The Daily Zeitgeist - RIP Roe, Netflix Courting Conservatives? 6.27.22

Episode Date: June 27, 2022

Jack and Miles are joined by comedian Nimesh Patel as they talk about life in a Post-Roe America, the abject failure of the fourth estate, Netflix leaning into the culture wars with their new reality show 'Snowflake Mountain and much more! Listen: Berimbau - Bodikhuu Donate to support abortion accessSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just

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

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture.

Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 243 episode one of their daily night guys a production of iheart radio this is a podcast where we take a deep dive into america's shared consciousness uh it is monday june 27th 2022 um i don't know it's national guess this nation day yeah i mean that's like that, that's all the time. But it's actually National Sunglasses Day. Hell yeah.

You got to protect your eyes. I only recently, after getting laced, they're like, you know, you got to protect your eyes from UV rays. I'm like, all right, so squinting isn't enough. Also, National Onion Day. If you fuck with onions, day is for you. I sent my four-year-old to camp today with sunglasses on,

which he thought made him impossible to identify. Like, he thought he was fully undercover. Oh, like a Groucho Marx kind of thing?

Yeah. But sunglasses on a kid is always a good time. And you know, they're always, like, kind of groping around and shit. Like, they don't...

Right. They can't really see. Those shits will be lost within 24 hours. Yeah, yeah. And it sucks because they're $300 sunglasses, you know. I like to give them the best. They're rhinestones Gucci sunglasses that J-Lo wore back in 03. Yeah.

Anyways, my name's Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. New Do's, I love the news. I drop to be part of the blast. Baja ever wonder if it's all for do spark. I love there's flaming hot typhoon and mango jam. Baja come and tell me when there's do news. A little red hot chili peppers from Garden Wizard. And I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray!

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy Pelosi. Please just don't read a poem. please just don't read a poem in response to everything that's happening that does not feel like the kind of leadership that is required at the moment uh but oh yeah off rip just like let me hit y'all with a poem real quick everybody's people's rights are vanishing allow this perfect time for me to share some poetry with or the other amazing moment was on friday house democrats were singing god bless america on the capitol steps while people were protesting like over the supreme court and you're like i'm sorry we're fighting fascism with song now okay one of the greats though god bless america you know there we go 100 um all right

well today we are joined by a very funny stand-up comedian who was the first indian-american writer for saturday night live it is the brilliant the talented nimesh patel so what's up i feel like i should uh have a song intro myself you got a karaoke song it's uh uh mary j blige's i'm going down oh my god wow it's uh i can't i can't sing for shit yeah that song makes you makes the emotion come out you know oh yeah it's a beautiful you got that deep bassy voice i know like when you ain't around baby i would like to hear my whole world how much alcohol you got or are you really hitting the falsetto you're like it used to be r kelly's uh i believe i can fly but we can't do that no more yeah yeah

that one's not getting as many good responses as i mean i'm going down we'll always that's just like one of those bad like that's one of those songs that if you're doing it like in a public karaoke versus like in a room with, it will usually get other people being like... Yeah, it's beautiful. People who... Grown-ass man crying. And it doesn't allow you to go

halfway in. You can't mumble your way through that one. You just gotta go all in. Which is the sign of a good karaoke song. You really need one that brings you out investment yeah all right well nimesh we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment first we're going to tell our listeners a couple of things we're talking about today we're going to talk about you know what's the media's role in all this like you know we're

about to get hit with tons of fundraising texts and emails from democrats and a lot of people telling us to just vote which would work if this wasn't a failed state but the other thing that i think people are going to gravitate towards is turning on the news and watching cnn or you know your msnbc so we're going to talk about like their role in that where what you can and cannot learn in uh the from american corporate media we're going to talk about the tech nightmare looming in post-ro america we'll talk about snowflake mountain a new reality show on netflix oh man it's wild yeah the title i got to an episode and a half oh you did oh yeah because the second i saw that trailer i'm like what kind of fucking wild like barely coded shit is this uh and it's fucking i'm like we'll get we'll get to it i i definitely have my thoughts

we also saw elvis or you walked out halfway through i made it all the way through um i think you had a you had something else to do so you knew you're gonna have to leave early but this or you walked out halfway through I made it all the way through I think you had something else to do so you knew you had to leave early but felt like it wasn't that hard when Elvis went oh my god Dr. King yeah I'm like I'm sorry oh

they did a lot they did a lot of a lot of interesting stuff with that Elvis it is a very strange movie Tom Hanks's uh strangest performance by far um but he did you see did you see that thing i sent around of like what the guy actually talked like no i didn't actually click the thing but you're i saw everybody's commentary that he didn't have any like real thick dutch accent so tom hanks goes into this movie uh playing like elvis's right-hand man scam lord colonel tom something tom parker or something yeah yeah and he talks like this and is like i am

elvis's man and i discover elvis and then you see a video of the guy and he's like, yeah, well, I discovered Elvis and that's just how, how it was. And so he was a con man who claimed he was from West Virginia, was actually from the Netherlands. But the fact that he has such a thick accent just makes it so confusing because at like one point the FBI investigates him and like shows him, they're like, we've discovered you're not really from West Virginia.

