The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 397 (Best of 9/1/25-9/5/25)

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 404 (8/18/25-8/22/25)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X-1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity

with Intel core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance. It keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com. unlock AI experiences with the thinkpad X1 carbon powered by Intel Core Alter processors

so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't try. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate.

Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack.

Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush. Parents hauling luggage. Kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal, just a chaotic, chaotic scene.

In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio 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. Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the creator of red.comics.

You can go to Patreon right now to support and gain access to her tastefully inappropriate work. Please welcome. It's Kim Windor! Keele! A.k.a. It's a small plug after all. That's all I got. How is Gary?

He's working. Yeah, working. Yeah. Working hard. Working for a living. It's funny on Reddit. There's a subreddit called What Is This? Where people are just like finding something like, I found this in my kids backpack.

And it's like, it's a fucking weed baggie. You fucking loser. Cocaine. Handgun. Handgun. So often people don't know what. butt plugs are. They're like, I found this in my Airbnb under the bed. And everyone's like, usually be able to just be like, wash your hands immediately. Right. They have it right up to their face too. It smells fine. Here, my nose for scale.

Right. Why is it that? It's a bad to be your nose. A terrible thing you use for scale. Odd texture to it. Your nose could be so many different sizes. All right, fine. Here's my mouth. I'm going to open real wide. Can get all the way back to my ufrily. Yeah, yeah. Tongues for scale. Oh, man. Anyway. Anyway. Great start. Anyway, just thinking about plugs.

Because Kim's here. Sorry. Don't know where that came from. Hey. I'm just glad when you say it, you think of me. Yeah. I mean, look, I think it's Gary even, even, you know what I mean? It's not even just a butt plug. Yeah.

He's a whole personality, an inner moral compass. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. What is his moral compass like? Was it, is he like, point south. Yeah.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So. Interesting. Gives me the worst best ideas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's funny when you search Gary butt plug.

There is someone made a Gary Busey butt plug where it's a butt plug, but the handle. End of this picture of Gary Bucy. I was going to say teeth like are so. That is so fucking wild. Oh, my God. Teeth are so prominent in my image of Gary Busey, and teeth are not something I necessarily want in my butt plug. Well, you can have it both.

You can have the feeling, the image of teeth, without the sensation. In my mind. That would be a wonderful surprise. Just first time going at it, bent over, poof, Gary Bucy. Screaming Gary Busef is. I don't know what I would. I just want to show you this before he goes there. This is very specific.

My friend. Yeah. What is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are? Well, I saw Dr. Faustis at the Griffith Park, Shakespeare, free Shakespeare outside. And then I was just reading about Dr. Faustus and people selling their soul to the devil. And, yeah, I don't know. I was just learning a lot about it. Is that the first deal with the devil in finding?

art we get? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like based on a German legend, but it's the first, and then it's coined Misery Love's Company. Oh. And I was just reading about Christopher Marlow who wrote it and he's a fascinating dude. He was maybe

gay, he was maybe a spy. I hear that guy was a party animal, Molly. That's right. That guy fucking liked to party. Is that true? Well, you saw your soul to the double. You have a lot of party energy. Hell yeah. And, you Yeah, I mean, I was also definitely reading all the Trump conspiracies when people thought he was dead for like a day. Right, yeah.

That was an exciting day. We were all really excited for one day. What was the thing that got you, though, you kept going, hmm? Maybe. Maybe I'll stay a little bit more invested in this. Someone convinced me in real life. They were like, here's why. It's definitely true.

And I was like, look, I really want to believe you. But I just feel like he's going to pop out at a press conference and be all normally talking. and that's what happened. Then it was like, wamp, wamp. I mean, you got it. Wait, but what was the thing? What did they tell you? What was like sort of the point of information?

It was like, oh. It was like he sold his soul to the devil to get all this power. That's a pretty good bargain. Just like that he hadn't been seen in a couple of days. I think my, the main thing that was convincing me was like, that man loves a patriotic holiday. Yeah, yeah. If there's somewhere he can be. on like a, you know, boat parade

with an American flag. He's not there. Being jingo fat. Yeah, something must be wrong. But I was also like maybe he's getting that like Lindsay Lohan face lift. The Chris Jenner. Oh, right.

Yeah, the deep plane face left. I feel like you can't as a president get a facelift because it requires you to be out of the limelight for too long. I don't know, man. Biden was showing up high and tight a lot of different times. That's true. Yeah.

He's just like, yo, man, where'd your eyes go? Yeah, totally. Here's an, I'm alert. Oh, cool. Jack Nicholson impersonation you're doing. Yeah. And I was like, it would be kind of funny if Trump showed up, like, you know, nothing's going on. And he just looks like 1985 Trump all of a sudden.

His body is melting underneath his face. Well, yeah, of course, his body's body's obviously melting underneath his face. Yeah. Well, if you get some organ transplants. And Dr. Faustus, I'm actually not familiar, is, do they go to a crossroad? Like, how much of the sold soul to the devil stuff that we know today originates? They don't go to the crossroads, but the devil just kind of pops up and it's like, hey, let me give you, I got this amazing deal for you. You'll get to do whatever you want, and you can do necromancy for 24 years.

And then at the end of the 24 years, the devil's going to drag your soul down to hell. Right. and you'll be in hell for eternity. But the play is really good and funny. And a lot of it's just a four years. I don't know, but it's very, I was like everybody would do that because it's like Clorna. Everyone would be like,

okay, I'll pay that off later. Exactly. This is just a metaphor for all of America. Oh, should I have five years in? Dude, I've got 19 more years. Oh, sick, man. And now, and they know you won't be able to pay it back, just like the devil.

Clorna knows you won't. You won't be able to pay it back. They just own you now. I mean, there's kind of like, wow, it's so fun to do. And then at the end, it's like, oh, no. I see so many people wrecking their credit with that shit, like online who are like, you don't have to pay that shit back. And they're like, what are they going to do?

They're not even based in the U.S. It's like they sell your debt to a U.S.-based company. You fucking kidding me. One time on social media. They actually can't do anything. They're not based in the U.S. Oh, is that how that works? In Ireland.

