The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 102 (Best of 11/18/19-11/22/19)

Episode Date: November 24, 2019

The weekly round up of the best moments from DZ's Season 109 (11/18/19-11/22/19.) Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Bruce Bozzi. On my podcast, Table for Two, we have unforgettable lunch after unforgettable lunch with the best guests you could possibly ask for. People like David Duchovny, Jeff Goldblum, and Kristen Wiig. We're doing all the dessert. We're doing all the dessert. We'll just skip right to it. Our second season is airing right now, so you can catch up on our conversations that are intimate and often hilarious. Listen to Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest, because the company had promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists, but the prizes disappeared, leading to one of the biggest controversies in 80s pop culture. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Swordquest.

We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Swordquest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Renee Stubbs, and I'm obsessed with sports, especially tennis. Tune into my podcast each week to hear me and my friends in the community break down the latest matches, including the US Open. Plus hear from some of the biggest names in the sport about what the future holds. It's about belief. And once you break through that, then you know you can win a Grand Slam.

Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast every Monday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello the internet and welcome to this episode of the Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week,

all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laughstravaganza. Yeah, so without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. We like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are? Oh, shit. I was just looking up the career of David Hyde Pierce. David Hyde Pierce. Yeah, man, because they got the Fraziers coming back. They saying, and I don't know how they gonna do um john the the dad i'm sorry i

apologize he passed away frazier twitter do not come in do not come in jamahoney jamahoney frazier twitter is rough yeah um but yeah i was just looking up all the things that he did man and like like just his history so that's just a lot of me. David Hyde Pierce? Yeah, he's a theater guy. And I love theater, so I was just looking up just his career and how he got to Frasier and different shows he was on. I never watched Frasier, but I respected him when he was in Wet Hot American Summer. Yes.

And he said, oh, fuck my cock. And I was like, wait, what? The guy from Frasier? He's a master at turning a singular phrase. There was an episode of Frasier where he was trying to get back into the dating scene. And it was like this mixer. And he got rejected by a woman. And Frasier asked him what happened.

He was like, her lips said no, but her eyes said, read my lips. That's fucking great. That's like the greatest line in sitcom history to me. And the way that he said it was just like fucking, I love when people just nail that line. It's amazing because those shows just had the same premise for like 90% of their jokes, but they were just good every time. They just like new writers rooms turning over of people just making the same like low status

smart guy jokes over and over. The beautiful thing is that it covered everybody because the pompous smart crowd, they were like Frazier and Niles. And then the international was Daphne. And then the Joe Schmoe American was dad. And dogs loved Eddie. So they worked it in for everybody. They got to replace dad and Eddie.

But what if you weren't? Yeah. Well, what if you weren't white? Then the extras. The extras. That's what I mean. I was like, watch it. That one Space Needle episode.

I was like that meme of the black woman with her hands on her knees trying to look. You're like, what? Yeah. I'm like, is this? No. I guess I'll just watch a Fresh Prince rerun. I've been to Seattle, man. There should have been way more Asian representation on Frasier.

Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, the Pacific Northwest, for sure. I didn't even, like, you really get to find out where the poor people of any type of race are if you go to the Greyhound Station in that city. Like, I didn't, I've never seen, you know, I grew up in Chicago. I lived in New York. And I've never seen this large, like, in Chicago I lived in New York and I've never seen this large like

poor Asian representation until I took a mega bus from Vancouver to Seattle and I'm like oh this is like yeah right right right this is some diversity struggle that you don't see on Frasier that you never see

the true story stop telling stories about Frazier having fucked his piano teacher when he was a child see is that part of the lore

of Frazier I believe so I believe that was an episode there's at least that's what and they like laugh it off that's what scrambled eggs and tossed salads

it's all a reference to that episode scrambled eggs is because never mind yep we're about to go there hey hey come Jarda don't come at all come Jarda yeah It's all a reference to that episode. Scrambled eggs is because... Never mind. Yep, you were about to go there. Hey.

Hey. Come, Jarda. Don't come at us. Frasier runs deep. That's all we'll say. You know what? I'm not going to pull up from that far. Your whole face is turning red. I love it.

And I wish I knew what you were going to say. Because your cheeks are rosy. David Hyde Pierce had a small role in The Terminator. Did you know that? I did not know that. I didn't know that either. Wait, what? He should have been... Was he like the had a small role in the terminator did you know that i did not know that i didn't know that either wait what he should have been was he like in the bar scene yeah is he the fetus in sarah khan he broke the glass no i guess he was yeah i guess he was maybe like one of the punks in the bar scene did y'all see the new one is it any good uh i have i hear

it's bad but that's not gonna stop me because i've seen every Terminator film. David Cameron's back. So they said that touch is back there, but it's just like... David Cameron from the UK, the politician? No, James Cameron. It's early. David Cameron had a cameo. Like David Hyde Pierce. Also in the background of the bar scene.

