The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 279 (Best of 6/12/23-6/16/23)

Episode Date: June 18, 2023

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 291See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey fam, I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Check out our recent episode with dancer, actress, and host of Dancing with the Stars, Julianne Hough, revealing the healing journey behind her new novel,

Everything We Never Knew. I am showing up for my younger self and it is becoming a ripple effect energetically in my life, and that's why I feel so safe now. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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.

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence 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. Here is the weekly zeitgeist. Miles, we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by one of the very favorite guests on TDZ, a poet, a podcaster.

You can hear on the American Hysteria podcast, exploring the fantastical thinking and irrational fears of Americans. No, that can't be right. Not us. Not Americans. Through the lens of moral panics, urban legends, conspiracy theories, much else. Please welcome the brilliant, the talented, Chelsea Weber Smith! Chelsea! Hi, guys. Happy to be here.

Hello. As always. Is it Weber or Weber? It's Weber. Yeah! Woo! Nailed it. First time.

Had to make sure. Had to make sure. It's actually Weber. Weber Chris Weber thank you I went through and on all documents I did a global search of my computer every document on my computer and changed it so to make sure it said Weber like Chris web 3.0 thank you I appreciate that a lot what's new? It's been too long. It's been too long, I know. Well, as I told you guys, we've been working on

well, we actually just finished a Jackass series and that was a lot of fun and I feel like that's up your alley. Did you guys read Big Brother magazine growing up? I did. I did. And I also made stupid shopping cart prank videos at the local grocery stores with my friends.

And, yeah, I was, like, at the perfect age when Jackass came out. Oh, yeah. And it basically destroyed half of my body. Yeah, me too. I remember seeing the Jackass videos when they were video, like, VHSs being traded between people. Like CKY? Like, you talking about CKY videos? Yeah, my friend in Chicago.

I went and visited a friend in chicago i went visit a friend in chicago like in high school and he showed me them and i was like what the fuck is this this is crazy i remember that yeah cky2k or what dude remember that one oh yeah when brennan beats up all those dudes outside the 7-elevenven. Yeah. Or Mike Vilelli. I mean, I think that's his name. We were like, yo, dude, he legit beat these dudes up. I think the thing, the sketch I remember is someone was just carrying, like ordered all the McDonald's, was carrying it on a tray

and then just did like a spectacular fall. Oh, yeah. And like it just went everywhere. I feel like that's spam. Yeah. Genius. Genius's Bam. Yeah. Genius. Genius! Yeah.

I was really into Rab himself, Chris Rab. I was like, oh, man. Sluiceberry suver for Kiki. One of my favorites. And he hates mustard. And that's his big thing is he's terrified whenever mustard gets by him. Is that not him?

No, that's like Jorn. Oh, right. That's Rake Yorn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who like got him. He's like, ah! What is it? He had the crazy big hair.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the Viking status. Man. Chelsea, now I'm like, I think I'll have to go back and watch this. You do, you do. I think you'd like this episode. You should listen to it.

Oh, I'm definitely, I'm doing it. It's very much about how gay Jackass was too and how much of a revolution it was at the time to just have dudes hanging out the way they were and not, you know, being afraid to. Yeah. Have their butts out. Even though it was a joke. It was like a big change from like the really. It's like, come on, dude.

Yeah. Let me put a firework up your asshole. Yeah. As a bro. And you're like, OK. No. Like, yes, Somo. Yeah, exactly.

and you're like okay no like yes homo yeah exactly but the other thing i wanted to share with you all is uh we've been doing a new thing on our show called the urban legends hotline and people can call in and record stories from their childhood and then we'll like deep just do whatever research we decide and uh the one we're working on right now is about this place called pig hill in pennsylvania and it's about a group of cannibal pig people that eat teenagers on a lover's lane up there, like an inbred family, right? Kind of a classic legend. Like deliverance kind of thing?

What'd you say? Like deliverance vibes? Yeah, a little bit of deliverance vibes. Yeah, definitely. But we've been like getting really into the pig part of it. You know, like why are they specifically pig people? And I was able to dig up the very first trial that was based on a false confession in American history that ended in execution. And it was actually about a man accused of bestiality. He was like an indentured servant,

and he was accused of it because the pig gave birth to a piglet that was deformed and looked like the man who was a servant and so yeah they tried him and uh hanged him for a pig paternity test and that was uh yeah that's that's the very first false confession as well because they basically badgered him into confessing. And he thought, OK, you know, based on other trials I've seen, if I say if I repent to God and say, yes, I did this and I'm sorry, I'll get off. But then they were like, no, we're going to hang you anyway. And then he's like, OK, well, I really didn't do this. And yeah. And then there was a big bestiality panic. And it ended up meaning that women were the ones milking the cows always

because men were literally not allowed in barns unless they had a chaperone. Wait, so like a milkmaid is is we have that because motherfuckers couldn't keep their hands off animals. Basically, they're like, that's it. Well, not exactly. Oh, it was a panic. Right. So, of course, yes, that happened. But it was a panic around specifically like servants or like poor people who were accused of this crime often because it was convenient, because they wanted to try them for something else. But once it started to reach like the richer Americans where they were getting accused as well, then suspiciously, the panic just kind of fizzled out. So kind of a

classic moral panic. But 1600s. We must take note of this cycle of panics and how we can maybe abbreviate them because we're in the midst of multiple cycles now. Yeah, right. Have you ever looked into is America more panicked than other nations or is this just a cycle that every country like goes through? It feels like America is more irrational, right? I think it depends. I mean, there are some wild moral panics all around the world. It just really I mean, I think that that's pretty equal across the board. It's just like translated through different religions and cultures. So it's like we might look at one panic, like there's a panic in different parts of the world where your penis is disappearing and you freak out. And that's been like even recently, people's penises have been suspiciously disappearing.