Oh, okay. Tell me more about Gets. global capital. You could roll the dice, though, and be like, things might fall apart more and they won't know where to find you. Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, there's a lot of people who definitely, I know people who think like that. Yeah, 24 years is so weirdly specific. And also, it's the same amount of time that I did my deal with a guy who just popped out of nowhere and offered to give me the life of my dreams. He said he explains a lot about you, Jack. He sold me on something called a Faustian bargain. But he said it was quite,

It's a bargain. I just heard. I don't stop listening at Bargain. He's like, you'll give you a podcast. Okay. Yeah, exactly. A podcast. I didn't know that there were, I didn't, it was like a real monkey's paw thing where back when I did the deal, there were only like a handful of podcasts. I didn't know everybody was going to have a podcast. It's kind of a bum, right, bum deal now. Yeah.

Fuck, I should not have sold my soul for this. Well, you're going to have a good 24 years. then. What year did you say you're on? Don't worry about it. All right. We might have a really cool finale this year. Coming up on 23.

Are you sweating blood? Nope. And that is not one of the signs. I thought I filed him down last night. What is something Miles do you think is overrated? Overrated, bro. A fucking overly juicy sandwich. Okay.

Like, I know when you eat like a burger or something, you're like, oh, look at all the moisture in that paddy or whatever. And you see there's some of the info they'll like cut a sandwich and half and like squeeze and you're like, oh, look at all the juice come out. Yeah, yeah. Like in certain contexts, that is indicative of like, oh, this is retreat. This is retained moisture. It's not like a dried up beef brick or something. I'm talking about a fucking sandwich, okay? Right.

I was at Jersey Mikes. Uh-oh. This man in front of me. Bro, I still can't believe. Asked for an inordinate amount of oil and vinegar. Yes. They're like, sir. Not even like keep going.

Okay, so I thought I was on a fucking prank show because he kept going. And I'm like, I'm looking at around for like the other straight character in this sketch to be like, this is a fucking lot of liquid now. Right. Are we even eat? Is this even a sandwich now? and he kept saying can I get a little more yeah can I sorry sorry

can I get a little more and at least four times by the time he hit the fourth one the sandwich artist basically did a fuck you amount of it to try and be like oh yeah they were even like bro are you for fine

right like emptied the full clip out on it and he was like amazing thank you and like the guy like then trying to wrap bit there was like liquid pooling in the fucking in the fucking paper and they wrapped it up how is the bread even holding i from what i understand some people just like it to be not even a sandwich just like a goopy mess with sandwich innards that they eat right um and

the bread becomes part of the sauce that's on top of it exactly exactly uh and so anyway he fucking just like he just sauntered out of there like it was normal and I was like I we had this moment that I was up next I was like what the he's like I've never seen I think I was like I never seen anything like you guys both you guys both knew you would witness something we're like oh shit okay man uh anyway let me let me get a club supreme bro uh and you don't don't fucking overdo it with the juice because I hate a fucking like a sandwich and jersey mics is wet okay like that's how they do shit oh yeah there. But I mean, most, I know that. So I eat it the second I get it. I'm not to be like,

yo, I'm going to let that shit cook in the fridge. No. But other sandwiches generally, like a nice sandwich, you think it can last a few hours without getting completely sogged out. Yeah. And I understand again, it sounded like it was sogged out on right away. This was like a pre. It was like a French dip with oil and vinegar pre-soaked, basically. Right. But anyway, so y'all, I, not for me. And I can't believe. I think it was just more of this situation I was in where the guy was like, oh, amazing thing. Like, I thought he was going to be like, okay, buddy, I didn't say that much. Right.

You know. Yeah, yeah. But after the fourth one, because it got a little passive, he's like, sorry, can I, let me just get, just a little bit more. I really like, I really like a lot of the juice on there. Wow. And then just that, like, it was like hissing at the bottom because it was like, yeah, yeah. Like, there was no more liquid in the bottle. Yeah.

Just burn through a bottle. don't do that folks and if you do is that a fork and knife job I guess in which case feels different I don't know the shit was so soggy I'm not joking there's probably oil drips like a fucking

like like a trail of clues all the way back to where the fuck is outside through that sandwich away in the garbage and then just jacked off in his car from just making somebody do that that was what he was there for

what's your kink man I don't like bondage like I'm not a Mads Nicholson but I like to go to restaurants It's a little specific but I like Just making really specific orders And making the person uncomfortable With how wacky my order is

And I just kind of take that in That's why I wear these meta glasses So I can record the whole thing It's a new ad for meta glasses My overrated Just great We had a great metaphor For capitalism this weekend

with a trade in the NFL. My overrated is like NFL owners for a thousand reasons. But even if you are a fan of an NFL team, having an owner, I think is bad for you. There's a trade in the NFL that was like not quite Luca level. Like when Luca got traded to the Lakers last year and everyone was like, how does anyone think that was a good idea? This is not practice.

so Dallas traded the best defensive player it was Dallas again the city of Dallas is just getting fucked over traded the best defensive player in the NFL to Green Bay for like a couple first round picks and like another you know replacement level defensive player and it's it's apparently like you know Dallas has this famous owner who's like got a big ego and is like he thought he had made some sort of handshake agreement with his person and he like went back on it. But he had like just tried to cut the guy's agent out of the negotiation process. And then so just based on his like personality issues with him. Right. He made, he just like gave him away because

he was like, yeah, that's not how we do things around here. Great, great team they got there. Yeah, great team. They suck. I know. I was going to say like, aren't they, I feel like every Cowboys fan I meet in this era is like, oh, fuck, dude. They were expected to suck before. before this trade happened. Oh, and now it's like double suck. Yeah, yeah. And he's, so he's like this strong arm owner

who like does everything on his terms. He's older than Joe Biden. And I just want to contrast that. But justice racist. Yeah, yeah. I want to contrast that with the Packers are owned by fans. Right, right, right.

And they're run as a nonprofit. So every, all the money they make goes back into the team. And they are, like this trade was pulled off by I guess it's either their president or CEO but like you know normal nonprofit company shit but the guy who pulled it off just took over in July after the previous leader of the team uh reached the mandatory age of 70 wow yeah yeah what is this a sci-fi utopia i fucking hate hate brett farv so i don't know if i could ever get behind the pack just as a kid

Like I just fucking hated Brett Farr's, but I love this. I love this for them. That's how a team or like capitalism should work is like it's owned by the fans and the workers. I don't think it's like, I don't think it is a perfect utopia. I'm sure there's all sorts of fuckery that happens. Yeah, I'm exigate game Packers fan. Let us know what I, despite our outward view of it, is it all fucked up now? Is it all fucked up now to quote my favorite philosopher, Diddy?