What is something you think is underrated? Underrated? I mean, this is going to sound really bad, and I know people are going to hate me. Arby's. People, all I do is argue with people about Arby's. You know, I'm not, let me just know. I'm very stupid, so I don't know a lot about the news. So don't hate on me, but this is what I think about.

And it's Arby's. Because I really like, honest to God, the curly fries, you're not getting these other places. You're not getting two sandwiches for $5 with that kind of meat. And who knows if it's meat? It doesn't matter what it is. Wait, does Arby's have the meats? Oh, they have the meats. They have something.

With an asterisk. I mean, I think it comes out of a clear bag and dries in the sun. I'm not sure how they make Arby's. Steph, what's your Arby's order? Two beef and cheddars. Oh my god! Because they have the Arby's sauce. You can help yourself on the sauce. I love having the sauce. Horsey sauce and the Arby's sauce. I'm disgusting too.

I honestly will. I'll look you in your eyes and tell you you're speaking truth right now. I will soak in that. Ah, two beef and cheddars. There's cheddar sauce and then you're adding Horsey sauce to the cheddar sauce. And then you're adding Arby's sauce. And you're adding an onion bun. You're not truth right now. I will soak in that. That's how I... Two beef and cheddars. There's cheddar sauce and then you're adding horsey sauce to the cheddar sauce. And then you're adding Arby's sauce. Yeah. Okay.

And you're adding an onion bun. What is Arby's sauce? You're not getting enough onion bun. It's like a lame barbecue sauce. Yeah. It's not... Yeah. Very sweet.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't mess with the Arby's sauce as much. I'm more of a horsey plus my beef and cheddars. Yeah. But sometimes you need that tang. You need the tang.

You need a little tang zip. It's funny because the Arby's have gone out of style in LA. So typically when I have it, it's on a road trip. And I'm always like, when I'm on the road, I'm like, I'm going to fucking Arby's. And my partner, Her Majesty, she'll be like, why are you? No. People get very upset.

There's one Arby's in Hollywood. I know about that one. Yeah, that's a big one. It looks like it's from a different time. Oh, it is. That big ass neon sign? Yeah, the big neon hat sign. It looks like it's from a different time. Oh, it is. That big-ass neon sign? Yeah, the big neon hat sign. No, they're not changing.

They're staying exactly where they are, and they're getting the exact same clients. Right, right. They have not upped their game at all. They need another Saving Silverman moment, because Saving Silverman put Arby's kind of back into the zeitgeist. Oh, I didn't even realize that. Oh, yeah, because they were feeding her,

when she was their captive, they were feeding her Big Montana's and she was their captive, they were feeding her, like, Big Montana's and shit. Like, that was her, like, the prisoner food. So is it safe to say that Arby's is the Neil Diamond of the fast food world? Possibly. Slightly underrated. Is Neil Diamond underrated? Yeah.

Not to a certain generation. Yeah. Yeah. But he was brought back into limelight by saving Silverman, right? Yeah, but I think that's what I'm... Yeah, see, Arby's didn't get that same glow up, even when they did Meat Mountain. Right. Which I had.

Delicious. What was Meat Mountain? Meat Mountain was every motherfucking meat they made in that place on one sandwich. Yeah. They know what they're doing. Yeah. They're just putting everything into one thing at this point. Yeah, yeah.

I've known some Arby's diehards not just Miles before. And they're terrible. Their health isn't terrible. Oh no, we're all very ill. We're all very sick. My eyesight has been slowly going. Soren Bui is a teen heartthrob. Soren's a big Arby's guy? Big Arby's guy.

I love Soren. You can tell. You know the devil knows their own. Right. Let's pour one out real quick for Mina Chang. Yeah. She's the State Department official, I guess, who was called out because she was making up most of her resume and using a fake Time Magazine cover of herself to-

Just boost her credit, you know? Yeah. It's a story of just just straight scamming yeah i mean we all have yeah we all have the fake time magazine cover on our wall in our office well you have the mirror right that is time person of the year and you just look right into it right but she was already lying about going to harvard all these other things and when she was being considered for a larger position that needed like confirmation, they're like, can we, we need to hear more about some of this stuff we're seeing on this resume. Cause I've, I don't, this is a lot of weird stuff.

For example, like she was saying she was on a humanitarian aid mission to Afghanistan where apparently no aid was delivered. She also said she had a degree in international development from the University of Hawaii, but the university doesn't even offer that degree. It doesn't have a program for that. See, that's one of those things you got to fact check. Yeah, you got to do some Googling. It's like Googling.

