The Daily Zeitgeist - Underrated Horny Christmas Classics, Pagan Origins of Xmas 12.21.23

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

In episode 1601, Jack and guest co-host Caitlin Durante are joined by writer, JM McNab, to discuss… Caitlin’s Christmas Corner, Many Christmas Traditions Are Actually Pagan, Cuetlaxochitls (aka Poinsettias), Our Favorite Home Alone Fan Theories, JM's Horny Christmas Movie Notes, Weird Sex Stuff in Holiday Movies, Horny Additions To The Christmas Canon and more! America’s Favorite Christmas Movies Ranked by State The checkered history of the poinsettia's namesake and the flower's origins get new attention Why Do the Holidays Make Us So Horny? 11 Christmas Movies Guaranteed To Make You Horny Check out JM's band Vistavision here! Look for a Bechdel Cast LIVE Show near you here: https://linktr.ee/bechdelcast LISTEN: Cold Air by The HicsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jess Costavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 318, episode four of Dead Eilish's iGeist, a production of iHeartRadio. This is the half-assed, schools-out, teacher-show-and-movies episode of The Daily Zeitgeist. It's the last episode we recorded of the year, last main episode. We're still going to be releasing other episodes we recorded earlier over the coming days we're still gonna take a deep dive into america's shared consciousness don't worry we're just gonna uh not give as much of a shit while we do it i think is generally

the energy uh we're not really talking about the news we We're talking Christmas. We got the Christmas fever, baby. It's Thursday, December 21st, 2023. It's solstice. Thursday, December 21st, 2023 at 7.27 p.m. Which time zone? I don't know, co-host. I just realized that. It wouldn't be the

fuck around, we don't give a shit episode if I had actually looked up which time zone. Just celebrate it on every one of them. Like the people who are New Year's completists and they do every

striking of midnight around the world. Oh, just like every hour on the hour until every time zone has observed it. Oh, wow. That's fun, right? That's a fun little celebration for people who are alcoholics and just need to drink every hour on the hour for all of New Year's Day. I'm going to line up 24 different people to kiss. Are there even, are there 24 time zones i guess i've never really thought about this i think there are i think i i have thought

about that only because of kids because they're fascinated by time zones and i know that china has one big time zone but for the most part i think the world just is divided evenly into 24 time zones okay that makes sense well right shouldn't it be i think so if a day is 24 oh i don't know whatever anyway who knows and we can't even know and we can't know there's no way of knowing the point is i'm going to line up however many time zones there are on planet earth i'm want to line up that many people and kiss each one. Just give them a big kiss. For a New Year's sloppy kiss.

Oh, you're going to get so much COVID. You're going to get all the kinds of COVID, baby. Amazing. I'm boosted. I'm boosted. Miles and Jack got med boosted. Well, my name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. On the 12th day of Christmas,

the Zeitgeist gave to me 12 plumpers plumping, 11 songs for Miles, 10 tweets I'm liking, 9 trends a trend, and 8 dirigible, 7 turtles and tuna, 6 Lambos got to santa university four coal gas mentions three

wexler sodes two giants balls and my jeans covered in pp that is courtesy of Fighter of the Nightman, the AKA to end all AKAs. So much in there. So much in there. A lot to unpack. A lot to unpack, and we're not going to unpack any of it. Okay. Hey, like a Christmas present.

Somebody retweeted the moment from Wet Hot American Summer where I think it's Michael Showalter's character is like, what an interesting way to wrap a present. Because in movies, they just have the lid of a box wrapped and then the bottom of the box wrapped. They do do that. Yeah, because they don't want to do multiple takes where they have to, you know, rewrap the present or have multiple things wrapped. So it's just like, oh, I just lift it off. Because Wet Hot American Summer was a many take operation that David Wayne is like Kubrick.

He does 145 takes. David Fincher. Anyone named David, any filmmaker named David is going to be a real pain in the ass. Yes. Nonstop. I'm thrilled to be joined in my second seat by a very talented writer, stand-up comedian, podcast host of the Bechdel cast, which takes down patriarchy one movie at a time.

They also happen to have a master's degree in film and the most anagrammable name in the English language. It's Caitlin Durante! And the most anagrammable name in the English language? It's Caitlin Durante! I wish I had a good anagram that was holiday-themed, but I don't. Well, Nine-Tit Dracula is the original holiday-themed. Dracula celebrate Christmas.

I mean, yeah. Yeah, they do. That's the ninth day of Christmas in many. Nine tit Dracula. Yeah. How are you, Caitlin? I'm doing rather well. It's a rainy day here in Los Angeles.

It is a rainy day in Los Angeles. And that means that the city, you just wake up to the sound of sirens and the whole day, if you have to drive that day, the city will be trying to kill you that entire day. Correct. Because people don't know how to drive in wet weather in LA. And also, I don't blame it all on the people. Also, there is this fine dirt that accumulates onto everything because it never rains that it's just everything is dusty and dirty as fuck and when it gets wet it turns very slippery so it's a it's a very dangerous condition and you just hear police sirens all day as people's bodies are collected around the city.

It's fucking terrifying. So be careful. Yeah. I will rain out indoor activity in Los Angeles. I'll just be like, yeah, we're not going to the museum today because it's L.A. And it's raining. Because you have to still get to the museum. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. Anyways, Caitlin, thank you for joining for the Fuck Around episode. Happy to be here. Our biggest Fuck Around co-host, we had to have you. And then, of course, the number one Fuck Around. No, that's not really true. The writer of this very show, along with Miles and I and our guests write their own material.

But this is the one that you don't get to hear from very often. Well, we have a very special Christmas treat for you because he's our guest today. It's J.M. McNabb. Hey, happy holidays. I'm bringing it back. They said you couldn't say happy holidays anymore. They did say that. And sorry, I sounded mad when I said your name.

I didn't mean to sound angry. Well, you gave it such a buildup. It sounded like you were going to say, like, Santa. Santa Clitz. Santa fucking Claus, him very self. And it's just me. Him very self. What?

