The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 336 (Best of 8/26/24-8/30/24)

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 353 (8/26/24-8/30/24)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. 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 Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Caitlin 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. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, Diet Coke. 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. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of the Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laughstravaganza. Yeah. So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. Miles, we are thrilled, too. That voice saying no buns, his famous catchphrase, is one of our favorite guests.

A very funny comedian, the host of the podcast the front cast pod yourself with gun pod yourself the wire and his latest podcast bad has bara which happens to be the most moral podcast in existence and of all time please welcome one of the funniest people doing it anywhere it's matt lee i said maybe francesca and matt leap got a baby and after all yeah she came from my balls what's up wow did it musical that wasn't off the dome that's that was your birth announcement yes that's how I announced to everyone that my baby was born and she came from my balls like thanks we didn't

well no in case people were like in case you wanted to know is that your baby from your ball from my ball one ball single I mean it's only one sperm Both of them. From my ball. One ball. Ball, single.

Although, I mean, it's only one sperm. So really it only came from one ball. One sperm. Yeah. One of the balls. You never know left nut or right nut. That's the thing about it. It's like, you know, the way.

It depends on if you're left-handed or right-handed. That's how you know which ball you came from. That's how you know. It's like a firing squad. You know, everyone shoots, but no one knows who's actually got a real bullet and who's got a blank. That's right. Yeah, right. And that is what I used to, when I was a bully, instead of saying head or gut, I would say left nut or right nut. Which one do you want me to just ding?

When I was a bully. When I was a bully. Said it a very non-bully thing to say. Head or gut, man. Head or gut. You know, I was a big-time bully, man. When I was back, yeah. It was bad.

Yeah. I'd be like, which shoelace do you want, untied loser? You know what I mean? Bullies. Sick bully shit I was doing. Yeah. That's right. Goodwill hunting.

He's like, yeah. Yeah, Jack O'Brien made me choose the wrench and a belt. I said both, because fuck them, that's why. Yeah. You don't remember that? I said flick both my nuts. Yeah, flick both my nuts. I wish I could do – I can't really do the actions.

No, that was perfect. Pack the car and have it, yad. All right, there you go. My balls. And we're back. You're going to be reading Gordon Wood, regurgitating Gordon Wood. You know what I mean? All right.

Yeah. How do you like them apples? Then you're going to read Zinn and it's going to blow your hair back. Everybody's read Zinn by the time. Not everyone. Hey, Matt. What up, though? What up, though?

It's great to have you. I'm so excited to be back. I love you guys. I love talking to you guys about stuff. Yeah, and we're going to talk to you about your podcast, Bad Hasbara. Okay, okay, yeah. Okay. The state of Hasbara at the moment, too. Yeah.

What is it? That's the only question I've got written down. Yeah, what is it? What does that mean? And is it bad? I mean, your title says it, but is it? What does that mean? And is it bad? I mean, your title says it, but is it like bad like the Michael Jackson album title? Yeah, is it bad? That means good?

Could you imagine? You could redo that album cover as BB Net and Yahoo with that fucking bad leather outfit on with the chains. That was... Oh, shit. I'm going to make that on my phone right now was that a miss at the time or were people like all right let's see where he's going with was bad yeah i i just remember as a kid i was so stoked because i was like yo this motherfucker on roller skates like it fooled

my ass big yeah i was yeah yes this is the most i've ever liked an album ever is how much i like that album when it dropped i couldn't name i'm trying to think of what were the other good songs on that album because i think i put on a concert of that in my neighborhood just me and my friend lip syncing two songs that we didn't really know the words are you i don't think i ever bought a michael jackson album before so i don't know what his albums are all the way through i only know like you know the hits but there's so many hits that it's like oh yeah this one yeah okay because i'm definitely i'm like the thriller yeah yeah yeah oh yeah i know the way you make me feel damn that's on bad man in the mirror smooth criminal leave me alone leave me alone that video was wild dude wait i thought that was off dangerous

leave me alone the one where he's like going he's on the ride it's on the bad remaster i'm looking at the bad i thought it was too yeah yeah that was off dangerous man anyway off the walls also what is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are? You know what? Is it my search? I could. I was like trying to go through all my safaris and I was like, what the fuck? I've been doing shit.

I haven't been researching anything. But I did last week during the DNC. I Googled Kamala's dad because I was like, because everybody talks about, I don't know if they did anything on her dad. I don't know if I missed it i feel like they he was very i don't i don't feel like he wasn't mentioned no he wasn't mentioned from what i saw and i'm pretty sure i watched most of it and um and they do the whole like it's too bad her mother won't be here because she's dead right and she rests in peace but i googled the dad because i was like what the fuck you know what's his deal he's still alive

like do we not he's not getting a shout out and oh no she did mention him in her speech actually but I'm saying like a background yeah yeah yeah you know like a profile yeah sure for sure for sure like I think her I think that moment when she mentioned him is when I was like let me google this motherfucker because I was like oh is he dead and like no he's not yes so i was intrigued and it was funny to me is that both her dad and obama's dad are both like economics whizzes and i just found it very interesting and uh because i mean they don't really talk about they don't really talk about these deadbeat dads and these guys aren't deadbeats at all they're fucking intelligent and the reason that these these politicians are thriving because they got that weird math brain yeah and uh i i just i just found him interesting he went to stanford and um that's that's that's what i

googled recently he's a economist economist and emeritus i'm so smart i don't know how to pronounce that professor at emeritus professor at stanford university who is of course and i'm not reading this off of wikipedia known for applying post-keynesian ideas to development economics ah so that that actually placed him for me i was like what oh he's's that Donald Harris. The one who's known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economics. I always get him confused with a different economist who applies pre-Keynesian ideas to development economics. That's cool. Yeah, I feel like I don't know why he's not a bigger part of the picture. But that's a cool dad to have.

There must be something contentious happening. he's not a bigger part of the picture but that's that's a cool dad to have there's something contentious happening yeah there obviously is something contentious but i i definitely was impressed by what i did see about him and um i was like yeah he's probably an aggressive piece of shit like most dads um she's just like he's too much yeah way too much yeah too too logical to the point of you know he's dead inside that's right that's how i which explains a lot about her personality he's an economist and like economists have been such bitches about her economic policy like they've been like price controls yeah okay uh you let the market decide around here and it's like how's that working out for you right yeah exactly and

that's why we have so many of these fucking problems. So maybe that's it. Maybe he's just one of those well, actually guys. Yeah, he probably is. Yeah. What is something you think is underrated? Underrated? Y'all probably said this before,

but I really think getting older. I think aging is very underrated because I'm trying to tell you like day parties make great you know start at three you home by seven or it's over by seven yeah i'm in bed by nine you sleeping more like i have a day the next day you have a day the next day i feel like you could decide you know when you've grown you could decide, you know, when you've grown, you could be like, you know what? I'm not going to drink today. Why?