Yeah. Then they went further and said, I'm going to be real with you. We don't even have Amina Chang registered here. Right. Wow. And then we said last time she had a fake un position it was the unesco cross-cultural ambassador um and they're like the and unesco is like we have no position like that she also said she won cbs humanitarian of the year women that

soar award in 2012 and cbs says we have no award by that name. Right. Wow. I mean kind of creative though. Yeah. I'll give her that. But just think about all the people like how many officials in the government must just be scammers who know how to use Google. Right. Like the good ones. Because all

she had to do was find real awards and find actual colleges that offer that as a major. Putting confidence in the word con job. It's really not hard to do that. My first job, I lied and said I had a serving job. You just give your friend's number. You tell them to change their answering machine and now you get a job.

Yeah, she worked at this Arby's. I've been a landlord for six people in the city. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah, they rent and pay me by. Right. Yeah. Just change your voicem Yeah, right. Oh yeah, they rent and pay me by. Right. Yeah. Just change your voicemail, please.

But those are the ones where we know we can get away with. You know, just a few, we can set up, we can create that fake reality.

I guess they just would assume that she wouldn't make something like that up because you can check it. I guess they're not going to look into it. Right. Yeah,

I graduated top in my class at Harvard. wink, wink, wink. University of Hawaii, no one's going over there. No one's checking on Hawaii. But apparently it was her worst nightmare, and they did. I mean, even the way she – so then she resigned because it got too hot. Yeah.

Because they were like, hold on, what is this? Suddenly, uh-oh, you don't want to be here anymore? Yeah, oh, no. But she said – from her resignation letter, she said resigning is the only acceptable moral and ethical option for me at this point. And then she goes on to say, in already difficult times, the Department of State is experiencing what I and many believe is the worst and most profound moral crisis confronting career professionals and political appointees in the department's history. Department morale is at its lowest. The professionalism and collegiality, once a hallmark of the U.S. diplomatic service has all but disappeared.

But it's weird. So she's saying like, I'm getting out because it's too fucked up. But then she later says, I want my resignation to be seen as a sign of protest rather than surrender. It's like, you got caught. Well, just say you got caught.

Yeah, at this point. Go back to Instagram scamming because you got 44,000. Go to DeVry College, get an actual degree. Yeah. How would protest be? She's like, fine. I'll protest your accusations.

But then she's talking about how the State Department's so fucked up. Right. A character assassination based solely on innuendo was launched against me, attacking my credentials and character. My superiors at the department refused to defend me, stand up for the truth, and allow me to answer the false charges against me. Okay, how about this? She goes to her confirmation hearing.

They say, true or false, did you go to Harvard? Right. Well, let me tell my side of the story. I could almost hear the orchestral music swelling up in her mind as she was like delivering that that uh monologue in already difficult times yeah well you know you hate to see it uh but i mean look she's got 44 000 followers on instagram but can only get 200 likes on a photo yeah that's excellent oh yeah wow whatever a little shade that way i think you bought followers but hey look she had a christmas album that she put, so maybe she'll go back.

Yeah, I think people are fans. I think she has 44,000 fans from her music career. Yeah. And finally, what is a myth? What's something people think is true? I don't know if you guys, and you guys might have already talked about it. A myth is that the Tea Party was a grassroots movement with legitimate concerns. Dark money. Like, yeah, honestly. Fucking straight astroturf. is that the Tea Party was a grassroots movement with legitimate concerns. Yeah.

Dark money. Like, yeah, honestly. Fucking straight astroturf. Exactly. And the fact that, you know, this week the Buttigieg video surfaced where he was like, you know, there's real concerns

and I'm going to reach out to you because I am nothing but a series of angling, you know, political moves. Yeah, algorithms put together to game the system. Yes. Yeah. And that's BS. I mean, we know that political moves. Yeah, algorithms put together to game the system. Yes. Yeah.

And that's BS. I mean, we know that. Like, they were just holding signs about socialism, not wanting healthcare, and they were bussed in by, you know, the Koch brothers.

The Koch brothers. Yeah. So, fuck the Koch brothers once again. RIP as well. Yeah. Nah. All right. Rest in piss.

So, the thing I'll say, yeah. Marinating. Especially then, too, because it was basically like this black president is trying to change things. Yeah. Let's create a group of angry people who will wave their gads and flags and pretend that they're about something other than what they are. And when you look at a lot of like how much the discourse or like the language is somewhat shifted when you see like the old teabaggers that are still in like Congress now. Like they're kind of like,

they even know they're sort of distancing themselves from that era of like that wave they wrote in on. Yeah. I mean, it'll come back when there's a female president or a president of color. Like they'll just like whip it up. Yeah, I think what happened was that was sort of a precursor to a lot of this sentiment.

Now like the same mentality is present in the alt- is present in like the is present in the alt-right and things like that but not necessarily like where they come from but it's tapping into that same sort of and now they're lawmakers yeah right yeah yeah but dark money that the book by jay maher is incredible and like goes into uh like just how transparent it was. Like it started at a, uh, like golf course banquet for billionaires after it, like right as Obama was being sworn in, they had this like banquet where they were like,

what are we going to do to make people like fuck with this dude? And they came up with the tea party movement. They then like went about like systematically like astroturfing, uh, and it got covered by the media as grassroots. Yeah. Even though it was a bunch of middle-aged. All you got to do is give people Sharpies and poster board.