It's like, yeah, no shit. He's been like, what are you talking about, comrade? I love gold. It's so weird. Anyways, Nimesh, I'm sure you have not seen Elvis yet. We rushed out. It is a fever dream. And as Miles pointed out, they also rewrite history.

So Elvis is just like i don't know they thought elvis was adopted like it started off like the jerk where he's like i was raised a poor black boy yeah and you're like what the fuck is going on here it's pretty wild you stole that from ray charles too yeah yeah right but nimesh, what is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are? Uplift Desk is the last thing I searched for. Uplift? Standing Desk, yeah. It's a brand of standing desk.

Yeah. And I've been sitting with my shoulders slouched, and this time I make a change as a 36-year-old man. So I stand on my feet yeah and try to correct my posture i feel that i don't know what that says about me uh i mean i'm boring and i work at a desk all day but are you listening to your body at the very least right and your body's telling me like yo bro we got to do something fucking different man quickly my elbows hurt they shouldn't hurt your elbows hurt you They shouldn't hurt. Your elbows hurt? You playing tennis or something? Yeah.

No. No, it's just resting on fucking grass. Just resting. Oh, God, man. Too much elbow resting going on. Yep. Repetitive stress elbow resting. Yep, yep.

What's something you think is overrated? Old people. I get it. Old people are trash, man. I mean, if this past weekend's any indication old people are trash they need to go yeah well it's an odd it's an odd bunch we have uh in dc where like it's like their whole like this whole time they spend in like the capital is about proving to themselves that they're still potent. And part of that is being like, nah, this is at everyone's expense

that y'all aren't just people to be like, yep, time for me to fucking sit the fuck down because I have no idea what life is like in 2020. I know more so what life would be in 1920. Who knew the most dangerous movie made of the past 40 years would be Space Cowboys?

Inspiring the elderly to still do it and it turns out they could and should not um yeah i'm just the whole yeah just constantly every single problem we have is like the commentary you get from people just reveals further how disconnected they are from it all like jim cliburn who's like the house whip for the democrats his comment on the row decision was it was kind of anticlimactic so you know we'll see what we can do and it's like oh i'm sorry wait what okay and i i tweeted i'm like yes 7 000 year old man very chill about the overturning of row it wasn't orgasmic enough for him. He didn't have a big release. I don't understand.

I don't know. I don't know either, but it's almost like okay, well, if he was anticlimactic, were you guys in the lab anticipating this happening because you knew it was going to happen and you have a response or it's just poems and songs? Biden addressed the country. We are recording this the day that the Roe

news dropped, I guess, would probably be helpful information for people so like you you would probably hear some uh like you know still grappling with it not knowing exactly what has been said it does seem like you know that there were some headlines with um the collinses and the mansions being like, we're disappointed. We're, we're ticked off that these guys lied to us. Um, but nothing to, to suggest. And therefore we're going to like pack the court or do something to address

what is obviously a massive emergency. And, uh, they've, they've pivoted to your rights are on the ballot in november it's like that's true it is definitely not yours because none of y'all's rights are at risk yeah i mean honestly i think the first thing that people have to do is like obviously support a lot of these like organizations that are going to be doing carrying the like the load of uh providing people with like self or

safe abortion access and the other part i think too is i see a lot of people like a lot of like big d democrat type accounts on twitter just like grappling like it's like every failure like wait but they just said guns were fine but the guns can't be determined by the state but abortion access can well what's going on here without kind of arriving to this point to say this whole thing has been overrun by like moneyed interests. And that's kind of the game we're in in this idea of like, who do we vote for? It's like, that's just spectacle. I'm trying to trace the money here. I'm always like a follow the money guy.

And I'm just wondering, I'd love to hear your thoughts on where do you, you just said, this is all rooted in money interests. Who's making money off it? Like who's making money off abortion being banned? Well, I think part of it too, is like,

there is an internal memo from like Amazon, for example, that says they're running out of labor to exploit in the country. And if we're like, so part of that is you can, by restricting abortion access, you're creating more people to be exploited under this system of like, Hey, just so you know, if you don't have a job, like you basically don't have a right to live. you look at people like the coke brothers their whole thing is to create like this america where there are no regulations and then they can just run the board like and you know put people to work in ways that there are no protections etc so it benefits to have a constantly growing population

like population contraction is like one of those things that like you know economic forecasters are like oh we're gonna exploit now and to have a steady pool of that is like one dimension of that but then you also marry that with billionaires and people who just have a completely fucked worldview and they realize oh shit if i spend a lot of money like i can i can functionally write fucking laws so yeah yeah now i'm gonna get off on like my little god complex by doing that as well i mean like some things do have a profit uh sort of motive and other things are just for people to like manifest their tortured worldview on onto us and inequality is not a

byproduct of their worldview it is their world like they want inequality and like that that is what the end result of this is going to be. The people who suffer from this are the people who don't have the money or the means or the social network to get healthcare on their own. And yeah, desperate people are more likely to take a terrible deal. But it's also the white supremacy and the classism and all the darkest shit that is present and constant at the highest levels that we donate. There's a guy named Leo Leonard who basically was the main point person on this. different funds and packs and dark money things to fund the confirmation of the supreme court justices and um you know like just keep keep the thing going but he just like changed the name of the thing because they don't want us to know that they exist they went from like judicial crisis network to concord group or some shit like that that is just designed to like fall directly out of your head immediately.

