The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 310 (Best of 2/19/24-2/23/24)

Episode Date: February 25, 2024

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 327 (2/19/24-2/23/24)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

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

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture.

Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. 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 non-stop infotainment laugh-stravaganza. So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. Well, Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a very talented producer, musician, streamer, esports commentator,

one of the very first people to work on this show with us. Yeah. He's constantly streaming everything because he is that bitch on Twitch. He's our resident gaming expert. It's DJ Danil Goodman! Danil! Neil DeForest! DJ Danil, a.k.a. East Coast Danil, coming in live.

Beep, beep, I'm walking here. It's the man from New York, live in the mix. Oh, no. That's Z100, Daniel. How is it going? My gosh. Z100 in the house. That was incredible.

That was good. Yeah. And several other New York-related things. Is Z100 New York? I forget. I've lived in some New York. I had a Z93 in Dayton ohio shout out to z93 that was the cool stage when i was like you know 12 but yeah that brought me back man well so you're

embracing look people who don't know like daniel is west coast and you know he's born and raised in la and now he's living he He's relocated to the Big Apple. We shouldn't give away his location like that. That's fucked up. He's in a big city in the East Coast. You're in the Lower East Side and you're

on Houston, right? We're supposed to let our guests know that we have a tracker on them. Yes, my bad. Wait, but you, I'm sorry. The thing that caught my attention is you're identifying as East Coast Dental now, huh? It's just kind of a joke because now that I've moved to the East Coast, my friends have said I'm more salty and they call me East Coast Dental anytime I push back even a little bit in the discord. Wow.

Yeah. Wow. Wow. Okay. East Coast Dental coming out. Yeah. All right. Salty ass. Yeah. Sorry, I had dental coming out. Yeah. All right. Salty ass.

Yeah. Sorry, I had to wear a jacket today. All right. I had to wear a jacket today. Yeah, exactly. My feet became Tim's. It's crazy. Quite literally.

Foot is a Tim now. It's an all black Air Force one. Facts. Oh, yeah. I'm really selling drugs out here with my all black forces. There you go. That's around the corner. Have you? I don forces. There you go. That's around the corner. Have you,

I don't know if you saw, there's like, there's like this whole wave of like older people on social media who are discovering what the all like black on black air force one means. There's like a teacher. I saw this like principal tick tock, which is like, yeah,

my students are like complimenting my sneaker game. And then some people just started being like, Oh, you're trouble. And she's like, I thought I just had a cool sneaker on. And then I found out this is a goon shoe that's i was associated with referees and uh priests right there black on black sneaker wait priests wear black on black sneakers they're not wearing

leather shoe i mean they like sometimes most often i'd say they wear the like. Etonic all black leather shoe. Yeah, medically designed all black feature. Right, right, right. Got like nurse shoes or whatever, but I've definitely seen. I remember growing up in the church thinking like, why do priests and referees shop at the same shoe store? How come you never see them together at the same time? Hey, bro.

My priest is God's referee. I don't think I have to tell you this now that you're on the East Coast, but stay prayed up. Stay prayed up, man. Please, bro. I doubled over. I doubled over in my chair.

That's stay prayed up stay prayed up I mean that's like a week and a half old at this point but yeah that's fair rather than eat pray love stay prayed up thank you what is something from your search history

man I will tell you I'm such a nerd for skateboarding that almost my whole search history generally is filled with new skateboard information. I think that's maybe the most unrelatable thing an adult man can say, but that's just the reality of the situation. I grew up in L.A. in the 90s and 2000s. What do you mean? Like, you're looking at new just skaters, new decks, trucks? Is the search legitimately just skateboard information?

Is that what you typed into your Google? Refresh, refresh. I should tell you, I am AI. I'm sorry. I'm always looking for, I always Google something slash information. No, there's a new primitive video out I was watching. It's good. A couple of new, you see skate video parts usually.

So there's a new primitive video that just came out that I was watching. What's like, okay. So I, like, I remember I used to watch a bunch of toy machine videos, birdhouse girl, all that in the nineties.

I feel like it peaked with, yeah. Right. Uh, in 2003, that's like Jones one. Is there any, like for someone who stopped watching skate videos,

then what, what should I watch now? Oh, man. Such a huge. Well, let's see. Great question. I will actually say the last primitive video that came out is not bad. It's three new amps.

We don't have a Spike Jonze today, I don't think. Right. There's nobody. Like, his shit's so creative and fun. Weekend, a company called Weekend, they put out some pretty good sketch-based stuff. Okay. And then they just came out with the last static video, probably, which is this really good series by this dude, Josh Stewart.

But he's been making videos since the 90s. You might have seen Static 3 or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good Bobby Pulio part, good Nate Broussard part. So he just put out probably the last of that. So that's a good one. If you're a 90s dude, check out the newest Static video. I bet you'll like it.

Okay, yeah. And these are videos of people doing sick shit on skateboards. This sickest shit, dude. Owen Wilson fucking killing it, bro. Or was it? I don't know. No, I remember that back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think, I mean, Yeah, Right was the like i would make like women i was dating watching like yo this is next level don't know why you kept getting dumped at chipotle yeah next thing you know hey you want to meet up for a lunch at chipotle yeah uh i gotta go oh but but was it the part with the invisible deck that shit was pretty cool right no yeah yeah look and honestly in your defense that's not a bad way to say like hey are you down do you like cool shit or no i mean it's a tasteful video you know don't make them watch the whole thing but show them something fun and be like are we cool here right and then i started showing them cky videos because there's technically was skating there they're like what no get out of here um look look we we had some swings and

misses but i remember being shown that like as a tape that like my friend had like gotten from somebody the like spike jones one and yeah and then like a few years later when jackass came out being like oh they made a show out of this oh like the early early ones yeah yeah the real early ones yeah that was like the peak yeah that was yeah the real early ones yeah that was right was like the peak yeah that was the fun though of that whole situation was getting shit on a tape felt so underground and sick yeah you felt like you were getting a little treasure you know it's cool exactly yeah because that was like the those that was bit torrent before bit torrent was like yeah i got a fucking ripped vhs copy of this thing that someone else paid for yeah sick i still ask teenagers to this