Yeah. That's all. You just don't print them out the same sign. Right. And it's a grassroots movement. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting, too they at first like david coke was like i don't know anything about the tea party and then there was like some footage that came

out of him um at like americans for prosperity where he's like telling us like five years ago my brother charles and i provided the funds to start americans for prosperity it's beyond my wildest dreams how afp has grown into an enormous organization And then you go on to be like, yeah, that's the people who is mobilizing everyone. Oh, the tea party. Tea party. Got it. Oh, yeah. We did that.

We did do that. We did that. There is a new movie called Harriet coming out. It's out already. It's out. It is out. It's out. It's out already.

It's out. That is out. It's out. And it's a script that has been shopped around Hollywood since 1994. Or even before. That explains it. It's forever. Forever. Because God, I mean, God forbid we make a film like this.

Yeah, the writer of it and producer, this guy Gregory Allen Howard, he said in this recent interview or in Entertainment Weekly, this thing came out where he brought up this moment when he first started working on it in 94 that a studio executive in a meeting suggested that the actress to portray the legendary slave turneditionist, the one behind the Underground Railroad, should be none other than a red-headed icon, Julia Roberts. Yes. Go off. And when it happened, he said, quote, I was told how one studio had said in a meeting, the script is fantastic.

Let's get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman. When someone pointed out that Roberts couldn't be Harriet, the executive responded, it was so long ago. No one's going to know the difference. That's perfectly believable. Yeah. And that's what it's like.

Perfectly believable. When you know shit like that was being said, you're like, of course, of course. This is literally like the attitude of the media industry. Of Hollywood executives completely out of touch. I mean, they're like, well, look, man, her and denzel were great in pelican brief right so she knows how to act with black people yeah she's basically black at this point yeah i don't know if that's what it was because when i'm in of property i put i looked up imdb i'm like what the fuck was she doing in in like 94

that this dude was like it should be julia roberts right on either side of that she was in hook as uh tinkerbell. So she can play all different. She can play a little fairy. She can play Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman. Or Harriet Tubman.

She can play all kinds of fantastical creatures. Like black people. That's probably what he said. Could you imagine what the rest part was? He's like, and is this story even true? Yeah. I mean, it's all made up anyway. Yeah.

We have some notes about how we want to just reshape the narrative. Can you make her a white woman that saves all these black people? Right. Exactly. That is, yeah, that's kind of the perfect Hollywood movie. I'm curious to know really what the sequence was after that with that executive who said that and who put their foot down and was like, absolutely, what? No. Because clearly the people in positions powerful enough were to be like, we'll never do Julia Roberts as it.

We just won't do it at all. Right. But I'm curious to know who that executive was. I'm curious he went on to green light green book yeah right he went on to grope many actresses right exactly uh i think listen let's be fair though in that moment julia was waiting for her breakout like she she needed it she needed it More than, you know, history needed accuracy. We needed Julia's career to take off. And then it was Erin Brockovich. Yeah.

Yeah. That's true. That was her. And if Erin Brockovich had been Latina, Julia Roberts would have absolutely played it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, this would have been her Erin Brockovich moment, probably. I know. Yeah. We denied it to her.

Yes. That's the most Hollywood feedback I've ever heard, though, that it was so long ago, people won't know. Oh, my God. I mean, this just shows you, like, why it's taken so long for people of color to have any kind of representation. All right. We're going to take a quick break.

We will be right back. We're going to take a quick break. We will be right back. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance. It's tradition. It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre

and a WWE superstar. Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from?

Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. Season two. Season two. Are we recording? Are we good? Oh, we push record, right? And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite

out of the most delicious food and its history. Saying that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and the piña colada from Puerto Rico. So all of these... We have, we think, Latin culture. There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey that dates back to the 9th century B.C. B.C.?

I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packers star Kabir Bajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. KGB explaining what he believes

led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey. But this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved. The search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved.

You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked. Voila! You got straight away. I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everyone. I am Lacey Lamar. the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. last season? Well, you were right. And you should tune in today for new fun segments like Sister Court and listening to Lacey's steamy DMs. We've got new and exciting guests like Michael Beach. That's my husband. Daphne Spring,

Daniel Thrasher, Peppermint, Morgan J., and more. You gotta watch us. No, you mean you have to listen to us. I mean, you can still watch us, but you gotta listen. If you're watching us, you have to tell us. If you're out the window, you have to say, hey, I mean, you can still watch us, but you got to listen. Like, if you're watching us, you have to tell us. Like, if you're out the window, you have to say, hey, I'm watching you outside of the window. Just, you know what?

