The Daily Zeitgeist - SPOOKlear Weapon Testing, Why R U Scared Of CLOWNS?! 10.31.25

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

In episode 1957, Jack and Miles are joined by actor and screenwriter, Dani Fernandez, to discuss… Trump Decides To Bring Back Nuclear Weapon Testing, Nobody Wants To Live In Donald Trump’...s “Haunted” Childhood Home, This Is Why People Will Never Stop Being Afraid Of Clowns and more! Trump Decides To Bring Back Nuclear Weapon Testing Russia Says It Didn’t Test Nuclear Weapons, but Would if the U.S. Did If the US resumes nuclear weapons testing, this would be extremely dangerous for humanity Nobody Wants To Live In Donald Trump’s “Haunted” Childhood Home President Trump’s childhood home in NYC sells at steep discount — after being overrun by feral cats Is the White House haunted? Spooky stories reveal a history of the supernatural Airbnb listing for Trump's childhood home boasts it's where the president was 'likely conceived' The Haunting of Donald J. Trump The Chilling History of Creepy Clowns This Is Why We’re Afraid of Clowns Fear of clowns: An investigation into the prevalence of coulrophobia in an international sample Creepy Clowns Appear in Cities Around the Globe to Promote HBO’s ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Stephen King’s ‘It’ Movie Producer Denies Creepy Clown Sightings Are Marketing Stunt New Spoiler Details for ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Revealed ‘Weapons’ Once Had a Whole Chapter About That Crucial, Mystery Character The great clown panic of 2016: ‘​a volatile mix of fear and contagion’ LISTEN: Words I Should've Said feat. ENNY by Mick Jenkins & EMILSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 It's up, Ben is up, then is up, then is up, then it's stuck. Are you, do you sing that song a lot? You sing a lot of Cardi beer? Constantly. You're constantly singing Cardi. My kids love Wap, dude. My kid loves Wab. My kid loves Bodak yellow.
Starting point is 00:00:22 He gave me, he said it la Ra, I let he will he want. Woo! That was such a fun, man. That was, uh. They're talking about kissing or something. I don't know, man. Just leave me alone. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:00:35 Her what is a lake? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. This is an I-Heart podcast. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com.
Starting point is 00:00:54 Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. Push your game. Play beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors for the next era of gaming. Upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Johnny Knoxville here. Check out Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist, my new true crime podcast from Smartless Media, Campside Media, and Big Money Players. It's the true story of the almost perfect crime.
Starting point is 00:01:30 and the Nimrods who almost pulled it off. It was kind of like the perfect storm in a sewer. That was dumb. Do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Wait a minute, Sophia.
Starting point is 00:01:52 How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals. And now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they might be part of a cult.
Starting point is 00:02:12 Hold up. A real life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue, Dakota. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, here we go again, we'll take today's trends. and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself?
Starting point is 00:02:33 Each week, I'm calling up my friends like Bill Nye, Lily Singh, and Pete Buttigieg to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics. Put another way, are you high? Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 412, episode 5 of Dirtyle's 8, guys!
Starting point is 00:03:07 Yeah! This is a production of I-HeartRadio. It's a podcast where you take a deep dive into America's Share Consciousness, which is particularly Scoopy, spooky. Scoopy, too. Scoopy, too, where are you? Covered in freaking cobwebs, dude. In here. Fucking spiders and shit.
Starting point is 00:03:28 It's Friday, October 31st, 2025. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. Are there any other national, international days that there? There are. And actually, I'm going to call them out because fuck you for even trying to claim October 31st. The fucking doorbell company Newtone paid for it to be National Doorbell Day.
Starting point is 00:03:50 Get the fuck out of here. I guess it's trick-or-treating. There's a tie-in. Okay. How about this one, Jack? National Breadstick Day Now this one Are they trying to make it a thing?
Starting point is 00:04:04 Are they trying to be like, why candy? Why not breadsticks? It's actually just the last Friday on October. So they didn't explicitly go for the 31st. October 31st is Girl Scout Founders Day, which I guess maybe is probably tied to something significant. The National Magic, Knock Knock Jokes, Frankenstein Friday. Yeah, dude, not fucking.
Starting point is 00:04:25 Frankenstein Friday. Hey, in this house, it's Frankenstein Friday every Friday. You know what I'm saying? We will not be saying Halloween. My name's Jack O'Brien, A.K. And so I threw some rocks at this house one time. Then all these big kids came out. Well, they came outside and said, hey, you want head or gut.
Starting point is 00:04:47 And they said, hey, head or gut. Hey, head or gut. They said, hey, you want head or gut. head or gut. I won't courtesy of First Blood 522 on the Discord. Yeah. In reference to my, when I figured out my whole shit. Hell yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:08 I was like, you know, I was faced with a moment of truth, a bully, asking me head or gut. And I figured out what my response was to fight or flight. And I started crying until his sister said, Aw, let him go. And then I cried for the rest of the rest of the book. And then she punched you. And then she beat the shit out.
Starting point is 00:05:27 That's mine. Step aside. Oh, we got a little baby tonight. That was a few years ago, and I feel like I've grown a lot. Yeah, man. Hey, 41 was a hard time for you. The late 20s was tough. Thrill to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray.
Starting point is 00:05:44 Hey, man, it's spooky as hell. It's spooky in L.A. It's spooky everywhere. It's Halloween. Happy Halloween is Miles, aka Gray, A.K. Gray Biles or Miles Decay. Okay, that's my true. Miles Decay is pretty good.
Starting point is 00:05:55 Miles Decay is. That's fucked up. That one's got staying power. Yeah, it does. It does. Anyway, shout out no clue on the Discord for that one. Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat once again by a talented actress and writer. Who's work you know from, I don't know, Netflix, HBO Max, DC Comics, a couple of small places.
Starting point is 00:06:16 Welcome back to the show, The Brilliant, the Talented. Danny Fernandez. I really mine could be Dunna. Dan, that. Or, you know how the, at the Dodgers games, they keep doing, da-na-na-na-na-na. Mm-hmm. Charge? No, yes, that.
Starting point is 00:06:35 But I mean, like, the way that they're leading into it is like the, um, da-na-na-na-na-na-da-na-na-da-na-na-da-na-da-na-na. The organist definitely takes liberties to, like, because sometimes you get that, bomp, bomb, bomb, and then, yeah, sometimes you get Jurassic Park into charge. I'm, like, obsessed with that. They're, like, throwing in, they're throwing in all the curse. They're doing they're doing K-pop demon hunters
Starting point is 00:06:59 for Shohet Because like Golden is leading into his at-bats Dude the way my kid His ears perked He's like what the fuck He's like
Starting point is 00:07:08 Yo what's this sound I know this sound I'm like that's golden Child It's golden Y'all I'm going as Derpy The Tiger
Starting point is 00:07:16 Are you? We were just talking About that on trending yesterday That Derpy is a top six costume I didn't even know That the tiger
Starting point is 00:07:23 was called Derpy I know I thought Everybody was doing the, hang on, I'll show you. Look at that. Oh, dang. Okay. And I got like the, yeah, I brought the potted plant.
Starting point is 00:07:35 Yeah, I got you. That is the, that is like the thinking person's, uh, K-pop demon hunter's costume because like the, we were talking about the Google fright geist, they're like trending Halloween costumes list. And like one through five is just, you know, the demon owners. Yeah, Rumi, the Sajibu, Mera, Jino, the Sajibol. Boys, Mira. No, y'all aren't thinking about the tiger
Starting point is 00:08:00 with the potted plant. No, that's right. You ain't doing that. Number eight. Identified it, too. It's like clearly the sleigh, the slutty, like college girl version. Thotty, it's thotty, derpy the tiger.
Starting point is 00:08:11 Derpy the thought. Didn't know, the level of difficulty on danifying that one. You know, there's so many easier ones to danify, and that one. That's, look, you got to have the vision. You got to have the vision. Yeah, you got to see.