day what if they've got any videotapes and what i love about videotapes they had they worked they had gears think about how old that is they utilized gears that's like you know that feels like pretty like barely industrialized you know look like shit those things like they really look like yeah broke oh it looked like they're like made out of like a disassembled fax machine or something you know like just like not not technologically advanced in any way yeah like the v like the vcr decks were so like varied in performance like some like if you got the cheap one it's like you needed a rewinder or else it would take like 28 minutes to rewind a video tape. The race car

rewinder? Yeah. The Ferrari? Whose dad was that? Whose dad was that into videotapes? It was like yeah we're gonna need a couple of those actually. This shit makes me realize did you ever get yelled at for not rewinding a tape? I remember my mom

would be like you're like you didn't rewind the tape we got like a bhs movie we rented a blockbuster and i watched it before she's like now i gotta rewind it and wait six minutes i worked at blockbuster and that was a front there was i think there was a frustrating thing where we had to rewind them or whatever this is like sir could you please we had to ask people which felt awful it was like felt like you're you know talking to a 10 year old but it was an adult man you know yeah i mean what be kind please rewind wasn't that like the fucking mantra back then yeah that's right corporate like charity they're just like come on please we really could our bottom line could really use this so that we have enough money to tell netflix to go fuck themselves in 10 years.

What's something, Jody, that you think is overrated? This is not exactly overrated because I love it. But I was thinking about this past weekend, I conned my daughter into alphabetizing my vinyl collection for me, which was great. It had been like two decades of mess. And then I was like, oh, this would be educational to her. And really it was just finally getting around to doing it.

So we sat down and we alphabetized my vinyl. And most of it is like stuff that I bought for like $2 a record, $3 a record, like many, many years ago and have hauled around. And I love listening to it. But I've gotten a little bit into just buying stuff on vinyl, like a lot of people have lately. And it's really expensive. Like it's crazy. And I was reading something yesterday about

someone saying kind of like everyone that they know who collected vinyl for like the practice of it, you know, not, not necessarily for the fidelity of the audio, but like, just, it's fun to collect and it's good to, you know, it's nice to look at the artwork and it's nice to have music collection. All those people, at least this person claimed are moving to CDs now because you still get that act of collecting, but like, you're not dropping $40 on a piece of vinyl. So I think vinyl is riding this weird, like maybe overrated curve or whatever. I think it's going to, I, and I, and I've started to feel that myself too, like, oh, it's really fun to do this, but gosh, I cannot drop $25 to $40

every time I get a new piece of vinyl. You don't think, because I've thought about this myself, and the reason I've justified my vinyl collection is that if there's like, the world's electronics go out, my CDs are useless useless my MP3s are useless but I can still put

my ear to a needle and move the record around and still hear the music or like use a gram to me it feels like the one apocalypse proof form of recorded music yeah if you had to do that just like hand rotate the record I feel like

that would get annoying for you. I think there was a whole, in the director's cut of Station Eleven, there's like a 10-hour section where they're just listening to Nina Simone by hand cranking it around. It's really an incredible scene. Heavy too, vinyl, right? At least compared to CDs and tapes. Oh, sure. Yeah. So people are skipping

the tapes tapes which is right well that's the other question tapes but i guess i guess the tapes aren't as like interesting of an artifact and they're not stackable and so forth and if you're really just in it to kind of like be able to flip through stuff or whatever and just like you're collecting then cds might be the answer but i think like a lot of the hipper bands are putting out tapes now too. Like I've noticed that in LA where they're like, nah, dude, put our demo on on fucking cassette. But then it sounds like, whatever.

Go ahead. I mean, it's cool. I get it. You know, do what you want to do. No, it's funny. You go to Bandcamp and it's like you buy it and the options are basically like MP3, cassette, and $50 vinyl that'll take eight months to arrive because Taylor Swift gets to

print all of her stuff before any indie band gets to print their vinyl. All the world's vinylers going to making the Taylor Swift vinyl. No, it's true. It's a huge shortage. It's kind of an incredible thing that all these big artists leapfrog all the other folks who want to put stuff out on vinyl. Is it the material that there's a, is it like helium?

Like one of those materials that secretly is just like, we have a finite limit of vinyl in a cave somewhere? I think it's more the manufacturing facilities, but I'm not sure. But I think it's that, you know, it's, I mean, vinyl has taken off, you know, in the last few years, but not to a place where like it's worth opening a vinyl factory in, you know, in Cleveland or whatever. So there's still a limited limited manufacturing capability but like a really exponentially growing demand and so then yeah it's created this whole thing where like taylor swift can put out all her back catalog on vinyl you know have it on shelves in a week and indie bands need to wait like eight months in line you know right will

there ever be music stores like like physical media stores again? Like not, you know, used record stores like we have now, but like, will there be a future where there's a record store? Just like it's not abnormal to see one. Do you guys think? I think so. I mean, at least in New York, there's like, I mean, at the the rough rough trade has like a proper record store here in new york a flagship store and it's like looks like a you know record store it's a bunch of new vinyl and actually there's a cassette player uh i noticed on for sale there too but

i don't know i mean i don't think there's going to be in every neighborhood or on every corner but yeah right oh wow it sounds like too it's like because CDs, you know, became the norm, all the vinyl operations just started to cease to exist. And so you're left with like less plants. But also apparently there's a place that the Apollo Masters fire of February 2020 also had a huge setback on the vinyl industry. The only plant in North America equipped to manufacture vinyl lacquer discs, which is a key step in manufacturing process, had a three alarm fire that completely destroyed its facility. That's crazy. Yeah. So now people are going to a manufacturer in Japan.