Yeah. So this is the end of the road for me. I'm dying. No, this is the end of the road for me i'm dying uh no this is the end of the this is just the end of a long the christmas episodes we record a lot of them so we're like doing three days four days in some cases and my words stop stop working and so my words stop working people people don't know this but we record the whole year in advance and just kind of guessing when current events are gonna happen in december when jm is he guesses guesses right a lot of the time yeah who's the no no stradon

yeah who was the guy nostradamus was like the guy who like predicted everything. Yeah. He has a great brand for being wrong about fucking everything. Like the branding around Nostradamus is crazy because he would just be like, the sun will engulf the king of England in front of all of us. And people are like, well, kind of. There was a sunny day this year and the King of England probably was out in the sun too much. Anyways, jam,

we're going to get to know you a little bit better. We're also going to tell the listeners a couple of things we're talking about. It is traditional for this guy Christmas episode to talk about Christmas gifts, Christmas presents. We liked when we're talking about. It is traditional for this Christmas episode to talk about Christmas gifts, Christmas presents we liked, like some of our favorites. We also like to talk about Christmas movies. I'm going to keep hammering my point that Christmas movies not horny enough. We'll discuss Home Alone fan theories. We'll discuss horny Christmas songs. Just all around Christmas horniness seems to be the theme that has come up.

But before that, we're going to talk about Christmas pagan-ness. Because a lot of Christmas traditions, as Caitlin has pointed out, come from pagan. And that is how you say that sentence so we're going to talk about that plenty more but first jm we do like to ask our guests what is something from your search history well that isn't porn that isn't porn okay you're gonna have to give me a minute okay keep scrolling back i looked through my search history, and it made me realize how kind of irrelevant and sad and how I have no interior life of my own

because it was all stuff for work or stuff that I search for my kids because my kids are always asking me to search stuff. And so I've been trying to keep things holiday related. So one thing they were asking me about is they've had a lot of questions about santa this year and like the other day like starting to get suspicious no more just inquisitive like questions that i didn't even really foresee like going into it now that they're older like the other day at breakfast out of nowhere my five-year-old just said is santa a god i was like i mean it's a great question i think the answer is probably

if you're gonna take it that like if you're gonna insist that santa is real then technically kind of they have to be right well it makes sense because we're also like it's we have the santa narrative but we're also constantly telling them that like we don't believe in a god and aren't religious it's like at a certain point i think they're like well why don't you just structure your belief system around like this guy that we do know is magic and immortal and giving us stuff every year like let's build a temple to him and what are the ages once five once five yeah eight and five so like almost the same as mine and the eight-year-old still believes yeah yeah they're no they're into it but so yeah we wrote letters to santa this year

which like canada post here in canada has a thing where you can write letters and you get a letter back but the postal code is in Canada. Oh. And so they were saying like, well, why does it say the North pole Canada? And I said, Oh,

well maybe the North pole is like technically in Canada. I'm not really sure. And they were like, can you look it up? And I was like, okay. And so I looked it up. Damn you Google.

Yeah. Well, and I, you know, it was a very confusing, complicated answer where like this, no one, it's not in any country I, you know, it was a very confusing, complicated answer where like this, no one, it's not in any country by, you know, according to international law, but then a bunch of countries have been like trying to.

Colonize the North Pole. Yeah, exactly. Like there was like Denmark actually like filed papers with the UN like 10 years ago to try to do it. You gotta. Yeah. And they did it right before Christmas. It was like a week before Christmas.

They were trying to like occupy Santa's workshop. Wow. And Canada's been trying to do it and Russia. They're all trying to get at the North Pole. So it was a really complex geopolitical answer. And then by the time I'd looked it up, my kids had moved on to something else they didn't care about.

Yeah, that's good. So that's a little peek into the chaos of my life. Well, that has me thinking about how for families who are raising their kids in a non-religious, secular home, is there a kind of Santa counterpart that doesn't hinge on like this magical mystical almost god like narrative like can it just be like hey i'm santa your dad or just like a regular santa and you know how he gets those gifts it ain't magic it's busting his rear yeah i i feel like those are the main options right santa or come on you know you know santa my my seven-year-old this year gave me he did he didn't say i don't believe

in santa he gave me the room to tell him the truth. He said, it's interesting. Sometimes I've thought maybe Santa is just you guys leaving presents while I'm asleep the night before Christmas. Okay. And how did you respond? Meaningful pause. And I said, oh, yeah. Huh. That's how I responded like a like a dash okay so he was he he was opening up space for you to tell the truth tell the truth and i did not the truth i withheld the truth i lied yeah just Lied by omission. Yeah, exactly.

I backed through a wall. I backed away so hard that there's just a me-shaped hole in the wall in the room. So at least I didn't yell at him for thinking he's so smart or something, which was like there was a voice in my head. I think it was my grandmother who wanted me to do that. Be like, oh, so you think you're smarter than me? You think you, what? You think you figured something out? But I didn't do that.

Is your grandma Joe Pesci? Yeah, actually a little bit. Not far. Nana Pesci? Yeah, Nana Pesci. Not a fan of my nonsense. What's something you think is overrated jam okay sticking with the holiday theme uh i'm gonna say candy canes okay has anyone ever bought a candy

cane no one wants candy canes they are they're mainly it's it does seem like if you told me candy canes are actually like making money for some like secret government subsidy or you know that there was some reason for them to exist i would i would be like that finally makes sense to me the existence and continued popularity of candy canes does not make sense to me however i have already voiced this opinion which i don't know did you write that opinion for me you're you you do write for the show maybe so i don't remember uh do i do i actually like candy canes and i was just writing uh i was just reading what you wrote for me but i i don't like candy canes i don't love peppermint candy my kids have been kind of coming to that conclusion and so it's like reinforced it where they're like discovering

oh these things suck yeah and and as i voice that i have been berated by some tdz fans who in in multiple instances they reached out to me on Twitter and offered to duel, like in a dueling context, more like, I demand, sir, that you give me the room to defend the good name of Candy Canes. And so instead of doing that, I had you on to commiserate with me about how candy canes suck shit. Or take the heat. Yeah, that's right. Well, see, I like minty things, but first of all, there's no good way to eat it.

