The Daily Zeitgeist - OBAMA DID WHAAAT? Uber, But Man With Gun 07.23.25

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

In episode 1901, Jack and Miles are joined by host of American Hysteria, Chelsey Weber-Smith, to discuss… Epstein Panic Check In, That ‘Uber With Guns’ App Is Expanding and more! Reporter: Why doesn’t the President just order the FBI to release the full Epstein files? Deputy attorney general seeking meeting with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell Trump 'won't make a deal' with Washington Commanders if team refuses to change name 'Uber With Guns’ App Contracts With Police Officers Accused Of Misconduct ‘Uber with guns’ app launches in Los Angeles A New Uber Clone With Armed Drivers Is the App for a Violent and Paranoid America 'Uber for bodyguards': New app provides armed security teams at the push of a button Protector: We revisit the tragic murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO and examine how the presence of a Protector may have changed the outcome. (Clip) Protector Launches Patrol App to Bring Elite Protection to Los Angeles Homes and Families Dystopian Startup Lets the Wealthy Rent Off Duty Cops on Demand The Blurred Blue Line LISTEN: Just Can't Explain by Alps CruSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You guys doing okay? Yeah. Yeah. All things considered. All things considered. Yeah. I mean, Ozzy Osbourne just died, so we're dealing with that. That's fucked up.

This is news I'm just getting. Yeah. I just got it too. Whoa. He just took the big bat to the sky. And bit its head off? I don't know. Sorry, not the wings of love.

He just rode that big headless bat to the sky. I feel like it got him to the sky and once it dropped him off, he ripped its head off and sent it back to hell. He's like, thank you. I really want to know, what is the real story? It's actually customary up here. That's what you're supposed to do to the bat that takes you up here. They don't want you to tip them.

They do want you to bite their head off. Oh, that was in Des Moines, Iowa that he bit the thing's head off. Wow. Oh, that's not where he died though, right? No, no, no. But that the infamous rip bit the bat's head off was at a show in 1982 in Des Moines. And it was like, there were a bunch of fake bats and then he grabbed one real bat. Yeah.

That seems so impossible. Yeah. I mean, we're going to talk conspiracy theories. I don't buy it. Yeah. We'll get into it. All right. We can get into that. Let's get it on tape. Nothing else.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is an iHeart podcast. Join iHeart Radio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one-year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion.

Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting iHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. In 2020, a group of young women found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts. This is Levittown, a new podcast from iHeart podcasts Bloomberg and

Kaleidoscope about the rise of deep fake pornography and the battle to stop it. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts where we dive into the stories

that shape us on the page and off. Each week I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a car into a pond.

And left a woman behind to drown. Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy's on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello the internet and welcome to season 398 episode three of Dirty Daily Zeitgeist. A production of iHeartRadio. It's a podcast where we take a deep dive into American shared consciousness consciousness and it's Wednesday July 23rd 2025 breath RIP Ozzy RIP Ozzy Wow RIP Malcolm Jamal Warner also we got wait what about that yeah no he died

yesterday or on Monday or the report came out Monday he drowned in Costa Rica what the fuck yes you're not getting your elder My elderly I got on the way in their moment I think he drowned in like a riptide or some cheese in Costa Rica. Yeah, okay 1980s me is like whoa. How is this possible? I mean it's still what a fucking tragedy is Bill Cosby still alive. I know what he is. Yes Damn. Yeah Eyes are not but no rest of them appears to be

It's a July 23rd 2025 Wow, okay little mortgage. Yeah back on track miles. We got to tell the people what day is today? You know what? It's National Lemon Day It's vanilla ice cream day. Also shout out my mom and shout out Nana Liz because it's gorgeous grandma day shout out all the gorgeous grandma out there. You're gorgeous grandma's Yeah, hell yeah gorgeous grandma's day That sounds that sounds like it was a day invented by a pervert maybe yeah, yeah You're gorgeous. You're a gorgeous grandma. But yeah, I think look I think it's probably just a thing

We're by grandma. I could also see a grandma which some grandmas are perverts It's not all grandmas, but some grandmas can be I think I think it's just about like being able to come to terms with being A grandma. I feel like usually what that thing's about to being a grandma doesn't mean old you could still be gorgeous You still got it. I'm like, yeah, you do. Don't worry. It's great grandma. I love it. Shout out grandma's Shout out grandma's everywhere. My name is Jack O'Brien Wood rice it looks like pee pee He's trumpets courtesy of big fat Andrew on blue sky.

I'd stepped away from blue sky for a couple of days, but a shout out to you, Andrew. And I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray. Hey, it's Miles Gray, aka digging myself a hole, going deep deep but I gotta keep these files safe They're all counting on me but to save myself I'd sell them out in a heartbeat And my name is all over these Stupid pedo files and my name is all over these stupid pedophile. If I deny there were ever files, do you think I could dodge these trials?

Paul Moran, Vio on the Discord. Thanks for that, Vanessa Carlton. I know you just bailed on it and said, and then I got stuck. That's fine because the first part were great. I thought you just bailed on it and said, and then I got stuck. That's fine because the first part. You just bailed on it. I like bailing out in the middle of writing. Really well done and the fact that you did that on

the back of a truck while playing a piano was pretty impressive. I appreciate the commitment. Yeah, you got to. You got to, man. Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by one of our very favorite guests on TDZ, a poet, podcaster who you can hear on the American Hysteria podcast exploring the fantastical thinking and irrational fears of Americans through the lens of moral panics, urban legends,

and conspiracy theories. Some of those going around these days. Please welcome the brilliant and talented Chelsea Weber Smith. Chelsea. I'm so happy to be back, you guys. That song was absolutely incredible. I just want to say that. That was a beautiful job. Who did that? What's his name?

That was Paul Moran Veo. All right. Love it. On the Discord server. I'll also shout my granny out because I call him granny. Yeah. It's granny's day too. Gorgeous granny. Gorgeous granny.

Yep. Where's granny live? She lives actually about 40 minutes from me and we spend every Thursday together and we watch Wheel of Fortune and we watch celebrity Jeopardy is our current favorite. Oh my. So, so I'm going to shout out granny. Any celebrity Jeopardy contestants who have been surprisingly smart?

Margaret Cho is incredible on it. And almost every time she does the Daily Double, and she'll be like at like 36 grand, and she'll still do the Daily Double because it's like just her philosophy. She just goes all the way. And she's like very serious on the show. It's incredible. She's by far, she didn't win, but she's definitely by far the best contestant I've ever seen.

So thanks, Margaret. You entertain us a lot. The comedians, I'm telling you, Andy Richter was on there many years ago against Wolf Blitzer. And Wolf Blitzer was the worst competitor I've ever seen on Jeopardy! Celebrity or otherwise. Wow. Yeah.

Celebrity, children, like home game, any of the above, just the worst I've ever seen. Getting, yeah, he ended up in the negatives. Everybody was like feeling sorry for him by the end. Except for him, I don't think he, I don't think much like registers for Wolf Blitzer. He's just... Dude, he ended up a negative $4,600.

Yeah. And Andy Richter was just cleaning the board, just going through. Here's some of his worst hits. Oh, here we go. Some of this pasta, similar to penne, means little mustaches. Doesn't sound so tasty now.

