The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 305 (Best of 1/15/24-1/19/24)

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 321 (1/15/24-1/19/24)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even Lucha Libre. Join us for the new podcast, 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, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. Señora Sex Ed is not your mommy's sex talk. This show is la plática like you've never heard it before.

We're breaking the stigma and silence around sex and sexuality in Latinx communities. This podcast is an intergenerational conversation between Latinas from Gen X to Gen Z. We're your hosts, Viosa and Mala. You might recognize us from our first show, Locatora Radio. Listen to Señora Sex Ed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In California, during the summer of 1975,

within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the president of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nickname Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer,

this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeart True Crime Plus, only on Apple 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 uh non-stop infotainment laugh extravaganza uh yeah so without further ado here is the weekly zeitgeist. Well, Miles, we are thrilled to be joined in our third and fourth seats by the host of season three of Beauty Translated. Yes. A podcast that celebrates the trans experience and has a lot of fun along the way. Please welcome Carmen Laurent and Janie Danger. Carmen and Danger. What's up? Hey.

We're back. Returning champions. Welcome back. Discord was so kind to us last time. Yeah, they really loved us over there. You guys were so great. Everyone was so nice to us. It's rare when I get exposed to a big audience and people say nice things.

Hey, Kevin. Hey, don't fuck up last time. Yeah, we try and put out the good vibes. So, you know, if we're not talking that shit, hopefully we have people. So, you know, we're not talking that shit. Hopefully we have people who are, you know, they're out. Y'all gave us some shooters. We appreciate it. They said, you didn't fuck up yet.

Let's see how the next appearance goes. No, for real. We need the VT army because we be talking that shit. We need to have the shooters to back up the insane things that we say both online and on the park yeah yeah they will come you know this just just be just put out your honest self and then let that attract the other like-minded people and then yeah that's when people start playing for audiences shit gets weird. For real. I've had an interesting few weeks on the internet.

I had like two like big viral posts and one of them got like a overwhelmingly positive response that I didn't expect. And then another one got an overwhelmingly

negative response that I didn't expect. And I was like oh my god. On the internet? Yeah. Believe it or not. Not my internet. Too polarizing experience. On X formerly internet? Yeah, believe it or not. Not my internet.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, believe it or not. Not in this house. I hate that. I hate that Twitter isn't the artist formerly known as, like, era. I hate that. In this household, we believe it's still Twitter. It is still Twitter. I had some friends

that, like, kept, like, preventing it from, it from updating it so they could still have the bird, and now the bird is gone. No one can have the bird anymore. They have that horrible Eastern European porn app. Oh yeah, it does. It does look like that. This motherfucker definitely designed the logo, too. Oh yeah.

It just looks like absolute shit. It looks like it's comparable to the middle school S. You know? Like the S that you drew in middle school. He was definitely doodling that in social studies class.

The equivalent of that. He's like, Mom, do we have a ruler? Do we have another ruler so I can draw two lines? I actually need three rulers to do this shit. He's been obsessed with the letter X his whole career.

It's a very middle school thing. It's like, the letter X, it sounds so cool. I mean, his whole persona is very middle school. The jacket, the hair plugs is very middle school, like the jacket, the hair plugs, all middle schoolers with hair plugs. That's the one place

that I actually defend Elon Musk. I don't think he got hair plugs. I think he just grew that shit back through sheer tyranny. Yes, I don't know. What if there was a fanboy so out there that he was like... I'll tell you. No, that's not hair plugs, actually.

I'll tell you how he did it. Estrogen. It is possible that he's on some variant of donkey testosterone that uber-rich people can get to grow their hair. The kind that Brian Johnson is get to like grow their hair. The kind that like Brian Johnson is like about to make available

for the public. Yeah. Donk Stoss. I love that guy. Donk Stoss. I want them to fight. Elon Musk and Brian Johnson. Yeah.

We need mother to save us. Mother Brian. Wait, Brian Johnson is... is mother he's mother okay yeah brian johnson is the rich guy who's trying to make himself de-age with like penis taking a little bit of estrogen yeah penis he is taking yeah he is like microdosing estrogen i can see it in his breasts like i can see it any picture where he takes his shirt off. I'm like, those are female nipples. You can't fool me.

I know them shits are soft. He was using his son as a blood bag at one point. Yes. That was a Peter Thiel move, too. Yeah. He's ripping off Thiel's whole fucking sweat, man. Yeah. Well, he's doing it in a gayer, in a slayer way.

So I have to appreciate that a little bit. The nail polish really, I mean, she matches her nails to her blouses. She really does look so, like, if she like, or if he, I'm misgendering Brian Johnson. If he, like, dressed, like, a little feminine, like, he would, like, pass. Like, he, like, literally looks, like, so, like, soft and, like, supple. As a man, why are you looking supple? I think he's pulling it off.