The best colorway of the Jordan 11 sneaker. So like, let's just bring it back to something we can all feel good about. Yeah. Leo Leonard or Leonard Leo, rather Leonard Leo. That's a movie villain name. If I ever heard one.

Seriously. Yeah. Leonard Leo, a real piece of shit that most people probably haven't heard of that's the that's the long game these uh billionaires got going on is create more worker ants i mean if you just i think at the end of the day right the if you are like a billionaire the world you want is one where nobody's telling you how to run your business. And if nobody's telling you how to run your business, you can do whatever the fuck you have to, to maximize your profit margins. And that means unsafe workplaces, ridiculous hours and

demands from workers and things like that. And that's why that, you know, that's like why every goal is to just with like sort of, uh, erode these sort of powers that the federal government has on any level to sort of be like well hold on hold on y'all can't just be fucking people over like this and they're like what if i told you i don't like you talking to me and how about i put a bunch of people in office now that will do everything like in their power to strip away these things because that's what the supreme court's doing now. They're like, oh, that ain't it, right? Miranda rights? And white supremacist misogynist men have all the money, right? And this is a protection that we had from what has been a status quo, like the misogyny and the just brutal treatment of women and restriction of restriction of women's rights like that is

that that was like one of the things that made this hit home for me like wired published an obit for rose like rose stood for 49 years it revolutionized life for women the national right to abortion pushed back the age of childbearing increased college and workforce participation and created economically stable families um and like just that being in the past tense it's like oh yeah like this is this is not a given and in fact now it's been taken away that was a period with an exclamation point on the end of it and you know the money and power being concentrated and being used to mistreat women and you know people who are different than them is like probably more common than the the opposite the the periods where like the the rights of those people are protected so like i don't know that's a very like

dark way to view it but that does feel like you put You put cishet Christian white men at the top of the pyramid, and that's just what everything's about. Let's make sure we maintain that spot there. We can now begin to exercise whatever control against other groups, marginalized groups, that we need to to ensure that, because typically the

groups that they like to go after are the ones that are pretty vocal about the lopsided nature of, I guess, hegemonic power in this country. So that was your overrated. What is your underrated? This is old people shit, but I think underrated is writing by hand. Everyone's on their phone. I've been writing by hand for forever. And I feel like it's a dying art even i catch myself uh like on my notes apps and all that kind of shit just typing away and i'm like i gotta get back

to the paper because like there's nothing like scribbling the margin and uh drawing random shit when you don't have anything to write right by hand yeah underrated people need to do it get a standing desk to do it i got a legal pad right here with a big fat shark drawn on it so i feel it yeah you know i know about my handwriting my handwriting sucks uh but jack where your pen tricks at my pen tricks are uh i used to be able to spin it around on my thumb like the very first like training wheels version of that yeah and uh, I don't know. I have what's called an intention tremor where my hands get shaky and then a few times

I had to go to the hospital with a pen in my eye and so I decided to stop doing it. Ah, you know. Why is he on trial, huh? Get off my back, all right? Yeah, you're right.

My bad, my bad, man. Man, you're the guest, man. I should ask you the question. How come you were poking yourself in the eye with a pen a bunch? What? Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about the hellscape that we find ourselves in right now.

about the hellscape that we find ourselves in right now. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and L.A.-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine.

Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, Thank you. never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions, like how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? have a lot of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about

that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds, Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised 150 grand in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared.

And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. My reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a

way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground.

Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And yeah, so we got we know the Democrat

texts are coming, the fundraising, the emails, your rights are on the ballot this November. Not ours though not ours you were right yours i'm old and i don't have a uterus and i'm a millionaire so that's on we're good over here but and i'm gonna die in like 15 minutes so you think i give a fuck about a drought come on now anyway but yeah that's that's sort of that we are like clockwork it's already happening and you know all of these things insisting that voting them out is the key we must vote them out and

like you're saying if this were a functioning democracy then yeah that might work but like you know at this point i feel like the more you look at it and how uh empty the gestures are from politicians despite just the rolling back of rights that we're seeing, like, you know, more rights for guns this last week than for human beings. It's like, you know, electoralism, D.C. politics. It's just this spectacle to distract us from the fact that, like, the real decisions are dictated by capital, essentially, you know, not the needs of people. If that were the case, we would have had functioning health care in this country for people. We wouldn't just be like, yeah, man, if you can't, if you're too poor to work, don't worry people if that were the case we would have had functioning health care in this country for for

