have all the compliance systems in place. And they were merely the, quote, home of all things, hamstery.

Tough. And if we can't have a safe space with Hamster Forum, what do we have? Yeah, nothing. What was the point of the internet if Hamster Forum can't, Can't thrive for fuck's sake. Yeah. You all remember 20 years ago when we were all kids growing up and we were told like never put your real information on the internet like it is for your own personal safety.

You have to be anonymous. And then now it's to go on fucking hamster.com. You got to give them your ID and triplicate. You have to get them your social security number three drops of blood to be like, cute hamster. Yeah. And you know, and meta, they love a bit of age verification. There was a person on Reddit made headlines when they exposed meta-funneled, quote, over $2 billion through shadowy nonprofits to push age verification laws.

And they were doing this to shift responsibility to Apple and Google's app stores rather than their own services. But again, their goals don't seem that dissimilar from the plaintiffs in pushing for these things. And if Facebook is forced to include age verification, that just means that they'll have access. to even more fucking data. This is like, again, we know this is how they make their money on being like, not only do I have an idea who you are, I got your ID.

Now I got everything, baby. It's not even, I'm not even guessing anymore. I know this is you and this is what you are doing because- And who you're talking to and who your network is and everything you're buying. What you're buying. I can track all that, baby. And again, a lot of these age verifications,

like surveillance verification programs, are run by other odious tech companies. This is where I truly broke. Yeah. And you're like, here is where I broke. Here enters, you know, the 2026's current anti-Christ obsessed tech oligarch, Peter Thiel. He backs a, he's a, there's a teal-backed company called Persona Identity and provides, that provides the company with quote, extensive surveillance of users and appears designed to serve federal agency. agencies. Like this has been used like, uh, like, this is like at a time when discord was potentially

going to use it. And then they were like, uh, actually, maybe we won't be using persona as now this has come to life, come to light. And I think one of the even bigger concern, is that the precedent set by these cases, weak in section 230 of the communications decency act of 1996 that states, quote, with some exceptions, internet companies, are not legally responsible for the content they host if it was published there by someone else. So if I go on Yelp and I'm like, I got the worst diarrhea from Taco Bell.

Taco Bell and also Taco Bell, you know, I'd never get diarrhea from you because we're tight. Okay, been down since day one. Taco Bell, I begged a different. I happily, happily, I'll be back. I'll be back, but I have to, that's my truth. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I get it.

And hey, and that's the beauty of the internet. But again, if someone writes something like that, Taco Bell can't, they can't sue Yelp because that was the place that this claim was made. But the thing that these lawsuits, 26 words that made the internet. Yeah, right? The, like, the way these lawsuits were approached, they didn't want to go, they didn't want to attack Section 230 directly. They began to sort of talk about the addictive, quote, design.

It's the design of the apps that is actually flawed. needs to be reckoned with. And this, again, allows them to sort of sidestep the, like, sort of the attacks on Section 230. And again, another pathway to censor content that, quote, unquote, harms children. And the judge in California bought the argument and ruled that, quote, because the claims were about product design and other non-speech issues, Section 230 didn't apply. Ah, uh, uh, uh, okay, I see. So again, non-speach. speech. Yeah. What kind of content could be deemed harmful to minors? Well, if, you know, Section 230 is, you know, sort of capped down to nothing. It's pretty clear when you look at the people that are

hurrahing it, it's all bad, like Senator Marshall Blackburn, you know, the alliance of a better future, which includes, again, influential people from the Heritage Foundation, the Foundation for American innovation and the family policy alliance, all just anti-LGBQ, anti-anything that's not cis-hete white Christian America. These are the people who are like, this is great, this is great, you know, this is exactly what we need. And a lot of people are like, oh, cool. There was even the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. And you're like, oh, okay, well, maybe they're also hooraying this. Well, they're the same anti-porn group that used to be called morality and media. and previously went after Cosmopolitan Magazine for being, quote, hypersexualized.