Starting point is 00:08:26 there's like the basic sexy cat that all the girls do but no, drop you're the tiger. You got a pot of plant? Get the fuck up with the pot of plant. Please. That was very hard to hold on to with my phone all night. I'm sure. Everyone had a drink and I had this like cacti. You're like, oh. Were people getting it?
Starting point is 00:08:42 No. No. Oh my God. That's why I'm doing it again. So I wore this last because you know a bunch of people had their Halloween parties last weekend. Nobody appreciated it. Yeah. In fact, a lot of people thought I was the Cheshire cat. Oh. Which there's a similarity. I mean, there is.
Starting point is 00:08:57 There is a riff on the Cheshire Cat. That's true. That's true. Very charming. But even the parents, I was like, surely you, I was like trying to find parents at the party. You know? Yeah. I'm like, surely.
Starting point is 00:09:08 And you're like, hey, do you have any pictures of your kids and boring stories that you get to? In your sexy Halloween costume, go, hey, are you a parent? What? Please tell me you know what I'm going for. Kind of what I'm into. Well, it's wonderful to have you. back, Danny. We are 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 that we're talking about. Today, we got one non-Hllowean
Starting point is 00:09:35 story, which-spooky, though. Spooky as hell. Donald Trump has decided to bring back nuclear weapon testing, gave us some of our great movie monsters. So in that way, it is a Halloween story. Yeah, and it fills us with dread. Yes. We also have a story about Donald Trump's Childhood Home, which is on the market and sounds like a true haunted house nightmare. So we'll talk about that. And then we will talk about clowns. The clowns are back. Scary clowns are back with the HBO.
Starting point is 00:10:13 Welcome to Dairy launch. They had a less spooky viral marketing campaign with Pennywise just like showing up in various places. But it was like they did it official as opposed to 2016 when like just scary clowns started showing up all over the place. And people assumed that it was marketing for the It movie, but the movie denied that it was, which was smart of them. But we're going to talk about that and then just like, why clowns so scary, you guys?
Starting point is 00:10:46 Danny, you scared of clowns? No, but my dad was. I don't like my dad. So that's like. So you're like, fuck yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, somebody gave my brother like a clown lamp, which is a choice. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:59 To give to a child for their birthday. It was like a clown that's like holding up the lamp, you know? Okay. My dad immediately put it in the closet. Immediately was like, absolutely not. Get it out of here. Yeah. So I know that my dad scared me as a child and now I can scare him as an adult.
Starting point is 00:11:14 Yeah. There you go. Yeah, they thought that it was going to be more inherited fears from older people since clowns have like gone away mainly. pop culture other than, but it's, that that was actually one of the lesser reasons that people are scared of clown. So we'll get into it. I would say we talked yesterday about the most common Halloween costume that I see at our house where we get thousands of trigger treaters, which is the scream mask and its hold over the zeitgeist and America's shared consciousness. I will say clowns are also way up there and it's not like specific. It's not like, oh, this year it came out.
Starting point is 00:11:49 And so we get a lot of many wise. Scary clowns are just constant. Is anyone cute? But that's also scary, too, when they're cute clowns. Well, it is a lot of, I'd say both scream and, like, killer scary clowns run the gamut from, like, three up to, you know, adults. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of baby scream. A lot of baby ghost-faced, ghost-faced, ghost-face? Has anyone pitched Wu-Tang babies, by the way? I feel like the Muppet Babies treatment of Wu-Tang babies.
Starting point is 00:12:20 Oh. Woo-Tang babies. They're fun. Staten Island. Yeah, Staten Island, Wooten, Babies. All of that plenty more. But first, Danny, we do like to ask our guests. What is something from your search history
Starting point is 00:12:34 that's revealing about who you are? Oh, my God, I love this. So the last thing that I looked up was, actually listened to it this morning, it was Best Case Scenario Meditation. Oh. I think everyone needs to be listening to this. What is it?
Starting point is 00:12:49 Like, you can find, like, it's just on YouTube. Like, instead of my family, I feel like a lot of, like, my mom and her mom, and, like, they're all worst case scenario. Like, literally constantly, yeah. And I, I don't know. I feel that's really hard to manifest. Like, if I'm trying to stay delusional, if I'm trying to stay in my delusion here in the industry in Los Angeles. Just literally.
Starting point is 00:13:12 Just liberate in our delusions as we do out here in L.A. Like a warm bath. Yeah, I sent it to two of my friends, too. I'm like, just listen to this every day, y'all. Everyone listening. Best case scenario instead. Whether you're doing a job interview or, I don't know, like going on a date. Just to take out the negative voice. Look, I'm a master. I should go as roomy, actually, for Halloween, but only because I ruminate constantly. And I'm trying to work on that.
Starting point is 00:13:37 Do we think that's why that she was named that? Because she does a lot of rumination herself. I doubt it. I doubt it. I feel there's probably like a cultural thing we're totally missing. Yeah, yeah. That's probably more to do it with the Korean language. But yeah, it's funny, too. I'm such a worst-case scenario person. Thanks, Grandma. I can draw a straight line from my dad's mother directly into my brain because she was like a gold medal, like, worst case scenario person. Like she could look at a plastic spoon and somehow the house was going to burn down because the spoon was out. And you're like, I don't, yeah, grandma, who knows what happens with that thing. But yeah, I dad was a real optimist. And I think that I, like, it's really a you're fuck no matter what parenting situation because then I was like, so I need to hold. up my end by imagining the worst-case scenario. Balance to the force.
Starting point is 00:14:27 Yeah, exactly. So I need to assume that, you know, this is always going to go badly. But you're also worst-case, Danny? No, I'm not. Oh, you're not. Okay. You don't trend that way. I've had to untrained.
Starting point is 00:14:38 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have OCD. Like, I was clinically diagnosed. I know everyone says they have OCD, but I actually have OCD, which means I have, like, looping thoughts. Right. So I have to go back to the best-case scenario. Right.
Starting point is 00:14:51 It's very helpful, and it's helpful nowadays. And I'm just, like, a big believer in what the reality that you create. Like, it's basically confirmation bias. Like, if I think everyone is shitty, that's kind of what's going to be shown to me as I go about my day. Yeah. Yeah. So. So, and these meditations are, do they have, like, specific, what, like, a normal day, job interview, going out on a Halloween party?
Starting point is 00:15:17 You can, probably. You can find, like, a job interview one. But I just literally go, the one I listen to is, like, 11 minutes. I'll like listen to it when I'm putting on my makeup or something or going out. I'm just like trying to, I don't know. I feel like constantly, I feel like being alive in 2025 is very triggering. Yeah. It's plenty on its own.
Starting point is 00:15:34 We don't need our brains like ganging up on us too. But also just like being on social media and like you're constantly ingesting so much that I just want to undo it. Yeah. Yeah, I can't. I'm like, I don't know. I've probably said this on mic or maybe not, but I've just been, I've been using Instagram so much more. And I'm like, this, something is wrong with me. that like now I've put the locks on it and shit because I can feel it coinciding with something
Starting point is 00:15:57 else that I'm like I've yet to address for whatever reason but Miles I've been deleting mine I'll post something I literally delete it like for the week oh wow but then I'll come back and like everybody has written me stuff and whatever but I'm still like it feels so much better I'm you know what I'm manifesting y'all will see this I am manifesting me not needing it one day I'm going to be I'm just going to be off of it yeah one day you just not be there yeah no I I'll be more alive than ever. There you go. I noticed myself, I left my bedroom without my phone and was like, well, this feels weird.
Starting point is 00:16:32 Like, just that, that's bad. Oh, yeah. When I walk my kid to school, I leave the phone back a lot of the times. That's smart. Yeah, I need to build that more into my days. I have, like, I have a watch, like an Apple. So if I need to get a hold of someone, I can do that. But I'm like the, I just like being like, we're walking around.
