The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 400 (Best of 9/22/25-9/26/25)

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 407!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists, to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us father and daughter for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi there, this is Josh Clark from the Stuff You Should Know podcast.

If you've been thinking, man alive, I could go for some good true crime podcast episodes, then if we got good news for you, Stuff You Should Know just released a playlist of 12 of our best true crime episodes of all time. There's a shootout in broad daylight. People using axes in really terrible ways, disappearances, legendary heists, the whole nine yards. So check out the stuff you should know true crime playlist on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Introducing IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. It grew like a tech startup. While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillight.

delusioned and angry patience. You think you're finally, like, in the right hand. You're just not. Listen to IVF Disrupted, the Kind Body Story, 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. Uh, yeah.

So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. Anyways, Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by one of our favorite guests, a brilliant writer, podcaster, producer who's written for publications like the New York Times, The New Yorker, Valley Legend. Valley Ledge. The absolute Ledge, mate. Great article in the New York Times about her. and her upcoming show. She's a producer on Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, was the co-host

of the legendary podcast, Girls and Hoodies, and Night Call, the writer-creator and host of Heidi World, the Heidi Flay story, and soon Jenna World, about Jenna Jameson's rise, the New York Times recent New York Times article was about

that upcoming podcast and also Molly Lambert's rise. Please welcome back to the show. Molly Lambert! Hello, hello, hello. It's time. It's time. I feel like Molly, let's get ready to Lambert.

Oh. I was going to do, let's get ready to rapture. Hell yeah. How are you feeling about the rapture? Pretty good. I mean, that would be a great time, I think, for a reset. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just drop some dead weight.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. See where it goes. See where the chips land. Oh, and happy belated Rosh Hashanah to everyone. Happy New Year. Yeah. Shannotovah.

I was thinking about that piece that they covered you in for the Jenna World thing and how you went to the old vivid offices, like off Kowanga, across from the Nissan dealership that is now dead in a skeleton graveyard. And I was just thinking of like how often I would go to that bar next to Hollywood dive thing. The weird, that building was so fucking weird. where Vivid Video used to be housed in. That whole area, it's like the liminal zone of Universal City.

And it used to be that you'd see the vivid entertainment sign, and that was like the sign you were entering the valley. Yeah, yeah, I read, when you heard with that, I was like, yep, that feels right. Now it's the Minion, the Universal Studios Minion. Which also feels right. Yeah, we've changed.

We're in Egypt, the Indian. You see the minion, like, you're like driving, you know, out of the valley or into the valley. It's just like. Do your kids respond to the minion, Jack? Do they have they, have you taken them to witness? They've never been really, I mean, they love minions, but they've never been so impressed. I think, I think maybe once they saw it and they were like, oh, yeah, a minion, but it's quickly become background noise because anytime you're driving on the 101, like it's just up there.

Do you think the minions are mad about Lububoos? No, like mad about the way that I'm just mad about Saffron. Yeah, like the boobos are taking their spot. Oh, oh, angry. Yeah, yeah, jealous. Maybe. I mean, the... I would say, like, putting those two things together

that really highlights the strengths of the minion over Labubu being, you know, Lubbubu doesn't have personality. People are talking about how the, there are people looking at the markets and being like, I don't know, man, the Pop Mart stock is going up and down. What does this mean? Does Labubu demand waning? Yeah, it's going to crash. It's going to crash.

You can only have so many fucking Labubos. You know what I mean? Look, that's what I... A non-believer would say. Exactly. I would say the same sentence. I would say the same sentence with just different emphasis. You can have so many.

Well, I'm so happy for you guys because you'll be able to have all the lububoos you want once I get to go to heaven and you're left behind. We're sitting back here. When Jack and I are living on the trash island of Labibu's... Trash Island with all the Labuboos of all the people got raptured. That would be funny if, like, it turns out the criteria for Rapture is just who have most lububoos. Nothing to do with the Bible. What can I say? I'm a fan.

Sorry, man. It was me, Pizzuzu the whole time. Anyways, it's a great profile, some awesome pictures of the Valley, a really good encapsulation of the Molly Lambert experience. Mm-hmm. What is something from your search history? that's revealing about who you are or what you're into. It's a perfect segue because normally, Paula V,

I would do something where I would say a YouTube video that I've been listening or watching to, watching two. It's going to be a rough appearance, I can tell. Who are you watching two these days, bro? I think you just already gave up. He's like, oh, fuck. Can we reschedule?

Yeah. No, but I, this time I'm going to talk about my podcast. Cold Brew got me like, So I did one the other day, and I noticed that, like, they've started doing these. I noticed it before, but I never really read the, they started doing AI chapters on your podcast, like against your will on, on Spotify. Like, like, they, they, AI will say what your podcast is about in chapters, like, like, you know, that AI, quote, listens to it and then spits out these chapters, right? And at first, I was, well, I was just like, I don't want that service, but I don't think that it. I can't find a way to turn it off.

But I also thought about what it's for. It's like if I say I have a podcast, like I'm going through customs or something. And they're like, you have a podcast we see. What's it about? You know, and it's like, oh, it's called Cold Brugami. Like it's just about funny stuff. And they're like, okay, well.

Talking about some pretty heady stuff. We can just refer to the fucking summary here. We don't have to listen to your podcast. You know if you're a fucking liberal. Chris fucked your mom and the TSA guy's like, what the fuck? Yeah. So this cold brew got me like podcast sounds hard.

But it's really all about what we're facing today. And so it's also sometimes, you know, it's funny, but it's, it's kind of a serious podcast. But like, anyway, I'm, I just don't like the idea that AI can tell these fools whether you're a liberal in two seconds or whether liberal, I hate the word liberal, whether you're anti-fascist in two seconds. That means terrorist nowadays. I know, I know. So can tell them.