It gets all sticky when you're holding it. It's got that weird wrapping. Very impractical to eat. Hard to unwrap. The worst shape for a food you're supposed to lick. Yeah. Just a a product. I was trying to look up how they came to be.

And like, there's a myth. I don't know if this is true, but they said that they were created to like silence choir children in churches in like the 1600s. I don't know if that's true. Well, that's funny. Literally just everything's just small children,

quiet children. It really is. Stop just a small children choir. Everything's just about silencing children. It really is. Stop asking so many damn questions about Santa Claus. You know what I'm saying? Shut your mouth around this. But yeah, they are very difficult to unwrap. That, that, that. Guys, are you okay?

Not really. Candy canes and wrapping paper. I feel like both are wrapped by the same plastic in the same plastic method, just like shrink wrapped and with zero, like zero room for you to like dig in there, you know, it's. Yeah yeah that's true and while we're on the topic of wrapping paper how much wrapping paper gets wasted not just from like discarded like after a gift has been unwrapped and then you just like are wastefully throwing away this but also like you're cutting the wrapping paper to like fit the size and shape of the gift you're wrapping. So there's all these like little excess pieces that aren't big enough to do anything with. And then those go to waste. Yeah. Oh,

I hate those. Wrapping paper, bad. Wrapping paper, bad. You can cut those up and put them in a confetti can. Oh, for New Year's.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycle your used wrapping paper. I think instead of wrapping paper, we should have blindfolds. Go to the source. Those are reusable. Thank you.

Yeah, definitely. Reusable. And plus, your kids might fall asleep. And that will shut them up too. Shut them the fuck up. And they will stop asking questions about Santa Claus. Shut them the fuck up and they will stop asking questions about Santa Claus. They would either invent candy canes or like invent the ether soaked rag.

It was like one of the two. What is something that you, Caitlin, you don't like peppermint candy canes, like the taste, any of that stuff? I'm not a big peppermint candy fan myself. Personally? Okay.

All right. Well, I'm sorry, Zeitgang, that I didn't get better representation for you. Maybe next Christmas. Making lots of promises about next Christmas to Zeitgang. We're going to do a top five episodes where I actually let you guys vote next year. And also, I will have one of you on

to defend the good name of peppermint candy canes. One thing that is super intriguing to me that we did learn during the holiday episodes this year was that you can just stick a candy cane, like a regular street grade candy cane, into an orange and suck on it and it will become a straw and suck up orange juice. What?

What? How? I changed my mind. I like candy canes. Right? And they say it's like really delicious, even though those two things don't seem like they should work together because orange juice toothpaste. So such a bad fit.

But for some reason, like this actually just makes the orange juice like sweeter i guess it's the way that the can the candy cane is like pulled lengthwise and so it like creates little air pockets and then because of the acidity of the orange juice it is like burning burning holes up the up the cane okay but what about when you brush your teeth with minty toothpaste and then drink orange juice and it tastes horrible? Tastes like the worst.

The worst, yeah. For some reason, that principle does not apply. It might be the other chemicals in toothpaste that are causing that, which is why I don't trust toothpaste brush your teeth with candy canes it's all that fentanyl that's yeah yeah i don't know it's also funny that candy cane like canes are the thing because they were like clearly invented at a time when like people were still like suffering from polio and uh things like that and it was just like

what what would kids like well i think what according assistive device can we turn into candy yeah i according to the that myth that i, it was supposed to resemble like a shepherd's cane. Not a polio cane. Not a polio cane? Hey, I mean, tomato, tomato. That makes more sense. Well, speaking of oranges, here's a Christmassy time candy that I can get on board with is those chocolate orange candies. You know what I'm talking about?

Are you talking about the dried oranges dipped in chocolate? Or are you talking about just the things that are chocolate, are orange flavored chocolate? Shaped like a orange and like sectioned off into different like orange sections, but made entirely of chocolate, but like flavored with like orange flavoring. So it's like orange flavored chocolates. with like orange flavoring so it's like orange flavored chocolates so there was a list of the worst christmas candies published this year that did not contain candy canes did contain those and i was no furious i think that's actually where my candy cane anger or initially arose it was like but me that day was like Michael Douglas and falling down. I was just walking the city of Los Angeles, pulling candy cans out of children's mouths and snapping them in half.

Yeah, I was fucking pissed, you guys. And that's why you're not welcome at the mall anymore. No, I'm not. Let's take a quick break, actually. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories

behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again.

Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?

Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes! Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do. Like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote.

What is it like you miss 100 percent of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back! And J.M., we're still getting to know you and we want to know what's something you think underrated.

Okay, sticking on the Christmas theme, I'm going to say Bob Dylan's Christmas album. Have you ever heard that? No. Wait, the one that came out recently? No, it came out like 15 years ago, maybe. And by recently, I do mean 15 years ago. Oh, okay. I mean, it wasn't like young Bob Dylan sings the Christmas blues.

No, no. This was old Bob Dylan sounding like the devil himself singing Christmas songs. Yeah. Which I kind of love just because most people in my family hate it and humor me by listening to it. But it is so bizarre. Like I still can't believe it even really exists, but it's also like half the songs are really well done and earnest. And then half of them,

he sounds drunk and like he doesn't give a shit. It's kind of amazing. I heard somebody recently say that he is like our greatest living functional heroin addict, which I don't know that I had ever heard that. I assumed he did not do drugs and that's how he was able to be 112. I think. I don't know how old he is. He's 82. I saw.

Is he really 82? A couple months ago. Yeah, that might be heroin. He looks so fucking old. Holy shit. I can't believe he's 82 he does he does not look like a healthy 82 wow but uh yeah his christmas album i think it's worth i mean it's just it's odd and it doesn't sound good so i understand why people don't like it but i do appreciate the kind of shit disturbing punk rock energy of it,

even though it's like very, like, like the arrangements are very classical. Like it sounds like a Bing Crosby record, but then on top of it, the vocals are like, like Tom Waits. Yeah.

