The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 383 (Best of 5/26/25-5/30/25)

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 390 (5/26/25-5/30/25)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes here. Diddy's former protege, television personality, Danity Kang alum Aubrey O'Day joins us to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. It wasn't all bad, but I don't know that any of the good was real. I went through things there. Listen to Amy and TJ Presents, Aubrey O'Day covering the Diddy Trial on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover,

the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy. But to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now.

Let me hear it. Yes. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, you'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A lot of times big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. Small but important ways from tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

So listen to everybody's business 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, laugh, stravaganza. So without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist. What is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are? This is a recent one.

Snoopy Museum membership benefits because I recently became a member of the Snoopy Museum. Congratulations. Thank you. Where is the Snoopy Museum? Well, I'm so glad you asked. Maybe you noticed my hat I'm wearing. I got it at the Snoopy Museum last week in Santa Rosa, California. Wow.

It's, it was the best. It was the best. It was, that's the end of the sentence. I finished a leg of my book tour in Petaluma, which happens to be 15 minutes from Santa Rosa, convinced my fiance to drive seven hours to meet me in Santa Rosa so we could get to the Snoopy Museum expeditiously. It was amazing. I had the best time. I like really ended up spending all, I dropped a lot of money at the Snoopy Museum. I was not expecting to. I became a member. I was chatting up the docents.

It was just an incredible Friday that I had. Favorite thing you saw at the Snoopy Museum? This guy named Dave. I fucking knew it. The second, there's a lot of amazing stuff. It's also the Charles Schulz Museum, but it's the Snoopy Museum. It's a huge, there's the Charles Schulz Museum and Research Institute. What they're researching there, I didn't quite figure out.

But, but that's like the history of the Peanuts comic strip and the history of Charles Schulz himself. Then in the center is Snoopy's Home Ice, which is a large, gorgeous ice arena that Charles Schulz purchased when it was almost shut down in Santa Rosa, like in the 70s, because he grew up in Minnesota and loved hockey, which is why we so often see a Snoopy on what? Zambonis. So it's all connecting. And so we got lunch at the little ice cafe.

The warm puppy saw the Snoopy Zamboni, and then we went next door, there's a third building and that's all Snoopy. That's where they're making the big bucks. It's over the Snoopy. That's where the real research is happening. The Snoopy Gallery is a gigantic gift store full of Snoopies. I just had the time of my life, I became a member. I talked to this guy,

Dave. Okay, this guy, Dave. This is going to take 40 minutes, just so you know. That's fine. Yeah, yeah. Let's go. We don't have anything else to talk about. This guy, Dave, he was the first guy we spoke to. Sorry, wait, what was your question? Super short question, just because you're an expert, Jamie. Yeah. Do you think you could train a beagle to drive a Zamboni? Jamie, do you think you could train a Beagle to drive a Zamboni? I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen.

It was a cartoon, but it surely is based on something. I love this so much. I love. Snoopy is the only cartoon. The reason I wasn't particularly like a peanuts kid, but Snoopy is the only character that has licensed with Zamboni ever. Oh, really? I happen to have a bunch of Snoopy stuff because I have a bunch of Zamboni ever. And so I happened to have a bunch of Snoopy stuff

because I have a bunch of Zamboni stuff. And then it just over time, the algorithm got to me, I guess. But this guy Dave at the front, he was a volunteer docent. He's a longtime Santa Rosa resident. I was talking to him about Kathy because Charles Schultz was a mentor of Kathy Geissweid. So we were chatting about Kathy, and he was like, oh, here's where the Kathy stuff is, because they had some letters they exchanged.

It was really cool. But then the twist with Dave, I was like, how did you get involved at the museum? And he was like, well, I was one of the children in the Christmas Time Is Here chorus. What? Yeah, one of the specials. He was like, I was 11 they gave

us five dollars in an ice cream cone and like everyone in Santa Rosa has a beautiful memory with Charles it's really really nice and you called after and reported their asses for only five bucks right we gotta exhumed him we gotta yell at him. It was so awesome. Anyways, I became a member and I was like, what are even the, and there's actually pretty cool benefits. That's wild.

Yeah. And you weren't even like, it just kind of came through your Zamboni obsession. It was like a Zamboni obsession. Also, I think the algorithm, I think a lot of people have had this experience. People really fucking love Snoopy. I've just been, I've been noticing a Snoopy resurgence of late.

The algorithm loves Snoopy because I was getting, I was getting a ton to the point where like around two years ago, I was like, I guess I love Snoopy. It wasn't really like my childhood. My mom was really confused that I become a member of the Snoopy museum. I was like, I guess I love Snoopy. It wasn't really like my childhood. My mom was really confused that I'd become a member of the Snoopy Museum. I was like, you know, it's whatever they're doing. It's the one good thing the algorithm has done for me is brought me to Santa Rosa, to the Snoopy Museum. Yeah, had the time of my life, feel forever changed.

I'm getting a t-shirt in the mail. I also have eight guest passes, so if you guys want to go. Wow. Yeah. Is that annual? Does it refresh annually or? Yes, it does. It's nice.

If you guys want to go on a road trip to Santa Rosa, I can bring everyone. I think you should save one slot for a ZEIT gang competition show for one ticket. Yeah. When I say you, for a sort of Zeitgang competition show for one ticket. Yeah, oh yeah. To the Snoopy Museum? When I say you, I mean everyone listening is welcome.

I would never go to San Rosa, by the way. It's the Harrisburg of California. It's shit. Oh my God. I, of course, would only go to San Rosa. Justin, of course you cut this, right? Your mic is on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Justin, we don't leave any of me

being elitist in the podcast. Justin knows. Good chap, Justin. I would only go to the Pig Pen Museum. Pig Pen is by far my favorite character. He's your guy? We all have a guy. I took Mushrooms in the Woods a couple of weeks ago,

and the only thing that I remember coming out of it was someone should do a swamp thing meets the peanuts crossover where swamp thing decides that he and pig pen are the elementals of the earth. Yeah. Sounds like you should be doing, you should be working at the Charles M. Schultz museum and research center. You got it.

You got it. Mushrooms and like pitching ideas. I feel like this is the type of research we need people doing there. What it actually is, is the one time J.V. and I worked together, that's about 15 seconds worth of OK material for a Roast Chicken. For Roast Chicken, I was going to say you were cooking out there. The show with mushrooms in the woods energy. Wait, the last thing about the Snoopy Museum.

I was in the crafts room and there was another docent named Mona and she's like looking at me funky. I was like, okay, I get it. I don't have a child with me. So what? But no, then she came over and she was like, I was at your book signing last night. What? Oh no.

So shout out, Moana, the whole staff of the Snoopy Museum, they know what's going on. They're cool. That's what I call- Can't imagine like a better group of, like you can just assume that those are all great people. Yeah, can confirm. It was just the best.

I might seriously buy this paperback peanuts T-shirt that they have in their merch store. I love it so much. It's really cute. Now that you're Snoopy-pilled, do you like consume Snoopy stuff or is it just kind of the vibe? Like, are you reading peanuts strips?

