The Daily Zeitgeist - TV Characters WITH Jobs? A.I. Throat Bubble 10.17.25

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

In episode 1949, Jack and Miles are joined by the Senior Fellow for Gender Equity, Paid Leave & Care Policy, and the Director and Founder of the Entertainment Initiative at the Better Life Lab, Vicki Shabo, to discuss… ChatGPT Is Just A Digital Shopping Mall Now, A Recent Study Found That AI Might Be A Bubble, The Chinese Robot Takeover Should Terrify The Forces of Capital, But I’m Good, At Least Tron 3 May Have Finally Killed Jared Leto’s Career and more! Writing About Jobs, Money, and Work-Family Stress OpenAI's ChatGPT is so popular that almost no one will pay for it Soon you'll be able to shop at Walmart through ChatGPT Walmart Partners with OpenAI to Create AI-First Shopping Experiences You’ll soon be able to shop Walmart from ChatGPT Walmart CEO’s AI warning is existential. Pay attention. Walmart CEO: ‘AI is literally going to change every job’—how the best employees can still stand out Shopify and OpenAI bring commerce to ChatGPT ChatGPT goes shopping with new product-browsing feature ChatGPT Is Already Bungling Product Recommendations OpenAI is staffing up to turn ChatGPT into an ad platform New ad channel for ecommerce just dropped: Ads in Grok A Recent Study Found That AI Might Be A Bubble Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified “No One Asked for This Reboot”: ‘Tron’ May Mark End of Jared Leto’s Franchise-Leading Days Michael Fassbender’s History of Alleged Abuse: Former Girlfriend’s Story Resurfaces in #MeToo Era LISTEN: the one by Gabriel JacobySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So I plugged in my earbuds, which are substandard, but might be the best we can do. This is a substandard podcast. Yeah. No, that's not true. Well, allow me to lightly. Vicky, how do you pronounce your last name? Because we have a bet going. I think it's pronounced Shabble.

Viggy Shabble. And what's the other alternative? I don't know. I'm really into Adam Sandler. It's Shabo. Shaboh. Shabbo. Like, pretty much answer to anything.

Yeah. It's fine. Shaboo. This is an I-Heart podcast. Johnny Knoxville here. Check out Crimless, 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 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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, hey, it's Ed Helms, host of Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu every single episode.

32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop? What? Yeah, it's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous guests. Paul Shearer, Angela and Jenna, Nick Kroll, Jordan, Klepper. Listen to season four of Snafu with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve, and a spectacular new home.

But little by little, 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years, until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns.

Listen to Graves County on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and to binge the entire season, ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hello, the Internet, and welcome to season 4-10, episode 4. No, it's episode 5, isn't it? Oh, it was a short week, yeah, yeah, episode 4 of... Do you daily zeitgeist! It's a production of iHeartRadio is a podcast

where you take a deep dive into America's Chair Consciousness, and it is Friday! October 17th, 2020. I just ate a kiwi, and I got a little kiwi seed in my throat. So that's what's going on with me. Aren't we doing well eating kiwis? 10 good 107 golden. It's national, oh, straight edge day for all the people that are straight edge.

You know what I mean? If you're not now, you never were. I know if I have homies that are straight edge to this day. It's also Black Poetry Day. It's National Memography Day, National Mulligan Day, National Pasta Day. straight edge doesn't smoke either or do they smoke no no sorry this no cigarettes no alcohol no drugs alcohol tobacco drugs no yeah keep it all of it all of it's out it's the straight edge lifestyle almost church of latter day saints they're like edging on church of latter day saints but i bet they

have do they have caffeine you know depends depends on where you're at well my body is a temple so that all sounds good to me my name is jack o'brien aka whoa j Jason, watch out Jack, he's Stan Lee's son. Whoa, Jason, he's a skateboarder. That one courtesy of Christyamaguchi, Maine, and, uh, and Miles fucking with me and telling me that Jason Lee was Stan Lee's son. Yeah, that was actually an early, that was an early, like early internet misinformation I remember, but then like my name, yeah, when my name is Earl came out, I got cleared

up real quick because there's, nobody was terrifying. Like, it's Jason Lee, that's Stan Lee, it's the human. was in Mulwrest with his dad. And he was a comic book guy in Mallrats, wasn't he? Exactly. Brody. There it is. I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray! Yes, it's Miles Gray,

the Shogun with Nogun, aka the Lord of Lancashem, North Hollywood's very own. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. I gotta say it. Eight years now, Jack. Eight years now we've been doing this. And you thanked me every day. And you know what? I don't often thank you

for being here for having me as your co-host did Victor tell you about this how I talk about this every time I say you know you never thanks me he never says thanks back

just says yeah you're welcome you're just like yeah why are you thanking me but no yes eight years I think almost eight glorious years of marriage

Miles we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the senior fellow for gender equity paid leave and care policy and the director and founder of the Entertainment Initiative

at the Better Life Lab. She's drinking water out of a comically large beerstein. Yep. Please welcome to the show, Vicki Shaboh! Vicki! Thank you so much. You guys are too for super fun. Oh, well, we try.

We try in a world where... There's a lot of darkness. How could you not have fun when talking about what's going on these things? What I say. Right, right. Yeah. I'm very curious for you.

You're in D.C. and the work you're doing is basically diametrically opposed to all the values that are coming out of this current administration, I'm stressed out talking about it. And I have friends, like my partner, she's from D.C., so a lot of people in her orbit and families are federal workers, and there's all varying forms of existential dread of getting Rift. Everyone is saying that for shorthand, and I'm like Rift, and they're like, reduction in force. And I was like, ah, aha, aha. Yeah. What's, what's just, what's it like, what's it like right now for the people that are. Yeah. No, that's what they say. Yeah. What's it like? Well, I was walking down the

street yesterday and there were like four National Guard walking towards me with rifles. That's fun. That's kind of what it's like. Sure. Right now. Yeah, it's a little, I would say two things. I think that communities of people are coming together in ways that are really exciting. Like, neighbors are showing up for each other. Yeah, there's, like, people in fatigues with weapons all over the place. And people are scared and restaurants are kind of empty. Yeah. And, yeah, a lot of people don't have jobs or don't know if they will have jobs.