Oh yeah. So this shit is, yeah. Wait, can I tell you my favorite little fact about vinyl records that I learned just fairly recently? And I'm sure I will get corrected by the Reddit page if I screw this up. But it's something like this,

that the like physical way that a needle interacts with the grooves on a record has a little bit to do with the instrumentation on the record right and it's basically that like higher pitch stuff has shallower or smaller grooves and more bass has bigger grooves and moreover as the needle and the arm gets closer to the middle of a record it becomes a little more unstable just because of the physics of it or whatever which is all to say that throughout the like 60s 70s when they were pressing vinyl it was very risky to put bass heavy songs on the towards the middle of a side of vinyl right because it could potentially like throw things off so to me so so like to me you know i've always been like oh i love all these fleetwood mac records where like the the end of side one ends on this beautiful

acoustic little piece you know what wonderful track listing or program and it's actually just because of like a physical problem that they have to do that but it has like defined for me like so many of these records that they end on these little acoustic moments yeah oh they like put the bangers up top yeah yeah that basically the beatles white album like opens with back in the ussr or whatever and then amazing what is something you think is underrated? Underrated. Listen, I also knew this question was coming. I'm being in the moment.

But you mentioned this off the top of the show. I was going to say corn checks, which is what I had for breakfast. Oh, shit. I think they're simple. They're basic. They're gluten-free, which is important to me. And they feel like little blankies on your tongue. The weave, the waffle weave of a corn check. Unbelievable.

That's a blankie, huh? But you brought up Chex Mix off the top. I was just thinking, no, but I was like, the sensation for me when it's in my mouth, it's not to let that thing chill in my tongue. It's like, crush those little, I think the crunch of it is one of the most satisfying ones of the cereals. I take each and every one like a Eucharist wafer, personally.

Yes, yes. But even if they get a little too soggy, they're just sweet little blankets. Yeah. There is a kind of a light sweetness to cornchecks also. But, you know, it's not like a sweetened cereal.

That's not by mistake, folks. That's not by mistake. They made it taste good on purpose. That's how there's engineers and scientists that know the perfect ratio of crunch and sweetness. That is what our greatest scientists are doing. Like for a while there, they were working on the Manhattan Project. They moved to the moon landing.

And then since then, they've just been making food taste as good as possible. Yeah. They're like that. It's a mushroom cloud of flavor, dude, in your mind. The mouthfeel, though. The mouthfeel. Exactly exactly kaboom yeah maybe capitalism isn't all bad right it's bringing us these snack foods hey your words your words your words not ours i'm glad we got glad we got you there though glad we got very good at inventing baja blast and you know giving

dorito nacho cheese flavored Doritos, the great experience that they give you where you just can't stop eating them. It's bad for you in the long run, but, you know, it will kill you, but you'll have that, like, one moment of, like, vaguely dissatisfied bliss where you're like, I think

I have to keep eating these forever? And science is like, we fucking did it you guys exactly what it is vaguely dissatisfied bliss i'm gonna try to remember this as i'm just housing snacks those guys those scientists are on top of it oh they know instead of death yeah yeah no but the trader joe snacks some of them like they hit just enough that you're like, oh, these are okay, but not quite as good as other things sometimes. I'm like, you found the exact middle, Trader Joe's. I don't know how.

Yeah. Their peanut butter filled pretzels are so much better than the ones that you get anywhere else, I got to say. Trader Joe's, really. They figured it out. Yep. But they haven't figured out our phone number for those free peanut butter pretzels. So, you know, work on that. Work on that, TJ. I am. Do have it out. I'm just waiting. And Trader Joe's is an unspoofable number. So I will believe you if you call me.

Hello, I'm calling from Trader Joe's. I need your social security number in order to send you some free stuff if not i will transfer you to the cia who will arrest you the number just comes up joe trader it's me miles big news yeah you're back baby you just pick up the phone like this jack well well been waiting for your call a long time son dipshit. You son of a bitch. You know what? I'm sorry. I'm changing my underrated. Underrated is answering any phone call.

Well, well, well, well, well. Look who came crawling back. I didn't have this on my bingo card, or maybe I did. Oh, God. The bingo card. Fuck off with the bingo cards please by the way i do feel like i did a bad job and rushed past the 3am sopranos last episode googling a little quickly did you did you find a theory i do i feel like this is another, like, you know, the internet has wrought so many bad things. But one of the highlights was early days, Soprano's final episode.

And then everybody immediately analyzes it, like every shot, like it's a Renaissance painting. Which it kind of was. Did you find anything new? Not new, you know, maybe new to me because I hadn't really gone down that rabbit hole before. I have purposely not read anything by David Chase. I'm kind of saving that. I get weird like that.

I'm like, I'm savoring. Let me see what he has to say later. One theory I liked was that the members-only jacket guy, I don't remember, Tony's at the diner with his family. There's a guy that comes and sits down. And people were saying, listen, if he's really the assassin, he's not sitting there trying to expose his face and let everybody remember him. Like, why to show up at that diner and was maybe a family member of somebody that Tony or Tony's people had whacked. So it was kind of a spontaneous

thing. He just saw an opportunity. So he took a minute at the bar to gather his courage, went to the bathroom, came back, made it happen. I thought that was a great idea. I also had not considered, some people were saying that Carmela gave Tony up because she picked the restaurant. I hate to believe that. And I refuse to. Hey, I mean, I mean, this sound like not like he was the best partner. thing where it's like yeah till the fucking wheels come off i probably do and i can flay unfortunately i can flay tony soprano with james gandolfini who you cannot help but love that act yeah like his choices are unbelievable he just has to be the most emotionally in tune person to be able to act like that i just love him so i know i'm supposed to hate tony soprano but i i kind of can't because of Jim's sweet face. Yeah, that's how they did it.

Yeah, the members-only jacket, I think, is the most interesting, like sort of one where you really think about it. Because that's a reference to Eugene Pontecorvo, who is the guy who like hung himself after he was trying to cash out and move to Florida. And like then the feds are like, like dude there's no way like you have to stay in it and remember he was showing his wife like there's that whole thing where he's like this is the house for us babe and then he like his life life tragically ends and like a lot of people that theory is like because eugene was a members only wearing mobster that it's like this is the thing coming back that's like that's the more interesting one versus like yeah i didn't re-watch the whole series but now that

you're saying that, I'm remembering that that happened. Yeah. Miles is up on his literature. Alright. Never heard of these other weirdos. What's that one book you kept trying to get me to read, Jack? About the

Ravens or something? I'm always trying to get you to read, Jack, about the Ravens or something? I'm always trying to get you to read Edgar Allan Poe. One poem, which is a book now about the Ravens. That and Catcher in the Rye, man. Shosser, whatever. Miss me with that, dude.