Elon, Brian Johnson, fashion icon. No, Elon looks like shit. Elon looks like a fucking Elden Ring mob. No, Elon looks like he would deal death blight damage to you if you were too close to his vicinity. Yeah. But Brian Johnson, serving fish. Yeah. But Brian Johnson, serving fish. Yeah.

Yeah. Brian Johnson looks like an Elden Ring NPC that like sells you like the good sorceries. Right, right, right, right. Like he looks like he will grant you a crown

when you finish his tragic quest line. Elon Musk, you have to like drive like an ancient stake through his heart. He's like a gimmick fight. He kills you in five minutes if you don't do the exact platforming right.

Well, that's why you got to watch Janie's YouTube channel where you learn all the secrets to take down these obscure bosses. For real. I did make a TikTok video where it was like, my Elden Ring guide for today. And it's like, today's guide is coming out to your parents. Carmen, Janie, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history? Well, the thing that's actually at the top of my search history is my own name.

That's embarrassing. So I was Googling myself to find my lookbook from when i was 16 by the way and i couldn't find it because i think the lookbook is no longer around but if anyone finds it let me know and okay the other thing i actually have is watching escape from la last night so of course when you watch a movie you google the movie you're watching right so that you can read about it the whole time you're watching it. And it sucks. That movie fucking sucks.

It's awful. It's terrible. It's so bad. I love Escape from New York. Right, yeah. Escape from New York rules. Yeah, I loved it. So I was like,

my boyfriend is dying from the flu or something under like 900 blankets. So I was like, well, I can't find Escape from New York for free, so let's watch Escape from L.A. Your movie feels like a fever dream where you're dying. Yeah, and it really was.

I felt like the daughter in the electric chair at the end. The scene when he's surfing is so sick. Oh my god. Was it like through the L.A. River? Yeah, something like that. I saw that shit in theaters. Because of the surfing on the la river like i think that was in the trailer and i was like yes please would it was like the the trailer promised what if escape from new york crossed with like

teenage mutant ninja turtles too yeah it was just like over the top cartooning fun and it was just, yeah. Well, unfortunately, that was the best part of the movie. Yeah, by far. I just remember, I still, like, I haven't seen the movie in years, but I do remember that one of the last lines is, right, because Snake Plissken just deads all the technology

on Earth and I think she goes, he turned off the world. You know, on my mind, I was like, yo. That's cool. I was fucking 12 when that movie came out. I was in 96 or something. I was like, yo, bro, he fucking turned off the fucking world.

Oh my God. Never come back to this. All of these are ideas that could be in a good movie. That's also how They Live ends, basically. He just the movie. That's also how They Live ends, basically. Like, he just, like, explodes the, like, system that's, like, like, he basically turns off the world. Yeah.

Yeah. I have not seen They Live. They Live is a lot better. Wow. The first half of They Live is, like, amazing. This is so good. It's wild to look at the soundtrack, like the acts that are on the soundtrack.

Like these kind of make sense. Tool, White Zonk. Gravity Kills, Ministry, Sex Pod, Deftones. Tori Amos? Love that. It reminds me of Tori Amos. Tori Amos was Trent Reznor's girlfriend in the 90s, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, shit, dude. I fucking love that. I might buy this. Tori Amos was Trent Reznor's girlfriend in the 90s, if I'm not mistaken.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, shit, dude. I fucking love it. What Tori Amos song was it? Hornflake Girl. No, it's Professional Widow is the Tori Amos track. Oh, okay, okay.

That is amazing. Oh, my God. It was on that Judgment Night shit where it was like, Tori Amos, but like with some fucking heavy metal guitars maybe. Okay, well can I talk about the craziest part of the movie is Pam Greer plays a trans woman.

Really? I don't remember that. Oh my God. I was like that's when I like started getting annoyed with the movie because they like had her voice

they had Pam Greer's voice like under like some sort of like tone down. She sounds like Dr. Girlfriend from Dr. Bros. Like like some sort of like tone. They had her voice like Dr. Girlfriend from Dr. Rose.

Like under some sort of filter. And I'm like, wow, Pam Greer looks stunning, but oh my God, like, did they have to put that voice filter on her? They're like,

no, that ain't, that's car Jack Malone. Right. That was the character's name. Car Jack Malone. Jack Car Jack Malone was her character. Wow. Yes. And now that's hershey

las palmas yes exactly and i was like what the fuck what kind of whack ass name name is that too i was not prepared for a trans character in this in this horrible movie yeah done dirty like that right janie what's something from your search history? Shit, dude. I got like... I don't have anything as spicy as last time. I got an English to Spanish translator. Pizza near me. I was looking up what Pacific Standard Time was. I found a white...