Do you feel like it's worth it because you can wear your watch outside again, like the administration keeps talking about? You can wear your hyper-expensive watches around outside in D.C.? Yeah, that doesn't really make up for it for me. I can, I wear three Rolexes now because I can afford them. Yeah, of course. Right. You might get arrested by the National Guard or, as we call it,

zip-zab-zopped by the National Guard. Calling getting fired rift is so weird. It's like, we're just riffing here, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm reducing the workforce and ruining people's lives. No, I have a friend who works at HHS, and they are just like, every day, you just wonder if you get the RIF alert. And I'm like, at first I was like, am I not, I just wasn't savvy on the term.

But yeah, that, yeah, the acronym for a reduction in force notification. All right, Vicky, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, a couple of things we're talking about. We're going to talk about the world, the tech economy, I guess. Chad GPT just announced that they're partnering with Walmart to make capitalism even more frictionless. and their product worse. We're breaking this product that people are in the process

of adopting in record time. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about a new study that went viral on Wall Street about how circular, aka incestuous, the flow chart of money is on the AI side. It's like a handful of companies

just all sloshing money back and forth between each other. And that could be a bad thing because, as they note, the statistics coming from, they're like, we're going to do a blind item here and say, one of the players, their statistics are very opaque and chat GPT, like, they forget they're doing a blind item the next sentence.

So we'll talk about that. And just generally, like, there's a lot of articles also coming out about how America's like behind the curve, behind China on technology, robotics. And they're written with a, a tenor of fear. And I just want to say, I feel fine about this. All of that, plenty more.

But first, Vicki, we do like to ask our guests. What is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are? Well, I love Broadway, and I love musicals, and they are, like, the thing that gives me joy in this moment of, you know, a lot. So I have windows open, trying to figure out what I should go see

when I'm next in New York. Any early contenders? Definitely want to see chess. Definitely want to see ragtime. Another fun fact about me, I go to adult Broadway camp every year. So spend a week in New York and sing and dance and, yeah, meet other cool people from across the country who, like, may or may not, most of them are talented. We're all, like, varying levels. I would never want to do this professionally, but it's super fun.

What's your vocal range? Just hit us with a little riff, sorry. If you don't mind singing, we just heard Laura Trump sing. I won't back down by Tom Petty. Oh, cool. Well, this past summer, I sang finished the fight from Suf's, which was very on point, which is about the fight for women's equality. Yeah.

So I'm not going to do that for you. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I can. I could. I could. I could. No other Laura Trump offering to, she could be the halftime performer if they asked me.

I don't know. I'm just an idea. It's crazy. I mean, just think about how mad the left would be if you asked me to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. To help my fledgling career. I must be doing that, too. Guys, think about how mad the left would be if you let me make the next Pixar movie.

Yeah, right, right, right. Vicki, are you, I'm going to go out on a limb. You must be a theater kid. I was a theater kid. Yeah, yeah, because I'm like adult Broadway camp sounds like an extension of theater kid who's like, I'm not, I cannot give up the stage. So this camp I go to is called Broadway Weekends, and it's basically. basically like all theater kids that have grown up and become, you know, insurance adjusters and pediatricians and obstetricians and lawyers and policy nerds like me.

And yeah, it's really like a lot of fun. That's just, that's probably pretty good networking too. It's like, it's like meet a lot of interesting people at. You need a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah, I've really, I've really enjoyed it. Lots of, like, it's good to see that there is, I don't know, a shared bond of, you know, grown-up theater kids all across the country.

Like some, this year there was like a newly retired pharmacist from Ohio and a drag king, also from Ohio, and who owns a hamburger restaurant and like preschool teachers from New Jersey and other teachers from Sacramento. So, yeah, super, super fun. Nice. What is something you think is underrated? I think on point for our conversation, entertainment, that helps people see themselves reflected on screen is very underrated.

Yeah. I want to talk to you about this, because I totally disagree. We were talking before we started recording about this new study that you shared with us that your organization put together that found that consumers like to see the things they deal with on a daily basis reflected on screen in the entertainment that they consume things like stubbing your toe or you know having bills to pay having jobs have you ever noticed have you ever noticed that like we have jobs but like the friends don't that or they like have like little five minute interludes but for the most part they just live in expensive apartments and don't really work or ever have to worry about anything ever and like exist in a world free of

economic gravity, the economic forces of gravity. But yeah, what did your study find? Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on to talk about this also. So our study was conducted by the firm market cast, which works for lots of studios and production companies. And they surveyed for us 1,300, more than 1,300 people who are streaming subscribers or in households that are streaming subscribers who watch five hours or more of programming a week. So people who are are watching and consuming media. And what they found is overwhelmingly, 92% of viewers say that seeing stories around work and family on screen is important to them, including nearly half, who said it's very important

to them, and that people are, 79% of viewers are better able to connect with characters that have work, families, and care circumstances that are like their own. And so, and we found, yeah, people want to see relate. to job concerns and financial concerns and caregiving concerns. And they want to see characters on screen navigating these things and finding solutions and dealing with conflict and feeling supported because so many of us don't feel supported in those things. Yeah.

And like, I think for me watching TV in the 90s and when this was like the height of this kind of thing, it's like, I don't know, these characters live here and you're watching them do the thing definitely contributed to my financial illiteracy. And just the idea that it's like, yeah, and like, you can just kind of like have it like that, I think, eventually because that's, and I'm assuming that's all there's, it's, it's not a positive effect it probably has on like younger people or just people generally trying to make sense of the world when their entertainment is like obscured like this. Yeah, I mean, to the point that Jack made earlier, like people on on screen, like often don't have jobs or if they do have jobs, it's sort of like they go there, but you never see it. Women in particular on screen are usually either shown at home or at work rather than managing votes.

Sex in the city is about a blogger who lives like the richest human being on the face of the universe. Right, without a particular stream of income. Though I will say that the reboot and just like that, which just finished its final season, they actually I thought did a decent job

with some of the characters kind of talking about both their work lives and their home lives and for parents on that show, the struggle between the two. And so obviously, that's like a rarefied, very wealthy environment. Yeah. And we're not going to claim that reboot for the cause here. I think that's bad.

That would be bad for the cause. Yeah. Well, there were things I liked about it. Sure. There were things I actually really liked about it. But, but yeah, like, I wanted to know more about the servers and the restaurants that the friends went to and the domestic workers that were caring for them. And, you know, our research kind of shows that that would have made.

the story and really all stories more interesting in some ways. Yeah, because more people are servers in this country than our dynastic media figures who, you know, live in these impossible brownstones. But it looks great. And I get that it starts off as escapism for people. It's like, well, I'm trying to get away from the toil. I have like toiling every day. And I watch this other sort of texture of life. But I think now, especially since the like the pandemic lockdowns, people have just become so much more and more aware of like how people are sort of portraying their lives or what values are trying to sort of, you know, disseminate out there like with certain characters or lifestyle.