All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about some of the shit that is happening in the Zeitgeist. We'll be right back. We'll talk about some of the shit that is happening in the exact case. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.

Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted just like mine through powerful in-depth interviews with former members and new chilling firsthand accounts the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives forgive me for i have followed will be more than an exploration it's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again listen to forgive me for i have followed onio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.

When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Santer. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself.

Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.

I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them. Why is that? Just come here and play basketball every single day and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game?

And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And so some people are starting to say that Joe Biden is old, I guess. No. And I guess. No. And I don't know. Name him.

Shame him. I mean, Trump, I guess, like said something like that. No, this is the main point of discussion around the presidential race. If you had told me that these were going to be the two candidates four years ago, I would have told you that the main point of conversation would be this, you know, that they are both old mathematically speaking, but the way the media is covering it seems to be like they they want to catch them like physically stumbling. They want to like see see them like stumble or like it looks like biden pooped his pants that's like it's it's some high school burn book ass shit like seems to be the like way that they're covering this as opposed to like what are the

actual consequences of him what are we saying Having been raised in a different time with different challenges. Yeah, I think it's like it's like this narrow framing of people's discontent around the options for president. It basically has allowed especially Joe Biden's allies to respond with pretty like elementary defenses, which is like he's actually very sharp. He is so detail oriented. Yeah. He has his head in the game. And like, while his age and I think cognition are definitely valid concerns for voters,

I think it misses the larger point that many voters who are not senior citizens are actually trying to get at. It's that he is old and ideologically out of touch to deal with the challenges of our modern world. And I think when we just focus on the old part, all it has to be is like, dude, this dude does like six pushups and eats a breakfast burrito. What the fuck are you talking about? And we're like, what we really need is like when it comes to things like climate change, you know, like, you know, many people have praised the Inflation Reduction Act for its ambitious goals.

Although many people would also argue that it was sort of the bare minimum given like what's at stake with our earth. And Trump had won. I think we would have actually seen what the bare minimum was. But yeah, the bare minimum would have been like just fucking just everyone's rolling accelerating in the opposite direction. Every school bus would be like legally obliged to always be worse. It turns out. Yeah. Mad Max vehicles or whatever.

Yeah, exactly. Doubling down on making Morton Joe like part of his cabinet. But like, like right. So right now, like the Biden administration, they just walked back their own emissions goals from the IRA in order to

placate the big three automakers as GM, Ford, Stellantis. And was the issue that it was too ambitious? No, because these companies were just complaining about the speed at which they would have to modernize and not sell currently. Like if you look at what these companies offer, they're like gigantic, overpriced, inefficient vehicles. When if then if you're talking like, is it about emissions? Is it about what's doing, what is best for the environment? Do we need to sort of rethink what kind of a car is best suited for this? And I think other people point at the polling in Michigan right now, it's looking pretty shit for Biden. So they figure, look, let's help out. Let's create some warm, fuzzy feelings in Michigan. Maybe that will help us get across the line in November.

And so you're like kind of left looking like, so does Biden want to like modernize and improve the auto industry? Or does he actually want to curb greenhouse gas emissions? Because I think most people who look at the climate crisis are like, we have to curb the it's the fucking emissions. We need to fucking get a handle on and how we look at these things. And if it's the latter, if it's about emissions, then shouldn't we be talking more about like fucking better mass transit and things like bike lanes? But like, again, we can do both, man. We can do both. But the thinking.

I used to have lunch with Strom Thurmond, my good friend. Lee Iacocca. Yeah, exactly. I'm the great compromiser, man. But like he again, he just wants to maintain the status quo of like ignoring the degradation of the planet. And like, that's fine. But like sort of give us these warm, fuzzy feelings like, well, you know, maybe I get these car manufacturers to do this thing that sort of misses the point. And when you roll back the emissions, that sends a bad message to the younger people who will have to inherit this earth. And like another example, right? The genocide that's happening in Gaza, where people are facing starvation. Biden ignores the polling that

shows that a significant majority of his own voters want an immediate ceasefire. He would rather, again, just preserve the old ways, blindly arm, like blindly arming, like a homicidal regime and keep arms manufacturers happy and groups like APAC from putting money against him. And meanwhile, this is causing him to hemorrhage support with like younger voters or the people that pretty, that power political campaigns. Like you need young people to get behind your political campaign to have any kind of ground game or success there.

And the reason why a lot of people are put off by this, again, it's because we see that this is the old way of doing things. And we see that what the status quo has given us, inequality, continued oppression of marginalized people, and a planet that is telling us every single day that we need to do something different fast. And the mainstream media just talks around these issues by just hammering home the like, this guy is old as shit talking point. And we're not like actually giving voice to the real issues that sort of underpin this observation. So if the conversation is he is not equipped to contend with the existential threats and understand that America in 2024 is actually quite diverse, then the defenses are going to have to actually talk about policy.

So right now, it's just about, like I said, can he do a jump rope? Can he do jump rope really good? And does he know, does he remember who was in the monkeys? And if you want people to see someone as not being old, at the very least, you can show that with policy that shows, you know, what younger people than you are concerned with. And don't just be like, like, well, the other guy's fucking old, too, and he's a fascist. And that's what I think is driving a lot of things like we have real fucking problems. So, like, while a lot of people are talking about the age thing, I think the discussion misses that what that entails. It's that we are looking at all these like we're in an omni crisis and we need real sort of substantive solutions that feel markedly different than what's going on. And, you know, right now,

the administration just announced like one point two billion in student death relief will be forgiven for around one hundred fifty thousand people. That is objectively a good thing. But those are the kinds of things that this administration can do that doesn't really require risking the kind of political cachet that like getting tough with oil and gas industries or the military industrial complex would. And I don't know, like when I think about it too, like we're just looking at what the perspective is of this president or being or telling like people who are concerned with like earth death or where our tax dollars are going or what we're enabling with our tax dollars. It just feels like he's like, look, it's it'll be OK. It'll be OK. You guys are just overblowing it. But like I was recently like with some older family members and they all said some version like when you're're talking about like, oh God, what's going on in this country? There's all some version of, well, I'm glad that I'm at

the tail end of my life because I can't imagine how tough times are going to be for you and your kids. You know what I mean? You know, and I feel Biden embodies this perspective. Like he is legislating as if he won't have to deal with the ramifications of his own policies and expects those of us that will that it's not that bad. It's not that bad. And being really dismissive. And I think that's just like. Yeah. It is the thing that we see repeatedly with generations as they age out.