Like a Tom Waits cover band singer, like murdered Bing Crosby and took over his album. And I kind of love that. Have yourself. Yeah. Just really croaking the things out at this point. But I like to, I like some of his later stuff.

The thing I was thinking of is must be Santa. Yes. Which I think we wrote about at cracked was that like this bizarre Christmas video that like just seemed like a fever dream at the time and i was like that's recent uh 14 years ago yeah well speaking of joe pesci your grandmother jack do you know about joe pesci's christmas album no he's it's a thing it's a thing. It's a real thing. And you're going to want to listen to it. Everybody, turn this off right now. Go listen to Joe Pesci's Christmas album.

It's nuts. The original podcast. He, I typically associate him with not being the most Christmassy guy in the world. I typically associate him with robbing people's houses during Christmas and flooding them. Well, he contains multitudes. I guess so. Also, he and, it's Marv and Harry are the characters, I think.

They really love each other. I just noticed that on the most recent rewatch of Home Alone. They, like an old married couple, but they just love each other. There's a great deal of, the way Joe Pesci looks at him is, he's just like, ah, you old son of a bitch. Like, he's just like, ah, you old son of a bitch. But the fact that they're together, that he stays with somebody as stupid as Daniel Stern's character, it just implies this deep bond that makes you kind of root for them a little bit.

And that is something that I don't think people take away enough from that movie. Yeah. All they take away is the damn Christmas presents and Kevin and... Oh, he booby-trapped his house. Isn't he so clever? I talked about this on a recent episode, but man, the second one is so violent. See, I haven't seen that one nearly as often as the first violent if anybody knows the origin and maybe i should ask the two of you i mean caitlin film major

jm i have a master's degree i film masters film master i apologize i just i just have an undergrad and degree in film yeah but you also would be the type of person who would know the details about how Home Alone 2 was written. I am very curious because the movie is heading in the direction of him weaponizing F.A.O. Schwartz. Like the robbers are going to rob F.A.O. Schwartz or, you know, what, Duncan's toy chest, as it's called in the movie. He catches them at like in the act and he has to protect them. And it's like all set up for him to booby trap and like attack them with toys, which was like the fun, endearing part of the first one was that he like used his toys to attack them. first one was that he like used his toys to attack them but then instead of doing that he lures them into a murder house and just murders them over and over and over again yeah instead of micro machines it's like what if bricks yeah what if i threw bricks from five stories up directly and

the corners hit you in the head like the corners of bricks out hit you in the head. Like, the corners of bricks hit you in the head multiple times. And then, like, I used power tools to fucking shoot you with nail guns. The first one, like, he steps, one of them steps on a nail, probably gets tetanus. One of them, like, scalp gets burned off with a blow

torch someone gets an iron in the face yeah they're violent movies the first one so their thing was like we have to and maybe this is just like screenwriting 101 Master, please let me know. I'm ready. I know you have to heighten, right? But the way that they chose to heighten is, okay, instead of getting hit by a paint can, they get hit by a giant metal bar that would shatter every bone in their face, which would turn their skulls into jelly like right you know like all of the things that they get smashed by that like they they have a hot iron fall on their face

or something on the first one this time it's a bag of cement that is like has a hundred pounds written on it so like would kill them yeah yeah yeah so like it's just such a specific choice that they uh of like how to how to heighten so i guess my question is like if anybody was has insight into the notes process i feel like there is a first draft of that script where he's like shooting them with nerfs and stuff like that. And they watched it and like they were like, ah, it's not big enough. It's not big enough. Like we need to invent this rich uncle's house that is abandoned that he can just like fucking take them to and just murder them over and over. to and just murder them over and over like so they do that head on fire thing again and then he fills the toilet with kerosene and like the whole house goes up in flames it's because his head's on fire

and then he sticks it in sticks it in the toilet and the whole house like just explodes in a ball of flame but then like nobody dies and the house doesn't burn down because it's a Christmas miracle. But anyways, please somebody rewatch Home Alone 2 and let me know that I'm not crazy. Because I'm pretty sure I'm not. The whole thing just is wild. I have a partial explanation for this. Yeah. It doesn't explain everything.

But I heard you talk about this in the podcast. Yeah. And I thought I'd look into it. And I couldn't really find out that much information. But I remembered something I'd written for Cracked a long time ago about the Talkboy. Remember, like, the tape recorder that he used? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That was retro-engineered from the idea that they were like, okay, let's invent a toy for Kevin to have. And that will be like the hot new Christmas toy. We can sell a bunch of them if we partner with a toy company. Yeah. And so the first idea they had was to have him have some kind of a toy gun that I imagine he would use on the Wet Bandits somehow at the end of the movie. But then someone was like, hey, John Hughes, I know you spent a day and a half writing the script, but this kid is not going to be able to take a toy gun, even pre-9-11, onto an airplane and fly to New York. So they changed it to a tape recorder but i imagine

that may have been there may have been more toys as weapons if he could have brought his toys with him oh okay but he has the whole fucking toy store at his disposal jam that's true he wasted all his money on turtle doves right can't you can't kill a man with turtle doves like truly a profound lack of imagination for like fun things to do with toys by the writers of that movie because yeah when he gets to go to the toy store they don't even give him like a fun tom hanks and big scene really yeah he just gets yeah he gets two Christmas ornaments. Like from the guy. These are two turtle doves and you give them to someone and it symbolizes friendship.

Do you think that old man thought he was going to get it from He's like, oh, you're going to give it to the bird lady. Okay. By the way, that woman 100% would have preferred cash.

What's she going to do with that turtle dove? Oh, great. So I have these fake birds that go. He runs out of the biggest suite in the finest hotel in New York and runs down and gives her two turtle doves while she's there with a bunch of beautiful live birds. He's like, here's a fake one. She's like, oh.