Starting point is 00:16:47 We're looking at trees and shit. And it's, you know, how the olden days. were. Well, I parent my kids using AI, so that's tricky for me. Yeah. Cutting edge. What, Danny, is something you think's underrated? Underrated, y'all speaking, tis this season. I am obsessed with the Monster Mash. I know it's like a super old song. Listen, wait, Miles. Okay, they just announced that they're making a movie. Miramax is making an animated movie about the Monster Mash. I think people are like, why? Okay, can I say it does not get the credit that it deserves. I feel during this time, everyone's listening to like three.
Starting point is 00:17:22 alert, which I'm also obsessed with, but, or like the soundtrack from a Nightmare Without Christmas, but the monster match. Before Christmas. Sorry, what did I say? Without Christmas. The nightmare before Christmas. Yeah, sorry. My kid likes to do the part he says, take off my head.
Starting point is 00:17:37 But he, like, all the voices when they come in, he's like, I was working in the law. Like, that's my favorite. Did they know they were creating like a giant piece of pop culture at that time? Like the, the bubble, like the person who was micing. the bubbling sounds. Like, they fucking killed it. And all the background dancers that are like, oh, monster mashed house.
Starting point is 00:18:01 And so my niece and nephew at the end. Does the still Spector record this? At the end, it's one of my favorite things. I'll go around the house to my niece and nephew, I'll be like, ooh, mash good. Because that's what he says at the end. And I'm just like, it's so good. I love doing all the voices in it.
Starting point is 00:18:18 So y'all will walk around now when you'll hear him say that at the end. I don't think I ever get past to, it was the monster much. I think I've heard it all. Do you ever like get the thing where you put it on and then whatever streaming platform you're using starts playing you other songs from that artist? And it's like, oh, they've been spending the rest of their life trying to recapture that magic. Yeah, the monster.
Starting point is 00:18:47 It's like an Easter one or something just doesn't hit. Yeah, an Easter one. it's uh we we actually had that with the uh purple people eater my son oh yeah yeah seven year old just came in was like what is a purple people leader oh didn't go it's the song we played it and then we like the song that played automatically afterwards was another song by them that like just did not hit it was one hit wonders yeah sucked wait didn't we do a story one year about how like they he really tried to do it there's like the monster rap there were like really swinging for the fences after that.
Starting point is 00:19:23 And they're like, no, bro, the thing, the Transylvania Twist. Yes. What about happened to my Transylvania Twist? He's really. Oh, you know the lore. Oh, who, you all should be, I mean, I'm sure it's like playing in your house or something, but. Yeah. It's always plain when I'm like carving pumpkins or something.
Starting point is 00:19:42 Oh, yeah, yeah. No, that makes sense. Yeah, the Halloween playlists that, you know, I put on for trigger treaters, you got the thriller, you got the somebody's watching me and then like the house you know music love potion number nine they throw in random ones or i'm like yeah that could count yeah i guess that's fun the house music version of spooky scary skeletons so good spooky scary skeletons that shit goes i remember before you asked me if i heard that song and i said no and it's like you're going to have a kid and you will know that song eventually and now i'm there and like i heard the original one it was too slow i'm like bro this shit sucks bro give me the fuck and four on the floor and fucking I need that
Starting point is 00:20:23 they killed it with that one also just when we're talking about the monster match there's Nick Wagger from Doe Boys every year or two
Starting point is 00:20:31 goes on comedy bang bang and does a character who is the I think son of or like related to the original creator
Starting point is 00:20:40 and keeps pitching like he's got he's got a new song a new version of the monster match and it's always the same you have to
Starting point is 00:20:49 I'm like say any more than that, but it's worth checking out. What is something, Danny, that you think is overrated? Overrated is buying a dog, like dog breeding. How are we still doing this in 2025? I wanted to say that I have a new foster, Luna, who she's going to pop on camera real quick. Come in a little bit. Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:21:14 She's so cute. Here, let me see. Isn't she just the cutest baby? Is that a duck? Oh, my. Is that a duck? Wait, where to face that? Oh, shit.
Starting point is 00:21:23 Sorry. The strap had me off. She's just shy. Is that a dog? Aw. Getting low kisses. She's four months old. She's a little shy right now, mainly because I just handed her.
Starting point is 00:21:34 Yeah, because you made her be a podcast. She's shy right now. She's like, I don't do second a podcast. She just hates men doing a podcast. Yeah. Sorry. She's like, oh, a couple guys with a podcast. I'll turn my, I'll turn my camera off.
Starting point is 00:21:46 I just got her like two days ago. I'm fostering her. She's available through Pups without borders. So everyone, yeah, they stop breeding dogs. All of our shelters here in L.A. are overcapacity. Yeah, right. So I'm to put a damper. She's so sweet.
Starting point is 00:22:03 Yeah, yeah. So you can find her on my, you can find her on Post Without Borders, but also on my account. I've been posting just the cutest. She took an adorable bath and just looked like a kangaroo, honestly. She's like part dingo. Wow. It's like American dingo, which is, um, the dog in prey, I guess, because they wanted an animal that was indigenous, like, to America.
Starting point is 00:22:26 Oh, the movie Pride, the, yeah. Predator. The dog that's in that. That's so funny, you mentioned fostering. I went outside to walk my dog, and this dude was out near the front of my house and was like, hey, David. And I was like, nah. And I kept, I kept it moving. He's like, hey, so it's me, Matt. Is this it? And was like, I was like, what the, I'm like, well, I said, wait, bro, what? And he's, and he's, He's like, the dog. Is this the dog? And I'm like, yeah, this is my dog.
Starting point is 00:22:53 He's like, yeah, so I'm here. And I was like, buddy. I'm like, who are you looking for? And then he said the name again. I'm like, that's not me. If I guess, I'd say David. Yeah. And then my fucking neighbor comes out and he, apparently he was fostering a dog,
Starting point is 00:23:08 a black dog like mine. And then I was like, oh, okay, bro, I thought I was not if you were to fight or something. I didn't know what you were trying to do. I love the guy coming by like, yo, you got it? Yeah. I was like, I got the stuff? I know.
Starting point is 00:23:19 I'm like, Oh, my boy, what are you doing? Am I holding a dog anymore? Yeah. What? Got the canine? I don't have that on me right now. We will accept Luna as a Halloween story also because Luna is moon and moon is spooky.
Starting point is 00:23:34 Thank you. This is a bilingual podcast. I feel like that would be good enough for like a song about the moon would make it on to a Halloween playlist like towards the end. Thank you. Amazing. All right. Thrilled to have you here, Danny. We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back.
Starting point is 00:23:49 and talk about the spookiest subject of all. Nuclear weapons testing. We'll be right back. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit.
Starting point is 00:24:10 Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelpen, and on my new podcast, Here We Go again,
Starting point is 00:24:35 we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions.
Starting point is 00:25:01 Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:25:38 I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not a cult leader. afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder.
Starting point is 00:26:02 I think they may be part of a cult. Hold up, Sophia, a real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with their ceiling, and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did.
Starting point is 00:26:19 And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild.
Starting point is 00:26:53 Not twice. Stunned. But three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill.
Starting point is 00:27:10 But little by little, their dream starts to crumble. And our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back.