And they're always despairing for the following generation. They're always like your problems are intractable because we did our best and we're amazing. So this is fucked. Like there's no way you're going to come up with something. The reality of the situation is the younger people are generally, you know, smarter and have more flexible minds and have like better perspective to attack these problems and new ways that the elderly aren't able to think about. And they're also not able to even like conceive that those possibilities are possible, you know? And so it's just such a uniquely bad time for us to be stuck in this eddy of, you know, forward progress where it's a, you know, be in the same way that all the money is being trapped by the people who already have all the money. All the power is being trapped by all the people who have all the power up until the time that they're dead and can no longer continue to acquire power.

It's just a system that is, you know, designed like they there were very specific things in place. Like this was a known thing that like when you have this system, you have to guard against a gerontocracy. Like that's a very real problem and yeah slowly they just managed to kind of edit all that stuff out of the narrative and out of history so the people are now just like hey wait a second how these people get so old right yeah yeah and i and i think it's also endemic of like the society generally moving left as it does right it's like the more we learn and the more we become educated you know what i mean environmentalism was not really a thing like 150 years ago and now it's like a very serious concern right so it's like so when the younger generation is just

naturally more left it's kind of horrifying that like what when we see what we consider what the government considers to be left is actually pretty fucking central like you're saying being sort of owned by big oil in the military industrial complex it's like somewhat horrifying yeah i mean it was it was you know environmentalism was a thing with like you know native civilizations and stuff they they had a grasp on it but it's yeah it certainly shifted very far right to a place of just like resource extraction. They didn't have to contend like Western colonial exploitation. Yeah, it's just they just call that being alive.

Yeah. Like being naturally imbalanced in balance with stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's just yeah, it's wild because like David Axelrod, you know, who is a political strategist, you know, responsible for getting Obama into office. And, you know, a lot of people like, you know, what, what, what David Axelrod, like, what can, what can Joe Biden do, man, to help sort of defend against these attacks about his age or whatever. And he was just sort of like, yeah, just merely juxtapose his positions with Trump's. Sure. And it's like, you're, but that's not, you're not getting at the anxiety that people

feel. It's like, I, I feel increasingly unsafe in a world that's like prioritizing like militarism or earth degradation. And I have a fucking one year old. And I'm even even in my mind, what the fuck does it look like for you? Like shit. I mean, I plan on being alive a little bit longer. So I'm probably we're probably going to see some shit, but then what of like our kids and things like that. And I think Biden sort of has like this attitude of sort of like, I remember when I first took like an astronomy class and you learn that the earth is a star and then stars die and explode. And everyone's like, yeah, when the earth, when the sun,

no, no, when the sun or when the sun, sorry, the sun is a star, like saying like, you know, when the sun dies,

it will fucking destroy it. Like it will, it will destroy the earth too. When that shit happens. And I'm like, Oh my God, when's the fucking sun going to die? And like, it's like fucking a billion years. I'm like, Oh fuck. Oh fuck it then. Why the fuck do I care about that? Right. That's kind of like the, the attitude that a lot of politicians have with a lot of these like huge things where like, I don't know know we can just keep kicking this can down the road and just sound like the warning bells about what will happen if we don't codify certain laws or if you don't get a handle on curbing like emissions or inequality without actually doing anything because to them it's like so abstract like the fallout and they're insulated so i don't know i just think like for all the talk of like it's not

i think it again i think just for people always say it's the age, it's the age, it's the age. It just allows to skirt over like the real issues. What about the age? Yeah. Is it just that he can't do pushups well and you think he's going to fall like there's a New York Times something like some New York Times alert that popped up for me today that was like, what if Trump and Biden die? And that, again, if you're covering it from the perspective of like a horse race, it is certainly notable that one of the two horses that can win could die during the course of the race. But yeah, it's mainly that is the way that the like back in 2004 when I was working at ABC News, they were having like this real internal crisis of consciousness about like we are only covering this like it's a horse race. We never talk about policy. And but they like continued to do that shit.

Like they were like, and there's no way out because that is the only way we really know how to talk about this in a way that makes sense as TV. You know, right. Yeah. Like kind of the lowest common denominator of like, look at his face. Isn't it old? Although I do love this. If there was no like age cap on like professional sports like that was you were watching a baseball game. And also there was a there was a bunch of people were were so old they might pass away during the game that would add a real level of intrigue

yeah pitcher gets hit with a ball like right off right off the bat like oh no but again okay i do have to push back here a little bit you are only paying attention to the things that he's actually doing as president you're not paying attention to the things that he's actually doing as president you're not paying attention to the things that people say he is doing behind the scenes behind the scenes he is sharp and he is so mad and he thinks that yahoo's an asshole so he called net yahoo an a-hole so like i don't i don't he's cool dude he's cool in private dude he just he fucking he likes trippy red you know what i mean and he listens to all guy he he was fucking with the last couple playboy cardi albums he's actually really cool but again i think it's the whole

point is to keep it keep that debate there because again most of the mainstream media isn't really equipped to grapple with the policy failures of just america for the last 50 years in general anyway so like because anytime it is brought up you're gonna have a bunch of people who are like establishment politicians or just like it's this is fine the police are great it's okay this these things these are just noisy activists and that's kind of like the message you get but yeah i i think like as i experienced more spirited discussions around people of many generations talking about the crazy activist and that's kind of like the message you get but yeah i i think like as i experienced more spirited discussions around people of many generations talking about the presidential and they're like people got to get over the fact that he's old it's like it's not it's not just that

it's not i'm not just saying the fact that he's old get him out of here it's that this dude has no idea what life is going to look like for us and he doesn't give a shit and that's fucking frightening and none of these and none of the many of the people in office do not and without a real sea change of that kind of thinking it things look very dire and that's i think what merely people are asking for is like can you at least wink at the fact that you know what things could look like you know like if we just keep if keep maintaining this course and just again you you know, behind the scenes on Biden expert here. OK, he tried winking yesterday and his eyes started to bleed. So we're going to actually hold on to that one. His eyelashes got caught and got tangled in each other.