What's the cure for that? Not that I'm worried, but what is the cure for that? You know, I haven't looked enough. How do you bring it back? Well, you know, it never leaves. So it just kind of goes. Wait, what is that panic? Someone, people are claiming their penises have vanished, like, from their bodies. You remember this, Jack? What was this?

I remember this from the cracked days that that was a panic from another country. I bet you do. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it goes back to like, like, I just typed in penis vanishes. It's like turtle penis, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it goes back to like, like I just typed in penis vanishes. Right. Yeah. They call it turtle penis because the penis like retracts into the body. Okay. You got it. Yeah. Turtle penis panic. Okay. I'm gonna look, I'm gonna look that.

Anyways, we could clearly talk about this all day. I heard that some bestiality is where grimace came from actually in the first place. That makes sense. Yeah. A lot of people don't know that. What is something, Courtney, that you think is overrated? Well, I just opened a student loan bill this morning. So I was reminded about college and how I still owe $8,000 and how I'm probably going to go into my forties and still owe money. So I feel, I feel scammed. Yeah. What to you was like at the time, right? When you were

on the precipice of taking on this debt, what was in your mind? Did you have any foresight or was just kind of like, I don't know, everyone's fucking doing it. So no, I didn't want to go because I was going to be an actor too. And I wasn't, I was wildly delusional, but I wasn't so delusional that I thought like, oh, the best way to do this is by going to college. You know, my parents were like, you know, this is so important. And the thing is, I love taking classes like i still take writing classes to this day but i feel like colleges are just for real real estate holdings yeah it's so indirect like how the teachers get paid and everything so anyway scam yeah and you studied theater or acting is that what you want yeah uh yeah i mean yeah i know my thing was like i'll study history because my backup will be to be a teacher

so at least if like with all else fails at least i have like a degree in something i can be like and i want to teach that so fuck it like let's go with it but yeah i totally get that part of me was like what am i gonna do with this shit if i'm if i'm gonna be a sick ass podcaster yeah didn't have that for i knew i was gonna be a podcaster i majored in podcasting and everyone's very confused because it didn't exist yet but yeah we all knew yeah jack what it's called podcasting dad colleges are like venture capital firms, essentially. Yes. Yeah. With classes that teach that also have classes there, which I think venture capital firms should just start offering classes and put colleges.

Thank you. Exactly. Yeah. Cannibalize them. Like, we'll teach you how to just fucking, you know, pillage economically, financially. Go ahead. That's one of those industries that millennials were supposed to have killed is colleges, right? Wasn't that like a thing? Oh, did we kill colleges

too? Millennials don't care about colleges anymore. I thought we killed everything. Yeah, but they, I don't know, they still seem to be thriving. A lot of millennials went though, but I do think in our wake, we hopefully put a dent in some of these, you know, universities. Maybe the Gen Z kids who saw their older millennial relatives are like, what the fuck is wrong with Courtney? No way. They got taken for like a hundred grand. Did you have fun at least in college? I tried to get out of there as soon as possible.

So I graduated. I'd taken some PSEO, some college classes in high school. And then I also went to a fast. So I graduated in like two years and made mistakes in other places. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course. You took PSEO and then said PSCU. That was my attempt. It sounded better. It sounded like it was going to sound more like it in my head and it didn't quite work out yeah uh what is something that you think is underrated all right ready yes working i wouldn't be doing my job right now if i didn't take this and every opportunity to mention the ongoing writer's strike i'm a proud member of the writers guild of america and we have been on strike since the beginning of may because we want a fair contract and the studios refuse to even sit down with us and and discuss it let alone give us what we're asking for it's very

frustrating i i a lot of people when this started in in my life who are like sympathetic to this cause and everything they're like you'll probably enjoy a little vacation it's not a vacation i really like working uh and i i writing specifically is the thing that i'm very good at it and i just want to do it and the studios won't let me and it's maddening who had that take that was like i think the strike was because yeah zaz love's like so we're big fans of zaz love on this show, Daniel. Oh, sure. You're proving him right. And his take was that he was like, the strike's going to end because of a love of working. Yeah. People love to work. And we're just, we'll welcome them back with open arms.

So he's using the fact that you are a creative machine against you. I know. Which is so devious and shitty. How much of it do you think, you know, I've seen that take of like how there's like a big, there's that big obscure thing about like Netflix numbers

or streaming numbers and how that could affect things. Do you think that's playing a huge part or it's just general? Obviously, there's the overarching theme of greed on behalf of the networks and streamers. But like, do you do I've seen that take going around Twitter. I was curious if you had any thoughts on that. I don't have any extra insight into this than anyone else who doesn't, you know,

read Twitter and and Variety and Hollywood Reporter and all the other trades and everything. But that does make a whole lot of sense because that's something that the streamers won't even they don't seem to want to budge on the data data transparency yeah and it makes a whole lot of sense because that number could either be very very large and they don't want us to know that because then it would reveal just how much money we should be getting in residuals or which seems slightly more likely that money could be there the number could be very low, which they don't want Wall Street and investors to know about. Anyone who has spent any time in tech or Silicon Valley startups, it all sounds very familiar to every single Silicon Valley startup that eventually burst. eventually burst because they they go big and they go fast and they invest invest invest and they talk about growth growth growth and have very little transparency and then when eventually they

have to reveal their numbers everything falls apart because they don't they inflated their own importance and impact yeah it sounds it sounds familiar to also the ones that succeed like Facebook. Facebook was did that. And then like this year, I read somewhere that like Facebook's having like an amazing year, like at the stock market, like at the stock market where we're all the I'm going to just throw stocks back and forth. Yeah. Like Facebook's stock is like doing well or they're i don't know i'm just like how how are we still here after meta after the pivot to video bullshit oh yeah and then the listener was saying that like the the twitter video views that's i think it's like two

to three seconds is what triggers a view yeah really we're right back where we started where people like you gotta see the fucking numbers we're doing here, folks. Give us your ad dollars. Wait, what? It's all an illusion? Fuck. Yeah. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.