Welcome to the club, every non-brown person. So you can tell them. Join us. So they can find out. if you're like, you know, they can find out other ways, but anyway, listen to this summary of my podcast. And also, what's funny about it is this. First of all, it's dystopian, but second of all, it's funny because it makes my podcast sound so fucking depressing. It's incredible. Oh, my God, it's so great. Greg was, couldn't be on the show, so this last one I did by myself. Okay.

The title of the podcast is Free Solo 4, the Great Toaster Scam. So that's what you're missing, by the way, if you're not listening to my podcast. Find out what that is. I would assume you'd like to know what free solo for the great toaster scam is about. You should want to know. So anyway, here you can find out right here. Chapter 1, Capitalism's toaster scam and new beginnings. Chapter 2, Soundbath, Tennessee, and capitalism's mental toll.

Chapter 3, unpacking the Charlie Kirk corporate clickbait phenomenon. chapter four the lonely illusion of the american dream wait this is fire dude chapter one two three four five six recognizing authoritarianism project 2025 and wealth concentration chapter seven the advice king redefining poor in America chapter eight living off 20th century fumes colon global corruption. By the time we're in chapter 9, you're in a Louisiana prison.

I'm sorry. Oh, my God. That's what I'm, I just think it's, anyway, the rest of the rest of it. Also, Chris, you are delighted in the AI summaries. You actually tell people you podcast, like out loud. Well, I mean, I don't go through customs very much. So it's like usually harmless. I'm just telling like people, you know, at Jiffy.

He's trying to get the podcast out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just telling like the people who. were like, you know, my ketamine, the people who are giving me my ketamine, I tell them about my podcast, and they're like, we don't know what you're talking about. I just say, I tell people I sell bespoke guns for dogs. That's what you say? Yeah. Yeah, like, they're like, oh, these are like bespoke guns, like pistols I create for dogs to use. That's so cute. Yeah, and then they're like, okay, great. The guy makes dog guns. They don't have to think about it. So, Bollavi, I'm also

doing ketamine therapy. And so I, like, the same way I promote when I was having panic attacks, Panic attacks back in the 90s and I'd get an ambulance ride and I'd promote my CD to the ambulance guys. Hell yeah. Oh, I promoted my stand-up. So one of my paramedics follows me on Instagram.

Yes, that's exactly right. And that's where people who are like, yeah, like who are the true artists are outside the system promoting their shit to medical providers. Right, right, right. And that's the audience. You got a tap, man.

One physical therapist at a time. That's my model for fame. Hell, yeah. One physical or occupational therapist at a time. Spread the word. And I'm telling these people, like, physical therapists and, like, ketamine administrators, they're all, like, nurse, I don't know how to say it, like medical assistance and stuff. Like a nurse practitioner. They're just pretty square, you know, a lot of the time, especially in Tennessee.

And so I try and tell them about my podcast. And I just can't imagine, like, them reading that summary and me trying to tell them it's a fun podcast. Right, right, right. They're like, it's super fun. It's not, I know it sounds, I know the lonely illusion of the American dream makes it sound depressing. But it's also, it's, it's. It's such a universal experience people are having right now. So, you know, they'll probably hear it and they're like, oh, my God, I didn't know.

I didn't think about this. I recommend the podcast, even though, you know, I do admit that living off 20th century fumes, colon, global corruption, doesn't sound that fun. It is really relevant to a physical therapist, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I tell people I have a podcast like that, you know, it's not helpful probably. always tell them. I mean, it just depends. Like, my ketamine people, I've been doing ketamine now for like six months. So, like, I know those people pretty well. So then eventually they just start asking what I do. Yeah, right, right, right. And I'm also on a drug that makes me talk

because I'm high, you know, so I start telling them all this stuff. That's how I started telling my, my guy who takes my blood pressure, Xavier, I tell him, you know, like, he's like, what are you listening to it? I'm like, okay, HIPAA. Yeah. And I say John Denver, and he goes, John Dunbar? Wait, he said misheard that is John Dunbar? Yeah, he didn't know. He didn't also know. He's like, I was like, you don't know who John Denver is?

He's like 30 years old. He's like a 30-year-old black man. He has no fucking idea. He's like, no, I've no. Who? Who? You know, we have a good time. Like, he'll be him listening to like the old white guy trying to tell him about

John Denver. John Dunbar, dude. John Dunbar? John Dunbar. Perfect response. That is so funny. What is something you think is, Overrated.

Efficiency. I think I spent a time, a lot of time studying algorithms, studying how people optimize for things. And I don't think that's where we find meaning and thing. Like Uber eats like delivering something straight to your doorstep. You don't experience the friction that makes life feel worth living. You don't bump into your friend in the street. You don't interact with your local community.

The efficiency of algorithms and how everything is streamlined in society is kind of boring to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Unless you hate running into people you went to high school with and public when you're high and you just want to get Taco Bell just quietly. There's a time in place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always found people to be an impediment to the efficiency of commerce. And so that's why I'm really excited about this new direction that our society has taken. This actually gets to kind of my first question for you is just,

you know, the difference between, I feel like you did a post on like quant speak and like how the language of efficiency is sort of bleeding in one example that I've noticed I don't know if this would be categorized the same in your book but like the phrase replacement level is the thing that I've

like from the world of sports analytics which is just like yeah they're like an average player but it like adds this sort of dark fascist like Thomas the tank engine thing where like everybody is just replaceable People as commodities. Yeah. People as commodities. So I do, I notice that as a newish trend sort of vying with the more broad trends of like language it seems to historically and even modern like today feel it's like a democratic phenomenon. It's like not top down. And it's, you know, it comes from like teenagers or like frequently persecuted minority groups. And.

