The Daily Zeitgeist - Trendatory Capitalism 5/23: TikTok, Mike Pence, Morgan Freeman, U.S. State Logos, NBA

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

In this edition of Trendatory Capitalism, Jack and Miles discuss record labels forcing popstars to make viral TikToks, Mike Pence "being open" to running in 2024 (or, "Dear God, please make me Prezzy"), Morgan Freeman being barred from Russia along with other U.S. presidents, U.S. state logos, and NBA finals!See 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.

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. Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti

and I'm Jermaine 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. 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 this episode of Trendatory Capitalism, courtesy of Johnny Davis and capitalism. Yeah. A great duo. When you get those two together, watch that world. Predatory capitalism. Yeah, yeah. That's made in hell.

Well, I'm Jack. That over there, well, that is Miles. These are some of the things that are trending on this monday afternoon so there's a report that record labels are forcing mega pop stars to make viral tiktok like is it in their contract what's what's happening gunpoint i guess wait uh wait becky did you put this story what happened here i did put this in because i had been noticing it trending on tiktok and then i saw saint hoax picked it up which means it's gained a lot of traction when i see things move from tiktok to instagram or twitter or whatever but essentially

a lot of these mega stars like there's been a lot of like music industry plant conversation on Tik TOK with like these kind of micro, I don't know, songwriters who were like, I have you ever been down in the dumps and your boyfriend broke up with you and your car broke down? Well, I wrote a little song about that. I love this.

I'm clicking on that, whatever that just was. And then it becomes like a viral TikTok sound, right? And so that has been very common marketing lately, right? But lately, the big music stars like Charli XCX, like Florence the Machine, like Halsey, like people who definitely don't need TikTok from their labels to be selling music that are being told that they have to make viral TikTok so they can't release certain

songs or whatever. At least that is what they're alleging from these posts that they've been putting on TikTok. Like, oh, if I don't even like Quigs posted something like many big, big stars, big labels are like being forced to make these tiktoks and so they're

making these like very i don't know if i would call it ironic tiktoks but very like it feels very meta marketing to be like i hate my label right now for making me make this viral tiktok that's the subtext i think i mean that is kind of like what a lot of the conversation on tiktoks become from like other people who are like stitching these very famous artists tiktok's complaining about having to make these things for their songs to go viral they're like is this meta marketing because like now we're like listening to the song and streaming it so that you can release it because you don't want to make this tiktok about it and we're supposed to feel bad for you like artists who sell hundreds of millions of records who are very famous artists?

Is this like the new marketing? It's just very odd. Right. Because one of the most talked about things that you'll never see a celebrity or a manager talk about in public, but behind closed doors, one of the most talked about things is the Imagine video.

Yeah. And how to not is the imagine video and like how to not become the imagine video of whatever you're trying to do online um so that's interesting that they're like okay so we do it but we're like this fucking sucks right or here's a dance craze i guess if you like it i hate hate it. I hate this whole thing. Yeah, and it's becoming very awkward and weird. Because TikTok is kind of for the underdog going viral type of vibe. So to have these very big artists with very expensive marketing teams doing this meta marketing is not coming off well i think to a lot of the tiktok viewing audience right right right yeah yeah like even when you say like people like twigs and like those

other artists i'm like they don't sound they don't to me they don't strike me as the kind of artists that you see doing like sort of heavy-handed like branded posts or posts that the label's like hey you really got to do this and maybe in in that sense, the perceived lack of enthusiasm is people being like, man, why the fuck am I doing this? And they're really like, man, fuck this, fine. Because they could be like Adele,

which is what the link I posted in the doc was showing. It was like, Adele's been on multiple interviews being like, I am not going to do a TikTok. My audience is not on TikTok. My audience is millennial women

who have been through it with me. I'm singing to them. I'm not singing to the 14-year-olds on TikTok. My audience is millennial women who have been through it with me. I'm singing to them. I'm not singing to the 14-year-olds on TikTok. That is reductive. Your audience could be on TikTok Adele, but it's not because you're not even trying.

That's wild. We've referenced Twig twice. Did Twigs drop the FKA? Or is that a different... It's been a conversation. Yeah. She's been dropped that. I'm just back in the aughts or something.