Listen to the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. It's time to look, as we always do, slash have never done, at the New York Times bestseller list, because there's a highly relevant book at number one. It's triggered, bitches, libs. Oh, boy. boy it's triggered who is that by donald trump jr oh that's not the cowboy bodyguard romance novel not the cowboy bodyguard uh fuck novel by l james with the dude with sick abs on the cover that's the other book that's called is that number two uh the true number one i i guarantee they saw the

sales for that shoot through the roof with people being like damn don ju looks good on the cover of this book how many do you think how many maga people bought the wrong triggered book maga people buying a uh i would say no one even bought this book if you really think about it so that's the thing so well first of all it's funny that he called it triggered and like he has a bunch of just horrifyingly stupid shit in there like he calls uh trans women athletes mediocre men and uh he also compares his family uh sacrificing running their business which they haven't done at all and they continue to run their business and which they haven't done at all. And they continued to run their business and make it more profitable from

their father's presidency. But in theory, they were supposed to stop running their, their father's business. And he compared that to the sacrifice of veterans. By not making a lot of money. Yeah. Oh,

wow. Think about it. I mean, well, there's a monetary value to everything And so if you think about these families That are losing the earning value Of a son who they lost Or you know a husband It's like the N word for the Trump family

That's what it is One of the more questionable Surprising claims in the book that I did not see coming. His claim was that his dad is not racist, which I assumed he would say, but the best he could come up with was an anecdote from his childhood

when he would let Don Jr. and Eric play video games with Michael Jackson. Complicated. Very complicated. There's a lot of layers to that. There's so many layers. So many layers.

Wow. That's where his mind went when they were like, come up with an anecdote that paints your dad in a picture where he's not racist. And he was like, got it. I played video games. That's the best I can do. Yeah.

It's wild when the selection process is made of the black person. We're supposed to go like, oh, OK, we approve. It's like, wait a minute. He golfed with OJ. He's like, wait, that's the best? That's the best you can do? Right. Of who we're supposed to go like, well if he played with him it's fine

like okay by association not right okay yeah i'm not racist michael jackson yeah so the book immediately appeared on bestseller lists right when it was released uh but some people noticed that the rnc is giving out signed copies of the book in exchange for donations, which they claimed helps boost reported sales. So it wasn't even like, again, they don't even try. They've been getting away with shit for so long. They don't even try to cover that shit up. Well, it's all glamour. Right.

It's like, you know, it's like even like when you meet, even like in media companies where people are just focused on the chart itself, not the quality of the work. Right. Because like, that's the currency for some people. It's like, well, is our thing at the top of a list versus like, is this thing actually respected by peers that in industry that people were trying to appeal to? And this is sort of that exact same logic because they just need to be able to be like number one, number one, number one, number one, number one. But that's what's so funny because it has the little dagger dick next to it

at the death asterisk on the New York Times list, which denotes this is from bulk purchases. Right. Just letting you know that this is a bit of a fuckery, as they call it on the New York Times bestsellers list. He just got booed too. Yeah. It is funny that he called the book triggered because he then did,

scheduled a book signing and book reading at UCLA. The hotbed for libs like miles. Triggered libs. Triggered libs. Get ready. And so he- If you want to see me smoking a cigarette dipped in weed oil. Nodding out in front of the library. So him and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle,

showed up there and there were protesters, but not the protesters they wanted because it wasn't liberal protesters. There were a handful of liberal protesters who were basically respectful and didn't do that much, but there were conservative protesters

who thought that it was messed up that he wasn't opening it up for questions for them to- Right, to pwn him. To pwn him. Because these are the people who are so right of even Trumpers that they're like, y'all not racist enough. Yes.

Yeah. And that's what was even more interesting about that, is just sort of this process of evolution of the offshoots of shitbags on the right so shitbags on the right started protesting and shouting and don jr started getting triggered and he only spoke for 20 minutes and then kimberly got up and started shouting at the people and telling them that their mothers were probably not proud of them. And I bet you engage and go on online dating because you're impressing no one here to get a date in person. Isn't that funny when people try and hit you with a burn from their generation and you're like, what?

Yeah. I don't even know what that just meant. You probably got like three songs in your Zoom. Yo, shout out to Zoom. Making fun of people for online dating. Yeah. Is, yeah. That's just so like, okay, what?

And just like as a general online dating, like that's a whole. That's everyone. That's all of it. That's Facebook. Everyone who's dated since. Oh, I'm sorry, Kimberly. I actually found a meaningful match on eHarmony.com.

Right. We matched on 73 different dimensions of love. Yeah. It's farmers only. Which is made up by a UCLA professor, by the way. Think about how she metHarmony.com. Right. We matched on 73 different dimensions of love. Yeah. It's farmers only. Which is made up by a UCLA professor, by the way. It's fake. Is that true? Yeah.