Janie texts me today at 11.30 while I'm at my laser appointment. She's like, I'm here. What's going on? Where's the link? I'm like, it's 1130 PST, Jamie. Okay, so what is that? More context. Come on. I don't know the lore. I found a white pill on the ground at my parents' house. I was trying to see what strength hydrocod on it was.

Oh, yeah. Just the mystery pill? It was 7-5. One of the great uses for Google is mystery pill Googling. A lot of Elden Ring. As I'm playing Elden Ring again, I'm trying to do some of the quests I didn't do last time. A lot of that.

Do dragons take bleed damage? They do. Wow wow there you go i guess one interesting thing was i i've been i started watching the show the curse on showtime the new nathan fielder show and i told my boyfriend that it's like improvised like that it's like it's got like it's like curb your enthusiasm where like there's a script but like all the dialogue's improvised and he's like no the fuck it's not and i was like no i swear i read it somewhere and i was trying to find where i read it and i i think i made it up and i don't i can't really confirm if i actually just read if i actually did read that somewhere or not that's my should i say on this show is that.

Yeah. Just off the strength of my male confidence. I'll be like, yeah, right. Straight up. Yeah. And then I got it.

I, then I like occasionally I got humble myself to like my partner. I'll be like, yo, okay. So I was so fucking wrong about earlier. Like you were right. But even questioning it,

because even though you didn't look for it, I tried to find the evidence and I could not find it so that was yeah in my head it's i'm like actually like crazy so like i really can't i don't feel like i should apologize because i did it's very possible i did read that in my mind palace somewhere right right right yeah yeah you get some things mixed up in the mind i'm not'm not lying and I'm also not wrong, even if I gave wrong information. I'm not like... Oh, I like that. You know, I meant to nothing. This is something Trump is doing in court right now. And as your lawyer, Janie, I would just advise that you continue along that path. Do not admit anything, no matter what. What's something you think is overrated?

admit anything no matter what what's something you think is overrated okay this is like pertaining to my book a little bit but you know like how people are people will do this thing where they're like yeah i'm getting good with money i've been doing some investing and then it's just like the robin hood app or something like that right right you know there's like these apps where you like buy small amounts of single stock and i hate these freaking apps so much because I think like, it almost perpetuates that kind of rich dad, poor dad, like girl boss energy where it's like, you don't ask, nobody actually takes the time to teach you. It's like maybe a lower or middle class, like actual like person, financial literacy tools that could help you instead. It's like, well, just, you know, you know, investing in stock is good. So just download

this app where you invest a few dollars in these single stocks and you're not getting like the value of diversification. You're not investing in index funds or mutual funds. You're not doing the things that are actually good for lower income people, but it makes people feel like they're financially responsible. So then they like never pursue the next step. Like they never actually look into what they should be doing that would be benefiting them more long-term. Right. So I feel like there's almost like a pop finance thing going on in the world. Like we have pop psychology, you know, we also have like pop finance. And I think that's kind of the same thing that goes along with like the rich dad, poor dad thing, the single stock investment apps on your phone, you know, all of these kinds of things. Oh, also like the

apps where they help you find your subscriptions and cancel your subscriptions. Like, don't get me wrong. That can be really, really useful, but showing people these apps, especially in like advertising and saying like, well, you're broke because you're actually paying $8 a month more for one subscription service you forgot about. It's just like, so insulting to me that it's like beyond the pale. I'm like, people aren't broke because they forgot one $8 subscription service. Like, great. Yeah. You have an app that does that. That's so cool.

But this whole world of top finance kind of like, in my head, does the personal accountability thing and totally denies all of the systemic

structural issues that actually affect people's real life and how they interact with money. Right, right. Eating too much avocado toast.

Right. Exactly. It's like more manifestations of that same idea. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, ever since I stopped eating avocado toast, my credit score has gone up. It was the main problem in my life. And I should admit how much avocado toast I was

eating up front. It was a problem both for my health, financially and physically, a problem both for my health financially and physically and for the local economy, I was told. I was closing down entire cafes. There's always some version of like being like, yeah, there's a problem with like sort of X industry or like societal threat or some existential threat we have. It's like, but the solution isn't to interrogate the like their lack of regulations or the greed that got us here. It's actually, but the solution isn't to interrogate the lack of regulations or the greed that got us here. It's actually that you should buy this kind of straw and then that's the solution. And then we complete, most people are just like, oh, thank God I've been offered this consumer solution to a problem. I'm just feeding the machine. That goes back to the Ronald

Reagan thing too, where he was like the king of deregulation. And we talk about like a lot of what's happening financially in the world, but also like socially in terms of that kind of like peak liberalization of the economy where you're like, well, the government's not going to do anything. And we're going to have these private companies come in and they're going to solve all these problems, even if they're problems that aren't actually the main issues we should be addressing and they are they're going to offer you consumption-based solutions that it's and it puts everything on the consumer this like personal accountability thing and it does we become these pop culture kind of consumers of ideology as well so it's like okay when you consume the special kind of straw you're also consuming a special kind of ideology that goes along with that. And that's where we see like our social and political issues overlap with like capitalism, just like people trying

to sell you things all day long. And I think people get fatigued from that without even realizing that that's what's affecting them so adversely. Right. And let me guess, before we get to your underrated,

I want to guess what it's going to be. The Stanley, the Stanley mugs. No. Aren't those so fucking dope? They're such a good investment. They hold their value. No. Okay. I like you.