What is he? What the fuck is? So are the Packers? Do they look like a contender now? Yeah, they do. Oh, so they really just,

that was like a huge swing for them to be like, oh, we just picked him. Okay, good, good. They've gone from, they're like the only team that consistently,

you know, anytime, like I'm a, sadly a Patriots fan. And anytime you have like a run, you're lucky enough to have a good quarterback. Like you can guarantee there's going to be some years where you like have a shitty quarterback and like your team is bad.

because it's just like that's not a thing that anybody can predict except Green Bay for some reason they've gone from Brett Favre to Aaron Rogers to Jordan Love is now their quarterback and like they've just all been awesome and they've all been like a situation where like the next guy was just like waiting in the wings and they're like okay he's ready trade away the previous guy the next guy is awesome right like right away yeah yeah and that doesn't have like for whatever reason it's just impossible to pretty predict if a quarterback is actually going to be good in the NFL, except in Green Bay. They've, like, got it figured out. But anyways, you know, having having a powerful, one powerful, charismatic, in quotes, leader at the head of any organization, I feel like, does not work as we're seeing over and over and over again. You don't want a decrepit monkey skeleton running anything, as Mr. Burns even showed us. You know what I mean? want that i was watching the netflix cheerleader the dallas cowboy cheerleader show that they put out like i haven't watched a couple episodes of it and you get glimpses of jerry but more you see

his wife more but jerry jones god damn every time i'm like what the fuck are you guys doing over there just so old yeah yeah yeah and i feel like every time i hear about him he's always in some shit being racist or old or whatever the fuck but yeah hey man great great matchup Great matchup. Love that for everybody. All right. Quickly, we'll move on to the next thing. What's something you think is underrated?

Something I think is underrated is I just finished watching this show called Dragon Age Absolution and it's based on a video game and it is so good and so gay and I don't know anyone who's watched it. And I was actually really surprised that it was gay. I don't know. I watched a lot of animation and to get main characters that are gay. and don't, like, die immediately after they kiss is so rare, especially in fantasy.

Like, it's this phenomenon. If there are gay men in any, like, genre, they will be, like, star-cross lovers and probably won't even get to kiss, but you'll just know that they are lovers, and it's implied, and then one of them will die. And that happens every single time. It's crazy. So this one was great.

There's actually, like, half of the main cast is gay, and they're out here sucking and fucking and, you know, fighting dragons. Oh, yeah. I loved it. And I don't know of anyone who's watched it. And there was only one season in six episodes, and I'm pretty sure it's canceled.

But in the way that Netflix doesn't cancel stuff, they just never renew it. Right, right, right. Yeah. So I think people should watch that. It's really entertaining. Oh, the Mort's wife does a voice on there, too. Mort Burke's life.

Yeah. Oh, cool. Ashley Birch. Yeah. Quidian. Oh, yeah, such a fun character. Dragons are really, you know, have a nine and a seven-year-old and, like, the most popular book series right now with kids

that age is Wings of Fire, which is just a book series where everyone's dragons, like the characters themselves? Yeah, yeah. Oh, just dragging it up? Yeah, yeah, just dragging it all. Yeah. And there, yeah, everybody seems obsessed with that. Like, I am searching on a fairly regular basis, Wings of Fire adaptation.

like there was a project that was in development that like went away but it's a so what daddy is there like are we going to get a wings of fire do you think it'll be like when I'm in high school and so hey that's that's what I kept asking my parents about an X-Men movie as a kid yeah exactly I was a teenage I'm like when are they going to make the movie out of this what's the movie you got to wait I have a potential recommendation for your kids and well dragon ages yeah great and then also there is another show called the dragon prince and i'm sorry like my hyperfixation is animation i watch it all the time so i could go on and on and on yeah yeah the dragon prince is amazing and it's a lot of tv i think it's like seven seasons maybe even more uh but it's pretty

dragon heavy and they talk and they have personalities not all i like the animation style here too Yeah, it's really great. It's actually one of the producers, I think, of Avatar, The Last Airbender made this show. Okay, I see the parallel. Might have been one of the creators, too, but the voice of Saka is the main character in this show. Oh, wow.

And it's great. It's also, I think, like, not enough people watched it. But that's how I feel about, like, all of my underrated things are just animated shows that no one's heard of. Like, Infinity Train? Oh, my God, is the best show ever. I just found out

a mutual friend of mine wrote on it I had no idea and it's so good but you can't find it anywhere because it was lost in the merger of like Warren Brothers

Oh one of those? Yeah fucking there's so many fucking shows like that it's unbelievable and it's so many animations too like a couple of my favorite shows are just nowhere to be found now

right infinity train summer camp island and I would literally I'm saying don't torrent no one torrent ever except for maybe if you do want to watch these shows, then you should. Except for no, you really shouldn't because of like that's really bad to do.

Yeah, or find maybe some people from the crew and Venmo them some money out of guilt, you know? Yeah, actually, that's a sweet thought. Yeah. Sorry, I just bit torrented the whole series. Here's like 13 bucks. Can you split that amongst everyone? Sorry, would you steal from the oil industry?

Yes. Then why would you steal from the film industry? No, but I said yes already for the first. Oh, fuck. I got to stop using the oil industry. That's the worst example. Would you steal it from the cops? Let's take a quick break.

We'll come back. Talk overrated and get into some news. Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity, with Intel Core Ultra-Processor.

blazing speed and AI power performance that keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon

powered by Intel Core Ultra processors so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. December 29th, 1975. LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal.

Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of end. emerged. And it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and order criminal justice system is back. In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious.

Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy?

That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend

really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. Hello, Ed.

I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not like... What do you get when a... a true crime producer walks into a comedy club. I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up,

but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. The 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now.

Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. And so is Congress. Yes. From summer break. who get summer break and aren't T-shirts. Yeah.