This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI

in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who, on October 16, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.

My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts.

I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session. 24 hours.

BPM 110, 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this?

We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. And Aisha, so yeah, I read the quote, but you talk about pop culture informing

how we think about ourselves, how we like shape ourselves. You kind of run us through various pop culture informing how we think about ourselves, how we like shape ourselves. You kind of run us through various pop culture figures who you modeled your identity on as you were growing up. I've often said on this show that Freud fucked up big time by using ancient Greek myths instead of pop culture archetypes from the 90s. I think he could have really made a name for himself if he had just, you know, stuck to pop culture. But it does feel like there. Yeah. These are the things that we should be like as we're thinking about, you know, where does this weird urge come from to stand people, for instance? Like these are the figures that I

think actually exist in people's minds and like deep in their unconscious. Right. How would you how did you explain, again, this concept of inadvertent self-formation by way of popular culture? Well, I think especially when we're just kids or adolescents, we're not thinking deeply about what we're consuming, what we're viewing or watching. We're taking it in. We're like a sponge, right? It's just everything affects us and we don't necessarily know how to name it or know how to identify it. And it comes out in how we talk to each other, how we think of ourselves, how we see ourselves. I mean, I think about, you know, growing up as a kid in the 90s and how casual homophobic language

was just like the thing that everyone did. And if you go back and watch the movies that we were all watching, whether it was like Ace Ventura or like the teen movies of it, like there's all this casual homophobia, you know, showing up there. And so you don't realize until years later, or at least, I mean, I'm sure plenty of actual queer people recognize it in those moments. You know, I, obviously it was never right or okay. And it definitely was hurting people then. But I think, you know, part of what growing up hopefully is means being able to go back and sort of look at the things that you took in when you were younger

and understand how they may have and may still be affecting how you view things today. And so that's where the sort of the idea of it being inadvertent comes from is because like it doesn't like sometimes it just happens to you. And then you have to later go back and realize, OK, how did this happening to me make me who I am now? And a lot of it is sometimes like going back and undoing, trying to undo what has sort of calcified in your mind and brain um and how you relate to things yeah like it was i i'm pretty sure when i was a kid i probably used the f word the homophobic f word a couple times uh because that's what I, you know, grew up around. So, yeah, it's it's a lot of undoing and and and trying to become better, hopefully, if you're able to go back and look at those things and

recognize those things. I feel like so much of that debate now where people are like, it's too woke are like people who can't let go of like, but my favorite movie is this. And I have to say it's bad now, if I agree. And it is so true, like how much we, we take on shit that we see in the media, especially in the age before social media, like, I was, everyone's like looking for something that might feel like them or could be them or something you could kind of just feel like aligned with what were like the shows or works of media that you kind of grasped and sort of ingested to kind of become your personality? You know, I write in the book about what I call my

my ho phase. And, and, you know, which lasted from roughly my late teens to mid ish 20s. And how I kind of had this idea of what I wanted to be as a as a, as a girl slash woman, and how I kind of had this idea of what I wanted to be as a girl slash woman and how I related to men, boys and men. And I thought that, you know, I had to be sort of tomboy-ish and the type of girl who could hang with the guys, not necessarily like, I never pretended to like sports. Like that was never my, like sports aren't my thing. I never pretended to do that. Like it wasn't that, but you know, I'd use what I liked movies, TV, music to sort of signal, oh, I'm like, I'm cool.

Like Superbad is one of my favorite movies. Aren't I cool? It really is one of my favorite movies. I love that movie. But like, I would play that up or play, you know, play up the fact that, you know, I was really into, I don't know, Freaks and Geeks or The Wire or whatever is like the thing I put on my dating profiles. And I saw like this vision of like, wanting to be closer to this idea of masculinity in a way as a way of like shielding myself from getting hurt by boys and men and so i was very much like samantha jones was my girl i wanted to be like her from sex and city nola darling and she's gotta have it the 1986 film not the tv remake by spike lee like those were kind of my know, the badass women who fucked around a lot and like,

didn't like anti-relationship, anti getting too close to, to, to men. Right. That was kind of what I clung to. And then over time I realized, one,

that's reductive. And also like acting, acting like a man, thinking like a man, whatever. This was before Steve Harvey harvey yeah shout out steve harvey i wasn't just like i'm not gonna just think like a man i'm gonna act like one too um fuck being a lady but like i once i realized that that was all kind of a false dichotomy and that even if you do act like that as a woman, or as a person who presents as a woman, like you're still going to get the short end of the

stick because like, you're still going to get you're going to be slut shamed, or you're going to be, you know, you're, it's just, there's no winning. And the idea of getting closer, like masculinity is not something, at least that I want to aspire to, in the way that I conceived of it, or that pop culture conceived of it, which was often like, the ladies man, whether it's Sam Malone and Cheers, or not, not that there's like, actually, what I love about it's always setting Philadelphia is that it's actually like critiquing those things, but like I'm thinking of Dennis and like the Dennis system and how like that is clearly something to be, that's like being critiqued this idea of masculine men.