I'm a humble person on the internet. I saw the video where that chick's car caught on fire and her cup still had ice in it. And I, like you, thought, now that's a cup. That's a cup. It's an impressive cup. I love that video, though. It's like, she opens the door and it's clearly frozen outside of the car, too. And it's like,

it's not like you left it in the desert for fucking three weeks. You left it in a refrigerator for a fucking few days. And of course, there's still ice in it. But yeah, the hype. What is something you think is underrated? We're going to stick with the ice cream theme here. Or frozen yogurt in general. A simple tart-flavored frozen yogurt or a plain vanilla ice cream is so superior. And if you have those done well,

you don't need all the bells and whistles that everybody's doing right now. Yep. Who's your favorite tart frozen yogurt or ice cream you know i'm pretty indifferent i can get it from yogurt land i could do tutti frutti i could do pink berry i could do pretty much anything with a tart frozen yogurt i haven't seen that messed up yeah it's good because it's got that little yogurty bite bite to it. Just a little pucker. Yeah. It's good.

It reminds me of when my mom wouldn't buy me snack pack or chocolate pudding at the store. She's like, you should be eating yogurt. And I'm like, there's no fucking sugar in here. But that's all I could get down on. I remember when Pinkberry came out, I was like, again, I'll just eat this. Yep. No toppings. If you put regular yogurt in the freezer, is it frozen yogurt?

Or is there something special about frozen yogurt? Is it not just frozen yogurt? What is it? I don't know. I don't know how they make it. I'm realizing this. It's always just been a mystery. Except when I pull the handle.

Right. It's probably good. Yeah. Alex, are you a topping guy? Are you a simple pleasures guy? Because I know obviously you don't like your popcorn simple do you like your yogurt right i think i i'm very excited that i'm finding all three of us are so on the team of simple dessert and like make dessert just one thing when you're having dessert just do it well yeah like i even the how like winter always reminds me that i don't

like agnog very much because i don't need dessert to also be alcohol. Like I can just have dessert. Oh, all right. The team's breaking up. I never say you have to have alcohol in it, but the flavor fucking goes. I don't even put alcohol in mine. Yeah, the flavor goes. I will fucking eat the ice cream.

Oh, we were doing so fucking well, man. This is, I jinxed it. Before this, Alex. This year or this past year, I found a ice cream sandwich that had eggnog in the middle. It was an eggnog ice cream sandwich. Was this also Trader Joe's? Yeah. Vanilla.

That sounds pretty good. Where was that at? It was at like Ralph's or Vaughn's, one of those main grocery store chains. It was the Signature Selects brand, like the grocery store chain brand. Yeah, yeah. Oh, God. Wow. So good. Sometimes they don't miss they understand our simple palates that we're little babies who just want to drink and have yogurt all day all right well uh we're gonna take a break we're gonna come back and

we're gonna get into some just hard-hitting those like like, does Trump have syphilis, right after this. 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. Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a Black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter

what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at startwithhope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Well-Being, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council. 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 unhearts 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. And we're back. And people might have seen the news story where a door blew off an Alaska Airlines flight. Yeah, I caught that.

You might have noticed that as you were flying around the world. Yeah. But United Airlines was trending over the weekend because they found loose bolts on an undisclosed number of their 737s. There was just that. The most hopeful I've been that something is going to happen here is Anthony Blinken's trip from Davos had to be delayed because of a Boeing plane fucking up. So maybe something will actually get done, but probably not.

You hate to see it, you know? You hate to see it. Like, I'm okay with those people on the Alaska Airlines flight, but a great man like Anthony Blinken at Davos? Yeah. Like, I just hate the idea of him facing any sort of...

In any way. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Because he's with serious people to solve our problems. That man does so much. 100%. Totally agree. We're totally aligned.

So first of all, just when you're releasing a report of loose bolts on an undisclosed number of 737s, my request would be that that number be more, how you say, disclosed? Maybe? that that number be more, how you say, disclosed, maybe? But Twitter did its thing and tried to tie the failure of these loose bolts to United Airlines having a DEI program and being like, you know, look at the woke United Airlines CEO. He says he values DEI. That's why this is happening.