Wolf. What is fettuccine? No. Fettuccine! No, sorry. Just real quick. This shit was rigatoni. Is rigatoni, they show a bowl of rigatoni. They're the little tubes.

Like you could say like ziti, you could say anything that has tubes. He said fettuccine. He said it so confidently. And he did that thing where like when you answer and you're ready to move on to the next question cause you nailed it, you're like fettuccine now. There are tubes. No. He thought the tubes were fettuccine.

What's this one now? No, King David and Jesus both hailed from this town. Okay. Is this Nazareth? Bethlehem. Bethlehem? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Bethlehem, Nazareth, those are acceptable. Born in Bethlehem, yes. Okay. Or Jesus of Nazareth? Bethlehem? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Bethlehem, Nazareth, those are acceptable. Born in Bethlehem, yes. Okay. Or Jesus of Nazareth. Okay. What's he going to say? Like, fucking Billings, Montana?

What is Jerusalem? No. Jerusalem, brother. From a larger work. Well. Anodated? No. Add one of this five-letter word that refers to an economic crash and the fear-driven rush

to sell. Wolf. What is a crash? No. Crash? Oh, Wolf. He really can't get out of his newsman tone. He's all the way in the red, and he's over there at like $40,000 and Wolf is just like,

what is fettuccine? The fettuccine one is the one that's always got me. That's offensive, yeah. Who doesn't know, who thinks the round hollow tubes are fettuccine? You can get a lot closer than that, but. How can you get through life in these United States? if you're a fettuccine person, you know what the shit looks like. If you're not a fettuccine person, I'm not a fettuccine person.

Like I guess in my mind, he only eats fettuccine and he's like, yep, that's fettuccine pasta, pasta, pasta, pasta. I'm trying to help. Well, it turns out anyway. Anyways, I don't even remember where we were. Doesn't matter. Well, we're talking about Chelsea's granny. I will say- We're proud now, granny.

Very, very touching because I love hearing when people spend time with their family members. Towards the end of my grandparents' lives, I tried to spend more time with them, but I'm always heartened to hear about people who like still keep that relationship going. Especially now as I'm a parent, I'm like thinking of my kid and like, you hang out with them, please.

That's so amazing that you're a parent. It's beautiful. Yeah. Come back. Come back. My, yeah, we are a three generation household and it's the best. Like at first it was a tough adjustment or the kids were just not necessarily taking to having their grandparents around,

and now it's like ping pong wars all afternoon. Oh, yeah. Oh, they're playing table tennis? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Starting young. Yeah. They're competitive. My in-laws are very good at table tennis. I know, and they're not going easy, are they?

They better not be. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, that's what I thought. No, I mean, as somebody who grew up with Asian family members, and they'll be like, oh, you will not be shown mercy merely because you are a child. You will learn what level you need to be at to not feel bad about yourself. Yeah. My father-in-law, I heard my son being like, need to be at to not feel bad about yourself. Yeah. My father-in-law,

I heard my son being like, stop laughing when you beat me. Oh, yeah. Perfect. Chelsea, we're thrilled to have you here. We're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell the listeners a couple of things we're talking about. We're going to do a Epstein panic check-in.

That's just how we're kicking things off these days. Just where, where are we at? How's everybody within the Trump administration dealing? Smoke bombs abound. And we're going to talk about Uber with guns, a new app that I think we've covered the launch, but they've dropped some, some new features that are pretty wild protector has blown up thanks to the United Health Care CEO assassination. They even like made a video where they were like, here's what would happen

if Luigi tried that shit on Protector. Oh my god. Jesus. Yeah. So anyways, all of that, plenty more, but first Chelsea, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history? Well, as I always do, I'm bringing you something from our latest episode project. And my search history is Dear Abby and Landers, urban legends.

So do you guys know much about Dear Abby and Ann Landers, the two most popular advice columnists in American history? Just that they were very popular advice columnists. I do not know. I'm immediately fascinated to find out what the process was like behind the scenes of that. Was it ever contentious that one of them existed at all? Or is that, am I misremembering things? I feel like there's something with like, yeah.

Here's what I'll tell you. Anne Landers and Dear Abby were identical twins. That. What? Whoa. Yeah. What? F*****g identical twins.

Dressed the same. No. Yes. Yes. Dressed the same. Get the f**k out of here. Literally slept in the same bed in each other's arms until the day that they were married in a double wedding in the same dress.

And then they both became advice columnists and got this horrible rift between them and then were battling to be America's top advice columnist for many many many many years. I know I didn't know this. Miles' face right now. I was like I remember them I just knew there was something about their identity at the time. And so I like the version that you got was somebody who doesn't believe in twins. They don't like now that's the same person. No way. No way.

That's the same thing. They're dressed as dear Abby. They're moving back and forth really quick. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That's the only explanation. Yep, isn't it straight? Yeah, so I was like, as soon as I heard that, I was like, okay, we need to dig into this.

But you know, they were, since our show is a lot about urban legends, they were a big source of urban legends because people would write in saying, this happened to my friend. She'd print it. It would, because they had, I mean, at their peaks, they had like around a hundred million readers.

So this is like, these people are like those kinds of invisible architects of culture that you just kind of dismiss, but they're actually like leading opinion. And they did a lot of things that were like pretty okay. You know, they were like slightly, they've been called like slightly left of center. So slowly America was able to kind of change along with them.

That's actually a lot better than it could have been. I know, and it's not what I expected either. She's like, I will not reprint the N-word in my comments. Slightly left of center. Wow, wow, brave, brave. There's like a Ron Howard film about them refusing to do that where like they're the heroes. You better print it, Anne.

I will not. I will not. Print it now. For some reason, the Lockhorns are characters in it. I always associate them with being back where the comics were. Yeah, exactly. It's just so wild that there was this period of time when there were like seven TV shows on and like everybody watched them and nobody was paying attention to like how

they got, like they were made by three white guys and like the friends that they had from college, you know, it was just like, and like, yeah. Anne Landers and Dear Abby were just like people who had this market corner. Nobody was like, it wasn't this hyper competitive thing where they were like 2 million people all trying to like give advice or like have advice podcast. It was just like the two people who thought to do that and had like massive influence and nobody was even like paying attention to it. Like it was just like, yeah, that's because that's what's there. What a weird period. Really odd.

I know, I know. Now we have Reddit and Quora, so you can kind of add, you can like crowdsource all your advice, but back then it was like, yeah, just like these two twins out there dictating culture. And, uh, it's, it's, it's a very fun story and they were very flamboyant. Like they both wore skunk coats to their first day of college, like the same outfit. Showed up, you know, they were just very bizarre. So it's a good twin tail.

And yeah, you guys can get that in like three or four weeks. Okay. I'm just like blown away because I, as someone who like knows the Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song by memory, I'm like, that's right. We got Anne Landers and her sister, dear Abby, and then Harrison Ford's A Quarter Jewish, not too shabby. That whole part. I'm like, fuck!

The answer was right in front of me the whole time. They were sisters. If I had tried to write that song, I would have just like, the song would have devolved into me talking about how weird it was that they were identical twins who slept in the same bed. And her sister, dear Abby. Did you know they were kind of deranged, disillusioned identical twins and then had a terrible falling out and they were.