Like, it's a way for people without officially sanctioned power to, like, weird, wield their creativity and, like, power, which is, I think, beautiful. And that's what you see with a lot of these linguistic trends that scare people online. But then, yeah, I do see also, you know, whether it be the world of, like, you know, like analytics people or stat people or just, like, the corporate world, you know, creating these new phrases. I feel like that's sort of an interesting, like, dark and light side battle that we see in linguistics happening all the time. Do you think about it that way at all? That's so interesting. No, I think each community always finds the best way to speak for that community, and it changes as the vibe changes. Again, I think the vibe is important here.

It's very probably true that since the Moneyball era started, the sports language has gotten more about, like, quantifying things. And you're talking more about things like RBIs than you used to, probably. Right. People care about stats a lot more. I think as communities have shared values, language emerges to reflect those values. So the video you were referencing was about how math nerds and CS people kind of find streamlined optimized ways of communicating. I think that's definitely true because their goal is to find efficient ways maybe mathematically to express things. Same things is happening with middle schoolers, right? Middle schoolers are just vibing in that they are using language to connect with other middle schoolers, to differentiate their identity from a And that distinction between top down and bottom up is kind of constant, that we always impose like a layer, like through dictionaries or through formal rules of what language is supposed to be. But then in reality, that doesn't fit onto everybody and then different communities find their own ways of expressing themselves. All right. Caitlin, what's something you think is overrated? I'm sorry.

Lauren. I'm so sorry. Lauren D. Titanic now and forever. Something that's overrated is American cheese. And what I'm also mean by this is I don't think people are out here being like, American cheese is awesome. So I don't think it's overrated in that sense. But the fact that it exists at all is a travesty that is it is the most disgusting shit I've ever had. I don't know why it's an option. You go to places and it's like, oh, do you want your omelet with American cheese? Oh, you want American cheese on your burger? No. Why is it there? It tastes like plastic. It's horrible. It's disgusting. It's just like a slab of like yucky. salt, like congealed salt and oil. Like, it's horrible. Why? This makes me feel better about vegan cheese, because I'm like, it's cardboard. I'm eating microplastic. So this makes me feel a little bit better that vegan cheese and American cheese are both bad. I would hazard to guess

that every vegan cheese is better than American, like traditional American cheese. Godspeed on that. I've had a few. I've had a few. Look, American cheese has like the superior melt, you know, because it's just like a big little flap of melty shit. But like again, yeah. The flavors is not there. It's more of a texture than like a flavor to me. But the flavor that is there is disgusting. I hate it.

I guess if you eat like a straight up raw, I call it raw, you eat in it raw. If you're raw do it, American cheese. That's what I call when, because normally I like to do it safe. I eat it with the plastic sleeve on. But if you eat it raw and you take the slice out of the plastic sleeve, yeah, that's a different experience. That's, yeah. Men do not ask to eat it. raw, okay?

Don't be weird about American cheese. Don't be weird about having this single slice crafty. That was in the GQ man etiquette list, okay? The only, you can't even eat American cheese raw. Please be safe. A woman won't even let you eat American cheese raw anymore.

What is this country coming to? What are we going to hug with gloves now? What's going on? Hug with gloves. It's my new blog, hug with gloves. Yeah, it's amazing. We're getting a lot of traffic, actually, right now. But yeah, American cheese, I think it's the only time, I'm trying to even think.

Like, I just tolerate it, like, in fast food just because I'm like, great, it's that texture. But buying it, no. Like, even if I make grilled cheese, it melts easier. It's better with other cheese. You just got to know how to cook your grilled cheese. Do it with some Havardi or something, like, oh, yeah. Pepper Jam. Like, have you heard of any other cheese?

Okay, Paddington. Somebody's got back from 32 Windsor Lane or Windsor Gardens or whatever. And then if you add some marmalade to your grilled cheese, it's actually pretty gross. Hold on. Hold on. We're losing. We're losing, Caitlin. And you dress like a little bear. Is marmalade like a big aspect of your dietary life? And wearing toggle coats? You know what happened one time for my birthday?

Someone knowing that I loved Paddington gave me like six jars of marmalade. That's amazing. And that's a nice gesture, and it's the thought that counts, but I don't actually like marmalade. So I just had, like, six jars of this condiment that I don't know how to eat, really, or, like, yeah, you spread it on toast, I guess. You eat it with the jar because you're not raw dogging. Yeah, you're not in the raw, yeah. All the glass. Yeah, always, always eat safely.

So I made, like, a marmalade cake that was, like, horribly executed. Oh, all right. Do you bake? Not really. I don't cook or bake in general. Let me do two things that I'm unfamiliar with, and maybe it'll turn out fine. This has to work, but also just shows how expendable the marmalade is. Like, fuck it, I'll take a punt on baking this cake or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah, I did throw a lot of it away. Well, eye opening, eye opening. Y'all, Venmo, Lauren D. Titanic, let's get. Yeah, I got to go to London and you want to having to London. The Lauren to London campaign has been half begun because I just want to live vicarious. through someone who, like, loves a thing. You can't be the girl who didn't go to London.

Is that a reference you guys get or no? No, what is that from? The O.C. Or, like, the hills or whatever. What is it, that reality show where that she didn't, she stayed instead of going with a boy instead of following her fashion dreams. Oh, that was probably the hills. The hills, yeah, yeah.

Was that Lauren Conrad or Kristen Cavalieri? I think it was Lauren Conrad. That's why I was thinking about Lauren. Now making great children's clothing. I might have no hashtag rate no promo but someone someone after the fire someone donated some baby clothes to us that was that was Loring Conrad around some okay Lauren I'll see okay LC I'll be seeing you later all right let's take a quick break

we'll be right back and you know news after this I'm Jorge Ramos and I'm Paola Ramos Together we're launching The Moment a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized?