Because I have foresight. I know that tomorrow, you know what I'm saying, I'm going to regret it and I am going to make a decision. You get that when you're older. I found, I think maybe three years ago, was the complete, like, death of FOMO. Like, Oh, right. I stopped having FOMO. I was like,

no, it's dope for you. Like, no, that's cool. Like enjoy yourself. I am fine. Somebody asked me recently,

like about artists that I've, I've known forever that does, you know, pretty similar stuff. And there was like, yo, why have y'all, why are y'all not engaged in any sort of civil war like

because he's doing all the stuff that you do and i was like literally the thought has never crossed my mind you know what i'm saying because i'm like because that's the homie and right right i like him and he does his thing and i don't and i do what do you like that's a weird move for someone to be like hey man how come you're not getting in his ass bro right i was like what hey that guy right right yo fuck him right what i was like what no he's dope like what are you talking about yeah but like it was like realizing that like oh that oh i guess that comes with age like i'm supposed to be i'm supposed to be jealous like i'm supposed to come for his spot he's supposed to be coming for mine i guess but i'm like but that's such a like i think but yeah but like with age right you

get you kind of lose that sort of zero-sum game mentality yes and like and then you sort of philosophically i definitely had to shift to like from a scarcity mentality to an abundance mentality to use some like hokey, you know, the woo woo type shit. But truly like, if you believe everything is so scarce, like you're going to be in a very defensive position all the time. And, but truly like they're, the resources are out there for many things. And I see that that manifests with people in a lot of different ways like where people respond to certain things where they believe things are super scarce or there is an abundance of things that we can share or that everyone can win and shit like that yeah the amount of times i'll be having to like coming up that now it's so obvious to me but having to remind myself that people have more than one album downloaded on their phone it's not single file you can listen

you can listen to multiple artists like just because they listen to this person don't mean they not go listen to you what are you talking about exactly you know what i'm saying yeah did this friend come to you in the form of a serpent and whisper it in your ear with elongated S's. Right. You shouldn't trust them, bro. Get in his ass. Speaking of which, one of my homeboys, another homeboy sent me a meme. It was a picture of like Adam being handed fruit and wrapped around a serpent.

And the guy was like, yo, studies show that a hundred percent of men would accept food from a naked woman. Yeah. In Adam's defense. Yeah. In Adam's defense. Yeah. I mean, we firmly blame Eve

on this podcast. I mean, that was the whole point of the story. Yeah. It's the woman you gave me. Yeah. I gave you a rib? Yeah. See, that was the whole point of the story. Yeah. It's the one you gave me. Yeah. I gave you a rib? Yeah. See, that's why I don't share my ribs with you anymore.

You see what I'm saying? I'll have a rib. And yet, look what she did with that rib. You know? Yeah. Left a bunch of meat on the bone and everything. Am I right? Wow.

Am I right? What is something you think is overrated? I'm going to stick with my food theme. I actually think we've gotten to the point where brunch is overrated. Brunch is? Yeah. We're like everybody's doing brunch every weekend and it's getting to the point where it's just like flat, flabby breakfast food at a different time of day. And I'm no longer excited by it.

I'm no longer inspired. I think I'm over it. I think brunch like loses its appeal the earlier I wake up. Like when I was like younger and like, like, you know, going out and shit like that. And I'd wake up late and I'm like, yeah, brunch. But yeah, let's eat at one. That's breakfast. But now I'm like, no, I've already ate or it's depends on, you know, the, if there's an occasion, but yeah, I get that that i guess it's like is that maybe one of our latest food fads that's going away now there's a brunch oh it'll never go away yeah i mean maybe actually the right answer to how to live one's life is to only have brunch and tea

i mean maybe breakfast lunch and dinner two meals yeah yeah yeah two meals give me a brunch give me a tea give me that tea i mean does the enthusiasm for tea just like make you less likely to have anything at dinner? I feel like dinner becomes an afterthought at that point. A little snack for dinner. A little snack. A little light something. Like spread for tea. Yeah.

Okay. I like that. Yeah. Brunch is not a natural time for me to be hungry. If I've eaten breakfast, then like brunch is not really. Or you do the thing where you wake up you're like fuck dude brunch is in four hours yeah and you're like i don't want to like go and not eat anything so then you're like walking this tightrope of not eating before or showing up

hangry and you're like dude this is showing up mean yeah yeah all right uh let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for

advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan 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.

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 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 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. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds.

Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised 150 grand in prizes to four finalists, but the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. I mean, my reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades.

It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. I always felt like Lynette was kind of this 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. Some people won't give you the real talk on drugs, but it's time we know the facts. Fentanyl is often laced into illicit drugs and used to make fake versions of prescription pills.

You can't see it, taste it, or smell it. Suppliers mix fentanyl into their products because it's potent and cheap and the dealer might not even know keep yourself and others safe by knowing the real deal on fentanyl get the facts continue to seem like good news for the democratic party yeah yeah and when it comes to republicans response to that it is oftentimes to get with the fuckery make with the fuckery make with the voter fuckery now not fucking yesterday fucking now i need that fuckery on my desk yesterday hurry up so yeah every state like you know there's like you're i mean not that one is going hand in hand but clearly the republican strategy going into this is to do every single squeeze the margins as much as possible, even if it's illegal

to try and win the election and also tell all your voters that the election might be stolen. So get ready, brace yourselves for some fuckery on that end. Um, but at the same time, a lot of races are getting more competitive and you're seeing, I mean, not that there are reactions happening one in the other, but it's, it's but it makes sense that the fuckery is intensifying in places where races are getting, you know, much more competitive and even places where they're not just to ensure that certain states go red. So like in Texas, right, Governor Abbott announced on Monday that like roughly a million voters were purged from the voter rolls. So he's like to quote, stop illegal voting. voter rolls. So he's like to quote, stop illegal voting. Many experts were quick to point out that like there are already routine processes in place that already remove people from voter rolls, like whether they've died or if they've moved out of state or whatever. But there are a lot of people

are also saying that this is merely just to stoke fears of a stolen election. That's why Governor Abbott is out there saying like, I had to get a million people. These people are voting illegally. He also claimed he had to move, remove some voters that weren't citizens. But that's hard to believe, given a scandal that happened in 2019, when the then Secretary of State made similar claims about voters who turned out to just be naturalized citizens. They weren't illegally voting or non-citizens. And then they had to resign over the bullshit. The racist attorney general had to resign. Yeah. No, this is the secretary of state.

Secretary of state. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For doing, for going on and like, these people are illegal. And they're like, no, they're not. And what the fuck are you doing? Like, and they got sanctioned, all kinds of shit.

And the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, was also this week behind numerous raids targeting Latino voters in Texas from an article, quote, at six in the morning on August 20th, nine officers, some with guns, showed up at the home of a activist breaking down a door to raid the home of Manuel Medina, the chair of the Tejano Democrats. All across the state, apparently police were raiding the homes of Hispanic voters. The head of Texas' LULAC, Gabriel Rosales, who was on TV, said recently, this is pure intimidation. When asked for an explanation, Ken Paxton said, without any irony, quote, secure elections are the cornerstone of our republic. Legal voter intimidation, getting people to have to lawyer up, drain their funds, like all this kind of bullshit, because these are these are people who are running groups that are helping people get registered, you know, and just doing the very just the basics of supposed democracy. But they are being, you know, run up on by police.