Starting point is 00:27:42 and just another reason maybe why it's not great to have a dementia-riddled sociopath in charge. Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in 33 years. Yeah. The famously chill Pentagon has managed to hold off on nuclear testing for the past 33 years, which very unlike them, I've got to say. He's like, yeah, put a knife in it and then whatever comes out, rub it on your gums. let me know what is like you said that's not how you test nuclear weapons but he you know he's just trying to keep up with uh russia and china obviously uh which this was like right before his meeting with she jing ping and so it it makes a sort of sense until you realize that russia
Starting point is 00:28:31 and china have also not tested nuclear weapons since the 90s and so what the fuck are you even talking about yeah yeah well again it's a pathetic dick measuring contest is what this is one that We all lose. Right. You know what I mean? Because like even with the announcement, that was right before he was meeting with Xi Jinping, like to be like, yeah. So just so you know, I'm coming into this saying we're doing testing.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Got that thing on me. Even though based on what our research shows. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no, no. It's fungi technically is what the dog. The uralogist told me. Anytime I think, yeah, anytime someone talks about the dick energy or whatever,
Starting point is 00:29:10 I always think of that, I'm sorry to haunt y'all, but it is a haunting episode. That photo of him where he's, like, being spray-tanned and nude. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I think I do. You can see everything. Miles, right, mate? Okay, don't Google it, Miles.
Starting point is 00:29:24 No, I'm not. I can already imagine. I've already seen numerous renderings of his nude body, thanks to that South Park episode. Well, this is a real one. It's not AI. He's not all ripped and has Jesus behind him with his hand on his shoulder. He's not Master Chief from Halo. Wait, Jesus is not doing the spray tanning?
Starting point is 00:29:41 Then I saw the wrong image. My favorite one, which is not AI, which is so funny. We have to, like, document. My favorite is the guy that's, like, shooting up heroin and Jesus is behind him, like, trying to stop him. He's taking it, bro. Let me get that. Bro, Jesus was shooting scagg, bro. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:59 I mean, one of the, one of the skills that God gave him. Like, really, the powers that he had, and I am capitalizing he when I say that, The ability to, according to that painting, take heroin for people and also turn water to wine. This guy loved to get fucked up. Yeah. You know, essentially the left one. You think he was hiding behind his, like, savior role to be like, well, dude, I got to do this guy's heroin, man. And it's like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:30:29 There's so much heroin being done. Dude, guys, I don't have a lot of time. Can you find a fucking vein? I need to go turn some, multiply some bread and fish in a second. Does it work for other addictions, like porn? That's insane. Just watching her. Jacking people off.
Starting point is 00:30:45 I'm sorry. Or he's putting his dick in place, so they're jacking Jesus off. Step aside so the Lord may goon on your behalf, vicariously gooning through him. That's a really good question. Does it work for porn addiction? And where is that painting? Where is that? I'm sure it exists.
Starting point is 00:31:04 Jack, you know it does. You say it as if he owns it, Jack, you know it does. It's behind me. Yeah, it's behind me, isn't it? Victor pointed out that in that painting, the, the lore behind that painting is, of course, that Jesus had turned water to heroin before that guy shot it. Yeah, Jesus is all right. Nuclear, nuclear apocalypse.
Starting point is 00:31:30 Nuclear apocalypse. Nuclear apocalyptic, now it's probably just apocalypsies, are having a bit of a moment, with the latest Catherine Bigelow movie dropping on Netflix called House of Dynamite that I've heard is not that good, but it's... But they did say it's realistic is the thing that scares me. Maybe that's why people didn't... I heard it was good. But who knows?
Starting point is 00:31:52 I've heard mixed things. Okay. So I got the other mix. Right, right, right. Yeah. It's... Yeah, it sounds like it would be very stressful. And it's like just what would happen in a...
Starting point is 00:32:05 I think it also presupposes a... A... Functioning military? Yeah, I was going to say. It's like, what if a nuclear crisis, what if a nuclear warhead got launched to the U.S.? During the Obama administration is essentially what the premise of the movie is? And it's like, because how do you depict what would happen if it was Trump?
Starting point is 00:32:28 Yeah. It would be impossible. But, yeah, this return to testing nuclear weapons, which is a ecological catastrophe, bad for people's health, bad for the environment, like terrible. Bad for global stability. Really bad for global stability. Well, where is it?
Starting point is 00:32:48 Does it say where they're doing it? No, it was just a thing. He has been like, we're going to start immediately. I think they have to technically do it underground. Like that's one thing that they've said, like you can't test nuclear weapons anywhere but on the ground. But this is. all because Russia tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile on October 21st,
Starting point is 00:33:11 and people are assuming that he saw that and took it to mean that they tested a actual nuclear weapon that used nuclear fission. No, the propulsion system is using nuclear. No, that's a, they want the A-bomb, huh? Okay. Yeah, they want that. I mean, that's the other thing, too, is, like, he said it's like to do nuclear testing, like, in-kind or something or proportionate testing. So it's not him being like, all right, time to start sending up some mushroom clouds over the ocean. But it's more like, whatever you guys do, we can do it too.
Starting point is 00:33:44 Because he's not fully committing to it. But I think it's still very dangerous to even make this announcement. We stopped in 92, France stopped in 96. China and Russia aren't known to have conducted tests since the 90s, only North Korea. Yeah. And we're basically North Korea on a grand scale. Yeah, yeah. It's a shame he didn't get to meet him.
Starting point is 00:34:05 These are just, like, currently vague warnings. Yeah, it's just him bragging. Yeah, but also feels like the sort of shit that he's going to do. Well, this is also the thing, too, because as with the situation in Ukraine and, like, the talk of Tomahawk missiles being, like, sent to Ukraine, that's been a huge thing for Putin to be like, well, I've got nuclear weapons, and he's doing that whole thing right now to be like, don't arm the Ukrainians because I will use, or, you know, he's pump faking it. so Trump naturally he's had he's having to respond because it's quote testing on an equal basis is what the actual announcement is and then again he's meeting with uh you know she of china and he has a whole like so right before that he's like say it right before I meet him and then when I meet him I'm going to be confused and not know where to go on stage after I shake his hand I don't know if you saw that clip again another one they're shaking hands they're shaking hands and fucking she look like he his face is so clear like this motherfucker like it's not it's you can you already know he's like bro i don't this motherfucker is exhausting and dumb uh and then afterwards he's like trump's like where do we go and they're like the other off the stage from where you got on is there a crown or something
Starting point is 00:35:23 that you want to give me no that that already happened you already got your crowning yeah no All right. Let's talk haunted houses, specifically Donald Trump's various houses. I think the house we're talking about might be the one from his childhood where he was caught throwing rocks at a baby. Okay. So, but a couple haunted houses. Is that a news story or is that something he admitted in a book or something? It's in a book. It wasn't his admission. It was like in a book about Trump, a journalist went back and like interviewed his former neighbors, as you do with like a scene. a real killer, to be like that. And was there any clues? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:05 One mom was like, yeah, funny story about that. I remember, you know, had my baby in the playpen in the backyard and went inside, baby started wailing, came out, came outside, and a child Donald Trump was
Starting point is 00:36:21 throwing rocks at the baby. Yeah, roughly five-year-old Donald Trump is throwing rocks at the crib. She said, I guess you can allow that maybe initially. He didn't, didn't realize that there was a baby there. I don't know. Right. This is from Maggie Haberman's book that came out a while back. Throwing rocks at a baby. So the White House, first of all, is supposedly full of ghosts, which would make total sense. Why? The karma is so good in that building. Everything. Every decision been made in there. Fine. Yes. Built by slaves, full of some of the people.