That's their legacy. And so, you know, if Internet sites are accountable to the government for spreading content that's harmful to children, that will no doubt include LGBTQ plus content and anything else that doesn't fall in line with the state's agenda, because then they'll be able to say that a place where people are offering support to young kids who are, you know, having questions about their own identity or gender expression, they can say, oh, someone is harming them in this, in this venue. And again, these are all the screws they start to tighten to sort of just take away the ability for people to have community, to exchange ideas and to even support each other, just in the general, like, human to human way. Because like- And we've seen in Texas, how they're using policies like that to actually take kids away from their families. Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's just, it is truly staggering to me how many of these issues and rollbacks of rights, whether they are effectively framed as a win or not, like, boils down to how the American government is classifying a child worth protecting and what the value of a child is. I mean, we were talking about it earlier of like, you know, how, whatever, who do we consider? a child, a white cis child.

And even then, an American born. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. Like to your point, it's, it's even doubly offensive because at the end, they don't give a fuck about children at all. It's, no. That's the, that's the rhetorical tactic they use to pull on people's heartstrings to

have them convinced that this is some kind of a net positive for humanity. Because if you gave a fuck about kids, then what, where are the fucks that were the guns control at? If you gave a fuck about kids, why are you rah-raying a genocide in Gaza? If you gave a fuck about kids, Why are you turning a blind eye to all the Epstein shit that's going on? Why are you trying to remove funding for school lunches? Yeah, just at every level, right?

Like every major, like, policy. And the same thing with conversion therapy. Yeah. Like, it is just like, who do we can, like, the line that we're doing it for the children isn't even working for people who would normally fall for that, I think. And which kind of made this story stand out to me because I felt myself falling for. because they wanted to believe that we were making a decision that could positively impact children. And we didn't.

Yeah. Just looking at the last couple of years, right? Like the just exchange of ideas and information about Palestine, about documenting ice thugs and where they're at and what they're up to, Epstein files stuff. That's all possible because of Section 230. Like, and you can tell when they look at that, they're like, those are the kinds of. of things that all of these, like the tech billionaires and just, you know, moneyed classes that have

a vested interest in sort of eliminating that kind of speech or that kind of communication or those values, they're like, yeah, bro, this is, this feels like a very efficient way to just get to the heart of the matter. Because before, we've talked about all the time, like the counter propaganda that has to be put out there to try and get people to see things one way.

But unfortunately, when people, are just sort of confronted with the humanity of a situation, they tend to only move in one direction, which is towards their humanity and be like, well, this is fucking bad. There's no amount of like hot soldiers you can show me doing like TikTok dance challenges. That's going to change my fucking view on that, although they will try. So anyway, very, very important issue to be thinking about because also Marcia Blackburn just introduced a Trump America AI Act. And inside this 291 page document, they tucked away. a repeal of Section 230 in there.

So these are all things that we know just got to have another thing to throw on the list of existential threats to our face. Maybe other one relevant thing to plug there is you know, Section 230 is an American law, but a lot of American law about the internet

affects the broader global internet. And internationally, like shit like the Arab Spring happened because Section 230 protected speech like that on Twitter. And so when you think about organizing against authoritarian and fascist regimes here or overseas, when these platforms have an excuse to start,

or mandates to start taking down speech like that, it's pretty easy to imagine that spiraling out of control. Yeah, 100%. And then we're all going to be talking in weird code words, which would be the next evolution of our language. Double speak, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love everything that is happening right now.

Oh, shit, he said that? I know what that really means. Well, Colin, thank you so much, for joining us on the Daily Zekeyes, a pleasure and an honor. Where do the people find you, follow you, consume your show, your other work? And is there a work of media you've been enjoying social media or otherwise, traditional even? Yeah, yeah. Well, so first of all, folks should follow our podcast, the future of our former democracy.

We're finishing up our second season right now. Each season explores how another country does their elections and why it might be relevant to us in the U.S. So the current season is looking at Germany. And so if you think, oh, how does a government respond to a growing fascist state and build something new that comes afterwards? Hopefully there's some lessons that you can draw from that. And on our YouTube channel, we just put out a documentary American Troubles, a tale of two democracies, that looks at the island of Ireland and Portland, Oregon for similar reasons. So those are both, I think, genuinely more or less positive stories that give you maybe a little glimmer of hope of how something could be better.