This is the I mean, a few things. First of all, I know personally a couple like about four friends that was like yeah all of a sudden i'm not registered it was like right like that just was like i don't know what just happened but apparently i'm not registered no more and uh and that live in texas that are like i don't know i was born in fort worth i don't know what they talking about you know what i'm saying right right but like these are the moments that make me wish that i in some ways worked for a campaign to like write like to do like copy like just to write copy for it because this would be if i were in the if i were running helping a democratic like election in texas this would be such a layup to like, you know

what I'm saying? To just be like, okay, I guess, you know, this is the American way. So you figure rather than having some points, you just gonna beat us up for it? That's what you finna do right now? That's your defense? Your defense is it, yeah. It just seems

like that's all you have to do if you're running for your side. I don't know, guys, like I came here to to give you a reason why you should vote for me. And that's what I thought we was doing. And they're kicking down my door. So be ashamed if something happened to your door. Yeah. No, you already kicked it down. It already happened. That threat actually doesn't work. I'm like, yo, I mean, y'all really do believe in like 1776 because like that's the way we used to vote was like, you know, a mob would come to your house and drag you out and be like, you know, vote for the Whigs or we burn your tavern. Like that's used to be how we did. I thought we was past this, you know?

No, no. But again, and this is also part of like Ken Paxton's legacy as attorney general. Cause if you remember in 2020, there was this whole thing. He prevented people in Harris County where Houston is. And a lot of democratic voters are, uh, from using mail in ballots when the pandemic was raging and people were like waiting hours in line because again, they're hoping like, yeah, well, you know, force people to wait in line and maybe and maybe this will they won't they won't actually vote or maybe that can suppress the numbers and he was even on steve bannon's podcast recently saying like he was like taking credit for texas being red because he did that he's like if i didn't do that those like some hundred thousand votes you know

trump may have trump may the outcome may he may have lost texas so you never know that could just be him you know obviously pumping his own shit up but he's proud of the fact that he does that kind of shit you could just say yeah exactly you could just say okay so worse so what you say is and correct me if i'm wrong i don't want to put words in your mouth but what you say is if people vote you gonna lose yeah right right so the way i win so the way i win yeah is i have to make sure that they don't vote you know what i mean we call them illegal when you say people uh i'm gonna be a little more specific oh but they're but but they're not illegal but we have to say that so people we get to say the word. Kind of clutch their pearls when I do say that. Didn't they?

Got it. Didn't they like stop? Except they had to like shut down. They didn't have to, but they chose to shut down a bunch of like drive through mail in ballot centers. Yeah. And I feel like they had to get it like an injunction to like try and keep them open. It was it was it was a whole mess. It was always breaking down along like, oh, wouldn't you know it? The six conservative Supreme Court justices are all in favor of like making it harder to vote.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's the whole project for them. Yeah. The political project is just to obviously just like they don't have the numbers so just so mask off from voting yeah yeah it's so mask off and it happened in 2020 but because biden won i feel like we kind of memory a whole bit but like yeah yeah just like like right before amy coney barrett was confirmed the supreme court handed down a decision that prevented ballots that arrive after election day in the state of wisconsin from being counted even if they were like they just changed the rule yeah the timing of it like right before election day that's just how like how do y'all say like i just feel like i don't know how you're saying this with a straight face you're saying okay we need less people to vote and we need to make it harder for you because if it's harder and it's less of y'all and we go away.

Exactly. That's been the game plan. And it doesn't matter. I mean, the writing's been on the wall for a long time. That's why before, like in the 90s, they were so panicked because they saw how the demographics were changing in the United States. They're like, wait, there's going to be a lot of brown faces in this country that we can't contend with their numbers. So we'll have to create some kind of moral panic about immigration or abortion, whatever it is to try and like to slow the, you know, changing demographics of the country. So like in other States, right, North Carolina, the GOP is asking a court to purge over 250,000 voters because the voter registration database does not have a driver's license or social security number linked to a person in their database so this again this and so they're asking a court to

do this while we're like you know very very close to election day but it's all bullshit because as people who work on like the actual election boards in the state point out that like if a person doesn't provide those things when they register they would have to show id when they go to vote it's not just like all right yeah we'll take your word on it yeah there are protections in place to ensure because this is all bullshit there's no this idea that people are illegally voting is fucking bullshit but they have to keep seeding this story over and over to keep people's suspicions up because again like we said yeah it's the only way to kind of have the energetic foundation to do something pretty fucked up you know it's just so weird because i'll be like y'all ain't never y'all ain't never voted like y'all y'all don't remember you know like obviously because this is the year of our lord 2024 i'd vote early because

why would i why wouldn't i it come in the mail. I'm just going to do it. But when you did have to go, it just, of course I showed them my ID. Like, you don't, you don't, you have to show the ID. Like, I just don't understand. Exactly. But again, it's meant, and that's why most people don't also, because they're also bought in on the same thinking. They don't care. They just like, yeah, that does happen. And they completely ignore their own experience. Yeah. Just sort of be like, yep, whatever the TV is telling me. And then yesterday, Charlie Cook, the god of election forecasting, shifted North Carolina to now sort of be like a plus minus zero to now favoring Harris over Trump. So again, they see what's happening elsewhere. Similar efforts are underway in swing states like Arizona and Wisconsin. And all of this is happening while like voter registration data is showing that the registrations are surging compared to 2020, like 175% increase in voter registration for young black women a hundred almost 150 percent increase

in young latina voters this is from this this is this year this july 21st versus 2020 this same period like who was registering who was registering into what numbers yes and 98 percent of black women and 98 percent increase in black women that are registered to voters and overall 85% increase in black American voters and 83% increase among young women. So there's just a ton they're just like, fuck, these aren't the people that are going to vote for us.

Damn it! Again, a reminder make sure that you are registered to vote if that's, you know, if you live in a state where shit is all fucked up and you're planning on voting you just make sure that they haven't purged your ass and we probably don't have to tell you this but definitely do keep an original copy of your birth certificate on you at all times because i have one folded up in my wallet i keep that thing on me and by by that thing, I force me my original birth certificate.

Absolutely. And it's all fucking, all the ink has faded. You know, the receipt just looks blank after a while. Yeah, like my vaccine card after a little while. That shit was blank. Just the crease. Like, yeah, here's my vaccine card. Oh, yeah.

