The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 37 (Best of 8/13/18-8/17/18)

Episode Date: August 19, 2018

The weekly round up of the best moments from DZ's Season 44 (8/13/18-8/17/18.) Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? It's right here in black and white in print. It's bigger than a flag or mascot. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before. Tried to assassinate the President of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nickname Squeaky. The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeartTrue Crime Plus only on Apple Podcasts. a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar.

Santos! Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. I'm Renee Stubbs, and I'm obsessed with sports, especially tennis. Tune into my podcast each week to hear me and my friends in the community break down the latest matches, including the US Open. Plus hear

from some of the biggest names in the sport about what the future holds. It's about belief. And once you break through that, then you know you can win a Grand Slam. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast every Monday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. 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 laugh stravaganza. Yeah.

So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. Guys, we got a lot of news to cover. Omarosa back. Reality TV continues to define the zeitgeist, you guys, whether it's Kim Kardashian saying someone isn't interesting to look at or the president being a reality TV star and turning the presidency into a reality show. And now we have somebody who worked for him in the White House who is only known

because of her work on a reality show, not success, just just being as Kim Kardashian pointed out interesting to look at that is the most important trait you can have and Omarosa is definitely interesting to look at she's back and she's messy yes she's got a book coming out she does we know what the playbook is stir up as much shit as possible to get people talking about you and the book I don't know off top the white house is like everything and there's a lie there's nothing true like they were very very clear that everything

in there is just basically slanderous or whatever but you know she kicked off her press tour pretty impressively by leaking two recorded conversations she had during her time there and it was like being so messy she's like they're like oh iosa do you have more recordings and she just looks and goes oh yes I do like and treat it's really treat like really acting like a villain from like I'm back and I'm ready to fuck things up I think I remember her original season on The Apprentice and that was sort of what she did she was just like oh I'm gonna be a villain like she just got it immediately like but this is with the government now. Right. You know, like, you're taking her out of this medium that ultimately doesn't matter.

I don't think her and Trump know they're in the government. Oh, well, in their defense, they don't know. It's a new set that they're working on. Right, right, right. Oh, it's on a different set. Yeah. Where are the cameras? But, yeah, this is what happens when you put people like this in actual decision-making capacities that affect other people's lives.

So yeah, the first one she talks about, she had a recording of when Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her. And it's a pretty long clip that they have or whatever. But the thing that's interesting about this one, aside from him just hearing, he's basically sort of like, does like a, that kind of gees herer up sort of being like look let's make this as nice as possible because we don't want to make things difficult for you after this like failed threats yeah like okay all right i'll be cool uh but what this apparently happened in the fucking situation room so she recorded a conversation in one of the most sensitive areas of the west wing where you know that's where like obama watched the uh bin laden

uh hit job basically yeah whatever yeah if they got him right uh but yeah like a lot of shit goes on wanders in there by accident yeah but again shit it just shows you damn it this room where so many important things have happened you just can wander in there with your phone or whatever just make a recording whatever so we found out that she got fired and it was whatever then the second clip that she dropped i think it was either yesterday or today was a phone call with her and trump where he acts so z-o-m-g surprised uh that she was fired so apparently she was fired and she in the thing she's like does the president know about this and jonka is like look this isn't a negotiable situation like just like you know tough geyser

so let's be ashamed if something happened to your reputation yeah essentially specifically he said that yeah uh sparkling reputation yeah as uh like an actual reality star villain reality show villain this is the recording that she made when she talks with president trump right after being fired marosa what's going on i just saw on the news that you're thinking about leaving what happened general kelly general kelly came to me the news that you're thinking about leaving. What happened? General Kelly. General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave. No, nobody even told me about it. You know, they run a big operation, but I didn't know it.

I didn't know that. God damn it. I don't love you leaving at all. Whoa. God damn it. I mean, okay, so you can look at that call two ways. How will we go on? Yeah.

You can look at that one of two ways. One is that he actually knows nothing about what's going on in his own administration, and General Kelly just calls all the shots, which is likely. It's conceivable. The other is that he totally knew, and just because he's not really confrontational and he wants to be able to be the good guy acting all surprised about it. He didn't even know. Like, oh, really? What?

The goddammit to me sounds so foolish. He goes, goddammit. Goddamn. Oh, yeah. You're so upset. That was one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Goddammit. As a liar.

That was just not good. And he is, if nothing nothing else a well-practiced liar like he lets out much better lies than that yeah yeah i think there are like certain lies he's comfortable with or has convinced himself are true and this just didn't happen to be one of those like he he was like okay she's fired okay let me get on the phone with her. What's going on? What am I reading about? Oh, my God. God damn it. And then as we were laughing, you can hear him say, I don't love you leaving at all.

That's such a weird way to describe that. Oh, so you'll hire me back again? Okay, I gotta get going. I gotta get going. Hold on. My Big Mac's here. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. Look, this sort of underlines the whole problem with this administration, too, is because now she's out and she's talking all this shit. Trump is on Twitter coming at her intelligence, you know, a typical playbook when it comes to people of color who have any opinion on the president's question, their intelligence. But, you know, after that, the media, you know, rightfully noticed what has always been obvious, like, wait, not a lot of people of color that are working at the highest level in that White House administration. So, you know, on the Sunday shows, Kellyanne Conway was out there and I think she was on, I forget which of the Sunday shows, basically being asked the question, hey, can you name some people of color that work with the president? And it was a little, you know, that work with the president? And it was a little, you know, she didn't have many ideas.

And the Omarosa was the most prominent, high level African-American serving in the West Wing on President Trump's staff. Who now is that person? Who is the most prominent high level advisor to the president on the West Wing staff right now? African-American? Yes. I would say that, well, first of all, you're totally not covering the fact that our Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and world-renowned... I'm asking you about the White House staff.