We're T-shirts. They cut out early, remember, in July in a panic, they're like, that's it. You guys are talking too much about Jeffrey Epstein. We're done. We're going to fucking summer camp now. And then come back in September because they wanted to avoid just making this a thing and having to vote on it.

Well, now they're back from, like you're saying up top, plugging their ears and not trying to come to grips with reality. And Democrats are also included in that. And they have some major business to tend to, like, first averting another government shutdown, they'll need 60 votes in the Senate. So that means they'll need help from Democrats to get their, you know, get their spending in order to avert a shutdown. We'll see how that goes.

That'll be an ongoing story for the next few weeks, I'm sure. I mean, the Democrats are tough as nails. So I feel like they're really going to hold them, hold their feet to the fire. Okay, you guys promise not to do that stuff. Okay, I'm really going to trust you now. I'm really going to trust you now. And anyway, so then the other thing that's on most people's minds, despite Trump, wanting everyone to forget about it is the Epstein files.

So here's just a quick roundup of everything that's just happened even in the last week. So first, Republicans released a huge fucking trench of documents to be like, look, see, we got these are, we got these from the DOJ. And even some Republicans like Thomas Massey were like, we've seen 97% of this stuff already. So nice try to pretend to be like, see, okay, can we move on to like racism yet? No. So then also, the Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have subpoenaed the Epstein estate for documents, like a client list or if there's anything resembling a client list, the birthday book that had the Trump drawing on it. And those should all be, but they're supposed to be delivered to Capitol Hill by next Monday.

This is like a weird estate sale. It's like, ooh, those items are of much interesting. To me, a collector, who's a pervert. How much do you want for this golfing polo? Okay, I'll take that. I'll take that. Actually, this is my size. And then also, the panel is going to interview Alex Acosta,

the former U.S. attorney of South Florida, who is the one who cut that strange deal, non-prosecution deal. After, you know, his arrest for child sex crimes in 2006, the committee has also subpoenaed the Clinton, the Clintons. But no Donald. Trump quite yet. So we'll see what happens there. Thomas Massey and Roe Kana are still pursuing the

release of the documents in that like searchable format for the public to see. So Massey filed what's called a discharge petition for the quote Epstein Files Transparency Act on Tuesday, which would basically force a vote on the on the floor if 218 representatives signed on to this discharge petition. Ro Kana has said all 212 Democrats will sign. Massey has said he's got 12 Republicans. So that sounds like they've got the numbers. To date, it has

134 signatures including Massey and three other Republicans, which are believed to be Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Lauren Bopert. Okay. So I'm like, oh, but knowing MTV and Bobert and Mace, I'm like a little bit like

what are you, you're probably going to use this as a bargaining chip to be like, let me put some pressure on. But I don't know. This is something Marjorie Taylor Green's been pretty, like, loud about the whole time. She's like, you're going to lose the MAGA base. You can't tell us about elite pedophile cabals and give us nothing. Then on Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee met with a group of Epstein survivors in a closed door session.

Nancy Mace left early and was like walking out of the conference, like committee meeting visibly upset, like in tears. And she's mentioned, like, you know, a few years ago that she was drugged and assaulted by an ex. she posted on X quote since it's already being reported yes I left the oversight briefing with Epstein victims early as a recent survivor not two years in I had a very difficult time listening to their stories full blown panic attack sweating hyperventilating shaking I can't breathe I feel the immense pain of how hard all victims are fighting for themselves because we know absolutely no one

will fight for us God bless all survivors that's how she signed off on that some people are like oh I wonder what this means if like she's seen the light I mean I don't know I'm sure on some level that it's difficult to probably hear the testimony of these people and then maybe you yourself be like and i'm kind of made my faustian bargain to not do anything about it so i can just be on the news and scream about transgender people and it's eating up my insides right now and i think i have to leave i my ankles are melting also yeah what the fuck what the fuck is going on bad for our health it turns out this epstein scrutiny yeah and And Trump is dealing with this by just doing everything he can to make threats.

The thing that, like, all of these are just things that seem transparently, like, you can't be like, I'm against the revelation of, like, that information. Like, it just seems so impossible to push back against publicly, you know? And yet. Yeah. Here they are. Uh, Trump has said from his office, they have said, supporting the release of the documents. would be seen as a, quote, act of war. That's so wild.

Quote, helping Thomas Massey and liberal Democrats with their attention seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive fire release effort from the Oversight Committee would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration. What could be more comprehensive

than just releasing the documents and letting people look at them? Right, exactly. Look through them. This is what Thomas Massey has said basically about that being like, well, look, man, like maybe here's a thought that would absolve Trump or clear his name, if at all possible?

He's been given. I think the best way to clear President Trump's name is to release all the files. I actually don't think he's done anything criminal. I think he may be covering for some rich and powerful people that are friends of his. And in fact, some of those billionaires are running ads against me in Kentucky right now. One of them is in Epstein's Black Book. So we're, you know, we're getting close to the center of power here and I think you know embarrassment is not a reason to conceal all of this stuff we've got to get it out in the open regardless of whose friends might be incriminated embarrassment yeah that's what this is about let's not embarrass all the rich fellas who are criminals right it's he's giving them like this sort of rhetorical out

that like on the news that they've seen on conservative news being like well you know he might just be mixed up with the wrong people and you know he's just trying to make sure these guys don't catch any strays while everything's brought to light and he's like you know and i think that's like i don't think he did anything bad i think he's just he's helping out some friends right now although like he just happened to be there and he's innocent right he's a good boy he's like a rich kid who gets caught doing something bad and like the parents attorneys are like your honor he's a good boy he's a good there He was at the trap house, but just as a friend. Yeah, he's there supporting his friend, trying to pull his friend out of the trap house. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah, so it's all not stopping. Mike Johnson, he's been like, well, we're going to have a, we'll have some kind of vote on that on Friday.

Well, we will look to bring more transparency to this Epstein documents. I don't know what he's, and he's just, he's saying the things that make him sound like a normal person. He's like, I believe transparency is absolutely important for all the, for all the, for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. But he's not he's doing fuck all in terms of practice. And I think that's the hard bit is like it's going to slow up the business of especially the House of representatives until they resolve this on some level. I just don't know what in what capacity. They're just going to make it go away. I think they're going to be like, well, we saw it. The end. I don't know what, but there's too many people who are like, I've already seen these

documents that are Republicans, right? And I'm curious. Yeah. There is a version where I think. They're going to swallow it and just, you know, like, what's her name, Nancy Mace? Like, yeah, she's all upset because she had to confront that she's a demon. Yeah. You know, like, and be a human being for a second. But like, by tomorrow, she's going to be like, yeah, I don't care. Yeah, that's fine. I think the most craven thing would be for all of them.