And who are, what were those guys, the pickup artists or whatever, like that whole culture. Yeah. Yeah. Or the game or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. Like that whole thing. I like, I thought that's what I wanted to be. And then I realized it's all bullshit. It's all patriarchal. And I had to sort of undo all of that mindset about how to be a good person

and how not to be an asshole. Because really, I was just trying to mimic, not just, not really masculinity per se, but just being an asshole, which is often assigned to men. And often seen as a good thing in men. Jack,

what TV people, what media people shaped you over the years? Because I feel like I was always a loose collection of shit I saw on TV and films. Kenny G. over the years because i feel like i was always a loose collection of shit i saw on tv and films yeah i mean kenny g kenny g number one first and foremost obviously influenced i don't know if you've seen pictures of me in fifth grade but my hair was uh long permed and always looked a little bit wet i just wore uh you know suit dress shirts with a vest over top at all times. are like wanting to be that and then also rocky and karate kid were the ones that i where i really saw it in like something about like the like i thought it was cool to get your ass kicked

i think other people like thought like you don't go down yeah like other other kids would be like i'm into bruce lee or like somebody who is famously an ass kicker. And the two characters that I really loved were people who could like really take a punch and just like keep getting back up. And so underdog. Yeah. The underdog who is just like losing fights repeatedly. I also like John McClane, who, you know, is just dragging his like broken body across broken glass, like by the end of that movie, like something about that probably tied into the very strict Catholic upbringing that I had, you know, like some like weird Mel Gibsonian, right?

The passion. Yeah, yeah. The passion of Jack's sadism or something was probably tied in there. But yeah. And then Michael Jordan came along and I was like, I want to be that. I want to be Michael Jordan. And then went to like, you know, early 90s hip hop. And then I'd say like pop intellectuals and writers like Hunter S. Thompson, even though I like didn't love his writing. I was like, man, that guy's cool. I want to, you know, drink and use drugs like the future doesn't exist while still being respected as an

intellectual. And the Yeah, I feel like those were kind of the main ones as I was like, still forming myself. Yeah, I was just so addicted to TV and like films that like, every time I saw something I could like find I was like, always looking for like identity in like film that like every time I saw something I could like find I was like always looking for like identity in like film like the things I was watching and like one of the earliest ones was like Goku and Dragon Ball as a kid like I was just like oh this like I felt like it was teaching me things about toughness and then then I want to be Michael Jordan and then I wanted to be Will Smith and Fresh Prince then I was Ace Ventura for about two years with the way I spoke. Like just like Pete annoying Jim Carrey.

Every kid. Every kid. Every kid. I was all righty then all that shit. Yeah. I had specific friends. I remember who were Ace Ventura for three years in a row. And they, in my memory, the funniest kids I knew.

Funniest people i've ever met they're just doing it totally co-opted that shit and i was like this man is a genius yeah 100 and then i was the wayans brothers yeah probably marlin more than sean because marlin was a little more outgoing then i was tiger woods because that was the first time i saw a blazing person like me on tv and i was like like, OK, so I'm that. And I tried to play golf. That shit, I was I was never going anywhere. Then there was The Rock.

Shot at another like vaguely Blasian person. Then puberty hit. It was all rap. I was like Jay-Z. I was Method Man. I was Pharrell because people were like, you could be like Pharrell. I was like, yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Really? I will not wear trucker hats. I was wearing trucker hats. And you should have seen me in the early. I wore trucker hats, too, because it was it was the odds. Yeah, you had to. You had to. And at least for me, I was like, that's

a trucker hat. I'm like, but Pharrell wears one. So I guess it's okay. Yeah, right. Yeah, I was wearing Von Dutch quite yet. Then I was like, I love Tom Sizemore and Saving Private Ryan for some reason. That is so weird. It's because he knew, Jack, to your point, and the Goku thing, he kept getting shot and he kept getting back up in the movie.

And I was like, yo, yo. And then my mom was like, there was a monk in Japanese folklore called Benkei who maybe you would be more interested in. So then I got into figures like that. But now I don't think I've moved on past Pharrell, to be honest. Yeah. But it is one of those things where like so much of my identity was being defined by the media, sadly. And I was taking cues, especially from like the blackness that I saw on screen as some kind of standard that I had to sort of uphold because I was being fed this very specific version of like what black culture was via like television and film than other versions

from my family. And then other times also being Asian, I felt like I was just kind of like a punchline. So I was always kind of sifting through media to try and give me something. I'm like, well, that shit's cool on TV. Oh, man, what was like the rush hour era like for you? on TV. Oh man, what was like the Rush Hour era like for you? Oh, Aisha, Aisha, let me tell you how, yeah, my cousins, my black cousins were immediately

they're like, I was Jackie Chan from the second the first Rush Hour came out, or Blackie Chan was a lot of things a lot of people say. And yeah, that was, and at the time I was like, or I would even, you know, the thing is you even point that inward and you're like telling other people, you're like, I'm like rush hour, the person, you know what I mean?