Starting point is 00:36:49 Just some slave labor. Right. Okay. Which usually fine. Usually doesn't haunt southern plantation houses or anything like that. No, no, that randomly burned down. And then, like, some of the greatest mass murders of all time have lived in the house. Yeah, or visited. Yeah. True. True. At the time that they ordered the killing of, you know, probably a total of millions of people at this point. Definitely, because, I mean, George W. Bush lived there. Yeah. Can I tell you, I've been, like, I'm so not into the White House, but I am so into haunted houses. I've been to so many of them. Yeah. Like, they're, like, historically. One of them, yeah, one of them, uh, which actually wrote a paper about in college is the Whaley House in San Diego. So the Whaley House
Starting point is 00:37:32 is one of the most travel channels, like most haunted houses. It was a, it's a billion different things, but it was like a courthouse. So that's why, because when people would be convicted, they would hang them like in the back. But it was also a- To the hanging area. Yeah. And there's a graveyard not like anyone, oh, here's the thing. Here's the thing you all should know. Because I was in fourth grade in San Diego and they take you there as a field trip. So like everybody in San Diego knows this house because you go there. But Regis Philman actually spent the night there in the 60s and he said that he saw, this was like obviously before he was who he was. And he, I think he was just a reporter at the time,
Starting point is 00:38:11 but he said he saw a woman crawl up the wall. Jesus. There? Yeah. So it is a 60s saw a woman crawl up the wall. This was the, hold on. This was in the 60s in California. Okay, shut up, Miles. I've also Oh, man, no, fuck. What else? My mother screamed blood at me. Excuse me. It's one of Travel Channel's most haunted houses. I've been there countless times.
Starting point is 00:38:35 So that's an old town, San Diego. Here's one thing I will tell you. I went there with my cousins one time, and we were trying to take photos in the courthouse. So it's a courthouse. It's also the oldest theater. That's why they take a lot of kids there. It's the oldest theater in San Diego. It was basically an entrepreneur that used that built this big, big in quotes,
Starting point is 00:38:53 because it's not considered big now, but like, and he rented out different rooms or he had like a pharmacy there, he had a courthouse there, he had a theater there in the house. And so we were trying to take pictures and her camera would snap a photo, scramble, and then not take it. It was so wild on our phones. It would like snap. I swear. So it is very creepy. You spend the night there, Miles, and report back to us. And take a lot of hallucinogens too. Yeah, yeah, I'll just eat the eighth of mushrooms. I'll be like, yeah, yeah, I'll be all right. I'll be right.
Starting point is 00:39:28 Anyways, the house that we're talking about is in Jamaica, States, Queens. It's about to go back on the market. So this is actually more about a really interesting real estate opportunity for Zaykang. It was purchased last year for $83,000 or $835,000 steep loss from the $2.14 million it sold for in 2017. And Trump claimed he was going to buy it back, but it's. seems to be bullshit. The person who bought it at first tried to make it a, like a historic thing, kind of. Like, there's just a Trump cutout in one of the rooms, just like a life-size stand-up Trump cut out, which seems like it was designed to manufacture jump scares.
Starting point is 00:40:12 Yeah, right. Have you ever had one of those in your house? Like, I had one of those, my college roommate had one, and like, no less than, like, three times walking around in the middle of the night and the dark, and you just like, you have the feeling out of your peripheral vision. You're like, holy shit. Like, it's just never gets any. Michael Jordan snuck back into my heart. Fuck, it's the paper one. Thank God.
Starting point is 00:40:37 The owner also put up a plaque in one bedroom commemorating the first time Fred and Mary Trump fucked and conceived Donald Trump. What is it? The plaque said, in this bedroom, President Donald J. Trump was likely conceived by his parents, Fred and Mary Trump. the world has never been the same. Jesus. So that Airbnb scam didn't last.
Starting point is 00:40:59 The house ended up being virtually abandoned. And neighbors complain of flooding, power outages, pests, burglary scares, and overrun with feral cats. So like, it's become a legit haunted house. I'm obsessed that it's like all the plagues, too. I know. It's like flooding pests. The river turned to blood. And look, he brought with him.
Starting point is 00:41:21 Yeah. It's like the reincarnated Satan. That's so funny. Quote, it looked like an abandoned haunted home, one neighbor complained. Oh. And so the ghost hunter industry,
Starting point is 00:41:33 you know, their ears perked up. So some amateur ghost hunters published an account of their stay unmatchable, noting their ghost detecting apps all found aggravated levels of EMF field, electromagnetic field in the kitchen,
Starting point is 00:41:48 in the dining room, and by the downstairs toilet. I believe that. It was that the one Trump used? Yeah. You have to assume that we've heard him complain about toilets not being able to handle his shits. And we've seen that he stores like boxes and boxes of documents across from his toilet. So we have to assume that, you know, he has some pretty haunting experiences in those rooms. The thing those walls have seen. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:12 It smelled. It smelled. Yeah. Then they went to a Ouija board and claimed to have contacted a right-wing spirit named F.W. whose main feature seemed to be hornyness. It took almost an hour before a real spirit joined us at the Ouija board, and reader, he was the worst. The spirit, who told us he went by the nickname FW, cool nickname, was a kind of alt-right Milo Yanopolis irony bro demon. After asking us, are you single? He replied that he was not. He told us that he loved Trump
Starting point is 00:42:46 and that he had no message he wanted to communicate with the living outside of pussy. The people using that Ouija board are dicks. Right? I want to be like, who did you do this with? Was it like one of your coworkers that like kind of has a crush on you? Was it Milo Yanopoulos? Yeah, alongside you. It's been like dropping hints.
Starting point is 00:43:08 Wow. They were then contacted by the ghost of John Barron Trump, which John Barron is the nickname or the pseudonym. that Trump uses for his fake publicist and the ghost claimed to be Trump's secret dead brother who now resides in the fridge. He also, so like slimer, slimer energy
Starting point is 00:43:26 also warned them not to enter the bathroom and told them not to trust Donald. The things that you must have done to. Which one? What was he doing in that bathroom? Fucking now, I wonder if Andrew Schultz was like, now you tell me. Dude. I was
Starting point is 00:43:44 waiting for the ghost to input from ghost. first before I had him on the show. Well, now I know. He then asked for help three times and left, which sounds like me in a blackout, you know. Oh, where'd he go? I don't know. He left his car keys.
Starting point is 00:44:00 He left his wandered off into the dark. Did y'all ever do Bloody Mary? I think I did. I think I have completed a Bloody Mary once in my life. Why don't we like Mortal Kombat? Can't we like call in other? Oh, like Candyman versus Bloody Mary. Yeah, like, that's what I would do if I were there.
Starting point is 00:44:19 Yeah, Bloody Mary, Candyman, and then just get out of the way. I will leave you two to it. You rang? I don't know, bro. I think he's tripping. I think she rang, actually. Yeah, I don't know. You might want to fight each other.
Starting point is 00:44:29 Anyway, I'm, I'll be right back. Have it out in this bathroom. That's a really good idea. Right? It's a good script idea. Yeah. That's what they should do in the White House. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:39 Like the. Anyone, yeah. Anyone who visits the White House is now obligated to do a candy man or, like, Bloody Mary in the bathroom. Take out Bloody Mary versus... That would be so funny. Bloody Mary versus, like, George Bush, Sr. And just like...
Starting point is 00:44:55 Versus Andrew Jackson. Choose your fighter. Yeah. Yeah, it should start making like Freddy versus Jason movies about historical presidents. Oh, God. You know someone's going to do that.
Starting point is 00:45:03 Apparently, the ghost that is most often cited in the White House is Abraham Lincoln, who, I don't know how, like, that's kind of the least scary one I can think of. Is it because he was, because he got assassinated? You got, yeah, got like that killed there. The most famous person. But it wasn't there. It wasn't there. Yeah, it wasn't there for its theater.
Starting point is 00:45:22 Yeah, yeah. But they, I think they did. No, they took his body like just across the street. So it's weird that he doesn't haunt the theater. They take it across the street for some beers. Right. I was blown away. I forgot whatever the Apple one was, the Apple show that was about Abraham Lincoln, like,
Starting point is 00:45:37 his son, John Wilkes Booth or whatever. I was, I was going to say blown away. That's not the right thing to say. But I was, I was, I was, they just let him bleed. I know that it was like the time but I was like do something please They were just like they just wrapped his head The fact that he's bleeding so much out of his brain
Starting point is 00:45:52 Means that he had too much blood Way too much blood in there Oh that blood was abundance of blood They just put pillows around his head And we're like God bless I was like oh my God we have not They're like sir he's dying I don't know more pillows
Starting point is 00:46:07 Yeah Oh yeah that blood was dying to get out of that head He's lucky his head didn't explode from all the blood That's trying to get out of there That assassination is so wild the first of all, the fact that John Wilkes Booth was, like, as famous as, I'd say, Alec Baldwin, maybe. Like, he was, like, a very famous actor.