I might personally lose hope. This individual might lose the faith, but there's an institution that doesn't lose faith. And that's what I believe in. To bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single single person. day that Paola and I don't call or text each other, sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country.

This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi there, this is Josh Clark from the Stuff You Should Know podcast. If you've been thinking, man alive, I could go for some good true crime podcast episodes than have we got good news for you. Stuff You Should Know just released a playlist of 12 of our best true crime episodes of all time. There's a shootout in broad daylight, people using axes in really terrible ways, disappearances, legendary heists, the whole nine yards.

So check out the Stuff You Should Know true crime playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started trying to get pregnant about four years ago now. We were getting a little bit older, and it just kind of felt like the window could be closing. Bloomberg and IHeart Podcasts present. IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. Introducing Kind Body, a new generation of women's health and fertility care. Backed by millions in venture capital and private equity, it grew like a tech startup.

While Kind Body did help women's health. start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patients. You think you're finally like with the right people in the right hands. And then to find out again that you're just not. Don't be fooled. By what? All the bright and shiny. Listen to IVF disrupted, the kind body story starting September 19 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved,

until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer,

and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn, or any of that other stuff. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up.

Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And we're back. we're back and yeah so first of all i think like this seems like a great corner i just want to congratulate you like just such a good time such a wealth of material it's like you know you're trying to study a culture like a it's just like the internet is like a real time live like dig where you can just like watch all of the things happening all of the different tools being used

by the culture that you're studying. There's definitely, as Miles you alluded to, like there are, we see a lot of stories about education sliding in the United States and that being associated with how people use language or just like, I guess everything just gets associated with like, well, this, this generation is bad. Yeah. Just look at them. But I don't know.

I feel like that's a time-honored tradition that happens with every, every generation. But this generation is particularly screwed, but not because of Italian brain rot, I would have said. Well, I think just to like preface all that, like, there's this, you know, the group that comes out like with the nation's report card. Like if you, you know, the nations report card.gov, which is like a congressional, you know, congressionally funded thing where they assess just sort of like what the educational system is like and how students are performing. Like the most recent one was pretty bleak. They're basically saying like 12th graders have like, They are reading at their lowest level since this even process began of assessings in 1992.

And the math scores are the lowest they've been in 20 years. And I think, you know, a lot of people want to point to different things. They'll be like, well, it's the pandemic lockdowns or it's social media or it's the dang fucking skibbby-toilet toilet nonsense that's doing it all. But again, we've seen these trends sort of, they predate COVID and a lot of these other things because I think, you know, there's been a systematic defunding of public education. And now we have, like, a literal villain from entertainment wrestling who doesn't know AI from A1 Stakesaw sort of at the wheel. So don't see much happening to that trend. But I think, again, there's like this, a cycle. But right now, it does kind of fit with a sort of bleak assessment that, yes, while our education system is in a pretty dark era right now, it's not always like this thing to lay at the feet of just basically like, and that's why they talk in this way where I don't understand.

understand the words. Back when I was working at the triangle shirt waist factory, we weren't talking like that. Maybe one of my hottest takes is that literacy is a little bit of a construct. I think to be clear, I think it's incredibly important. We should have incredible literacy rates and math education and all that really does matter. But also it's a metric of how proficient we are in the medium of reading, which is sort of, let's be really honest with ourselves in a cultural moment. it's sort of a dying medium. And we also are facing and consuming content in other mediums, like algorithms. And I think these skibbitty generation kids are more literate in the algorithmic medium than a lot of boomers are.

They know, like, sort of, oh, this looks AI generated. And boomers are getting tricked by like AI slop, Jesus shrimp on Facebook in 2022. They don't know what's happening at all. Boomers don't understand algorithms nearly as well as Gen Alpha does. So I would say there's a high literacy in a different medium because that medium is more present in our society. Unfortunately, that does mean a decreased maybe literacy in, I think it is related because we're consuming algorithms. We are less literate. I think that's probably true.

But it also has to do with the role of media in our society. And books shouldn't be the only paragon of epistemic wealth in our society of, like, information that we are consuming. We should be literate in all forms of media. So that means I literally think there should be classes in how to look at TikTok. And at the same time, there should be classes in how to read books because the more different types of information we can consume, the better it is. overall. So are you necessarily saying like, ah, it's overblown that literate's like reading conferences. You're just saying there'd maybe zoom out a bit because I don't want to say anything that could be construed as I don't

think it's important to read. And I think we should really have good literacy rates. But I think we should also be paying equal attention to being literate in algorithms. And I think like media literacy is something people talk about, but as a buzzword and they don't really understand what that means to really be fluent in what it means to engage online and to go viral because there are so many like outside forces manipulating our understanding of reality in the online space literal government sciops there is um just AI flooding things you don't know what's real and what's not real and it's that kind of literacy where you can understand how to engage right so you're saying just sorry uh not to take us back but you're saying that that jesus made out of

shrimp was not real. That wasn't actually Jesus. It looks just exactly like Jesus. I think whenever we talk about kids not being literate in books, we should also be talking about boomers not being literate on TikTok. Yes. Yeah, pretty interesting. Or TikTok filtered down to Facebook.

Which right. Facebook Reels, which is like diluted TikTok slob. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the worst. Yeah. I do like, so I feel like atomology sometimes gives us these weird like windows.

into history, speaking of boomers, like, lately I've been pointing out how dumb I feel when I use the word movies ever since I realized what that word, like, the etymology of that. Like, we joke about old people calling movies talkies. Right. Because they're like, God damn, that moving picture just talked. But not realizing the reason we call them movies is because, God damn, that picture just moved. It's moving. It's moving.