Yeah. Did they ever make up or do we have to check in with the- Just check in. We'll check in to find out how things ended. I'm trying to kind of, there's a lot of lore, a lot of self-lore that's created. So I'm trying to kind of pick it apart. So yeah. Okay. Tune back in in a little bit here.

We will. We will. What is something you think is underrated? Oh, I said doing shit alone. I love doing stuff alone. I just went camping alone a couple weekends ago. Fantastic. Just wonderful. I go to movies alone, go to eat alone. And I have a partner, I have friends, but I don't know.

I just love being alone. Do you guys like being alone? Is that something? I'm, as an only child, I recharge my batteries by being alone. But I don't, but I often like to do things very socially. Like I've only gone to the movies by myself, like four times in my life, like a couple times. Okay.

And eating, I will eat alone, but the camping part I'm really interested in, because that's a whole other level when you're like, you know what, I'm gonna just be out here by myself for a little bit. That feels kind of chill. I used to travel a lot in like some unorthodox ways. And one of them was I lived in my camper truck for nine months all across the country by myself. So it was like, if I can do that, I can go camping again. And it was I mean, shit got weird when you're like, alone, and you're just like begging for anyone to talk to you in a bar. And so you end up in some very strange conversations, but you have this false sense of love for these strangers because I'm just desperate for conversation.

But, uh, I do like it in small, maybe smaller doses than that now, because I'm old, but yeah, I don't know. I just like to go camping alone, sit by the river, drink some wine. God, I love a river. Smoked some weed. I know. Yeah. Beautiful river.

Do you drink out of like a wine Bota, like a calfskin bag? That would be, that would be cool. I did that one of those in high school, like a real fucking piece of shit. I had one of those too, that I remember we were doing like a camping trip for one of my class things and I, rather than bottle, water bottle, I demanded my mom get me one of those like stupid bags because I wanted to be like in a Robin Hood. That's like leather. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But it was like the plastic one, cause she was like, do you know how much these cost? And I'm like, I don't know. And she's like, you can get the plastic one at big five that they laughed at me for buying. Yep. I had one too, and then it started leaking. So the color of the bag just became darker and darker on the bottom

and just started getting gross. The Bota bag. Yes. The Spanish liquid receptacle. I remember that from a movable feast or whatever that Hemingway book is. That's super anti-Semitic. I was like, wait, is this like part of the art? I don't understand.

Why does everybody say this is good? Anyway, what is something you think's overrated? The happy birthday song. Okay. So I have this friend Ezra Lipp. Just FYI, this is my favorite song, but go ahead. Oh, great. Okay.

Well, get ready. You're going to fucking hate this. One of my, or a friend of mine, his name's Ezra Lipp, I want to credit this as his theory. He thinks that the Happy Birthday song being the first song that we generally learn and it being a really, I mean, most people know it's a very awkward melody. It's hard to sing. And so he thinks that that's why Americans have this very specific problem of being really scared to sing and sound bad. It's because we sound bad the first time we sing this stupid happy birthday song.

So. Interesting. Throw that. It's not like Mary had a lit. It's like, yeah, I can see that. It's hard to hit. It's like a, it's just hard. I'm not going to do it because it's pretty hard. I mean, so I try and get some vibr know, it's hard to hit. It's like a, like, ha. It's just hard. I'm not gonna do it because it's hard.

I mean, so I try and get some vibrato in there when I'm singing happy birthday. Good, maybe you're kind of leading people. I always do harmony at the end. Oh, that's nice. Don't really fill it out. Yeah, and then that confuses people. He gets really mad if you're down here

and he wants you up here. He's like, I need you up here. You're down here. Happy birthday to you. Fuck. You ruined it. I said E flat, dickhead. Anyway, happy sixth birthday, Amy. Thanks for having us. She'll never sing again. Thanks for having us. Who are those people? You just go from birthday party to birthday party. In parks, I catch wind of someone that just spread over.

Yeah. Oh, interval. Yeah. I guess. More of a volunteer position. Are you bad at singing Happy Birthday, Chelsea? I am. Did that resonate?

Oh, that resonated with you. Okay. Yeah. No, my whole family is so bad at it and my partner is a professional musician and a fantastic singer. So she comes in and she'll be like, we're gonna start here and she'll like really beat us. So we've gotten better just having that like first note. She blows that little tuning whistle.

Yeah, basically, basically. So now we're getting better but. Ha, ha, nope. Oh Jesus. What's happening? This is me singing that. Now it's that thing where you're thinking about it too much and you'll never be able to do it again. Happy.

Damn it, I went too high. No, that was good. Wow, that was interesting. Happy birthday. Okay, so sorry about your dad, honey. You're doing too much, sorry, you're doing too much. You're doing too much again. It's not your birthday.

You're doing too much again. Anyway, that's a great theory, I love that theory. Thank you. Do other cultures have easier to sing happy birthday It's not your birthday. You're too much. Anyway, that's a great theory. I love that theory. Thank you. Do other cultures have easier to sing happy birthday songs? Seems like it. I haven't looked into this in depth, but it does seem like there are better ones. What's the one they do in England?

Happy birthday to you. Is that one easier? Is that, what is that? Just a new melody. CB Wonders. Happy birthday, happy birthday. I thought you were coming up with a new one. No, I don't know. Is that one easier? What is that? Just a new melody. A Stevie Wonder's. Happy birthday, happy birthday.

I thought you were coming up with a new one. No, I don't know. I think that according to Ezra, it is a particularly difficult birthday song. And also there's a backstory there that I don't know off the top of my head, but the people who wrote that then tried to, they'll still sue you for doing happy birthday. They're they're really we roll right? It's not public domain yet. Isn't that yeah, because that's why they're like rest some restaurants don't do it or something I remember like sort of the Okay, the one I remember growing up in l.a. I have a lot of Persian friends. They have a song in Farsi that's a lot easier to sing.

That's like, Tava Lod, Tava Lod. It's like more chanty. Okay. And it feels more like anybody can hop at any point. To your point about like the happy birthday song, the first measure is always fucked because no one knows what the key is.

It's really hard. Yeah. And that's why I'm like, just get me out of here. I don't care if it's my child's second birthday. Yeah. All right, guys, I'm going to start up here and you just try and keep up. Ready? A one, a two, a one.

Mildred and Patty Hill wrote the Happy Birthday song. It ain't public domain yet? I don't think it is. Well, yet another reason that it is overrated. Yeah. Oh, wow another reason that it is overrated. Yeah. Oh, wow. So, okay, wow. The Warner chapel music tried to claim copyright,

but in 2015, their copyright claim was declared invalid and they had to pay back $14 million they received in licensing fees. Wow. Damn. Okay, the drama deepens. Maybe I need to do an episode about this. We're back.

Happy birthday to you. We were really playing it fast and loose. If it hadn't been public domain, we were singing all over this episode. I mean, yeah. Look, we already got dinged by Eminem that one time. I know we did. Eminem is like the most litigious. Litigious.

Eminem is people. I'd like to think it's Eminem. Me too. Yeah. All right. Let's like to think it's Eminem. Me too. Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. So what happened at Chappaquiddick?

Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind To drown there's a famous headline. I think in the New York Daily News It's Teddy escapes blonde drowns and in a strange way, right? That sort of tells you the story really became about Ted's political future Ted's political hopes will Ted become president Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took

control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF, and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption.

