The Daily Zeitgeist - Proving The Haters Right, MAGA = The Borg Is Cool! 01.22.26

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

In episode 1993, Jack and Miles are joined by English professor, author of The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics, and host of Nerd from the Future, Ramzi Fawaz, to discuss… Trump Continues To Prove The Haters Right, Minneapolis PD Says Off Duty Officers (Of Color) Being Targeted by ICE, The Right Is Trying To Claim Star Trek and more! Trump: We've done more than any other administration has done by far—in terms of military, in terms of ending wars, in terms of completing wars, nobody's really seen very much like it. Trump: These are professional agitators and professional people that want to see our country do badly. But that's not happening because we have the hottest country. Trump: I'm glad my finger wasn't in that sucker. That could have done some damage. But you know what? I wouldn't have shown the pain. Trump: "Your lover isn't going to be killed anymore, so you can act like a real lover. You can walk right through the middle of the town. And DC is beautiful again too." Minneapolis PD Says Off Duty Officers (Of Color) Being Targeted by ICE William Shatner eats a bowl of cereal while driving and more star snaps William Shatner boldly devours cereal while driving his SUV in Studio City Stephen Miller Has a Truly Rancid Star Trek Opinion William Shatner Pokes Fun at Stephen Miller for Calling on Him to Control ‘Star Trek’ Franchise How Stephen Miller Rode White Rage from Duke’s Campus to Trump’s West Wing ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Debuts With Positive Reviews And Political Nonsense Musk and Hegseth vow to “make Star Trek real” but miss the show’s lessons "Star Trek is inherently right wing and Christian and no amount of modern rewriting or changing of canon can remove that." Elon Musk and Stephen Miller’s culture war against Star Trek is built on ignorance Hollywood Flashback: ‘Star Trek’ Showed TV’s First Interracial Kiss in 1968 How ‘Star Trek’ Survived the Vietnam Era and Took Over the World Star Trek's Prime Directive Had A Grim Real-Life Inspiration William Shatner responds after Ted Cruz says Captain Kirk was likely a Republican LISTEN: PARTO NATURALE by MarteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When I was in college, I was having the psychedelic experiences during lecture. Oh, really? You took drugs. You took psychedelics before class? That's amazing. But what did that do for your learning experience? The lecture lasted about seven hours longer than it actually did. And I never did it again.

Oh, that is amazing. I remember I had an art history lecture that I went to. just like, not like really far, but I took a couple bites of some mushrooms before I went into class, and I could have swore the thing was going like all day. That is amazing. And then I was like, this is not great. I'm not in my mind.

I didn't come for a conference. Yeah, but part of me was like, dude, fucking art, bro. I'm like, you're going to look at this art and you're like, put a trip in and shit. And no, I was so uncomfortable. This is so interesting. My favorite class in college was called the philosophy of art and criticism. And we had a teacher who kind of fucked with the student the very first day because this student was very not about the debate version of class.

Like he had a very narrow mindset and he was trying to tell us what art is and what it isn't. And the teacher was like, so it's funny how like you don't really notice anything until you point out a flaw in it. He's like, do you notice the chair you're sitting in right now? And he's like, no. he's like, yeah, because there's nothing wrong with it. He's like, you're telling me what, what is art, what is an art, what makes that chair a chair? And then he kind of just kept blowing this kid's mind

because every time he came up with some sort of rule, he would like talk around it. And the kid, as he was leaving, he's like, I feel like I fucked up. Am I tripping or something? And he was just like really questioning everything. He was like, amazing. Yeah, yeah. You're just describing what's psychedelic about going to school.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's actually why people are mad at universities. They're mad at universities because they're too expensive, and that's legitimate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then conservatives are mad at universities because we actually make people understand that there isn't one way to see. No, no, no, no, no. You need to knock that shit off. No understanding. That's actually bad.

What did your professor tell you? Not that understanding of. By the way, just speaking of experiencing art on psychedelics, my friend had just sent me a picture from when we took mushrooms and went and saw the Van Gogh Museum. And I've talked before about the size of my khakis at this point in my life. and I just need to show you. Yo, Jack. Taking up space. That's fashionable, bro.

So big. I got like two or three pairs of pants. Probably that big. You were taking up space. Yeah, you were wearing barrel pads. It's another version of man spreading. Yeah, yeah. But I was wearing those like that.

They weren't designed like that. I was wearing like size 40 pants, like size 40 cackeys. You hadn't figured out yet. If my belt broke, I was fucked. Like, I needed to find a barrel to wear for the rest of the day. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human. This show contains information subject to, but not limited to personal takes, rumors, not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up, man? This is your boy, Nal Marene from the Broken Play podcast. Look, it's the end of the season, the playoffs of him. Guess what? It ain't the end of your season.

Always tune in with Broken Play Podcast with Navgreen on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Not a team who ain't going to the playoffs. They're cheese. It's time to rebuild. Listen to Broken Play with Nav Green from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or whatever you get your podcast. You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG.

But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you.

I was a spy. Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bejan Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure,

I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game playing for your mental health at love your mind playbook.org. Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation,

the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad console. Whether it is getting swatted or just hateful messages online, there is a lot of harm and even just reading the comments. That's cybersecurity expert Camille Stewart Gloucester on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. Every season is a chance to grow, and the Therapy for Black Girls podcast is here to walk with you. I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, and each week we dive into real conversations that help you move with more clarity and confidence. This episode, we're breaking down what really happens to your information online and how to protect yourself with intention.

Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 422, episode three of their daily zeitgeist! A production of iHeartRadio, this is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared conscious through the day's news and culture. We also have a new weekly history version of the show dropping most Monday mornings, where we do a deep dive into the history of a different icon. We just did Elvis, this past or the Monday before with Chris Croft. We got Maryland Monroe coming up on Monday. That's a super fun episode with Blair Saki. You can look for those episodes on Mondays with Icon and the title,

They Never Get Old. You can listen to them anytime. It is Thursday, January 22nd, 2026. Yep. It's National Pocod Day, National Sanctity. Hold on. Let me make sure this isn't like a pro-life thing. Yep, it is.

Never mind. See, I know. how to clock though. National safety of what? Yeah. Of human life. No, no, no,

I don't like that. I don't like that. Where are we going? Not that kind of human life. Not that kind of human life. We only care about. You've been clocked. Sorry.

Yes. It's also, hey, I can get behind this, National Blonde Brownie Day. Okay. There we go. Let's keep it to polka dots and baked goods.

Shout out to those. Shout out to those. Shout out the blondeie. Yeah. Because the blondeie sometimes they will, they'll get real creative. They'll get a ribbon. and a caramel in there.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chunks of chocolate. They feel like they need to overcompensate for the fact that it's blonde, and I'm here for it. Mm-hmm. My name's Jack O'Brien, aka Potatoes O'Brien, and I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray.

Hey, it's Miles Gray, okay, the showgun with no gun, the Lord of Lancashim, North Hollywood's very own Hideo no-ho. Thank you so much for having me. Rotator. The showgun with no... No rotator cuff. Yeah, my rotator cuff is.

Again, this is what I do, because this is what Zygeng is good for because we all have, like, physical issues. Just some, I just need some good shoulder routines, you know, my scapula, rotator cuff area, feeling tight, okay? So send me your, send me your fucking tips and tricks. I will try them. Need some help with the scat. Yeah. Exactly. I'm, Miles and I were comparing notes on sleeping, sleeping injuries.

Yeah. From sleeping. This is 41, baby. You know what I mean? I'm the scab man. Skibidi-dibid, d'ibod. Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches courses in queer and feminist theory, American cultural studies, and LGBTQ literature.