people we wouldn't just be like yeah man if you can't uh if you're too poor to work don't worry about it we're not going to just force you to live on the street and then fend for yourself but you know as expected the supreme court overturned roe and clarence thomas made it clear also that this is also opening the door for overturning gay marriage and like contraception and and the like so people are going to wonder you know how did this happen what can be done and most people like my like my parents most people just in general turn on the tv and most likely land on a news network that actually has no interest in informing people like what's actually happening because that's not how the news functions anymore i think that's a big thing that like lot of Americans need to grapple with,

even though this has been the case for a while. We've been hitting it over. I feel like we've had plenty of evidence for it for a long time. Even though I've been saying it just more and more, I'm like, oh, wow. They don't give a fuck at all.

When I was at SNL, it was just a deluge of news every day. And just watching it and trying to see where the objective, there's zero objectivity in any of it or zero interest in trying to inform people. It's always, like, everything's breaking news. Everything's fear-mongering. Everything's like, pay attention to us.

It's a product. And also, buy Colgate. You know, that's all it is by colgate you know it's all right and yeah you know i think the the thing that we i think the way to look at it is that these are for-profit companies chasing ad dollars yes that means these aren't news organizations like that's that was a long time ago when we had news organizations what we see on television are profit-minded companies doing business with other profit-minded companies that's the main business it's not the news is like an afterthought it's not about telling the truth and the truth is we're in total freefall as a country

and we're willing to side with arms manufacturers at the expense of you know the lives of children we treat life as disposable and we are now at the will of concepts like shareholder value uh and like that's what's moving policy that's kind of where you'd hope that news would tell people is what's going on at the moment it's so bizarre to be a part of like a real podcast and have it sound like a conspiracy theory podcast you know right right right the news isn't totally with fucking colgate pomala exactly hello and you know and to their credit media has done a good job to make conversations like this sound so fringe and out of touch with reality that most people's instant reaction is like yeah right it's like all these like spooky billionaires right well yeah it

kind of is for a lot of like a lot of these issues that we're experiencing and you know i think like we're saying like we're saying it's the the things that are discussed on television like it's not to inform again it's it's it's it's just to kind of perpetuate this sort of like mirage of like, just focus on these smaller things without kind of looking up towards the upper echelons of society where like the money is moving and the people who make the decisions on what's on TV,

who they speak to, who they are influenced by. And I just want to point at like CNN, the American prospect also, you know, did a great job of like sort of bringing attention to this. Like CNN's made a lot of noise recently because they're like you know zucker's out they've brought in this uh guy chris licht or liked i don't know how to pronounce the last name he's like a he's a talk show producer that's his background a talk show producer

is now running cnn is their new head and he's been letting advertisers know like at up fronts and things like that like using the word extreme like we're trying to get away from like extreme views and things like that and cnn's main investor is a man named john malone he is america's largest land owner he's a fucking republican he's a trump humper and you think this man who is at that who has the like huge stake in the company that's running cnn you think he is interested in telling american people that like his cohort is the reason there's no affordable housing or any other thing fuck no so we're not going to get that shit from anything like that. But this whole new CNN rebrand push is really easy to wrap your head around it when, again, you just look at the

fucking money. The parent company of CNN, Warner Brothers Discovery, is in about $59 billion worth of debt. Fox News made over $12 billion in revenue last year, CNN less than 2 billion. So these motherfuckers are looking over there being like, damn, we'd even a lot of racist money on the table. Yeah. A lot. And I feel like we should be in that scrap for that big,

how the fuck they get in 12 billion and we're getting to, because we have people on who are saying stuff like white supremacy out loud on television. And that's off puttingputting to people. Maybe it's us liberals got to spend more money on and watch the CNN shit. And hopefully, maybe they'll go buy Kias or whatever the fuck it is, the opposite of whatever they're selling on Fox News. Yeah, I mean, that's what they'd love. They'd love for people to come to that conclusion.

Like, well, guys, maybe if we bought some more shit, we'd have access to health care. I mean, it's what they'd love. They'd love for people to come to that conclusion. Like, well, guys, maybe if we bought some more shit, we'd have access to healthcare. I mean, it is kind of crazy. When you look at who advertises on CNN versus who advertises on Fox News, the fact that Fox made that much more money just really emphasizes how much better of a job they're doing at drawing an audience.