When they put the little sticker on of like dose you got, they're like, sir? What the fuck is this? Look, man, it's the card, bro. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The ink sucks. You know? sticker on of like like dose you got they're like sir you're like what the fuck is this look man it's the card bro yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah the ink sucks you know it's the fucking ink yeah those numbers are very encouraging though and like the the people who pay attention to this shit seem to be like this is really bad for donald trump yeah it's crazy to watch even some of the uh some of his like just that weird universe still kind of be like hey bro like i don't know if y'all know but we finna lose uh i don't know if y'all notice it i don't know what the hell you talking about with the you need to

stop talking about that and start talking about this because like just even him being like to that point and culture is like yeah trump maybe because you won't shut the fuck up yes that's what the where their bank she said that shit about him like that's why they want the mics hot yes you don't know how to shut the fuck up and it's like yo like listen help me help you i do wonder though if i do wonder if if if.D. Finnegan, Drew Blett sold out this mug. And be replaced by R.K. So I've been researching this because that is a real fear for me. Because it feels like the sort of big swing that could do something.

Like they need a big swing. They need a big swing right now. And I think like legally it is too late to actually change the balance oh word okay so i think august 7th or something yeah the window closed back in early august i think he's gonna be like we're gonna have a three-person he's gonna do all three i'm gonna have them both i want both hey hop on the triz ticket we're here baby you're like yo what is going on but yeah i don't i think yeah they they do need something like at this point it he needs to come out with like a new hairdo or something

like a fucking big wig or something i don't know just something the trump cards are gonna do it are good no no no he needs to get a face tattoo like takashi 69 or some shit yeah it's not a game i just figured out something hey yeah right amazing transition thank you prop because you know he knows that the assassination attempt like that was where it kind of peaked for his campaign yeah then he had sort of a low energy convention right after that it was like the weekend after and he picked jd vance like right after it it was just it just it fell apart really quickly on him and so he keeps going back to the hits you know yeah he's he's like a you know micro version of the macro trend of famous people who just can't move on from the peak of

their fame so michael jordan keeps wearing baggy bootcut jeans, like just, you know, whether they're in style or not, because, you know, it's the 90s. Everywhere he goes, it kind of a core part of his message by saying in an interview with Dr. Phil, and he's also like made reference to this in past speeches that the assassination attempt against him, which somehow, by the way, only happened last month like that. Wow. Yeah, that was oh, that was July 13th or so. That was mid-July. Oh, my God. Like not even the beginning of July that was mid-july oh my god like not even the beginning of july like mid-july oh i mean it might as well be the kennedy assassination right now like so far away yeah but he's saying that was actually the assassination assassination attempt was actually joe biden and kamala harris's fault because they weren't too interested in my health and safety. They've been making it very difficult, very, very difficult to have proper staffing in

terms of Secret Service, which reportedly the Secret Service did complain about a lack of personnel in the past two years. But since the attack, agents from the Biden detail have been diverted to Trump. So he's like here man you take him he called him immediately after and trump was like oh my god he was so nice he was like asking me how i was and was complimenting how i like moved my head in a way that avoided the shot that was pretty cool and yeah i mean i think probably part of the issue is that there's never been a ex-president who is as constantly in the public eye and as controversial as this mother. I mean, there's never been a person who's as controversial and as in the public eye for as long as he's been. So, yeah, they had to go outside of protocol and shift resources which

they did after the assassination attempt the secret service not great at their job it turns out in some cases yeah huh armed armed law enforcement not good at their job news at 11 let's let's put that everywhere the thing that's wild it's like to your point right like most presidents they fuck off they go to their lair because they know they got away with it put that everywhere the thing that's wild it's like to your point right like most presidents they fuck off they go to their lair because they know they got away with it they're like yo bro i did some war crimes bro just shut the bro i don't exist just don't fucking talk about me anymore i'm gonna buy an aquifer yeah i'm buying an aquifer in mexico so i have a bunch of clean water resources i'm gonna paint my little paintings okay don't Don't talk to me. I don't exist anymore. Forget about me.

Nope. Don't look at me. Forget about me. You're looking at me. I'm not here. How much is it for me to come speak for 15 minutes? So the gross national product of a small country word, I got you. Okay, we're good.

Wait, hold on. Spotify wants to give me a deal? To get out the house? I'm not getting out the house like i'm not getting i'm not getting out the house unless it's the gross national product of budapest right right like george w bush killed million like over a million people yeah and i bet his secret service detail is like a retired cop like it's like at the end of like uh no country for old men like that right who is with him is like a couple people you know but like trump yeah trump trump is a special case he also suggested and this is one of the great times when you can tell he's being fed information because

it's coming from like a different word set than he is working with. He said that the would-be assassin was inspired by Democrats' rhetoric. Oh, word? You don't knock at me, Tommy. Uh-huh. Yeah, sure. Blame it on JJ rhetoric, right? Oh, shit. Yeah, I feel like it is like if you're like a teacher grading a paper

and you come across like this one. Hold on. Hey, come here. Hey, Donald, come here. What does rhetoric mean? Yeah. Spell it real quick. I'm just going to ask you.

What is rhetoric? R-E-D-E-R-I-C-K. Rhetoric. Rhetoric. Got it. When my oldest daughter was like a sixth grader, it was, uh, it was very clear that like, she's just not doing her homework. Like I'm like, so I'm trying to explain to my wife. I was like, baby, she's just not doing it.

Like it's not, she's. Oh, right. Yeah. Not even, she's just not doing it. I'm like, I, and then, so she's in the car and she goes, and my daughter from the back seat goes, yeah, I think it's the curriculum. And then my wife was like, yeah, yeah. Cause my, my wife's a PhD. She's, she car and she goes, and my daughter from the backseat goes, yeah, I think it's the curriculum. And then my wife was like, yeah, yeah. Because my wife's a PhD.

She's an educator. So she was like, yeah, there is a problem with California curriculum. I was like, hold up. What does curriculum mean? Yeah, yeah. She was like, I don't know. I just heard you guys say it, but that's the problem, right? They're just lunges, man.

They know what you want to hear. She don't know what that means. She's just not doing the work, yeah yeah it's like that weird uh jayden and willow smith interview from like seven years ago where they were like talking about all kinds of weird yeah yeah philosophical shit they're like y'all are fucking 12 years old yeah what the fuck are you saying right now but yeah yeah you don't know what rhetoric means bro yeah by the way he did not say shit about assault rifles or gun control the thing that is actually to blame for the the history of many assassination attempts and shootings in this country i'm gonna throw in here racism let me tell you why i'm gonna throw in here racism let me tell you i like i'm glad

you asked because what's the name of that city in Pennsylvania that they was at? Butler Farm. Butler. It was the Butler Farm showgrounds. So look, we're in Butler, Pennsylvania. Of course, there's a little white boy walking around with a gun. Of course there is.

We're in Butler, Pennsylvania. Of course he gonna climb up on the roof. Well, Huckleberry Finn had ass and nobody had nothing to say about it because y'all don't suspect little white boys. You're right. The whole time they're like, huh? There's somebody there. Not until the boy got the got the whole ass president in his scope was y'all like, wait a minute. Right. So I'm just saying, let anybody else walk around Pennsylvania with a with a whole assault rifle. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, you couldn't even got out the car.