He couldn't open the eye anymore. They function effectively as spider webs at this point. So he can't close his eyes or else, you know, they're like, no, that's just not the thing. Just help help me understand about what we're going to do to make things better. Don't just be like, oh, this guy sucks, too. And that's why I think there's increasingly. Yeah, just increasing apathy and frustration around this, because like even when people feel like, can we can we talk about these issues? Like, no, no, we can talk about how shitty Trump is, though.

Well, dude, and there's a whole we are foundationally and this is not unique. I'm what I'm saying, but just foundationally addicted to oil and automobiles. You know what I mean? Thinking of what what is required to actually like upend this entire foundational situation here with our dependency on just cars alone is like it's policy it's got to be policy change and structural consciousness change like people have to start to understand that there's going to have to be sacrifices we have the tools to do it like we could work from home we have the internet we can get so much done. Right. You know what I mean? So we can we just need to. But it's hard when the, you know, automotive industry got to get fucking hit yep you know and that extends to the militarism that extends to why we see no real improvement in like how our justice system works it's like yeah because it requires us to really

again to abandon these fucking archaic ideas to move into something different and yeah and i think i'm sure obviously not everyone is a high value or high information voter. I was getting into high value mail because you were talking about the manosphere. some level. And it's like when when we aren't able to really get those ideas out or have those debates. Yeah, we're sort of doomed to just stay in this cycle and then, you know, shaking our fists at the sky. Yeah, it's yeah, it's one of the most consistent things you see across history is like and it gets written out because in the same way that, you know, the people who are speculating on like the stock market, they don't a year from now air, they're like being completely wrong. You know, like that shit just like gets memory hold. One of the consistent tropes throughout history is the people who are like aging out, just having severe pessimism and cynicism about the future. And, you know, they're just too old to understand it, too old to, like, approach the problem with fresh eyes. And it's, we are at, like, most difficult crossroads of our species in generations.

And we really like this is the worst possible time to have people who are just like cynical and pessimistic about our ability to solve these problems and to think about these problems. Right. Completely. Because human beings are actually incredibly capable. Like we're actually capable of doing incredible things if we're allowed to make those decisions for ourselves. There's like this massive dust cloud devouring like the farmland in the middle of the country. There's the Great Depression. Hitler is rising. Like all of these horrible things are happening. And, you know, the world is going to like come together and like get through it and like build the future for in a lot of ways, like the highway system, all these different dams and all these various things. But it wasn't through listening to the very old people who were just like, fuck. You had to get some new blood in there. All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about some good news. We'll be right back.

All right, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about some good news. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses

never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions, like how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan

Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports,

where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them boys.

I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her. What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been

so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network,

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. And we're back. Yeah, I think that's a really good point, Miles, about the democratization of all these different forms of media.

I feel like with movies, we've seen there was a lot of excitement around, like, oh man, there's all these sketch groups online, and you're discovering new talent that way. But I feel like that's kind of gone away a little bit. But with gaming, I feel like I could like that's like kind of gone away a little bit but with gaming I feel like I could see that just theoretically not not knowing much about the industry at all but like that's what is exciting to me is that like as coding becomes more and more you know boosted by AI

like it feels like it's going to be easier and easier for people to like everybody to like come up with an idea like an iteration on an existing game and just like make it happen as opposed to with movies I feel like it's still still need like good performances right you still need like these things that are hard to get. And usually you need a lot of money. So gaming is still this writing-based, idea-based thing that I could see in the near future just becoming more democratic than any of the other major forms of media. Yeah.

I want to highlight one other thing about the gaming space right now that I think is really fun and is what kind of like adds to that or what adds to the what I started with about how it is so open to any kind of experience you want to have. There's lots of games that are developed these days that are developed by one person just because they're super excited about this one prospect. A very famous example is a game called Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley is developed by one person. I wrote down this person's name. Eric Concerned Ape Barone. Now,

Eric made this one game himself. It's a farming simulator, but it's also slightly a relationship simulator. Jack, don't laugh because he's Italian. Wow. Eric Concerned Barone. I was laughing at his pronunciation. Yeah. Barone. Concerned Ape. Concerned Ape. Wait, why is he Concerned's not like that's just his username concerned ape it's kind of like player unknown yeah i just can't remember it wasn't like an nft play there you

go exactly stardew valley a game developed by one person as of 2022 has sold 20 million copies it's a game that struck a nerve with people who wanted to make a farming simulator type game. And it's just one person who's doing something they love at a time when a genre wasn't exactly like it's that is not a game that was a drilled down version of a genre that was super, super popular at the moment. That was just something that struck people really strongly. really strongly. Another genre of game, or another developer who made a game that, again, was not something that people were looking for, is a guy named Bennett

Foddy. He's made a web game you may have heard of called QWOP. Yeah, the running one? The running one. He developed the running game where all you have is QWOP to control the knees and legs of a runner, and your point is to do a hundred meter dash.

And it is so poorly controlled. It is so punishingly slow and stupid that people love doing it because it's just so hard to do. He made another game called getting over it, where you are a naked person sitting in a, a black kettle with a hammer. And your whole goal is to climb up a mountain by using your hammer to propel yourself up the mountain.