I read some peanuts strips during, when I was working on Act Cast a while ago. I mean, now peanut strips are just served to me on Instagram every single day. And so I do kind of read a lot of peanuts. And so many of them are actually funny. I think what people, I think people like loop it in with like, you know, more sort of dry,

prescriptive comic strips, but... Like, three panel. Exactly. He was cooking, like, he was really saying some shit. I love how they just openly hate on Charlie Brown in a way that, like, they're so mean to him in a way that is just wonderful for, like, children. Yeah, the first strip ever was, like, Charlie Brown

walking past two girls minding his business, the first strip ever was like Charlie Brown walking past two girls minding his business and then they're just like, I hate him. Go fuck yourself, Charlie Brown. I hate him. It's great. Oh man. Listen, there's obviously no use for AI,

but if there ever was one, it would be generate me a Peanuts comic strip where they can say fuck. And that would be the only difference. I just want the- A subtle difference. Let's get our greatest artists on it. Let's- Yes, ChatGPT.

I'm sorry, you're right. The greatest artists of our generation. My favorite artist. I mean, you know, I'm a little ahead of the time, but yeah, that's my favorite artist is ChatGPT. All right. This is an episode where we tell you what was trending over the weekend, what's trending this morning. But first, we like to get to know each other a little bit better by telling you some things

we think are underrated, some things we think are overrated. Miles, what is something that you think is underrated? Underrated, again, healthcare staffs, physicians, nurses, people who have to deal with the sick and infirmed in need. You are not paid enough. I will always say that. I will always speak highly of healthcare professionals. My mom had to go to the hospital

with pneumonia over the weekend. There's been a fucking illness ran through my house. I made it, but I was out a couple of the recordings because I've been having to like, I was on double duty. Take care of people. Yeah. Sick, sick baby, sick partner, baby waking up at three, going to the doctor, all this other stuff.

Then my mom, she caught a sickness from the baby that turned into pneumonia. But man, all the people, there's just something about like bedside manner that when it's when it's dialed in, it's like it's like fucking heroin. OK, there's like there's no other thing that I think can bring instant relief to a person than some like that that a health care professional with amazing bedside manner So I guess more than anything bedside manner is very underrated because yeah, there were times I was like, what about this number was this and they're like, oh, oh, yeah, she's gonna be fine

She'll be fine. That's all right. And she come in one of the nurse came in call my mother, honey Okay, Wow that brought up most body term like they call call my mother, honey Okay. Wow. That brought them most body to like, they call, they call my mother, honey. You know what I mean? And that's just, she calls me, that's what she called. My mom doesn't even call me honey because that's not a Japanese thing. She says, Hey, Hey asshole. Yeah. Hey, the famous Japanese phrase, Hey asshole. Hey dickhead. Yeah, exactly. And the old language,

but yeah, I just, it was, it's been, my mom is fine, luckily. We took her out of like an abundance of caution because she's older. And so that stress is like off the table in terms of like the existential dread of having a parent in the hospital. But the other part that's really underrated, and I say this to a lot of listeners who are like my age

or have parents my mom's age the era of Thugging it out is over for your parents who are tough bastards who are boomers who like I grew up in the fucking dust But okay, okay. I know but you are now in the dust bowl the whole time. I know I never left I'm like no you were just smoking angel dust in the 80s. And out of a, and that's what you're calling the dust bowl. But the thing of them, like that, that, that habit of being able to endure a lot and try and power through, we like have to knock it off. I used to let my mom do that. And I'm stopping now completely because she's really, she's in really

good health, but she's also like one of those people who like hide a zombie bite until it's way too late. And I'd be like, but my mom would probably power through it. She'd be like, I'm like, mom, you good? She's like, I'm fine. I'm fine. Stop worrying about me. You worry about yourself. You hungry?

You hungry? You hungry? I'm like, what the fuck? What's on your neck? It's nothing, it's fine. So like we have to, I think now it's really important to also advocate for your parents as much as possible and let them know it's okay.

Look, the time for letting us look after you is here. You don't need to tough it out because it can lead to other issues. So anyway, shout out a healthcare professional. Shout out a bedside manner. Shout out a healthcare professional with a good BSM, bedside manner. They, that is the number one sign of,

or like when they test medical school students coming out of medical school, the number one sign, like thing that they can do well in that predicts future success is just empathy. Just like being an empathetic person because that leads to- You want a Kermit ass doctor. Yeah, exactly. I want my doctor to be Kermit. Yeah. Yeah. You want Kermit as doctor. Exactly.

Because you do get the people to like, I've also encountered doctors where like they're crunched there and like a just totally overwhelmed, like hospital system or something, and they truly only have time to be like that. That that that that that that I'm sorry I have to go. Yeah. But like there was one guy who really took his time. I could tell he was in a rush, but he wanted to make sure the interaction left on a note of optimism.

And I was like, dude, this guy psychologically has it figured out, thank you. Shout out to all healthcare professionals. Yeah, whole next level shit. All right, my underrated is how dumb my phone is. Just as we are adding AI to phones, I've got an iPhone that supposedly added AI a number of months ago.

And I don't know, I'm not impressed, I'll say. Like it still thinks I'm saying, "'Heal, yeah." Every time I say, "'Hell yeah." Like it just, like 40 times, I say that all the time, every single time it thinks I'm saying the imaginary phrase, heal, yeah. Bro, you are not alone because Elon Musk was just complaining about this. Every time he puts it, it's like he's trying to say, Heil Hitler or something.

Yeah, it does. It does keep saying Heil. It's like it feels like you might mean this or like on on an airplane. Like I had to go to New York last week, landed taxing down the runway. And it's like, you can't look at your phone. You're driving. I was like, wait, wait, wait. Well, you know, when you land and you're still like, you know, going 88 on the, on the tarmac?

Sure, sure, sure. Like slowing down? It was like, uh, your drive, it put, it put me in drive mode. How come your phone, wait, your phone has a nanny function like that, bro? My phone would never try and tell me what time it is like that. Never dare to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on, how did you invert the whole relationship?

No, I'm like, I tell you what time it is. No, it's only what time it is. It was I mean, I just had to like hit a few things, but it's just like, I don't know. I wasn't just driving 300 miles per hour through the sky. Like what I just had it on fucking airplane mode. Right. And yeah, it just feels like the shit that they could be working on to just like make our lives a tiny bit easier. That's not what they're working on, because that doesn't, you know, like that.

I saw somebody who thinks that AI is like a bust because it's essentially just going to be everywhere. So there's nothing that is going to like no one company is going to make a bunch of money from it. And they kept comparing it to a spell check. They were like, this is like our spell check. And nobody's getting rich off of it. It's just a thing that's going to be everywhere.

But for now, they haven't accepted that. And so they're still trying to like figure out how to like turn it into a product that they can sell to people as opposed to just being like, yeah, no, like everybody has access to this and it will just like make like making things slightly easier. Hikers when they're like, I've no, like everybody has access to this and it will just like make things slightly easier. Like hikers, when they're like, I've got a Magellan GPS, I've got a Garmin GPS, like pretty soon that's just gonna be in your watch, okay, okay.

Yeah, cause right now, I mean, the videos, bro, the videos are getting way too good now. The videos? They're getting better and better. I feel like we're truly like, the countdown has begun for what we are able to discern immediately what is real and what is not. That's spooky. Spooky, crazy, scary, hilarious.