My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said. It would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked.

Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this?

This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown ong's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From iHeart podcasts and Rokoko Punch, this is The Turning, River Road.

I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to ten girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse. Why did I think that way? Why did I allow myself to get so sucked in by this man and thinking to the point that if I died for him, that would be the greatest honor. But in 2014, the youngest of the girls escaped and sparked an international manhunt. For all those years, you know, he was the predator and I was the prey. And then he became the pry. Listen to The Turning, River Road, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, we're back. All right. All right, fine. We're back. All right, fine, I'll bite. We're back. Fine, I'll bite. What's Jeffrey Epstein? What's? All right, fine right. We're back. All right. Fine. I'll bite. We're back. Fine. I'll bite. What's Jeffrey Epstein?

What's all right. Fine. I'll bite. Who's this Epstein guy? What's the story here? I heard he's dead. So like, why do I even care? It wasn't even like that big of a factor.

And Donald Trump both told me he's dead. So like, it doesn't matter. No further questions, dad. Moving on. Uh, yeah, the story's not going to go away. But New York times was wrong when they were like, this seems like Trump has turned the tide on this and his space is just following. Shut up over there.

Just shut up over there. What are you saying? Again, you're, they're doing the Caroline Levitt thing of performing for Trump, specifically when they write shit like that because no one fucking believes it. But Trump will be like, did you see what the New York Times said? Exactly. Then Maggie Haberman or whatever can learn some other little nuggets or something. But anyway, just wanted to check in because it's a full court press in terms of trying to create distractions from the Epstein case files, knowledge, how Trump is involved.

Just to start Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence and sometimes, well, most of the times Russian asset has really swung for the fences in trying to like activate people's anti black racism as a distraction. It usually works. Yeah, it does go well. I mean, in America, you know what?

If you put that on a menu of possible ways to divert this energy, I'd be like, yeah, you might have a case here, Tulsi. We'll have the anti-black racism, please. Oh, yes. Okay. Well, why don't we try this one on for size? Barack Obama did treason because he created the Russia hoax on me. Wow.

That's like a full entree. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. This is like a very stupid thing where now she's saying that Trump or the whole Russia hoax was created by Barack Obama to fake that. It doesn't make sense unless you really want to believe that Trump isn't in the Epstein files. I wish I could cover it with a little bit more enthusiasm.

Wait, so what does it have to do with the Epstein? They're just saying, because he was like that this is all part of them trying to frame me. They created the files. They are the ones who have always been trying to get me with Russia, Russia, Russia, the laptop from hell. It seems like almost they're preparing for the files to come out so that they can basically be like. On some level, they need, they definitely want to set the table for people to be like, like to confirm some bias and not people be like, wait, what about Trump though? You know what I mean? Like they know, because the way the Republican audience looks at this is

this means that Clint, the Clintons and Obamers and Bidens are going down in the Epstein files. You know, like that's how it's presented a lot of the time. Cause like, look at them, they're on the flight. What does this mean? But the one thing like, so they said, they're like, oh, Obama said that the election was hacked, that they hacked the elections. Like no one ever said the election itself was hacked in 2016.

What they're talking about is all the intelligence reporting, journalistic reporting that has been about Russians approaching members of the Trump campaign, the Cambridge Analytica, psychographic data that was used for Facebook trolls and the troll farms that exist there, fucking hacking the DNC emails. Like, yeah, that shit happened. But again, that's what people were talking about. So, yeah, they're now like this weird like hoax inside a hoax where it's like, right, creating a hoax. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail.

And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail.

And then they're like, oh, I'm going to go to jail. And then they doing like this weird like hoax inside a hoax where it's like they're creating a hoax that didn't exist to say that it was a hoax because they can prove that hoax didn't happen right? They can prove that, I don't know, it just seems like they're creating a new hoax to then discredit that hoax to make it seem like everything's a hoax. Because what they're saying, they're taking the actual Intel assessment of like, quote, Russia and Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conduct by specifically by conducting cyber attacks on infrastructure. Yeah, sure.

We know that. But we didn't say that- But now they're saying we said that. Yep. Exactly. Then they use headlines from places like the New York Times were talking about Russian hackers acted to aid Trump in election. Yeah, by releasing like materials that would, you know, be perceived by voters and went one way or the other. That's what they mean.

So they're trying to be like, see, they didn't do that yet. They, all these people said that Russia did stuff. Therefore, can we just forget about it? Please be mad at Barack Obama. The only thing linking these are that they're like happening around the same time. Right. The, this and Epstein, like them releasing this, they're not saying anything to do with Epstein in this Russian hoax investigation. This is just another thing to put into the information environment to be like,

be mad at Barack Obama. It totally reeks of, because it, yeah, it doesn't make sense as like a refutation necessarily, unless they're trying to be like, get ready for the time when like the Epstein files are released and his name's in it and then they can be like, see, but well they did the Russia hoax. Yeah. So, but otherwise I feel like it's more just Trump being like, I mean, everybody's mad at me about this, but what about that? Like the same thing that like my seven and nine year olds do about

each other where they're like, I'm like, clean up like the toys that are all over the ground. He didn't even brush his teeth yet. Yeah. It's just like, all right, young Putin, why don't you step back with your, what about it? It's just like trying to like deflect in any way possible when you know that you don't. Yeah. It's like, bro, you're caught in 4k. Like, come on, you know, and I'm sure that's like with that fake, uh, astronomer CEO,

like, no, it was like, and Chris Martin maybe shouldn't have even like done that to me. You know, it's like, okay, okay, dude. What's this guy's deal? That was fake. So then moving along, right? Then you have Marjorie Taylor Greene. She, her, she's still hungry for some pedophile elite cabal exposure. She's still, her appetite is, has not been satiated. She's like, quote, if you tell the base of people who support you of deep state treasonous crimes, election

interference, blackmail, and rich and powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of the people. If not, the base will turn and there's no going back. Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and would accept nothing else. Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. He's like really a poet, man.

They want the whole steak dinner. It sounds like something. They want the whole steak dinner. James Carver was saying- It did sound calmer less. When you're trying to lure in an alligator, just dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfied. They want the whole steak dinner.

He's ghost writing for like other fan politicians. Now, this is, I mean, speaking of MTG, they have called the House, the House is shutting until September to block the Epstein vote, right? Yeah. They're not taking a vote before the August recess. No, they're like, bruh, don't even, like Mike Johnson was like, he's doing a thing where

he's like, well, you know, we trust the government at the moment for them. They say they're going to be doing what the right thing is. And I believe that there's no need for congressional intervention at this moment. And maybe we will have to revisit that. So he's trying to play both ways. He's going big, nothing to see here revisit that. So he's trying to play it both ways. Yeah, but he's trying to act like too, he's like, but you know, we gotta do something, we'll do something, but right now I don't think we need to do anything.

It's kind of like where he's at with it. And wasn't he originally like wanting to release the files like first round, right? Oh, every one of these people was wanting to. But I mean, even like right, like just a week ago or whenever it came out was, and he's still wanting it to be released, like disagreeing with Trump. Yeah. Yeah.