It makes the bolts blow off. Skipping over the very clear culprit of Boeing, the manufacturer of these airlines who have used their massive size and just massive power, military, government relationships to evade regulations in a way that is putting all of us at risk constantly. There's a great article on it in Democracy Now. There's a Politico article. Oh, that one's about the Anthony Blinken thing. But the Democracy Now one covers just the history of Boeing rushing to update the 737 MAX series to compete with Airbus, the European consortium. And everything, like the guy who was in charge or like one of the heads there at the time was like, everything was being rushed. We had a shortage of skilled employees.

We were having all kinds of issues with quality problems. There's just incredible schedule pressure. There's a saying in the factory, they call it schedule is king. Cool. And then so that guy in response to two fatal crashes that happened as a result of this thing that he was like, guys, this is going to fucking kill somebody. Like if we just go forward with this and because there's no regulations in place, because Boeing is so powerful and had lobbied and people died. He left and started the Foundation for Aviation Safety and is now saying like this incident with Alaska, I'm sure is shocking to passengers. But for those of us who have been watching this for a while, it's really not a surprise at all. We've seen ever since the MAX has been put back in service over 20 serious production quality defects that have surfaced and the public is unaware.

And yeah, like Boeing was criminally charged in the wake of the 2737 MAX 8 crashes, but just like negotiated a deferred prosecution agreement. But it's just this is what we've got. Like the system doesn't even really try to work. It's like not doing any of the things that would effectively like protect consumers. But it's, you know, these companies are so big and powerful that there's there's just like nothing that can be done at this point or nothing that is being done. At least it's just like it's just one that like this, along with so many other stories in our country are just these perfect examples of like regulatory capture you know like we're corporate interest groups they lobbed like whether that's through lobbying or just like the revolving door of like on capitol hill like to the point where the these interest groups they end up being the ones regulating the

regulators and like with boeing the basically like the faAA was like, yo, we have people that we like need to inspect it. They're like, yo, bro, what if you actually just ordained our own employees to do the inspections that you're supposed to do? And we'll let you know if we find anything like, you know, on the like that might not be, you know, might be not on the level. And they're like, yeah, sure, go ahead. So it's like Boeing that did their own inspections on these planes, too, and then just just gave the FAA their report to be like, all right, and that's what we're saying. So that's good enough, right? Rather than having you come in as an independent body to look at like the products that we're making.

And so, yeah, it's like the same thing with how like the opioid crisis ended up. Same thing with how like just, you know, the SEC and our subprime mortgage crisis ended up. Like there's just so many examples of these things where the industry ends up being the one that makes the rules. And then we somehow just like quite literally go into crash into disaster. Yeah, this also goes back to Ronald Reagan, doesn't it? Everything goes back to these deregulatory practices in the pro business stuff. But yeah, it is interesting. Like once you start learning too, about how the lobbying groups will literally write the laws that they want passed to regulate their own industries. And very often you'll find they're supposed to be sample bills, right? These are supposed to be

sample language bills. And then when you compare the language, exactly. You're like, this wasn't even a sample. Somebody just got paid to sign this basically. And it is, it's really, really appalling. It is something that happens, I think, in like every era of business area of business in the United States now. And this is why when I'm Googling things like Ronald Reagan, FBI files,

I'm like, if only the FBI had not told Ronald Reagan about a really cool party, he wasn't invited to, maybe we would have more regulatory standards for business in this country. It's really appalling. And maybe listen to the things his parents were trying to teach him. You know what I mean? And be more in line with that. Because like, forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I thought like his parents were like sort of like had almost antithetical sort of beliefs philosophically as people. Totally correct. His parents were FDR New Deal kind of Democrats, but not just regular Democrats. They're like kind of what we would think of as DSA today. They were very much in

favor of government spending. His dad, you know, was an alcoholic who struggled to hold down a job. The job he eventually did hold down was a New Deal job. Like his dad was employed because of, you know, government spending. And this is something that we see like throughout his life, even as he's performing to the political right and doing all of these things that would be the complete opposite of anything his parents had fought for. When you asked him personally, like, well, how did you feel about the New Deal? He's like, well, the New Deal gave my dad a job, so I loved it. Right. And it's just like this real conflicting kind of viewpoint inside of him.

Poor Ronald. Poor Ronald. I don't know if I can go that far. Well, that's, I, I'm just, I'm an empath, you know? And that's just how I feel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how I feel. Well. There's a great book called Tear Down This Myth.

And then Stephen Miller, both. Yeah. Oh, exactly. Right? Yeah. But there's a book about Reagan called Tear Down This Myth that was like sort of my entry point into really like examining the, the, the, the real mythology of Ronald Reagan. Because like growing up up you're always like

oh man everything's like named after him it's like it's because all these fucking people got so rich off of him they're like watch this dude i'm shout out to ronnie for taking away all the fucking guardrails that were there that just made me a hyper billionaire mr gorbachev tear up this ass i'm sorry he should have said that. No, you shouldn't apologize for that, honestly. No, the other one was tear off my balls, was the other one. Tear off my balls. Two all-time great tweets that I can't source at the moment.

