The Daily Zeitgeist - Trendrey Epstein: The Snyder Cut 7/9: Squid Game, Charlie Kirk, 'Click To Cancel', ICE Block

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

In this edition of Trendrey Epstein: The Snyder Cut, Jack and Miles discuss Squid Game's baffling VIP ADR, Charlie Kirk's very racist Texas flood "theory", the FTC's 'click to cancel' rule getting blocked, an update on the 'ICE Block' app and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club. The new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts, where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs,

book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. For My Heart Podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is the turning, River Road.

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Hello, the internet and welcome to this episode of Trendy Epstein, the Zyder Cut. We got the Bondi cut. Yesterday, was it? Yeah. Is it Bondi? Sorry. I think because the guest was Australian, I was thinking real Bondi beach. Yeah, James Bondi.

We're going to give you a James Bondi view of this one. Yes, yes. Bondi, Bondi, Pam Bond. We got the Bondi cut. And now we're going to get the Snyder cut fans have demanded it. Yes, see She can see everyone's abs. Yeah a lot of abs It's just a closed door But so you won't be able to tell but they are going to be like doing the thing where it's like fast fast fast slow

motion Getting hit with a shield. Yeah, that was a sick ass part of 300, dude. Oh, and there will be the minute where, where the, uh, where Bill and Hillary Clinton, uh, walk in and typical robber gear with the bandana. I bandana. They stop at the door, say shh to one another. And then.

And then. Dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee. And then yeah, say shut to each other, go in, walk out one minute later. Look around, guiltily. You fucking do this one. Just like the typical like improv comedy, whisper, shouting, argument scene.

Except it's actually them being like, I get to do this one. You got to do the last one I'm being like, I get to do this one. You got to do the last one. I know, but I should fucking do this one. I'm the fuck. He has a fucking painting of me. I like to feel the life. Leave their body. All right. Fine. Yeah.

What is it called? The Clinton was it like the kill list or the Clinton kill list? And then they come out three, one, two, three, Clinton kill list. At the end, they come out, check their watch 45 seconds left before the cameras come back on. They make a phone call, beep, Barack, it's done. And then walk away. They call Jeffrey, you have been erased.

They're calling Jeffrey. I'm calling him. Sorry, I really liked that. I really liked that line from Eraser. We were having a fun conversation before we started recording talking about if you had a time machine, beat your dad's ass. Yeah. Like what would be the, okay, what would be the period where it'd be easiest to fight your dad,

but also what would be the best fight? Like what age? The best fight would be like at their physical prime for you, for me right now, going against my dad in his physical prime. Yeah. I would get my hold you up. Yeah. He would get up real quick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Luckily my dad's an artist so I could I could be like hey look there's a retrospective on man Ray's work and I would and then I got my dad tried out for an NBA team. Like you didn't make it, but he like was, you know, athleticism that I don't possess. Yeah. I think it was like, you know, you do a workout and they decide if they're going to. Oh, right.

Right. And the olden days, the olden days. Yeah. Yeah. Would have whooped my ass. No, I mean, do your dad's eyebrows Like your dad has terrifying like eyes Like if he fucking like black like a doll's eyes He's fucking like, you know did the chin down like let me look at you through my eyebrows kind of thing I'd like yeah. All right, man. I got a good bro Yeah, and he doesn't get it from me as part of the thing, I guess. Right. Or maybe he does. And that's it. And he goes, well, well, well, I've been waiting for your ass.

You're like, oh, no. I think it'd be the vast majority of his life, I'd say from like 13 to just the toughest 13 year old to last week. We feel maybe. Yeah. Yeah. And you're up in Philly, man. And you're famous for turning out real soft ass week. We feel maybe. Yeah. Yeah. And you're up in Philly, man. And you're famous for turning out real soft ass people. I feel like. Yeah. Used to play hoops at a park and then have to sprint down the middle of the street

home to avoid, you know, getting getting beat up. What do you mean? Oh, to be like playing frogger, to be like trying to do these cars. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Different times. different times, different. All right. My name is Jack that over there is miles. And this is the episode where we tell you what is trending. We're going to start off with a little light one. Then answers a mystery for me.