I'm asking you about the people the president is with every day. That's important that he's... Well, the president works with Secretary Carson every day. He's trying to break the back of... Who there is on the White House staff right now? And we have Jaron, who's done a fabulous job and very involved with, he's been very involved with Jared Kushner and President Trump on prison reform from the beginning. He's been there from the beginning.

He worked with Omarosa and others of us. Does he have an office in the West Wing, Kellyanne? He has an office in the EOP, absolutely, the executive office of the president, yes. But not in the West Wing. What does that say, to have not a single senior advisor in the West Wing who's African American? I didn't say that there wasn't, but hold on. Who is? There are plenty of people, if you're going by that and not by the actions of the president, which you probably should,

then you should look at the fact that we have a number of different minorities. And the fact is that this president is doing well for all Americans. Yeah, okay. I mean, just look at all the people he appoints to judicial nominations and everything. He has a thing for white guys. I think it's easy to say. Yeah, that's one way of putting it. And at first, I thought she was making up Jerron.

I was like, oh, hell no. You just made up that fucking name. But it's true, though. There's a man named Jerron Smith who works with Jared Kushner as an executive aide. But who knows in what real capacity that actually is. But, you know, again, it's not surprising when you look at just, you know, again, if she's saying, look at the actions of the president. Well, then I think that would also be clear to me. That's worse, don't it?

Look at the actions of our most racist president. Also, did you see him? He had all those bikers at the White House this weekend. And the one dude had a patch that said, I like guns and titties. Just prominently on his fucking vest. In parentheses, not necessarily in that order. Yeah, but it was not necessarily in that order. Yeah, but it was cool. But in that order.

He's got his arm around these bikers, and one of the dude's patches. He's like, not that his base is all Harley Davidson riders, but didn't he do something like over the weekend where he's like split? He actually started talking trash on Harley Davidson, right? Because they're going to take some of their operations overseas because of EU tariffs, I guess. And now Harley-Davidson riders are like, well, fuck, do I like my bike more? Right. Yeah.

This basic fat racist is calling for a boycott. I mean, Trump is only, at most, going to be president for eight years total. Those Harleys, though, they trademark that sound. Yeah. If you take care of it and get their oil changed if you can do that with a motorcycle, then they'll hold up for years. I wonder how many I don't know. What other bike would you

ride? A fucking Honda? Yamaha, baby. No, that's too foreign. Yeah, that's too foreign. Like a Royal Enfield? Too English, too European. I don't know. Anyway. I don't know shit about motorcycles. I thought you would, Jack. You strike me as a big hog guy.

With the wild handlebars like up here. Right, right. Above your ears. It's great. It airs you out. It's terrific. Yeah. Ride one to work every day.

That's actually a bird scooter. Whatever. Tomato, tomato. Yeah. Harley bird scooter. It's like shit. I don't know about you guys i was refreshing my phone pretty regularly yesterday waiting for you know all hell to break loose on the unite the right to rally uh in washington dc they decided to have it right across the street from the white house i don't know how they figured they'd get away with that, with this president

of ours who's, as you can tell just looking at his behaviors and his actions, if not his hiring practices, he's the least racist person ever. But so, you know, the idea, I think they had permitted for 400 neo-Nazis and skinheads and white nationalists. Oh, no, no, not officially. We're not aligned with them. Right, right. When you put the speaker list too, they were neo-nazis and skinheads and white nationalists oh no no not not officially we're not we're not aligned with them right right when you put the speaker list too they were neo-nazis right so uh so they they were expecting 400 uh and they drew was it four less than 40 24 uh it was about two dozen yeah. Maybe a little more. Two dozen hundred? No, two dozen hundred. Two dozen. Yes, two dozen hundred. Okay, okay.

Yeah, so it was between two dozen and 40 that they actually had come out to, you know. I think people last year after, you know, they all showed up in their white shirts and no masks, which was really the most surprising part of their decision, their decor at the Unite the Right rally, the first one. They were just like, this is cool

now, right, everyone? We're good. And then a bunch of them got fired. What do you mean I can't come in on Monday? As being hateful racists. And now that apparently, people weren't fond of of how that went down no that's nobody showed up completely tanked i mean not that like there was any stock or social

cachet with being a white nationalist but like people were definitely like yo i can't be out here like that like i'm not that down with it i mean because i think he could only find about 30 people who are that ignorant and shameless to go out and be like, yeah, we're fucking here for the Unite the Right, too. Right. The counter protesters, however, they came on the thousands. Right. So, you know, it's very clear that I think, you know, one is less meaningful, let's say, less sexy to the general public. man he's had a lot of problems too because the other thing that this whole failure of the unite the right rally shows is there there's a lot of fracturing going on in this whole alt-right

community where like they don't know how who to follow who actually is the leader half of them are getting scrubbed off of twitter and things like that so it's become very fractured and jason kessler like he's burned a lot of bridges in the neo-nazi community because there are people like on uh gab they're like you know chat site that they can talk shit on they were all being like no this guy has no manpower no one follows him anymore like i advise you to not go it's going to be dangerous uh and you know he's also like he hasn't been able to fundraise like on any kind of website that like makes it easier to collect funds from people so he's basically limited to like cash and check donations so he's

has less and less organizing power and so it was kind of like on right wing watch our boy jared holt was always saying like this is probably gonna be a flop just from the onset based on how nobody's really like with each other on the same side anymore compared to last year because of all the Jason Kessler was the guy who organized the uh last year's charlottesville yeah yeah i mean that's the problem with your movement being fully obsessed with categorizing people and hating them like you're going to

have some divisions that open up and some of those people aren't going to be fully on board with your type of white nationalism yeah one of the white nationalists or neo-nazis was mad because Jason Kessler had like a non-white person working at a higher level with him. Right.

And he's like, not to mention that there's not even all white people in his organization. Right. Yeah. Something I didn't realize, Richard Spencer, who likes to focus his brand of white nationalism and white supremacy on claiming that it's all about culture and like different people coming from European nations and having something special. I didn't realize that over the past year he has been banned from like most European countries. Yeah, he can't get in anywhere. He's not allowed to go there. A lot of those people can't.