Because Fox News is advertisements for like gold and catheters and cnn like has actual brands it's like the right-wing media tells the truth that like racist people believe in and want to believe in the corporate media tells the truth that like billionaires and corporations want to believe in but like no real actual people believe in but it's still like corporate friendly and brand friendly like to to a degree that like they get much better sponsorship but like that's there there's only a few like to your point like you you sound crazy in america by saying the actual truth like that that makes you sound fringe at this point absolutely to be like well their parent company's in 59 billion dollars worth of debt they're like so what i'm like do you know

how these people talk like yeah i'll play you a clip of this guy john malone who is again america's largest fucking private landowner on top of all this shit um just to hear him talk about how he looks at you know this is him talking about the potential of like being able to basically call the shots at CNN. And just listen to how this man even views what news is, because I think it's very fucking instructive. Well, you know, I was I guess I could be partially blamed for the creation of a lot of news networks, including yours. of a lot of news networks, including yours. Yes, I know that. But certainly Fox News,

Fox News, I think, in my opinion, has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have news news, I mean, some actual journalism embedded in a program schedule of all opinions. And I think they've been relatively successful with that, with a service like Brett Baer and Brit Youn before him that tried to distinguish news from opinion. I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with

and uh you know actually have journalists okay so sounds like he's saying like man they could use some real fox newsing over there at cnn yeah this was like before all this actually became official since it all happened there's a lot of talk about how, quote unquote, extreme views are going to try and be like purged from the network. But they're like, what the fuck does that even mean? And this guy, Chris Licht, who's like the talk show producer is now running CNN, says, quote, We are truth tellers focused on informing, not alarming our viewers. So I'd imagine anyone who says anything alarming will be considered someone who might not be so friendly to the brand but we're living in terribly fucked up times but isn't that what fox news does though aren't they pro extreme shit and that's what's made them so

successful 100 100 but i think the language he's using is trying to almost say like objectively what they're doing is like just this like they've got their opinion and then they have news news and that's why they're doing so well and it's like you glossed over the entire part you're talking about which is like no they're they're like they're pumping out this wild like dramatic shit for people to just like get incensed by, by watching. Yeah. It sounds like they're trying to position themselves as like, well, there's gotta be like right wing people who don't respond to like the Fox news craziness.

So we'll like just move more towards them. Like they're trying, it sounds like they're like trying to be, you know, still hold down the center, uh, like viewpoint, uh,

even though Fox is moving more and more to the right and so like anybody who is telling the truth becomes an extremist in in that environment because fox which is completely outside of the realms of reality is like one of the things that you're using to determine where the middle, right? Yeah. Understood. Now. Yeah. Okay. That's right.

I think like, you know, it's really important to note that by having their hands all over media, by Bezos owning like the Washington post, having John Malone at CNN, just like the numerous people who have their hands on different media outlets. The biggest thing,

the biggest fear that this like billionaire class of people has is aside from the Bezos types, but like the John Malone types and things like that, is that people will begin to connect the dots that their money is actually somehow influencing things. They pay a lot of money to keep themselves out of the conversation. And the biggest fear is that the conversation is going to shift to, well, who's moving all these piles of cash around that end up putting people in office that change laws and things like that. And because of that, I think, you know, that's, that's one of the best functions so far that,

that media has provided in service of this class of people, which is to completely make us confused as to who's running the show, because right now people are experiencing a thing of like but i voted for these people and they said they do it and they didn't right who is in power aren't they in power and the next thing is well you know who are the lobbyists that package their donations so they can stay in office and then who's putting that money in the lobbyist pockets and so on and so forth and i think the biggest issue a lot of americans have is people right now in the confusion in the fog of war they're fighting an invisible enemy yeah and they don't know what to do they're just feeling punches and kicks and shit like that and i think there's something uh that is a lot more heartening to somebody at the very least

if you can begin to outline what exactly is the forces that are pressing back because we have a lot of disconnected ideas and and presentations of what's happening that again just furthers i think a lot of like the confusion that people experience i think you give a lot of credit to the american media consumer and thinking they're i think they're just lazy i think it's just uh no one's inquisitive enough to understand what's going on no one really gives a shit and i was like yeah well i'm speaking from my own personal take on shit like sure i know how the lobbyists are connected to the uh the senator and or the congressperson i'm sure i know where the which billionaire is giving money to which call like i can tell you

the coke brothers are definitely involved in spreading whatever is fake news about what's going on in agriculture, but it's like what am I actually going to do? And then it becomes that fatigue is kind of just like, all right, well, yeah, the old people are going to hold for a while. They're going to keep

fucking shit up. It's like, it's either apply for an Australian visa or just see where this goes and hopefully i get rich enough that this doesn't matter to me right i think that's the thing that is holding people back is not the is not stupidity or willful laziness it's the what am i gonna do and the fact that this version of reality that is like uh everything is actually run by all these complex like movements of money that just immediately put my brain to sleep and make me want to jump out a window rather than read more information about

that shit. That is all there to make it so that we don't give a shit and there's no alternative to this. We talk about it a lot as the reason that people can't get behind a revolutionary ideology or can't picture anything other than a post-apocalyptic movie it seems like. It's either what

we have right now or it's fucking Mad Max. That's all we can do. That's what it feels like. That's it. We're, it feels like a steady decline towards that apocalyptic world. And us on the upwardly mobile side are just trying to claw out of this