Yeah. I think the thing that was really interesting to me and our research also, a couple different things, but to your point, you know, I think people might go to television or film for escapism, but what they want to find are the characters that are relatable and sort of sticky. to them and what makes a character relatable or sticky or like somebody that you would want to have coffee with or get to know is when that person's life somehow responds to or reflects your own. Right. And so, you know, our research showed that viewers want us overwhelmingly want to see work family and care stories

embedded into shows about science and technology, into apocalyptic, you know, horror into shows about other things. And I think that that's really positive, you know, for creatives and executives to know. And for audiences really to say, like, this is what we want to see when we're turning on our screens or booting up our streaming service. Because it feels like it's probably also suffering

from like executives, probably being pitched this kind of stuff from writers who are like, this is kind of like real. And they're like, nah, no one. No one lives like that. I've never dealt with that. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. It's like, well, you have nine nannies. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're paid well. And my kids love them. So I don't know about this other stuff you're trying to pitch me. It's like, well, this is kind of real life for a lot of people.

So when's this poor guy get rescued by his millionaire uncle? That's what I'm wondering. Yeah. Yeah. We've all got them, right? I mean, that's how I was able to work as a assistant for seven years. Yeah. My, my millionaire parents. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that that is the, that has to be the secret backstory to every character on most TV shows. It's just like, oh, yeah, they come from Dynastic. Well, Yeah, they don't mention that because people who come from dynastic wealth never do. But yeah, what is something that you think is overrated? I definitely sort of male superheroes who solve problems all by themselves and don't need anybody else.

Yeah. I just need to be alone for a little bit. I'm going to go solve this problem. You know, I got here on my own and I'm going to fix the problem on my own. Do you think that's helped or harmed Americans? culture. Totally harmed American culture. Oh, I assume that was a sort of question. Totally. Yeah. No, I think like one of the big problems with American culture and why it is that we have such a hard time investing in policies that would help most people, things like paid family

and medical leave, which I've worked on for the last 16 years, trying to get the federal government and states to pass laws, why we have a hard time with child care and funding. home and community-based care and other services for older and disabled people, why we have a hard time recognizing that we need like supports and protections in workplaces and different cultural norms in society is that we have this idea that everybody should just pull themselves up by their hootstraps and, you know, kind of like if you work hard and play by the rules, you're going to get ahead. And it's up to each person and their own like ingenuity to figure everything out. But that turns out not to be the case for many reasons.

Yeah. So you don't think Batman made the right move investing in bat-shaped fighter jets rather than spending that money, like, donating to better mental health care in... It takes a village, but, you know... Yeah, right. Yeah, that would have been interesting. You know, give Arkham an upgrade, maybe. Get a little more progressive than making every, sending everybody to a spooky prison.

If they're suspected of having mental health. health problems. Yeah, I think we can do a lot better. What do you think? Interesting. No, I'm just saying, like, yeah, just keeping his identity a secret, doing everything all by himself with like one elderly butler and an arms dealer. I don't know. I think it's an interesting choices. It's like, your neighbor probably too, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think most of you were like some guys I'm like, man, if I could just shoot laser beams out of my eyes, I'd be able to have a relationship with my brother again. Yeah. It's also, yeah, we also talk about another version of this myth making, which is when people succeed in America and write biographies about themselves, they cut all the helpers out.

It's, it's always a hero's journey narrative that starts in a garage. For some reason, you've got to start in a garage. And then, you know, the people who. actually help them along the way are like recast to be people who are like you'll never make it stupid your idea of a personal computer is dumb yeah the hero's journey is like a very strong narrative oh america loves that shit whatever yeah they do and yet yeah i mean i think it's so much more interesting to surround that hero's journey with the supports and the barriers that have gotten in their way that are not just about them, but are sort of more reflective of all of us.

And I think that helps people see themselves in the stories of others in ways that can be really powerful. It's just like not how the world works. The world doesn't work like that at all. It's a fun story that people like to tell themselves when they're children. And then you get out of that and realize you need people. And by asking for help and helping other people, that's, the only way to, like, happiness and fulfillment. Yeah. But all of our stories just, like, go back to that central idea.

Right. What's interesting in this research that we did is that actually people overwhelmingly want to see characters being helped, being supported by friends and family and coworkers and community. They want to see people looking for and finding solutions. They want to see people navigating. and coming out of conflict, because those are much more realistic and relatable to most people's lives. And it's, and because it's relatable, I think the other thing, too, is like, there's just

such a culture of like this concept of being like invulnerability for American people that's fed to us through media. It's like, well, you're not vulnerable. You're strong. You can just, you laser beam everybody with your eyes. You're fine. And I think because of that, we many people, I think most people who understand the need for real like human-centered progressive policy changes, understand that we are all very vulnerable.

And many people, like, it's really entrenched, I think, in conservative thinking that it's like they don't want to acknowledge that we are vulnerable, that things can happen, and we do need help sometimes. And it's always saying, just like, not me, not me, until it is. What's super interesting, actually, in our research is conservative, more conservative viewers and more progressive viewers both want these stories. They're both interested in seeing people navigating conflict and finding support in their communities. They're both interested in people looking forward

finding solutions. And so sometimes I think we, there's perceptions of, you know, sort of what the other side, and I'm using air quotes, kind of wants, and that turns out maybe not to be true. But because we believe it, we perpetuate it. And storytellers perpetuate it. And the other thing, actually, there's really interesting new research among men and young men in particular about how held back they feel by this idea that they're supposed to be invulnerable, that they're supposed to be self-sufficient, that they're supposed to be providers, that they're supposed to be strong when what they and like many men in surveys and multiple research projects really want is to be able to be vulnerable and to talk about their feelings and to be able to provide care without. stigma and to feel a little bit less of that like protector and provider pressure that I think is

creating like a lot of stress and toxicity and mental health problems. You know, and for for women, it's these other messages that are are being sent. And, you know, one of the things we think a lot about here is like, how do you break down gender stereotypes and gender expectations in ways that let people just be human? Right. And so you're not spending tens of thousands. of dollars at an alpha male invulnerability camp where yeah that would be cool on her recent episode yeah yeah where I think yesterday's episode where we broke down a man ritual where instead of like they did end up holding each other and like kind of how to break through doing a little snuggle but they had to like do this man ritual where he was like you push through my chest

and I like push back you and you're a man and then I I say, move forward, and you scream, I'm a man over. What? It was, yeah. Wow. I mean, we just watching, we're like, man, like, this is what happens when you, luckily, I was raised in a home where, you know, my father was very emotional, like, was emote. And that was okay.