Yeah. People are kind of running away from this movement. That's how fractured it is, by the way, is that so few people want to join the movement that they have to hire minorities in order to fill these white positions. Right. It's like, not even white people want this job. As the movie Black Klansman shows, right? Yeah. Isn't that the plot of that?

The other aspect of this is, last year, they had a lot of paramilitary militias pull up at the at the unite the right thing like oath keepers and stuff like that to you know protect them and you could see like that site was pretty out there when you saw all these dudes in this tactical gear and being like yeah we're aligned with this group but because of that fallout those militias have even like pulled away from kind of being out there because the optics like aren't really helping them right and i was reading this piece which is kind of interesting is like how the militias have kind of lost their way now that trump is president because even with like bush too and clinton and obama they were able to like have this like it's this like neo-globalist you know conspiracy to bleed america dry and blah blah blah and like so we got to be ready and like so when trump was running they were all like yeah this is our guy this is our guy

and a lot of analysts were like if hillary cl Clinton wins I think we need to really be prepared for what the fallout is going to look like with these militias and things like that right uh but then he won and now they're kind of like have an identity crisis because they're like wait our guy is in power so what do we yeah how do we hate yeah and like and they were sort of tracking it like first it was antifa because then it was easy to be like oh yeah okay we're diametrically opposed and then that kind of fell off so then it was immigrants then muslims and now the new thing is they're just obsessed with the civil war like that's the next thing that they've given themselves like well okay we gotta be ready for this like libs versus conservatives race war drudge was trying to

popularize the whole anti-Antifa thing yesterday, because like a lot of the top headlines were like, it's getting ugly out there. And then it would be like a video of Antifa, like pushing a camera away or something like that. Right, right, right. And then a lot of places were writing that shit up, like in the coverage of this, like of open white supremacy in this country, they're getting mad at like Antifa for clashing with like other, like when you saw like in Portland a few weeks ago, the police definitely,

from what I saw and like what the reporting was, they seem to be much more aggressive with like the counter protesters than they were with like the white nationalists. And a lot of the coverage is more focused on what they're doing rather than these white nationalists who are out here, you know, spreading all this hatred. So the coverage of it was a little odd to me, too, from some place.

Not everybody, but. Yeah. And I mean, I think there's also a sense in which they overplayed their hand a little bit. Like, I mean, there are people who are invigorated by Trump's, you know, election and feeling like, OK, now I can, you know, let my racist inner thoughts and feelings out into the open. And they did that last year and they sort of overplayed their hand. And, you know, a lot of them got fired from their jobs. You know, I think there's also like when you watch that Vice documentary last year with that guy, it was like, yeah, man, we got all the guns and we got all this.

And like, you know, just talking with his chest out like he was about to go whoop some ass and was very angry and seemed sure of himself. And then the next video we saw of him, he was weeping and being like, I'm so scared, please don't hurt me about the cops because he got in trouble for being openly violent. I just feel like when your movement is about violence and a very, very limited worldview, you're not going to have very stable leadership a lot of the time.

Oh, no. Yeah. And there's another guy who was very, I forget where the article was, but it was a guy who wrote for a mainstream outlet who used this rightwing kind of mainstay as a source. And over the past year, that source disappeared because he actually stabbed his father to death. Was that the guy in Oregon? Yeah. Or Washington State, I think.

Or Washington, right, in Pacific Northwest, right. Yeah. So it's like a lot of these people who were big personalities and who were out there pushing this point of view, they don't last long in the public eye for any number of reasons. Yeah. I want it to shows you that they're rallying. Like the thing that brings them together is literal hatred. Right. And violence. Right. Right. That's not most people are pretty chill. Right.

You know, they're not wired like, you know, you'll you'll have people who are very angry, and you can get those people. But you look at the counter-protesters, they rally around the idea of inclusion and unity and empathy. That's a much more broader audience for that than like, hey, man, you fucking hate immigrants, man, and you're going to fucking beat some people? Like, yo, no, not really. I'm not that. I'd rather just shame some racists. Right. It's harder to get behind that point of view now more than ever

because you can't burn all the books. Like, you know, there's still the internet. And, like, eventually, like, the internet can be bad if you just get into, like, one small group where everybody's talking crazy. But, like, eventually you can go out and do your own research and it doesn't look good. There's also Stephen Miller's uncle

just published an article where it's almost surprising how basic it was. He was just like, hey, so our great grandfather came here because of, you know, there were anti-Semitic programs and like uh he was trying to escape like just horrible treatment in his home country and he came through ellis island and then he like worked and paid for his you know to pay your great-grandfather to like come over and it's basically chain migration he's like so how are you going to, it's just like this ideology that these groups

and that like your Stephen Millers of the world kind of espouse is just like so transparently, just like it doesn't hold up under scrutiny that I don't know. It seems like every time they just get put down or every time someone points out the insanity of their argument it's like yeah that's pretty obvious it turns out and that whole letter is this like he's just like i'm

ashamed of him yeah he knows better yeah like he and like the thing that was really to that point is like he points out that stephen miller is well aware of their family's history like oh yeah coming from like a shtetl in what is now belarus like to coming here and the article is almost like my man how the fuck are you even thinking like this knowing our family's history right like that this is this exact kind of policy that could have gotten you know our ancestors killed and we wouldn't even fucking be here you wouldn't even be at santa monica high school being like i think the janitors need to speak english right anybody with me? And that's why I'm running for student president, which is like one of his speeches that he

made. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Legendary YouTube clip of him in high school. Yeah. I mean, the cowardice of like getting over the wall from like a danger and like pulling the ladder up behind you is, yeah, it's just obvious. It's like, yeah, man, that's not a good look.

And I don't think they ever cared that it would be a good look, you know, or even thought that like that's like the most infuriating part of all of this. It's like, yeah, he doesn't care. Like he knows that his family comes from a long line of immigrants. He doesn't care. Like he pulled the rope back. You know what I mean? Like this is just what's going to keep happening. Right.