Kill it. are there other words like that where they like give you a portal into just like how different people were like either stupid or simpler or just like how different perception yeah i was just reflecting on instagram reels like what's the real real used to be a film reel which was a literal like spool of film that was reeled around like a fishing reel and then that got abstracted to the sense of this clip that you watch and then that got abstracted to the thing you scroll on Instagram meals. And in fact, now that I just said the word scroll,

scroll comes from unfurling like a scroll, like the feel like that's... That's still how I consume Instagram, but that's, yeah, on a papyrus skull. Yeah, yeah, use your wooden dowels. Ah, what do we have today? Yeah. Or a podcast being an iPod plus broadcast, broadcast being a style of communication where you disseminate information like it used to be broadcast seating and agriculture, which is a style of dispersing seeds. So, like this agricultural metaphor goes all the way

back and influences the word podcast. I don't know, turn up the volume. We don't often turn a knob anymore. Hang up the phone. I often don't hang things anymore. Like we have these sort of vestiges in our language. And that's kind of what's compelling to me about etymology that it tells this story about who we were in the past and how we've evolved as a culture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One thing just going through some of your posts on butterflies. Wait, wait, let me stop you on the word post. Why do we call it a post? What's up with that? It used to be like physically something was

stabled to a post. Yeah, that's making it to a wall in the town. I was just noticing, this actually made me sad. I was noticing at my doctor's office, like in the hospital, the waiting room they called the town square because they're like trying to appropriate, I guess, the language of community and stuff, which I feel like is all over the place that like as we're being kind of

converted into these little, you know, cellular beings of, like, consumption and, you know, just being isolated from one another. I feel like that people are, like, trying or, like, corporations are, like, trying to just, like, gesture at, like, old-style community things to just be like, hey, guys, like, we're all part of the same community hanging out in a town square. Wait, so. Hosting things to one another. Would you, like, check in for appointment and then like, okay, have a seat in the town square? In the town square.

And you look my hand and you're like, these fucking chairs? I was like, ugh. Yeah, and then everybody just sits there and waits for their name to come up on a screen. I think there's a lot of like community buzzwords. I don't know. In the content creation space, I'm so sick of the word authenticity. Like, we all know we want authenticity, but they throw around that word. Like, it doesn't mean anything anymore.

Yeah, that's the part that I'm really like in hearing you talk about algorithms and also just like, how algorithms are informing how people speak, that, you know, like, so, there is so much power in these algorithms. And some people, I think, maybe are aware of it, and maybe others somewhat aware, but to a lesser extent, maybe not fully understanding like that these are being manipulated for someone else's gain a lot of the time. But, like, you know, I was struck by your TED talk

when you talked about how, like, algorithms find a way to quickly, like, get people into this hyper compartmentalization. and that the point of these algorithms is to sort you more easily and that the idea that when you get into something and you're saying like, oh, I'm into cottage core, gork core fashion or whatever now, it's like you said, you're like,

the algorithm actually gave you that identity based on what you were interacting with. And that's like a really just sort of mind fuck kind of thing too that people are also chasing algorithmic words to A, get their content be seen more or to be more popular. And I see this a lot in, especially like sports talk on YouTube. I just see it a lot in any YouTube where it's about commentary, where people know that

using certain words or certain talking points or certain topics as outrage bait is just how you get more eyeballs like on your shit, but it's no longer sincere expression because now you are completely chasing the algorithmic goal of relevance. And like, you know, when I like I'm curious now, like no one is just saying how they feel in certain, again, certain genre of like YouTube content. No one exactly says how they feel. They just say what they believe will get increased engagement. How do you see like that playing out just sort of as we go down the road,

like as sort of this way of thinking becomes more consolidated or like one track because it's, it used to be like, well, this person's interesting and people are interested in what they're saying. And now it's like, no, I need to say these five words to get my shit up in the algorithmic ratings. And then that's how I will become relevant. Yeah, I mean, we're definitely performing for the algorithm. There's this idea of like signaling not only to your audience, but like using words as metadata

because the algorithm reads everything when you upload it. It knows that you're using certain words and I'll use those words to target your audience. Metadata isn't just like hashtags anymore. It's anything that gives information about content. And the video itself, the words you use in the video are information. So it all becomes part of this loop of the algorithm being able to categorize more, identify more, pin you down as a person better, right? And we are playing into that.

I will say, like, people have always been performing and playing into the, like, I think TV broadcasters are really fake. Like, they don't, they're performing for anyone who speaks like this, Adam? Right. They're performing for the idea of how you're supposed to talk on TV. And I think influencers are performing for the idea of how you're supposed to talk on social media. When I write a book, I'm speaking in formal English, which is not really how I speak in normal life, but I'm performing for the idea of how you're supposed to write a book. All of it's a little bit fake. I think it's okay to reconcile that fake.

with recognizing that we are going to communicate differently in each medium. That being said, let's take a step back and look at what these algorithms are doing. And yeah, it's really weird that they run under a system called techno feudalism where they simultaneously, like, are, we create the product, we consume the product, and we are the product. And all they do is they find more ways to put us into boxes and understand how we fit into this product space. And everything is commodified. All of our language is evolving through this.

consumerist lens of what can make the algorithm's money. Just extract value through like, you know, observation and like selling information about you or selling something directly to you. Like, and you're just like kind of there dancing for them. You can't communicate without generating value for them. To go viral is to help the platform. Right.

And that's what, and that's what excites me about this is that I'm creating value for Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, what could we be talking about right now, Adam, Just so I can maybe up our algorithmic score here. What would you be talking about? All right. I think we're past the summer of the Machilabubu-Dubai chocolate, but I don't mind saying it one more time, just in case we can catch the tail end of that.

We try and average three. Machil-a-lubu-div-to-a-chot-chol-a-chot-cholid chocolate. Uh-huh. To try and average, there's at least three of those. Six-seven. Dude-do. And to be clear, six-seven doesn't mean anything, right? It's kind of like skibbitty.