He's the author of The New Mutants, Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics and Queer Forms. And the host of the podcast, Nerd from the Future, it's Ramsey for Wals. Reh! Pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me. And you got that down to a T. Yeah. Did I nail it?

Oh, my God. It was gorgeous. I love that. See, Jack? I told you. Usually people already get stuck at queer. So the fact that we got all the way through that, they're like, queer at feminist? What?

Yeah. So I love that. I love that. It was gorgeous. Pleasure to be here. Thank you. How are you doing? Where are you coming to us from?

You know what? I'm doing great. All things considering. Yeah. I'm in Wisconsin. It's about one degree here. That's good, right? I've started the year off right.

Like you just said, 41, how they have 42? It's a warm day. It's gorgeous. I can go out, I can go out now with practically shorts in this weather. And I used to make fun of the students who did that. I was like, you guys are nuts. And now 13 years in, I'm like, I get it. Oh, you've become, got to let those legs freeze every once in a while.

Yeah, you just got to like, sometimes you're like, I got to get to the store. Like, I have to go, I have to go to the gym. And the idea of layering 19 pieces of clothing and then having to remove all of it is so onerous that you're just like, you know what? I'm just going to brave it. Yeah. I didn't realize. I always wondered because somebody who grew up in California and goes to these places and like seeing like people in shorts in Boston. I'm like, what's wrong with these white walker people?

I didn't realize you can become one of them as well because you're from California. Number one. And number two, you need to protect your heart and your neck. Like that's what you learned to do. Always. Always protect your motherfucking neck. and the core. And so if you have like a huge puffer jacket

and some decent shoes, I wouldn't recommend wearing shorts, but like in a pinch, you're good. You can get to it. Okay. Neck and heart. Neck and heart face.

You want to cover like all of this. Because all your blood flowing. Yeah. So your blood that's flowing is warm. You get really good at that. You get really good at like not releasing the heat off of your central body. Like you want to protect that. That's essentially what you're doing.

And that was with the Wutang camera. All the time. about all those years ago. We made the same exact joke at the same time. Dolly Parton, however, about protecting your heart, not right. She says that, you know, you just got to let it out, you know, be freely. Incorrect. You've got to agree more.

Ramsey saying you've got to protect your heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got to protect your heart. And when it's one degree out. That's right. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. Well, 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 are going to, of course, any time we have someone on who interacts with kids these days on a regular basis, we do want to just check in, how they doing. And also the rights attempt to take Star Trek for themselves. They just, they really, they really want. Sometimes they want it and don't want it. It's a very odd relationship.

Yeah. And then we'll talk about Donald Trump's Tuesday press conference. His press conference in Davos got a lot of the attention, but he right before that. Right before that one was one that's also worth just like keeping an eye on. Because it seems like it caught the attention of a lot of people who are wondering whether he is fit for office. Amazingly. Just finally getting to that. Yeah, we're finally getting to that question. Right.

Yeah. All of that, plenty more. But first, Ramsey, we do like to ask our guests, what is. something from your search history that is revealing about who you are. How did they do that bare mauling scene in The Revenant? I'm having a moment with Leonardo DiCaprio. It's sort of my personal revenge against Timothy Salome's popularity, which is annoying me, because I think he's incredibly talented, but also sort of an annoying dude bro.

And I love that Leonardo DiCaprio is sort of like Timothy Salome, humble, and with like a long history. And so I'm just going back as a media scholar, and I'm re-watching all of Leo's shit. And it's astounding. I cannot believe that he did not win the Academy Award for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So I went and I watched The Revenant,

which destroyed my life. I don't think I could ever watch that movie ever again. And I was just, I kept watching him get mauled by a bear with my hands in front of my eyes. And then I just, I needed to know how that was done. immediately followed by Leonardo DiCaprio shirtless. Because obviously, I needed to see the body that was mauled by the bear.

And also, really just needed to be reminded that what I love about him is that he's like a normal person who looks like a normal middle-aged man. He does. Who does not look like a bodybuilder in Hollywood, which got me to respect him even more. I'm like, the guy is just like a person. And I was just, I was amazed. So that's my recent search history. So I have to assume how they accomplished it was they just had a bear mall somebody who was less famous and beautiful? I mean, that, I wish.

I mean, I wish they had done that because then it would be really realistic. Right. No, they actually, they had a stuntman covered in all of these electrope, whatever, these things that like, you know, that they do when you're doing Avatar, physically assault him. Wow. And then they use CGI to make him look like a bear. Wow. Which is what? And apparently the guy who did, it's like a famous, it's like a famous stunt person. And like ever, like there was so many articles about it when the movie came out that he was like there.

Glenn Ennis is that stunt person's name. Yes. Amazing. Wow. From British Columbia. Shout out the Canadians for mauling us on camera. The movie industry will just randomly like find a skill, like, I'm really good at being a bear. Like you're a bear guy.

Yeah. Those like find them and be like, buddy, do we have the job for you? Get Glenn Ennis in here. Get Glenn. here and here. I know a good movie for him. This guy, all he does, apparently he was just studying bear movie. I mean, like all the great performers do, like Andy Circus was doing that with like apes and things

like that. So, of course, you're going to get the bear gig. You're going to look at some tape. Yeah. Do you think, though, because of the era, right, because of social media, we get way more Chalamee than maybe we want a lot of the time. Oh, sure. And because of the time, what do you think?

Because, like, you know, recently Shalemay was in that rapper video with SD Kid. He was, like, rapping with a shalmy. I'm like, maybe over-exposed? Yeah, like, give us a break. Honey, give us a break. We'll talk about this later, but you want to talk about something that's overrated is just like celebrity culture. It's like, I'm so bored.

We have to live in a world where like 99% of us are like meaningless nobody's regardless of what we've done. And then there's like 0.002% of the people on this planet are thoughts. Right? We have to like constantly follow their life and what do they have to say? And we're going to quote them. And then there's entire Instagram. Graham feeds that are about like, you know, Jacob Allorty saying this random quote out of context.

And like, this is what he said about how he drank Coca-Cola the other day. And it's like, can you leave these people alone? Can I just like watch a movie and enjoy it without a fucking press tour? Like, as somebody who loves art and media, like, leave us out of it. Yeah. Do you think we, like, going back to the idea that we like have these obsessions with like Star Trek and Star Wars and stuff like that because religion is going on the way. Do you think we have obsession with celebrity culture because we don't have, like,

gossip about our neighbors anymore? Oh, that's so interesting. Everybody's, like, lonely and in their little. You know what I think? I'm going to make a, this is a really big statement. I actually think what we do is we yo-yo in this culture between fantasies of democratic belonging. Like, what is the X-Men? What are Star Trek? These are stories about democratic belonging. They're about groups of people who are incredibly diverse looking at each other and saying, let's work together through our differences to change the world for the better. And all of us deep down, we love the idea of being connected to community with people who are not like us. It is celebratory. It's

beautiful. It's amazing. It's also terrifying. It also requires a lot of work. It's also really hard. It's really painful. And celebrity culture is a kind of psychological compensation for the difficulties of living that way that says, but what if, instead of being in a collective, I was a god above everyone. And I was so special that everyone could go fuck themselves. And I think like we yo-yo between these two impulses where we're like we want to be in community, but also screw everybody. And by uplifting certain people to the level of godhood, we get to have like a

projective fantasy that's like, maybe I could become like one of those people. one day. And then we claim that we're democratizing it through social media. Like, maybe I could become a social media influencer, et cetera. And like, it's an unsustainable, self-destructive, awful process. And it's much more fun to be in communing with others where each of us can be special in our own way at different moments, but where no single person is elevated to the point of being everything. And so that's kind of how I read it. But that's also because I'm a democratic political theorist. So I think of everything in terms of like, how do we want to arrange ourselves in public life? Like, that's what we're talking about when we're talking about democratic life.