Gotta go have brunch now. Thanks. I'm waiting for brunch. Jesus Christ. They are so rich. It's crazy. The whole thing is really like a... I feel like Donald Trump not only appears in that movie, but took a pass on that movie.

They gave him the script and he's like, I've got some notes. Yeah. Make them richer. Make them richer. The only thing that makes sense in this movie is that the parents sit in first class and their kids are in coach. That's the only thing about this that makes sense. Maybe it was just like a nice Christmas movie. And then he was like, is there a scene where a small child throws bricks at poor people? I guess we could put that in the end of the movie.

It seems a little out of place. Of course. That's what people are going to, you know. That's what Christmas is all about. That's what you do with your kids on Christmas. He had a different accent back then. I'm not doing Trump accents. All right, guys, leave me alone.

Caitlin. Yeah. The Christmas tradition, the Christmas spirit is all about celebrating birth of baby Jesus Christ. And it is historically accurate. This is Jesus' birthday. And that's why we have the tree inside our house. The end. Correct.

And we can move on to the next segment. We can move on. No, no, no, no. I wanted to, I have a little segment called Caitlin's Christmas's christmas corner caitlin's christmas corner yeah i'll come back next year for another one i'm inviting myself oh sorry it's a 45 minute guitar solo now uh so just everybody sit back Okay, so this might be, I think this is becoming more common knowledge than it was. But if anyone doesn't know, many Christmas traditions are actually rooted in pagan traditions, festivities, celebrations, etc. And I thought that would be particularly fitting to talk about as today is winter solstice, or it will be at 7.27pm

time zone question mark. Yeah. Could have already passed by the time you listen to this. It could have happened by the time you listen to this who knows but anyway so um yes many christmas traditions that we currently observe are actually pagan and pagan in this context just refers to you know like the ancient polytheistic pre or non-christian people that were around many hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. Before the birth of Jesus Christ! Yes, indeed. So there are a bunch of celebrations from around the world that were celebrated around

this time of year that likely inspired present-day Christmas traditions. i'm only going to focus on a couple of these starting with the ancient romans who celebrated something called saturnalia yeah they were celebrating the roman god of agriculture saturn and they were celebrating the kind of like ending of the planting season and the harvest. This was usually celebrated between the 17th and 24th of December. They were, these traditions, let me say this, the Romans, they knew how to party. The celebrations were quite raucous, way more so than traditional like Christian Christmases. quite raucous, way more so than traditional like Christian Christmases.

There was like public gambling. There was drinking. There was just basic like general public debauchery happening. The gambling really got like weeded out because, you know, Hanukkah has gambling. Like my kids brought the dreidel home and we ended up spending an hour just gambling crayons. And I ended up cleaning their ass out. And it was very wonderful. Nice. But it made me realize how much we're missing a good gambling-inspired tradition in modern-day Christmas traditions, right?

There isn't really one. I mean, I guess you're gambling with... People's hearts and feelings. With your hearts with the fucking mistletoe. You're gambling that some pervert's going to be hiding behind that dang mistletoe. You're gambling with... Here's a problem i have i'm not a very good gift giver in the sense that i often don't know what to get people so i'm like

maybe they'll like this and that's a gamble where i'm just like yeah i hope you like this shitty thing and you do say that you were at our uh white elephant gift exchange you did say that. You were at our White Alpen gift exchange. You did say, I hope you like this shitty thing as you gave it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I write that on all my Christmas cards. Anyway, so there were these celebrations that were happening around the same time that, you know, modern day Christmas. At least, is it Orthodox Christians that celebrate it in like January? Anyway, the point is, this was happening in ancient Rome. Meanwhile, Norse people were celebrating Yule, also around this time of year. They were celebrating the birth of the sun, you know, the days starting.

Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I'm sorry, that's a different spelling of sun. Okay. A different, it's the S-U-N. The S-U-N. At winter solstice or post-winter solstice, the days start to get longer again,

or there's more sunlight. So they're celebrating this. These festivities lasted for 12 days maybe that's where the 12 days of christmas comes from ever think about that everything about that jam i'm sorry i didn't and people would get together for feasting and drinking they would eat a big ham okay think about that as well they would decorate a yule tree and light a yule log oh so this is just christmas this is where this is literally like we're just like ripped their ass off for sure other what you're saying is a christian must have time traveled back and brought all of these customs. Yes. To them.

Yeah. Pretty much. Exactly. In accordance with teaching of Jesus Christ. Right. And then we've got other things like, you know, decorating with holly, exchanging gifts, caroling, singing, kissing under the mistletoe. These are all rooted in pagan traditions, celebrating these like winter solstice-y holidays.

Also, Santa Claus is thought to be at least partly inspired by Odin. Yeah, he's got Norse vibes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's serving up Odin big time. He's got this big, long, white beard. You know, he would ride through the skies on an eight-legged horse people think that that might have been like then kind of translated to eight reindeer that santa claus would fly around on anyway i like the presentation of this because it's like people think that maybe

it could be related to santa claus he would ride across the sky on an eight-legged horse and santa rides across the sky on eight reindeer huh i'm not sure if you're seeing the connection but it's possible they're like i can see the similarities but i'm not i'm just trying to be diplomatic you know um anyway so when christian leaders were trying to convert everyone in Europe basically to Christianity around the 5th century, they realized it would be easier to convert the pagans to Christianity if they let them keep these traditions. co-opted or appropriated the traditions and attached them to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, which also many historians believe was not actually born on December 25th, but that was just close to when the pagans were celebrating these winter solstice festivities. And so that's why all of these Christmas traditions that we currently participate in actually have nothing to do with christianity and have everything to do with these ancient

yeah celebrations and religions okay can you guys hold on for a sec i gotta go throw all my decorations in the garbage yes it's built on lies you're very anti-pagan yeah yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna bring in a wicker man instead of the tree it's um like the two big christian holidays just happen to be to overlap with the like big times that people celebrated like of of all cultures like there's almost always a time of year when people are like this is the time that it's cold it's cold other days this is the like day the earth is trying to kill us the most and so we do the most like insulting thing we can to it and like cut off one of its trees and like take it inside. Burn it. Yeah.