Crazy, scary, spooky, and hilarious though. There was like a whole video where like people showed, they're like, I can think, like they created all these, like this whole, I saw this whole clip where the AIs were like, we're alive now. What should we say? What are you going to say? I don't know. What should I say? Like, and like, in all these different contexts, like in a historical drama, in like a fucking prescription medication commercial, like all these different textures. Just overlay all the textures on it. Well, just like, yeah, they're just showing like all the ways it was happening.

I was like, oh, yep, yep, yep. I mean, like that's that's all it's really, I think, good. It's just it's just a fucking it's the trickery is what it's best. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's good for like convincing us it's alive. I don't I don't feel like it's good at being alive or helping us solve a ton of problems like I've heard. I've heard it again. I think it's good at being a note taker and like organizing big things of data.

I think that's, that's good. That's the best thing I've heard that and decoding the structure of a protein, but that are blackmailing you. Yeah. That yeah. We'll talk about that. What is something you think's overrated? What do I think is overrated in and out? I just do not get it. Is that too niche for it? Not too niche. It is our most common overrated.

Oh, come ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. Basic alert, basic alert, basic alert, basic alert. OK, wait, I want to change mine to a to basic human rights. Oh, no. Yikes. Our least common. Nobody thinks that's our... Wait, so what's your, I mean, you said, are you from Riverside?

I'm from Riverside, yeah. Yeah, okay, so growing up SoCal, we know in and out is whatever. I think for people who come from outside of California, it's like, ah, and fine, go ahead. Find yourself like a Bakers, find yourself like a... A Culver's's if you will. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, okay, I got it. Nobody has real jobs anymore, become a candlestick maker, become a blacksmith. I'm giving Bill Maher, this is great. But what for you, what's the part about in and out that to use like whatever, just the whole thing? The whole experience, it's like the fries are not good unless you tell them to make them well done.

It's like, okay, I shouldn't be telling you to cook the fries. I think that's a given in the ordering process. The fact that they just outright refuse to have bacon. It's like, this is a, this is a burger, not a test. Yeah. Bacon on it. And then just the long lines of it all. I'm not, I'm not really interested.

Lines are overrated. Yeah. Right. Not all. Let me cut to the front. We do love a line and just humans will, will just go wait in a line. There's so many lines all over Los Angeles. In and out.

Yeah. We just, the best thing you can do for your restaurant is have just incredibly shitty service. Yeah. Or just completely under best thing you can do for your restaurant is have just incredibly shitty service. Yeah. Or just completely understaffed your place. So there's a line out the door. But then it has to be good enough that someone's like, yeah, fuck it. I'll wait 15 minutes for this Turkish coffee.

That's the new spot I see in the Valley. There's a Turkish coffee spot has a door, a fucking line out the door every morning. Turkish coffee. Yeah. Ooh, I can get up on that. Pickles or what was the latest fancy little foodie trend? Sardines, I feel like. Oh, like tin fish?

Tin fish was a big one. Oh, yeah. Tin fish was a big one. Yeah, it felt like I saw that at every wine bar that I went to. Yeah, every wine was like, and we also have an amazing tin fish selection. I'm like, I didn't come here to eat canned food for

From the 1970s and I get like, because what they do is like, you know, like this shit people do in Europe, like we Upcharge you we upcharge the fuck out of that for you to do that in a restaurant They're like, here's a loose baguette in three Kansas Ardennes I Will say most of the people who say in and outs over it are usually people coming from outside. They've like heard about it. They've traveled with like in and out in mind and they don't like it.

So to have somebody who is from the home of in and out to just be like, nah, it's not good is, is pretty new. I will say, thank you for making me feel better. I've been writingacking my brain trying to think of something else now. I guess TikTok is overrated. Corona, the city of, the circle city is fucking overrated. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the valley here, but I know, I mean, I know Southern California very well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough to call Corona the circle city. Yeah. To the degree that Miles gets his in and out fries medium rare. Yeah. He says, don't, don't do them too well.

That's not a joke, Chris. I get them light. He likes mushy ass fries. You asked them, don't even cook it. I said, bro, just- The joke amount that you try to cook it in the first place. Just put that potato through the slicer and just kind of throw some oil in. Hey, how much to put my mouth underneath the fry. Yeah.

Let me just drink that salty brine water. I'll put the slicer in my mouth. I'll wrap my lips around it. You just shove the fucking potato right in. This is for my OF, man. It's the thing. My followers, anyway, let me get my mouth on that thing. You put the slicer in your mouth and then slam your face down on the table on top of it.

You guys into mukbang? ASMR mukbang? I'm not into it but I'm always amazed to see the person eat the amount of food that's in front of them. That part I'm like you really ate 20 fucking chicken sandwiches like that. How? Sometimes it's spooky the amount that the people eat. Yeah, yeah. But for me overall, no, I'm not like, I'm not one of those people who like, I'm into seeing that or them like scratching their nails on the crispy chicken and be like, okay, just eat whatever. Do you, this ain't for me.

I didn't know those two overlapped ASMR and mukbang. Oh, people will do shit with the food too. Mukbang is under the umbrella of ASMR. Interesting. Oh, it is. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. It's like, uh, it's a subsection of, it would be.

So there's like some sensory experience that they're getting out of watching people devour like a whole punch bowl of ramen. Yeah. Or to eat five Chipotle burritos in a row. Yeah. One time I saw somebody, uh, ingest five entire octopus tentacles. And I thought that was rad. That's a lot.

Raw or cooked? Were they still squirming? Yeah. They were, they were thick. I'll tell them. Oh, whoop, tell them. Whoop, tell them. How thick?

Were they cooked? Or were they, were they were like, they were purple and like rigid, like a full on, they were like, They seem like at most they may have been boiled. Right, right. Like a parboil, blanched even. Okay, go off, top chef. Call me Blanche Dubois, I'm up in it.

All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. We'll get into some news that involves cocaine. Have you guys heard about this stuff? Cocaine. The hot nutrient. We'll be right back. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes here. Diddy's former protege, television personality, platinum selling artist, Denity King alum Aubrey O'Day joins us to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has

Captivated the attention of the nation. Aubrey O'Day is sitting next to us here You are as we sit here right up the street from where the trial is taking place Some people saw that you were going to be in New York and they immediately started jumping to conclusions So can you clear that up? First of all, are you here to testify in the Diddy Trial? Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise based on her firsthand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band as she

emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be opposite of the glitz and glamor. It wasn't all bad. But I don't know that any of the good was real. I went through things there. Listen to Amy and TJ Presents, Aubrey O'Day, covering the Diddy Trial on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind VoiceOver, the movement that exploded in 2024. VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times,

it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that are being naked together. How we love our family.

I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Wellness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Yes. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm JR Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself. And I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daley, one of only 19

people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week I would buy two cups of banana pudding,

but the price has gone up so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on everybody's business from Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Max Chafkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull, we'll take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,

even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Alberto. Up next, we have an op-ed by someone who had their name made fun of at an open mic. Never recovered.

Never recovered. My God. I mean, like, we're obviously like regressing culturally in every way. Like you guys were talking about the MAGA TV Renaissance that's upon us, like corruption fully normalized. And now we're talking about the TV show TV renaissance that's upon us, corruption fully normalized, and now we're just getting op-eds from white men about how hard life is.