And so I think that celebrity culture really reeks of our discomfort with the idea that we live in a world with lots of other people. And maybe none of us are that special. And so, like, we have to negotiate living with others. And we're like, but what if we could just escape all of that? I don't know. I haven't seen any negative consequences of turning a single person into a god. I mean, no. It works out. It usually works out. You got one example.

You got one example. It's really fun. It's really fun. Ramsey, what is something you think is underrated? Growing up. Grow up. Everybody in this culture is a baby child person. We really, like, the privilege of being an American today is the idea of, like, I don't

want to. Like, I don't want to grow up. I don't want to mature. I don't have to change. Fuck off. And I mean, like, aren't we all miserable? Aren't we exhausted? It is so underrated to literally change and grow and evolve in relationship to external stimuli.

Like, I would love to encounter more adults who are fucking emotionally regulated, who like know how to communicate, who are not conflict avoidance. Like, grow up. It is so, we talk constantly about therapy, culture, about optimization. Everybody's watching the Huberman Lab while literally not changing at all. And I'm like, girl, if you can take an ice bath every day, maybe you could. could also be more emotionally kind to people. Maybe you could grow and be less jealous and less controlling. But the thing is, I like to do these things because the internal work is too daunting for me.

Yeah, exactly. So I'd rather just soak in an ice bath. Okay, so you know what? Don't talk to people about it. Like, that's fine. Like, if that's what you want to do, like, don't talk about it. Don't influence about it. Like, go sit in your eye bath.

But I'm really coming to a point where I'm like, you know what I want to see? I want to see people in my life and in the culture literally changing. Like, I want to see someone. I don't see them for three years and they come back and I'm like, wow, you really did evolve. Like, that's amazing. I think Americans collectively are like, we don't ever have to evolve in any way as a group. Yeah, like, I'm just like, okay, whatever. It proves I must be argument.

See? Dude, what? Oh, so what? I'm going to be a dinosaur and then turn into a chicken. Fuck that, dude. I'm a fucking stay. Nobody calls me a dinosaur. Nobody calls Miles a chicken.

I ain't turning to no crab. Yeah. I like the point about, like, therapy culture, like, Huberman Lab. There's a old joke about how, like, somebody was, like, telling their friend not to do cocaine because they had a bad personality. And so it was just going to be, like, more of that. Yeah, exactly. And, like, I feel like a lot of what people are doing is just, like, optimizing their productivity of bad vibes. Completely.

I am off the charts and my ability to produce selfish. off-putting energy. I mean, we've talked about this a little bit, but I write about, my current research is about psychedelics and psychedelic healing and transformation. And I have a friend who said something who works at a wellness institute, who said, honestly, I'm very suspicious

of the psychedelic renaissance because I know a million people who've been doing LSD therapy for 20 years, and they're still total assholes. And like, that's like, I thought that was such a beautiful statement because I was reminded like, oh, yeah, like the will to,

actually transform has nothing to do with performative bullshit about optimizing yourself and going to therapy and all of those tools only work if you're actually sincerely doing them in order to evolve. And I think the fact that as a culture we're not able to look at ourselves and be like, wow, we're really bad at actual behavioral change. Like to me, for me, this goes back to like, I always say the story, like, I remember very, very distinctly, the first time I went back to therapy in adulthood, I had the first three sessions with this amazing gay male therapist, and he looked at me, Brian Gill in Washington, D.C. If anyone's in D.C., you should go, you need a therapist, go to Brian Gill. He said to me something that was so powerful. He said, wow, you are so smart about your problems, and you have so much insight, and you do so little action. He's like, you just learn so much about your issues. Yeah, but he's like, when are you going to actually match that with behavioral change?

And I, that struck me so deep because I was like, that goes against my values to only be thinking about something and not doing something about it. Like, I don't like that idea. And that was the beginning of a huge journey for me where I was like, okay, girl, like, it's time for you to have learned a lesson and to actually behave differently. So I think that's underrated. Amazing. Wow. Well said. You like have your answers have like structure and shit.

Yeah, I mean, because I'm a professor. That's what we do. That's why people should listen to us more often. We actually have a flow. Whoa, you talk like a teacher. Oh, me believe. Talk like a book or something. I can't believe Brian, did you like that three?

Three in. I know, right? Yeah. He was just like, wow. There was a hand gesture too. It was like, wow. Since you were ready for that message, though, too. Because of it, it's like, oh, you're not going to fucking be like, and now I'm not going to go to therapy.

You're going to talk shit about me. You know the thing is, guys, is like something that's fundamental about me since you're getting Chinovy. I cannot live in denial. Like, that is something that's deeply ingrained in me. Like, any time I'm sitting there and I'm compulsively shopping online, like, I know it's a problem. Right. Like, you know what I mean? I'm not saying I'm not allowed to shop, but I'm like, when it's compulsive, I'm like, this is a problem.

I will need to confront this issue soon. But not right now. Yeah, like, I just, like, I'm aware that things need to be dealt with. I'm not conflict avoided because I think that it's going to come back and blow up in my face. And to me, like, growing up is essentially not living in denial. And being able to say, like, wow, okay, everything has a time in place, but, like, I got to wake the fuck up. And I have to confront this thing. And I do think that we, I mean, of course, we live in a society that is obsessed with denial.

and it's exhausting and boring and like we got to move forward. What if this was a conversation that somebody had with Donald Trump like just once? Just this is, I know. He'd tune it out so quick. Yeah, yeah. He'd be like this hippie garbage talk. Maybe like dosed him with LSD and then have this conversation with them. But the thing is, is that the Donald Trumps of the world would not exist.

If early enough, people intervened and said stop acting a fucking fool. Yeah, sure, sure. Stop try to control people. Stop behaving in this way. Like, if people did actually grow up together in this country, where we looked at each other, we're like, girl, like, I love you, but this is like not okay. This behavior is crazy. The enabling of each other has brought us to this place and none of us are happy,

including the people in power. So it's like, at what point do we just go like, okay, girl, it's time to get grown. Yeah, but that's why they got to do psychedelics now. That's, yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, that is really, yeah, to your point about, like, it being a tool that you can use for bad, like the fact that every Silicon Valley billionaire has, like, been doing journey work for the past decade and, like, gotten to a place where they're like, so...

And I'm right. ...the Qaeda on Shaman, that guy with the horns or whatever and the painting on his face from January 6th, he's, like, obsessed with LSD. Yeah, and he's running for governor, so... God bless. There we go. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back.

We'll get your overrated and get into some stories. I'm John Polk. For years, I was the poster boy of the conversion therapy movement, the ex-gay who married an ex-lesbian, and traveled the world telling my story of how I changed my sexuality from gay to straight. Once upon a time, I was on 60 Minutes, Oprah, the front cover of Newsweek. And you might have heard my story, but you've never heard the real story. So join me as I peel back the layers and expose what happened to me, in the midst of conversion therapy,

to shine a light on what the X-game movement does to people, and the pain it continues to cause. I had lost 150 pounds because if I couldn't control my sexuality, I was going to control my weight. It sounded like, and this is the word I used, a cult. And as I look, too, at the harm I did from within it. Listen to Atonement, the John Polk story, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or Werenet.

wherever you get your podcasts. New year, new goals, and in this economy, a better money plan is more necessary than ever. I am Matt. And I'm Matt. And I'm Joel. We are from the How to Money podcast. And every week, we help you to spend smarter, save more, and make sense of what's going on out there. If you want 2026 to be the year you finally feel in control of your money, we're here to give you the tools and advice to help you make it happen.