One of the dudes who's like the face of eHarmony, that gray-haired guy, I'm pretty sure he's in one of the social sciences at UCLA. And there was like a bit of debate between people in that department of like, what you're doing isn't exactly science. Like you're selling people a concept that based on studies we've done, like we found correlation, but to be like the 73 dimensions, like whatever that shit is.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, keep it down. We're making money over here. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways.

Oh, Jack, actually time to do an ad for eHarmony.com. Yeah. I know I met miles on eHarmony.com. Yeah. I know I met Miles on eHarmony. Trying to hire a beard? I got to check my DMs. So there's a new book called From Russia With Blood,

which is kind of a campy name for a book that has a bunch of journalistic bombshells. But this reporter was talking to Terry Gross, bombshells but this reporter was talking to terry gross and she's talking about how there's been all these murders in the uk of russian expats who are like vladimir putin opponents or rivals and they've clearly been murdered and the british police are just like, nah, it was a suicide. He stabbed himself to death with two knives. Like, it's just, that shit is happening. So there's 14. He clubbed himself in the head really hard. They point to 14 cases where it's like super obvious.

Like there's a guy who. 14? Yeah, 14 murders over the past, like since Putin came to power. 14 and super obvious? Yeah, that are the super obvious ones. There's also one in America. There was a Putin's media czar who was on the eve of testifying to the U.S. Justice Department, was found bludgeoned to death in his room.

And they ruled that the blunt force injuries to his head, neck and torso were him falling down over and over because he was drunk. Which doesn't, like, it just doesn't. So then they also have the medical examiners on board with this shit? Yeah, I think they just don't want to. Make it hot? Yeah, they don't want to make it hot, basically. Maybe he died trying to give himself the Heimlich. Right.

Yeah, that's like honestly what it seems like. I mean, when we got in the apartment, the song Slam by Onyx was playing. Yeah. And I believe he was just slamming around the room. Exactly. And then I started choking on a pretzel. One of the dudes was zipped up inside a bag in a bathtub and all the entire outside of the bag including the zipper was wiped for prints and he wasn't wearing gloves so like if he had zipped himself in the bag right for some reason there

his fingerprints would have been on the outside of the bag and it was just everything was wiped for prints and they ruled it a suicide were the 14 murders or suicides um outside of russia or both inside and outside no all, all in the UK. So the point they're making is that there's this overarching system where Russian oligarchs have been a boon to the UK economy because they're like fleeing Russia with their billions. has like a bill that's like if you invest a certain amount of money in the UK economy, you can stay, which is like more transparent than I think America is willing to be about stuff. But the UK is just like, yeah, we want money. Bring your dollar. Sure. Bring your money. And so the theory is that that's kind of what part of their

incentive is to just look the other way. Because that cash injection is also very important to the economy. So they just don't want to make it hot. But they also talk about Putin. She kind of made it seem like I had always heard Putin was the most badass KGB dude. And she was saying he's more of like a fanboy KGB person who really bought into just the overall mythos of the KGB. Yeah, he's a KGB nerd. Right.

And so he, when he got into office, started like researching all the like cool ways of killing people. And she was saying that like they have all these really like if you go really deep there, like these clusters of heart attacks and like mental breakdowns and suicides that they think have something to do with like, you know, they they have been researching murder methods since he got into office and they might have like found really difficult ways to. What's the what's the chemical chick? I don't know how to say it. The one that. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. The one that's. What's what's the poison? Yeah. What's got a chick in there. I know what you're talking about. The one that's. What's the poison? Plutonium.

Yeah. What's the poison that was used to poison that? Novichok. Yeah. Thank you. The one where. I feel like they do that one if they want people to know. Yeah.

Novichok for the soul. Before I sputter out. Before I rat him out. The. Because there's another dude actually in Germany, too, who was like a Georgian who was commanding forces against Russia during the Chechen uprising. This dude got straight up clapped up in a German park. Yeah. And then the cops caught this dude.

He shot the dude, ditched his bike, ditched the gun, then got on an electric scooter and the cops nabbed him. But they're like, hold the fuck on. Got on an electric scooter and the cops nabbed him. But they're like, hold up. Got on an electric scooter? Yeah. And he had one of those. That's his getaway method. Yeah. Well, I think because he wanted to blend in with other people in the park.

Yeah. Like, and also like when they looked at his passport, he had one of these passports where that a lot of people who are like these, quote unquote, tourists who come through to, you know, stick people with umbrellas with poison. Like, have they all come out of the same office? So it's like, yeah, dude, like this is it's like some penguin shit. What is it like umbrellas? Yeah. Yeah. Because another person was it Litvinenko or someone who was? Someone had got hit with a poison tip of an umbrella.

That's how they got the poison. I mean, that was some Cold War shit. That's like some Batman shit. He had his tea poisoned. Oh, okay. Yeah. He's just a fan of, I feel like he's just a Marvel fan. Yeah.