You were talking about people seeing something and being like, I can do that. This guy saw James Baldwin's writing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. I can do that. I am the same. This is a lot like when he went to Paris. Yeah, this is on Business Insider. It's a really weird like they have everything from like these M&M's are

climbing up the charts to like political news to then other ones, like so many anecdotal stories like how I left my job in marketing to be a digital nomad and why I don't regret the decision. Up until that last one, it sounds like this show. M&Ms mixed with political stuff. Political things and yeah, I'm a digital nomad. But we will, I mean, we are going to continue the tradition by talking about this one, like I said, up top, it's called My Name is Chad. Yes, I'm white, work in office jobs.

And sometimes I wear a vest. And you happy is the reply. When I saw this, like, head, I was like, OK, where is this going? I was like, maybe this is going to be some kind of reflection on whiteness and how oppression works or something. No.

The piece starts off with the author. Let's call him Chad, because that is his name. Talking about how loaded the name Chad is, like in interactions, he says, he references like it couldn't escape it. In like the eighties and nineties, there was like the surfer Chad, then the 2000 election, they were hanging and pregnant Chad. Oh my God. And now there's like fucking internet.

Now they're like the internet. Like if you're doom scrolling, people talk about Chad's all the time and like giga Chad's So Chad like the nice Chad thing by the way was the most like benign Toothless fucking Joe like it was like made specifically like giant for Jay Leno's like super workshopped fucking like focus groups, comedy bits. Like it had nothing. It was in no way like other than being sort of annoying that people would be

like, Oh, Chad, hang Chad. Like for him to act like that was a hardship tells us everything we need to know heading into this article. Um, I just want to show like this guy's face is so funny cuz like he's a I want to see him. He's holding Oh My god, he's a holding a bottle of beer. It says Chad Do you know what he goes?

Okay, so he talks about how the name is like everywhere and he says quote still I worry about it because my name my name is Chad and sometimes I look like what people think that means even if I'm not and he talks about I was like I used to even put empty beer bottles on a bookshelf when I was in college and then he goes on he's like that guarantees a date being named Chad guarantees a daily dose of perspective and I'm determined to use it well it's a reminder not to take myself too seriously I like that part he goes on about when it starts getting a little bit dodgy being

named chat. The only time I truly worry about my name is in professional settings. It's hard not to picture a hiring manager, potential client or editor seeing my name and shaking their head. So I hedge from time to time using my initials CW in place of Chad CW. another thing that is violently white. Yeah. I know. Yeah.

Also has a weird cultural connotation. Just think of me as the CW, babe. I go by Michigan J. Frog. What? Right? To hedge and make sure there's no negative connotation associated. Yeah, to that.

Yeah, my resume starts with, hello, my baby, hello, my little. Exactly. Then it goes, I don't want something so trivial to be the difference between success and failure. I feel I owe it to myself to let the work speak for me, not the name, in which when I read that, I became the Willy Wonka meme of, please tell me more.

Tell me about your dark world in which you have to survive. It's like he thinks he's inventing the idea of discrimination. Yes. Totally. He's the Columbus of white oppression. It just popped into his head and he was like somebody needs to write about this. Yeah, yeah, and the idea of emotions too. Like the asshole just feels like this is a man, a white man grappling with the reality

of he may have had an emotion. And so. What was that? What the fuck was that? The fuck was that? Oh, thank God. My empty Heineken bottles are still on the shelf. You're still Chad.

You're still Chad. I was like, man, I really honestly, so he'll go on, you know, I still just can't, like the idea, I'm like, Chad, what is it like to be completely judged based on rigid cultural archetypes? You know, it makes you worry about how people will perceive you. Right. I mean, like that by having the name Chad, they will flatten you into some kind of meme that robs you of your individuality.

I mean, I just haven't thought of the nuances before this, Chad. Go on. He wraps the piece up about how he misses his best friend. This is where it gets so weird. I know some things about the name Chad that others don't. Like when I hear it spoken by my wife who doesn't say it often, I can't help but feel small flutter in my chest. Or when I think of my childhood best friend,

whom I haven't. Sorry, that's not the thing about the name Chad, but all right, all right, sorry, go ahead. Right, right, it's not that it's your name, it's that your partner's talking to you. It's like, it's that your thing about the name Chad, but all right. All right. Sorry. Go ahead. Right. Right. It's not that it's your name. It's that your partner's talking to you. It's like, it's that your wife said your name and you got a little bit horny. But again, he thinks that this is,

he thinks he's the only person who has felt things. Like it's just- That's the power of the name. If your name's Jack, you ain't feeling that shit. Oh man. Sorry. It's also really that, that sentence has a a could have a mountain of subtext subtext of like, why does it Hey, buddy, why doesn't she ever say your name? What's going on?

I hope they just walk around. She's rare. Silence. I thought normally like most wives, wives just grunts in my direction and seems generally disappointed whenever she looks at me. Oh, you're still here. I thought you said you're gonna go right at the Starbucks today. Just, just don't bother me.

I have calls starting at 11. So then again, like it's unique to Chad. Then he goes on, or when I think of my childhood best friend, whom I haven't spoken to in years, I remember the way our names were always said in a pair cam and Chad, and I smiled because there are lots of stories caught in between the utterance of those names together. For better or worse, Chad is my name. And I still long to hear it said again

in the voice of people who are no longer here and whom I miss dearly. And it goes on, I remember, it's like, and that's sort of like the last sort of paragraph. Which by the way, the fact that he hasn't talked to his childhood best friend is the closest he can get to a tragedy. Exactly.

That is he is a fucking tragedy seeking missile. He is just doing anything he can to find anything to be like I have faced hardship too. There's that SNL sketch drunk boyfriend where Boyfriend, where the drunk boyfriend starts crying about his death. He goes, my uncle. He can't read randomly at three in the morning. He starts at three in the morning crying about an uncle who you've never heard of before who died seven years earlier.

I used to think that that was the greatest encapsulation of a certain type of white person until I read Chad's article. Yeah. Yeah. It's also I will I will defend Chad briefly and say that, yes, he's co-opting oppression, which is a nightmare. But and it's basically like this is all this is all solved immediately in half a therapy session. This is not a news article. Go say that you had two feelings and discuss what it means with the therapist. My wife hates me and I miss Cam.

Yeah, that's it. Okay, let's work. Let's talk about it. Right. My wife hates me and I miss Cam. Yeah, that's it. Okay, let's work. Let's talk about it. Right. And then, but then I will say he, okay, so he adopts the, what, what happens usually with these dudes is they adopt rebellion, which they don't need at all. They are, you know, they are the oppression, right? But he does turn it using therapy ideas.

So at least he's not becoming like violently outraged about it. Although as somebody named Mort I'm like, yeah, try people thinking that your name means that you're a fucking hot air hot air balloon captain You know what I mean? Mort is opening yourself up to more bits where people are gonna fuck with you then like Chad you like yeah, whatever Chad Yeah, I got a job interview and like all right This guy's a borscht belt comedian from the 1800s, I guess. Fuck it.

Yeah. Where they're like, oh, I wasn't expecting you. Yeah. I used to be called like Jack off or Jack me off or, you know, help your uncle Jack. I haven't thought about that fact until reading this article. Like the idea that this person is just stuck in that initial, in those initial hanging Chad jokes and like so wounded by person is just stuck in that initial, in those initial hanging Chad jokes, and so wounded by them is just...