I did you watch Squid Game season one and I've watched the first two episodes of season two. That's right. That's and first two episodes of season two. That's right. That's already season three. And I'm like, well, hold on, hold on, hold on. What the fuck happened, man? There was like seven years too much, too fast. The discourse is now vaporized.

Essentially, I feel like, but I guess it was a different time. It was a different time back then. It was. It's also, it just feels like a show that was able to be good because like everyone was like wow They made this like on a small budget and like Netflix didn't know what they had when they made season one, right? And now they do Netflix knew what they had. Yeah, we're in trouble. Yeah Mm-hmm, South Korea. We have a problem. Exactly. It's a famous thing. Fucked around and got a triple double.

Yeah. I had a sense that Netflix didn't quite get what worked about the first one when they made their own squid game reality show. We're like, we root for the VIP guys. That's who we're supposed to be, right? Right, right, right. Anyways, one of the big questions I had about season one, which I thought was a great season of television,

like kind of ended unsatisfyingly. And one of the reasons I found it unsatisfying towards the end is they introduced the wealthy VIPs who are like in the green room watching all of this go down for whom this entertainment is taking place. This game, this game game this game of squid that we've been watching and After watching a show with a bunch of really great performances Mm-hmm in Korean. Mm-hmm. We are introduced to the first English speaking characters and the performances are

Like I'm trying to think of like the level of acting that I would put it on you know what I mean it's um it's like community theater no not even because those people like actually aspired it's like someone who doesn't even aspire to act is acting yeah and it's like fine I guess I'll do it what I just gotta say these words It's like a mockery of acting exactly. Yeah, truly really bad which made me then go back and be like like it was like season 5 of The Wire when like the one that's about a newsroom and like journalism and I had like worked in a newsroom at that time and I was like Oh this feels like weird and and I was like, Oh, this feels like weird. And then I was like, wait, does every season of the wire, like do cops feel about season one through three, the way that

like a journalist would feel about season five, you know, I was like, wait, is all the acting bad and squid game? I just like didn't realize it because I was reading, I was busy reading the subtitles. So it turns out those actors playing the wealthy VIP, speaking in English, even though they were speaking English, their voices were dubbed over in English. Like possibly as a contractual thing with the other dubbers, but IGN like finally went back and was like, hey, like why, went back and was like, Hey, like, why, right.

Why were you guys like, I don't know how they broached this subject. Like, why were you guys so bad? I don't know how to put this like, how fucking dare you act so bad. Yeah. Just as IGN reports, even the performers who played the VIPs were perplexed by the choice, responding to a TikTok that took the VIPs to task for being frankly terrible performers. Actor Brian Bucko or Buko offered an explanation of sorts.

Those are the English dubs. I was the actual actor. What's being played here isn't my voice Hmm also speculated why squid game decided to dub English dialogue that was already being spoken in English I think whoever is contracted to do the dubbing does all the dubbing They just like I see couldn't put the brakes on the dubbing which does that does explain quite a bit yeah i'm but again but in the korean version they speak english because we're like why do they need to dub that part i'm just confused it's like is it just some contract thing or it's like if you do dubbing you got everything has got to be through i just i don't know if this is going to be through. I just, I don't know.

If this is going to be dubbed, we're going to have to dub it all. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't make sense because I was assuming that they were dubbing the other voices, but they weren't. So like why possibly, unless the original performances were somehow even worse. Yeah. Could you imagine?

They're like, Brian, bro. Yeah. I don't know what happened. It's like, you imagine? They're like, Brian, bro. Yeah, I don't know what happened. It's like, you know, we got to like we got to that deal with the dubbing company and they got to do all the dubs. That's just how it works because you killed it, bro. Remember how everyone remembers you were killing it on set. That is like one of the the 80 is it ADR? Is that the thing where like they record after after the fact?

That is one of the things that I notice now as an adult that I didn't notice before. Like how much of the words spoken in movies are just like clearly, they're like, hey, could you throw in like a little word of exposition here real quick to just like move the story forward? And then it's just like cut away to like a wide shot as someone's like, well, we better get to the throne then. Just like a little breadcrumb. It's an art. Carry us along. All right, let's move on to another game.