And when he gets called like, oh, yeah, oh, by the way, what you do is illogical it's like yeah obviously it's illogical none of it is logical hate is not logical it's just all self-serving things and i don't think this will like oh stephen miller's not a great guy holy shit right thank you uncle miller um it's like yeah i think most people who come to america like you you know, when you ask all these people, I think pretty much everyone has a backstory about, oh yeah, they came here for a better opportunity at some point. Even if you're one of these daughters of the revolution type people, like there are people still coming here because they're like, oh, I'm not feeling this place. I'm coming here and this will, this will offer me the opportunity, But it's easy to forget that. I think the only person who came to America just to not escape anything bad was Prince Akeem in coming to America. Because he was just looking for a shorty. Right.

Thank you, King Shit. Yeah. Thank you, Prince Akeem. King Shit. Yes, fuck you too. All right. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

All right. We're going to take a quick break. One session. 24 hours. BPM 110. 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything?

You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television,

iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In a galaxy far, far away. No, babe, that's taken. We're in our own world, remember? Right, in our own world. We're two space cadets.

And totally normal humans. Sure, totally normal humans. Embark on a journey across the stars discovering the wonders of the universe one episode at a time we'll talk about life love laughter and why you should never argue with your co-pilot especially

when she's always right right and if we hit turbulence just blame it on mercury retrograde or emily's questionable space piloting skills hey join us on in our Own World for cosmic conversations, stellar laughs, and super corny dad jokes. Listen to In Our Own World as a part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't worry, we promise to avoid any black holes. Most of the time.

How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? I mean, the Boone County rebels will stay the Boone County rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white

in print. They lying. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch is a leader. You choose hills that you want to die on.

Why would we want to be the losing team? I just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When the civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash.

Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Renee Stubbs, and I'm obsessed with sports, especially tennis. On the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast, I get the chance to do what I love, talk about how tennis and other women's sports are growing and changing, and what the future holds. I think I just genuinely loved what I did. I love this waking up, putting on my sports gear. I still believe it was so rewarding.

Maybe you can relate to it as well. As a woman, I think it's a very powerful feeling to have a job at which you're able to see improvements in real time. On the show, we dissect everything going on in the game straight from the biggest players in the time. On the show, we dissect everything going on in the game straight from the biggest players in the world. Plus, serve up recaps of all the matches and headlines in the game, including a rundown of the US Open every Monday. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast every Monday

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. And we're back. All right, guys, let's get into the stories of the day. The Manafort defense has rested. They have dropped the mic. They were like, done and done. I think we've made our point.

I think it goes like this. The prosecution rests. Then the judge is like, okay, now what will the defense be presenting a case? We're good. It's kind of how it ended. Yeah. So there was two weeks of prosecution calling witnesses who testified that Manafort did all the money crimes, basically, and did them flamboyantly.

He thought people couldn't see him like he was invisible and there were a couple weird like courtroom shenanigans uh that we don't totally understand just yet like there was a recess that was like a full day recess that nobody really knows why it happened a lot of yeah behind closed doors meetings with the judge and defense and prosecution and then the defense requested that the case be dismissed. And the judge was like, no. But there's a reason the defense thought that they could get away with that. And then apparently that was their whole idea.

Because then they were like, OK, now present your first witness. And they were like, we rest. Nah, we're good. Yeah, you present your first witness, judge. I don't know what's gonna happen if that means like you know a lot of the speculation has been some kind of issue with the jury whether it was a juror overhearing something or speaking to someone or if there is a you know a huge donald trump supporter who's just willing to stay locked in their position and

have a hung jury yeah i don't know like if it's a juror who overheard any of the news for the past two years, maybe he's anti-manifort. I don't know. It seems crazy that we have to have a trial where people would be completely impartial, but because of, you know, this touches literally every aspect of our country.

Robert, you just did a Manafort episode of your podcast, Behind the Bastards. You did two Manafort episodes. So first of all, explain to our listeners what Behind the Bastards is for people who don't listen. I mean, our tagline is, we tell you everything you don't know about the very worst people in all of history. And Paul Manafort is definitely one of those. What I say in the podcast and what I truly believe is that his work for Donald Trump is probably the least objectionable thing he's ever done. That's crazy. His whole career was built on, he's the guy who helped invent the modern concept of lobbying. There

were, I think, a couple of hundred lobbyists in the entire United States when Paul Manafort started his firm. And he is, like, you know, in the late 90s, you started getting jokes on like the Simpsons about how, you know, all politicians are the same, Democrat and Republican, they're the same person, they support the same ideologies. A lot of that is due to the fact that the lobbying firm that Manafort started with Roger Stone and a guy whose last name was Black, would regularly represent both sides of elections, because they're a big part of their goal was they would help. They were the first company to put lobbying and campaign advice and whatnot, campaign management under the same roof.

So they would help both sides of an election in a contested district. And then no matter who won, they could then lobby to that person with whatever corporations were backing them. Right. to that person with whatever corporations were backing them. So they're at least partially responsible for everything bad that people hate about politics right now. Yeah. Within a decade of the establishment of Paul Manafort's firm, they went from a situation

where there were maybe a couple of hundred lobbyists in the entire country to a situation where there were more than 10,000 lobbyists. Yeah. They have a lot to do with that. Cool. And Paul Manafort quickly stopped working in the US as much and started working for a variety of dictators and terrorists all over the world.