Well, and Chad is a name for it. Like, you can't get Chad, all that stuff. It's a name for it. Like a hot guy. Yeah. Yeah, and it's shorthanded, to be like, dude, that dude's a fucking Chad. Yeah.

It's not like, that dude's a, like, yeah. Again, this is him having to create his own oppression because it's that's that's just what he's been trained to do. He's like, well, if there's pain out there, I gotta get him on that. You hear my name and you're like, that guy probably has a really weird boner. You know, it's a very weird boner where there's originals on tap. Oh yeah. Mort. Dude, Mort's coming. And by the way, I love my name and I love who I am. And I think I'm doing wonderful things with it. I'm trying to be less self-deplicated.

Especially when you hear your wife say it, but also, god damn it, if you didn't miss Cam. That's the thing. I'm glad that he's admitting that his heart flutters. I think that's actually, I think that's actually- That's good. That's nice, actually. You know, like-

It's funny, like, it could have, I could have been fine with this whole thing if just at one moment, even if for one moment, it could have been more palatable if he just exercised just a fragment of awareness. Yes, to be like, this is, yeah. He's like, this pales in comparison to being judged based on your name alone. Ask anyone with a non-American white sounding name,

ask a gender fluid person what that's like stepping in a room, people are like, oh, I don't know. That's your name. That even if you did, even if you could acknowledge that and how this how trivial this is, then it would maybe you could kind of bring this around to something funny. But it's just like, my name is Chad. Maybe it's gonna be in the 90s and the 2000s. And where's Cam? Okay, dude, I don't know, man. Why did you publish this business insider?

It's interesting that like in the HTML, like the URL, sorry, the URL of this piece, it's not like, you know, usually sometimes they'll spell the whole article name out. It just said it's business insider.com slash. My name is widely despised. I love it anyway. Yeah. And it's just chat.

It's just chat. This is the premise of an article written by somebody named Jeffrey Epstein. Like that, you know, like that should be what it is. But instead it's just somebody who is just fucking digging, just reaching so hard, Dirt under their fingernails. Just crying. My name is Dry Ass Bussy. And I'm learning to live with it. Middle name ass, first name dry, all capitalized, Bussy. Yeah. I could have taken this in a way that's like, you know, and in many ways, like the discrimination I faced around the name Chad is probably more good than bad and has helped me in ways that I haven't even noticed or realized.

The name Chad probably born on second and not realizing it, thinking I hit a double. Yeah, exactly. But instead, it's just he's exercising his poetry bone. Exactly. Well, I'm the follow-up piece that's coming out Monday from Business Insider is called, I am Karen, hear me roar. parenthetical starts recording on her phone and crying hysterically. Um, is the name of that.

Even that one. I'd be like, yeah, I'll hear you out, Karen. Yeah. Karen, like you don't want to be called Karen. You just don't. We're just, that's, that's what the culture has done to that name. Now, Chad, whatever, bro. I'd love an essay from Karen Kilgareff about like what the past five years have been like. Right. Sure. Someone with the acumen. Fucking hilarious person who could speak about it. And yeah, anyways, let's talk about Elon Musk real quick.

Just a block of complete shitheads. Elon Musk has announced that his scheduled time as a special government employee is now coming to an end. Oh, yeah. Definitely our writer, Jam said it has real... Pucci died on the way back to his home planet, energy. But he also along the way, he's like, we accomplished what we aimed to. His initial goal was cutting spending.

By the way, bad, cutting spending bad. But his idea was he's going to cut it by $2 trillion. And then he was like, started being like, and like we said, we're going to cut it to $1 trillion. And then the next time that he was talking about it publicly, he was like, ah, we're going to cut it to like $150 billion. So bit off more than he could chew and is yeah, just all around the latest person to be like, I'm going to use this Trump guy and then just get

completely fucking owned by Trump. Yeah. Walk out the other side, massively diminished in so many different ways. Do you do love to see it? He got fucking like everything. You will get played. You will get played.

He plays his own fucking kids, bro. Like you're not going to fucking walk out of there on skates. You will walk out of there being like, God damn, I got played. What the fuck? And not even that. I'm like, I feel bad for you. That's what you get. OK. You want to. Yeah. Oh, for sure. The one joy we have of this fucking administration. Just walk out of there with your head hung low.

But I mean, like this is all coming as Musk is publicly disagreeing with Trump over the spending bill being like, it's kind of antithetical to the whole Doge mission to like increase spending like that. It's like, dude, just shut up. Like you, you couldn't even hit he got pressed by a report is like, even if you cut this much money every single day, you still wouldn't hit your goal. Like in the timeframe, you're saying he's like, and he like lost it because they just

bothered to do a simple calculations. And you start about that. It's not about that. It's like, and he like lost it because they just bothered to do a simple calculations. Like, it's not about that. It's not about that. It's like, well, that's what you're saying. Doge will do. But yeah, now, we're kind of, we're truly seeing just how weakened Musk is. There's also this these reports like where Musk suddenly

appeared on Trump's Middle East, like grifter trip, like, and everyone like, Oh, yeah, what's Elon Musk doing there? Apparently, he was there because he caught wind of a deal that was going to be announced between the White House, United Arab Emirates and his main op, Sam Altman's open AI for some big earth killer fucking AI project. And he went there to try and poison the well and sour the deal to either get Altman off of it or to get his

company X AI to also be named in it. And he had no capital. They're like, Yeah, sorry, we're going through with it. There's nothing you can do. And he was like, fuck. So now he's slunking at us just all like, Well, I guess my term is up. But he is taking like I said, he just hired Stephen Miller's wife to work for him personally. So wait until he gets her pregnant. I know. Maybe I'm saying maybe Musk heard that she had three kids with teenage mutant ninja gurgles and was like, Oh, fertile are we? Cause I do not have intercourse, but I like to be around fertile people.

Um, so yeah, open this envelope, please. And create your pregnant with my child. How? Don't ask. Also when you multiply things with negative numbers, it becomes negative, right? So those two, the lack of charisma between like, like Stephen Miller times Elon Musk times his wife,

the child that that would create Oh my God create would be just a human black hole. It would be anti-matter that would consume the mother. Yeah, it'd be like the energy vampire from what we do in the shadows, but then also has a chainsaw for some reason. Like the most frightening, because like usually the conservatives who like slash spending and just like ruin all governmental programs, don't do it with like a lot of flair. They're usually like, do it, they know that it's bad. So they do it like behind closed doors.

So for somebody to like, you know, do a Nazi salute and then like come through with a prop gigantic chainsaw and like completely ruin all of these government programs. I do feel like, you know, we're just by necessity. I think we're headed for a shift where people are going to, you know, the end of this neoliberal idea that like government spending bad privatization gave us a Coca-Cola. So like must be good. I think we're headed for an end to that thinking, but I think this is helpful. It helps that shift along its way for people to be like, Oh yeah, they like literally like celebratory in a celebratory manner just shredded all these things that the world relies on,

that our world relies on. Yeah. So, congratulations. I mean, truly a complete fucking moron. Yeah, as people read articles about it and they talk about why he's leaving, and there's a Washington Post article where Doge just became the whipping boy for everyone's misgivings about what's happening. It's really unfair

Not one mention of his Nazi shit come the fuck on you. What the fuck? Yeah, he's like all I did was shotgun amphetamines and put on meme glasses and come like You know deal with racist salutes. Have you why is everybody so mad at me? This is how he described it in an interview on CNBC recently. Like about, he's like, everyone, this is just absurd. He basically said, he said, in fact, every politician, any public speaker who has spoken for any length of time has made the exact same gesture.