My grandfather, his father, my grandfather was a, like, he was a famous cryer in my family. Wow. And that was, and that was, because he was always, he would always cry because he was overcome with joy all the time. And it was very beautiful to see. and that was very normal. But I also recognize, too, a lot of other households are just not,

you don't have that example a lot of times, like stop crying, be strong, whatever. Stop crying. Yeah, yeah. Stop whining. Right, right, right. But then also realizing, too, it's like, no, you have to be, like,

you have to accept that these are all parts of who we are. And like, to push that down is just going to lead you to spending tens of thousands of dollars out an alpha male camp or someone screams at you and then you get a hug at the end. But also, if your father or grandfather, father were asked by somebody whether they were criers and they didn't think that it was going to be acceptable for them to say that they were would they still fess up to it or would

they pretend that that wasn't the case? No, they would. Luckily, they're very like self-assured and who they are. I think yeah, I think yeah, yeah, they're very much. And me on the other hand, I've never cried. Never even felt like it.

Whoa. Yeah. Part of stone over here. So that's, I mean, those are just the two sides of, you know, to cry, you don't, man. Should we try to make you cry right now? Yeah, you should. Not you. Just immediately. Just the mere asking, Jack, do you need to cry? No. No. No. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back.

We'll talk about the tech economy and other fun stuff. We'll be right back. my podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu every single episode. 32 lost nuclear weapons. Wait, stop? What? Ernie Shackleton sounds like a solid 70s basketball player. Who still wore knee pads?

Yes. It's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of guests. The great Paul Shear made me feel good. I'm like, oh, wow. Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched. You're here. What was that like for you to soft launch into the show? Sorry, Jenna, I'll be asking the questions today.

I forgot whose podcast we were doing. Nick Kroll. I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's see how it goes. Listen to season four of Snap-Fu with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved,

until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her. We know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people, and that God. the Citizen Investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer,

and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I pour gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season at free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus

on Apple Podcasts. I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart. How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old. And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke. And he got down.

And I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power. Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother tried to solve my problems through hypnotism. We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time. Being more able to look people in the eye. Not always hide behind a microphone. Listen to Heavyweight on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz. And I'm Mark and Delicado.

You might know us as Hilda and Justin from Ugly Betty. We played mother and son on the show, but in real life, we're best friends. And I'm all grown up now. Welcome to our new podcast, Viva Betty! Yay! Can you believe it has been almost 20 years? That's not even possible. Well, you're the only one that looks that much different.

I look exactly the same. We're re-watching the series from start to finish and getting into all the fashions, the drama, and the behind-the-scenes moments that you've never heard before. You're going to hear from guests like America Ferreira, Vanessa Williams, Michael Yuri, Becky Newton, Tony Plana, and so many more. Icons, each and every one.

All of a sudden, like, someone, like, comes running up to, me and it's Selma Hayek. And she's like, you are my ugly bitchy. And I was like, what is she even talking about? Listen to Viva Betty as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And we're back. We're back.

And all right. AI is all the people, the forces of capital are talking about these days. You got the good, you got the bad. On the good side, exciting new announcement, chat GPT is partnering with Walmart. They've announced a partnership that will allow people to buy shit from the company through conversations with AI and even more exciting in no way creepier. Chad GPT will help customers, quote, anticipate their needs before they do. Kind of like Minority Report, but the end goal is selling you a bunch of shit you don't need.

That's, I didn't realize the ant. I knew that their whole thing was like a lot of other AI companies have like browser extensions. So you can still be within a browser and do things. Like by doing this, you're like, we're keeping you inside the Chad GPT infrastructure to do all these things. and now how many errant purchases? Because I remember like with Prime. They're already so many. Remember what?

Like in the beginning of Prime, they're like, this three-year-old bought $17,000 worth of matchsticks or whatever. And they're like, I don't know, my kid just clicked add to cart 500 times with AI. Like, are you just going to be like,

oh man, I wish I had a better pair of slippers. Like just ordered. They cost $50. Yeah. You do. Check your front porch. And it's like the slippers are going to suck.

because they have tried to integrate with these sorts of platforms before. And when they did chat GPT, sometimes recommended sketchy third-party vendors or non-existent vendors, which I don't even know what that could possibly. Yeah, they're probably saying, like, you want to go to Wonka's hut for that. Well, because they always, like, they make up fake sources, so why not make up fake stores that can get you the thing that you're looking for?

I don't know. I didn't know Walmart was all in on a, I thought they were fine with just, like, becoming, hoovering up all of the transactions that exist in the country at the expense of, like, smaller shops. But now I guess they're all in on AI now. Yeah, I think they, like, one, their chief executive, like, warned of the, quote, existential threat of AI to literally every job a long time ago. And by a long time ago, I mean, two weeks ago. And now he's made good on that warning. He's like, yeah, I told you guys.

Sorry. I gave you two weeks notice. that's why I said it. It wasn't, it was, I was, I was sort of telegraphing this move about embracing a Chad GPT. Okay, good to know. But it is part of a trend that we've talked about before on the show of like removing all friction from consumption. So you don't notice the purchases. You don't have to deal with anybody.

You don't have to deal with any difficulty when it comes to spending money, accumulating shit. And now that inflation is so out of control, like being bad. bankrupted by consumption. And also, I do just think this is probably not great for chat. Like, this is a pretty quick move to sloppification of a product that I feel like, you know, according to Chad GPT numbers that like they're telling everybody is like extremely popular. But I don't feel like it's at the plate, like Facebook and Google got like crazy market share before they started breaking their product with ads, you know?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, they're moving fast. They're moving very, very fast. I mean, even like those numbers, I was reading another article about how, like, how dubious those numbers are. Yeah, that's the next thing I want to talk about is that because, like, I just like personally, like I hear some people being like, yeah, I use it sometimes for like, you know, writing emails or something. But I don't, it's not like everywhere and people aren't like using it constantly like every. But like according to their numbers. It is, but there are some, there's a recent article and chart that went viral on Wall Street that just tracked, like, how money is being invested by, like, in the AI sector. And it's just, like, these seven blocks. And they're all just, like, investing, like, billions of dollars back and forth between each other, which could lead to a domino effect if it turned out that, like, one of these companies was full of shit, for instance. Right. Do we not learn anything from like the tech bubble bursting? Right. No.