Now I just think of Ronald Reagan kind of as like a general punk rock icon. Because, you know, like what other way like i was born in the 80s like i know so much about ronald reagan mostly because of punk songs from like 1985 but then yeah when you look into it you're like actually this is all still so so relative to our life because the 80s really started that trend towards massive deregulation and he was part of that movement of like the new right. And the new right was even different than what the right wing had been before the 1950s and 60s.

And it really coalesced with him in a lot of ways. And so, yeah, when you talk about things like Boeing's door flying off mid-flight or like the loose bolts, you think that these things are just... And that's the thing we do as consumers, right? We think these are individual incidents,

but our brains are also trained for pattern recognition. And it's hard to miss the pattern that these things are increasing in rapidity. We see them happening across multiple different sectors. And all of it does tie back to this massive period in the 80s of deregulation that allowed businesses to start running the country as an oligarchy. A lot of Lambos are bought, though. A lot of Lambos. They have so many Lambos. The Lambo guys are hurting us all. And the Boeing guys are Lambo guys, too. Yeah. We need to let the Lambo radicalize us.

You know what I mean? Let's swap out Ronald Reagan, and now we will hold up the Lamborghini Huracan as our way, our entry point into radicalization. Let that be a lesson for all the, for the youth. I feel like one day there's just going to be a Lamborghini on our money. It's just going to be like, we're going to be like praying to the God of the Lambo. That's what's going to be on the money. There's going to be like 16 apartment buildings, just like in a cube around the Lamborghini, like the same way we have like the pyramid with the eye now. And it's going to be like, this is,

this is our new religion in the united states underneath it's like dad what does this say it's like it's latin i don't know to read it out to me e pluribus lambo oh yeah yeah that means of many lambo that's right all right let's take a quick break and come back and we'll talk about Ted Cruz. 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,

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and the Ad Council. 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. And we're back. And after I made that New Order joke about Blue Monday, I was like, what was that band like in the late 90s or aughts that covered it and kind of brought the song back? And my younger esteemed guests were like, sir, are you talking about debanking again?

What's on your hands? And I'm like, no, it was this band. They brought the whole wave back. It was Orgy. And shout out to my geriatric millennials and older who remember when Orgy brought the Blue Monday song or Blue New Damn New Order song Blue Monday back. Blue Monday song or blue new damn new order song. Blue Monday back. All that to say,

we need to talk about Blue Monday, the capitalist hoax that continues to persist. I wasn't fully aware of this as a concept. Did you guys know about Blue Monday at all? Alex, what about you? I've heard that phrase, but I think it's mostly because of Kurt Vonnegut's writing. He's referencing like an advertising concept for washing machines.

Right. You can beat Blue Monday by having easier laundry to do in like the 1950s. Ah, well, again, along that similar vein, apparently like this is something that's really big in like Europe, mostly the UK and in Canada as well. They've heard tell of Blue Monday. as well. They've heard tell of Blue Monday. But apparently, it is the third Monday in January, and it is known as, quote, the most depressing day of the year. And I'm like, what does that exactly mean? Like, here's headlines from the standard in the UK. Blue Monday 2024. When is Blue Monday and how to beat it? Another headline. It's officially the most depressing day of the year. An expert offers some tips to lift the gloom on Blue Monday. Blue Monday is coming up. Are you prepared for the

most depressing day of the year? So we had it. I didn't realize it was the most, I guess that MLK day for us was Blue Monday. Maybe that's why they're trying to get him out of here. I know, because I'm surprised there wasn't like, oh, coincidence much that Blue Monday is also Martin Luther King Day. The most depressing day for white people. Right. So they're saying, are you prepared? I'm like, OK, so what is going on now? Some of these outlets do admit that there is no actual scientific evidence to back up this premise, this concept of Blue Monday. But also not all of them call out the fact that Blue Monday is just a straight up scam. You're getting bamboozled. The culprit, perhaps, is late stage capitalism. This pseudoscientific reasoning behind why, quote,

Blue Monday is so depressing involves like this actual, I mean, actual, I only say that because there are like, like it looks like a math equation, a legit looking mathematical equation, which equates things like debt, motivation, weather, and the time that's elapsed since Christmas as a way to determine that, like to quantify that this is the most depressing day. But even anyone, anyone who like looks at this for like one moment you'll realize like how the fuck can you even compute this because there aren't even like shared units of measurement like how do you compare it's like saying okay a large pizza

times the gdp of brazil equals uh that mickey rooney is actually billy eilish's grandfather yeah yeah metric sads or imperial sads i can't figure it out that Mickey Rooney is actually Billy Eilish's grandfather. Yeah. And you're like, what? Is this metric SADS or imperial SADS? I can't figure it out. Right. How do we measure the depression? And whose unit are we using? And I guess the inventor of this equation

was a guy named Dr. Cliff Arnall, who was hired by a fucking travel company, Sky Travel. They're defunct now. Back in 2005 to basically just contribute to a press release. And they wanted to sell people on the idea that there is a most depressing day of the year, which would then inspire the consumer to consume and to book a vacation. Thanks to Sky Travel bringing this all to light. And he kind of has like some credibility to back up these claims.