And that's who he spent most of his career representing. The name of the lobby that he invented was called the Torturer's Lobby. He's that kind of guy. He's like, oh yeah, you did human rights violations? Well, we're gonna rehab your image. You're gonna put a suit on and we'll present you to people in D.C.,

and they'll think you're a legit person. Yeah. Now, your show's also great for, you know, giving us weird personal details, like that Hitler was a fanboy of Westerns, and that totally informed his, like, military decisions, and that Saddam was a romance novelist. Is there, like, a surprising personal detail about

Manafort that you particularly liked? Yeah. When he started working with Ukraine's wannabe dictator, Viktor Yanukovych, Yanukovych had just lost an election for president. It was Manafort who helped him get elected a few years later. And his advice to Yanukovych was to basically dress and act exactly like Paul Manafort. They got identical suits tailored together. He made Yanukovych start doing his hair the same way Manafort did. That was how he helped this guy into power. It was like, be like me. Dress exactly like me.

You know what your problem is, Victor? You don't have my swag. Yeah, right. That's what'll put you in it. Apparently worked. Yeah. Right. For a while.

It's like twins. DEFCON, the top hacker conference, took place over the weekend in Vegas. Yeah. And they demonstrated what they're capable of in terms of hacking. There are a few highlights that we'll point out. There was first a group that hacked an Amazon Echo. And they strung together multiple bugs in a a second gen echo that could basically allow a hacker to stream audio from a microphone remotely.

So just kind of listening on you. But a lot of the, you know, this can, the DEF CON 2 is also meant for hackers to point out these vulnerabilities and then help these companies be like, hey, you need to sort this out. So the group who had found this vulnerability, they've already told Amazon about it. So you don't have to full on worry about this and start putting your Echo inside of like a soundproof box or anything like that. It also requires pretty sophisticated access to like your Wi-Fi network.

So I think you'll be all right. But it was just interesting enough to know, yeah, the thing that you thought can happen can happen without them addressing that. enough to know, yeah, the thing that you thought can happen can happen without them addressing that. And then last year, the DEF CON conference got a huge press buzz because they did a lot of work with voting machines. And they showed how you could just hop in that thing and just mess with the vote, Tyler's or whatever. And this year- Well, thank God they must have fixed that. Yes, they did. They did. They totally worked that out, except this year they just upped the ante. They did. They did. They totally worked that out. Except this year, they just upped the ante.

And again, it was no different. They took a lot of the machines that a lot of states use when they're using electronic voting. They were able to upload their own malicious software. They could change vote tallies. And one of them even just pulled like the hot fire. What's that one gif with the dude just going with his hands on his cheeks like this? He had that gif just play on the screen because you can do anything right but the real fun part about this one is they also had 40 children between the ages of 6 and 17 attempt to infiltrate uh replicas of these uh election board websites for several swing swing states and so what they did was just built out

like the exact architecture of these websites and just said, have at it, kids. If you know, like young aspiring hackers, do your worst. And let's just say the kids are all right at hacking because we are fucked. They were able to some of these kids were able to exploit vulnerabilities that they were able to tamper with vote tabulations, change the names of candidates. And one 11-year-old reportedly hacked into a mock-up of the Florida Secretary of State's website and changed the voting results within 10 minutes. But election officials were like, hey, hey, I'm not really impressed by that. I mean, yeah, most elections are done in, what, four or five minutes? Yeah, exactly. And they're like, you know, the environment's completely different. Yeah,

because a noisy conference hall is much different than the empty gymnasiums being overseen by octogenarians right asking you when where do you live uh yeah so i guess you know again if the kids are if it's that easy for you know younger people with just sort of the basic skills to do it i think maybe we should be looking into this a little bit more rather than passing the blame and being like, oh, well, we're not really impressed by this. It's scary because the details of this, in some of the hacks they change the candidates' names,

and the things they change it to are like Bob DaBuilder and Richard Nixon's head. So it's like a mixture of like juvenile sensibilities and, but they're like so easily able to just fucking, yeah, destroy this thing. I follow a lot of these people on Twitter. A lot of folks who are at DEF CON,

a lot of hackers, cause I don't understand that at all. So I just try to listen to what the people who do say. And there was a big thread of people who do security for these things and who actually have been part of coding voting machines, like Diebold and stuff saying, this is the only field of coders you will find this for. None of us think electronic voting is a good idea.

None of the people responsible for securing electronic voting machines think that it's a good idea to vote electronically because they're just not secure. Yeah. And you can't really point to hard evidence like a paper receipt or something or like, you know, how we have in in California like the inked up voting card we get. So yeah. They also hacked police body cameras voicemail.

The internet of things is horrifically insecure. The body camera one was wild because hackers were able to remotely download the footage, edit it and then re-upload it and they weren't like it was untraceable. Like you wouldn't have known that someone had just switched out a video file in there. Jesus. So that's cool.

Hey, that's pretty cool. Hey, man, that's cool. Hey, so what else? Oh, they were able to live stream footage. So they're saying criminals could just basically tap into a feed and be like, oh, okay, that's where you are? Okay, that's pretty cool. It's one of those things.

It's weird, because in the 90s, it's sort of similar to what happened with gaming in the 90s where there were all these pundits like screaming about how dangerous video games were and it was bullshit. And so now when people try to point to like, no, there's actually some things we need to be concerned about psychologically

of what like violent video games do to people. That doesn't get any traction because we were so used to like- It being bullshit. It being bullshit. It's the same thing with hackers. We're so used to movies in 1998 where people were hacking cars and stuff. And it was like that's not possible.

But now it is. Now we have autonomous cars. Straight up. They can be hacked. Right. Remotely started, remotely stopped. Yeah. Whatever you need.

So our like – our reflex to reject that as a possibility is out of sync with the reality of the situation. Yeah, 100%. The voicemail one was really interesting, though, because I never thought of how that works. So what they were saying is a lot of our mobile carriers, they were just terrible at securing voicemail because we're still using four-digit pins. Most people don't even know what their pin is because you can just dial it straight from your phone now. And it's usually just the last four. It'll default to being the last four digits of your phone number. So, yeah.

So then basically what hackers can do, they can just brute force access your shit because there's also no limit of the number of like incorrect passwords you enter where it just locks it down. So you can just have at it. And then once they do that, they can get into your voicemail system. They can request like a, like WhatsApp send, like, you know, the target's code via a phone call. And if they don't pick it up and goes to voicemail, then they can access the voicemail, get the code and then put your shit, like, you know, log into your PayPal, eBay, other shit just by using this like voicemail hack. So that's another cool, pretty cool thing that's going on. Well, fortunately, we have our top minds at the top of the government just sort of locking everything down.