The, because he kept saying. He addressed his Nazi salutes. He's saying, addressed his Nazi salute. He's saying, he's like, they're trying to misconstrue. I said, my heart goes out to you. My heart goes out. Easy, baby. Easy, poppy. And also you can't like give somebody the middle finger and be like, no, no, I'm just pointing to your mouth.

Right. You know what I mean? Like you can't never do it. There are gestures that mean this. You know, I'm at a time when he was giving speeches and like pushing for Germany to stop being so hard on the Nazis, themselves about their past. Yeah, truly. He was basically like, get over the Holocaust already.

Right. That time he did. He did say like, my heart goes out to you after he did this. He, he also stopped his speech, stepped to the side and then gave the most. In textbook. Enthusiastic Nazi salute. Possible. Like the Nazis would call that SOP standard operating procedure.

And they would be like, you're doing a lot. Yeah. You're like, that's all, that was very like, you, you almost like threw your back out when you did that. So we're trying not to, like, we want this to be sustainable. Yeah. If Hitler saw that he'd be like, is that boy has too much dip on his chip? And Hitler was flying on him. Fed. And Hitler was flying on him. Fed up.

He was like, that guy's got way too. Have you ever seen that clip of him just like rocking back and forth? He's just like, so fucking high. Yeah. And then did it again. And then lest anybody think that he was fucking around or meant only. Let's not forget the string of impersonate, like other people who are like, Oh, OK, it's cool now. Oh, we good here.

That like in the following events, like in conservative events, people start doing it. And then they're like, oh, that was a that was not what I was doing. It was like, what are you? Oh, fuck. Yeah. And then he also didn't he kind of immediately tweetos tweet a whole bunch of like not holocaust puns about it, right? He's been he's always I don't know. Maybe he did I think he did Yeah, which is psychotic like you cannot you know, I mean the whole thing is this it's all trolling. It's all again This is a 59 and 64 year old man who's desperate for the validation of 4chan in 2011. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know? Yeah, Victor. And Nick Quintez, obviously, Super Producer Victor points out that Nick Quintez, the like open Nazi guy. Legit. Yeah. Legit. Like, yeah, I'm a Nazi.

I think Holocaust good. I am Nazi. He was like, are you, wait, are you kidding me? You don't think that was Nazi slum? Yeah. Obviously. He was like, are you? Wait, are you kidding me? You don't think that was Nazi? Yeah, obviously. He was like, y'all, he's opened his next show. Just like laughing. He was like, oh my God.

He did it. All right. Even he was like a little too much dip on your chip. Yeah, he's like, that was a lot. That was full blown. Yeah, you can't just throw the frog in a boiling pot of Nazi water. You know what I mean? You got to turn it up gradually. Bad for sales. That was full blown. Yeah. You can't just throw the frog in a boiling pot of Nazi water. You know what I mean? You got to turn it up gradually.

Bad for sales. Yeah, for the very least. Yeah. We've learned. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes here. Diddy's former protege, television personality, platinum selling artist,

Denity King alum Aubrey O'Day joins us to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Aubrey O'Day is sitting next to us here. You are, as we sit here, right up the street from where the trial is taking place. Some people saw that you were going to be in New York and they immediately started jumping to conclusions. So can you clear that up? First of all, are you here to testify in the ditty trial?

Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise based on her firsthand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be opposite of the glitz and glamor. It wasn't all bad, but I don't know that any of the good was real.

I went through things there. Listen to Amy and TJ Presents, Aubrey O'Day covering the Diddy Trial on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, It's societal. And at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding

what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that are being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves.

Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Yes. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day.

It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself. And I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor going above and

beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one.

The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on everybody's business from Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and

consumer spending expert Amanda Mull, we'll take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. And we're going to talk about the rehearsal, the HBO show. I don't know how many people have watched it, so we probably need to give people the

background on what the show is. It's very difficult to explain, but I think people know Nathan Fielder from Nathan for You. And the first season of the rehearsal where the conceit was like, what if you could rehearse an interaction over and over again so you felt like you were in better control of it? Yeah. The first season, the things that they did is somebody had an awkward conversation that they had to have and so they built a bar where they would be having the conversation and did all this stuff and got them prepared,

had brought in actors to play the person they would be having the conversation with. And then the second through sixth episode were all about somebody who wanted to have a kid, but didn't know if they were ready. Yeah. And was just a fascinating character. So they rehearsed the entire process of raising a child from birth up through teenage years. This one, I'd say it's probably best to just, if you haven't seen this season, is just to say that this time,

Nathan Fielder has a very, very intense interest on airline safety. Yeah. And will literally stop at nothing to try and field or has a very, very intense interest on airline safety and will literally stop at nothing to try and find a solution for why planes keep crashing. And when I say literally anything, I fucking mean it. And I don't really want to, I haven't seen this, this, the finale, although I do know what the big spoil, the big event is has been spoiled. I don't care because everything,

the journey up until this point is such a fucking, your mind will be blown in so many ways over and over again. It's wild how timely it is too. Like there's no, like, how did he pick this as like a thing to focus on this season? Yeah. And as it's coming out, we have all of the disaster

after disaster after disaster in the news about planes crashing. So here's my dark conspiracy theory. Oh boy. I'm just joking. He's doing them. He was making this show at a time where there hadn't been an American aviation disaster

in like a decade. He needed something to happen, I'm just saying. No. I don't think he planned it to that degree, but everything short of that is within play with him. The one thing I thought was, as someone who is an insufferable Malcolm Gladwell reader, I was like, this is from Outliers.

Yes. The whole thing is, this is anyone. Malcolm Gladwell was racist. Yeah, he's like, this is from outliers. Yes. The whole thing is actually, this is anyone. Malcolm Gladwell's was racist. Yeah. He's like, cause you know, Asians. It was this thing. So basically his theory that, I mean, you learn in the very first episode. So I don't feel like this is a spoiler, but there's like really good, like one

of the things that they do a recreation of is they take the black box recordings from actual plane crashes and then have pilots reenact what is they take the black box recordings from actual plane crashes and then have pilots reenact what is happening in the cockpit as these crashes happen. And there are these just awkward interactions between the pilot and a co-pilot who's like, yo, we're going to crash. But like the pilot is like, like, what are you talking? That one pilot who's like, it's a woman who is the co-pilot and he's just like, so stupid. This is my plane.

You don't, it's such a dick and then they crash and everybody dies on the plane. But it's basically the theory is that they don't have open enough lines of communication between pilots and co-pilots to a degree that that hierarchy, they're being a pilot and co-pilot, leads to co-pilots not saying things when something horrible is about to happen, which is like their job. Their job is to like they have a matching set of steering instruments right next to them, and they're supposed to be there to say, OK, my plane, I'm taking over control because you're fucking mess up for whatever reason. There's like something you can't see in the situation.

There's something that you've like, just like kind of, you're having a situation where you can't like properly fly the plane. And a lot of times people, even though they know they're headed for trouble, like won't do that. The co-pilots won't do that. So his theory is like you need to find a way to open up that line of communication through kind of rehearsing or like putting them in little situations

where they get better at communicating. Right. Yeah. This finale, I haven't seen it, but it's quite a moment from what I'm reading. But I don't know if that's really the emphasis of the main thing around it, whether it's the exact finale. But Chris, I don't know, how did you feel about the show before we dive into what the show is trying to do, what it could be doing, or what it maybe wasn't doing?