I mean, the one benefit with like the dot-com thing is like at least we were laying infrastructure for the internet. Like there was like fiber optic cable. And like now, I mean, like the more sort of charitable descriptions I read about like these data processing centers like, well, maybe we can use the data processing centers after the bubble pops for what? But I don't, I'm, it's still not entirely clear to me, like, what that is. But yeah, here we are. They said, you know, it could be like the aerospace industry in the 20s through the 50s where like Boeing funded its customers, it funded suppliers, it owned its suppliers. Like it was all very like financially incestuous, but like it just needed to be because like

they were the only companies with that technology. But it could also be very risky if, for instance, there isn't as much demand as they claim there is, and that's something that, like, the reason they did this study is they were like, there's one major player who is very opaque. The interviewer said, you wrote increasingly, you wrote, quote, increasingly complex transactions make it challenging to evaluate how demand for AI is developing. Could you explain why these transactions make it challenging? And then the person who did the study said, I think the opacity. We have published work from some of my colleagues that suggests a lot of the numbers from a certain player

are maybe somewhat aspirational? We just don't see that clarity, which is kind of the reason why we wrote this note. And the commitments seem somewhat binding. So some of open AIs, I mean, so some of open AIs commitments with other providers, chipmakers, etc., they appear to be somewhat binding, but we don't see their financial statements. So, I mean, that's what freaks me out. Just like the institutional investment in AI too, like people's pensions are being like tied to this stuff. That's the really horrific part is that this is all just this huge gamble on a thing

that they keep insisting people want to use and it's just not there. But it's the, it's the pensions and those kinds of things that are really, that's really where the damage is going to be done. I mean, like, I'm sure in their like fantasy world, it's like where our artificial General Intelligence has achieved, people better watch out. It's like, no, if the bubble pops, what about people's retirements? What about these investments? What about companies who are overly invested in it, who now have to lay off thousands of employees

because they took a huge hit from the AI bubble popping? So, yeah, like I think that there's this writer Daniel Bezner, who is one of the hosts the American Prestige Podcasts. He's been on before. What's that? He was on before many years ago. Yeah, yeah. And he was saying that his, he thinks that this, because, like, we've been talking about

this idea for, like, since the pandemic, that it just feels like the economy, in quotes, like the Wall Street thing that people treat as the economy has just, like, left the, like, when there were, like, you know, people were no longer working and stuff. The Wall Street was just, like, doing fine and just, like, coasting by. And it was like, oh, they've insulated them. from everybody else. It's just this like sort of money inflation machine that they have at a high level that they're able to just like kind of keep inflated with like hype and excitement and like whatever news stories they're reading. He is at least suggesting that it could work the other

way. He said AI is obviously a bubble, but to my mind a very different one than 2008 or 1929 crashes. AI investment has been largely limited to the very wealthy, in enormous corporations and relates primarily to stock market inflation, itself indicative of how the nature of capitalism has changed since 2008, when the government essentially provided the capitalist class with free money. So basically, I think it's possible the bubble could pop without the widespread social effects of 08 and 1929, which basically undercut assets, people owned houses, for instance, or relied on, because capitalism is essentially a game, only the wealthy play while the rest of us look on.

I'm sure, like, in my experience, anytime the market is facing trouble, they use that as an excuse to cut jobs. Like, it's going to, it will affect people. But to that point of, like, it's not real estate value. It's stock market value, which, yeah, pensions and people's retirement is obviously going to hurt people, but it's not, it's less connected to reality than it has been in the past, I think,

is one possibility. I think that's pretty interesting. I mean, part of the problem, right, is there's so much income inequality and so much wealth inequality. Right. And to the point that you made, like, there's only a certain segment of people, Americans, who are invested in the stock market at this point, or even who have pensions. Right.

Or retirement savings that are invested in the market, but the trickle-down effect. Right. in terms of jobs and wages, yeah, which are already hurting is, yeah, is pretty scary. Right. We can't, like, completely keep their shit from raining down on us, but, like, it does feel like a little bit less connected maybe than it was in the past because it feels a little less real. But, yeah, I mean, the investments that are happening that are out of people's control,

I think that's the part that it'll be hard to avoid. It's one thing for someone, an individual, you know, investor to be like, well, I'm going to buy some stock in this. But when you're like, wait, what's our pension fund putting the money into right now? Or the company that employs me, what are they invested in? Oh, they're propped up by stock market value and the stock market's about to take a shit. Yeah. And if the shit does start raining, I feel like this is where people just start eating them.

But we'll see. I'll eat my AI, my Nvidia chips. That's right. They go great. And they'll be worth as much as a chip. that point. There is another type of story I've been seeing where people are very worried about Chinese robots that I think, I, in a way, but in a sci-fi way. Not in a sci-fi way. Our money kind of way. Yeah, it's another our money story. It's another executive from,

this time from Ford, went over to China and looked at their factories and was like, oh, no, quote, it's the most humbling thing I've, ever seen, said Ford's chief executive about his recent trip to China. After visiting a string of factories, Jim Farley was left, of course, Jim Farley, was left astonished by the technical innovations being packed into Chinese cars from self-driving software to facial recognition. Their cost and the quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West. And this is somebody from Ford. And then another, an Australian billionaire said, I can take you to factories in China now where you'll basically be alongside a big conveyor and the machines

come out on the floor and begin to assemble parts. And you're walking alongside this conveyor and after about 800, 900 meters, a truck drives out. There are no people, everything is robotic. And of course, the article makes sure to mention, I think this was in the mirror or the telegraph, the UK telegraph. So they make sure to mention that like, and they could do this to make war machines and attack us so you should be scared but assuming they don't which by the way that seems to be traditionally more of our thing more of

us thing of like once you have a technical advantage you just invade everybody this does this does seem like a problem for the capitalist class that could be good for everyone else in the sense that like this is just

America is yet another way America is falling behind and like it's because they just keep letting people like oligarchs decide what to do like they're just like yeah that we'll figure it out just keep giving them more and more money keep giving the people at the tops of companies more and more money and like in china that is not like this shift to robotics they talk about how it's a reaction to like we've talked before about they them uh china having a demographics problem because of the one child policy that they have for so long. They're about to hit this point where a massive part of their population all retires at once. And then the part of their population that was, you know, the children of the one child policy will be in the workforce. And that's like, there's this thing called the dependency ratio where it's basically like

the more people you have who are working age compared to the people who are either retired or too young to work, it like so goes your economy. It's why the U.S. economy was like booming so much when the baby boom generation was like moving through the years of like 18 to 65 and why the economy is like slowing as they hit retirement age. And China has like a extra extreme version of that happening. And they've just taken money as a government and like made the centralized decision to be like, well, this is how we solve this massive problem that we have facing us. And it's just like so impossible to imagine America doing something like that, you know, like doing something with like long-term vision, you know?