Listen to How to Money on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up y'all? This is Questlove recently. I had the opportunity to sit down with ASEAP Rocky ahead of his album release. Don't be dumb. He reflects on his journey from his Harlem roots to global icon status, discovering the hip-hop origin of his name. The ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the bucket hat can go during the past. I was like, that's Rakim. That's who you named after. I just was like, damn, that fucking I got swag. Rocky offers a window into not only a boundary rule. breaking artist, but as a man committed to fusing creative ideas, community, and remaining

unapologetically himself. Have you ever gotten roasted for any of your outfits? For sure. Some people don't be getting the vision. Look, they could roast me, they could cook me, they could deep fried meat, they can saute, whatever they want. It's nobody who can be with my fashion sense and my taste is impeccable. I'm just like, I impress myself a lot. It's an amazing conversation. One, you definitely don't want to miss, so listen to the Westloff show on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This show contains information subject to, but not limited to personal takes, rumors, not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up, man?

This is your boy, Navring, from the Broken Play Podcast. Look, it's the end of the season, the playoffs of him. But guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcasts with Nav Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Not a team who ain't going to the playoff. They're cheese. Oh, it's a rap.

It's time to rebuild. Who's your MVP right now, then? Drake May up there, Josh Allen up there still. Oh, my boy, Matthew Stafford. Where did his whole Knicks at? He ain't too far behind. He did all this talk about. What Matthew Stafford is doing statistically, bro, is crazy.

Bro, you know I ain't no Josh Allen fan, but Matthew Stafford got better weapon. Caleb Williams. Hey, he should be in that conversation. In what conversation? He should be in it. Listen to broken play with him. with Nav Green from the Black Effect Podcast Network

on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or whatever you get your podcast. And we're back. We're back. And Ramsey, you've already given us the celebrity culture is overrated, but... Let's add a layer. I get the feeling that you got more.

What's something you think is overrated? The fantasy romance plot of heated rivalry. Okay. Bad for us. Bad for us. I'm sorry. Everybody needs to get their shit together. the idea of pursuing an emotionally avoided

slash almost abusive person for 10 years because they might end up becoming your boyfriend in the last 10 days is psychotic. And if you are grown, to go back to my first point, about being grown, underrated, you grow out of the idea of pursuing people who are not available. And gay men struggle with this more than anybody.

We're just like, oh my God, he's so hot, I'm so dignitized, and I guess I'll just maybe have sex with him twice a year and maybe one day will get married. That's fully unhinged. It does not happen. If it does happen, you will be divorced later. Like, that is, like, to me, I'm like, what's going to happen after season one?

Real life is going to intervene. If you're going to unfold this story over four seasons, like, I'm sorry. Like, now they're going to be at circuit parties. They're going to be doing drugs. They're going to be dealing with people trying to steal their man. Like, I'm sorry. Like, the fantasy plot is so praised. And it's like, it's not serving us.

if the reason we're all obsessed with that romance fantasy is because the dating pool sucks, that show is not helping make the dating pool better. It's making people crazier to believe in things that don't exist so that when we go back into the dating pool, we keep behaving badly. So I'm like, I was watching that show and I was like, uh-uh, you're not getting me. I was like, yes, this is hot. Yes, this is fun. I was like, but I'm not, I am not, you're not.

I was like fighting it. I was like, you are trying to drag me back to my little, 22-year-old, gay baby self, wanting things I cannot have that are bad for me. And I was like, I will not do this. No. You had the wisdom. You had the wisdom. You're the one person who's not on board.

No, I'm literally writing an essay about it, by the way. It's a joke between my brother and I. He used to actually make fun of me. He was like, why don't you write an essay about it? And now it's like, I'm like, I made a fucking living out of it. So I am writing an essay about the new substack post is up. Check it out. Yeah.

All right. Let's just talk. briefly about what we refer to as kids these days. Yeah. Learning in a world. Chad GPT, phone and social media addiction, porn addiction, the manosphere. I'm just curious to hear from you as somebody who is in touch with them on a regular basis.

How they doing? We talked hopefully earlier this year about like the phone ban in high schools seeming to change people's behavior. learning environments in New York State. What are you seeing on your end? Listen, so many of the students I work with are the coolest, most amazing, most inspiring, loving, I mean, I'm watching my students get into law school at Harvard,

become doctors, go off and work for nonprofits, direct rape crisis. I mean, they're amazing. I'm just, I'm amazed. This generation is a really beautiful mixture of deeply socially and politically conscious and also like good. to themselves. They're like better to themselves. They take care of themselves better. They rest.

Like those things, I think are amazing. I think the problem is, is that they don't know the things that are bad for them and they don't actually know how to like take a break. I said once recently to someone that like social media is like that abusive boyfriend that you know is not going to give you what you want, but every once in a while he's nice to you. So you're like, oh my God, that felt so good. So let me keep going back to it. And I think as a generation, they are responding in a dopamine-driven way to a variety of things that are bad for them in the culture. Like, AI, I will sit and have a conversation with my students where I'm like, why are you using AI? Like, let's be honest, you're literally just allowing a machine to do your thinking for you.

Right. Which is making you dumber, which is making you less able to make, like, basic judgments about things like fucking groceries. Like, that's bad. Yeah. And they honestly are like, I kind of don't know. I don't know. it makes me feel like I'm saving time. I'm like, doing what?

Did you write a fucking book? I'm like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Grant writing or something? I watched the Huberman Lab to find out more ways that I could save time. I was going out into sunlight. Sorry, Professor, I need to spike my cortisol right now. Hard.

Exactly. And so what's amazing is that when you actually have honest conversations with them about, like, what are you doing? Like, look at your life, look at your choices. You know, like, what do you do? They're just like, I actually don't know. why I'm doing that. And now that I think about it,

like maybe it doesn't make that much sense. They are very quick to be aware that this is not good for them. I don't know that they have models of how not to do it because the rest of us who are not grown, to go back to my old point, are not modeling for them what it's like

to actually make good decisions about taking care of our mental well-being in the face of these things. So I think like they're stuck between a rock and a hard place where they're sort of like entering a society that's telling them, like you're never going to get any of the things that you want. You're not going to get a house.

You're not going to get more money. You're not going to get all these things. And so, of course, you would want to turn to social media and chat GPT and whatever for little moments of joy when the really big goals feel out of reach. Yeah. So they are, it's not so much that the kids are not all right. It's like the, it's what Gaboomate says, right, the holistic medical expert. Like the culture they're in is toxic. So they're trying to navigate that, and they're doing it in as best conditions as they can.

But I think what they're lacking the most, truly, like where they're really, really at a disadvantage, they need more intergenerational exchange with smart, wise people. Like, that is why they need to go to school. That is why they need to be in different kinds of social programs where they have mentors who are older. they need to be in conversation with people that have gone through what they've gone through and said, here's another path. Right. Here would be another way.

And we need to be talking to them because they also have great ideas about social media addiction. I know. They were the first ones who, like, I have younger cousins who were like, yeah, I've taken a break from social media at a time when I was like, oh, huh? Why? Why are you doing that? They were like, oh, because it's an addictive poison. Exactly. And I was like, oh, correct.