black hole. The second it's in before it sucks. You know what I mean? Like I could see that that's where we're going i don't know if it's gonna be my generation or our generation or like the next one or two two of them down the line but at some point it's going to be us versus them it's going to be our goals to join us before it becomes them you know what i mean like i don't have that track but that's where it feels like we're going i'm sorry it seems so bleak on this monday uh podcast for the week but the what am i gonna do i think you really summed up how a lot of people

feel right now and again that's why you most people say what i'm like to your point about what the media does you say what am i gonna do the the tv is not going to fucking tell you to get in the streets or that revolutionary action is needed right they're going to say and we got to get these republicans out huh yeah yeah yeah and that serves its purpose to just sort of keep the status quo going and not to begin to like give people the idea that there that there there could possibly be other options that there could there there may need to be other ways to collectively work towards a goal, whether that's like maybe just by focusing

on your immediate community or like peer-to-peer support. But in that sense, there isn't much, when you're up against like billions of dollars, it's true, there isn't really much you can do because of all of the levers that like these people are in control of all of the levers that like you know these people are in control of and i think that's an interesting i don't know i think that's a hard pill to swallow i think these uh capital stormers had it right uh just went for the wrong reasons

yeah no and i think that's why a lot of people said could you imagine people doing that for health care it would have been a bloodbath yeah they would have killed us all and i think that's what's that's that's also another thing that's revealed in like watching all this shit play out over and over like okay we live in a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy that is violently homophobic and wanting to be like a christian theocracy and that's that's an opening to the new matrix movie it feels like that was actually one of the first things like a philosophy teacher said to me like in college they just wrote that shit on the blackboard right like if you look at another way that like

you can just track like what the media and like the people who pay for the media are actually worried about like look first of all their headlines are like u.s braces for violence against conservatives pro-life groups with supreme court's abortion ruling uh meanwhile like the last two years have seen a rise in violence against abortion providers and people seeking abortions like that's actually how things work but like you don't hear about that side of it you just hear it's like all it's the same with like amidst like these horrifying mass shootings of people of color around America like that got attention. But like I feel like the person who had thoughts of harming Brett Kavanaugh like got also a ton of attention to like prepare us for this moment so we had in our mind like well guys

it's just like balls and strikes and like we you know we shouldn't be protesting in the streets because that's not fair and look what almost happened to brett kavanaugh and like that's because that's who they're protecting like that that's who they want to ultimately protect i feel like yeah i just think you know i think the biggest thing immediately is, I mean, it seems like Democrats, they're really easy to shame sometimes because like all they do is operate from this fear of like wanting to be liked by the right, because I feel like there's so much capitulation to it being like, well, I don't want to get them all riled up. I don't know how they're going to now. I mean, they're going to probably get through this mid terms again on being like, hey, we're holding all these existential threats above your head to get

your vote but at a certain point you know and i think the biggest conversation that needs to occur is how people in general like choose for like a person to support if you even if you're even looking to electoral politics to like be some kind of solution to this because most people are blindly just like i don't know what team are they on and without sort of zooming out a little bit to say like both are not offering like the real kinds of uh tangible results that people are needing to you know live a safe and productive life well that's how i vote i see which team on, do a little cursory research, and then pick the team that I'm on. Because, I mean,

for all the faults that the Democrats have, they're not the Republicans. Right. Yeah, and they're campaigning on that. That's been good enough for, I think, a long time. That was good enough for me for a long time. You know, it's a hard pill to swallow. And I know this is American politics, and it's been said a billion times.

It's just choosing the lesser of the two evils. Because, I mean, no one presented in the last 20 years has been, I mean, minus AOC, who's like a beacon of hope to me. And I'm sure she has her flaws, but no one presented has ever struck me as anyone worth voting for on either side. But the Democrats like are pro women and like a pro minority. So I'll go with that. I mean, even then, right.

I could say, well, then where are they at? Right. You know, because, and I think that's the, that's the issue that we run up against is like, we feel that the, the choices at right you know because and i think that's the that's the issue that we

run up against is like we feel that the the choices are you know shit sandwich or shit sandwich with like a rainbow flag and then thinking that that's the best we can do and we allow for this like incrementalism to continue to put more people at risk. Because as we say this, right, police are killing just as many people in the streets, despite what the Democrats did. And he had taken a knee and having a Kente cloth on and doing shit like that. They didn't actually go to bat to do anything that would actually keep people of color safe.

Or you look at what, you know, only recently has the department of education began to say something about protecting LGBTQ students and things like that, there's so much that when push comes to shove, they'll only do it if they absolutely have to or if it's beneficial. And I think that's the thing that we have to realize is like the opportunity, the opportunism of like a lot of the politicians. And yeah, and I think it's a hard thing to say, well,, can we just vote in more people who don't take corporate money? But then again, they're fighting in a system where being on TV and market saturation can really help push an election. And I reference Rick Caruso in L.A., who's a Republican, spent $40 million, and is within spitting distance of becoming mayor. At the end of the day, you can be such a backwards candidate. becoming mayor.