And the entire time, Bennett Foddy is narrating why you shouldn't be doing this and why it's frustrating and how punishing the whole process is. Where does that fit on the scale of these video games? How is that a battle royale like Fortnite? How is that like a farming simulator like Stardew Valley? It's not. This is a guy who has a passion for making these unique experiences, the ability to do so just by being a coder and with these gaming tools. I think he made it in Unity unity which is another engine similar to the unreal engine and just decided to make this game

that has now sold millions of copies it is another one sounds like he also profoundly hates humankind you might say that like a larry david style outlook on yes humanity yes thank you what's wrong with you fuck you exactly you got something better everybody should play it dude wow i i miss looking like jordan belford belford on quaaludes trying to run on that thing flop in my man yeah it's just one of these things where it's like you know the world of video games almost feels you know less like TV and movies and almost like the world of music, where the tools to create it have become so easy to access that like, while you have people who are making who are trying to be the next Taylor Swift, or trying to be the next Deadmau5, or

trying to be the next Kendrick Lamar, you have people who are also just like, I made this weird song. And all of a sudden, that sound pops all that you have people who are 100 ge like i made this weird song and all of a sudden that sound pops all that you have people who are 100 gex comparatively or you have people who are just doing something that is complete who's so different and completely off the wall you're sophies of the world you're like you're you know i don't know there's another like very peculiar or like a unique artist right now you get what i mean my point is is that like the tools are so easy to access and democratize john mayer there you go people who are good originally was a version of that right yeah yeah but people who are taking these tools to make something that is unique to them that is not necessarily being asked for at the time but finding the right audience for it

such that it becomes super popular even if at the time it's like what is this even for video games offer that lane and that is something that makes me really excited about the future of video games we just keep getting more stuff like that because the tools are so easy to access right because it's almost like so like when someone makes a game it's like because i know music production and video production pretty well it's like because i remember if you wanted to make music like it's like did you have these old school production keyboards that had half the sounds that you wanted that you were hearing on the thing? Yeah, exactly. Do you have that core?

You got a Triton, you know? Yeah, you have all that stuff. And then, but now you have more like, uh, effects packs that come out, like, you know, sample, like whatever VSTs that give you certain keyboard sounds that you didn't have before. or VSTs that give you certain keyboard sounds that you didn't have before. Is that how people are kind of making games too, like where these are sort of like modular and you can kind of be like, okay, I need a little bit of this. I need my version of Massive for lack of a better comparison to making like electronic music.

And so I can use that for the physics will be the game engine. And then I can use these other things. So it does feel like kind of like if you're savvy enough there you there is a way to sort of like execute on like an idea because yeah just like those elements are just there versus years before it's like well do you have a 700 person team this is one of the last things i want to talk about and it's one of the things that wait hold on you're just gonna cut the episode short okay i don't know i guess for about like an hour or so, but anyway. No, go ahead.

This is the last thing you're going to talk about. All right, Dad. It's related. This is the last fucking time I'm telling you this, all right? This is the last fucking time. Listen up, fuckwit. Another question that Jack posed was about Disney throwing money at Epic. I'm trying to see where it was in here because I just like, I saved a place for it.

Cut all this. This is all bullshit. Dun- okay are you reading through my notes no no no this is all this is all bullshit justin you know it's what i'm talking about you know let's just let's just mute my channel okay this is kind me thinking. This is me thinking. Okay. This is kind of going back to Fortnite and the Unreal Engine and all of that and what they're creating with Fortnite. Disney just threw $1.5 billion, which is about like a 4% to 5% stake in Epic. Why are they doing that? Wait. That's a 4% stake in Epic? Is one and a half? It might be less, honestly.

Yeah. I don't know how much stuff is worth anymore. I'm like, that's only 4%. They're an enormous company. I know Shark Tank, though. Yeah. If you came out 1.5 Billy for 4%, I'd be like, get the fuck out. Wow.

Okay. It is a huge amount for not that big of a stake. But what Disney is getting out of that is this connection of their IP to things like Fortnite, the ability to use Unreal 5 to help make movies, and just like this connection into a world that people are already in all the time. Now, you've heard the term metaverse

being thrown around so much. We love it, don't we, folks? And like, Facebook wanted to make one, blah, blah, blah, wanted to make one. But they're not... It's crazy that he got to it first and now, like, for so many people

when they hear meta, metaverse, they're like, they picture Mark Zuckerberg with no legs. Like, Mark Zuckerberg's little avatar floating around with no legs.

Exactly. It's like, no, this is the future. This dude just like fucked it up in the mainstream. He just completely fucked it up.

But it is funny how the branding of that kind of came to him because people don't think of Fortnite as the metaverse. But when you can be LeBron James or Sasuke from Naruto or Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn or Peter Griffin from Family Guy as a character in Fortnite, that is the metaverse. When you and your friends are jumping into the fortnight launcher and playing fortnight traditional fortnight fortnight with no building or a racing

game developed by psionics the people who make rocket league or they're playing a rhythm game developed by harmonics the people who made rock band or they're making the survival crafting game in collaboration with lego Lego all within one game, all within Fortnite. Fortnite is not trying to be like the best shooter. Fortnite is trying to be Nintendo. When your mom used to say,

oh, are you playing that Nintendo? Fortnite is trying to be, oh, are you playing that Fortnite? Fortnite is so many different games and it kind of is now. Not only that, like Fortnite has their own tools built into the fortnite engine for you to create your own game like if you open up fortnite you'll

see the main games fortnite fortnite no build lego fortnite rocket racing harmont or um it's i can't remember what it's called it's the rhythm game it's like main stage or some shit like that but then you have 15 or 16 other most popular user-created modes that you can just play that are completely different games all built within the fortnite engine like fortnite is or rather epic games is using fortnite as the tip of the spear for unreal engine 5 to show people what you can do with this tool right people who are building those games making money like are they taking no oh wait can't you can't you make money off of like a map you can make money off of i'm like you know what to be honest with you i'm actually not sure okay because i'm not sure i don't i i don't know

cut all this this is bullshit justin check that because if you can make money off a fortnite map that'd be interesting but i'm pretty sure they're just user generated and it's like if people are playing them yes the only reason i know this is because there is a player at arsenal in the academy he's not like in the main team yet he's like a teenager named ruel walters and he like like they're like before he got signed his professional contract they're like this kid was already making money on fortnight because he was he made like a super popular rap really yeah well there you go i mean like if that then if they're making i mean if kids are making money off that then that's even more awesome yeah but so they're the engine that makes all of this creation possible exactly and they're making a big chunk

of the money but like the people who are going on there and being creative are able to get some part of it. Sure. In this article in The Athletic, it's like, yeah, because of the creator code or whatever. Oh, that's different. Oh, what's that? That's different. Creator code is basically a way that you can say, this person brought me here. So if you enter a creator code when you're buying a skin on Fortnite, there's a little kickback to the creator who did that to you.