The don't take accountability challenge. Yes. Blood edition. Yeah. So we talked a little bit about the conspiracy theories that were going around on the internet after the Diabolical tragic floods that happened in Texas where I think at this point like over 110 people now have been confirmed dead It's an absolute fucking tragedy But again, that's not gonna stop people on the right from just coming out with the wackiest shit or a way to sort of like make this conform to the narrative that it's either

Immigrants or black people just look it's not white people that actually have the power that are responsible Yeah, it's not the powerful people in charge of running this state Or the weather that would be Republicans. So um Let's go down a few layers. Yeah. Well, here's Charlie Kirk. He's got a pretty good theory as to who should be blamed Is that the death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn't for DEI? Oh, I don't even need I'm not even gonna play the rest dude That's this guy's fucking serious and he goes on to be like the chief who is black Wow, okay, did DEI, therefore.

Did a DEI, therefore that's what happened. They bring up the fact that the Obama administration had like sued the Austin fire department for like racial discrimination. And they fucking, I'd imagine the Austin fire department lost because it was probably well documented enough. Because they were doing discrimination. It was bad enough that the federal government had to press charges because I guess they weren't getting it done on their own in the state. And then he's like, and then this guy was so concerned about making the department more black that he forgot to do updates on things and he's so focused on this. So yeah, we got the DEI

He said it's working to undermine meritocratic Institutions and more people likely died than otherwise would have because of DEI. Oh Okay, interesting interesting and not even interesting whistle just well as you can see there is a Interesting. Not even a child whistle. Just, well, as you can see, there is a black person in this organization. So I think we know what happened here. Yeah.

I won't look at anything. I'll just completely take out of the equation the actual leadership of the state or anything like that of who's accountable because, you know, black or not, like there are people that you can actually look at and say, this is an interesting sequence of decisions that were made that got us here. Yeah. And as we continue to see more tragedies happen as they cut staff and also try and arrest America into being a white ethnostate, I'm sure they'll somehow find a way to keep making this their go-to argument.

Can you imagine, they're like, okay, there's a threshold though, because we need some black and brown people and minorities to blame, so we can't go full ethnostate. They do their own DEI, where just every organization has to have one person of color that they can make the fall guy.

To scapegoat, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Ooh, boy. Pretty soon. I feel like we're not far off from, I mean, it already, you know, companies already like put people in positions to make them fall people to begin with anyway. But this feels just, maybe it will be that over soon. So somehow we've gotten to a place where a organization that had to be sued for its racist hiring practices is the one that is in line with meritocracy. Right. That's where we're at. Black people are meritless. Obviously. And that's because that's the only they're only hired because of DEI and no other reason. But hey, Charlie Kirk, you tried. There was a brief flicker of hope that a law that actually helped people

would come along, a click to cancel law that was basically like, so you know how easy it is to join a thing that is a recurring membership? We would like to make it that easy for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions and memberships You easily want to get out of this predatory relationship going on this cancel culture dog. No was this is exactly

This is just blocked by three us a court of appeals judges Jesus Christ like they gang tackled this one who accused the FTC of failing to come up with a preliminary regulatory Analysis which is required for rules who annual impact on US economy more than a hundred million dollars I don't know why the FTC was like that. It's actually less than a hundred million I'd definitely be more than a hundred million dollars if this shit was working, but just be like, yeah, but it's predatory and fucked up. So then I guess now they just have to come up with this and that. So they're trying to

just slow walk this thing. Yeah. Or maybe like, this is the country that we live in. The only people who are represented are corporations who are people. Thank you. Actual human beings are fucked. Yeah. Under this current. That's why I'm incorporating. Yeah. Everybody should incorporate, man. That's what it sounds like. Yeah. You got to, to get your rights. But yeah. So this is presumably, you know, gym memberships, digital streaming, e-commerce, cable TV, just breathed a sigh of relief, I'm sure. Remember like, I remember-

Brian the editor points out Adobe, somebody had a tweet recently that was like, every time I'm at my financial low point, the Adobe payment goes through. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah. Every time I'm at my financial low point the Adobe payment goes through Yeah, you creative sweet yeah I remember when this was announced and we're like, yeah See, these are the kinds of things that are make lives easier tangibly for people even though it's not a huge systemic shift I mean in a way it kind of is because as it as it stands

It's like where the fuck do you think you're going is sort of like the tone we have with any subscription. You think you're going with your money. Get the fuck back here. Okay. Now give me your $16 and don't watch this for a month. Okay. Until you're reminded when the next payment comes through. But yeah, how quickly we've gone from, Hey, that could be cool to this appeals court.

Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. And we're back. We're back. And last week there was a new story about something called Ice Block. Not the setting on the Casio keyboard. You remember that one?

The ice block setting? No, was that like the sound of like, it's yeah, it was like, I don't know. It was like kind of a soft clinking sound. Oh, like after it. Anyway, you, Mr. Okay. I didn't realize we were dealing with a keyboard warrior. Yeah 88 keyboard. Oh, wait, let's see this one. This guy's about to play it

Was that ice block sounds exactly like an ice block right ice block the preset on this rando thrifted Yamaha keyboard Yeah, you see okay. Yeah, okay All right, I'm not fucking with Kevin Parker over here. Thank you Ever being used in a successful song that sound I mean that sounds yeah People love old synth sounds so I can definitely see that being used So Jack you should cut you should release your mixtape on SoundCloud I know you've been has that ever like I don, does it, would it sound sick if I was like a banger?

I don't know. It's like a trunk rattler. I don't know. So Ice Block actually has to do with ICE. The organization that we talked about earlier this week did a big civil war reenactment style raid across MacArthur park in Los Angeles, just like, you know, show of force. MacArthur Park in Los Angeles just like you know show of force. I think they get to fight some MS-13 take down take down the fake ID magnates that are out there

they're presumably college freshmen and there's also I had missed this but they got caught on camera pissing all over school property. Yeah when they were told to get the fuck out. Yeah. Yeah. Just all over the buildings and shit. Really cool, really cool, really awesome shit. Do is piss on it, because if we can't piss on your rights, I guess we'll just piss on your school.

Literally piss on your school. Just like a children's playground, school playground with two masked men pissing. So a guy named Joshua Aaron launched an app called Ice Block, which lets users anonymously alert people nearby to sightings of immigration and customs enforcement agents in their area. You can even include information like what officers were wearing,

what kind of car they're driving, because they don't have fucking uniforms or like they're often in unmarked cars and At that point other users within a five-mile radius will receive a push alert notifying them of the sightings Which I feel like this could be I was waiting for Like what's gonna be the watch duty of this? Great cataclysmic event in our city. The the app that like came through and suddenly it was like everybody was on it all the time.

Yeah. This sounds like it could be that I fucking they should do a collab. Oh, man. I mean, I mean, yeah. I feel like the one thing people are really concerned about is like, who's making this and how private is it if it's like attaching my thing because then am I downstream from some eventual fucked up, you know, the campaign against the people who deigned to report where the ice goons were.

But at the same time, I think the counterpoint to that is also like, we need a way to alert people like when these people are trying to kidnap people of your community. And now I mean, it's interesting because like if it, you know, a lot of people like this is a fucking op, dude, don't fucking stay the fuck away from it. But the Republicans too are pretty upset about it. Yeah, that was my one indication that this actually might be like, not fully an op or something like that. But yeah, cause now we have members of Congress who are calling for an immediate probe,

uh, for this, from the small business committee. They said, quote, we are disturbed to learn that the developers of this app may be encouraging people to interfere with and evade lawful, debatable ice operations designed to remove criminals from our streets. Again, criminals? I don't know. Let's, can we run it? Hey Jamie, can we run a quick analysis on that?

Can we get those numbers? Get those numbers, how many people are criminals? Enhance, enhance. How many innocent people that are biting by the law and following all the processes to ... Turns out you're just basically arresting people at random who have brown skin. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah.

It said, while the creators of this app claim to promote, quote, awareness, their actions actively undermine the integrity of our justice system. The development and use of this app is not simply neighborhood awareness. It is a blatant interference with agency operations. And they're like, this is, it's going to put them in danger. I'm sorry, the police don't wear fucking masks. Right. So can you just walk me through the logic here?