At the end of the day, you can be such a backwards candidate, but if you have enough money, you can, again, like you're saying, it's hard for people to sort of be loud or amazed by what's coming on TV and take that as like being like, oh, well, I see this person a lot. That's enough to inform me

this is a direction to move. And I think that's a really underrated part of like how even people that might ignore TV just from the saturation begin to be like oh i'm familiar now i'm familiar with that and that sounds fine enough and snoop dog backed them so yeah well snoop dog's also back in like nfts and shit i i do just want to say like to back to the point about like sounding like a conspiracy theorist the day after the election the new york times wrote a piece about how caruso had basically like won the election and you know had delivered a sharp rebuke to

anybody who was like pushing towards police reform and karen bass beat him in the primary that's not like the actual election but she did beat him which is like the direct opposite and also like a bunch of pro-reform candidates won the New York Times. So I'm going to keep bringing this up until the New York Times like issues a fucking correction and like says how they got to the point where they had the voting results exactly wrong. But the only place that people have actually been like, wait, progressives did incredibly well in Los Angeles and Caruso didn't do that well considering how much money he spent was a column in the LA Times. Other than that, it's just things that you would think are fringe. It's down to reporting the actual results

of votes. They don't even acknowledge when the thing that they want to happen doesn't happen. They just tell the story. That's the fucking New York Times. Myself, a year ago, would look at myself now and be like, that person is crazy. But that is built on just paying attention to what is actually happening right now. And it's just completely falling apart. All right, let's take a quick break. It's a big news day. So we do have to talk about Snowflake Mountain. So let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series,

Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration.

It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week we answer your unfiltered work questions.

Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it?

Like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career. Without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds.

Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised $150 150 grand in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. I mean, my reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. My reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful.

I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago

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

The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And there is a new Netflix reality show called Snowflake Mountain. I haven't watched it. It seems like it's pretty like the title and the premise all kind of are aligned. And Miles, you watched an episode and a half. Do you think it's propaganda based off that title? Based on what you've seen so far?

It feels like it might be. So basically the premise, Snowflake Mountain, you get people who are raised in cities, put them in a survivalist situation and have them like bossed around by like some army rangers is that essentially the conceit and like make them look like idiots while the army people are the are correct yeah it's wild because for the snowflakes it's mostly people of color and women right it's wild how like they're trying to be like so this is what a snowflake is it's a dude with long hair like the one white guy like dresses like an nft so they're like you know he's freaky and he a snowflake and you're like what the fuck is this and then it's like then there's this black woman then there's this other black woman

i was like damn wow look at all these people of color on this show. I'm like, oh, right, because you're trying to say that their snowflakery is an attribute to who they are. And the only two people that can help them are representatives of the military industrial complex. I was explosive ordinance disposal. The Hurt Locker is literally what the one dude says. And he's like, and I was a combat engineer for the army. army and they're like we're gonna show them how to like really live and you're like oh my god this is basically right america trying to just smash the fuck out of people that look slightly outside of like mainstream boring you know mainstream usa type but they put them in like the wilderness you know it's like simply like

okay guys like the first thing is like you need to take your essentials that's all you're going to be able to take with you and they are a lot of these people packed because they thought they're going to be on reality show and shit and they're like i need my toner and my highlighter and like that's how they're making jokes because at first that's what they want to do is make people be like look at these people they can't live out in the forest out in the woods they're completely upside down because they're snowflakes and i guess for for some people again if you're like looking at shit critically like oh my god this is a fucking hit piece like this is a fucking show it's not about snowflakes sounds very meta yeah they and i think it it's indicative of like sort of where they feel

that their audience is too where they're like we're on the side of pointing our fingers at quote unquote snowflakes and laughing that's like a very conservative thing like that's not you know like liberals or people on the left use it like ironically because that's like a term that conservatives have used all the time for people who like give a fuck about human rights um and that's just kind of you know it's like it's so clear in all the messaging you're like all right you got it two like two military guys versus creepy people of color lgbtq people who don't dress in wrangler jeans one of the hosts claims that the contestants quote just want handouts and one of the contestants is a 19 year old woman who parties 24 7 is like her description the other says her only contribution to society is being

a vegan they portray a black man named carl playing basketball and he's like i dropped out of college and then they like cut away without telling his story. They're just like... The viewers at home say it's typical. Yeah, that's what they want. When they were showing a panning shot of the group, that dude was spinning a basketball on his finger like some Harlem Globetrotters cartoon. And then there's the black guy with the basketball.