The fact that I was like, of course, he walking around here all open with a gun and climbing on the roof because that's a little white boy in Butler, Pennsylvania. That's everybody over there. So to me, I'm like, yeah, that's what y'all get for not assuming that that little boy dangerous. me, I'm like, that's what y'all get for not assuming that that little boy dangerous. Not that's what y'all get. People with a gun can be dangerous. They be dangerous. White kid with a gun, that's

Kyle Rittenhouse, and I love him. And look, person with a gun, chubby little cheeks. I'm just saying, your little chubby little cute little eighth grader might be a murderer. Mm-hmm. Might be. Inubby, little cute, little eighth grader might be a murderer. Might be. In fact, on camera doing it. With no second thought.

Just like I just like I just y'all wouldn't go stop me. I just walk right in here. Yeah. But he Trump just doubled down on his opposition to gun regulations. And this was all happening. I forget if I said this up top in an interview with dr phil for some fucking reason and uh shockingly dr phil did not uh push back on this detail really hitting the home what about gun regulation right he was hitting the home runs

with the pop culture interviews man just i think he also even people i think he doubled down on the uh like just vote for me once and you won't have to vote again shit, too, in that interview. It had all kinds. There's one part where I'm pretty, like, Dr. Phil was like, hey, man, after that shit, like, do you hug your kids extra, like, hard now? And, like, Donald Trump doesn't even say yes to that. He just, like, goes on and talks about some other shit. I just want to play this because it's so Trumpy. other shit i just want to play this because it's so trumpy we're like donald like dr phil's trying to underhand him like i'd be like and here's your shot to also sound like a dad remember that because

remember what tim walls did uh this is him talking just being asked do you hug your kids extra hard after that did you hug your kids extra hard i mean has it changed you a lot of people ask me and a lot of people say like have you developed any fear of you know doing this like because you look being president's a dangerous job it's much more dangerous than a race car driver statistically false but okay go on absolutely not bro but yeah if you think about it Just go up and down the list So You have 46 And Numerous

Left early Or got hit It's a very dangerous job It's a I never realized how dangerous But anyway Oh my god I'm like

Did you hug your kids I'm basically a race car driver I fucking rule I'm sick I'm sick with it dude Do you love your kids I I'm basically a race car driver. I fucking rule. I'm sick. I'm sick with it, dude. Do you love your kids? I've got a more dangerous job than a guy who goes in volcanoes when they're erupting. Because you know how to race car drivers.

What was the question about my kids? I don't fucking give a fuck. Because you know how to race car drivers. It is probably one of the most, right? Like when you think about the number, there's only been 40, how many? 46? 46 total. They're they're ready to be the 47th and four of them have been yeah shot three three to death in office yeah four have been

killed no yeah yeah for abe lincoln garfield mckinley and jfk yeah yeah yeah oh jfk got killed damn that's fucked up dude he showed up in dv plaza last week we saw him he's fine he's fine he's hilarious yeah i get i can agree with the statistics but it's just funny that he's i'm like drivers don't have arm security for life bro like just let's just start there what's the secret service for race car drivers and could i just get you to like give me a moment of vulnerability where you seem human right now right i'm actually fucking rockstar did you hear how how kind of like discombobulated he was with that answer? You know,

dude, it's like, he was saying like, it was almost like he was thinking the question was going to be something else. So he was like, I just wanted to get these bars off. And I was trying to find the question that was going to get these bars off. And can I make this question about that?

Yeah. He legitimately, like Dr. Phil asked about his kids and he asked himself a different question he's like other people ask me am i scared guess what yeah i don't feel fear because that's what you're asking you're asking me about my children but what you mean is am i afraid to die That's what you're really asking. Right. Exactly. No, sir. I'm asking you if it gave you perspective about how life was precious. Yeah, I got a lot of perspective.

Enjoy the family that you have now. That's what I'm asking. Yeah. And to answer your question, yeah, I'm pretty tough. Probably one of the toughest guys you've ever met. What? All right, bro. Look at this card right here. Look at me. I'm dancing in an Iron Man suit. I look fucking rad.

I'm doing my little two-step. You know what I mean? Wow. They call that the Trump shuffle. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. 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.

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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 Jess Cosavetto, 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. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds, Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised 150 grand in prizes to four finalists, but the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. My reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across

four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. And we're back.

We're back. All right. So you may have seen this story that AI police reports are here to save the police from doing police work, basically. It's only a matter of time. You know, it was only a matter of time until the two of the shittier things on the planet, AI and policing, joined forces. In this case, the AI helps them churn out recaps of incidents using body cam footage, helps them churn out recaps of incidents using body cam footage thus sparing the officers from having to pen lengthy reports and the cops like in talking about it the ones that they're like

interviewing for these puff pieces on the technology are like i can't write for shit i'm basically an idiot and this thing made me like me it uh This is a quote from one of the stories. It was a better report than I could have ever written. And it was 100 percent accurate. It flowed better, better than I could have ever written. That's first of all, it's supposed to be a rough draft. Like it's not supposed to replace the reports that you're writing. The pros give you a rough draft that you then like work backwards.

Nah, nah, gotta cut corners. It's called draft one, by the way. that you're writing the pros give you a rough draft that you then like work backwards nah nah gotta cut corners and we how like it's called draft one by the way that's the name of the technology is draft one and he's like this is the goddamn best thing best version of the report i've ever seen and we how important are these like police reports in terms of you know like when people intersect with the justice system like is it how vital are these and how much like how much room is there for, you know, dubious shit to pop into these kinds of police reports? All right. To be clear, they're already largely made of dubious shit. Like, let's let's start from there. OK, there we go. Thank you. Things these things vary really, really wildly from

place to place. So when I started out as a public defender, I was in Santa Clara County, California, in which the police are trained to write reports. So when a thing happens and the police are there, they'll write down what they saw. And then the second cop there will write down what he saw. And then they talk to a witness and they write down what the witness said. And all in all, you get this packet, which is really, really helpful if we are going to believe that the legal system is in any way about finding truth, right? Like you want to have detailed accounts from the people who are there about what they heard and what they saw. I then went out to New York to work at Bronx Defenders. And that's when I learned that the NYPD is essentially like really, really, really good at not writing stuff down when you get an nypd discovery packet it's like a whole bunch of pages but all of the pages have the same one line copy pasted on them that's like at the time and place of occurrence the incident did occur yeah and that is when the suspected perpetrator did occur onto the occurrence and it would happen that at that moment in the geographical location

in question heretofore it's just like it's just yeah we could have a whole conversation about like the police attraction to big words they don't quite use like if you want to have a great time they've got like a defense attorney ask a cop on the stand what furtive means they love saying that everybody's doing furtive movements but like what what is what is furtive to you you're actually being pretty furtive right now indeed this whole situation is furtive um so when you get to a place where essentially nothing is written down you you create a systemic problem which is in order for me to get any information to protect an accused person and protect their U.S. constitutional rights, I'm going to need to

create a legal process to find out more about what this cop's claims actually are, which means I may have to demand hearings that I don't actually need. Like, I might have to file suppression hearings that I don't actually need just to get the cop on the witness stand just so I can cross examine them about what the heck they're saying they saw and did. So it's really, really, really inefficient. And it's bad for truth. And it's bad for justice. Like, it's very, very bad for any semblance of accuracy in the system. And it causes massive delays.