Starting point is 00:46:25 That's an interesting choice. Yeah, not like Glenn Powell or, like, not, his brother was gone out. It had to be someone who shot somebody. Yeah, his brother was more famous. But he wasn't like Billy Baldwin. He was, like, part of an acting dynasty. That's why I chose the Baldwin. Yeah, yeah, maybe a Sars guard would be a better example.
Starting point is 00:46:44 but and then we actually have a show that we're developing for big money players revisits that day and some of the information like the person who was supposed to be guarding him was shit-faced pretty well
Starting point is 00:47:01 all right let's take a quick break and we'll be back to talk about clowns besides Donald Trump oh wow fucking got him got him maybe he'll retire now maybe now that I got his ass Or you'll end up somewhere else.
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Starting point is 00:47:41 and maximize game performance with enhanced overclock. Talking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Here we go. Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host.
Starting point is 00:48:14 Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially, go really wrong.
Starting point is 00:48:46 Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia. How'd you know she's a cult leader. Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, my neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals and
Starting point is 00:49:20 now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult. Hold up, Sophia. A real life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with their ceiling and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did. And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:50:01 In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stunned. But three times.
Starting point is 00:50:22 John and Ann Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:51:01 And we're back. And so we have a new clown-based horror show that's happening. in alignment with Halloween, HBO's Welcome to Dairy, which, as I was saying to Miles yesterday, I thought it was, what's the, Dairy Girls? Yeah, I thought it was Dairy Girls. Yeah, I thought it was like another season.
Starting point is 00:51:30 Another one. I'm like, I love these girls. Yeah, let me know. And it is instead just a poorly named movie that tries to, or a streaming series that tries to create like the Marvel cinematic universe of Stephen King novels. And so, you know, they all happen around a, like, Maine usually. And so they're like, what if this main town was all, like, that all those stories were
Starting point is 00:51:55 happening at the same time. And they've gone in a weird direction with this one. First of all, I just, I just want to say I was pretty surprised by the premise of this show. In this show, the U.S. government has enlisted Dick Halloran, you may remember him as the character played by Scabban Cruthers and The Shining to help capture Pennywise and use him against the Russians and Cubans to prevent the impending Cuban missile crisis
Starting point is 00:52:23 and win the Cold War. What the fuck? What is this stranger things? It's first of all this idea that they're always because this is like the thing that I think it worked in like the first few alien movies and then I was like the idea that you would be like we got to keep going after the,
Starting point is 00:52:42 this thing that is an existential threat to humanity and trying to like use it as a weapon that like we did just kills everybody who comes even close to contacting it seems weird to me i i'm done with that trope yeah like yes but like if in the movie jaws like the mayor had been like yes but could you imagine if we could capture the shark and use it as a weapon against neighboring town? Like, it's just such a dumb, like... Use it against a Viet Cong? To keep using over and over. Yeah. Right. What the fuck?
Starting point is 00:53:16 So that's weird. I'm hearing, again, mixed things about this show. Me too. My friends have said, I'm like, is it scary, though? I need you to answer this as a horror head. Is it scary? Yeah, it's scary. And then I was watching it.
Starting point is 00:53:29 I was like, is it scary? My definition of scary is very fascinating. Yeah. Victor points out, like, it's very Stephen King. Like, I did read The Mist, which is the novel about a haunted mist that comes for a time. Oh, that one. And, like, the story there is, it's implied, like, there's something going on with, like, the military doing research into the Eldridge horror. But, like, that, I think it's a plausible, like, with Godzilla or something.
Starting point is 00:53:59 I think it's a plausible jumping off point to be like, yeah, the military is going to fuck something up. And now it has unleashed a horror onto us. Right, yeah. But for it to just be like, we're trying to capture the monster, like, Ghostbusters style. It's giving too much Ghostbusters energy of, like, we're going to fucking vacuum up pennywise and, like, put them in a box and then unleash him. It's just, it's a little bit dumb to me to, like, that that keeps happening over and over again. Oh, they don't like original ideas. I don't think the U.S. military's up to it.
Starting point is 00:54:29 That's what I'm doing. Like, how are they going to use it against the Russians, just, like, lure children into, sewers somehow like can't you just do that yourself yeah I don't know offer them free candy yeah already I'm sure they explain it in the way that's airtight I also feel like most like I've been watching like I feel like most kids are actually not afraid of clowns like it's adults that are afraid of clowns I feel like if you put I don't know if you put Pennywise with my niece and nephew they'd probably like try to paint his nails or something he does need it too his nails look like shit
Starting point is 00:55:05 terrible. But yeah, so HBO sent a bunch of creepy clowns all across the world. Some appearances creepier than others. In one location, Pennywise, just went on a scenic hot air balloon ride. I love it. Got to use that budget somehow, man. That's the Emily and Paris that I want to see. That would be so great.
Starting point is 00:55:22 Penny Wise finding himself. Penny Wise in Paris. Oh, my gosh. Miles, don't give them ideas. Dude, I would watch that. Him just like, you know what? What is that? It's that meme with Freddie Kruger and it's like been chasing in their dreams, I forgot to chase my own.
Starting point is 00:55:37 Yeah. He's like having a croissant for the first time is mine. Oh my gosh. Oh my, it's so deadly and drops keep falling on my head. He just needed a gelato to realize that he doesn't actually want to kill. Yeah. He wants to be an artist dad. He is looking over the edge of this hot air balloon, like either looking like thoughtful
Starting point is 00:55:59 and like, what have I done with my life? We're also like, damn, that's way down there. That's kind of scary. Yeah. It kind of looks like a dude who is just looking out of a hot air balloon, but in Pennywise costume. Yeah, almost as if that's what it is or something. That's what it literally is, but also just described the image. Do you guys remember the rash of, I think this was right before we started this show,
Starting point is 00:56:21 but the rash of like, clown, like, creepy clown things where, like, people would be like, I slowed this footage down that I was taking out of the window of my car, and there are just like clowns standing, like, in a, tree staring directly at me like in this and they're they were like they kept ringing people's doorbells and like doing scary shit it was around 2016 which coincided with the release of the movie it and the marketing team behind it have always said like they they had nothing to do with it but i i do think the fear of clowns is still is still out there based on based on the research that our writer jm dug up for this and the fact that like while it's not
Starting point is 00:57:05 not explicitly a clown uh villain i will say the villain in weapons is very clown adjace totally yeah right it's yeah like he's giving ronald mcdonald yeah yeah yeah for sure ronald mcdonald if you put them in the microwave for a few seconds yeah right also i believe i i'm i'm probably naive i kind of believe the it team that they didn't do that clown like i i i think It just manifested. Yes. Have you met people in Portland? Like, they would totally, wherever it was, I forgot where.
Starting point is 00:57:41 I think that's where it was, though. There's a really creepy one in Australia, I remember, where people, like, yeah, I don't know. It was just like, there were many internet stories of, like, people feeling like, yeah, this clown, like, showed up. And everybody, like, chased it into this park because they were scared of it. Yeah. So, reasons to explain are fear of clowns because I think just broadly, The idea is like, but clowns are supposed to be funny. That's their energy at the circus, and we're all scared of them.
Starting point is 00:58:11 What happened? And so some theories, John Wingasey probably didn't help serial murder who had occasionally dressed as Pogo, the clown, didn't dress up as Pogo very often. Some people are like, it can't be that. He didn't dress as Pogo very often. If you murder a person, a teenager well-dressed as a clown, that that is, On my, that's printed on my brain. Like, I'm not, I'm not going to be able to get.