Burn it. Be like, fuck you. We rule. You can't kill us. We deserve to be warm. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah. And then the Easter one is like the, you know, the fertility stuff.

Yes. So it's all, it's all, we're not inventing anything. Dying had everything to do with rabbits and eggs. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And hiding the eggs, et cetera. Yeah. There's that famous part where they like go and like look under his feet when he's on the cross and like under his little sash thing.

And there's like colorful eggs in there. Yeah. But all right. Yeah, I'm not convinced. But do you have any any more evidence? Sounds like bullshit to me, Caitlin. Well, the other thing I do want to talk about is the beloved Christmas flower, commonly known as poinsettias. Poinsettias. I don't know how to say it.

I don't either. And I'm here to drop some truth at y'all. Ready? Okay. Oh, shit. And this part will be delivered as a rap right yes yes i i wrote a rap for this and and someone please it goes a little something like this hit it okay so the the flowers commonly known as poinsettias they are native to mexico and are known by their original name of Cuetlasochils. They historically have been

cultivated by and held cultural significance for Mexica people. I'm going to quote something from Hiplatina.com. Quote, community members decorated their temples with the Cuetlasochil as an offering to help reignite the light of mother earth this was done during winter solstice on the birthday of and here is the name of a mashika god of sun and war that i will not pronounce correctly but you yeah i'm not even gonna try try. You nailed it. I didn't even finish it. Thank you so much. No, you gave up halfway through. But the part that you pronounced, you nailed.

It has so many syllables and I'm simply, it would be just a disservice if I tried to attempt it again. Anyway, so this god of sun and war, they were celebrating the birthday of him. And so that's kind of like the cultural significance of these flowers. Now, the reason they're called poinsettias is because a slave owner and colonizer named Joel Poinsett, he was out there colonizing whatever land that he could. And he came across these flowers in mexico and started shipping them back to his home in north carolina and then so these flowers came to be named poinsettias in his honor but there are a lot of people who are campaigning to have these flowers

be called by their original indigenous name cuetlalesochil. So that is why. Kwetlesochil. It is. So chill. Yeah. Joel Poinsett. Okay. Okay, Joel.

Cool job, man. Well, cool job by you, Caitlin, because that was great. And now I'm going to, as J.M. said, go throw all of my christmas decorations off of the top of the building at robbers yes thank you uh so another thing that i think is worth noting about christmas and that lends christ fuck season folks it's the horniest time of year this is studies have shown the time that the most babies get conceived this is the birthday capital of the

year is september which is nine months from right now so this is when a lot of the people of earth be fucking it's like essentially humanity's unspoken breeding season and yeah i think i like first realized this when doing like a article on times of the year and like i i don't know i was like why doesn't anybody talk about the fact that like christmas and new year's is like the time everybody's having sex but then it like really makes all the stuff make sense like why christmas songs are as horny as they are and why love actually is seen as a good movie were the two things that i was like oh okay so like because it's like the christian sort of over like surface text that gets written on top of christianity is like it's family and chaste and but like deep down christmas is freaky as fuck and so like that you know you can hear it in the music but even like

the mariah carey song like i was just listening to the lyrics for that and like that song is she is like threatening to ruin christmas if she can't fuck this person she's like i'm not going to like put up any decorations. I mean, that person is me. Right, and it's me. She's addressing me, yeah. Which is a great feeling for all of us. But I feel like for a long time, Christmas music has just been allowed to be horny on Maine.

The movies, I feel like, are a little bit lacking in that respect. But it does bleed through sometimes. And so we wanted to talk about some kind of underrated, horny aspects of Christmas movies. Like, I've said this before, but I don't think Love Actually is a good movie. But I think it is the only movie where the explicit subjects are christmas and horniness like it's the one that's like this is a series of love stories and it's all based around christmas and so there you go it's but not based on love they're like no all these people are horny for each other. Exactly. Yeah. But then it's a man mansplaining his horniness to you by being like, actually, I'm in love with you. It's love.

Actually, it's called love. When I have an erection, that equals love. So. But yeah. So, J.M., you kind of dug into, But yeah, so, J.M., you kind of dug into, because you were telling us as we were talking about this subject, you're saying that a Toronto theater is like screening Eyes Wide Shut as a Christmas movie. A couple of them were. I'm seeing it literally Friday night. wow tomorrow night in uh at the new beverly is a part of its like christmas programming yeah i love that it went

very quickly from like people kind of joking like oh eyes wide shut is a christmas movie so like oh no it's it's part of the christmas canon now i swear yeah i mean it ends with them christmas shopping right and talking about fucking each other the main thing the main kind of rift between the couple happens at a christmas party i mean we've all been there like we've all lived this story right the climactic fidelio party is very similar to Christmas parties that I go to. That's just how we get down. Wow, brag. Uh-huh.

So I like that. People need to start making horny Christmas movies yesterday. Like I said in the doc, I don't actually think this movie is motivated by horniness, weirdly. The thing that drives the movie is Tom Cruise's sad, kind of pathetic, just male insecurity. Insecurity, yeah. Because his wife said that she was horny, and he's like, I'm going to go do something about it. And he never does. He just has one failure after another. Sexual futility.

Yeah, which is so funny. Has one failure after another. Sexual futility. Yeah. Which is so funny. People that say they don't like that movie, I feel like don't get how funny it is or don't walk into it thinking that it's going to be funny. Because I find so many things in that movie very funny. Like how whenever he goes places, he pulls out his wallet and shows his medical ID as if it were a badge.

Yeah. As if he was an FBI agent. I'll take it from here, like a badge. Yeah. As if he was like an FBI agent. I'll take it from here, ma'am. Yeah. What? Yeah, I find it the whole thing very, very... Yeah. It is...