He's like, yeah, well, you know, I was a Cardiff University psychologist. But then pretty quickly, like, Cardiff University was like, no, this dude was a, quote, former part-time tutor. Like, let's not get this, like, fucked up. Like, he was not, that's not what he was doing. And he later tried to walk back this great cultural myth that he created by saying it was never his quote intention to make january even worse for people and and he even admitted the idea of blue monday was not particularly helpful

but guess what that fucking apology was part of another commercial campaign for a travel company virgin atlantic police keep fucking with this guy they said the campaign will encourage the nation to dispel their blue monday beliefs and instead embrace the new possibilities that another year can hold possibilities like traveling to thailand or vietnam or south america it's just like one of really, it's just super cynical when you're just like kind of like using this idea that, yeah, winter is hard for people. Coming out of the holidays is hard for people. Having resolutions and like trying to stick to those can lead to people being demotivated. But then to be like, book your package holiday with us. Wild.

Check out Marbella Spain. It's absolutely popping. holiday with us. Check out Marbella Spain. It's absolutely popping. And the time he also, he supposedly cracked the formula for the happiest day of the year. He said, Oh yeah, I'm doing that now because he pivoted to saying he was a freelance happiness guru, which sounds like me when I was just like dating a bunch of people and smoking weed in my twenties. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, uh, well, what do my 20s i'm like yeah i'm like uh well what do i do i'm like a freelance happiness it's like a vibes curator yeah exactly exactly but and for some reason i kind of respect a vibes curator more than a freelance i think it's just the the wording is

more with our times yeah guru's bad guru is bad overall we have too many gurus especially on social media yeah vibes curator you can say you're a vc that's kind of nice yeah we should be c are you a sakoia are you a vibes curator do you do you have i like to think so absolutely i definitely do curate vibes yeah yeah like i think the same way if I'm having, you know, like a, like a gathering or somebody's like being like, Oh, like I want to have like a dinner. I'm like, okay, what do you like? What are you thinking? Like, you don't have a spread. Is it going to be like a spread? You want a bounty for people to people bringing their own thing? Do you want to just have it? So your guests are like blown away by your hospitality? Is it a group effort?

I feel it could be me overthinking. that's a vibes curator a little bit you know a little type a a little overthink but i never heard nobody i like that though i also like to host like that so i feel it yeah i mean i love can i for the record i love a spread same when people put a spread out there is nothing that blows me more away than somebody who's like you thought of all these other things just to put out here for this little gathering? Like these are fine meats.

Maybe not cheeses. No cheeses for me. But yogurt flavored ice creams and popcorn. What's your spray? It's going to be frozen yogurt and popcorn. Be like, yes,

I got the fro-yo right there. Frozen yogurt and popcorn. I'll give you some Cheez-Its, some Goldfish. Oh, you eat Cheez-Its though? Oh yeah. I like cheese flavor things okay yes but not cheese

flavor blast yeah I like the flavor blast okay Goldfish flavor blast oh they're great yeah

yeah the more the better okay all right I'm just making sure just making sure are you a vibes curator do you see yourself as a vibes curator Alex

I think maybe I I don't know if i aspire to it i think i try to participate you know but i'm not a big spread builder i'm more of a spread uh supporter or like oh good job keep it up oh i like that that's also but that is good you are contributing to the vibes in a positive way yeah so i think vibes consumer vibes yeah yeah vibes contributor these are all contribute consume or be a connoisseur or curator either way you do you do what you got to do but yeah the reason why like blue monday it just like sticks around like apparently all like in so much marketing people are still using it as like a fucking being like hey man like you want to buy a fucking big mac buy get the fucking vibe meal and shit or what was that burger king that a vibe meal anyway but

it seems like the com might be working because last year in the united kingdom online sales reportedly shot up by 18 on blue monday because all this shit like oh yeah like like it's wild how you can get in people's minds right like in america black friday cyber monday it's like yeah you better buy some shit don't be fucking stupid fucking around it's black friday you fucking dumb man go fucking buy something you don't fucking need because that weird mobile phone charger uh costs like half off now like i don't and i look at me i bought one but i use it sparingly sparingly but like i try to i try to and then like so it's wild that like they're using this thing of like weaponizing people's own like mental health or like seasonal affective disorder whatever like

just to be like oh yeah it's gloomy to be like you know what will fucking help you to buy some shit man that is so ugly yeah i don't appreciate being manipulated man. That is so ugly. Yeah. I don't appreciate being manipulated like that. This is so ugly. Well, you know, what are they going to do? Like deal with root causes of people's feelings of loneliness, sadness, isolation?