Ultimately. Yeah, he wants to be a Marvel villain. But all of this is, it's so bizarre that we're, you know, because I think, you know, we know that the impeachment hearings are related to the Russia investigation because obviously part of the investigations were trying to go back to 2016 and basically move blame from Russia over to ukraine and trump was trying to facilitate that and having the ukrainian government openly say that they were going to do that and investigate themselves as possibly the reason or the the those who meddled in our in the american elections in 2016 but it's so weird that like to see how our cia and as someone who's just not a fan you know know, just not a fan of like the CIA personally, but how we're like so behind when it comes to like comparing our work to like Russia and or maybe some of the human rights like clauses that we follow, you know, like are

preventing us from, you know, doing some Batman-like murders, which is good. I feel like the CIA- Well, the CIA, they pay people to do that locally. Sure, sure. And I think they might be better at it, and that's why we don't catch them doing it. Whereas Russia, I feel like Putin wants people to know. Sure.

That's part of his deal. That's part of his kink. Well, and that's also- But it's a message to everybody else. It's like, I don't give a fuck where you're at. Right. I can touch you. Right. Well, exactly. It's a message to everybody else. Like, I don't give a fuck where you're at. Right. Like, I can touch you. Right.

And it, well, exactly. It's a message to his own people, too, because apparently, like, after it was revealed that, yes, Russia did meddle in the U.S. elections, like, people, you know, in Russia, like, were like, hey, that's pretty good. Not bad. We're kind of coming back, aren't we? Yeah. Back on top.

But it's, it is really scary also because with the Marie Yovanovitch, you know, the former ambassador's testimony on how the day she was told to leave her position was the day she was giving that award to the anti-corruption activist

who had acid thrown on her and then died. Now, I'm not saying that was Putin's doing, but it probably was. Right. Probably had something to do with it.

And like, that's what happens when you try to go against the Kremlin. And I'm like, all right, well, I want to live in a rational world. And I don't want to just think, you know, Putin's behind everything. But did Putin take that parking spot that I was going to park in? Probably. I mean, it made me think of- What did the license plate say? Rad Vlad?

Who does? It was the license plate of that car, Rad Vlad. Yeah, Rad Vlad. It made me think of... So do you guys remember that dude, Michael Hastings, who wrote the Stanley McChrystal article for Rolling Stone that got McChrystal to resign, and then that guy died in a car accident, the writer?

Did not know that. Yeah, he died when he was 33 in a car accident and like there's actually video of his car like speeding out of control with like sparks flying behind it and i don't know so they were talking about how russia has these uh drugs that they will dose people with that will make them lose their mental equilibrium. So in the weeks leading up to their death, they're acting strangely so that people are like, oh, well, yeah, there was something going on with them. And that just made me this dude's death was very suspicious. But his both his brother and his wife were like, yeah, but he was acting really strange, like right before he died.

But he was also like calling people and being like, I'm onto a big story, but like the U S government is investigating me. And then when Wiki Wiki leaks revealed a bunch of CIA documents that revealed that one of the ways they were investigating to kill people was hacking into their cars so that they would just like fly out of control and like yeah and as untraceable ways of killing people and this was the guy who wrote about was it like it was mcchrystal and obama like he was talking and like

prostitutes wasn't there like a it was this like general in i think afghanistan right it's war machine it's what war machine's about the guy was like talking shit about obama basically and uh he reported it all i don't think that's why he got killed that was just like the big story that put him on the map and then he had some other big scoop and was like i'm about to have to drop off the grid like an hour before his car just sped out of control and killed him. And we don't know what that scoop was about? We don't know other than that it was big and he was going to have to drop off the grid

because he thought he was being investigated by the U.S. government. And I thought Xanax was powerful. You know what I mean? That's where I'm still getting over that. How do I get that? Yeah. Anyways, but Epstein killed himself, right? Yeah. Yeah, but Epstein killed himself, right? Yeah.

Yeah, probably. I don't know. If you go to, man, I just, everywhere people are throwing up graffiti. Epstein didn't kill himself? Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah, it's graffiti. I saw it fucking spray painted in the street.

It's like our V for Vendetta moment is just Epstein. Yeah. I feel like it's, yeah, why wouldn't it be? I mean, that's a very potent symbol of like, you know, excess and capitalism not working and being a way for people to, you know, just be behave in the most despicable way as possible. It really is uniting all people of all stripes, the left and the right. Yeah. Even if they're very narrowly focused on bringing the Clintons down, fine, man. Sure. Even if they don't really care about the victims that much, they're just like, Epstein didn't kill himself.