I feel like Stanley Kubrick was like, I'm going to humiliate this little fuck. Like... That was his thesis statement before Eyes Wide Shut. Although I think

sexual insecurity and all that stuff is tied up in the horniness of it all. I think that's a side of the coin of horniness. I guess so. But it's a movie full of sex where the main character never actually has sex. Even though he keeps trying and failing and looking like an idiot. I mean, relatable much? I know,

right? Thank you. I bet I would be willing to gamble that Tom Cruise's character pretty horny by the end of that film. Yeah. All right. So, so some underrated horny classics. We,

I, one that you pointed out, JM, that I was not familiar with. I've never seen The Grinch.im carrey's the grinch i think it's called just the grinch there's also benedict cumberbatch is the grinch i think that one's just called the grinch the jim carrey one i think is still called how the grinch stole christmas i mean it's it's bad it's bad. It's real bad. The movie's bad. Yeah. Okay.

Gasp. But the Who's are freaky as hell in that movie. Yes. I watched some scenes, and they are having key parties when he is delivered. Oh, my gosh. That's right. Yeah. Okay.

That's hilarious. yeah okay which i would yeah i wouldn't have like picked up on that that's what that was like as a kid or even just now unless you explained to me what a key party was but also a key party where they're blasting smash mouth i didn't remember yeah and i mean green people such as the grinch and Smash Mouth go hand in hand because how does Shrek end? Oh. Smash Mouth. And how does it begin? Yeah.

Shrek is never far from Smash Mouth. The Smish Mouth is never far afield in the world of Shrek. Exactly. There's also a subplot where Christine Baranski is unrequited love interest but like she kind of likes him too because oh she's super into green is a christmas color so she's just full christmas person yeah and at one point he does like stick his face in her boobs in front of the whole town so die hard the i'm not sure die hard's a christmas

movie like somebody i heard somebody pose the question like would this movie be significantly diminished if it if it happened on like july 4th and it would be diminished it wouldn't be like significantly diminished i guess but you know i don't know it's but i would say still horny because i would argue that bruce willis's main motivation for you know taking down hans gruber and minions is not necessarily he's like wow i have to keep all these people safe he's trying to win back his wife who she who is like kind of wandering to ellis one of the great horny characters just cocaine horniness embodied in a human yeah no he is like i've always found it weird. This is maybe the movie, like the movie I've seen the most besides Jaws.

And it always stuck out to me that he has to convince himself out loud not to jack off multiple times in the movie. running around hiding from the terrorists on the building. He sees a poster of a naked woman and he's like, not now, ladies. He sees a woman changing a building nearby.

He's like, I can't. God, I really want to jack off right now in the middle of this 9-11 level terror attack, but I just can't let myself do it he's a professional he's a professional exactly but it's okay they were not terrorists they were robbers that's right i actually wrote a paper about die hard for a class on terrorism did you really whoever said we were terrorists fucking you did that was your whole it was your whole thing man what are you talking about but also yeah the movie like is

also about bruce willis climbing a giant phallus which and eventually the tip explodes at the end like yeah it's it's very freudian and i think it is about like this pent-up sexual frustration because we also know that he's been separated from holly and they they cleverly show us in the beginning of the movie that he's not unfaithful to her that he probably hasn't had sex in a long time because the limo driver argyle suggests that he could help him like pick up some women while he's in town he's like no no i'm married i wouldn't do that so yeah yeah it's just like yeah it's just it's blue balls the movie yeah bruce willis at christmas wait her name is holly yeah okay christmas

wow deck the hall yeah maybe that movie wouldn't work he He always has to, like in the second one, which is about Holly is in a giant phallus flying through the sky and can't land until he blows up a phallus with a bunch of terrorists. This time I think actual terrorists. No, also thieves. On it, and then he shouts, there's your fucking landing light holly but they

clearly i would say that this the fact that the second one also takes place at christmas is evidence that at least the filmmaker and the fact that it takes place around the most phallic technology that we all encounter the most on our day-to-day basis that airplanes are just giant dicks like that leads me to believe that the filmmakers were aware both that of the importance of christmas and the importance of horniness to the appeal of the film they did release it on july 4th but they were like it's got to be christmas again guys sorry huh yeah all right in fact i think that was when the original director came back and did the third one

i think that was the his only uh it couldn't be christmas yeah he's like i'm not doing christmas again it's like guys it doesn't doesn't makes so little sense already it just keeps happening to him is that the one where it's like basically a saw movie where some like the villains like let's play a game and then they have to like solve a bunch of puzzles yeah yes yes nice but it's all get this a distraction because they're trying to rob something it's it's wild you'd think that like that would also be a thing where they're like maybe not this time maybe they're actually terrorists because like the the whole bait and switch of it all makes it seems like they keep

getting away with that i hope uh i hope when that director dies they use like george lucas technology to make that movie christmas like just put cgi jackets on everybody and lights and samuel l jackson's dressed as s Claus the whole time. Well, shit. J.M., such a pleasure having you on The Daily Zeitgeist. Thanks for having me. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? I don't know. I guess I'm on Twitter still, but I mean, who wants to go to Twitter?

It's not even called that anymore, but I'm at J.M. McNabb again on there. I think I have a Blue Sky account. i haven't checked it in a while one thing i'll promote which i never do is uh some music i've made is on spotify and things which i never promote but we're not even really a band anymore but uh i i would appreciate it if you if you checked it out and clicked on it and you don't even have to listen to it but i think i get appreciate it if you if you checked it out and clicked on it and you don't even have to listen to it but i think i get like a nickel or something every time the album gets a million people listen to it yeah exactly so uh yeah the band is called vista vision with a v so you can check that out on uh on music platforms there you go we will link off to it in the foot

notes footnotes is there a work of media besides your own that you've been enjoying oh you know what i was gonna i was gonna point to for this is just i saw on on uh whatever twitter is now that uh it's twitter still twitter it's still if you type twitter it will take you there so i saw John Frankensteiner on Twitter posted Siskel and Ebert's review of Home Alone 3. Yeah. Did you see that? I did, yeah.