This shit is like... It looks like it was written by like greg gutfeld or some shit somebody at fox who was like this is what a snowflake is it's a blue hair man and this black woman and it's just like and i and i but the thing that the one uniting factor that they do have to make it like you know just wild reality tv is yeah that these people are like overly dependent on their parents for sure like across the board and really it should be called like people who are

completely unable to be independent mountain rather than like snowflakes you know what I mean like Biden lover type people right yeah gonna get views it is I'm sure it will and it feels like I we are officially,

like we're in the 80s. Like this is the 80s over again. This is like we're, even though there's a Democrat in the White House, like the right is ascendant in culture and all these different places. And like, we just need to accept that. Like this, this is,

this is Alex P. Keaton shit. Like this is going to be like mainstream cool and it's a fucking nightmare but like i really think we're we're in a we're in the dark ages there's a lot yeah a lot big right word shift and this is on the heels of netflix you know again follow the money netflix they're bleeding cash they just fired a bunch more people right and they're like fuck it man let's scoop up some of this conservative money off the table yeah let's get people like that we we double down on like whatever the fuck we're talking whatever the controversy du jour is and

they probably realize that that is going to help their business because on top of this they're also being like maybe we can bring ads into it and a lot of people have been like i'm out of here like if there's ads uh but again i think it does show that they're seeing like a way to energize some kind of consumer base like with this content rather than them being like we think this show is fucking good we're like no oh shit motherfuckers will we buy this okay crank it out yeah don't give a fuck what it does fuck i bet yeah um well namash it's been such a pleasure having you on uh tdz where can people find you follow you uh watch your special all that good shit my special is called thank you china it's on youtube um and it's not some tongue-in-cheek shit it's i'm literally thanking them for the fact that tiktok has changed my life um i've been on

tour i've been on tour from tiktok like doing stand-up for a year and a half now so and my tour ends in january 2023 and uh it would not have been without the advent that is tiktok and that crazy algorithm that gets it to everybody so again the special is called thank you china it's on youtube uh you can find me on instagram at finding me mesh twitter on finding me mesh and all that shit nice uh is there a tweet or some other work of social media you've been enjoying oh yeah i mean i just discovered this guy uh his ig is eggs dot tyrone he overlays he overlays like slick rick over like people that are definitely not dancing to slick rick it's like like a group of like eight people uh doing some kind of middle eastern dance but it's the slick rick and for whatever reason people that are definitely not dancing to Slick Rick. It's like a group of eight people doing

some kind of Middle Eastern dance, but it's to Slick Rick. And for whatever reason, it just hits me as so funny when you put someone's perfectly timed dance moves to a song that they're definitely not dancing to. Check it out. It just brings me joy. It's like, oh man, that's fucking

smooth editing right there. Eggs.T. Yeah. Eggs. That's how wrong, uh, miles where people find you with the tweet you've been enjoying. Uh, find me on Twitter and Instagram at miles of gray. Uh,

check out obviously miles and Jack got mad boosties, the basketball podcast, and also for 20 day fiance. If you like 90 day and weed, um, and let's see some tweets that i like one comes from at unburnt witch zoe quinn tweeted uh quote unquote please vote buddy five out of nine sitting justices were appointed for life by presidents who lost the popular vote and the

democrats are in power after picking their candidate based on whose turn they thought it was because it was a blue no matter who year who else you got uh it's there's a there's just so many frustrated tweets uh that are you know that are just like sort of rumbling out there and one other one oh this one okay there was a versus battle with like an rmb one with omarion and mario and there's this moment lady snow ivory snow plays that i'm never deleting this from my pc and it's this clip of ray j well apparently from all i've read and i saw a few clips mario straight up disrespected omarion and then ray j came out and he could barely sing this i just want you to hear this is it just just you know, Ray J is on stage holding a sleeping toddler in his arms and singing this right now. Oh, Ray.

Oh, Ray. No. Anyway, like everyone said, they said this versus was amazing because a bunch of wash dudes trying to prove to themselves they still got it and it's it if anybody who is up on that air of r&b it's really it's it's quite an experience to watch sir producer on us says there's apparently a clip where he blames the baby for not being able to sing i guess he was like i i just didn't want to hit that note because you know that would probably wake the baby up dude there's a time when Omarion's singing and Mario goes oh no y'all sound crazy like he says like while they're singing the amount of disrespect from Mario was a fantastic

it was so petty I love this kid yeah I don't know man what have I been enjoying I don't know man JP McDade like I've just been liking frustrated tweets that match my frustration. J.P. Mcdade said, hey, is it cool if I bring a random extra guy to lunch who will absolutely obliterate the vibe? Which has nothing to do with the news. And that's the last one that I liked.

That description. Yeah, very funny. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, DailyZeitgeist.com, where we post our episodes and our footnotes, where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode,

as well as a song that we think you might enjoy, Miles. What song do we think people might enjoy? This is a track called... The Story of a Girl. Say what? Oh, this is the story of a girl. It's called Bering Bao, which is a Brazilian instrument

by the artist Badi Kuh. B-O-D-I-K-H-U-U. And it's just like a good Brazilian little beat flip mashup. Just something pleasant, you know, to start this week. Take a deep breath uh and you know keep going we'll go check that out the daily zeitgeist is a production of iheart radio for more

podcasts from iheart radio visit the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows that is going to do it for us this morning i should mention if my energy was low uh is because i had a sleeping toddler on my chest the whole recording. These guys didn't mention it. And I appreciate you guys. But if I seemed off, that's all right. All right. We'll talk to you all this afternoon.

Bye. Later. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church.

Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.