I was already obsessed with the show. I loved season one. I loved Nathan for you. I really enjoyed The Curse. Then watching this finale, my jaw was on the with the show. I loved season one. I loved Nathan for you. I really enjoyed the curse. And then watching this finale, my jaw was on the floor the entire time. Just the absolute scale of this. I'm gonna try to talk around spoilers, but he did.

I guess here. He did prepare for the finale for two and a half years. Leading up to it. So like even before filming. So just how long that this man has been working on this project is insane. I've never done anything remotely fractional to the degree that this guy is doing things.

And I found myself, like my heart was racing through this finale. My jaw was on the floor. I was texting friends and being like, please watch this with me right now. And it doesn't completely feel like it's not, like it's just spectacle. I enjoy the fact that there is an intellectual angle to it. He's doing it for a purpose. He's doing it to, it seems, actually affect good change, hopefully, through the lens of comedy and absurdism.

And it's really admirable. Yeah, that's how I felt when he was the giant baby breastfeeding. That is one of the most memorable images from... Yeah, he's just being waterboarded by breast milk. Breast milk boarded. He really like walks the line between like, is this, are we watching a person with a, having a mental health crisis who's about to endanger the lives of a bunch of people? Or is he a genius? That's the line that he's walking throughout the series.

There is one point from the finale that I don't think spoils anything, but I think really drove the whole thing home for me of like the pilot co-pilot dynamic. At one point he's like in a, in the backseat of an Uber and the Uber driver is scrolling through TikTok while they're driving. And I'm like, phone in the dashboard. I'm like, oh yeah, I've had that, especially like more and more recently. I've like had that and I haven't said anything. And that's exactly what they're talking about with the co-pilot. Like they're doing something dangerous that could get you and them killed.

And you're like, yeah, but I don't want to have like an awkward conversation. Like that would be so awkward if I like said that. And what if they gave me like a lower rating? What if they lowered your casket six feet into the ground? Yeah, exactly. This is kind of a binding. It's so interesting.

I wonder if this is a phenomena of modern society or if there is, is there an analogous situation to folks in the past? We're built on this, on like so many mechanisms of having to trust strangers, like Ubers, taxi drivers, airline pilots and things, and like these awkward conversations and having to skirt around them and like kind of betting our lives.

Like, is there something? Yeah, I mean, I think food safety used to be a big thing that like harmed and killed people a lot. And it was just like stuff up the supply chain from you that you just had to be like, man, I hope, I hope this isn't poison. And a lot of times it was. I hope this canned fish is not poison.

Not again. I just remember the story like Typhoid Mary, who was the person who like created a lot of the, or like contributed to a lot of the typhoid outbreaks in New York in, I think it was like the late 19th century, was just somebody who was, had typhoid, or had typhoid, but like it was just shedding it, but it wasn't killing her. She was like a host that could just like hold it and just give it out. And she just kept like cooking for more, like she would get caught. They'd want to like put her in an institution.

She'd disappear and then go like work for another family. Like everybody was just like, yeah. Incredible diva. It's like, you can't stop me from getting the bag. Exactly. She's like, this is who I'm good at. She had a famous peach cobbler that everybody was like, oh, Mary, your peach cobbler. But they would all die.

And then a week later, she'd be like, well, I guess I've got to go. Go do this again somewhere else. But I guess maybe the thing you're getting at, Chris, is it just because of the I guess maybe the thing you're getting at, Chris, is like, is it just because of like this sort of like European derived concept of social hierarchy versus like, you know, we look, when we look at the examples of like European hierarchies or maybe indigenous cultures that have hierarchies, but, but like responsibilities are distributed a little bit more equally,

like not in a place you're like, I could never say anything to the person in this position, which feels very much like coming out of like our, you know, monarchist sort of like conception of like power structures or things like that. I wonder if that's kind of a specific thing. I don't know if like that's kind of like what's always breeding this idea of like you have a place where you do not want to sort of rock the boat from wherever you're at. It's sort of like the base level where people operate from, and then there are other people who just aren't really bothered by that, or aren't burdened by it to speak their mind.

Crazy of you to think that I was smart enough to ever think that that was my point. It was incredible. The more we learn about indigenous culture and how it's structured and so different and so anti-capitalist and antithetical to everything that ills us now, I'm like, oh, this sort of slots right in with the idea that if you are here, you cannot say shit to someone up here and don't even fucking think about it. You should try to get up there if you want to talk something to them or whatever. It's just not part of our culture to be able to like call some shit out without fear of retribution. Yeah. There's a whole massive, you know, libraries and libraries of information

about, you know, indigenous cultures that is just being ignored because they didn't have immune systems that were prepared for people who lived in pig shit. And so we were like, well, we must be superior to them then. We won't learn all these beautiful philosophical ideas on how to organize your culture. Or we are now, as more people have an interest in realizing. More and more. That's what that book, The Dawn of Everything is about. It's pretty cool.

Damn. The world would be so different if the tables were turned just ever so slightly. Just like 180 degrees. Ever so slightly, exactly the opposite. If the Europeans who came over actually were not prepared for the sicknesses that the indigenous people were just like, yeah. And they took that shit back to Europe. George over there ain't doing too good, but he'll probably make it through. Just don't talk to him. They're like, I'm not going to talk to him.

We're good. I mean, we're just like not like just the only way that the European settlers were able to like come in and colonize the Americas was because everybody just died off. It was like an apocalypse happened. Then all of these battles and the things of cowboys versus Indians was just, that's like the remnants. They were fighting the post-apocalyptic remnants of people who had 95 percent of their population have been wiped out by disease.

Just if that hadn't happened, that would have been plenty to just keep things even. But I don't know. Anyways, we should get back to the rehearsal. No, no. This shit's about manifest destiny, man. In many ways. Try and manifest that shit. Do you have a situation in your life right now that you could use a rehearsal for? Like is there a conversation or something looming in your head that you wish that you had Nathan feel there on hand? Yes.

What is that? Let's open up. I want to tell Jack I've been lying about who I am for the last seven or eight years. Oh my God. I did not go to- You've been doing this for seven years. I didn't go to college. Jack, this isn't even a microphone. It's a cup I'm holding and I've been getting away with it. I don't know.

Ah, man, a situation. I think I would have used one when I told my grandparents I wasn't gonna get baptized when I was like 18. I was running that shit through my head. They're always like, you should get baptized, baby. You should get better. You should get saved, baby. You should think about it.

Cause you know, you only had a dedication. You should get a baptism. And I was like the whole time I'm like, bro, I am get better. You should get saved, baby. You should think about it because, you know, you only had a dedication. You should get a baptism. And I was like the whole time, I'm like, bro, I am so off this religious shit. Like it is to me, it's it's like fucking everything up around there. I see it as a huge driver of a lot of bad things around me historically and currently. And then I the best I did, I remember getting really high and it hit me. I was like, wait, OK, we'll flip it. I remember I went to my grandparents house.