There was a thing where like the vote happened and then a podcast appearance came out where he, like it seemed like he had just contradicted what the vote was. I don't know when that podcast was recorded, but that headline came from an appearance on a podcast where he said, we should be looking into transparency. It seemed like Trump legit, just like he got everybody worked up about the Epstein stuff and then remembered that he was in there and was like, fuck. And like, like literally we have him hiring like hundreds of FBI agents to go and like around the clock search through the files for his name.

Like that's on wax. We have that happening. It's a thousand people, wasn't it? A thousand people looking around the clock for his name to flag it. So, and I don't know what they found, but all of a sudden he's like, well, these files are nothing. They're nothing. This guy's dead.

He's a hundred thousand, at least as I said, like around a hundred thousand pages of evidence to go through. And why not just command F? Any other names? Yeah. Command F. Find it. Because all it's going to take is one.

All it's going to take is one tump that's in there, that doesn't get caught in the finder. Then people will be like, yo, who's Donald Tump? They're like, oh, fuck, about that. He probably also doesn't know about Control F and people are like, this is actually, we can make a lot of money here. Just tell them that we have to look through all these documents. One by one. Can I get overtime for this?

Yeah, man, just fucking do a bad job. And then Caroline Levitt, the Nazi mouthpiece for the White House is now just trying to fully deflect. It's not even like on the D, it's not even on Pam Bondi anymore. She's just like, I don't know. Why don't you fucking ask fucking Cash Fatale? Like it's kind of her energy right now. It's you're like, oh, things are going well, aren't they?

Here's Caroline Levitt being asked about the press. What about kind of her energy right now. You're like, oh, things are going well, aren't they? Here's Caroline Levitt being asked about the press. What about these D-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-Ev-E releasing any further credible evidence they should do so as to why they have or have not or will you should ask the FBI about that? Wow. Wow. Great. Great. Thanks. Just passing the buck. All right, Cash Patel, it's on you. You go. The hot potato right now. Yeah, this is bad. I wonder if like because they're all so they are none of them are real critical thinkers. I like if they all are like, yeah, do Trump isn't in the Epstein files. Right. Like subconsciously that they and then now they're like, wait, is he like, right

now, like behind the scenes, they're working it out. They're like, hold on, dude, you think fucking Trump is in the Epstein files? I think he's told people he's in there for some shit that like would make him look bad because they've come out and been like, cause we don't want to release these files that are going to incriminate people who are actually American fucking heroes. But how many of you think are like, bro, he's in that shit. Oh, they have to, you know what I mean?

Like, but then I feel like you got it in that moment. You can think of better stuff than just being like, I don't want you to ask Cash Mattel, I got to go. And for that, why the answer is why don't you ask the FBI maybe? Okay. I mean, I'm still like, Miss, why are you suddenly pretending that Cash Patel's FBI is somehow like some kind of independent body?

Like the whole time before you guys got into office, you talked about how you have to clean house to get people who are all gonna sing from the same hymnal at the same time. And now you're like, I don't know, maybe Cash Patel's gone rogue. We're not gonna ask him. Yeah. Cool, cool. get people who are all going to sing from the same hymnal at the same time. Now you're like, I don't know, maybe Casper Tell is going to roll. We're going to ask him. Yeah.

Cool. Cool. Anyway, good strategy. Then let's also check in with Pam Bondi and the DOJ. She now has the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanch. He's off to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell for some reason. Oh shit. Todd Blanch is going to speak to Ghislaine Maxwell? One of my favorite tennis matches, Blanch versus Maxwell is about to happen. Pam Bondi puts this statement out about what's going on.

This just sounds so fucking, I don't even know what the word is, rotten, I guess, to its core. Quote, this Department of Justice does not shy away. This is Pam Bondi posting a statement from the Deputy Attorney General. These aren't her words, she's merely reposting what the Deputy AG said.

This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead. The joint statement by the DOJ and FBI of July 6th remains as accurate today as it was when it was written, namely that in the recent thorough review of the files maintained by the FBI in the Epstein case, no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence.

If Galeen Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say. Therefore, at the direction of Attorney General Bondi, I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the department." And basically says like, no lead is above or below our scrutiny. And you're like, okay, so y'all are warming up for a quid pro quo scheme here. That's- Oh yeah.

Or- We're going to talk to the woman who was put away for being the head of a pedophile ring, who even when she was arrested and put away for 20 years, the president was like, I think she's great. I wish her well. So obviously, there's some well-wishing going on. They're tight. It's a shame she wasn't charged when Trump was in office because then he could have swiftly pardoned her.

But yeah, now I'm like, this feels really because again, the way they're talking is like, maybe she has some new evidence where she'll selectively say, because again, this doesn't end until the base gets names. Yeah. You know what I mean? And somebody has to get locked up, I think, for this, for them to really put a bow on this shit.

And there's talk of commuting her sentence. Oh yeah. In order to get her to talk, which then she can say whatever they want to say. And that feels like, I feel like the tossing back and forth is just them buying time and they're doing some kind of bigger, scary plan and doesn't feel like a conspiracy. It's like, I think this is really bad. This seems like a really bad. The Maxwell of it all, I'm like, you're pretending like

this person doesn't have information or things didn't come out in the course of both trials. Yeah. Like that you can't act on. So I think this is again, it serves two purposes. One, it makes it feel like they're pushing, they're going a step closer for the base to be like,

well, you know what, we're going to talk to the lady who was Epstein's girlfriend. Right. We're going to see what she has to say. I feel like that is how they end up spinning this and getting out of it. Oh, yeah. Is just like having her, like making a big media production of her coming out and then just doing like some scripted thing where she's like, and Donald Trump was not involved. However, Bill Clinton was a mastermind and involved in that.

It is making me wonder like as hot as things have gotten for him, why is he not just throwing Bill Clinton under the bus? Like that's all these people want. And like Bill Clinton was on the flight logs and like was probably like on the island and in the files, like why is he not doing that unless he's so guilty? He's so implicated. He was like, I was with Bill at the time. He was there the whole time.

Yeah. It could just be like, he's like, bro, that's like the pot calling the kettle an Epstein friend. I mean, he doesn't mind being a hypocrite, but I'm wondering if he assumes that like that will just lead people in like, or tell your point that like, he's just in the process of like arranging things so that the files, the only files that people can access have Clinton in them and not him. Yeah.

I feel like, I feel like she's going to name Rosie O'Donnell and all the people that yeah Any enemy she'll just be like, here's the list and it'll just be all there ASAP Rocky He never thanked me for getting him out of Sweden Nasty, oh YG he had that song fuck I like Trump Talk about say that he fucks with Donald Trump. Mm-hmm. Also I'll talk about it. Say that he fucks with Donald Trump maybe. Also I'm not with all the Bloods.

You know, I do wear a red tie, but no, I claim crypt. So people know that's where I'm at and I'm 10 toes down on that shit. Yeah. But meanwhile, Trump, what he's doing is like he's doing a bunch of culture war wins right now. So we talked on like how he talked about how he was, he said he got Coke to switch it up to cane sugar. And, and Coke was like, huh?

No, no. We like high fructose corn syrup and the corn lobby of the United States was sort of like their response. Or this is very un-American of you. Yeah. Like, uh, yeah, exactly. Industry is other countries. We don't have sugar baby We are corn, baby.