It's just funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just looking back at, as I was mentioning, some of your posts on, like, the origin of butterfly names, because that's something that I have a seven-year-old. Seven-year-olds are very curious about, like, this is a naturally fascinating subject matter for just, I think, all humans. And, like, my seven-year-old this morning was asking me for the origin of 50 cents name because his, like, art book had a piece of art that had, like, 50 cents head on a cockroach's body. he's like who's that why is he called 50 cents like they just you know they constantly want to know

why is everything called everything but uh wait a textbook has a 50 cent bug me no no it's like an art it's like a street art uh book that we bought for him he didn't like it's not through school got it got it got it i was like yeah the curriculum is taking off uh yeah things are fucking cool now in uh second grade but uh butterflies come up lot because every time we see a butterfly come through, I need to know the name and the derivation. I was looking at one of your posts. So two names that I think are like interesting little portals into history. One is California sister, which I just thought was a cool name because I just think it's cool to call people brother and sister. But it's actually just like a nun. People are like

that looks like a nun's habit because it's black and white, which is, I guess a window into history when like 40% of all humans you'd encounter on a daily basis were like priests and nuns. So that was like the only reference. Dude, I was thinking about the word habit the other day. It's crazy they brought that up because habit like a routine,

like a thing that we do. That comes from the sense of like clothing that like nuns would wear. It's just like a routine that of them to put on a nun's habit and then we start calling that a habit to do something as a routine. It's crazy. It's just nuns all the way down when you go back to

history. They were the first drag queens, giving us the culture back then. Yeah, the worst drag queens ever. It's just the least. So, but then the other one that was like the opposite that was painted lady, which I always thought was just like a pretty sounding word, but it's a historical word for sex workers, which. Yeah. So you have to like understand history on both extremes. Yeah. You have to understand history through the prism that people were, I feel like usually starving, usually slightly drunk. and just ravenously horny at all times. And so, like, Painted Lady, they were just like...

What's really different? Hell, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think just less starving, maybe. And less drunk, for sure. Oh, yeah. But still incredibly horny. But the fact that they saw a butterfly and we're like, mm.

That speaks to their reality. I think what we name things really is an indicator of what's going on. And, you know, if we're naming things absurdly right now, that's because there's something deeply dissonant with our current understanding. of society. So I don't think 6-7 is like some arbitrary thing. I think it's, you know, it's reacting to the current state of modernity. Yeah. Or in the official version of things, it's actually just the height of the president. And that's why they're referencing it. 6-7. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think one thing is just so funny to me is like,

we're looking at how 11-year-olds talk and then being like, society's cooked. And you're like, they're fucking 11. You know what I mean? Like, there's this. It's not just how 11-year-olds talk is how 11-year-olds talk and everybody starts using it. And yet, I think there's something deeper to what these 11-year-olds find compelling. If you look at Skibbitty Toilet, for example, it's a story diabetically narrated through the lens of a camera-headed Android. And these camera-headed creatures are interacting with other cameras, like with iPads. And they're fighting this fictional series of toilets. But what that means is it's a state of technology versus the basest thing you're taught is like a bad where bad things go, which is the toilet.

So it's like this raw force versus this technology. Well, it literally if you're an iPad kid, you're going on Michael Bay version, you're like, holy shit. Wait, we should be doing a critical reading of Skibbitty Toilet. I think if you're an iPad kid growing up in the state of technology, like you understand that like this is some deep reflection of their state of reality. Yeah, I was reading a lot about death earlier this year and just like, you know, our fear of death.

And historically, it's very connected to shit because it's like, that's the most base, like, human, like, animal body thing that happens that, like, you can't deny that you're just an animal that's going to die in the context of shit. You know, it's just, like, so far from anything else. So that that's interesting also that, like, that is, you know, this higher level, like, robot, camera-headed thing that is, like, what people feel like they're evolving toward. and then the enemy is head-in-toilet, like human animal, dead, you know, dying shit body. Interesting.

I feel like. Yeah, I've never thought about this lens. That skibety toilet is a confrontation of her own mortality. I think that's a very poignant point, you raised. I saw, like, early case studies when Picasso was doing the Guernica, and I felt like there was a skibbitty toilet in there, but replaced it with a conformed mother. But, yeah, this was something about. She's shoes right now.

That's crazy. You are? Yeah. Damn. Vimes, man. Timeless piece. Crazy pull. Yeah.

I should invest in Skibbitty shoes as well. Yeah. Or maybe just put, make Skibbitty toilet like the Guernica. I feel like that crossover. You put Skitton. Really, the point is that it's synonymous. It's the horrors of war in technology and modernization. I think that's the lens to read it through that, you know, why it is this period of time when we look at

Marcel Duchamp's fountain. You know, that's a urinal, and we go back to, we're talking about Dadaism and the modern state. It's very related. Yeah, agree. Let's take one more quick break. We'll be right back. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos.

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We're recording this before it came back, but allegedly. Could you imagine. But it's like actually they ended up canceling it again. We don't know. if he's been raptured, but the, after Disney basically reversed course on its indefinite suspension when it became clear that everyone was mad at them. Yeah. Tom Hanks signed the letter saying we're bad? Yeah. So there's a big, a big letter that went around that basically said, I think it was an open letter by the ACLU condemning Disney, signed by hundreds of Hollywood stars, including

Tom Hanks, who literally played Walt Disney in a Disney movie. You think that's what did it for him? He played Walt Disney. Wait, we just got to let. He just, like, put on his Walt Disney mustache. They were like, wait, what the fuck? Walt Disney mad at us? Wow, Jamie Lee Curtis also signed it, too.

Wasn't she just in tears about Kirk being a man of faith or something? She just loves to sign things. Yeah. Anything. Oh, yeah, sure. Great, great, great. Maggie Jelenhall, Michael Keaton, Regina King, Looner, which is so funny.