Yes. But didn't they actually just pull a bunch of funding from that? Yes. Yeah. You guys, Crazy Rich Asians, I think opened last night and is opening over the course of this coming weekend. It's getting really solid reviews. I'm excited Constance Wu is the lead. I feel like her performance as the mom on Fresh Off the Boat is,

I don't know, it reminds me of what a lot of Asian Americans I know say they love and respect about their own moms. She's unapologetic and strong. I read one person talk about the moment in the Crazy Rich Asians trailer where she laughs, and she laughs hard and loud and doesn't cover her mouth. And they were like, that act is not normal for an Asian character in a Western movie. I'm seeing it tonight. Yeah.

That's dope. We'll see what happens. I watched it last night. How was it? It was fine. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking, too. I think it's more about the representation than the film itself.

Yeah. But I'm- It was a fine rom-com. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's something about where I am in my media consumption, but I yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, there's something about, like, where I am in my media consumption, but I'm just like, oh, this is nice that, like,

now we're doing, like, a rom-com with a majority Asian cast or, like, entirely Asian cast. But it's like, it still felt, like, weird. I don't know how to explain it. Like, so I went with my brother, my younger brother.

I have two younger brothers. I went with one of them and with my partner. And my youngest brother was like, man, I've never seen such whiteian people before in my life like they're all asian but like because in the film a lot of them had gone to like prep school in the uk theoretically right so they all have english accents besides like constance woo and her mom character so they're all like these colonized asians speaking like the queen's english right

right um and i mean it was fun and all but like because i had read so many like hype tweets before They're all like these colonized Asians speaking like the Queen's English. Right, right. And I mean, it was fun and all, but like, because I had read so many like hype tweets beforehand where Asians were like dying over it. They're like, I cried like five minutes in and I couldn't stop crying. And I was like, really? I mean, like, and I'm a crier. Am I a bad Asian? Yes. And I'm a super crier.

And I just wasn't like feeling it on that level. I don't know if it's because I went in with some other feelings, but I definitely understand representation matters because that's a first step towards wider acceptance, etc. I'm not trying to say this movie needs to do a lot of work because it's just this one movie. I think the problem is that there hasn't been movies like this, but in a way, there have been movies like this. The Namesake, which is about a South Indian family,

or South Asian family who were Indian. And then there was, like, Better Luck Tomorrow, which is about a bunch of, like, suburban, like, mostly male East Asian kids. But, like, there have been movies where there were, like, majority Asian casts. But there's something about this movie and how, like, it's, like, so capitalist-y. Right. And how it's being upheld in this very specific way that like kind of fucked that. I just don't, I don't know.

I'm not. Yeah, yeah. I'm not vibing with it and I feel bad. Yeah, well, no, that's how I was, you know, because I felt like a lot of people from Singapore were definitely vibing because they're like a lot of the cultural touch points were very relevant to people in Singapore. And I think I'm excited that we're looking at a film like this that's got an Asian cast and we're moving that direction. But yeah, I think it has to be a first step to then begin telling, I think, spreading the diversity of stories out a bit too from here.

I think the first one shouldn't be too bad, but we'll see. I'm going to go see it tonight. I didn't grow up crazy rich. So I hope from that standpoint it's not too abstract. But I think at the very least it's nice to see familiar faces on screen because before that

I was I have a feeling I was just like man of all the feelings that I've been feeling after watching this I just feel so fucking poor that was like my

my overwhelming feeling I'm like I feel so poor and I feel like I don't have a strong jawline like my face isn't right because like the Asians in this film also look a very specific way right like the men oh my god like people are like women especially views are like

man the female gaze in this film is like so extraordinary but i'm like so what it's just like some packs like i i'm i don't it's just some six packs you know yeah i get it but it's also like well what is this why are we so into things that we criticize when it's like white folks you know what i'm saying but then like when it's like just because it's like um being embodied by asian folks and we're like all for it i i mean i i want this movie to do well i wanted to like fuck up the box office i heard that it's like it's gonna do great and i want it to do well but i'm just kind of underwhelmed yeah i mean by its by its nature the whole accomplishment here is that it is a mainstream movie that is going to get wide release and inherently mainstream movies have

certain things certain things that go along with them like that every character is good looking and usually like wealthy and yeah uh yeah like better luck tomorrow is a really good movie but you know i don't know too many people who saw it but the director of that uh has gone on to have like a huge amazing career well you're gonna love my film that's coming out called ugly broke biracial people it's gonna it's gonna resonate with people all right guys let's talk Elon Musk. So a New York Times article came out last night. It was an interview with him where he, you know, just seems like he's at the end of his wits. He is feeling sorry for himself that he didn't get to hang out with his friends on his 47th birthday, which he still celebrates their 47th birthday.

But he's like, you know, I just spent it in the lab, like, working. I didn't get to see anyone. And then, like, has to stop himself because he's about to break down crying. Wait, that's a live interview? Yeah. Well, you don't see it. It's like a description. Right.

It's a piece of journalism, like written journalism. But, you know, he just really seems like he's at the end of his wits uh his lifestyle by his account it's like all about the job and it's just like he's been working 120 hour weeks and that might be true i mean he definitely presumably works a lot but uh it's all like his account is also woven throughout the New York Times talking about the fact that the board at Tesla is investigating whether he's like tweeting in altered states of consciousness. They mentioned the drug Ambien and also the fact that he has been known to use recreational drugs. And so there was a thing that happened like last weekend, I think. Yeah, right.