So maybe that's nice. You should also send up for a mailing list at more equitable democracy. Our website's equitabledemocracy.org. We're a 501c3 nonprofit. We'd love to get more folks on the mailing list. And if you want to follow me personally, I'm on Blue Sky at Colin J. Cole,

and I'm on Instagram at Relicent, R-E-L-I-K-E-N. Okay. Wait, is that a reference to something? That is way back in, like, 1999, when I was playing StarCraft. All these people had cool names. And I wanted a cool name. So I just put some syllables together that I thought sounded cool.

Yeah. And I've been using it. Achieved. I was like, what's that? Is that a Tolkien? Is that a location in a Tolkien book? Yeah. No, I was actually looking at a pelican and I just said, what if I put the R there?

A relic. Yeah. There it is. Let's go. We used to call my friend by his, what's the other one? After StarCraft. Oh, Warcraft. Warcraft. His name was Dentrabor. And we used to always call him Dentrabor. And he never lived it down because he shared it with once. And he's like, I'm a night elf. And I'm like, Dentrabor, what are you talking about? Shout out to Dentrabor. I hope you're listening. Is there a work of media you're enjoying calling? Yeah. So I'll give a traditional media, the pit. You got to watch it. So it's a medical drama co-created by Noah Wiley, who was on ER. Here's my four.

45-second sales pitch for the pit. My partner works in healthcare and spent a number of years working at the emergency department in our Seattle area largest hospital. And whenever she would come home from work and I'd be like, oh, like, what happened today? She'd be like, oh, I

fucking can't tell you. Like, like, too much happened for me to be able to explain. And this show, each season is just a one, you know, 12-hour shift to the hospital. She and many other healthcare workers say is actually pretty accurate to the pace at which things move.

And she was able to say, oh, like, you know, all those times you asked, like, what happened and I couldn't tell you? Watch the whole season of the show and then imagine that was one day at work and ask me what happened. Yeah, yeah, right, right. It's really good. And it's, I mean, if you like Grey's Anatomy and people having sex in the broom closet, you don't get much of that.

But it is competence porn. When I hear Seattle hospitals, I'm like, well, hold on. No, I'm talking about for the kid. I know, I know. That's reminded me. Yeah, yeah. I can tell you what happened today. No, I could never.

Watch highly competent people being good at their jobs, really great acting. You should check it out. I love the, I like the first season. The second one, the writing is too aggressively, like, on the note. Like, it's like trying to be like, this, like, it's almost like they're looking in the camera and telling you something. And I'm like, okay, we can do this a little bit more elegantly. But I'll keep watching because I like weird stuff. Not that you're wrong.

Yeah. But media literacy in this country is really bad. And I think people were missing it. The first season, all of the stuff just went over them. They're like, they're grabbing. They're like, hey, hey, hey, you're looking at me? Okay. So that's bad what happened right there.

Okay. This is why sickle cell anemia needs to be talked about more in mainstream media. But I did appreciate that, though. And I love as a kid who grew up on ER seeing no. I would have been cool to see if that, if they actually got, because the whole thing was they were supposed to make that like a sequel to ER. Oh man, it could have saw George Clooney. Yeah.

Same thing, by the way, with the dumbing down the language, happened with the boys where they found out, like, people were uncritically thinking Homelander was the good guy. Right. And so they had to be like, okay, fine, we're going to make it really obvious that he's bad. So I feel like, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Now I'm like, is there like a high media literacy cut? I can see. Yeah, yeah. I don't need the training wheels. You can pass a test. Yeah, yeah. I can handle the. the nuance.

That's funny, the nuance cut. In fact, I'm a lover of nuance. That would be fantastic. Yeah, every healthcare professional I know, like, you know, Jack's wife, she's also like a doctor, they're all like, it's so, I don't need to watch it. Like, it's, you know, spot on, but don't need to watch it. They're doing it. They're capturing it.