I forget who tweeted or something. I was like, they just won a bunch of Emmys about a show that was fighting fascism with Andor and then cave to it in real life with the Kimmel cancellation. I think we can get by this thing. We already won the Andor thing. It's controlled opposition. Yeah, right. Sinclair is still going to preempt the show for its ABC affiliates, which good news for Steve Harvey fans. because the last time they were like,

we're going to put on an ode to Charlie Kirk and then it was just Celebrity Family Feud. Wow, I love Family Feud. Let's see if Harvey Family Feud is good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder if that's also like, I'm sure there's so much corporate math happening too. It's like, all right, what do we stand to lose? Let's game it out.

Sinclair keeps preempting. What's our revenue hit versus what we might lose in Disney plus subscriptions or lack of support for our future products or the new ESPN? app or whatever. I'm really curious how that, like, what the, what the decision-making process was? Because it surely wasn't, guys, we were, we're going to be on the wrong side of history here. No, no, no.

We need to dig in. We recognized that this was a bad look for the Disney Corporation. Right. Yeah. I mean, some people are stating that the reason that they back down is because they lost $3.87 billion as a result of the suspension. This is actually, I think, an insidious little bit of propaganda. because, like, it still is operating in a world where, like, the stock market is going to save us from authoritarianism.

Oh, being like, we put pressure on the stonk, and that helped us, right, right, right. They did a thing that was unpopular and, like, you know, bowed to pressure from the Trump administration, and they lost stock value. First of all, the amount of value that they lost, like, turns out it was only, like, point six. 7%, which is like completely within the range of normal fluctuation on any given day. I imagine they're just looking at a little ticker tape of little Mickey's, and they're just like, oh, no, the Mickey's are going down. The Mickey's frowning. The Mickey's frowning. Make it smile and go, wee. It's like that smiley chart that's like green, smiley face. Right, right, right.

Smiley Mickey's. But yeah, I mean, we've seen that the stock market is rewarding people getting in line with Trump's authoritarian administration. And getting punished by them is going to be bad for your stock prices. But anyone who's still, like, I remember this was a thing, like, during the first Trump administration where, like, a company would, like, push back and people would, you know, be, like, and they've gained a bunch of value or, like, the Nike thing. And it's just like, no, I think we can give up on the, But, ha, you know, the stock market will decide what's right side.

You don't ever want to go down. You're like, who got my back? And then you list a bunch of corporations. It's like, no, they never did. They never will. Turns out they're not going to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man.

Well, I'm glad at least those people signed a piece of paper. And I don't know who's going to feel more powerful, the people, the Disney adults who threw their Disney subscription in the trash or Natalie Portman and Maya Rudolph. I hope it's Natalie Portman and Maya Rudolph. I also see people who are like, well, I'm not going to watch the Mandalorian and Grogu trailer. Oh, really? Yeah, that's really going to show them.

You're not going to watch the trailer. Because I don't want to see spoilers. I'm like, I want Grogu for president. Yeah, at this point, fuck it. Yeah. They did allegedly delay the release of that trailer because they because it was supposed to drop last week and then this was happening last week.

So they were like, so that's like the big change they made. Yeah, and they were like, let's delay the release of this trailer. They delayed some premieres because they didn't want people to show up in protest, I think also. Oh, right? That Lilith Fair dock, right? Wasn't like they got rid of the red carpet and then everyone's like, fuck this. We're not doing anything anymore with this.

Yeah, no, they did it. They showed it. They just, they were going to have like performances and stuff and people pulled out actually because they were like, we can't be performing. They're like, do you know what Lilith Fair is even? I don't know, right? You guys a bunch of corporate stooges? Not at that time, we weren't.

Not yet. Not yet. Yeah. Also, like, a lot of the reporting keeps referring to, like, the decision to pull Kimmel's show off the air for his comments relating to the death of Charlie Kirk. Nope. Like, his comments, wasn't it just? it was about how they were they were he said he was talking about

scoring political points using the death to score political points and hoping that this guy was a left wing person right which seems definitely true it was actually nothing yeah it was nothing directly about the kid like of like being like crass about the killing more so about like commenting about them being crass about the killing no it was clearly just that trump was like you know he's taken them down one by one. And it's that he makes fun of Trump.

And this was the excuse to take him down. But the way that the mainstream media is writing about it is they keep being like relating to his comments relating to the death of Charlie Kirk, which seems like a win for the forces of censorship. Well, that's the problem is all the media is like completely monopolized by right-wing people now. And so except for this damn show. That's right.

The resistance. The resistance brought to you by Raytheon. Well, we also don't have a major merger on the horizon. No corporations are trying to merge with us. No matter what actually happens, they report whatever they want and then people believe it. So. Yeah. Yeah.

It's always like just very bad faith summations of it. Because you can just, again, there used to be like some outlets will be like really, really harmless commentary. from Kimmel that was blown out of proportion. I've only maybe seen that described that way, like, twice over the last week. Yeah. And that would be, like, from my op-ed pieces nearly. Democrats keep taking the bait and being like, oh, you're right.

I have to put out a statement saying something. Right. And I will also vote to memorialize this person. And you're like, really? Really? No. Okay. So you guys agree on a lot of stuff, it sounds like. Kind of like there's one party. Kind of like there's one, just two kind of flavors of it. You know what I mean? But hey, what do I know?

And then, like, just the Brendan Carr shit, like the head of the FCC acting like, he never said anything about, like, launching this pressure campaign is so fucking that. I never threatened to pull licenses of ABC stations if the network didn't fire Kimmel. And then there's this quote. Let me say,

it's time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, listen, we're going to preempt. We're not going to run Kimmel anymore. So you straighten this out because we license broadcast are running into the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC

if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion. I said it was about news distortion. That's like what he was getting all like overly pedantic about it was like, it was about news distortion. Sure. And you're like, yeah, but you're still talking about the FCC revoking licenses. Yeah. Like in relation to this.