Starting point is 00:58:39 I don't know he dressed at that. I just decided to like to paint that shit. Well, then, yeah, so once he was captured and became like a serial killer celebrity among the people who are into serial killers, he did have a nice little second act of his career drawing self-portraits of himself as Pogo. Was he in prison? Yeah, he was in prison. Oh, okay. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:59:03 I think he was eventually executed. So one expert points out that, like, this shift towards seeing clowns as creepy wasn't actually a shift because clowns are, were, and this is a quote from this academic expert, never really good and often fulfilled the role of villain in stories. He says, it's misleading to ask when clowns turned bad, warns the writer Benjamin Radford in his history, bad clowns. They were never really good. So Universal 2 is the casting of the antagonist, the representative of evil in the role of the clowns. Devils, both the lusty thickheads, and the sharp, clever deceivers are always clowns. So there's like this trickster demon thing that clowns have always been tapping into. Okay, but the original clown was the jester.
Starting point is 00:59:53 And the jester was good. He was like the right-hand man to the king. I mean, he could say the things that, like, that's what we need. And what we need a jester. I don't know who that is, but someone that's on our side that's like can actually take down the king because that's what they did. So they were like the one person that could make fun of
Starting point is 01:00:10 without being executed. I do think the clown, like the thing that makes the most sense to me and I don't think it necessarily always fits with gestures is the makeup. Sure. The makeup is fucked. It exaggerates the human face
Starting point is 01:00:27 and covers the human face with paint at the same time making humans seem less, human and introducing kids to clowns can be incredibly disquieting because children's brains are still developing. And it's like, I feel like it's kind of our first experience with the uncanny valley oftentimes when we're kids where like the thing is like human but also not quite. And they like, it's like they're, they take human emotions and like warp them through like a weird fun house mirror. So they're like exaggerated and creepy. And also their facial express, their facial features. are like big and weird and scary.
Starting point is 01:01:05 I think, because I'm not afraid of clowns. I could give a shit about a clown, but my first experience with a clown was fucked up because this motherfucker got in my face at a kid's party. And I remember crying and being upset because this dude just, like, was like, and I was like, fuck, bro, I'm like four. I'd fuck this.
Starting point is 01:01:24 Like, I didn't come here for this shit. And I think, I don't know, and I see that a lot, too. Like, you'll see, like, at birthday parties, like there's always like some clown overstepping to a young kid and being like hey here's something for you i don't know if that's that's me personally um i think for me it's the fact that they're like there's that trope that the the person that the funniest in the room is normally the sad clown trope and then that became like a whole art thing like a lot of art of sad clowns
Starting point is 01:01:52 that's like that's actually their internal monologue but i think yeah isn't it just i feel like this just has to be like learned this is like a learned fear it's i don't know if there's like anything really like a universal truth to a clown that make like you know what I mean because like with snakes children aren't afraid of snakes when they're very young because they don't know about it because they learn that behavior to fear a snake like heights are much more of like a thing a small child can process to be like oh I don't like this I don't like this I will say so they a group did research into this okay they're pulling found that more than half of people are scared of clowns which is higher than common fears like heights and flying they said
Starting point is 01:02:30 more than half the respondents said they were scared of clowns, to at least some degree, and 5% said they were extremely afraid of them, which that percentage of extreme fear of clowns is slightly higher than those reported for phobias like animals, heights, blood injection injuries, still water or weather events, closed spaces, and flying, which I would have definitely thought fear of flying seems much more common. And then, so they surveyed the people who admitted they were scared of clowns, which I would never admit. That's fucking weakness. I don't let that weakness on.
Starting point is 01:03:06 Sir, your trousers are soaked. Are you okay, sir? No, I'm sweating. I just ran over here. Ask them to choose a possible explanation for the fear. And the strongest factor turned out to be clown makeup hides emotional signals and creates uncertainty, meaning that we're freaked out by clowns because we can't see their true faces and therefore cannot understand their emotional intent.
Starting point is 01:03:28 That's what I was saying. You don't know they're internal. And that I'm not afraid of clowns, but I don't really like zombies. I don't really like, I'll watch zombie movies, but they're very similar to me. And that I don't like zombies because you can't reason with them. Like if fucking Michael Myers or a serial killer, whatever was across from me, there's a chance that I could maybe reason with another person. Chill, chill, you're bugging, you're bugging, you're bugging, you're bugging, you're bugging. Yo, let's work this out.
Starting point is 01:03:58 Let's look at, you know, but not a zombie because they're not, like, they're half human. They're not quite human. That's the thing. I don't like about them. They make inhuman movements. Yeah. And so, and they have like inhuman faces. So I don't, I don't really like zombies.
Starting point is 01:04:13 That's, that's, that's, I'm not right. That apocalypse, I can't, the nuclear, whatever, it can't have any zombie. I can't be, I can be doing it. Are you afraid? Are you, do you fuck with clowns, Jack? I don't care. Ambival. I just, yeah, like, I'm not terrified of them, but I do. I do feel like any time I'm near a clown, I like don't want to know more about that.
Starting point is 01:04:33 Like I want to get closer. I feel like, yeah, it's going to be some sad shit. I'm not afraid of clown, but when I see that shit, I go, bro, what a fucking loser. It's like kind of bad. It's not great. Like, yeah. But it's not even like, it's not even like. Ronald McDonald is a billionaire.
Starting point is 01:04:52 So Ronald McDonald is a loser. You know what I mean? I'll say to his face. I don't know what it is. I think it's just something, even to. To me, I'm like, that's, like, it's just dumb. It's not, it doesn't really push me in one lane or the other. I'm like, all right, fucking clown.
Starting point is 01:05:05 And then I just kind of keep going. But you do love to call people. I worked with somebody who was colerophobic, I believe is the term for the fear of clowns. And I remember at the time, because they were like a grown ass person, I was like, they're like, oh, no, I hate clowns. And I'm like, oh, okay, for sure, for sure. And somebody, there was, uh, there was a video we were watching, like, for, like a like it was like in a writer's room it comes up and there's like a clown
Starting point is 01:05:32 in it this person started fucking like had to leave the room and was like fucked up was like fucked up and I remember being like yo I didn't even realize earlier they said they were fucking afraid I didn't even know it was like that and then yeah like if dogs is not a thing that prevents you from seeing a dog on TV
Starting point is 01:05:48 usually you know it's not going to like fuck you up like just seeing it at a distance but yeah have you got the tweet it's like been out for years but um by Cohen is a ghost. It says the most cutting thing you can say is who's this clown
Starting point is 01:06:02 because it implies there, A, a clown, and B, not even one of the better known clown. You're not even one of the top tier clowns. You're an even PRO, bro. The list of reasons in order of like most common to least common of why people are afraid of clowns, an eerier unsettling feeling due to clown makeup, making them look not quite human,
Starting point is 01:06:23 similar to dolls or mannequins. Number two, clowns exaggerated facial features convey a direct sense of threat. Three, clown makeup hides emotional signals and creates uncertainty, which is kind of the same as number one. Four, the color of clown makeup reminds us of death, infection, or blood injury,
Starting point is 01:06:40 and evokes disgust or avoidance. This five is my favorite. Clown's unpredictable behavior makes us uncomfortable. I think that's where I'm coming in. That mother fucking. I don't know, man. They're just doing too much. And it's like, I can't get a gauge on like
Starting point is 01:06:56 what their angle is. Yeah. And I fucking, I love to smell a carnation all the time. My favorite thing to do is your favorite smell. It's going to smell a carnation of someone's lapel. These motherfuckers. Or the like zapping when they shake your hand.