Yes. Instead, we just talk about how, I mean, certain people are talking about how we need to have more babies here. Right. Exactly. But we don't have policies that support people to have babies right here. No, no, no, no, no. Because I would mess with. the millionaire and billionaire class. And like, yeah, the idea that like for free enterprise and deregulation, but yeah, like, no pay family leave, no child care, like, you know,

insufficient child care. No, like, apparently we don't really care about clean water or air anymore, either. And like, guns, you know, guns aren't a problem. People, well, fewer old people, if we, if our, if our water's really fucked up, fewer old people, because you start lowering that, uh, life expectancy.

Sure, we're kind of doing some work on our end. making some true decisions. Vicki, like, with the work that you do, what's like, what do you, I think, I'm always thinking, like, what's the most efficient thing that we can be doing policy-wise? That'll have, like, the most robust effect across the board for people.

And I'm always, like, I always think of, like, how other nations, like, when you read about, like, parental leave policies and other countries, like, huh? Right. Yeah. So, you know, the United States is the only one of, like, six countries in the world that doesn't have paid maternity leave or one of a handful of high wealth countries that doesn't have paid parental leave or family

leave or one of two high wealth countries that doesn't even guarantee paid sick leave. Right. So providing these, like, basic support that other people have would be a very strong way to start valuing workers and families and fostering people, being able to care for themselves and other people. Right. Raising wages, guaranteeing health care. And again, like, ensuring that people can care for the children that they have, whether

that's raising wages so, you know, an adult can stay home or whether that's incentive and is fully funding high quality child care with high wages for care workers. Right. So that people want to want to do that job. When you, when you like meet people or I'm sure you've, you've encountered people who have completely like antithetical worldview in terms of like, well, we don't need to invest in that. Has anyone ever articulated something that even remotely sounded humane as to why it's not needed? Or it's some, it's, it's, it's veiled in some kind of language that isn't sort of centering how inhumane that. Yeah, it's interesting.

I mean, yes, I've talked to lots of people who don't believe that there's a role for government in solving these problems. I think what's been really interesting and there's been an evolution over the 16 or so years that I've been working on a set of policies around work and family and caregiving, I think there's, and this used to give me hope, but now it doesn't so much give me hope anymore because of where we are. There's an agreement that we need to do better for families, families with children, families who are sandwich generation, of which there are more than 11 million who are caring for children and caring for older adults or people with disabilities. But the difference

really comes in and whether this is like a private, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, figure it out, George W. Bush, 1,000 points of light kind of conversation. Not W. The real, the first Bush. Sorry. H-dub. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, HW, or whether there's a role for public policy and community systems that are funded with public dollars. And that's really where it comes down to, where the difference comes down to. I think there's also a big difference about the role of women in caring for children and left ones and whether women belong as full and equal participants in the economy. And that seems to be the dividing line. So I think there's a lot of agreement around we need to do more

And I will say also, like among people, when you survey voters, when you survey actually even these TV viewers that we surveyed, there's like widespread agreement across party lines that national public policies around paid family and medical leave, child care, elder care would be beneficial in terms of a more secure, more secure families, more secure economy. people overwhelmingly across party lines believe that we should have national pay leave, national child care, national elder care policies, but where the breakdown really happens is with politicians. Right.

And that is really methodical to representative government, but that is true on so many issues where the public agrees and yet, oh, we've seen it, we saw it really in 4K this last year, I feel. Yeah, it just, hey, it seems like this

this might be kind of where people's heads are at. No, we're not going to talk about, We have the proof that letting companies and billionaires, like, make the decisions as opposed to government doesn't work. Like, the fact that nobody just, like, makes that point at a, like, concerted, that that isn't just the Democrats' entire position. Like, here's what we've been doing. Does not work.

Your quality of life has gotten worse. Our entire, our entire system is, essentially, like, based on trickle-down in economics and, like, the idea that if we just give billionaires enough money, they'll start investing the money back into the rest of us. And it just, like, over and over and over and over has been shown not to work. And people know that it's just these, like, institutions in between that are like, I don't know why that Zoran guy is so popular. He seems weird to us. Or he seems like he's very talented. And that's why it couldn't be his messaging that is resonating with people.

Yeah. Well, you know, when these things go to voters, they get approved overwhelmingly. Right. Yeah. Colorado passed a paid family and medical leave program in 2020, the same election, the Trump, Trump Biden election, counties that went for Trump voted for the paid leave proposal. We've seen the minimum wage and paid sick time be approved in places like Alaska and Missouri. We've seen paid sick time be approved in Nebraska.

Not, yeah, not controversial for people. real people who are working day to day and need to care for themselves and their families in the way that it's polarized in legislatures. I think that's what's so interesting too is like certain things are just not partisan. Like your ability to support your family. I mean, obviously like policies affect that, but you're to yearn for that as a human being doesn't fall along a political ideology. And I think there's something to that.

And that's where I think like television and film storytelling can come in and start to change how people think about these things. So, you know, in our survey, something like 79% of viewers said that they related to job, job instability, job concerns. I think 74% related to money concerns. This isn't, yeah, these aren't partisan. There's some divides by income, but really it's everybody,

no matter where you sit. You're worried about these things because we live in this, like, incredibly precarious and unstable time. Yeah. Hold that thought, actually. We're going to take a quick break, and then I'm going to come back and talk about a movie that I think really gets it right in terms of just, like, meeting people where they're at. It's a little film called Tron Ares, and I think you're going to like what you see here. We'll be right back.

Hey, it's Ed Helms, and welcome back to Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new statement. Knafu every single episode. 32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop? What? Yeah. Ernie Shackleton sounds like a solid 70s basketball player.