We do corn sugars here. Coke has now said, well, yeah, actually, we're coming out with a Coke product, a natural cane sugar one. So that's coming out. So like Mexican Coke, but just not Mexican? Not imported. Yeah. American Coke.

Fine. It tastes better when it's in a glass bottle anyway. Yeah. And it's like literally they could just put regular Coke in a glass bottle. And I would be like, you can really taste the sugar. Yeah. You can really taste it. This is a great vintage.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. This is what 89 I think. Um, and then he also threatened the Washington commanders. He was like, dude, you better lose that woke ass name and go back to the skins. Or I'm going to fucking, I'm going to, I'm going to put the guy wash on a deal. He said, quote, my statement on the Washington redskins was, has totally blown up, but only in a very positive way.

Okay. Yeah. I may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original Washington redskins and get rid of the ridiculous Monica Washington commanders, I won't make a deal for them to build a stadium in Washington. the original Washington Redskins and get rid of the ridiculous moniker Washington Commanders. I won't make a deal for them to build a stadium in Washington. Here's the thing, Congress already let the city of DC, like the District of Columbia decide what to do with,

what do they play? RFK? RFK Stadium. Yeah, RFK Stadium. Yeah. Named after RFK Jr. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's going to be great. Yeah, it's going to be called the Meas Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's going to be great.

Or, yeah, yeah, it's going to be calls of the measles bowl soon. Yeah. And they'll, but everyone, like all the journalists, like, there's really no way, not sure exactly how he's going to like, like metal in that deal. Cause there's nothing to do with him at this point, but again, he's just saying him. Yeah. He's just saying things.

Yeah. I am potent. Watch me change, lean on this football team and make Coke have sugar in it again. Wow. Wow. You're all mighty omnipotent Trump. And then there's just like a slow drip of like, I don't know, old shit that people are just resurfacing the people that I feel like is breaking through.

Like there's a video that went viral where it's just Trump. He's judging a beauty contest for 14-year-old girls with the seriousness of an art appraiser. Right. It's just him and a bunch of grown men just sitting back, watching 14-year-olds walk by in fucking bathing suits. Like it's a dog show and grown men just sitting back watching like 14 year olds walk by in fucking bathing suits. Like it's a dog show and they're like just looking at every, oh yeah.

Which just like, I feel like enough time has passed that it just looks like fucking so weird and creepy. And also, you know, enough people aren't like as much as they're going to want to dismiss it, he is acting so much like a nervous liar in a bad movie. He's just like, what do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about. This guy, this guy that people said is my best friend, never heard of him. How come?

He's dead. He cares. Literally, all we need is a collar yanking. I think, how close is he to putting a pair of eyeglasses on and be like, you wouldn't punch a man in glasses, would you? Like, what? That's where it went.

Did you see that clip that another one that came out from in 1992 when he sees a 10-year-old girl on an escalator and he's like, I'll be dating her in 10 years? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like, again. There's so many stories like that. There's so much shit.

Thursday night. You're going up the escalator? I'm going to be dating her in 10 years. Can we go in? Oh my God. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I feel like no one, like we'll probably have some of the things that he's said about Ivanka, like resurfacing Cree soon, because some of that shit is so wild.

And like he was saying it while she was like a child Yeah, so we was talking about was it I don't this I don't know which daughter it was but about her legs when she was An infant and like well, I don't know if she'll have like the breasts of her mother or not It's like yeah. Oh, he was talking about Tiffany. I think any sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Tiffany Sorry to not acknowledge that he was saying pedophile shit about you. She was a very beautiful baby. She's got Marla's legs.

We don't know whether or not he put his hands up to his chest. Okay. Jesus Christ. Yeah, really normal, really normal. He said, the full quote is, we don't know whether or not, puts hands to chest, she's got this part yet, but time will tell. That's a cool and normal way to be looking at a fucking child. At your own infant.

Yeah. Your own daughter. Yeah. Well, she has my, she has the woman, my, my romantic partner's body. We'll see if the other part of it happens too. What's the purpose of this? That's normal. But honestly, I feel like you could just create a documentary.

There's 30 minutes of just shit like this over and over, and just drop it on their asses. Yeah. Well, we'll see. They're probably closer to being like, I'd rather support a pedophile, honestly, if it's between that and a Democrat. Yeah. Because I'm not going to do it.

But I don't know. It is frustrating because there's just so many... People's interest in this case comes... People are interested in this for a good reason. There, this is like a concentrated amount of wealth and power that is like clearly doing evil shit. And the fact that it is just being fucked this badly and that like a person involved in it is the president.

Like it's, like most movies don't have it where the bad guy ends up being the actual president. The bad guy involved in the conspiracy. I think the beekeeper did that, but otherwise it's pretty uncommon. It's like kind of bee movie territory. Right. Clear and present danger or yeah, clear and pleasant kind of got near it where the president was covering for another bad guy and was trying to lean on Harrison Ford, but that still wasn't like smoking gun kind of stuff.

It's just like weird to have like somebody fist fighting the president at the end of the movie. The beekeeper, it's actually the president's shitty kid. So it would be like Donald Trump Jr. So why do you think and maybe I'm sure you guys talked about this, but why did they in the first place bring it back up again? Right? That seems like a weird move. Like they could have just, the files, I mean, and just be like, nope, nothing to see here. Was there like a lot of external pressure happening at that moment to make them decide to bring it up? Because if they hadn't

brought it up, it just feels like it people would have kept wanting it. They could have just been like, we're still working on it. Exactly. Until the end of the- This thing's going all the way to the top. Until the end of the, yeah. Just do what everybody did with the JFK files for decades. Yeah. It just seems really odd that they decided, because they had to have known that it was going to be a big problem.

I think it's that they made the mistake of bringing in people like Cash Patel and Dan Bongino, who are literally the head of the FBI and they were putting pressure. So institutionally, they had to be like, no, this is nothing, we're moving on. And then when they did that, Cash Patel and Dan Bongino were pushing back on it. I think the Dan Bongino thing was the first time that there was a big flare up of this, right? Where people were like, oh wait. A genuine rift, yeah. Yeah, this seems like there's something happening here.

Interesting. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's just, I think they probably thought we'll give them some grainy video and some other shit that they've kind of seen and then that'll be it and we can keep it moving. And you didn't realize what they've been. These people have been simmering. Very messy. Yeah. It's very, yeah. And I can, I can only imagine what kind of fucked up shit they'll do in the name of self-preservation to spin their way out of this and what, what,

you know, innocent people actually get harmed and, you know, victims are like re-traumatized again when they're like, we need to read from this document again out loud and ask this person what they saw. Let's get Ghislaine out of prison. Let's talk to her. Yeah. Let's get her out of prison. And then maybe she'll tell out the truth

or have some kind of odd tragic accident that we just can't explain. You know, she's unhealthy. I think she's fine. I think she's their golden ticket. I do too. I do too. I think she's probably as safe as anyone's ever been in prison. But I don't know, unless she's like,

I'm telling the fucking truth people. Or she's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, get me out there. All right, so here's the deal. Yeah, I mean, that would be nice. That would be wild, but yeah, I'd imagine a scumbag of that degree is only looking out for themselves and trying to avoid any kind of accountability. Just like evil nepo baby, like the worst people. What do I have to say to get out of this?