And then take that on. Cause you'd rather like, you got laughs from that, but it's always interesting how I was like, I was always using media sort of like this touchstone to inform those things. And again, it was like out of seeking some way of like finding myself, uh, but also like maybe inadvertent or maybe very intentional kind of personality formation as i was doing that yeah it it does feel like a very interesting way to kind of just view the world and the cultural landscape as like these figures that people that like resonate and you know they express some like you know that i read this book

when i was young about like how movies are like cultural dreams they're like expressing some something from like our shared unconscious and you know so obviously they resonate and people pay money to see them but then they have this second life where they shape us in the same way that like linguists talk about language shaping everything we do because they like give us the color palette that we are working with when we're like trying to build the person that we want to be. Like how we talk, what we wear, how to like, you know, hold our body posture wise. There's this crazy story about how like Marlon Brando characters, like nobody in the mafia dressed like that until Marlon Brando did in a movie. And then they were just like,

yo, that's me. That is me. That is who I want to be. You wear sweatsuits. And then they started dressing like that. And then that's, that's what we associate with,

you know, people in the mafia. But it was like this invention by a great artist. Yeah. Yeah. And then that's what we associate with, you know, people in the mafia. But it was like this invention by a great artist. Yeah. That's so funny you brought that up because I did an entire, I did like this deep dive episode about the Godfather and how Italian Americans reacted to it. And I learned that. It was just like they were, the gangsters were imitating the movie version of themselves. Right. Yeah.

Which is just such a great little anecdote and a great example of how there's there's just this back and forth, this cultural exchange between the language of the movies and then the language of the people and how they feed into one another. and then the language of the people and how they feed into one another. And sometimes they become so blurred that you don't know, it's like a chicken and egg situation, like which actually came first? Like, was this, you know, did this exist? Was it, you know, was Marlon Brando

basing the character off of a specific gangster he met? And then it just became sort of the template for all these other gangsters. Yeah, it's just just it's so interesting to think about that or even something like i don't know the the rachel haircut in the 90s how everyone wanted that it's just like what a weird time yeah what a weird weird thing how ingrained pop culture is uh to all of us yeah and i feel like we see it now even more right especially like with in politics like every like especially with like when you look at the symbolism and like

the the imagery the semiotics of like polyp like political factions now like i feel like you see so many people on the right like far right who are just they like they love the Punisher they love the Joker and there's like this weird like again there are people are finding these archetypes again do I think maybe give even their own like political battles meaning you know what I mean like because it might not be enough for them to be sort of

get the picture because they're looking at maybe their own situation but they like they're saying like okay I'm on this side of the fence plus Punisher oh yeah I like this this like this. This is me. This is me. The guy who is like just unhinged, violent and feels like that's the only way that can solve things to make people safe. Yeah, I think those two in particular are very like powerful, central sort of psychological archetypes that have really, you know, like back to Heath Ledger's Joker comes out at the start of the Obama administration. And I think the like resonated with people being like, not everything's okay here, even though kind of the mainstream

media seemed to be like, we're good here. Everything's good. Post-racial society. media seemed to be like we're good here everything's good right post racial history is over and then like the joaquin joaquin phoenix joker comes out and like adds what i think are two crucial ingredients that he is an incel and that he is like pointedly not funny but wants to be funny which i feel like are two of the key features of a lot of the people who identify with the joker and like that. Yeah. I mean, that character has been around and resonating for a long time,

but it just feels like it's really, yeah. In, in the books that are written about our culture, there probably won't be as many of them as we like to think, but I feel like there will be a whole chapter on like the Joker and the Punisher and shit like that unfortunately yeah maybe just yeah again just shows how much meaning we like extract from like

our like our popular culture because it wasn't like no one's like going in history right like i i want to like i want to be william tecumumseh Sherman or some shit like that. Or John Brown. They're like, I want to be the Punisher. Yeah. I want to be Batman. And you're like, oh, shit. Okay.

So we've completely just exchanged one for the other. But again, has like that same motivating force behind it, I guess. Well, and also like the meaning that is being extracted is often just like totally out of line of what the meaning originally was or really is. Like when I think about all the, you know, the Bill Maher types who complain about, oh, you can never get Blazing Saddles made today. It's like, OK, but like Blazing Saddles is actually like a radical piece of like filmmaking. And they're just like focused on, oh, well, they, you know, they're using the N-word or whatever. Actually, I don't even remember if the N-word is used. It doesn't matter. It's like they are taking the wrong takeaways from that movie to prove their point.

But really, it's just like that movie was like maybe it wouldn't have been made today but also like most people who are actually like liberals the ones you are fighting against they would argue that blazing style is actually really great because it's way more transgressive than an episode of family guy or whatever like it's yeah yeah. We wouldn't let you, Bill Maher, remake Blazing Sands. No. Because that would suck and you would do a bad job. All right, let's take one more break and we'll be right back. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts,

separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer.

This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen 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 murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state.

And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life.

It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session. 24 hours. BPM 110. 120.

She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything?

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Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And so, like, this is just a story of, like, the industriousness of the American spirit at this point. This is the good news story. So Taylor Swift concert tickets are impossible to get. So Swifties who were shut out of the ability to go to the show can now buy some loose confetti

from the ones who were able to go. All right. People who went to the show and presumably like some of this is just they just like went to party city right but they're claiming they're claiming that they're taking they're grabbing handfuls of the confetti reselling it online the the pricing isn't that bad it's like 13 for a pack of 10 but my reason for 10 strips of fucking 10 pieces of confetti from the concert, though, Miles, I don't think you understand. It's from the concert.