Who still wore knee pads? Yes. It's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of guests. The great Paul Shear made me feel good. I'm like, oh, wow. Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched. You're here. What was that like for you to soft launch into the show?

Sorry. Jenna, I'll be asking the questions today. I forgot whose podcasts we were doing. Nick Kroll, I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's see how it goes. Listen to season four of Snap-Fu with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole.

For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her.

They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season at free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus

on Apple Podcasts. I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart. How can a hundred and one-year-old woman fall in love again? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old.

And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke. And he got down, and I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power. Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother try to solve my problems through hypnotism. We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time. Being more able to look people in the eye. Not always hide behind a microphone. Listen to Heavyweight on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In early 1988, federal agents raced to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia.

We had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and you name it. But what they find is not what they expected. Basically, your stay-at-home moms were picking up these large amounts of heroin. They go, is this your daughter? I said yes. They go, oh, you may not see her for like 25 years. Caught between a federal investigation

and the violent gang who recruited them, the women must decide who they're willing to protect and who they dare to betray. Once I saw the gun, I tried to take his hand, and I saw the flash of light. Listen to the Chinatown Sting on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. And so I don't know, Vicki, have you seen Tron Aries? I have not seen Tron Ares. Tell me about it. Either have we.

So it, in a way, based on the analysis we've been reading, it in a way addresses how people are feeling in this precarious situation where jobs may be threatened by AI, by introducing a character who is AI, bit of a Messiah figure, is only there because he, like, wants to help. and like breaks free and then evil tech people want to take him down because he too good.

Played by Jared Leto, I should add. So I feel like but for some reason this did not connect with people. I don't know like what it bombed at the box office for some reason, even though it's this abstract

political cartoon that's trying to send the message that like, what if AI was like actually pretty cool? It should have been, like, they should have Tron. I'm just going to call the character Tron. Tron. Yeah, Tron should have been like Rift, you know.

Should have been a federal worker who got Rift or something. That would have been way more relatable than being like a perfect super AI soldier who is also benevolent. Wow. What is this? I mean, I think, again, it's, I think because when we were talking about like, you know, Jared Leto's own ties to having his own AI. company where you're like, guys, this is so transparent. Like, what is the point of this right now?

I think that's also, again, it shows how people like Jared Letto think people, how they are influenced. Well, it's like, well, if in the movie I say AI good, then they will believe that. Even though they are under immense pressure existentially, financially, financially in many different ways, the message will get through. I'm pretty sure. It's like my Pixar idea. I did mention earlier that I want to make a Pixar movie about soup.

And it has nothing to do with my soup company and the fact that tomato bisque soup is the hero of my, my movie called soups. Say the real character's name. It's called Jack's tomato bisque soup is the main character. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yes, the font is very similar to Campbell's, but that's being settled in a lawsuit. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't know. Like, that has nothing to do with why I want to make soups an exciting adventure about learning to.

accept that the soup that you have inside of you is actually going to make you live forever. But yeah, so this is, I don't know, this just seems like such a weird place for Hollywood to be where they're making a sequel to a movie that when they last made a sequel to it, everyone was like, oh, I guess nobody wants a sequel to that. They make a sequel to the one that didn't do well

with Jared Leto, who the last time they made a future film with Jared Leto, people were, they were like, I guess nobody wants to have a feature film starring Jared Lett-Morbius. They did all the mistakes. Yeah, but what if we made all these mistakes together and at the same time? Maybe that would work. It might just pull it off. It might just pull it off.

I mean, this feels like this sort of intersects with your research, too, in that these are the value, clearly from the filmmaker standpoint, or the studio's standpoint, this is like a message that's needed without understanding what people are looking. Yeah. Well, and also again, like this idea that you want to see like these like muscular white men on screen when really what audiences say they want to see and what research tells us make more profitable engaging films are diverse characters from a diversity of backgrounds. Characters not just of your own race or ethnicity, but of different races and ethnicities, including among white, white viewers in our survey, people have different income levels

and people who are, yeah, relatable and not, and, like, explaining why it is that they believe what they believe and having some point and counterpoint to it and not sort of asserting things. Wait, hold on. What's not relatable about this? Ares, a master control program who's the perfect expendable soldier. I must hang out in the wrong circles or something. So the Hollywood Reporter released an article that was like, well, that's a wrap. There will never be another major motion picture with Jared Letto as the main character. But then they had this to say.

But do we think that's true? I don't know. I mean, that's what I thought. I thought people were saying that after Morvious. They're like, guys, I think it's a wrap on this. But yeah. They had this paragraph. In a world where Michael Fastbender,

Ewan McGregor, and Benedict Cumberbatch are having a hard time getting lead roles. Why would you even go to a person who can't open a movie and who has question marks about around him as a person. Those from one top talent manager partner who may or may not represent Michael Fasbender. Real quick. Oh, that's someone from WME. Yeah.

Of course, Fasbender also has some question marks around him as a person stemming from a domestic violence charge in 2009. But yeah, I love that they're like, what about these other white guys that all kind of seem similar? to one another. You could be totally hiring them. And then they couldn't even come up with the example of someone who doesn't have problematic shit in their past. Right. Right. Well,

then also, Kamala Avila Salmon, who used to be at Lionsgate and now has her own production company, Cass Cass Productions, she's just really smart on this and talks a lot about the high standards that are put in place for films that are led by filmmakers of color, by women filmmakers that are on topics, you know, that are a little bit outside the mainstream. And, you know, there's one of those. And if it doesn't do well, it's like, oh, that's it. We're not going to do this again. And if it does do well, like sinners, they're still like, well, we did okay for one week. Oh, it did even better than next week. Well, we'll see if they make money on it 45 years from now when the rights revert to Ryan Coogler. Right. And so it's

like, yeah, treated like an anomaly, whereas these other movies that are made. mainstream get made over and over and over again and some of them do well and some of them don't, but we keep making them because somebody believes that this is what audiences want to see. Right. Yeah, I mean, that was the thing. Like, even with Tron, I was like, you know, they're women of color, like in this one. Like, Greta Lee is like one of the leaders, Jody Turner Smith and like Hassan Minaj. And I'm like, are we just going to do the thing where they're like, they went woke?

Yeah, yeah. And that's what I didn't do well. And not because it was an allegory for chat GPT being the savior of humanity. Being led by a big creep right now who has a terrible track record opening movies. Yeah, it's not that at all. It's the fact that Greta Lee was one of the leads. That was like my one, when we were talking about the movie initially, I was like, God, I hope they don't just drag Greta Lee for this movie being bad.