So the police, right, you talk about how these are the brave people that are, you know, keeping our society together and, you know, they, and they've been vilified. They don't wear masks. I think I remember there being protests against the police. They, why aren't they wearing masks? Is that what that was about? I vaguely remember. I think it was about, there's Pepsi was involved somehow in one of the car violations.

Yes, yes, yes. It was Kendall Jenner, right? But again, like it's just they keep doing this thing of like they're being doxed or whatever It's completely leaving out the part that what they're doing is extra legal and extra fucked up Well miles what you're leaving out is that assaults against ICE agents are actually up by 500% and Fox News actually reported that assaults against ICE agents are actually up by 500% and Fox News actually reported? Assaults against ICE agents are up 690 percent

Fucking 90 percent how many fucking people have had their head bashed in with bricks and are now have become Unusable as a goon. Oh, I mean, I don't want to I I don't want to even say it, but so the actual number, there's been 79 assaults, which is 79. You can't even, oh, sorry. So there've been 39 assaults. I do also just want to note one of the alleged assaults. We covered a story last week where a woman was walking into work. Her family had just dropped her off, lifted off her feet by masked

men without any police or ICE uniforms showing, put in an unmarked car, was not on ICE lists or any of that shit for four days. The family was putting out alerts being like, she's been kidnapped, obviously, since they claim they don't have her and these were just masked men. They finally, ICE was like, okay, you got us. We had her and she is being charged with assault because she was struggling when masked men pulled her into an unmarked car. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right. So that a person who they were able to just pull, lift off her feet and drag into an unmarked car. People who don't want to be disappeared are struggling.

When they struggle, that's being called assault. And yeah, I mean, that's what they do. That bullshit definition of assault. We are at 79. Right. From like, I don't know, well, whatever the math would be on that, like 10 or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a, and it's like, it's, and it's not like we've been doing the same amount of kidnappings a day to this before Trump or wait, no, it's because it's ramped up exponentially. Yeah. You're going to get more people who are like, what the fuck are

you doing? Who the fuck are you? I'm following the law. Who the fuck are you? Yeah. So, Kristi Noem, like you said, like a lot of people were complaining, scared for ICE agents, was like, this is being used to target our people. And ICE block grew in popularity and became the number one app on Apple's app store. Streisand affected that thing, huh? Yeah. Yeah. They just strides into the fuck out of it. It's over Google maps. Which is pretty cool. Jesus. Yeah. Also, when I searched ice block in the app store, I noticed there's some ice block themed puzzle

games that seem to be having a nice week as well. Yeah, a little bump. But so Trump supporters are trying to like flood the app and make it unusable. But Trump is also threatening with legal action. But like the app has been thoroughly vetted. I don't know if it's been thoroughly funded though. You would think something that comes comes up to meet the moment like this would get a ton of funding, but less anti-fascist apps, I'm sure, would get more entry-level funding. Yeah, I feel like we can get clever. A lot of apps have map things where you can drop pins and things like that.

I mean, I remember when the Eaton Fire broke out, there was a public Google map where in real time people were reporting what parts of the neighborhoods were like going up in flames. I remember that like that was the most intense looking at Google maps I've ever done in my life. But it's again like this is just a thing that in fucking you know these like like ways and these other navigation apps there's the thing like say there's a cop there setting. You can do that but But yeah, okay. All right Yeah, because again, they don't want to actually Interrogate or analyze or reckon with like what they are actually doing and it's much easier to be like the ice Ice is the good guys and anyone who's against them is bad. Okay, and I'm not gonna hear anything else

You will not hear of it. That's what that's what good guys in the movies are always saying. I will not hear of it. Exactly. Now disappear this child. What the fuck? All right. Those are some of the things that are trending on this July 9th. We are back tomorrow with a whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Get your vaccines where you still can. Get your flu shots where you still can. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye! Bye! The Daily Zeitgeist is executive produced by Katherine Law. Co-produced by Bae Wang. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by JM McNabb. And edited and engineered by Brian Jeffries.

Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. For my heart podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is the turning river road. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse. But in 2014, the youngest escaped. Listen to the turning river road on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you

get your podcasts. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebene, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebene and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that will challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I'm Dr. Joy Harden-Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast.

I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal-Bornette and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not normal is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do, the things that you were meant to do. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.