And that's why I believe it's possible is that this is just a way to extract something from the White House to be like, no, I'm all in on this unless you give me this right now or down the road. For sure. And I've said before on this show, but it's like the third rail of this thing is that Epstein was CIA and they were, the government is who was letting him do this for reasons that I still find very strange. It's like, why would you have to run a full-scale pedophile honey trap operation like, just do the catch a predator, just get people to come to the room where you said there'd be a 12-year-old. And then when they get there, they're like, there's no 12-year-old. fucking idiot. Mm-hmm. Right.

But they had the 12-year-olds, which is insane. The Alexander Acosta interview is very interesting to me, not that, like, they'll ever ask the important questions or, but like, I am curious to, like, one of the quotes from him at the time, so, you know, at the time that he, because Trump, you know, after he let Epstein off with like a historically lenient deal for what, what he had done, then, you know, Trump appointed him to a cabinet position and an anonymous source claim that when Costa was vetted for his cabinet post in the Trump administration, he stated, I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone, you know, when people were like, well, why did you let him

get away with this like minor, minor prosecution and a stipulation that anybody that was touched at all by, you know, those implicated in his actions, like, could not be prosecuted. Like, just a, that's, that's one of the most suspicious aspects of this entire thing. Right. And the fact that they're interviewing him is very, very compelling. No, it's the third rail. And, like, Gilein's sisters, married to a guy who developed some kind of, like, Israeli spying program that steals all your data.

And when Gilean's father died, like, the people that, His funeral was like a who's who of the intelligence community. Yeah, it's all massad. They play golf together, guys. What is wrong? If I can put my Tim Dillon hat on these, I'm like, they're all friends, all right? And I'm friends with MBS. They're goofy, they're goofy guys, these guys.

You know, they just got to let this call. That's all true. Like that picture of Gilein at, you know, Chelsea Clinton's wedding or whatever. It's like. Yeah. rich people protect each other that's the big reveal yeah right exactly it's like i think people i say it's like we can we can learn from the class solidarity of the elite yeah totally they have each other's back no matter what great if they revealed shit about the clintons like you know whatever they're role in this one like that would be

great to like fuck this version of the democratic party and bring it all out revealed yeah just bring it all out I mean, I don't think the Democrats will clean house no matter how obvious it is. They should do that. They're fighting tooth and nail to not talk about Zoran Mundani right now. Yeah, there's no fucking way. They're more mad at Zoran than that Bill Clinton was on the Lolita Express like 300 times. They're just goofy. You know, they're a goofy guys.

They're goofy guys who like to fly private. And with Clinton, they're always just like, you know, he's a charismatic. he's a ladies man he's a charismatic predator you know like what they're they're just like you can't he's just uh he loves the ladies okay that's a that's like a dated term from the 50s for serial predator yeah it's like you know he's a ladies man parenthetical prolific predator all right he's an apex predator hey speaking of apex predator uh let's talk about Vladimir Pum you know during the pandemic I remember this

being a story that, like, he was officially freaking out, like, would not allow people around him, was not seen for, like, the entirety of the pandemic was very, like, germphobic. And, you know, it seems like he might have some of the same fears, fear of his own mortality and inability to grab with his own mortality that a lot of, that Trump seems to have that a lot of these kind of strong men people who are so desperate to dominate the planet seem to have. I mean, let's also not forget, he famously has his poo-poo collected whenever he leaves Russia. You know? Yeah.

But that's a security concern, man. Yeah, the stuff I would do with that guy's poo-poo. Oh, yeah. Pooh-Pooten. Don't even get me started. Yeah, so Putin and Kim Jong-un went down to China for. Xi had, President Xi Jinping had like a fucking military dick measuring contest where he unveiled all kinds of nasty, scary killing machines for his two buddies.

And Putin and Xi were caught on a hot mic while like these guys were talking. And this is what they were saying to each other. Quote, as Putin and Xi walked toward the Tiananmen Rostrom, where they viewed the parade with Kim, Putin's translator could be heard saying in Chinese, biotechnology is continuously developing. The translator added, after an inaudible passage, human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and you can even achieve immortality. In response, she who was off camera can be heard responding in Chinese, quote, some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old.

Now, I don't know what she is thinking here. Is he being polite because some maniac just said he could do like the ship of Theseus to its insides? or is he also on the same page? I think it's the latter probably because if anything, these people are so starved for power, like the only thing worse than death is to not have power. So it's like,

well, if I can live forever, then I'll never lose power. But if I die, I'll lose power. You see how that works? It's also like they get, they've half so much. They're like, what's next? Living forever.

Like all the tech guys get into that too. Yeah, yeah. Just like, who wants to live forever, especially when the things are not going to get more good what fucking vampires like man it's been a blast no to be honest not dying for centuries it's been great uh watching many loved ones pass away constantly i mean then you're talking that's what vampires say you know yeah yeah right like i have seen ages passing maybe that's all maybe yeah do you think putin and she like see vampire movies like dude that sounds fucking sick so

Yeah, for sure. Yes. I want to late my... Like Faustian bargain? Sign me up. Yeah. Just change my insides out, man. And I become younger. Hey, could you like, could I stop in for a quick pit stop so you could change my insides out? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. What do you want? They've all got Blood Boys, for sure. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. Blood Boys as far as the eye can see. Oh, yeah. We talked on an episode. I think it was the week that you were out, maybe, Miles, about this multi-billion dollar industry that's like largely spurred by the guy who created the X prize for like space travel and his next thing

is like an X prize for immortality essentially and he's this big you know he's super focused and like invested in all of these like life extension immortality like the cutting edge of science and like basically what they found is that like you could like maybe get up to close to 100, but all the, all the rich people are essentially, like, maxed out already. Like, all the rich people are already, like, doing, like, cellular transfusions.