Yeah, they knew it before. other people, yeah. Why do you think that, because to your point about, like, needing those interactions, why do you think that's lack? Like, what's the difference in terms of, like, because I think back of my own career professionally, personally, I had those intersections and interactions with people that help fucking change my thing. But what is the difference?

Is it just because it's, everything is so less person to person that that's going by the wayside or just culturally for them, it's less of an interest to interact with older people and whatever? I think it's, yeah, it's a great question. My premonition, based on what I see, is that it has a lot to do with the insularity of digital worlds. So, like, when they are on social media and in TikTok, they're interacting with very limited demographics of viewership or people of their own generation that like certain things. Yeah. And combine that with an amazing amount of social anxiety, like most young people in Gen Z believe that the majority of their interactions with adults are interactions where they're.

they are being judged on their performance. Right. Like the amount of work, you guys, that I have to do in a classroom to remind my students that the grade that they're going to get at the end really means nothing. Right. Like the experience of meeting in a group once a week for two and a half hours and talking about ideas will transform their cellular being.

And at the end, if you, like, put in the effort, you will most likely get a good grade. But the idea that, like, they're concerned that if, I don't give them the grade they want, that their life will be ruined. Some of them have fucking suicidal ideation about grades. Unless you're going to go get a medical degree or a PhD, nobody cares what your grades are as an undergrad. Like, you should be excited to do well because you want to do well,

because you're paying a lot of money and you want to put in the effort, et cetera, not because someone's judging you. So I think there is this perception that adults exist to judge them. And they're afraid of interacting with us and revealing stupidity, lack of knowledge, lack of wisdom, et cetera. And I have to do so much, I have to be a therapist, basically,

where I tell my students, I am not here to be judgmental towards you. I'm here to help you practice good judgment. So sometimes I'm going to say, hmm, do you really believe that? Right. What did that idea come from? Right.

It doesn't mean I think less of you. It doesn't mean I think that you're worthless. So there's so much of a block. towards talking to older people because of a fear of being judged. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, which is how social media can make the world feel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. All right, we're going to get back into just sort of pop cultural stuff,

specifically with regards to the right trying to take some of our comic books, some of our sci-fi things. Yeah. But we do want to just touch on this Trump press conference real quick. because he really let his unfit for office flag fly. Yeah, just continued to prove the haters right. So he gave a press conference, and by that, he just went up on stage with somewhat of a plan rhetorically. And then after he got the first rehearsed sort of sentenced out, he immediately went into Trump jazz and just started doing some sundown improv, baby.

And the main point of this pressure was to pump his own dick up about all the accomplishments he's had one year into the same. second term. And he starts off with a big pile of papers he's holding that literally says accomplishments on it to prove. Yeah, to prove how much good has been done because he has a melted brain that could only work in literal terms now. So this is like, let me just play, I'm going to give a few moments where you can see where this was headed and where it went. So first, this is him, just again, starting off somewhat coherent being like, look, guys, I've done a lot. in a year in more than anybody, even though that's not true. But again, that's what he's trying to sell to people. Individual things. I could stand here and read it for a week and we wouldn't

be finished. It just as accomplished a big block of paper. Yeah. Yeah. In terms of military, in terms of ending wars in terms of. Okay, so low energy, you can tell he's kind of like, yeah. He keeps like kind of closing his eyes a little bit too long. They keep telling me to say this stuff. Okay, so I'll fucking say that part. Then, it starts going off the rails. Like in this part, he begins to like cast doubt on like the sincerity of protesters in Minnesota based on how well people were screaming shame at ICE agents. They're paid.

You know, when the woman was shot, and I felt terribly about that. The woman was shot. I understand both sides of it. But when she was shot. Yeah, very good point. There was another woman that was screaming shame, shame, shame, shame, right? You saw it so loud. Like a professional opera singer.

She was so loud and so professional. Wow. There was hurt like all my heart's injured. She was a professional. Shame, shame, she's screaming, shame, shame. I said, that's not a normal person. That's a professional. Okay.

So professional shame screamer. Again, because everything's like the outrage is not real because what's happening is okay. People who disagree with me aren't real. They're paid. Exactly. So then you're like, you can't yell shame like that. By the way, that woman's voice was quivering with rage. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Which, because she had just witnessed somebody, her neighbor be murdered. By the way, the interpretation of this person's statement means nothing. I mean, this is what I think we've arrived at. We're like, whatever his statement about anything in the world is, it doesn't.

really matter what his interpretation is. If you live in a democracy, the people get to say what they think and what they believe. And if mass groups of people are saying, we don't like this, it doesn't matter whether you thought one protester was fake or not. It doesn't. That's beside the point. So, I mean, that's what's so amazing is the amplifying of these minute details that really are like missing the forest for the trees. Right. Then he goes on to talk about how the binder clip that's holding all of his accomplishment papers together pinched his fingers. But you know what? I'm not big boy and I don't cry is essentially what he says. I'm a book on accomplishments. And this is something, oh, I'm glad my finger wasn't in that

sucker. They could have done some damage, but you know what? I wouldn't have shown the pain. I can't. I mean, where have we arrived to? Do you hear that? That was nasty. Okay. But I wouldn't have showed the pain like when I got my shots the other day I didn't cry. The doctor did give me a lollipop. I got a little bandaid. Then again, Buzz Lightyear on it.

Buzz Light, you're a good friend of mine. It said very nice things about me. Further down the drain, now he just starts meandering, rambling. He seems like he's falling asleep. Oh, well, this- What happened to Sleepy Joe?

By the way, what happened to the Sleepy Joe accusation? Well, now he's making fun of his cancer diagnosis. It seems to be what Trump has been doing. And people are like, Jesus, what the fuck? So this is him now.

He says something about D.C. safe. And now your lover isn't going to be killed anymore. I don't like you. Kyle, with your loved one, with your lover. That word coming out of his mouth. Listen, this part. He just, lover's not going to be killed anymore.

So he can act like a real lover. What? But you can be, you can walk right through the middle of the town. And D.C. is beautiful again, too, you know. Wow. Amen. Your lover is not going to. going to be killed anymore and you can act like real lovers.

Then he does more racist shit. We've already heard it. Somali's bad. Minnesota. He's like, Minnesota actually won. You lost that straight three times. So again, miss us with your fake reality. And then wraps the whole thing up with an exasperated gesture at his pile of papers,

aka accomplishments, to be like, I mean, like, look, I think he at that point doesn't know what to say anymore, but he knows he has this big pile of papers to prove how much much he's done and this is the most you can get out. Here's the book. These are all things. I'm going to read a few of the samples, but look at this.

Flips it for the microphone. Each line is something we did. That before. Did what? Look, we have the hottest country in the world. Throw it on the ground. So, yeah, this was the beginning. Look, it's big stuff too.

Of, I think everyone in Davos being like, Oh, this guy's about to pull up and talk called Greenland, Iceland. Yeah. Look it is. There's stuff actually living on the pages. That's big stuff. It's lying in accomplishment. Give me a quarter, daddy.

Nobody's ever done that before. Nobody's ever done what before, written. I know. Nobody has been this out of sorts and president at the same time. So, again, this is like, you know, I think all part of the slow, slow, sort of percolating headlines or I guess now because money's at stake, people are like, I think this guy is not good at president.