Okay, okay. That's what I think is most likely. Would love to. Let's take a That's what I think is most likely. Yeah. Would love to. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think,

in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.

And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,

or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF, and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar.

And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos.

It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law

and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For my heart podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is the turning River Road. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse. Why did I think that way? Why did I allow myself to get so sucked in by this man and in thinking to the point that if I died for him, that would be the greatest honor?

But in 2014, the youngest of the girls escaped and sparked an international manhunt. For all those years, he was the predator and I was the prey. And then he became the pry. Listen to The Turning, River Road, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And I think in a kind of a connected story, like not explicitly connected to the Epstein files. But I do think a lot part of what Trump isn't able to understand and that they're not acknowledging is like part of this story is that people are hungry for blood when it comes to like these rich and wealthy people, like who have been getting away with murder for so long, you know?

Those are the underpinnings of people's interest in the Epstein thing is because most people acknowledge the truth that the wealthy get away with everything. Like it's the underpinning of the Luigi Mangione story. It's the underpinning of the Epstein story. People don't like the mainstream media, like won't fully acknowledge that that's what's going on. Our American truth. That there's just this fucking seismic activity of class-based rage at billionaires and millionaires.

So they're like, people are really into this Epstein thing, I guess. It's like, what's going on there? Right. But I think- Why are people so into Squid Game, Season 1? It's one of those things, huh? Yeah. Was that show being so popular? It's in Korean and people like it.

All right, maybe the subtext is missed on your watch. Maybe we should do a game show where we make them fight over money. Is that what they want? Maybe that's the answer. No. I don't want that. Yeah. But so I do think some of them are paying attention because there

is this app that's seeing a lot of success called protector protector. Hell yeah. Which is basically Uber with a gun. You can order armed drivers and like a whole arms, like entourage to drive you somewhere and you can even select the arm drivers outfit the way you would a video game character. Yeah, they have like a select player. Pick dress code! Like it's it feels like that it's the same guy in different looks. Do you like business formal, business casual, tactical casual or full-on

tactical gear. Like one guy's dressed like a swat cop. Yeah. Yeah. Like he looks like he's going to defuse a bomb. Wow. What? Yeah.

People are, apparently this has been growing really fast since, uh, I don't know, for some reason, like winter of last year, what happened in winter of last year? I don't really remember. There was like, there's that story where people like got started wearing those Mario Mario brothers, Super Mario brothers, little brother, whatever his name was. The green guy, like those pins squeegee squeegee squeegee squeegee squeegee. Yeah. When, when booking, you can select the amount of protectors you want inside your ride.

And the minimum cost that one news outlet found was around $1,000, which is in addition to the required annual membership cost of $129 per year, which is actually less expensive than I thought. It seems like they're not necessarily targeting only billionaires here. They're trying to be like, what if you could live like a billionaire, but you're only a millionaire? It's the same thing like Uber did when it first came out. Because if you remember, when Uber came out, it was just black cars.

It was like town cars. It was just a Lincoln town car. And people were like, oh shit, look at me cosplaying like the upper class. You know what I mean? And cause look, people who got money like that, they don't need a fucking app. No, they got their own people. Yeah. They have the services that they already use for that.

And we don't know about them as like, you know, out here. Yeah. Those are unavailable to you. Yeah. And in the same way, like those people have access to like former Mossad agents or like special forces, like Blackwater people, to be their bodyguards. They're not using a fucking app,

but now they've created that sort of sense of that lifestyle thing for people to be like, wow, hey, should all five of us go in on a thousand dollar protection racket for a guy who'll dress like an army man while we go to the Taylor Swift show? Yeah. So we can pretend that we're important enough for someone to want to kill us.

Yeah, exactly. I'm starting to see a lot of holes in this service, but I don't know. Let's see what else they got here. They can provide you with holes in your service, Miles, because they're just off-duty cops in a lot of cases, which always really careful with their firearms. One of the things that they say, so they've added a thing called patrol, which is you can just order a cop to come to your house with a gun. It's not like, take me here for this mission. It's like, hey, could you don't, it's not like take me here for this like mission.

It's like, Hey, could you roll through? And the thing that they're pitching it on is that it's just another, uh, indeed whether you're stuck in traffic and need someone to watch the kids heading out on a vacation or as patrol puts it, it's just another quiet night and you'd rather sleep knowing someone's looking out for you. It's just another quiet night and you'd rather sleep knowing someone's looking out for you. God. So you're going to bring in, who doesn't want to hire a person from the profession most prone to domestic violence to come to your house with a gun when you can't find a fucking babysitter?

Yeah, when you can't watch the kids. Yeah, this guy will be cool. I think that's great. This is when we need the urban legend of the babysitter and the man upstairs to be calling up the cop and then come down and not kill the kids, but you know what I'm saying? The video is wild. We're just like, is there a van on your street?

Do you have a, is there a dark van on your street? That's scary as fuck. Call a guy with a gun, man. Just so you can sleep better at night knowing that the crime rates are falling precipitously across the nation. Don't look at that data that would help you sleep at night. You want a Pinkerton outside your house. Oh, sorry. That black man is actually us.

One of your neighbors is hiring us to stalk his ex-girlfriend. They told us he was hiring us to stalk his ex-girlfriend. Uh, so that's, that's what they told us. They told us he was hiring us to protect her. We didn't realize we were intimidating this poor woman when the guy hired us for our service. That's our service. Intimidator. What is that fucking, how does it work though?

Because I'd imagine if you're like, okay, so you need armed protection, but you don't need any background. They're like, well, they're like, okay, so you need armed protection, but you don't need any background. They're like, what? I know they're like, what's the deal? Like our, as a armed, our drug dealers trying to kill you. Did you have a, a stalker or we just, you just want me to have a blammer on me while I take you to Arowann. Yeah.

It's basically that. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I, I'd imagine like the times that this would be most useful would be when you're doing some illegal shit, right? You would be selling you be serving okay out of a fucking car and your driver has a gun on you I'd be like, yeah, bro would we're about it

We're gonna get our money's worth with this thing Or I mean or do some like nuisance stuff like you pay for them to take people to their immigration court hearings and then have them get in standoffs with ICE or something. Yeah. And people just donate to a fund. They're like, yeah, man, have Protector just cruising around the city, taking people to work and see what they do. Although they probably are also ICE agents underneath it all. Yeah, they're just all ICE agents.

Good help is so hard to find these days. But they did, they created a reenactment of the Luigi assassination, but they're like, this is what would have happened if the UnitedHealthcare CEO had used a protector. And then the guy just turns and fucking lights up. Yeah. Oh, they're making it vivid. That's the solution. It's not reevaluating your business practices. It's you need a fucking GI Joe man with a Glock and a suit. Yeah. All right.

Obviously, as mentioned, off-duty cops not exactly who you want, just like coming as you're to make a situation safer. A number of the cops working for patrol have been quote, previously disciplined by the LAPD or embroiled in ongoing civil litigation over use of excessive force, including the guy they keep putting on the promotional videos, who got suspended for five days because he was using a chokehold that made people lose consciousness, like an illegal chokehold. And so he was like, what are you talking about? This is not legal. That's actually just smart.