So all of this is to say bad discovery is a huge driver of our system being inept at creating any semblance of truth. Right. It's also like you have to remember that police writing reports is kind of a double-edged sword here because police get a ton of overtime out of writing reports. If they make an arrest at the end of their shift and they get to sit at their desk for the next three hours, like carefully inscribing documents with at the time and place of occurrence. The event did occur. Writing furtive over and over again.

Incursive. Yeah, they make a ton of overtime doing that. So I think, I mean, when I say a ton, I mean like millions and millions. Wherever you are in the country, you should Google who the highest paid public employee in your jurisdiction was. And there's like a decent chance it was a cop who made a lot of overtime a few years ago. It was like a Port Authority cop in New York City. Wow. Yeah, just like a decent chance it was a cop who made a lot of overtime a few years ago. It was like a port authority cop in New York City. Yeah, just like over a million bucks

in overtime. And so when I think about what AI would do to this process, I think of a couple of things. One, it's less accurate because it's not giving you the police officer's impressions of what happened.

It's giving you the AI's impressions of what happened. And this is even assuming the AI doesn't hallucinate, which as we know, like AI's make stuff up all the time. So yeah, like if you're going to totally hand over your faith to a robot to tell you what happened in a video and abandon the idea that human perception is necessary to interpret what happened in a video, you're also leaving by the side of the road things that I might need to know about the cop's ability to perceive, about what the cop was focused on. For example, in a police report, let's say the whole report is written about, I don't know, somebody's way of

driving a car in a DUI case. And none of it's about the fact that when the person got hit, totally furtively, furtively across know when they get out of the car maybe everything they did at that point was fine maybe they're talking fine walking fine don't have any sort of symptoms of intoxication if the entire report is about the driving then i get to cross examine the cop on like why why didn't you talk about what happened after that like right like their omissions can be really really important to a jury to decide who's lying, who's telling the truth. You take the human perception out of that and you take away this fundamental thing. Our system is designed to have 12 people tell you if another person is lying. Right. lying or hallucinating. I mean, it's just, it takes us even farther from the system having utility. And I get that in this system, we are going to consistently prioritize the efficiency

of punishment over the semblance of truth. But especially with the involvement of Axon, which has a grotesque history, I'd be more than happy to check them out. This is like five alarm fire. Wait, you're saying the company that used to be called taser has i like that they went from taser obviously like trying to cover up the fact that they're the company that invented the taser that for some reason has a negative connotation with it to axon it's like so fucking aggressive yeah well it's also you know that's a nerve axon is what the electrical current runs down that stimulates the next nerve cell. So it's still like, we're going to zap you.

It's just, we're going to zap you for people who took AP bio. That's right. Exactly. It's like the version of using furtive. They're like, what if we just classed it up? Yeah.

Throw in some Latin. I would just throw in the additional thing. And this might be like, not, this might be a controversial statement, but I personally don't want to get like it. So the CEO of Axon, who is the company behind this AI technology, we'll talk about other stuff there behind, bragged that the AI spares cops from the tedious work of spending half their day doing data entry.

I don't want police to be out roaming the streets more with their guns, ready to get suspicious about whatever comes across their plate while they're reflecting on what they've done and like having to think about that and account for it and this technology seems to be designed to like what if the police were like even more gas and less brakes like built into it what if it was just more they don't really even have to think about it because the machine's there to like just document what they did we want to be frictionless you know yeah you know yeah more frictionless policing aka just like out there fucking shit up more of the time i think the other thing that's really interesting too is like to your point emily you know the overtime is where a lot of budgets go and a lot of people they make their they make that money we're like how does that cop have that fucking car and like a boat and all this other stuff it's like yeah dude the overtime's wacky that they're never like this will actually help cut down on costs they're more just like dude it's gonna help the cops dude so they don't have to be bored at work you know and

like you think the way to sell it to people who might be more progressive like guess what man this could actually save a lot of money because now they don't have the time to do, you know, claim as much overtime. But again, that's that's part of the appeal. So they'll just be like, no, man, it just makes their job easier so they can keep you the citizen safe. All right. Next question. it's also sort of exposing this terrible choice, right? We have set up policing policy so that the vast majority of police time is spent on things that most people don't actually care about. So when you ask people what are they like scared of, it's like burglary, robbery, sexual assault, murder. And when you look at how police spend their time, the vast majority of it is on like noise complaints and unfounded calls and like somebody was peeing outside and trespassing. And sometimes on what I sort of think of as like police manufactured crime which is like

convincing someone with a substance use problem to score some drugs and also score for the undercover who will then arrest them for a felony right right and the reason we don't want them on the street more is because they are out there on the street armed dangerous and not investigating the things that people really care about. If you look at clearance rates, a lot of people don't know what clearance rates are, but it's the rate at which police are able to close cases. And in any jurisdiction, you can search for your local clearance rates. You can be like, all right, how many rape cases are my local police even closing?

Got to be in the 90s, right? Like 13 to 20 percent. It's just a whole other feminist soapbox i'm happy 90s totally across the entire country there's like at least 90 that they've closed in the past decade seriously and that's because it's it's a policy choice it's a it's a choice uh from police leadership about what they're going to dedicate resources to and if yeah if the answer was okay they're not going to spend their time writing trespassing reports, but instead we're going to dedicate real efforts to, uh, how about wage theft or, uh, large scale pollution of poisoning entire towns. We're going to set the cops on that. If they were going to

investigate crimes of the powerful against the citizenry instead of writing reports, I might feel differently about it, but I don't think that's the plan. Sure. Yeah. Never has been. Yeah. But I do just want to get a little bit more into the history of Axon. So they were Taser. They made their initial money with selling Tasers and then body cams when that became the solution to police brutality, corruption. They went with body cams, and they basically have a monopoly for which they've been sued. They made $461 million in the first quarter of 2024 alone. They're also the same company that made headlines for endeavoring to solve school shootings with taser-equipped drones remember that plan was paused when the majority

of axon's ethics board resigned in protest but i think probably the most relevant and also like i mentioned their ceo gives speeches via remote ipad i use an avatar man glued to the front of of the motorcycle helmet they also created an excited delirium in part so all the deaths that are due to that yes so i wanted to talk about that because i also think like that feels very relevant to this because this is them getting involved in police narrative and how police justify what they're doing and they were involved. You actually have a great video on this on your Twitter, Emily, where you talk about how about their role in the creation of and the proliferation of the term excited delirium, which is something we covered a while back. But I think it's always

worth kind of refreshing people's memory of what what is excited delirium. So excited delirium is a made up medical diagnosis that was originally invented in a sort of predictably racist way in Miami many decades ago, where a doctor claimed that people were dying of excited delirium, the sort of state of mania that caused them to behave really erratically and aggressively and dangerously, and then they perish. They just expire. And it turned out that many of the women who were originally alleged to have excited delirium had actually been killed by a serial killer. But this idea that people could become so worked up that they are dangerous and then they die was seized upon by police because in police encounters where there is a need to justify use of force, it is very useful for them to claim that the person they used force against was dangerously

worked up and had this medical thing where they became a risk to everybody's safety and they had to be tased. And then, oh, when they died from a heart attack, it wasn't because they got a massive volt of electricity. It was because they died of excited delirium. So excited delirium, which is not accepted, by the way, by doctors. Medical associations are like, that's totally not a thing. Psychiatric associations, same deal. Not a thing. But there was that one panel that said it was a thing.