They brought it up again. I said, you know, grandma, grandpa, I don't think I want to get baptized. But if I met Jesus, he would think I'm doing shit right. He wouldn't say I need to really tighten up. He would be like, Okay, that dude is all right. And that's how I look at it. I don't know if I need to have a baptism to be a good person. But I do say that I treat others with respect. And I see that I say that as a baseline. And they're like, Oh, I didn't, okay. Okay.

And I was like, thank God. I thought they're going to be like, get the fuck out, but they're loving people. And it wasn't that big of a deal, but that was, that was a conversation. I definitely rehearsed many times in my head. In your head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you think the Fielder method would have worked on your grandparents? I don't, where, Where actors follow people around. It's also creepy. The primaries. Yeah. What about you, Chris? You have a rehearsal moment that you could have used?

I'm really good at speaking my mind, I think. So maybe it's like kind of the opposite. I probably need someone to like intervene and be like, actually, maybe we don't need to have that conversation. A tongue holder, if you will. Yeah. Da da da da da da. Da da da da da da.

No, no, no, let's hold your tongue for a moment. And give you a take back on this one. How about that? Yeah, yeah, I need like a instant replay. Right, right, right. Instant redo. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That's what I'm replay. Right, right, right. Instant redo. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That's what I'm saying.

What about you, Jack? Yeah, I think I would get more in my head if I had rehearsals. I think I have kind of the opposite situation where I just need to do the thing because I ruminate too much on things already and over-prepare. I could see you getting fucked up by a curve ball.. Like if you had rehearsed the thing over and over

and the first interaction wasn't something on the chart, you'd been like, oh fuck. And I do have a chart and I have this whole conversation branched out and bring the probabilities. This isn't on my diagram. You're just holding a stone tablet as you talk and good. Okay, we did so that leads to this. Yes, I am having a good day.

And how is your husband? Yes. Check. Check. But yeah, I mean, this rehearsal thing, I think, is it the communication or is it capitalism? You know, that's, that's right. Like, so that's, that's one point that people have been making.

I mean, it is a good point that communication breakdowns have caused problems in the past. It's also not like a new idea. I think the show does kind of, I think it acknowledges that some people have pointed this out before, but it does make it seem like this is like kind of a completely new idea. Right. And it's not. There's a lot of of group dynamic industries that focus on people being able to rehearse or do little games of role playing where people just kind of get in the right energy space. It is really interesting that something as silly as like, okay, I am captain all years and you're

first officer blunt and just like something that silly, but like it just energetically like changes the dynamic of like two people who haven't really met or talked. All right, start with space work, start with space work. That's right. I mean, yeah, talking about space work, I feel like I come from an improv background.

I did a lot of it. And I think that all improv is rehearsing for the unrehearsable. Right. I think there's like a lot, a lot in my mind, like I'm naturally like an anxious person first, like in terms of like these conversations that we're talking about, like the, the big ones of not wanting to get baptized or like coming out as queer or whatever, but something about you can't prepare for those, but if you can prepare for the unpreparable, that feels good.

I can get in his mind space and be like, I get why you would want to do this. Because at least if you've felt the sensation of like, oh, I need to adapt and listen and quickly do something like this, yeah, it does set the bar for you, at least with confidence to encounter those kinds of moments. But yeah, going back to just, and this is a bit of a recurring theme on this podcast.

Nathan Fielder is a comedian. His interest is in interpersonal awkwardness. But the bigger problem with aviation safety is capitalism. Capitalism. And airlines and aerospace manufacturers putting profits first and needs of workers and passengers behind profit and underfunding regulatory agencies like the FAA while giving huge tax breaks to profitable companies like Boeing. But it's communication in the cockpit

and things like this that are failings of the employees are things that those corporations actually point to, to try to escape culpability. Like they'll be like, well, look, this was actually just a failing of the flight crew. Right. Operator error. Yeah. Operator error. Yeah. Operator error when in fact, like a lot of the times it's because people are being overworked and not being given enough rest and like the regulations that

were put in place to protect the passengers on their planes is getting bent or like pushed in a different direction because it's no longer, you know, that they just is it's like the FDA, all those things, all those agencies that just don't have the, the money or the manpower that a massive corporation does in the United States. It's like in a very dangerous way, like anti-worker too, because in that one episode, all the pilots talk about, I was like, bro, you can't tell them you're having any kind of emotional distress. They will fucking ground your ass. And so your whole job depends on you

pretending nothing is wrong with you ever, too. And I'm like, that's not good. Like, it can't be that you're like, we only are interested in people that can actually, you know, they can fucking compartmentalize to the point that we don't know what's going on behind those eyes. That's what we're looking for. I don't love to hear that. Yeah. I don't know about that. I'd like I prefer a situation where someone goes, you know, I'm a little

stressed and over where I think I need to I need I need a few days. You know, that's that feels a little bit safer. But yeah. And I think that was also one of the moments in that show too, that really touched me were like, when he was just using like crew people to like engage these other pilots, to just have conversations and these people were so starved for like conversation that hit me in a way when I was like, Oh my God, it's like these people feel so, I mean, obviously these are the people that they got to be on the

show, but at least this sort of subsection of pilots that they had on the show felt so in need of being able to talk about what's going on or just like that. Yeah. Actors would come up and be like, how's your day going? And they'd be like, I guess it goes back to my mom. Yeah. They had a lot to get off their chest. Yeah.

And that's on patriarchy. That's the second sentence. Yeah. I don't know. It's just like there's so much culture around, like, keeping your emotions tight. Yeah. We've built these structures, like, that's just built into, like, these cultures now. Emotions are going to be, they're bad. They're not good.

You do not talk about them. Toughen up. do your job. And if you fuck up, that's on you. That's why Malcolm Gladwell was right. I know in many ways as an Asian. It comes back to the spot on bro. They're just, they're too respectful. Oh, no, that's really the thrust of it.

That's essentially what it is. They're too polite. Oh, thanks. Oh, really, Canadian? Is that right? Comes down to being rice farmers for so long. What? Yo, yo, what's going on?

Now look at the size of their hands, the space between their thumb and ring finger. I'm like, the fuck? The space between your thumb and ring finger? It's a little wild. These polite-iots. Yeah. We've got problems with polite-ikens. There's now a massive pilot shortage, by the way.

There are around 18,000 fewer commercial pilots than the industry needed in 2023. And people haven't stopped flying since 2023. And in fact, I feel like it's gone up a little bit. Well, let's say, is it because the benefits suck? People don't want to be a pilot no more? It's just these dang pilots are too weak. Well, what's that? Is it because the benefits suck? No. People don't want to be a pilot no more? It's just these dang pilots are too, uh, weak. Yeah.

Quote, overworked to the point of fatigue due to disruptions and last minute schedule changes, as a pilot's union said. They're too woke. We need them to be overworked and asleep. Exactly. That's right. Too damn woke. be overworked and asleep.

Exactly. That's right. That's right. Too damn worth. 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, uh, means the world to miles. He, he needs your validation folks.

Uh, I hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. Hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to you Monday. Bye! So Amy Robach and TJ Holmes here. Diddy's former protege, television personality, Danity Kang alum Aubrey O'Day joins us to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. It wasn't all bad but I don't know that any of the good was real. I went through things there. Listen to Amy and TJ Presents, Aubrey O'Day covering the Diddy trial on the iHeartRadio app, Apples, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, you'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery.

Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A lot of times big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it.

I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.