He took the case to LAPD's Disciplinary Appeal Board, which found him guilty and recommended a five day suspension. And then he went on a podcast and was like, I got zero lessons learned. I will do it every day, all day. I don't care about the five day suspension. I'll do it tonight if I go out there because I'm 100% in the right. And this is who you for the low price of a thousand dollars can have 100% in the right. And this is who you for the low price of a thousand dollars can have, uh, come babysit your children. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. That'd be great though, to just get paid to listen to Joe Rogan in your car. Right. That's the idea for these guys. I like also when he talked about the, that in that same podcast about the illegal, uh, chokehold, he said, quote, if that's true, then every night in jujitsu I'm committing attempted homicide.

Just had to slip in the jujitsu. Every night. Cause I do jujitsu every night. Every night. I'm Jitsu mom, dude. I don't know if you know that. Do you do jujitsu? Nah, nah, I'd probably know you actually.

Cause I go every fucking night. Nah, I definitely not. Unless you do a machado. I do Gracie because yeah, but obviously Gracie is better than Machado. So anyway, that's probably why I'm missing this. Maybe I would recognize you. Could you close your eyes real quick? Because I'm always putting people to sleep.

Yeah, they call you the keg, dude, because you're always getting tapped, right? Yeah, I know you. Protector has even less accountability than the police. The terms and conditions waive the company of any responsibility. If the cops, I don't know, say shoot a family member, um, and they cannot guarantee specific security outcomes or the performance of any individual agent, sounds like a good product.

Hey, you can sleep better at night with an unaccountable gun toting freak at your side. It's just such a sign of that this is how they're laundering their guilt and their awareness that people are absolutely fucking furious. Yeah. Right. It's not to change their behavior and like suggest accountability in that same case It's how do we get big guns for the people who walk down the street with us?

Yeah, I just love like the idea that they it's meant to keep you safe, but then they're fine print is oh, yeah, but like They're not they're not gonna actually protect you I'm like if if shit goes left like that's totally on you like we can offer No guarantees, but anyway give us a thousand bucks for like a couple hours. It reminds him to our terms and it's like service It's the same way like I I just finished that poop cruise documentary on Netflix and how carnival cruise their ticket contract Sort of read the same way that they're like, well, I don't know you did you read the ticket contract where it was like Carnival quote makes absolutely no guarantee for safe passage, a sea worthy vessel, adequate and wholesome food and sanitary and safe living conditions. And they're like, that's why you can't sue us for the poop cruise.

That was on the ticket. We don't guarantee safe passage as a cruise line. That's not our responsibility. That's your responsibility. That's on you, bro. You were dumb enough to fucking hire me. Why are people cheering for Luigi Mangione? I don't get it.

Anyways, that's on you if your family drowns. That's actually not our responsibility legally. Yeah. Go fuck yourself. Holy shit. And also like if somebody misuses it, like you were saying, like, you know, abusive man hiring a protector to lurk around his ex-girlfriend. Uh, they can't, the only thing they can do is like suspend the user's account.

They won't do anything else. So overall cool product by this Facebook product designer. That's where I came from. The cause of and solution to all life's problems. That's right. Well, Chelsea, such a pleasure having you on the podcast. So much fun as always. Thank you guys for having me. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff?

Really only on Instagram, at American Hysteria podcast and then yeah, just listen to American Hysteria wherever you get your podcasts. Hell yeah. Yeah. Is there a work of media that you've been enjoying? It's from Hard Time News. It said five snuff films that still aren't as

disturbing as the Sex and the City reboot. Oh my God. I've been watching that, of course, every week with bated breath. Is it as bad as everyone says? Oh my God, yeah. It's in the best way though. People are like, it's-

Yes. I'm there. It's like first on my list of shows when it comes out. No, but it's bizarre. It's uncanny. It's bad. That's what everyone says. It's like they've left earth and it's still a show. Yeah, I'm back.

So it's fun. I'm back. Yeah, I mean, I watched the original series every episode. So I recommend it. I know you like bad shit. I love bad shit. I've watched the first two seasons, because this recommend it. I know you like bad shit. I love bad shit. I've watched the first two seasons. This is season three, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah. It's even more disconnected from reality in a way that, and just like it's really truly the show where nothing happens, way more than Seinfeld. It's like, I don't know. It's strange and I recommend it. Justin just said that writers accidentally killed a character twice.

I didn't notice that. Wait, Justin, what do you mean? I haven't watched it, but it's that's like a big story that's come out of there. They killed off a character twice. Someone's dad. Oh, wow. It's that Lisa's dad died in. And then but they're like, bro, her dad died in the first. This is what I mean.

Just like that? Just like that. Wow. They just think like, what if her dad died? And no one was like, yeah, we did that in the first season. Whatever. Yeah, go ahead. No, that's what I mean. It's just like completely baffling.

It's like they're all first thought, best thought, and they don't work on it beyond that that immediate idea they have Yeah, someone is looking at dad Maybe incarnation. Yeah, that sounds great. I think I'm gonna have to start watching that miles Where can people find you as their work media? You've been enjoying find me everywhere at miles of gray if I'm talking about 90 day fiance on for 20 day fiance with Sophia Alexandra a couple 90 day fiance on 420 day fiance with Sophia Alexandra. A couple posts I like this from blue sky at Waldo 2006. He's got a social posted. I don't understand.

Everyone forgot about the Panama papers after we murdered the reporter who broke the news. Why are they still talking about Epstein after we killed him in prison? The keynote discussion at the Bohemian Grove retreat. Nice. Truly. Nice. Truly. Nice. Truly. They really, I mean, the degree to which they thought that was going to work, that Bill Gates was immediately like, well, he's dead.

Why are you still asking me about this? Like the day after he died? That's Stephen King tweet. We're asking you because he's dead. And we find it weird that he died like at a time when everyone was like, oh, they're probably going to kill that guy Yeah, no's right. Yep That's where we're headed. Let's see some works of media. I've been enjoying a cat at based gizmo tweeted

There's a new Marvel out. That's supposed to be nuts in reference to the Fantastic four in the movie friendship and then Father Tom Bombadil tweeted, 51 being divisible by 17 is disgusting. And I agree. It just should not be. Should not be the case. Feels slimy.

I do not agree. I take more groups of prime numbers. Will not allow it. You can find us on Twitter on BlueSky at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. You can go to the description of the episode wherever you're listening allow it. You can find us on Twitter and BlueSky at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at the Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. You can go to the description of the episode wherever you're listening to it, and underneath the show description, you will find the footnotes,

which is where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode. We also link off to a song that we think you might enjoy. Miles, is there a song you think people might enjoy? Yeah. I was listening to an old school school hip hop radio station and a track by Alps Crew, CRU came up. This is a rap group from St. Louis, Missouri that was like putting stuff out in the mid-90s. And I was not really up on Alps Crew. I sort of, I think shamefully, my Midwestern rap consciousness began when the St. Lunatics got on the scene.

But this is a track called Just Can't Explain and it's just got that wonderful classic boom bap hip hop energy that I need to go back to a simpler time. So this is Just Can't Explain by Alps Crew. All right. We will link off to that in the footnotes. The Daily Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio for more podcasts from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or 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 is trending and we will talk to you all then. Bye. Bye. Bye. The Daily Zite Guys is executive produced by Catherine Law. Co-produced by Bae Wang. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb.

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