Because Wall Street is starting to feel the pain. Like, suddenly there might be some consequences. Yeah. Yeah. Our tolerance for this level of insanity and incompetence, like the incapacity to put together a sentence, like the production of an entire

political regime based on random gestures and exclamatory statement, like that's so why. to me, right? Because part of it is that he knows that the content doesn't matter. It's a certain kind of performance of your great-grandfather at the head of the Thanksgiving table being like, you just have to respect me because fuck off. And people are like, we know this is awful and we hate this, but we will sit quietly and endure. You know, and then there are people who are sort of like, I enjoy this because it means I don't have to make sense. If the most powerful person on the

planet does not need to make sense, then the rest of us don't. And you don't have to explain ourselves. And I think there's a certain kind of like, almost like erotic fantasy around like, yes, like I could be this unhinged. And I don't have to explain myself to anyone. And like, it's just, it's, that's, wow. Yeah. Yeah. The, like you were talking about, the celebrity culture is, like, part of it is us dreaming of being better than other people by assuming. And so in this case, it's like people are getting out of this, seeing him go up there and just rambling coherently. And because they're, I guess, insulated from the consequences. They're just like that.

That makes me feel good. It's like, he's like, that's cool. Yeah, I think that's right. He's, well, he's like, I think really at this one, he's like the peak sort of like manifestation of infallible white male power. I was just going to say, you know what I mean? It is about failing upward to infinity. I mean, I really do. But I think for him to be a white, like, you could only be a white man and be so transparently

out of sorts, so obviously senile, and no one says anything about it. And people say, yes, sir, yes, sir. You're like, now that's some shit. His continued existence in a position of power is the ultimate statement of like the work done by white supremacy to just be like, yeah. Yeah, there are many ironies to this. And one of them is, is that people who claim. to be as supporters are obsessed with the American family

and the nuclear family and having kids. And the very reason that people are not getting married and not having children and not wanting to do all of that stuff is because that is the dominant mode of masculinity in this country. And people are like, you might celebrate that on TV. In people's interpersonal life, many of the people that adore him

would never want to sit at a dinner table with him, would find him absolutely insufferable. the charisma is not innate to him. It is what you just said, which is that it's appealing to watch someone be this unhinged and to be like they still keep winning. Yeah. Like that's almost such a mind fuck to people

that that's the entertainment is to be like, oh my God. And at what point do people collectively say, this is now destroying our lives so much that we must put a stop to it. And I think our tolerance in this country has become almost infinite. Yeah. Well, that is crazy. The limit is when it affects my stock portfolio,

really bad, apparently, because it wasn't enough when, like, marginalized people were just tossed to the side and being killed and kidnapped. Yeah. It's just now because, like, again, everything with America's like, it has to fucking be right in your face, smashing the shit out of your face

for the rest of America to get it because it's not enough when the people in the margins warn everybody about it. It's like, well, I need to kind of get hit by the train head on before you tell me there's it. I'll believe you then that a train was coming. Well, and also, like, I, you know what mystifies me, you guys, as somebody who studies American culture?

Like, I studied the period after World War II. So, like, I studied the Cold War. So much of what's happening now has happened before. McCarthyism, the internment camps for Japanese people. Like, this is, it's not like all of this is totally new. No, not if it's. There are new versions of it that are more extreme, that are more horrible, than whatever.

Yeah. But what fascinates me, is the inability of Americans left, right, and center to simply accept that certain policies and ways of doing things are ineffective. Sure. One could sit in a room with 10 people who all agree that immigration is a problem and needs to be addressed. Is this particular way of doing it effective besides making people miserable collectively? It's not, because it's not actually about solving the problem of immigration. it's about creating a vibe.

It's about creating a vibe of constant threat and danger. But so, like, to me, the inability of people, of any political persuasion to just say, I get what you're trying to do, but I just don't think it works. Right. Like, that is just so mind-boggling to me. It's so simple to just say this is a not effective way of accomplishing something. Yeah. Unfortunately, like all these people, especially for people who say that these ICE agents are

correct and these raids are necessary. They've used the term immigration to sort of mask their just deeper desires for like a white ethno state. Sure, yes. The Minneapolis Police Department just came out and was like our off-duty officers

keep being targeted by ice and all of them happen to be people of color. Of course. Yeah, they're just rolling up on off-duty officers with guns drawn and saying, like, show us your papers. And they're like, what papers I've lived here

my whole life. Yeah, exactly. And then yeah, the fucking chief of police said, I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident. If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think about how many of our community members are being victim to this. Speaking of Overton windows and the opportunity that presents

the cops, man. Somebody's being in your PR team, be like, we might be able to kind of win hearts and minds back if we kind of stand for something. But again, that's never going to happen because that whole thing is rotten to the core. All right. Let's take a quick break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk some pop culture. We'll be right back. I'm John Polk. For years, I was the poster boy of the conversion therapy movement.

The ex-gay who married an ex-lesbian and traveled the world telling my story of how I changed my sexuality from gay to straight. Once upon a time, I was on 60 Minutes, Oprah, the front cover of Newsweek. And you might have heard my story, but you've never heard the real story. So join me as I peel back the layers and expose what happened to me in the midst of conversion therapy. To shine a light on what the X-game movement does to people, and the pain it continues to cause. I had lost 150 pounds because if I couldn't control my sexuality, I was going to control my weight. It sounded like, and this is the word I used, a cult. and as I look too at the harm I did from within it.

Listen to Atonement, the John Polk story on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. New Year, new goals, and in this economy, a better money plan is more necessary than ever. I am Matt. And I'm Joel. We are from the How to Money podcast. And every week, we help you to spend smarter, save more, and make sense of what's going on out there. If you want 2026 to be the year you finally feel in control of your money, we're here to give you the tools and advice to help you make it happen.

Listen to How to Money on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up, y'all? This is Questlove recently. I had the opportunity to sit down with ASEAP Rocky ahead of his album release. Don't be dumb. He reflects on his journey from his Harlem roots to global icon status, discovering the hip-hop origin of his name. The ledge was on the TV.

Raq Kim had the bucket hat can go during the apostles. Like, that's Raq Kim. That's who you named after. I just was like, damn, that fucking I got swag. Rocky offers a window into not only a boundary-breaking artist, but as a man committed to fusing creative ideas, community, and remaining unapologetically himself. Have you ever gotten roasted for any of your outfits?

For sure. Some people don't be getting to vision. Look, they can roast me, they could cook meat, they could deep-fried meat, they can saute, whatever they want. It's nobody with my fashion sense and my taste is impeccable. I'm just like,

I impress myself a lot. It's an amazing conversation. One, you definitely don't want to miss. So listen to the Questlove show on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This show contains information subject to, but not limited

to personal takes, rumors, not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up, man? This is your boy, Nal. I'm bringing from the broken, Play Podcast. Look, it's the end of the season, the playoffs are here. But guess what?

It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcasts with Nav Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Another team who ain't going to the playoffs. They're cheese. Oh, it's a rap. It's time to rebuild. Who your MVP right now then?

Drake May up there. Josh Allen up there still. Oh, my boy, Matthew Stafford. Where did his Boonex at? He ain't too far behind. He did all this talking. What Matthew Stafford is doing. statistically, bro, it's crazy.

Bro, you know I ain't no Josh Allen fan, but Matthew Staff forgot. Better weapon. Caleb Williams. Hey, he should be in that conversation. In what conversation? He should be in it. Listen to Broken Play with Nav Green

from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or whatever you get your podcast. And we're back. We're back. And William Shatner has been in the news a lot this week and not just because he was photographed. Eating a bowl of cereal while dry.

A ceramic bowl, too. A ceramic bowl, yeah, of cereal while driving. That's great. That reminds me a simpler times. That's very appropriate for him. That feels very, like that tracks. He's 94? Good for him.