Yeah, it's like death becomes her. It's like, you're good, and then one day your skin falls off. Yeah. Right. Oh, great movie. You should. A great movie. And also just, it's so crazy, too, you're just like, all this money and all this power these people have. They could be solving climate change, homelessness,

poverty, hunger. Yes. They're like, no. I got to live longer. I can extract more capital from poor people. Yeah, there's a quote by one of the doctors who works with them that's like they spent their health getting rich and now they're spending their riches getting health again. No, it's like, you know, do you guys know Elizabeth Bathory? She's like the vampire countess.

It's like she killed young women and bathed in their blood to stay young. Right. It's like that. It's just that. It's literally, it's like, I mean, who knows? Is she, Gillane? Is she walk among us still, you know, possible? You look at all the historical image?

You're like, that's Galane Maxwell. That's why they can't show us the Epstein files is because it'll be like, they're vampires. Oh, God, that walk among us, yeah. Fully. Yeah, they're like, Henry Kissinger offed himself, but he was a vampire. That's why he lived so long. He definitely was. I don't know why these evil people live so long.

Vampires. You know what I mean? They're willing to do whatever it takes. Yeah. That is, well, man. they don't they don't lie awake at night feeling bad about doing that is the kind of a comfort though to think of like a fucking billionaire who has everything and can do whatever the fuck they want whenever that they'll never actually achieve the thing they're most afraid of or like want to obtain most which is immortality and like i'm sure when they're spending all that money if they're fucking knee hurts what the fuck what the fuck is going on my stomach it hurts i'm 70 their concierge doctor must be a fucking I mean, I'm sure it's okay because you're getting paid

like a million dollars a year to be like Jeff Bezos, his doctor. Be like, yeah, you just need more steroids, man. Come on line. He calls you in the middle of the night at all times being like, what the fuck, dude? I've got a hang nail.

What is this shit? But yeah, I was going to say, like, the addendum to that, like, spent their health getting wealthy and are spending their wealth getting healthy again is like, you know, the way that they got wealthy was like destroying the fucking planet.

And so they're, like, killing other people and then being like, all right, and now it's time to, like, make it so that we can live longer in a tiny bubble of survivability on this planet that we've completely fucking destroyed. Classic villain activities. True. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I don't know. Like, all the villains are kind of the same. We were talking about how, like, a lot of the movie villains and, like, Superman and, like,

From Superman to Naked Gun, the movie villains this summer were all like Elon Musk coded. Yeah, yeah. And it's just because, yeah, well, like, we have actual, actual villains. These are Lex Luthor. No, we got real life supervillains. Yeah, like how do you beat Jeff Bezos? Yeah, we got all the villains and none of the superheroes. Yeah, right.

Yeah, kind of is a shitty deal. All Alex Luthor's and no Superman. Yeah. But I've been told by this guy, I just. met that I can, if I just like make a little deal with him, I'd be able to get like some superpowers, but they're, well, I think, well, is you say how long it would be for? Would it be? 24 years. Oh, that's a good deal. I think that's a good deal. I think that's a good. Yeah, I think that's a great deal actually. You should definitely do it. To Thanos snap the oligarchs. Yeah.

Why not? It's a, the power I get is lucid dreaming. I'm sure I could like turn that into something cool. was it dreaming and yeah vaguely the gift of gab here's the deal devil uh i want to fart less is there anything you can do for me here my soul that's it that was you know that was like a big hitler thing he was he was uh extremely flatulent and like his a lot of the drug like hard drugs that were prescribed to him were purportedly to treat his like extreme hyper flatulence I mean, I need meth to treat my hyperflatulence. That's wild because from what I understand,

taking those kinds of uppers is bad for your GIs. Plus because the uppers that you're referring to were cut with a baby laxative, I think. Oh, oh, okay, okay. You're not fucking smoking pure ass, like Bayer Labs. Nazi meth. Yeah, you think you had like Bayer Labs making his meth and shit? Like, who was making, who was Hitler's meth to connect? I know they had, like, they were making massive quantities of meth.

Like, a lot of their soldiers were on meth. Who made the meth for the Nazis? I mean, it feels like, because I'd do like, you can trust it's an industrial. Oh, it was probably it was going to be, it was like IBM, you know. Right. It was those called Purvitan, uh, made by the Temler pharmaceutical company. Great. Great.

Timler. You can trust us again. Yeah. Timler, Hitler's first choice. Ah, that's not a good fucking hook for the brand. So I think we've got a pivot. Yeah. An endorsement?

Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious. productivity with Intel Core Ultra processors, blazing speed, and

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Ultra processors so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. This December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal.

Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal, glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and Order Criminal Justice System is back. In Season 2, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up.

Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor. and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him

because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin.

What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. The 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage.

Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and we're back and just two slightly related stories about things bad thing smartphone doing to our brain and bad thing smartphone doing to our assholes okay so apparently it significantly raises the risk of getting hemorrhoids according to a study those described in a CNN article that presumably a lot of people read while sitting on the toilet oh so not just using a smartphone will give you hemorrhoids. It's sitting on the toilet with this one. Yeah, using it well. Oh, okay. Is it sitting on the toilet specifically or is it just like sitting anywhere? I think they're saying specifically sitting on the toilet, reportedly quote, regular smartphone use on the toilet was associated with a 46% greater risk of having hemorrhoids because apps are designed to distract us and people are losing track of time. And sitting on the toilet for a long time is especially bad because the open toilet seat compresses the rectal area. There's nothing underneath there just to support your rectal.

So it's just a light push. Your rectal floor is getting to loose. Yeah. And this is related to this other story I saw recently about the growth of executive function coaches to fix basically. They're like, well, all of a sudden we're seeing people who have worse ability to follow through on tasks. and like basically executive function is this new term for our brain's ability. It's like they consider it like our brain's air traffic controller that can like kind of juggle tasks and allows you to do a job where there's like multiple important tasks and you have to like choose which one to do. Yeah, like impulse control and just keeping track of shit.