Or the beginning of this week. I don't know. Time is so fast and slow at the same time. He's been doing a lot over the last few months. Like when he called that guy a pedophile. Right, he called a guy a pedophile. They mentioned that. They mentioned the fact that he tweeted

without consulting with his board that he's thinking about taking Tesla private. And had secured the funds for it, which shifted the market. Right. I think the SEC will probably want to say something about that. board that he's thinking about taking tesla private and had secured the funds for it which shifted the market right i think the sec will probably want to say something about that and which he hadn't so it was like an illegal tweet but uh azalea banks she's a rapper for people who don't know and she has been working on her second album for a long time and she's working with grimes elon musk's girlfriend and she was tweeting or posting on Instagram

that she had been basically holed up in Elon Musk's house for like days. And she was like, yeah, I'm waiting for Grimes. She invited me out here to LA to stay at Elon Musk's place to put the finishing touches on our album. And she just like never showed up. And here's what she tweeted. She wrote that staying at his house was like a real-life episode of Get Out.

And she said, Lol, I waited around all weekend while Grimes coddled her boyfriend for being too stupid to know not to go on Twitter while on acid. Then she had the nerve to go ghost and book me a first-class flight through Roc Nation. So basically sent her out of L.A.

So it's an interesting. This wouldn't happen if he had a woman his own age. This is a problem. This is, you know, a woman his own age. If he had a grown woman, she'd take his phone and be like, leave Twitter alone. This isn't for you. We're too old for this. And you're on acid.

And you're on acid. And you need to chill and take a nap. And she put him to bed. But this is a problem with these older men. They're like, I know what's going on i have lost grip of reality like yeah you're 47 and you're with someone half your age and she's young and she's just excited like get a real one and chill he had a real one he had a wife who was i think around his age and who he has children with, who wrote an article about how he treated her like a... You don't say a guy from an African mining family was treating people like property.

He said on multiple occasions that if she were an employee, he would fire her throughout the course of their marriage. Who hasn't said that to their partner? Anyways. I'm going to call HR, your mother. She'll sort this out. You need to come get your son. He's talking crazy again.

Okay, put him on the phone. He's dead. But young women will put up with that shit. These old guys, they know. They know that there's only so much. Well, yeah, because if you're not at a certain level of maturity, you're going to sort of match the partner or something. So if it's someone young, rambunctious,

and just being like, yeah, let's fry up. Let's fry up today. Think about what you put up with when you're 20. If I was 20 and a guy was just like, okay, I'd be like, great. And now I'm like, no, you've got to be this. You've got to do this. You've got to have your shit together. Like your list of demands is more.

Yeah. Our expectations are higher. And your list of demands is more. Yeah. Our expectations are higher. And rightly so, it's good that you meet someone else and you match each other's expectations, but it's like, ugh. We are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. I've been thinking about you.

I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session. 24 hours. BPM 110. 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up?

Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago.

We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In a galaxy far, far away. No, babe, that's taken. We're in our own world, remember? Right, in our own world.

We're two space cadets. And totally normal humans. Sure, totally normal humans. Embark on a journey across the stars, discovering the wonders of the universe one episode at a time. We'll talk about life, love, laughter, and why you should never argue with your co-pilot. Especially when she's always right. Right.

And if we hit turbulence, just blame it on Mercury retrograde. Or Emily's questionable space piloting skills. Hey! Join us on In Our Own World for cosmic conversations, stellar laughs, and super corny dad jokes. Listen to In Our Own World

as a part of the my cultura podcast network available on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts and don't worry we promise to avoid any black holes most of the time how do you feel about biscuits hi i'm akilah hughes and i'm so excited about my new podcast rebel spirit where i head back to my hometown in hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. A lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch.

As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. On segregation academies, when civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Renee Stubbs, and I'm obsessed with sports, especially tennis. On the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast, I get the chance to do what I love, talk about how tennis and other women's sports are growing and changing, and what the future holds. I think I just genuinely loved what I did. I love this waking up, putting on my sports gear. I still believe it was so rewarding. Maybe you can relate to it as well. As a woman, I think it's a very powerful feeling to have a job at which you're able to see improvements in real time. On the show, we dissect everything going on in the game straight from the biggest players in the world. Plus, serve up recaps of all the matches and headlines in the game, including a rundown of the US

Open every Monday. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast every Monday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. And we're back. Speaking of surprises, guys, The Meg. What is The Meg exactly? I mean, I know it's a movie.

What is it about? It's about a- Big-ass shark? An extinct species of shark that was basically a giant great white, except more deadly and more angry and better at killing. It's called the Megalodon is the full name for it. And if you were obsessed with sharks like I was when I was a kid, it's just this mythical creature that's so cool.

In terms of scale, it's like to a great white shark what a great white shark is to a salmon. Yes. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, that's tight. Wait, this already happened. There was like Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus. There's been a lot of movies about Megalodons. to a salmon. Yes. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, that's tight. Wait, this already happened. There was like Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus.

There's been a lot of movies about Megalodons. Mega Shark versus Crocosaurus. I'm trying to puzzle through this because I pay attention to the box office. They're usually, on Friday,

they will put out their box office prediction, these box office analysts, and they'll usually be between 5 five and ten percent like sometimes they're just like right on point being able to predict exactly what something's gonna make the meg came out this weekend it doubled what box office mojo was predicting holy shit it pulled in 146.9 million dollars globally nobody really saw that solo got oh yeah oh yeah it destroyed solo it's uh

it might be more than solos made uh fucking disney yeah but so i'm trying to figure out like what about this connected so much with people i'm thinking there's something about so there's been shark movies since jaws there's deep blue sea. There are shittier shark movies like Sharknado and stuff like that. But I wonder if there's something to it being a singular, like there's been sharks movies, like where there are multiple sharks, but not a singular shark movie. And I think there's something about one giant man-eating shark that makes, I don't know, that appeals to us a little bit more. I also know, I mean, Jack, you and I have been making content for people on the internet

for a very long time. And we've noticed that it's definitely cyclical what people are interested in. Yeah. When we were both at Cracked, in the early years of Cracked, some of our most successful articles were lists of weird prehistoric animals and monsters and insects that were scary. And then for years, you couldn't get people to read that stuff. And maybe it's just that that shit swung back around and people are interested again. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, I think that's definitely true. I think people have always been interested in big prehistoric creatures. I think what happened at Cracked was that we created a type of article that we were the only ones doing it. And then BuzzFeed and a bunch of other websites basically saw that those articles were popular. Lysical. Yeah, the Lysical.