Well, no, I think because people are realizing that FKA meant formally known as Twigs. So it's like, unless you want to say formally known as twigs, she's like, my name isn't FKA twigs. Like it's twigs formally known as twigs. So. Oh,

got it. Got it. Got it. Um, okay. I just want to make sure that I know the best way to refer to twigs the next time. The next time.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about Mike Pence. Uh, the next i bring her up yeah yeah all right let's talk about mike pence uh he has said he is open to running in 2024 uh which is the equivalent of me saying when i'm starving i am open to eating taco bell it's like i'm i'm hungrily devouring taco bell and i have only wanted taco bell for my entire life and nothing else uh every fiber every cell of my being is vibrating to the frequency of uh taco bell um that's that's all this dude is a toy that was like put together by itself to run for president.

That's all he's ever wanted to do, is be president. Yeah. He said he's open to running and that wherever we're called, we'll go. And I'm sure right now, especially with Georgia and him being like, I think Brian Kemp will win, who very much looks like the odds-on favorite. I think the guy who's up by favorite percentage points the day before the election is gonna win yeah um but he's been saying that since the beginning and i think even from then we're like oh interesting so they've they've each got their little horse in the race uh but then immediately like trump's spokespeople are like he's he's desperate and trying to regain relevance.

It's like literally Donald Trump said that. Yeah. I remember like the Trump has said before that like, yeah, none of them would, none of them would run. If I decided to run, they wouldn't run against me.

They owe everything to me. So he has just a literal egomaniacs, unrealistic view of the world and his uh place in it but i do think they're all gonna get rinsed by him if he decides to run and they do as well i mean you know it's already like the maga twitter's like what's he trying to do he's nothing without trump uh well in my mind i'm like, who votes for Mike Pence? In that binary, if it came down to Trump or Pence,

who is that? It is the op-ed writing community. The writers of op-ed are like, but what about Pence? He's kind of compelling. He's just interesting to the same people who were like penciling in Jeb

Bush to be the 2016 nominee. You know, it's just like, he makes sense based on like what focus groups were saying 10 years ago. And that's all they've been able to put in their brain i mean one thing he is good at is licking a boot oh yeah that's why for all the people who are like oh here we go it's finally cracking i'm like that was a really good impression of uh here we go movement movement shut the fuck up this man had no spirit or fortitude he sat in that room i just remember that that showdown over the government shutting down with pelosi and schumer and he tried to

astrally project himself out of that room he didn't know what to do you think he's gonna oh i hear pence might throw his hat in the ring oh you better watch out huh but what this man ain't gonna do shit i mean he'll just slow trump down a little bit but let's be real like i've never seen mike pence stand up for shit unless he wants to tear down the film mulan this would be interesting if he had ever given a conformational sign of life that like he had eventually been granted his wish to be a real boy and that he like had a soul in there because then it might be interesting if he was like yo i know where the bodies are buried like i i will just like start releasing the nastiest shit from like my time inside the white house like with this motherfucker but he does not have the fortitude or constitution to do that well who

knows he's so spineless who knows if his advice like you gotta come out with something hot yeah like you gotta take you gotta send a shot across the bow but only for which like the backlash from other republicans will probably send him just running back to his hidey hole and he'll be like i don't know about that i didn't like that so i'm not counting on much but good luck i mean you're gonna get absolutely destroyed by trump um but hey be great though you know sometimes through blood or something you know yeah okay yeah exactly it may be like he may know him better he's like all i need is one shot right in the nose and he's do not miss your chance to blow you only get one shot oh he's listening to that shit mike pence listen to every fucking day oh Oh my God.

Mom's spaghetti. He's nervous. And mom's spaghetti would be mother, his wife. Doesn't he call his wife mother? Karen Pence? Yes. Who's a literal Karen? I mean, it all works out to the letter of the law.

Please. Knees weak. Arms are heavy. There's flies on his head already. Mom's spaghetti. All right. Let's take a quick break. 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 Jimei 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 Santer. 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. How do you feel about biscuits? And I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel.

Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. A lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch is a leader. You choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team?

I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha Libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha Libre is a type of storytelling.