So I feel like we're good here. No need to look into the panel or who funded that. I think we're good. Yeah. No need to look at how many doctors on the panel were put there by Axon. No need to connect those two. No need to also think about how much this reduces Axon's liability, right? Because if deaths are caused by excited delirium and not caused by a taser, they're not going to be able to be successfully sued. But it's actually become a serious epidemic in this country of police using

excited delirium to justify not only taser use of force, but the use of paramedics as a weapon, like we saw in the Elijah McClain case, where the police had paramedics inject Elijah McClain with a lethal dose of sedatives under this false diagnosis of excited delirium. So that seed that Axon planted in 08 in legitimizing this diagnosis has now caused many many deaths and is continuing to cause deaths around the country right because like they'll hit people like ketamine and stuff and then like they like i was reading a statistic that a lot of those people end up having to be intubated because it's so severe and they're like i don't know man like the guy was excited i mean they then they also said the same thing about george floyd too yeah that was

like very early on like Like, it's exciting. I don't know what you want to say, man. Let's just move on. So then, like, so Axan, for them, it's just more because they're sort of like, hey, we love what you guys do. Let's help out because this also helps justify the use of our products. Like, is that sort of like their main motivation and like sort of pushing the excited delirium sort of craze along? I think it's also a legal shield. I mean, if I'm gonna, let's say I lose a loved one who was tased

and I wanna sue Taser for marketing a product as non-lethal that was in fact lethal to my loved one. And they say, the medical examiner certificate doesn't say that your loved one died of an electric shock. The medical examiner certificate says excited delirium. So you can't actually get money from us in a civil suit or settlement. So it's covering them from being financially responsible for deaths they cause. And the same thing for police. I mean, if the police are getting, the police could be sued in the same case, right? They sue Taser for

the device, sue the police for the action. But either way, if the ME certificate says this person died of excited delirium, it's a liability shield. Right. Yeah. And disproportionately applied to black men. Yes. A lot of the time. Yeah. So it's a way for the police to justify that, why they why they're scared. It's really reliant on racist tropes, right? On the adultification of black children. First of all, this this child is a risk to me because I'm perceiving this child as older because of racial bias. But also the racist myth of dangerousness of black men in an excited state.

I mean, this is totally playing on long term American racist tropes and sanitizing them with a fake medical diagnosis. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like something you'd get at like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. You're like, and a bit of excited delirium for you. And you're like, ooh. Yeah. And that's why we had to drown him in the chocolate river. Yes, exactly.

Just a couple more details about, is it Axon? I'm going to call them axon because that feels sufficiently violent and sinister their ceo his like founding story i just like founding stories for companies and ceos because they are like the most full of shit things in america and like most widely believed people like it was founded in a like Everything was founded in a garage. No, it wasn't. It was founded in their rich dad's second home that was behind his first mansion. But anyways, the CEO repeatedly told the story that he started the company because his two high school friends were shot and killed.

He played high school football with them. It's just two guys that he knew about who were four or five years older than him. Yeah. So they weren't even in high school. He never went to high school with him. Yeah. But like it's just, you know, for him, he's like, and man, like that's the closest that I, like kids who were at your high school before you is like such a stretch to be like that. Right.

is like such a stretch to be like that. Also, the workplace culture includes group tasings and tattooing sessions in which employees are inked with corporate insignia. And by the way, the drone thing, while they were like, all right, fine, when their entire ethics board resigned, they did buy a drone company recently. So it seems like while their mouth says, all right, fine, God, their money is saying that they're full steam ahead on the Taser drones front.

Yeah. So just all sorts of wild shit there. like truly the most dystopian like a bunch of uh tattoo branded like corporate people guy with motorcycle helmet ipad face like right lying about like knowing murder victims yeah it's all i mean they're in a way it all does feel very appropriate that then it's like and now that's what i like to do is help other people lie about stuff. And I get to make money. And the institutional investment in this company is wild, too. Oh, yeah. Because they know.

They're like, wait, how much are they making, Q1? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, we're buying stuff. But just generally, I just want to, like, kind of get your take, Emily. There was recently this New York Times article about a, the headline is, would a group opposed to police blow the whistle on its founder? And it was like this AI app that was like, we're going to create an alternative to the police by ability to pull it off and was spending some of the money on like clothing and vacations that, you know, like that. I'm sure you can find sc're being robbed is like basically person on the team is like i didn't want to turn him over to the police because i like he's a black man and i fear what would happen to him and then another person is like yeah but i did turn him over to the attorney general because i know that like you don't usually call the police on white collar crime because they won't do shit so anyways like

the attorney general is working on an investigation it might be civil it might be criminal but the way they framed it is so much like based on this bad faith reading of any criticism of the police and it just feels generally like the tone of the mainstream media and the the democratic party recently is like, boy, those protests in 2020 were, you know, unpopular.

Let's never fight again, babe to the police. And it's like, I don't know. It's just so fucking frustrating. Like, and meanwhile, police killings haven't have just like stayed the same or gone up.

Right. So like like where where are we with this like what you know there were some programs that were funded that like worked really well like denver had a controlled trial of a program that provides housing subsidies to people at risk of homelessness and found a 40 reduction in arrests. There's all these cool examples. They get dashed off really quickly in a New York Times article that has a counterpoint for everything that might suggest that there could be alternatives to our fucking terrible idea of a system that if you've been to any other country in the world, you're like, oh, wow, why do we do it the way we do it?

But yeah, I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on where we're at in our conversation in the world, you're like, oh, wow, why do we do it the way we do it? But yeah, I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on like where we're at in our conversation in the mainstream. So first of all, we're really lucky in this one way, which is that we are overrun with cool solutions. Like I'm writing a book right now. My book, it's coming out in 2026. It's going to be a lay person's guide to the criminal legal system and all of its horribleness and also solutions. Like I'm going to spend two thirds of the book on problems. And then I'm going to present a whole bunch of solutions. I had originally intended to write one chapter on solutions. I'm now at like page 88 of a hundred of all of these solutions, because there are just so many fantastic things happening that have better data than the status quo.