Wait, you're able to get to as we call that on the streets. You're buying a loose fettie for 13 bucks. All right. Buy a loose fettie. Confetti loosies. All right. Much less popular than buying, you know, regular confetti is confetti Lucy's just a single loose piece of confetti for sure. But yeah, they're claiming like one seller pointed out that the confetti is somewhat limited at the show. Only floor seats and maybe some of the 100 sections can even get confetti. It's just like such a perfect encapsulation of it's like people who are already wealthy or well-connected enough to be on the floor at like the hardest concert to attend in recent modern history are just like gathering up the confetti from the ground.

I can tell you the trash from privilege world and sell it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It's elite, elite confetti. You guys, I am going to tell you something that may undermine my credibility on the

show, but I have Taylor Swift tickets. Good. Seattle show. But the funny thing is, is I was able to get them, my partner and I were able to get them first round. It was no problem.

We just got tickets. And then suddenly everything exploded and came toppling down. And so I'll be gathering some loose confetti and I'll send it to you both. I don't actually have good seats though. So I don't have to get my mitts on any loose confetti. No, I don't have confetti seats. I don't have a problem that you're going to the Ares tour. It's going to be dope.

I have a problem that you can't get me loose fetti off the floor. That's my issue. So get it together, please. Well, maybe I can get, you know, maybe I can get a fight for you and grab some from somebody else. Yeah, or cause a headline. I'm calling to punch your face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause a headline.

Something like that. Another confetti salesperson pointed out that people are getting mad at her, but she's just following Taylor's lead because Taylor Swift has created an insane business model, a capitalist empire that's easy for people to jump on. And that fan is also flipping $65 tour crewnecks for $200 each. So, I mean, I appreciate the hustle. Like these don't seem like they're, they seem like they're just trying to make money to recoup the fact that they spent, they might've spent like an entire paycheck on this. I just love the passionate defense of that Fetty salesperson that said, Taylor Swift has created an insane business model.

People are getting mad that I'm selling confetti at like $30. But what's crazy is that A, people are buying it. And B, you're in denial thinking Taylor Swift is not a capitalist. That's right. Oh, my God. Because, yeah, I mean, like I've never seen somebody truly milk their audience like this to be like, yo, you could buy this album with one extra song on it and a new album cover. Yeah. And they're like, yes, yes. God, I wish I was in the wrong business.

I think I might just go just to get some of this confetti the confetti like i i truly can't imagine anyone going through the trouble of gathering up the confetti off the floor and then like selling it for 13 for 10 strips like that how how much like are you bringing garbage bags with you like i just think this has to be some cargo pants cargo pants cargo pants i've already thought this out jack i've got cargo pants whoever i'm coming with as cargo pants and we're stuffing them shits yeah how big are these single pieces of confetti because the picture does not have like a to scale are these big pieces of confetti are they small band-aid size like what are we saying here i'm thinking band-a. I've never seen confetti.

Like, the picture is really close up. Really shows the texture. Full spectrum of colors, too. Yeah. The colors are great. It's a good... Are we upselling right now? Yeah. You guys might want to get in on this.

Honestly, I've purchased two packages, 20 pieces of confetti. You said that was an investment for your kid's college, right? It's for the future. For sure. You get $2 off if you buy three. So, yeah. Business. Business planning.

But I mean, Jack, this is the same thing. Like when those like wacky racist people were like bottling up fucking Splash Mountain water before they made it all woke. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's probably the same water. No, I guess not. They're probably shutting it down for a while. Who knows?

Either way, it's like, you don't know what the fuck, if that's even what they're selling you. Yeah, right. You could go to parties. It's definitely not. I'm putting this in the same category of like, it's not worth it to carry that shit out with you.

It's just so annoying to like be going to the concert and carrying out just like loose handfuls of confetti enough to make it like worth getting like so you would have to have 200 to even get like i don't know it's just you're making a three oh how do you pay for your like okay can't what's the formula to pay for your floor seat by selling the loose study after? Like the margins on the $65 a piece for $200 each, like that kind of makes sense, but it's still, like, are you bringing a fucking forklift with you to the show?

How many of these shirts are you getting? So I feel like these are all just grifters. Like the internet is just so full of grifters this is these are not people who actually went to the concert these are people just taking advantage like there's also somebody selling ziploc bags of eras tour air which i think is a joke but that's a straight griff, man. Come on now. But again, but it's like, this is just, this is where we're at. It's like the same, you see the same thing in every fandom, right? Like, especially with Trump.

Trump grifts his, all of his fans. Yeah. And they grift each the fuck out of each other. Yeah. You know, because they see like, oh shit, y'all buy anything? Okay, watch this. Y'all want Trump bucks? And people are fucking buying them. If you are, okay, so floor seats for the SoFi Stadium show in LA, 3,500.

So quick maths on that. I need to sell like 300 bundles of loose Fetty. So you have to gather 3,000 pieces of Fetty while you're there. Okay, so a dollar. Which seems like a lot. Yeah, that seems like a lot. Yeah, all right. I'm not up on the Fetty okay so it seems like a lot yeah that seems like a lot yeah all right i'm not up on the fete game but i mean but or the smartest person are the workers who have to clean up after the show and when they broom in that shit up you're like yeah put that

in a bag i could watch this that i could sell it to someone who has left earth uh and i can sell to them on ebay yeah hopefully that's that's who's doing this or hopefully it's just a grifter what is what is something uh that would seemingly be detritus to anyone else that you would pay actual dollars for is there anything like that for either of you chelsea jack like if there was even if it's something you thought of like oh something from this movie or something from this concert or this even if it was this artist's fingernail right because i mean if somebody could get me semen sample of grimaces yeah my i i've got a i got a big hair collection so uh famous people that i don't talk that much