So he's probably streaming on Twitch and said, use my creator code when you're buying a skin on fortnite there's a little kickback to the creator who did that to you so he's probably streaming on twitch and said use my creator code and then you buy skins it's a kickback to me he said 250 million people played his map in one week that's fucking crazy that's awesome anyway so i was just like yeah i knew there was like some way but yeah maybe not in the official way sorry go on right no but still but that but that is a whole another thing that's that's just the it's just these little tools that like fortnite or epic games offers just within the fortnite engine where it's just like oh yeah use my code type in my name so that you kick back to me who you like to just buy whatever skin you're gonna buy right and sometimes those skins are actual people like i said lebron james or even random streamers who are

you know part of the community such that me could you yeah well could you imagine the boring skin i could but then you have people like the weekend and then you have peter griffin and then you have pickle rick you just have all of this ip that is within the world of fortnite so that you can be whoever you want in the world of fortnite whenever you're playing any of those games. That is the world that they're creating, that they're fostering. That is like... It's wild how interchangeable it can be,

because there's so many times I'll be playing a game, I'll be like, man, I wish there was just a Star Wars version of GTA. Why can't I just have this look like Star Wars? And that game is coming out. But with the flexibility of these other games, it's like, well, yeah, we can already just map this ip onto it it's like yeah you want to play like versus peter peter that's fine do it there's a darth vader there's a darth vader there's a luke

skywalker there's an anakin skywalker skin in fortnite yeah yeah it's so what have a lightsaber so it sounds like obviously there's like there's ease in which that people are being able to make games. And that's, you know, AI has a certain hand into that. Is like the main risk just like the voice acting stuff? Because that's the one thing I've saw consistently from like voice acting people who are like, get the fuck away from my gigs with AI. Because that is a huge, huge earner for voice actors. It's a huge thing. And that was one of the things that I wrote down

is what really worries me about AI. You know, my fears is the less human actors. If the AI is going to take over, there's no way you can script for it. Right now, it's kind of a meme that if you're thorough, you'll talk to an NPC until you're just hearing the same prompts over and over. And that means that you've exhausted

all of the dialogue options in which you're, you know, the person you're talking to. Like there's only so much that you can script with a real person. But for an actor who would then be kind of prompting an AI voice, you're going in doing one day of work, maybe even only like an hour of work. And then that AI prompt is then generating an infinite amount of responses forever. Right? And that's scary. That's scary. That's taking the human element out of the, the, you know, the interaction

side of video games. And that's something that's like, kind of, you know, it's a bridge we're going to have to cross. It's going to be, you know, it's going to be a contract that needs to be signed. It's going to need to be some sort of agreement that we have that's, that is, you know, how we kind of control this forthcoming storm that is AI actors being part of video games, because that is real, that is very real what is going to happen. Yeah, right. It sounds like more and more, the more you describe it, the more it reminds me of like the media kind of content economy 10 years ago on the internet, where it's like, it's very user driven. And like where it's like it's very user driven and like it's like all all these creative people who are somewhat anonymous are driving a lot of the innovation and it's just

like kind of a lot of them are doing it for the love of the game and that turned out well i think we you know now we have really great uh websites full of top tier user generated content. And no, it obviously went horribly wrong because nobody could like really figure out how to monetize that. And so they just like killed it, I guess. I was hopeful until I had that thought. I mean, I'm sure it'll just continue innovating. It's, yeah, it is. One of the ideas that was thrown out in, like, in reading up on AI is, like, they're like, well, one of the problems we have with AI is that we don't have a body for this AI, this, you know, chat GPT to go walk out into the world and start getting data and feedback,

like learning with its body and with its ability to move around in space. So that was just another thing that occurred to me as we were talking. It was like the NPC chat GPT model, like in addition to being like a cool thing to play with, I could see that being prioritized by the companies the ai companies because that is something they're looking for is like something

some mechanism for it to like go out and interact in the real world and like be able to kind of move around on its own and just get like free r&d from, in these games, it's like a character out in this like open world. Yeah. But there's going to come away thinking like, uh, they believed I was African American due to the outsized use of racial slurs. I hear from young gamers. It seems like I don't,

that data set is going to be fucking poison. It's going to be bad. It's going to be bad. Well, shit. Uh, Dan, I feel like we could keep talking about this for weeks.

Yes. Thanks for coming on. That's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Making me less afraid of all the gaming shit that I hear. I don't know what any of it means. Jack, did you come out of this? Is there a game now that's obviously because you're up on the Nintendo.

You're up on it. Switch. That bitch from Switch. Yeah, Nintendo. You're up on it. Switch. That bitch from Switch. Yeah, exactly. The bitch with the Switch. Yeah. No, all of them. I mean, Pow World, you know, I'm going to be all over this shit.

Fortnite. Hell yeah, man. Hell yeah, Fortnite. Fortnite's scary to me because I feel like i just like going and get shot in the head like immediately but if uh like there are all these very uh derivations like racing games and stuff like that is is intriguing to me you'll be like yeah we'll all be playing together and you're like can we not do the battle right can we just do like the the racing one guys the racing's good. Racing's good. It's like Mario Kart. LeBron! You can't shoot me in this. This is the racing one.

You said specifically. Hell yeah. Alright, that's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show. It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks.

I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. Thank you. we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

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