It's a dance. It's tradition. It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring this

is lucha libre behind the mask listen to lucha libre behind the mask as part of my cultura podcast network on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you stream podcasts and we're back and morgan freeman his name is oh on people he messed up what'd he do he's on the naughty list of banned americans who cannot enter russia i don't it's like a huge list of a ton of people including biden and kamala and things like that but for whatever reason you know morgan freeman's on there i'd imagine it's because he probably actually said something you know like about putin and then like oh my god please but notably donald trump he's he got to open him he's not on that list so wow yeah yeah that's interesting maybe they just forgot him the former president is obama on there i wonder oh i'm sure i mean they also i

someone said that like john mccain might even be on that list and it's like hey sure they gotta update their files but they got a lot going on over there you know yeah yeah yeah they got a lot of tables right now so i can give me a break yeah um all right well i aspire to one day be on that list. That's better than having a star on the Hollywood Wall. People don't give a shit about podcasters, man. But one day. One day. One day, yep.

One day we'll have our moment. It's like you're talking to Lenny, George and Lenny from Mice and Men. Yeah, yeah, sure, Jack. One day. Yeah, one day. Podcasts are going to be huge, bud. Tell me about being banned from Russia, Miles. Tell me about that. Yeah, yeah, no, we're here. Why don about being banned from Russia, Miles. Tell me about that.

Yeah, yeah, no, we're here. Why don't you look off in the distance over there, Jack? Right off, turn around for a second. Click, click, click. Okay, yep. Yep, Putin's going to ban us one day, Jack. Just picture it now. It's going to hurt me more than it hurts you or whatever.

State logos are trending. I don't know. This is just an image of all the state logos with all their uh fonts that i've seen a lot of people commenting on any standouts i've seen people talk about arkansas going or uh sorry mississippi going particularly hard oh yeah love the s's curling into each other i love that it it evokes uh being shackled and in bondage so i really love the imagery of that one i'm not sure what they're going for yo idaho is just a small like idaho in like small font and then a outline of the united states with a white spot where i know they're just like yo this is i know you you guys don't know where we are but like this is this is

where we are we're this one we're this one up there in the adventures in living idaho adventures in living is there uh-huh i gotta give massachusetts low marks feels very phoned in with just a that like uninspired font and then thing being it's all here massachusetts is it a question mark after that or what is that i think it's like a copyright or trademark like registered trademark they felt that good that's ours it's all here hours there are a handful that have the um vibe of like early 2000s late 90s like fonts that nobody has used since the year that they were designed massachusetts is one of them north dakota feels like it is the font of a like like a wild west stunt show dinner yeah

south dakota the dakotas aren't killing south dakota is doing much better than north dakota but yeah minnesota looks like it's just a bad handwriting so there's those which like tried to do something with the font they're like i't know, but we have money to spend on a font consultant. And then there's North Carolina. I don't know which font it is, but it's one of the first four that you are offered as an option. It's literally the first non-serifed font

that comes up alphabetically. Or Calibri. It's as interesting as Calibri. It is North Carolina written in lowercase letters on a white background. The lettering is black and the font is one of the most basic.

They were just like... I don't know if they were pissed at the assignment. This feels like a student who's mad at the assignment. Or this feels like this was the one that was made the latest logo of them all, the most current one, where people are like, we got to lean into minimalism. That's the new thing now.

If you look at California Pizza Kitchen, they don't capitalize California Pizza or Kitchen. Yeah. They're laid back, baby, with their barbecue pizza. We need that vibe for North CAC. Texas is like a jean thing, like the leather patch on jeans. That's just New Mexico.

Maryland looks like an actual frozen food brand that you'd see on a box. Like their logo actually looks like Maryland frozen fish sticks. I'm trying to find them. Bottom right above Alaska. Oh yeah, Maryland is bad. Alaska also has...

So Alaska has turned the A's into mountains, it would appear. That makes sense. Because very many mountains. But the letters do appear to be in an earthquake of some sort. They're not on the same line. And, you know, the varied landscape of Alaska, it's not all on one level.

And California looks like the logo for a med spa where you get cool sculpting and Botox and shit. Come to California. Find yourself here. Find yourself here. Wow. Find yourself here. Oh, I found myself here. There you go.