The milk is going to maybe get on your clothes, but like that's all right when you're wearing a bathrobe. It's the enterprise now. I got, I got neighbors who, I got elderly neighbors who I feel like shouldn't be driving. You know what I mean? And a 94-year-old, no hang. doing look ma no hands. No hands. That's great LA though. I'm like, wow. You live in LA, you know how to drive no hands.

Yeah, I say 94. I'm like, can we, can we test your driving gangster though real quick? Are you still got it? But he was also dragged to the zeit guys by Stephen Miller, who took a break from outright Nazism to complain about a new streaming sci-fi show. He shared a video

from the end-wokeness account complaining about the new series Star Trek Academy because the clip featured three women talking. I think that's it. This man needs to get a life, honestly. Yeah.

So he called on Paramount to hand the reins of the franchise over to the 94-year-old Shatner. Oh, my God. We keep having good results when we hand things over to people who have aged out of being safe on the road. Yeah. Yeah. Even, not even in space, bro.

I don't even think they'd fucking let him come command a ship at that age. He responded by joking. that Miller was alluding to the fact that one of the characters was using wearing glasses. He was like, come on, we haven't solved nearsightedness. Stephen Miller probably was like,

you can't show disabled people on TV. Yeah, true. That's true. With glasses? He's like, that was three women? I didn't even notice that. I can't see for shit, but I don't wear glasses because I don't want to show weakness. This is the level of that logic. Yeah. But why

would Shatner be able to rid Star Trek of this phantom wokeness. Well, as a kid, Stephen Miller was reportedly obsessed with Star Trek. He used to dress up as Kirk, seeing him as a macho-Alpha male ideal. Elon Musk has similarly misogynistically ripped on the show.

And he and Pete Hegseth suggested that it's time to make Star Trek real. They're using... Hell, yeah. They're on a tour named after Arsenal of Free. which is a Star Trek the Next Generation episode about an AI-powered weapon system and its automated salesman, which destroys an entire civilization and eventually threatens the crew of the USS Enterprise.

Groundbreaking. Wow. So they're, again, just like have completely lost the message of anything that they're consuming. And it's just gestures. Well, this is what I said earlier, which is like every great popular culture invention of the late 20th century, is in some way about hanging together, making friends with people who are not like you. The X-Men is fundamentally about the idea of like elective affinity.

Of like, oh, I just ended up with these people and I'm figuring out how to create an alternative family. Right, right. You know, like this is what everybody loves is the ideal. Like Candice Owen and Charlie Kirk, right? Yeah, yeah, she just claimed that they were ex-men. It actually sucks to be the norm. It's boring.

It's also not true. You live in a state of constant. denial about your own specialness. And people love marginality because they know that technically everybody is marginal. Like nobody actually fits in. Nobody is the norm. The narrowness of the whatever this white ethno state that people want, the narrowness of who counts in it is like practically nobody.

As one of my friends were saying, like, you can never have been divorced, you could never have had a bad thought, you can never, I mean, that's not any human being that exists. Right. So we love. Including the people that support that idea. Absolutely. create those cultural objects like the X-Men, like Star Trek,

that make them feel like outsiders so that they can claim to also be cool. And the thing about Star Trek, Star Trek is so dorky for a very particular reason. It's so beautiful because it is like a post-World War II fantasy of going out into the cosmos

and meeting people who are not like you and doing absolutely nothing but interacting with them nonviolently. That's literally what the whole show is about. It's not about imperialism. It's not about control. It's not about domination. It's about the joy of finding people and being like, who are you?

And what are you like? I mean, that's the idea of the prime directive. That if you meet a civilization that doesn't have your technology, you don't make them into a version of yourself. So, of course, Star Trek is going to piss these people off because its fundamental values are so against the culture as it stands. I mean, if you watch the show all the way through every series, this period of the 21st century that we're living in

is considered like the worst moment in humanity. Many of the characters time travel. There's a famous episode in Voyager where they go back to L.A. in like 2025. And they're just like, this is how people live. There's homeless people. Right. But people can't eat.

And so the idea is that humanity survived by working through this period and growing up and becoming egalitarian. Right. So they can't stand that, But they also are sort of like the Stephen Millers of the word are like, but we also want to be included. Yeah. Like I also want to be on a ship and I also want to find.

And it's like, well, girl, you could be included if you weren't such a fucking asshole. Yeah. Like if you didn't want to annihilate everybody and kill everybody and put everybody in prison and if you actually had humility enough to engage with the world, like you could also be part of the universe. Yeah, but I just think there's just something so appealing about the Borg, you know? That's just the only episode he's watches over and over again. Exactly. Get on board, dude. Resistance is futile, dude.

I know. That's what he basically says to people. Totally. The premise of Star Trek could be very much a colonial tale, but you're right, they have the prime directive, which was, you know, the original show came out during Vietnam. And they were like, we don't want to support that sort of colonialism. And so we had to create the.

law that was like, yes, we go out there and just exist and learn from. We don't intervene. And we don't extract resources. Let's also remember. I mean, first of all, the show in the 60s was one of the most gender and racially diverse shows in the history of American medium. First interracial kiss. Yeah.

It's unbelievable what they were doing. It's also incredibly playful and fun. It imagines exploration, like you said, not as colonial project, but as joy and creativity. But I would remind people, this is how deep the show is. When they revamp the show in The Next Generation and Voyager and Deep Space Nine, which is my favorite, it used to be Voyager, and then I watched Deep Space Nine, and it's incredible. The Borg is so brilliant because the board is what happens when democracy eats itself alive. Like, the villain of the show is the flattening of difference. It's the idea of, like, what if we democratized everything to the point where nobody was different than anybody else?

And the show is saying, like, if you really want to hang on to radical democracy, you have to keep alive the meaningfulness of the fact that people are not the same. Like, you have to keep negotiating differences. So the show is so smart that it actually offers a critique of democracy itself and some of its pitfalls, while also still celebrating the idea of democratic light. Like, that's so deep. But like, that's so beyond anything that this administration can even think through at this point. Right. And he's so antithetical to all of their values that, of course, they're basically like watching it and having like a paroxysm about it. They should let us write this actually.

And get rid of that prime directive. That's for that stupid. They're just like, well, what if like everyone was more like seven of nine? Maybe it's to kind of soften it up a little bit. Yeah. Oh, my God. I love that character. It's so great.

Fun fact, I did Jerry Ryan's kid's birthday two years, and I was so starstruck when she pulled up. I was like, it's 709, 709, 7.09, it's 7.09. I'm doing 7109's kids' birthday. But yeah, I just feel, I feel like this is, as religion kind of loses its relevance and goes the way of like the Greek gods in terms of its functional role in people's lives, I feel like people are more and more filling that with movie universes that they get meaning from and prefer to exist in. and like the right just doesn't have one that they can call their own. You know, that's why they were so mad when Star Wars changed and why they, they're just trying, they're like,

would you be my friend, Star Trek? And it's like, no, fuck you. We think you're weird and you suck. You're like, you could be a bad guy from our show. Like, okay. Avatar, nah, probably doesn't work. Well, okay, hold on. well, which part do you think you are?

No, Vietnam. But also, you guys, like, what is that fucking word? Conservatism to conserve. To keep things the same. It doesn't, that logic, conservatism as a logic does not lend itself to good storytelling. Because the outcome is always the same. It's essentially keeping the universe the way you want it to look like.