Yeah, keeping track of things like navigating friendships on top of your job on time. And people are, like, feeling very overwhelmed. And in the past, so this was usually used to describe, like, a deficiency in people with ADHD and people, like, on the spectrum. And they found that these executive function coaches could help people, like, when you would give them an executive, a coach that focused on executive function, it would, like, help them improve. But now, like, everyone is having these same problems. And it seems pretty obvious to me that it's because everyone is working all the time and on call in the

middle of the night. Like, it's, like, that used to be the thing that you would see it in movies where, like, it was a cop would get a call in the middle of the night. Or like a CIA officer. Yeah. Or the president. Or just Robin Williams and any of his character. Robin Williams would have just a red phone that was like, we've got to get Robin Williams on the phone. It's always so busy. But now we all have that like red phone

on the, you know, on the desk that like can ring at any time. And you're like, oh, there's an emergency. And now it's funny. The article that's writing about this, I think, was in like Business Insider. And so they keep kind of going back and forth. The description is like, you know,

we have more distractions today than ever. Like kind of making it partially our fault, you know? We're digitally, we're just a digitally distracted bunch of silly billies. Yeah, you guys just, since everyone wanted to design algorithms that keep people stuck to their phones, gosh. Can't cut off your IV drip of TikToks to do your job. They got me good, though. I was kind of like very anti-smart phone before 2020. And then lockdown happened, and I was just lonely.

So I got an iPhone. and I have not been the same since. Oh, you were off the iPhone prior to lockdowns? Well, yeah, but it wasn't like, I did have an iPhone at, like, before then, and then I switched to, like, a dumb phone. Like a dumb phone? Wow. And that was great, and I actually loved it.

And I haven't been able to justify going back to it, though, because, like, this article was saying, like, the scaffolding of workplace environments that help designate start and end times is, like, gone now. Yes. So I feel this pressure, and I think everyone does to feel like available for work stuff 24-7 or even for like friendships too. Like it was really nice having this stupid phone because it was so hard to text and I would just call people and I would make plans and then I would meet at that place at a certain time.

And it just, there wasn't a lot of changing of plans or if someone canceled, then I'd just be alone somewhere for a bit. And that was actually nice too. That's okay. You get a little bit of a loan time. We were just talking about this trend that I was listening to another podcast where they were talking about people, like, sharing their location so that friends can, like, track the location of other friends.

And it was, like, they were, at first I was like, oh, they're going to talk about how weird that is. And then the two hosts of the show were like, yeah, and we do that. And that's, like, normal. But you just, like, can't be a weird stalker about it. I'm just like, even that, like, feels like extra being on all the time, like, just always having everybody, like, have access to you anytime you want feels like a rough environment for a human brain to exist in. I don't, we already live in like a metaphorical panopticon, so to make it the real thing to be like, no, and they know where I am at all. I'm always being watched is a little whatever.

I mean, I do that. Her Majesty is always like, can you share your location with me? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then she's like, you didn't leave the house at all. And I'm like, what the fuck is this? Like, I'm on trial here. By the fuck I'm cooking spaghetti for the baby. And I had to do working things.

Sorry. I'm just a home party. Yeah, they do talk about how COVID really. Like they're like, COVID happened. It taxed adults executive functioning because like now we no longer have like a at work. division. It's like we're always kind of at work. But then after COVID, they say that, you know, quote, modern life is stretching everyone's mental capacity to the brink. The experts, I spoke with point to the endless interruptions and cheap dopamine hits of our digital devices as one obvious

culprit. Like, in addition to research suggests that the digital world can warp our perception of time, which would logically affect how well we manage our time, which yeah, that makes sense. are, like, the apps are designed by people who, like, in the past used to do psychological experiments on, like, rats and shit. Like, now they're designing apps to make it so that we can't tell how much time has passed. Like, the, the weirdest experience I've ever had, I think it was the angry, like, playing Angry Birds when that was a thing and, like, the late aughts. And, like, just being like, oh, my God, like, 40 minutes just disappeared and I didn't notice

it at all like it just like it was like time traveling i would definitely time travel you on ticot like yeah i'm not i'm not proud of how many times i've gotten the hey motherfucker you've been scrolling an awful lot maybe put this shit down like even the fucking dope dealer was like hey come on man like did the ticot app say that yeah like one of the next videos that would come up was like from the ticot community thing where someone was like hey just remember you like when you're scrolling a lot to take a break or whatever and i'm like What the fuck? An hour and 15 minutes has gone by.

Where's my child? You've got a beard. Yeah. Yeah, but I don't know. Yeah, it's in addition to, you know, this thing that used to be reserved for like the hardest job in the world of like being president, like the red phone on your desk. Like you also have a casino in your pocket with like apps for work and like media consumption and like all these things. Like those are all designed to addict you. and just like get you lost

like lose you in time and space so it's it's funny when they got like modern life it's like you're talking about late stage capitalism you fucking assholes that's what's don't let's thanks for the euphemism but like people are being ground to dust for nothing

and like in other times that maybe your wages were actually substantial then at least you could like do something because you had some kind of excess income to like blow your steam off but now people have to have to have multiple jobs just to fucking get by and you're on call all the time, like maybe talk about that rather than your company being like, and we're giving out yoga mats on Monday. So come by. Yeah,

exactly. We love it. We love a wellness program. They do talk about the wellness programs in this article. It spooks me how these apps too are like, like TikTok I didn't use until when it was like going to be banned. Yeah. I downloaded it because I was like, I want to see what this is like. everyone loves it. And I won't have the risk of being addicted to it because it's about to be banned. But obviously that didn't happen. And I downloaded it and now I'm addicted to TikTok. But it's wild to me how every third TikTok is an ad.

And there's a shop within the app. Like, I mean, Instagram is addictive too. But it's not actively selling to me. Like the way TikTok is like, put your credit card in this app. Oh, right now. Press the button and you can buy a new hairbrush, which I did. You know, like Instagram will be like, why your hair looks so good. Yeah, Instagram will be like, now go to their website to go buy the thing.

There's still a buffer. Yeah, and even now, like, people are live with their TikTok shops, like, where you can just go on your own, like, handheld QVC show where you're watching somebody sell fucking candy or whatever. Luckily, I've, every third video. Yeah, I've, I've definitely weaned myself off of the TikToks as at least when I, I was like peak TikToking like at 2022. That was a bad run. That was a bad run for me. Yeah.

But it's, yeah. So I don't know. It just feels like a thing that I always, like my most hopeful self is like we're going to look back on this, the way we did smoking and be like, man, I can't believe we did that to ourselves.