Who would support the pharmaceutical industry if we have to do root causes? Yeah, exactly. Oh, what am I going to do? Pay real wages? Come on. LOL.

No. No, it's Blue Monday. Okay. Did you buy that? Whatever the fuck. Did you buy that Stanley mug? Okay. The Stanley? Right. Yeah. Did you get your Stanley? Oh Blue Monday. Okay. Did you buy that whatever the fuck? Did you buy that Stanley mug? The Stanley? Right.

Yeah. Did you get your Stanley? Oh, man. Yeah. It also just feels fake that it would be a Monday specifically is the saddest day. Like, why? I don't know. Tuesdays can be harder.

And it just, I don't know. I don't buy that either. I'm kind of with you. I think Tuesdays, Mondays, I get like just because it's the first day back, but Tuesdays, you're like, fuck bro. It's only like you do this.

You're like, it's only fucking Tuesday. It's the other part. Monday, you know, you're like, it's fucking Monday, but Tuesday,

you're like, fuck, then there's Wednesday. Oh, Thursday. You're so far from what we get on a Tuesday. You're like, nah,

nevermind. Let me just put it out of my head right now. We're at Friday today, so we're good. Yeah, exactly. And happy Friday to you. And thank you so much to our guests,

our guest, Sequoia B. Holmes. Thank you so much for joining us. It's always a pleasure having you. Where do the people find you,

follow you, listen to you, and all that very important stuff? You can listen to my podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts, including YouTube. You can find me on social media at BPLPPod and listen to Black People Love Paramore. It's a fun

time. Go see what we're talking about. Yeah. What are some upcoming episodes you guys are talking about? Today I'm talking about the Cheetah Girls. Oh my God. I'm so excited. I love the Cheetah Girls so bad. I recently talked about 13, which was a very dark teen movie that came out in 2003. I don't know if y'all have seen it. It's wild. If you have not, please go check it out. I just remember hearing about it and being like, I don't know about that. Yeah. It was way darker with adult eyes than I remember being when I was a kid, but yeah.

That's a Ravensburger. I haven't seen it. I was like, oh, that was in it? What? Yeah. Who's in that in 13? Evan Rachel Wood. That's right. right that's right that was the thing that kind of put her on right uh-huh yeah yeah and also uh the one that played the lady that played one of the vampires in twilight i can't remember her name right now yeah nicki reed nicki

reed there it is from your show sorry yes nicki reed yeah nicki reed wrote it as a she co-wrote it as a 12 year old orold or 13-year-old. Yo, you know, interesting story. I used to get fucking high as hell with one of the Cheetah Girls. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're going to have to tell me after. You're going to have to tell me after. No, it was Keely.

It was Keely. Not you telling us now. Whatever. You know what? That tracks. That tracks really hard. We were 18. You know what? That tracks. That tracks really hard. We were 18. You know what I mean?

She had like her fucking whole, I remember she had her little checks and things. And she was like, y'all buy a fucking ounce of it. She could, I mean. She was smoking. We buy it by the pound, she said. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Was not playing. Did not get him to play.

Anyway, Keely, I hope you remember me. It's Miles. I used to hang out with Mike and them. We used to come to the spot all the time yeah yeah yeah Shia LaBeouf that was a way that was just a whole other era though anyway what is a tweet or other work of social media

that you're enjoying oh I forgot about this it is Ayo Adebri and Quinta Brunson on the red carpet singing the cheetah girls together and then they put the little fake microphone and Quinta Brunson on the red carpet singing the Cheetah Girls, L-O-M, together. And then they put the little fake microphone next to

Rami Youssef. Oh, got it, got it, got it. And he finishes the lyrics for the Cheetah Girls, and I'm like, gang. And that's how influential it is. Thank you. Man. Was it Adrian Bailon, too? Adrian Bailon, yes. Yeah, yeah. What was the group that, the 3LW, right?

3LW, yo. Yeah, because that was the group Keely and them. And Adrian came from, yeah. Yeah, yeah. See, this, oh shit. Because I'm telling you, all the little child actors and shit, they all lived in the Oakwood apartments over there off Barham in LA. And like, that is sort of like the nexus point for like,

I grew up in the valley so i would always meet these kids so i have a lot the intersection with the opal departments i have i have so many stories man that should be its own fucking podcast 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. We'll be right back. richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. 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? It's right here in black and white in print. It's bigger than a flag or mascot. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Gen Z. We're your hosts, Viosa and Mala. You might recognize us from our first show, Locatora Radio. Listen to Señora Sex Ed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.