Anyways, this should be a call to states to just try harder. Washington, is that what I'm seeing under California miles? Is that just experience WA.com beta 1.0 beta 1.0

it's just an outline of the state of Washington did they put out their logo that was just a proof for like a proof of concept for the actual yeah we'll go with that one no that's the beta yeah this seems like a mistake or no that's the beta design yeah yeah we like like a mistake uh has or maybe it's a nod to the tech in the country and in the state you know what

i mean yeah it it feels like the state font logo budgets are somewhere in the realm of ride at a unincorporated amusement park not you know like the right little off-brand yeah a little off-brand amusement park it's like you drive and you're like no this is a knockoff we're not actually in maine i can tell by the logos now we're in some weird place trying to be maine yeah finally the nba playoffs uh some big games over the weekend. There was a war on the floor. You remember that Sports Illustrated cover from when the Knicks went to the finals as an eighth seed? And we're just like beating people up. Oh, yeah.

He was on the cover and it was like war on the floor. Back when 90s playoff basketball was 90s playoff basketball. Yeah. I missed that. It was... The Heat, Pat Riley's own, they just really beat up the Boston Celtics.

Yeah. Without Jimmy. Without Jimmy. They were up 25 at the half and then hung on to win. But bam, out of bio. Came through in the clutch. There was that one at the end where I was like, that's an and one. and hung on to win. But bam, out of bio. Bam out of bio. Woo! Came through in the clutch.

There was that one at the end where I was like, that's an and one. And they didn't give it to him. I'm like, pfft. Yeah. Okay, good night. Good night, Boston. He had that one where he was

standing on the, you know, it was a two, but it was a long two. And he shook his man. It was like Embiid-esque. I was like, I vocalized loudly in my kids' running. Oh, I did too. On Saturday? Yeah, I was watching.

But yeah, I mean, look, I think it still promises to be... I'm not counting the Celtics out quite yet, but nah, they're too good. What about them Warriors? The Dubs have gone up 3-0 in the Western Conference Finals finals i know a lot of people were giving the mavericks a pretty good shot at coming in here going to the finals they

look great they did and what does luca gotta do luca what more can he do for people who aren't familiar luca is the third year player i think fourth. Fourth year, maybe. One of the most exciting talent in the league right now. Young talent. He might have to retire after Andrew Wiggins' dunk on him. Go give the kid a break. That was an absolute body ink. That was Andrew Wiggins' number one pick from 10 years ago. If a dunk could send you to the shadow realms yeah that one i think did it even though it's called off yeah it was

it was called off and they called it an offensive foul but it wasn't and it was like everybody on the broadcast was like he didn't even he didn't even hit him like it was like openly but it felt like the rest were protecting him which you don't want hit him like it was like openly but it felt like the rest were protecting him which you don't want to feel like when you're a young star in your first uh but you know luca took it with grace you know when they when they asked him about it uh and i just i want to play it because i was like see i also like to see when people like he didn't deny what happened even though it wasn't a foul he he had a take. Can you give us your view of what happened when Wiggins dunked on you?

I may not have hit a little bit, but that was impressive. I'm not going to lie. I saw the video again, and I was like, oof. That was pretty incredible. I wish I had those bunnies. Updated version of boosties.

He said, I wish I had those bunnies. Show some bunnies look updated version of boosties he said i wish i had those bunnies i mean show some respect show some respect luca say those boosties come on man my god have some taste bunnies is cute though that's a cute way to describe somebody who can jump really high and just absolutely destroy your soul while dunking over you but he's i mean despite all that i'm i'm he's in he's in his third year and he's already putting up points like this. I'm like, just give this dude time and we're going to be, he's going to be,

you know, we're going to see posters of him just maniacally laughing at the people that he lays to waste. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get multiple championships. He's that good. And I don't think there's another person in the league that I would say that about right now. Like, He just feels

bad. We have a lot of excitement for people like Ja, but Luka is at this point we're like, it's completely undeniable. The trajectory is clear. Ja, I feel like we're getting there. I can't say that immediately.

I love him and I can definitely see him winning a lot of championships, but there's something about Luka Tuber. If you had to put money on someone's career, I feel like the safe bet is he will be winning titles. And breaking scoring records and shit. Which he's already kind of doing.

I was being hyperbolic to the Maverick fans out there. I don't think he should retire. That was just an act of violence that should not go unacknowledged. All right. Those are the stories that are trending

on this Monday afternoon. We are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to y'all tomorrow.

Bye. Bye. 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. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti. And I'm Jermaine 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. 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.