about but you've seen it yeah yeah i keep telling you if i could get something from the donner party that's what i want i'm a big donner party scholar and yeah if i could get i don't know i get some dirt from their cabin i'd pay some i paid 13 bucks for that yeah just off the strength of someone like you know this is yeah yeah this is fucking donna open their open their jacket and it's just full of yeah i think i would i would probably buy like like a roach that any like one of my favorite rappers smoked oh yeah i feel like i will buy one of those for like for cash i mean i'm not gonna pay i'm not gonna pay like a hundred bucks but if someone's like yo man fucking method man was smoking this blunt i was like okay what you want you run out of weed you just pop that in your bong yeah oh no never never even when i'm desperate like that's

never i'll die sober before i spark that method man roach i bought for 50 dollars from on ebay yeah like whatever the cleaning crew took out of the studio after like a legendary recording session would actually be pretty tough to have like if yeah like even if it's like a old kukuru plastic bag exactly remember kukuruuckoo Rue? Yeah. You can hear that bag crinkle on this way in the, uh, torture sketch at the beginning of method, man. All right.

Let's talk about the Hobby Lobby satanic display. So this, this is like the most 2023 story of the day. And it comes to us all the way from Texas. So this is like the most 2023 story of the day. Mm hmm. And it comes to us all the way from Texas, where an A.I. artist and member of the Satanic Temple, mind you, used mid journey A.I. to basically take images like loaded images of the like aisles of Hobby Lobby. And the prompt was Hobby Lobby selling Satanic products. And what came out was stunning. Baphomet, demons, all the goat legs,

everything you could imagine that would make a Christian person faint as they clutch their pearls. But yeah, if you know Hobby Lobby, the hobby store for Christian nationalists, who famously were like, we're not going to pay for any kind of contraception, and we can discriminate whoever the fuck we want to because that's our religious choice. any kind of contraception and we can discriminate whoever the fuck we want to because that's our religious choice so this person jennifer vineyard made it just wanted to fuck around with the ai and got these images and first posted it to like an ai like art page and then other people just without even critically looking at it started reposting it on Facebook. Like this one woman, you can tell she's like reposting from something called AI art universe. Yeah. And then this woman says, well, I guess even the quote Christian owned companies can be bought for the right price. Severely disappointed. Holy shit.

I mean, it's just I mean, I get it. We're in another satanic panic and nobody is, you know, just credulously sharing shit. But yeah, it's just wild to see how quickly the thing spread. And then again, boom, culture wars. The size is the sizing is so far off. It's really funny. Like the the sculptures, the like head, the bust of Baphomet is like, you know, 10 times the size of the nearest thing. One of them actually looks like they have little demons like sitting on a shelf next to like air fresheners and shit. And like live, laugh, love.

Yeah, like baby sized or like toddler sized demons just sitting there like five times the size of anything else in Hobby Lobby that you can see in the picture. And they're just like, yeah, man, it's fucked up out there, huh? Yeah. If you go back to like the 80s, Satanic Panic and 90s, I think this is a great example of something that happens with an urban legend. And especially the Satanic Panic is like, it's called ostention, right? And it's like when there's already some kind of legend, right? So if we think, okay, a town's already worried about a satanic cult because, you know, animals ate another animal weird and left its carcass there, or, you know, there's been a murder and nobody can explain it. So there's already this panic around satanic cults. And so a teenager goes, and that's what i see here is like a teenager going and spray painting satan lives on like an underpass and then because this person's reacting

to a panic that already exists and having fun with it and like fulfilling it and fucking with it then it perpetuates the same problem because then the people who already believe in the legend take it seriously and teenagers wouldn't do that chelsea. Sorry to jump in here and correct you and mansplain. Teenagers would never do something so callous and chaotic as to play into an existing urban legend. Just to fuck with people? No, no, no, no, no. Not teenagers.

Not my teenagers. It is. Or those with a teen spirit who are making AI art. Right. Like who's apparently like art. Right. Temple. Like who's apparently like a pharmacist in training. In the article, they like have like, yeah, I'm trying to be a pharmacist, but also like, fuck, fuck this.

Like these people freaking out over shit. The comments on it are people who said, I haven't seen this in hours, but it's been a couple of weeks since I've been in there. That's insane. Another person had half a brain and said, I'd have to see this in person before I'd believe it. Good for you, dear Facebook user. Another one said, wow, now this is crazy. Did the Christian owners sail?

Or are they just in compromise and crossed the line and gone woke? This is absolutely insane. And the line, real Christians would never cross. Thank you. It's such a famously Christian chain. Yeah, that's what I love about it. Which I think that's why they did it, right? I love the prodding of it to be like, well, what about your sacred Hobby Lobby?

Guess what? They're in bed with Baphomet over there. And they're like, ah, we have nothing anymore. There's another, I just love this one screw satanic people screw satanic people look all i'm after they qualify screw satanic people look all i'm saying is that satanic people are stupid and obviously you worse the damn devil i think maybe meant you worship the damn devil and stuff like that. And that's disgusting.

I could never. And satanic people can go work right really where they belong, which is hell. Yeah. Okay. At least they're working. Yeah. Go work. Nobody wants to work anymore, I thought.

Yeah. Unless you're a satanic person and then you got you're late for your shift in hell you're working twice as hard yeah but i mean like i don't yeah this is it this feels like more of what we're going to see more and more of shit like this to your point like chelsea of people already like on an edge or like on a on like a tight wire and all it takes is just a little bit of visual stimulus to suddenly kick it right back in and be like, oh my God, this is true. I don't even know.