But I also, like I don't know. Like I could also see it just being like worse and worse. And like we look back on this and be like, Like, oh, those were the good old days before everything was so seamless that we just, like, lived in a Wally universe where it was just like we were constantly in a slipstream of, like, consumption. Yeah. I mean, I think it. Because, I mean, when you think about it, it's replacing so many, quote unquote, normal human things we used to do, like socialize or like fucking even like read books.

Like, there was a new thing about how Americans are falling off, like, with reading. so quickly it's like wild like i think there's a study it was 28 28 percent of people who've read for pleasure in 2004 it's at 16 percent in 2023 and it's just like that just keeps falling off it keeps falling off like people don't even read for pleasure in the u.s anymore 16 percent of people read for pleasure in the 2020 in the united states in the united states jeez that's bleak yeah Twitter counts right I can yeah Twitter definitely counts that was that was a very well because it's like many it's because it's not just like the technology it's also like our education system like it's

multifaceted it's not purely not that but like I also see now people like are they just find pleasure from their phones yeah and that's such a fucking grim reality you were saying something earlier about like how it's replacing normal daily activity like the availability through smartphone. And I definitely found that, like, when I stopped, I did try to go back to a dumb phone, but it's almost impossible. Like, the way that works for people

and, like, social life works for people. You really are removing yourself from the way everyone's functioning now. Right, right, right. It is a pretty isolating thing is what I discover it. And it can work if you're okay with that, but also, like, everyone else is, assuming that you're on the same wavelength as them. Like you're able to be in an iMessage group chat or you're going to hit them back on

Instagram if they invite you to something. Like it's really hard to maintain a social life without a smartphone. It's just you have to do it so differently and the world doesn't build for that anymore. Or it's like how I did it like pre-smart phone in high school. Like there was that one friend who always knew what was going on. So that's like, hey, what's going on? Because I'm not on Instagram. Can you tell what's happening this weekend?

Okay, okay, thank you. Thank you. I used to laugh at Janine Grofellow because she was like, I remember in the a aughts. She was like the last person I had heard of who was like, yeah, I don't really go online. I don't mess with like digital anything. I was like, okay. Okay, Janine.

Okay, Tom Hanks from Castaway. Sounds good. And now I am that person where I'm just like, I mean, I'm not. but like I envy that and like that that is like that sounds right to me that's like that is the ideal I mean it's not possible but it's well I think we're so much of the digital era has allowed people to lose their tether to like the real simple things that keep us present as human beings yeah you know where people are experiencing like moments of nature through a phone screen when I get like when you live in a city or something it's not as readily available to you

but there are just certain sensations that you get from your body from just being present that are so fulfilling in a way that I feel like we lose track of shit like that and it's so easy to get swept up in well that the nonsense I'm seeing on my phone is my entire reality when like if you just look up and around you that's not what's unfolding in front of your eyes it's something completely different and I think reminding ourselves of that is so fucking important we talked last week about how there there's these AI kitten videos that are just like a series of images of this really chubby, adorable orange cat, uh, not always, like, they don't always look exactly the same. Right. Like, it's something that the AI is iterating on and like, you just like see horrible things happen to the cat, like really sad things. What? Like, people are feeling like this outpouring people like a lot of the reposting of it. These are going like hugely viral and a lot of the reposting of it as people be like, uh, not me like crying at this video of this chubby cat that's clearly AI and I was like I had this really like bleak vision of like outside of if you're like completely looking at this from the outside it's like we're cut off

from each other and from like interactions with nature and so we have robots making videos that are just like yeah milking us of our normal human interactions like it's like a fucking mechanical like calf's mouth that is like milking a cow in like a milking factory and like we're just sitting there being like I feel the emotion and like moving forward with that shit and it's just like that and they're doing it to extract like our feelings but also like extract time from us so that we stay we're expressing this natural human emotion and we're like okay that is where I get that emotion now and stay there to buy things. Yeah, yeah,

slippery fucking slope. Yeah. I think we're on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no, we're fully. We're mid, uh, right in the middle of the slippery. You know when you see somebody like slipping on ice and like the first, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, yeah. Because they haven't quite gone down. We're like maybe on that third step where you still think you got it. Man, we're, we are parallel to the ground. We are butt on the ice. We actually hit our head terribly five years ago and now we still think we're slitting on the ice. Bump the size of a grapefruit on our forehead.

Yeah, yeah. Screaming down the hill. There's a, there are two birds flying around our house. Flying around our heads. Yeah, I think we need to bring back being bored sitting, sitting outside, staring at nothing. Oh, yeah. I'm still, I'm always impressed when I don't have my phone and I'm just, not even like being like high or anything like i can just purely be like okay i've been staring at

this thing for like five minutes and it's just like a tree great let's move on let's move on because that oh god it's not to feel bad for these kids man jack we got to protect these kids man i mean i'm trying but it does feel like you're just like i don't know it's like a losing battle right not a losing battle necessarily but yeah like i think about that there's this onion headline that's like a quote unquote cool dad exposing his kids to like a bunch of cultural references that will have them completely cut off from their generation. It's like a dad showing his kids like stop making sense with the talking heads. And I think about that all the time because I'm like, am I doing that? Because I'm not letting them like play Roblox and shit like that. But like I

kind of don't give a fuck. Like I don't know. Yeah, I think don't give a fuck about that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, stop making sense. Yeah, he's trippy. Because like I said, my mom took me to see a fucking Italian art film about a famous castrato singer. Okay. My dad showed me David like, you know, fucking naked lunch and eraser head when I was way too young. I was and but they also like didn't, I wasn't fucking with video games still like late in the game because they weren't buying me that shit. But the things I still think about like with like great admiration and love and appreciation was just all this different shit that I was.

to because that completely expands what you think, like, the deck of possibilities, you know, in your mind, like, especially with art and things like that. I don't think anyone's ever like, I can't believe I was exposed to this, these kinds of human, human artistic expression as a child, like, you really fucking kept me on the wrong foot my entire life. I think, you know, I think showing your kids stop making sense is totally good. You start showing the max headroom clips. Just shit that even I don't think is cool

All right That's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist Please like and review the show If you like the show It means the world to Miles He needs your validation folks I hope you're having a great weekend

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