Lysical. And they flooded the internet with articles that were indistinguishable from ours. They weren't quite as good as ours, but they were easy to confuse with it. And when you're on the internet, you can't tell the difference. So I can blame you all for these 15 teen celebs have taken a turn for the worse.

No, it's still BuzzFeed's fault. Number six will make you die. Shout out a terrible version. But to your point about the cyclical nature of things, one thing we did notice in the early days, and I think up until the end at Cracked, was that robots were no longer scary to people like yeah right in the 80s they were like a thing that the whole world was terrified of and there

were all these movie franchises and shout out to batteries not included yeah and then like starting in about 2008 2009 we just like couldn't get people to read about robots in any way yeah unless it was like this robot's fucking cool and does a thing that's going to solve a problem that you have. We had at least exactly one article about drones that got decent traffic, and then no one wanted to read about drone war anymore. Yeah, that's right. I wonder if some of it might also be, though, like right now you've got a bunch of very,

it's a very political time in the country, and you've got a lot of very political movies, Black KK Klansman or however we're supposed to pronounce it. Just Klansman. Sorry to bother you. And like a lot of political stuff that's dropped recently. And maybe people were like, Oh, it's just a movie about a big ass shark.

That seems like it'll be a palate cleanser. I just don't want to think about the fucking state of the world. I think that is what it is. It's so broad. Yeah. And it's basically shark. It distills shark weeks, the energy of shark

week and puts it into a movie that like they also engineered to be accessible to china and america uh and i think because it put up 46 million in america it put up 50 million in china right that rarely happens you know when you get that on-screen duo of jason stifem right and lee bing bing i mean you know that's his money in the register, bling bling. But with these two, I think it's just because

it's so, it's just easy to understand. Big ass shark, motherfuckers are scared. 100% of humans can understand the appeal of that. It's not like Star Wars

where there's a lot of cultural things as to whether or not you find that story interesting. Oh yeah, a big shark attacking people. I'm scared of sharks. I've swam.

Right. And I think, yeah, because the shallows people. I'm scared of sharks. Right. I've swam. Right. And I think, yeah, because the shallows are 47 meters down. Those are a little more nuanced for shark films. And there are multiple sharks. I'm telling you, that has something to do with it. Well, no, the shallows was just one, right? Oh, was it? Yeah, it was that lady who goes out swimming and gets the shit bitten out of her.

Yeah. That was a pretty fun. I enjoyed that. They're intense. But yeah, I think with this one, you can just look at a shot where one shark is the size of 900 people and you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that shot in the trailer of there's a bunch of people swimming and you

see the shark's mouth in the water and it's big as all and you're like, oh, okay, I want to see a shark eat a bunch of people. It's like a Roland Emmerich movie, but with a shark. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, maybe we were just, or maybe I was overthinking it and it's just like yeah it's a roland emmerich movie with the giant shark yeah well i guess that's how much

we're dumbing things down where we're like surely people's tastes have to be a little more refined than a some like such an aggressively beef movie or whatever but at the end of the day you just want to see some motherfuckers get eaten by sharks. Eaten by sharks. Super producer Ana Hosnia is writing a question to me. Team Field Trip? Which, yes. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Bring a Sprig soda.

To go hunt down the megalodon that lives in the Marianas Trench, right? Yeah. That's what she suggested. We hijack James Cameron's submarine and write it down there with a bunch of shotguns and take out that damn fish. Hell yeah. Or why don't we just get Meg tattoos? Or that. Either or. I thought that's what she meant by why don't we just get Meg tattoos? Or that.

Either or. I thought that's what she meant by team field. Go get Meg tattoos. Yeah, we'll get Meg tattoos. I'm just going to get a big shark on my throat. But, I mean, the first Jaws is a B-movie executed by like a Hitchcockian great director and the first Jurassic Park, I'd say the same thing.

And even though the first Jurassic Park has the raptors, it still has this, like, the T-Rex is, like, the singular monster that's, like, lurking out there that you're constantly aware of. It's not just, like, a bunch of different animals. Have you seen what the projections are for this weekend? They think it's going to double. They think the Meg is going to double?

I can see that because it's a surprise. Internationally, yeah. Something is a surprise. People start piling on to it. Another thing in one of these articles in the media that an analyst did point out was sort of like it comes at the right time where all the traditional tentpole movies in the summer have already happened. People are right about to go to school so you get your last hurrah in and it's like nothing too weird like you don't really have to wrap your head around it so they're kind of found like a good lull i think crazy rich asians

is going to do well this weekend too let's hope yeah i think so i hope that next year is nine or is 50 movies about sharks and 50 movies with Ken Jeong as a major character. And it could be that sharks just kind of are a great metaphor for the time we live in now where we're innocent people and there are just a few disgusting sharks out there

wanting to do the most. Yeah, I mean, the shark clearly represents Donald Trump. I didn't want to say it. Oh, no, I meant Spectrum Cable. Oh, okay. They do not. I got words want to say it. I meant Spectrum Cable. Oh, okay. They do not. I got words for you.

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. Thank you. How do you feel about this? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast rebel spirit where i head back to my hometown in kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot the rebels into something everyone in the south loves the biscuits i was a lady rebel like what does that even mean it's right here in black and white and prints they lie bigger than a flag or mascot listen to rebel spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even

lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the president of the United States.

One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nickname Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeartTrue Crime Plus only on Apple Podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest. Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest.

Because the company had promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists, but the prizes disappeared, leading to one of the biggest controversies in 80s pop culture. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.