Jamie, how about you? Oh, man. First of all, it's just lovely to be back. Yeah. I'm mainly on Instagram right now at Jimmy Craig Superstar. This morning, Wee v. Unhoused, a podcast I produced that is created and hosted by Theo Henderson, was nominated for its second Webby. I'm very, very excited for Theo and for our whole team. So if you have a second, having Zykegang in the votes would be terrific.

You can vote every day from today until April 16th. and yeah it's and if you haven't listened to We The Unhoused, it's the best show in the world. It's, I think I'm just, I'm so proud to be a part of it. Theo has, if you're not familiar with the show, Theo started it when he was living unhoused on the streets of L.A. in 2019, started making the show on his phone and has since grown the show into this platform where not only are stories that affect the unhoused discussed. every single week, but also the unhous share their own perspectives and their own stories, which is still, I wish that there were more shows like that, but as far as I know, it is still kind of the only one. For sure, nowadays, I feel like, yeah. Definitely check it out if you haven't.

And if you've got a second to vote for the show in the Webby's, that would be great. Yeah, we will put a link to the Webby's voting in the footnotes. So, you know, to make sure you check that out. So you can cast your vote. Is there any work in media that you're enjoying, Jamie? Yeah, I was thinking of, I just wanted to generally recommend the comedy of my good friend, Kylie Vincent. I would, she's over at, on Instagram at Kylie Vincent has risen. I was thinking of her of because of the, the Pitt recommendation where she has been doing a lot of stand-up about, she was recently diagnosed with MS and has been performing and sort of talking about that on stage. and I visited her in the hospital when she was in the process of getting this diagnosis.

And I live in Burbank. She's at a hospital nearby. And every single medical professional that entered the room was like, hey, did you know that we shoot the pit next door? Because I guess there's like a wing of like a shutdown wing of the hospital where they shoot the pit. It's not like generally on a sound stage like you would expect. But every single part like Kylie, you could set a watch by it. It was like, whoever walks in here next, I don't care who the fuck it is. They're going to start talking about the pit and I'm going to get mad.

Right. Because they're like, have you seen the pit? Yeah. It's really good. Someone comes in and she's like, did you need a Mandarin translator? Oh, no. Oh, maybe the wrong room. Did you know the, you know, okay, sorry, but you know what you shoot the pit here, right?

Okay. It makes me laugh every single day since it happened where Kylie very kindly said to whoever it was. With all due respect, I'm not really trying to decompress by learning about a freak medical change. Right. Not really my idea of a good time currently my lived experience. So I just, she's, she's so funny. And so, you know, check out her work. She's the best. Amazing. You can find me everywhere at Miles of Gray. I'm talking about 90-day fiancé on 420-day fiancé. I'm talking about English football, soccer on A&AFootie with Jamel Johnson and Chris Martin. Check that out. And I appreciate everybody who's checked out the new show. A work of media I like.

It's just a post from at okay but still. Dot Bieskeye. Social in parentheses says completely humiliating myself and ruining everything. All right. Let's wind this thing down. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Let's wind it down now. You can find us everywhere at Daily Zykeyes. We're at the Daily Zykeyes on Instagram.

You can go to the description of this episode, wherever you're listening to it. And there at the bottom, you'll find the footnotes. No, vote notes. Who, Colin. Man, that's blessed when I get two other people. The hat train. That's where we're going to link off to the information we talked about in today's episode.

We also link off. We'll also link off to the Webby's voting. That way you can vote for Wheatie unhoused. And a song that I think you might enjoy. A song I think you might enjoy is actually by the group Mild Life. And it's called Vapor. And they are like, they're in Australia. band because all the good bands are from Australia now.

Just super great vibey music. It's kind of like, not like yacht rock, but it's like, it's easy. It's rocking, but it's nice. You're going to enjoy it. So this is Vapor by MildLife. Check that out. The Daily Zayette, guys, is a production of My Heart Radio. So for more podcasts, for My Heart Radio, visit the IHeard Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

you get these things for free. That's going to do it for us this morning. We'll be back later to tell you what's trending. Until then, bye. Bye. Bye. The Daily Zykeyes is executive produced by Catherine Law. Co-produced by Bay Wang.

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