I can't even think critically anymore. This is true. That's all I needed to see because my confirmation bias is set to 3 million. Well, do you guys think that this kind of thing is helpful? Because I look at this sometimes and as much as I don't want to feel this way, I'm like, ah, you're really like,

I think this is funny. I think it's great to piss and piss off and outrage and freak out people. But then it's like, it does have the same effect of just adding to this story. So I just I don't know. And I don't think this person really meant that to happen because it looks like it just was pulled right. It was pulled from some. Yeah. And then they posted it like on Reddit and like on their own Facebook and then just it took off on its own. So it wasn't a hoax, a purposeful hoax necessarily. I think it was probably half hearted. See where it goes, see where it goes, because I'll make an image that people will take seriously now what people do with it after that. I mean, she said her one regret was that she didn't spend more than 10 minutes making it because like some people were like, I see pound signs next to the prices.

I don't know if this is happening in the US then yet. And people were like, oh no. Yeah. Because in other countries, they put pound signs next to prices. To your point, yeah, I don't know. I mean, for sure, it prolongs this situation in people's minds,

especially for the people who probably are not thinking critically and are just like, yep. And that's, yeah, it's even hobby lobby. And then someone will tell them that's fake. And they're like,

but I, I believe it if it happened. Yeah. Um, and the fact that it's hobby lobby is helpful to me because it's like, you are like, if you're going to weaponize this against something, then at least it's against, you know.

That's the only reason I even brought it up, because if it was someone doing that shit in Target or whatever, I'm like, no, this is like I don't. This is just harmful. I see this pure cynicism in it. But because of Hobby Lobby's, you know, reputation as being an upstanding Christian company that discriminates indiscriminately, like then I feel a little less, but I, but I think it's an important thing. And I guess for you, who's someone who looks at this kind of thing, how could you, like, is there anything anyone could do to abbreviate something like this? Because it seems like once it's out there, people are going to believe what they believe.

And we see this in this, especially post-truth era we live in, where even if they're presented with the truth, they still pivot to something like, yeah, but I can see how it would be real. And it's just... Yeah. I mean, it's a million dollar question, I think. And I mean, I... How do we solve this? Yeah. How do we get rid of the satanic panic since we did it so well before. But I don't know. I mean, I go back and forth because it does feel like an uphill battle that's possibly, I mean, this is so ancient.

This is an ancient thing. I mean, if you go back to like even Jewish blood libel with Christians saying, okay, Jewish people are satanic and they're sacrificing children. And you know, this is like a thousand years ago or more. So it's like, I don't know. I think it's just like we were talking about with moral panics all over the world. This is just

the most entrenched thing because you're dealing with what you consider the biggest evil. Right. And so when you have this, especially like you have like a satanic child killer of some kind, which apparently we all are, you know, it's easy then to justify whatever you want to do. And so I don't think people are going to let go of the ability to demonuminati thing as a lark. But I do think it has a lot of negative effects for people who aren't like massively rich celebrities in small towns who might say, OK, like. This is connected to gay people because a gay artist has like really played into the satanic thing. I think that that can have some damage, but i would never say that it's not i don't know it's i really toe a line there of not being sure because i do feel like sometimes it trickles down and does harmful things to really play into that but at the same

time i don't know if it really truly makes a difference or if it's just entrenched and always going to be there right i i feel like the fact that these are all like the sizing is off everything's like just a little too stupid like i think that makes it extra fun and worthwhile like i have no notes on this because it's inherently like it's exposing the stupidity of the people who would get mad at this by being like this is yeah the hobby lobby is selling these like life-sized satanic sconces next to yankee candle decorations and it's not even halloween it's just like yeah in the middle of the fucking lamp aisle is like they're all just looking at these they're not

even bathamettes really i don't even know they're like dark angels with wings coming out of their heads yeah yeah there's like one goatee one goatee head but yeah a lot are just sort of vague ai demonic regalia i i truly have no notes on it like i i think they should have a second thought about like whether they should have spent more time on it because i think they spent just the exact right amount of time i think shit is like one of the last like things that one of the last things we have before the fall yeah yeah like we we have to like create truth that is like i don't know we need to entertain for comfort yeah i think if anything go harder and make it like go for the most unbelievable thing possible where it's like

they're selling jesus and baphomet 69ing like dolls in the kids aisle at Hobby Lobby. Like here they are. And people I mean, I'm sure it's just so funny because people are like, so it just it is again, it's like horrifying to that some people are really like, yep, those are the stakes. And that's the situation I'm in. They are making this kind of stuff. Yeah. Wow. Okay. okay well anyway absolutely but i like satanic people you're gonna get so many comments where words that shouldn't be capitalized are and it's just capitalization anarchy yeah yeah totally yeah i do i do love that it was a satanic was treated as a proper adjective yeah you know so again this person woke moralists is that is that what that quote was from jordan peterson oh yeah go to hell woke moralists it's not on my quote of the day calendar i have for

now yeah it's coming up though just yeah it's coming up all right that's gonna do it for this week's weekly zeitgeist please like and review the show if you like the show uh means the world to miles he he needs your validation folks i hope you're having a great weekend and i will talk to you monday bye Thank you. Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Check out our recent episode with dancer, actress,

and host of Dancing with the Stars, Julianne Hough, revealing the healing journey behind her new novel, Everything We Never Knew. I am showing up for my younger self, and it is becoming a ripple effect energetically in my life, and that's why I feel so safe now. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine 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. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister?

Or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.