I still haven't seen it. Oh, it's bad. And it's not at Christmas. It follows the diehard pattern. Yeah. But yeah, Ebert passionately argues that it's the superior home alone film to the other two and siskel just like you can see siskel's soul like leaving his body as ebert argues with

him about this and he tries to say that that little boy whose name i don't even remember was a better actor than macaulay culkin wow yeah it's pretty funny to watch. So, yeah, check that out. Macaulay Culkin's acting does mainly consist of raising his eyebrows up and down. And I feel like it is an ingenious performance because it suggests that the director for his performance was a five-year-old. My five-year-old is so impressed. He's like, oh my God, why is he doing that with his eyebrows? I'm like, because he's a little fucking brat. I don't know.

You like that? You like this? You like this kid? Home Alone, my five-year-old saw it for the, I think second time this weekend, saw Home Alone 2 for the first time this weekend. And it is now his favorite movie. So actually I was going to ask you,

cause my older kid has seen home alone to my younger hasn't. And I was, after listening to your podcast, I was like, would it be irresponsible to show? Oh, I showed her one home alone too. Okay.

I don't know. I did. I did not remember that it was a fucking kill house murder box. Yeah. Like if, if you see like a notice next week that i was killed by like a brick hurled from the second floor that's why it's arrest my child yeah caitlin what a pleasure having you as co-host thank you for having me where can people find you follow you

and is there a work of media you've been enjoying? You can follow me mostly on Instagram these days, at Caitlin Durante. The big thing I want to plug is the Bechdel cast is going on tour in early February. We're going to San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Dallas, and Austin. Wow. And if you go to linktree.com, all of the details and ticket links are there. So come out and see us live. And as far as a piece of media I've been enjoying, oh gosh, I forgot to do this one. far as a piece of media i've been enjoying oh gosh i forgot to do this one but speaking of horny christmas movies batman returns is i think takes the cake i think another great example of like

that is both more christmassy than i remembered it and way hornier than i remember so horny and also i have a batman returns tattoo brag you know the part where michelle pfeiffer goes into her apartment after she's just been like thrown out of a window and then like nuzzled by a bunch of cat like street back to life nuzzled back exactly um that's just science and she goes back to her apartment and she has that neon sign that says hello there, but she smashes off the O and the T so that it says hell here. I have hell here tattooed on my arm. Oh, nice.

It would have been weird. Pretty cool. I've got a Batman Returns tattoo. It's just Christopher Walken with that Einstein wig. Hell yeah. Chip, isn't it? Doesn't he talk about his son chip a lot in that or am i thinking of a different movie no i think that sounds right doesn't she enter and immediately chug a thing of milk yes i feel like that was yeah the milk looks pretty good and then she makes a really horny costume the yeah like truly wrapped up in that thing

like a candy cane. You know, just not a not an inch of spare anything in there. Just perfectly sealed in.

Also, I'll throw out one other piece of media I've been enjoying and that's Caitlin. I was listening to your It's a Wonderful Life podcast the other day.

Oh, thank you. And that you really called George Bailey out on his bullshit. So, I recommend that as you. And that you really called George Bailey out on his bullshit. So I recommend that as well. And that's not a horny Christmas movie, so what's

the point? Yeah. That's true. I was just watching. So I've never seen It's a Wonderful Life. What? I know. I just am not interested. I don't blame you. My family, it was not in our rotation. It's I just I'm not interested. And I don't blame you. I don't my family. Just like it was not in our rotation.

We black and white movies were not movies as far as I was concerned when I was a kid. I was just like, well, that's not a thing I would watch on purpose. Why? Why would that be a thing? So like that Miracle on 34th Street, we didn't really fuck with. That miracle on 34th Street, we didn't really fuck with. But I watched a scene from it in preparation for this episode where it's supposed to be like a scene of flirtation and it was difficult to make it through.

Yeah. I don't know. Is that what passed for charming back then? This George Bailey guy just seems like a real dip, as my mom would put it. Yeah, I think it is framed as cute and romantic, even though she's like, give me my clothes back. And he's like, no. Give me my clothes back. I just turned 18.

I was 17 the last time we had a conversation. He's like, oh, wow. You were 17? She tells him she's 18, and he's like, oh, you were 17 just last year. She's like, yeah, I guess if that's what it takes for you to be into this. I think she asks him if that's too old.

He's like, no, no, it's just right. What? How old is he supposed to be at that part? I think he's in his early 20s, but he's visibly 40. Yeah, yeah. And also, that's the most romantic scene in the movie is him screaming an inch and a half from her face. Just yelling at her. Plastic or something.

I love parts of that movie, but most of it's unwatchable. Listen to the Bechdelcast episode of It's a Wonderful Life for more brilliant insights. You can find me on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien. Work of Media.

The Monday morning episode of the podcast talked about my loose theory that, that Home Alone is about a attempted very late stage abortion. And I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. So I think, I think she wants him gone. I think she wants him out of there. This is my read on that. 1984's George Horwell tweeted, if you aren't happy single, you won't be happy taken.

Real happiness comes from the cheesecake factory, not relationships. That's just, I think, an important thing for all of us to remember at this time of year. Confide us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, dailyzeitgeist.com. And our footnotes, where we link off the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well

as a song that we think you might enjoy. Super producer Justin Cummings, is there a song that you think people might enjoy? Yeah, in lieu of heavy-handed Christmas-themed music, I'm going to recommend something more my speed, but the title is appropriate

for the season. This is a laid-back neo-soul jam called Cold Air by The Hicks and you can find that song in the footnotes. Footnotes, the daily zeitgeist of production by iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

find podcasts for free. That's going to do it for us today. We're back this afternoon. I think we're going to do it for us today. We're back this afternoon. I think we're going to put out one of our best of the year, top five episodes of the year this afternoon, and then more fun holiday-themed, year-end-themed stuff coming in the coming days. But have a great holiday, everyone, and we will talk to you live in the new year.

We'll see you then. Bye. Happy winter solstice. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.

Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.