Starting point is 01:07:11 I just love Jack, the idea of you going up and being like, what's your angle? Yeah, what's your, what's the shake? Honestly, that's a flex. If you could get a clown to break like that by just getting so in their minds,
Starting point is 01:07:22 like, hey, man, what's you running from? Like, whose face do you not, Whose face do you not want to see in the mirror anymore? That's a really deep and cutting question. The last three of the last three, the least common are fear of clowns learned from family members, negative portrayals of clowns in popular culture, which I would say, yes, there have been creepy clowns,
Starting point is 01:07:43 but like Krusty really holds it down for me. Yeah, Krusty. Krusty is like the best ambassador for a clown. Yeah, because you're like, this guy's a sad drunk, man. Yeah, he's just a sad drunk. He's a normal guy. Yeah, leave him along. I can understand.
Starting point is 01:07:55 Krusty and his behavior is fairly predictable. Yeah. Unlike real clown. But he does hate his death. And then number eight, a frightening experience with a clown, which I think everybody would have assumed, like, that was the thing that did it. But it's more just like, we don't like your whole shit. I guess maybe, yeah, and I'm trying to think, I mean, I get the whole thing of like, I can't read them, therefore it's scary, but to the point, like, if that's like one of my
Starting point is 01:08:21 overarching fears, like, I cannot understand what is going on with this person emotionally. Yeah. That's like so specific. I usually don't care about. Like I'm not a sick. I wonder if like clown fear is more coming with like salespeople who are like, I got to read this guy.
Starting point is 01:08:36 I got to pick up his angle. What's his shit? I feel like though if a car full of clowns showed up right now and there was like 30 of them that got out of a mini coop like we would kind of be into that. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be like they're having a good time. Balloon animals are fun.
Starting point is 01:08:51 Balloon animals. I guess. Yeah. Maybe my thing is too. Like, any time, if a clown tried to be scary, I'd be like, what's up then? And I think that's the dare. If they're like, looofy, I'm like, yeah, dude, you're goofy shit. You're trying to be scary, bro.
Starting point is 01:09:04 Then what, then what's up? But, I mean, Terrifier just came out. Yeah. That's another one that is really, like, that way overperformed. It went from, like, a movie someone made in their backyard to fucking, like, a big box office success this year with Terrifier 3. So I do feel like the fact that we are in our shared consciousness unsettled by clowns is kind of an underrated thing that people are still exploiting. Yeah, colophobic zeit gang, please let me know. Let us know.
Starting point is 01:09:39 Yeah. Why? What happened? We're from the same planet mostly. So I'm just like, let me in in your colrophobic world. Show us on the dog. Yeah. And good luck out there on Halloween because, like I said, the probably top two. or three costume.
Starting point is 01:09:54 Yeah, and I'm sorry. And Roomy. And if I, yeah. Clown's ghost face, roomy. That's right. And if I swing on you for dressing like a clown because I thought you were trying to square up, I'm very sorry in advance. I didn't mean to do that.
Starting point is 01:10:06 Danny Fernandez, such a pleasure having you on the Daily Zekegeist. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? Yeah, I'm at Ms. Danny Fernandez on Instagram, and I just dropped my horror short. Oh my God, speaking of, tis this season. Yeah. It premiered at La Leaf and Essence Fest and Chicago Horror Fest and, like, a bunch of fest. So you can catch it on YouTube right now. Bruehita Prod is my, which is Little Witch.
Starting point is 01:10:31 That's my S-Corp. So that's my YouTube. Yeah, you can check it out. Or you can just check the link in my bio on Instagram. It is a fun. You'll notice Oscar Montoya is in it, Chris Renfro, like a lot of familiar faces. So it's a little psychological horror. Check it out.
Starting point is 01:10:46 Oh, watching in the dark. There you go. Is there a work of media you want to recommend? other than that? Yeah. So, speaking also of horror, smile too. So good. Have you seen it?
Starting point is 01:10:59 Uh-uh. I love that I'm like, Smile, too. Okay, Naomi Scott, I know people listening who have seen it, she deserves an Oscar for this betrayal. It was so, this was last season for award season, but like she crushed. She did so good. She plays a pop star who's being haunted by the whatever smile thing.
Starting point is 01:11:16 And, I mean, she just went full 110%. Dang. Oscar-worthy. So good. It is scary. I keep hearing that from people who really like movies. Jack, you got to watch it. I have to do that shit. Miles, where can people find you as their work of media?
Starting point is 01:11:30 You've been enjoying. Yeah, find me everywhere at Miles of Gray. And if you want to hear about 90-day fiancé, I do that at 420-day fiancé. Work of Media. I'm going to watch Night of the Demons 2, I think, later, because the first one was so campy and terrible that I just, in the background. We're carving a pumpkin later, although I don't know if that's probably good for a child who's not even three yet. Look, we're figuring it out. We're figuring it out.
Starting point is 01:11:56 You can help them, by the way. Yeah, you can help them out. What? You don't need to help them carve the pumpkin. No, no, no, no, not in this house. That's not how it's great. You put the tools on your own. I say, don't cut yourself.
Starting point is 01:12:08 That's sharp. And just see where we end up. It's funny because Her Majesty was like, I don't know if this is good. It's like one of those very dull, like pumpkin sauce that you use for carving. Yes, those are the worst. I'm like, he'll be all right. He'll be all right. He also will probably lose interest in three minutes. So, yeah, we'll be right. We are going to be all right. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien on Blue Sky at Jack Obie, the number one. I'm trying to think of like a horror movie that I can recommend. I mean, I'm just going to go with fucking hereditary. I watched it for the first time this year. Thought it was really good. So great. Scared the shit out of me. Also, there's this kind of little-known filmmaker who made a movie called The Shep.
Starting point is 01:12:49 shining in the early 80s that a lot of people don't know about the shinning yeah the shinning is it is it called the shin is that how it's pronounced that's another simpson's joke yeah yeah uh you can find us on twitter and blue sky at daily zeitgeist we're at the daily zeitgeist 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 that we talked about in today's episode we also link off to a song that we think you might enjoy miles is there a song that you think that people might enjoy it. Yeah, this is from Mick Jenkins' new album.
Starting point is 01:13:24 It's called A Murder of Crows. This track is called Words I should have said. I know, but featuring the vocalist, rapper, any, uh, from the UK. I'm telling you, the UK has so many good rappers, like
Starting point is 01:13:39 the, like the women rappers that I'm listening to out there are like they're bodying American rappers. I just think they're like they're po, I don't know, like lyrically like I love Lil Sims. Annie is also fantastic E-N-N-Y. She's on this track with Mick Jenkins.
Starting point is 01:13:55 I love this track, too, because it's like one of those beats where you don't get a snare drum. There's no, like, backbeat, so you just get the bass and you always think like you're going to get that fucking snare, and you don't. And that tension is great because it makes the lyrics hit even harder, and it's a very self-aware song. Anyway, words. Yeah. Snedging, yeah. Words I should have said, Mick Jenkins, any, E-N-N-N-Y. Check it up.
Starting point is 01:14:17 All right. We will link off to that in the foot. The Daily Zykeyes is a production of IHartRadio for more podcasts from my IHartRadio, Visit the IHartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for us this week. We are back on Monday morning to tell you what was trending over the weekend. We also have the weekly Zykegeist, which is a highlight reel of this week's episodes that you can check out over the weekend. We will talk to you all on Monday. Have a great, safe, spooky Halloween steer clear of evil clones.
Starting point is 01:14:47 I was working in the love. I was looking in the loud. Monster Marshal. Do you think that was his real voice? Hey, what's up? What do I happen to my Transylvania twist? The Daily Zykeyes is executive produced by Catherine Long. Co-produced by Bay Wang.
Starting point is 01:15:10 Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb. Edited and engineered by Justin Connor. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit.
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Starting point is 01:16:06 It was kind of like the perfect storm in a sewer. That was dumb. Do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon.
Starting point is 01:16:33 This person writes, my neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals. And now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they might be part of a cult? Hold up. A real life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? Dakota. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, here we go
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