Like, we don't have data strongly suggesting that police are a feasible preventative mechanism. Police can disappear problems. They can take people and put them in spaces where they are no longer visible to the general public and where they may be then violently harmed in ways that make them more likely to engage in crime in the future. So police may be sort of like temporarily making a problem disappear in a way that long-term makes it worse. We have that data. We have a ton of data on like the STAR program in Denver or cahoots in Oregon or, you know, other alternatives to police popping up around the country, massive public support for this. Most voters would love to have mental health first responders. And actually,

most cops, if you ask them, are like, yes, I would like to also no longer be treated like I'm a trained social worker because I'm not one. And I would like that to not be part of my job. What's really what bugs me about the perspective you just described, right, which is like, oh, these people who don't want to use the police. What happens when they need the police? Well, okay. When we on election day hear from voters that they are scared to go to their local polling place because there are proud boys

outside the polling place intimidating potential voters, no one is saying, well, it's your problem if you don't like the proud boys. Don't you just have a way to work it? No, we say, okay, this is a problem because people have a legitimate fear. It is a legitimate fear

of an organized effort, which is intimidating and threatening harm to the general public. And because the general public is afraid, we, the government, should probably take action to protect the general public. The blind spot with regard to when that organized harmful force is a governmental body is obscene. So by blaming people who are like, hey, I actually I'm nervous about calling the police on my black boss because black men get killed by police at inordinate rates. And also not to mention that subject to illegitimate prosecutions and overcharging and charge stacking and longer sentences and the incredible damage even of a pretrial process.

And by the way, I'm saying this with great care because here's a person who's accused and has not been found guilty of anything. So really weighing, hey, do I want to subject this person to all of these risks? Or is there a better way for me to seek accountability and truth without those risks of lethality, injustice, ruinousness. That's a fantastic thing for an ordinary citizen to be considering and any government that doesn't say, you know what, I'm gonna consider that with you. And I'm gonna acknowledge that your fears are real and the problems you highlight are real and work on these problems to come up with something better

is abrogating its duty to the public in favor of the optics of being pro-cop. Right. Yeah. Yeah. The pro-cop turn that's happened in like the Democratic Party. I mean, it's not that they were anti, but like just I saw you retweet an article or a thread about how the platform changed because I was like I was definitely looking at a lot of the I was really interested in the foreign policy stuff that was in the platform. And I was like, oh, wow, like you did a ton of one eighties here compared to 2020. And then reading sort of the excerpts on what was happening with policing was also very like, oh, we're, we're really embracing this thing about being like, let's not talk about the death penalty anymore. Let's I know we were talking about chokeholds. Let's like really tamp that down. And it really is wild how much it's become

because I think the obviously this whole election is set up to be we have a prosecutor and a felon. And so because of that framing, we're going to really lean into a lot of this, like the like the prosecutorial aspects of this and also be make it feel like yeah man like we're the cops again and that's okay uh that was just kind of like i mean i i was very cynical in 2020 when i saw this sort of like uptick and be like yeah we really need to do something and that's the most that will happen i will say that we need to do something but now to see it like really formally stripped out, you're like, oh, right, right, right. This was never a real concern.

But how do you sort of perceive that sort of like shift now, or at least now that, you know, even in their written platforms, it's just sort of like, yeah, those are problems, but, you know, we can address them at some point later. I mean, the death penalty thing I really don't get because Harris has been against the death penalty for a lot of her career, was criticized as AG for upholding the law instead of acting on a moral objection that she has to the death penalty, which is super expensive and has resulted in the death of a lot of innocent people because our system gets it wrong a lot because of things like junk science and bad eyewitness IDsids and insufficient funding of public defense so let's just like

cabin this is like i don't i really don't get the democratic party stepping away from opposing the death penalty i think polling on it has not changed dramatically like americans are not like rabidly pro death penalty now so i i really don't get it but here's what i'll say about the prosecutor versus felon thing. It's being treated as a sort of vicious backing of violent force against crime, but it doesn't have to be. Prosecutors are unique among lawyers. Rarely will you hear me say nice things about prosecutors. I'm going to now say some nice things about prosecutors. They have an ethical duty to do justice. That is a unique ethical duty. No other kind of lawyer has that duty. Now, I just got done teaching a course to some really talented law students. And in one of my exercises, I made half of them be defense lawyers

and half of them be prosecutors. And I told the prosecutors in a bail argument, you have this unique ethical duty. You have to do justice and not just justice for the people who were harmed in a crime or who you think of as part of the community. You have to do justice and not just justice for the people who were harmed in a crime or who you think of as part of the community. You have to do justice for everybody. That includes the accused person and their family and their kids and their loved ones. That includes everybody. When you talk for the people, you represent everybody. And when I told them that their assignment would be graded on how well they were able to consider everyone's needs, safety, and justice, they got up there on the record and did radically different things than I've ever seen a

prosecutor do in real life. And largely we're thinking of restorative solutions and root causes and like how they could heal a community instead of just punishing and disappearing a person. If what prosecutor means is somebody who is enshrined with governmental authority to do justice for everyone in the community, including people who might be opposed to that very prosecutor, I think it could actually be a very powerful encapsulation of the best version of a leader, right? A person who's going to take this seriously and care for all of our well-being and yes, stand up to abuses of people with less power, which is really what we would want prosecutors to stand up to the most, I think. Certainly it's not being done that way.

I think the rhetoric sucks. I think half of Americans have had a loved one locked up. I just think that the rhetoric doesn't have to change if it was made smarter. In order to be smarter, though, the policy would not have to shift towards tough on crime. It would have to shift towards evidence-based root cause thinking and solutions that shift us towards something better than our shitty status quo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And now it just feels like feels like now let's embrace the status quo and bring it closer and closer and closer. But yeah, that's a yeah, such a the whole time. I'm like, wow, it like the thing that really makes you think a lot, too, is like we have so many people who are prosecutors that ascend in politics. And that's when like when Kentucky Brown Jackson was like the first public defender who had sat on the Supreme Court. I was like, is that true? Oh, my God. Oh, writ large.

The federal bench is largely prosecutors. I actually read I wrote a really mean email to get today, guys. Like my my local representative, who I love, is like moving to run for the state, a different state office. And he endorsed there's a it's a two candidate race. I live in a place with major housing issues. There's just not enough housing for people. Costs of housing are too high. And one of the candidates is a housing organizer, a local housing organizer. And the other candidate is a prosecutor. issue of our region. If you are going to make prosecution, once again, a blind path to power,

you at least have to justify why you are overlooking someone whose life work is in the zone we most need. And the thing that bugs me about it the most is that it tells young people. I mean, in my work, I work with public defenders all over the country and I help them expand their practice and expand what they can offer their clients. And I place a lot of new professionals, usually young people, into jobs in public defense. And as they start out their careers, I'm looking at how they think of their career trajectory. They're doing great things. I'm going to learn all about how fucked up America's public systems are, and I'm going to carry that knowledge into my own change-making career. But to everybody else, the vast majority of young people, future lawyers who are not like these dedicated, brilliant advocates, they think, okay, I'll be a prosecutor for like two years

and then I'll get my elected office. If I just incarcerate young black men and separate families and crush people's dreams and lives and maybe cause a few deaths, then I could be a state. Right. I've been vetted. Right. And I've done the work. Right. And we shouldn't make change-making power reliant on willingness to harm others. Yeah. All right.

That's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show. It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. Thank you. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Caitlin 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,

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