Oh, you know behind the scenes. That's exactly what's happening. I mean, it must be because how is Jared Lettel still working? Like, after Morbius? Seriously? Like, that was such, that was like one of the, that was like the cutthroat island of our times. that's what they should call getting fired

from the Trump administration getting morbbed I got morbbed yeah I don't know we'll try we'll workshop that all right well Vicki it's been such a pleasure

having you on the daily zeitgeist where can people find you follow you hear you all that good stuff you can follow a new America Better Life Lab

on Instagram I'm on Twitter I don't use it that often anymore at Vichabo why what happened oh I don't know there was this thing that happened

on Twitter also on Blue Sky But yeah, I don't know. I don't spend as much time on either of those as I once did. But yeah, look us up. All of our entertainment research is at newamerica.org slash entertainment. The Better Life Lab is at newamerica.org.

You can find us on that site. But check us out. And yeah, thank you so much for having me. This is a super fun. Awesome, having you. Is there a work of media that you've been enjoying? That is a question I have for you. What's a popular show or movie that's doing well?

So I talk about this show all the time, and I should maybe, there's several of them and several of them that were Emmy nominated, but the show that I've been loving is high potential on ABC, in part because it shows a woman, a Kay Lennelson's character, Morgan, managing work, managing family, like being an involved parent, having a co-parent who's a guy, a man, a dad who is like fully competent, she brings her family life to work with her in her mind and she brings her work home like so many. any of us do. So I've been enjoying that show, but also the pit, I think, is doing a great job, have been actually loving severance and kind of the work family themes in severance, as well as the anti-corporate sort of workplace themes and severance. The bear, I think, has, like, lots of cool family relationships in a workplace where you get to know the characters in their family situation. So I put it down after that Christmas episode in season two. Yeah, that's true. Too much. Abbot Elementary. What do we think of Abbott Elementary? I feel like There's some, yeah.

Yeah, I like Abbott a lot. There's another example of like a show that, you know, has, makes the case the point that like working parents need to take time off of work to come in school meetings. Yeah. I would say for all of these, I'd love to see more solutions being put in place and more sort of characters questioning why things are so hard and suggesting solutions. And I think that helps audiences then also see that they can ask for solutions and band with others. Yeah, to make change.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, you watch it and you're like, yeah, it is bad. It's kind of bad rather than like, yeah, it is bad. And we can do this. Yes, exactly. Like, we can do something.

Yeah. There's a great scene on the morning show from the last season where one of the characters, like, asks a board member what he's going to do about equal pay for the rest of the people. She had gotten a settlement to make up for a wage gap, but she showed ally ship, which our research shows the audiences want to see saying, what are you going to do for all of the other people here who can't hire lawyers? And I kind of love that as well. Talking about the, like, lack of solution, we've positive the theory that the reason people like post-apocalyptic zombie movies is because it allows them to experience community and walkable cities for the first time.

That's how they have to get there. I think we can do better than that. What if, like, there weren't just like cars flying around. Well, that's what it just shows. It's like, it's easier to think that part up than like a utopia where it's like, yeah, we've figured out income inequality and, you know, just generally. like societal ills have been solved through wealth redistribution. Yeah, it's been really fun

to talk to writers who are interested in all these topics, and hopefully our data helps them sell their shows and ideas. Yeah, right, for sure. Yeah. Miles, where can people find you as their working media you've been enjoying? Yeah, find me everywhere at Miles of

Gray. You can find me talking about 90-day fiancé on 420-day fiancé with Sophia Alexandra. A couple posts I like. First one is at Robdelaney.biscite.com. It said, Just saw Tron Airy's calling it now. Jared Fogel is going to win another Oscar.

Another one from Paul F. Tompkins at pf.tomkins.combs.combs. I know everyone is sick of hearing this, but Dorothy is a mom's friend's name. Not a mom's name. If your mom is named Dorothy, she's not really your mom. And I just like how assertive he was being about that.

Facts. Those are, yeah, you actually cannot. Your mom's friend is named Dorothy, not your mom. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien on Blue Sky at Jack O'B, the number one. Work of media, I've been enjoying Trash Jones on Twitter tweeted, hey, hate when somebody is starting to piss me off a little, but not enough to say anything. You're on thick ice with me, buddy. I feel like that. It really resonates with me.

Okay. Nobody's ever been. Shots fired on. Ficker ice. Been with me? Yeah, exactly. You can find us on Twitter and Blue Sky at Daily Zikeist.

We're at The Daily Zikeist 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 foot notes, 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 the people might enjoy it?

Yes, I think with D'Angelo's passing, I've just been listening to a lot of R&B, and also stumbling upon some other artists I wasn't as familiar with. This is a new, an artist I wasn't familiar with named Gabriel Jacoby. The track is called The One. And it's got, he's had, like, I don't, he has, he's doing so many things vocally. Like there's a lot of falsetto. It's like whispery.

It kind of feels like Prince vibes sort of vocally. But also, who else am I trying to say? It's like, you're going to enjoy it. If you like R&B, you're going to like this. And it's a little bit more faster pace. It's not sort of like a slow R&B ballad. It's just like a nice track. It's called The One, and it's by Gabriel Jacoby.

And we will link off to it in the footnotes. The Daily Zykeyes is a production of IHeartRadio for more podcasts from IHartRadio. Visit the IHeartRadio Apple Podcasts. Wherever you listen to your favorite shows, that's going to do it for us this morning, for this whole week, actually. We're back tomorrow with the greatest hits of the moments from this week's episodes. And back on Monday morning to tell you what was trending over the weekend and what's trending on Monday morning. And we will talk to y'all then.

Bye. Bye. The Daily Zite Guys is executive produced by Catherine Law. Co-produced by Bay Way. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb. Edited and engineered by Justin Connor. Hello.

America's sweetheart Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you. about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist, from smartless media, Campside Media, and Big Money Players. It's a wild tell about a gang of high-functioning nitwits

who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood, except for the part where he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. I'm not that generous. It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million and had not bought a

ticket to help him escape. So we're saying, like, oh God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb. People do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Ed Helms host of Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest. screw-ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu every single episode. 32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop. What? Yeah. It's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous guests. Paul Shear, Angela and Jenna,

Nick Kroll, Jordan, Klepper. Listen to season four of Snafu with Ed Helms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start. start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve and a spectacular new home. But little by little, 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to binge the entire season, ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.