So that ends up being propaganda. That can also be left wing, right? There are left-wing versions of conservatism, where you want the story to end up the same way, where you want a narrative to always have the same message. There's a reason why conservatives feel often at odds with popular media, because whether or not popular media is liberal or conservative, and the fact is it's run by conservative billionaires, it needs to be driven by innovation and exploration and growth and expansion. You can't keep telling the same story in exactly the same way forever. You can go quite far, fast and furious. They're trying. They're still trying.

They're still doing it. But at some point, something has to change because people change and the world changes or whatever. And so conservatism is fundamentally at odds with a really generative media industry. I mean, this is why the Nazis essentially had to take over every single organ of media in Germany because the only way they could get their message across was to literally, be the people who run everything. Yeah, there is no other message. Right, and by the way, how'd that work out?

I am not a historian, but... Didn't work out really well. I mean, Stephen Miller's doing really well. For anybody. Yeah, no. And so... Not even that poor dog. Yeah.

And so it's just, and it's boring and wrote. And so, yeah, it makes sense that there is this kind of like wanting to take over these franchises, but also not knowing how their version of... politics fits in because it just doesn't align with good storytelling. Right. They don't know anything about that. By the way, to be a total dork for a second, the point that you're making, Jack, is there's an amazing book people should read by the historian Michael Saylor called As If on the literary

prehistory of virtual reality, and it makes exactly the argument that you just made. It's a history of the way in which starting with Sherlock Holmes in the 19th century, people didn't abandon religion, they became spiritually inclined towards fictional universes. And they became obsessed with the internal logics of those worlds and they believed that one could perform

the same kind of ethics that religion gave you in those worlds. But they saw Sherlock Holmes as a person who was fundamentally good and wanted to understand the world and was open to the world's mysteries. And so they believed in the idea that like the fans were like,

like, you should cultivate a spirit of openness to this mystery. And the same is true of the X-Men and Star Trek. These are cultural franchises that millions of fans watch them and say, this show is teaching me how to be more open to difference. Yeah. To be more open to explore. No wonder people, conservatives want to try and control that narrative. That's dangerous to them.

Yeah. Sounds like a smart guy, Michael Saylor. He's smart. I love him. Sherlock Holmes. We're going to have to do Sherlock on the icon. episode, icons episode. Such a good idea.

Or Arthur Conan Doyle, who invented him and then became the fans hated him and loved Sherlock Holmes. Yeah. That makes sense. That sounds like what would happen in America. That's like heated rivalry. People are like, we love the characters on the show, but don't be real. Well, Ramsey, it's been such a pleasure having you on the Daily Zekegeist. Where can people find you, follow you, all that.

Yeah. So people can go to my website, Ramsey, Fawawawai. dot com. You can find information about all my books, about my work, and also about my retreats. I teach at the Esselon Institute every year, which is a huge, beautiful consciousness-raising retreat in Big Sur, California. I'm going to teach a seminar there this year called the Thrill of Groundlessness Flowing Through Life Without Absolutes. So if you like my vibe and you want to learn about a kind of living with less anxiety, that's what we'll be doing. You can also find me on Instagram at Nerd from the Future. And of course, you can follow my podcast. We'll be putting out our

second season later in March. Amazing. And is there a work of media that you've been enjoying? Oh, I have been reading. Yeah. I have been reading this book called The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlinger. She's a journalist. It's a national bestseller. It's a blowing my mind. It's all about plant intelligence and about what we're learning about plants. Basically, human beings. are stupid. Plants are geniuses. They're like species that have learned how to survive without being able to move. And then one of my favorite parts of the book is basically that it's all about scientists fighting with each other about whether or not plants are actually intelligent. And the idea that people's like careers have been ruined over this is insane to me because

it's so obvious that plants are smart. And it's just, it's a beautiful book and it will make, it will humble you. Like in a world where we need to step out of ourselves for a minute, It is a book that you'll leave it and be like, wow, my hydrangee outside is smarter than me. It knows how to read vibes. Yeah, they know vibes. I feel like we're very bad at respecting the intelligence of anything that is not us. It's so boring, which means that we're dumb, which means actually that we're done. I mean, right, native and indigenous people call human beings the younger brother of creation.

Like, we're the youngest species on the planet. How could we ever possibly think that just because we have. self-consciousness, as far as we know, right, that we could actually be smarter. I mean, there's just a little factoid before we conclude today. She has a moment in the book where she talks about, there are plants that when they are touched more than three times in one hour will rearrange their entire DNA structure so that when their cells reproduce, they're stronger because they recognize that they're being assaulted. Yeah.

Like, that's insane. Right. They're like, get the fuck off of me. I know. That's like every plant every time. That's Michael Jordan losing to the pistons and then starting to lift weights in the offseason. Exactly. He's like, not again.

Not again. Not like that. Literally. And it happens within seconds. It's wild. Awesome. Miles, where can people find you? Is there a work of media you've been enjoying?

Find me everywhere at Miles of Gray. I talk 90-day fiancé on 420-day fiancé. And if you like English football, the Premier League and European football, ball at large, check out the new show, Ain't It Footy, comedic comedy show with myself, Jamel Johnson and Chris Martin. Works and Media. First one is from at Internet Hippo, because I don't know if the Trump at the sort of Davos thing was like, I'm not going to use force, but it was implied in a lot of the head.

But we will use force. Probably well. And then a lot of headlines are like, Trump says, we're like use of force is off the table. Based off that internet hippo posted, Mafia goon, nice house you got here. It'd be a shame if something happened to it. Media outlets, Mafia goon rules out use of force, expresses regret at the mere thought of it.

Amazing. And then another one, pixelated boat, just because we're talking about William Shattered, this is perfect, pixelated boat posted, The New York Times reports that Air Force One has turned around due to a situation officials are describing as creature on the wing. Oh, nice. I have been sleeping, so I don't have a working media.

Good for you. I've been a little under the weather. Get some rest. It's all right, Joan Amos. Doing the James Cameron once was like, I don't watch streaming. I got the best streaming channel in the world up here every night when I go to bed. It's my dreams. My dreams kind of suck by comparison.

Yeah, exactly. They're all avatar. Every one of his dreams. He's really all about that world. That's what keeps him up a night. You can find me on Twitter at Jack. underscore O'Brien, Blue Sky, Jack, Jack O, B the number one.

Instagram, Jack, underscore O, underscore Brian. You can find us on Twitter and Blue Sky at Daily Zekegeist. We're at the Daily Zekegeist on Instagram. You can go to the description of this episode wherever you're listening to it, and there at the bottom, you will find the footnotes. Which is where we link off to the information 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 that you think the people might enjoy? Yes, yes, yes. Super producer editor, Justin. put me on to this Italian rapper named Marte, M-A-R-T-E. The track is called Parto Naturae. And I guess that means

I just did a quick search. That means natural birth. The instrumental she's rapping on is dope. It like reminds me of like 2004. There's something like really playful about the samples but it's still fucking Knox. Pre-i-i-i-o-o-hundred-per-huh. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

So this is Parto Naturae by Marta. So check this one out. And we will link up. after that in the footnotes. The Daily Zykeyes is a production of IHartRadio for more podcasts. From IHartRadio, Visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcast, to wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for us this morning.

We are back this afternoon to tell you what is trending, and we will talk to y'all then. Bye. Bye. The Daily Zykeyes is executive produced by Catherine Law. Co-produced by Bay Way. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNap.

Edited and engineered by Justin Connor. This show contains information subject to, but not limited to personal takes, rumors, not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up, man? This is your boy, Nav Green, from the Broken Play Podcast. Look, it's the end of the season, the playoffs are here. But guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcasts with Nav Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Not a team who ain't going to the playoffs.

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