I think the one thing about the Epstein thing, and I know you guys have talked about it, is that the way the media dropped it like a hot potato as soon as he died. Yeah. Well, that's what the medical examiner said. So we just got to follow that. Makes you wonder, huh? Yeah. How many people in those C-suites at those companies, those corporations are like,

I don't want to fucking hear a thing about this guy right now. Yes. Yeah, but as a journalist, that's suddenly off limits. Suddenly, which is totally messed up because you don't even have to talk about the conspiracy at all. You can still talk about the actual, like the reporting and the victims and the lawsuits. Like, why did that also go away immediately? And listen, I know the media cycle is now we're on the impeachment.

But like just straight up day to night. Yeah. It was blanket coverage and then nothing nothing and it is the story that americans are most interested in right now oh yeah across the board and they're just like nah we don't think it's a good story to cover but he is dead right so why would we talk about? To the point where people like rearranging like monogrammed Christmas stockings at Target to spell out Epstein didn't kill himself. Well, how about that war on Christmas though?

Yeah. Oh boy. All right. We're going to take another quick break. We'll be right back. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot,

the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. A lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it.

Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packers star

Kabir Bajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. KGB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked. Voila! You got straight away.

I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everyone. I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm Amber Ruffin, a better Lacey Lamar. Boo. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber Show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network.

You thought you had fun last season? Well, you were right. And you should tune in today for new fun segments like Sister Court and listening to Lacey's steamy DMs. We've got new and exciting guests like Michael Beach. That's my husband. Daphne Spring, Daniel Thrasher, Peppermint, Morgan J., and more. You gotta watch us.

No, you mean you have to listen to us. I mean, you can still watch us, but you gotta listen. Like, if you're watching us, you have to tell us. Like, if you're out the window, you have to say, hey, I'm watching you outside of the window. Just, you know what? Listen to the Amber and Lacey Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. Season

two. Season two. Are we recording? Are we good? Oh, we push record, right? And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and the piña colada from Puerto Rico.

So all of these... We have, we think, Latin culture. There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey that dates back to the 9th century B.C. B.C.? I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura podcast network.

Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. What's what's a myth what's something people think is true you know to be false okay i don't think a lot of people know this but um when like female hysteria was a thing the there's a thought process that male doctors would cure hysteria by massaging the clit right that's like the invention of vibrators but that is actually a myth oh shit they they like the idea was that vibrators were invented to calm women down right but doctors were just like they didn't think i'm giving her an orgasm they're like i'm just cure i'm just calming her the fuck down because she's crazy. Curing her hysteria.

But that was written up in one journal. And everyone was like, that must be it. And no one refuted it. No one ever did other research. And then finally people were like, actually, there's no evidence of that at all. There's no doctors who reported this at all. It's just not true. Wait, about the invention

of the vibrator or the... That was the reason the vibrator was invented. Got it. And that's how medical professionals were curing, quote unquote, hysteria.

Got it. Right, because the vibrator was invented to... It was invented. ...to cure weak dick. No, that's right. Cure that weak-ass dick. For trash dick, I believe, was what the cause was. And I'm going to prescribe you weak dick. No, that's right. Hear that? Weak ass dick. Yeah, weak dick.

For trash dick, I believe, was what the cause was. And I'm going to prescribe you a vibrator. You can see the old timey ads that are like, suffering from weak dick. Suffering from weak dick, ladies. Give her a vibrator. Yeah. And she'll never know. Yeah. Ah.

That's, man. What did they say? Someone coming like, this one was going click crazy. I feel like most of what we know about history is what you just described, where it's like one place wrote that because they were like, probably. And then the whole Ich bin ein Berliner thing, JFK, it's like from a spy novel. Wow. And then the novel came out in the 80s and then everybody just started quoting it as

a true story. That he had said the wrong thing. Wasn't there a thing about how he said he was a pastry? That everybody thought he was saying, I am a donut. Right, right, right. It's just like, it's not true. Nobody thought that shit. I mean, that's the beauty of the pre-internet age. Right. You could have just changed...

The course of history could have been changed from a few misunderstandings or someone just being overly confident about something. But okay, well, they said it's true. Right. No way to fact check. You're like, I honestly have no other way to. Sounds true. Napoleon being short.

It's all just rumors people started because it seemed like a thing a smart person would say. Or like you and your sweating. Just a rumor. Yeah. Totally. Self-created myth. Yeah. People are thinking, I don't know what to do with my hands.

In photos? In photos or just in life. Leave them alone. All right. That's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show.

It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. Thank you. In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest. Because the company had promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared, leading to one of the biggest controversies in 80s pop culture. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Renee Stubbs, and I'm obsessed with sports, especially tennis. Tune into my podcast each week to hear me and my friends in the community break down the latest matches, including the US Open. Plus hear from some of the biggest names in the sport about what the future holds. It's about belief. And once you break through that, then you know you can win a Grand Slam. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast every Monday on the iHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Caesar salad with lobster? Yeah. Whoa. Our second season is airing right now, so you can catch up on our conversations that are intimate and often hilarious. Listen to Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated.

Crooks everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.