So what are you trying to say? Running car kind of doing the shaggy defense. Yeah. Oh, 100%. The old it wasn't me. Especially too, when people were. Like, there was, like, that one tweet that blew up because someone was like, oh, my God, guys, this is straight out of Project 2025.

And he replied to that tweet with the Jack Nicholson, yes, Giff. And you're like, wait, that's not, what are you fucking saying, you fucking goof? It's also like this thing that, where they're doing things, I mean, it kind of goes along with the Kamala thing where she's like, I, where you say things as impersonally and like in the most passive voice possible, you know, where she's like, I. I would endorse the Democratic. Like, 500 miles. Yeah, like just so I would Democrat, I would endorse the Democrat nominee, but he said, listen, we're going to preempt.

He's saying it's time they said, we're going to preempt. So he's like putting this in like three layers of quotes to be like, because we might be worried that the FCC is going to revoke. It's time that they said That we are I never said it I said it's time that they said that in our voice I said that they should get out a puppet That represents us and says these things

I did not say that we said that I did not say that as myself Okay this is my Bruce Buffer puppet going It's time A lot of these licensed broadcasters push them so And that was like a hypothetical man It was like a UFC fight man And this is like, obviously, would never happen, obviously.

I'm, fuck, guys, it's terrible. Yeah, it's just such, again, terrible fucking look. And I think for people that need more evidence that these corporations and these like sort of moneyed interests are ever going to stand up for anyone's fucking rights, you were sorely fucking mistaken. They are just ready to do whatever they need to do to, again, do what they have to, to make sure that they're a shareholder value, that that is maintained and augmented as much as possible. All right. Let's talk about flying cars real quick here.

That is a piece of the future that I think everybody had in mind at a certain point. They were like, this is what's going to come and make it feel cool, make it feel all worthwhile. The big great consumerism movement where everything just has like a slightly upward tilt and things keep getting better and better until one day we have flying cars. By the way, the Jetsons took place in a, in the sky, but we never see what's happening down on earth. It's where the poor people are. I didn't know where this was going. The Jetsons took place in the sky. In the sky.

I'm just saying. The Jetsons took place in 2023. That's what I thought you were going to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There are fan theories that it's like an Elysium situation where like this is just how the wealthy live in the Jetson. since the universe. And there are even some fan theories that suggest that what's happening on Earth was the other Hannah-Barbara cartoon, the Flintstones? Yeah, that the Flintstones is, everything else has gone back to the Stone Ages. And so it's like just a parable about

inequality. Wow. Because they live in a place called Orbit City, and it takes place in 2062, actually. Well, we're getting there. We're getting there. Yeah. But I do think, I do think we can make, Maybe hold on to the idea of the Jetsons. I'll explain that at the end. But the idea of a democratically available flying car, I think I'm going to kill that dream for myself. There was just a mid-air collision in China during a rehearsal for an air show where two flying cars crashed into each other due to insufficient spacing. What does that mean? Which is the whole fucking sky?

The whole thing is, yeah, you're supposed to have a little fucking sky. But, like, people are pointing out, like, that you would need air traffic controllers for any flying car. Like, think about what happened when Newark's Air Traffic Control Center, like, blacked out for a second. And, like, there was a couple minutes where they didn't know where the planes were. And everybody, like, had a—everyone was like this—it was the most distraught I've ever been. Like, that's the level of knowledge and, like, control that you need. to have over anything that's in the sky to make sure that it doesn't crash into

something else that's in the sky. Man was not meant to fly. I think that might be true. I'm sure some thick skull to consider we're like, well, we don't need ground traffic control for cars. Right. Because people just know not to drive into each other.

You've got to have rules, right? Damn, never mind. I'm back on board. I think we got this thing figured out. That's like they're trying to get a thing going here that's like Uber helicopters, the worst idea anyone's ever heard? I think that's exactly what's going to happen. I think this is going to be a thing. They'll, like, call them flying cars, but they'll just be like helicopters, essentially,

and it'll just be for rich people, like, for a handful of very rich people. For rich people with a death wish. Yeah, yeah. And it kind of already is that. Like, people who don't live in L.A. might not, like, live with helicopters constantly fly. flying overhead, but like L.A., you know, like Kobe was flying around in a helicopter. Like a lot of wealthy people like fly around in helicopters like when they need to get

somewhere. So I mean, yeah. Yeah. It's it's again, this is like what Sao Paulo is like in Brazil. Like where people fly in helicopters because of the traffic, but it's also it's down class lines because it's like, well, if I'm in a car, I might be vulnerable to kidnapping. Right. So I just fly above it all to my luxury apartment, to my business, to where Well, they'll never see it coming when me and my band of helicopter bandits do the great train robbery. Strings around the rotors. Deal with that. But again, like, they have like, they have like some, some, in weird, wild amount of like helicopter air traffic control in Sao Paulo because there are so many fucking people just flying around in helicopters. We're like, not dealing with the, not dealing with the terrestrial bullshit. Right. They're going to their job at the Space Space League Corporation.

Right, exactly. Elon Musk has said that he's going to invent flying cars. He actually did that 10 years ago saying that he was going to do it just for fun. And the only challenge was making them quiet. But that that's wrong. What a fucking, this is, it's so easy for these tech people to just do the dumbest lies to be like to puff your chest. I'm like, dude, that's fucking light work, bro. The flying car.

Iron man. Yeah. The one thing I got to do, just make them quieter. Everything else, I got it figured out. And then other people go, oh, wow, thank you. That's so crazy, dog. Thank you, bro. Yeah.

I love you. Can I buy Tesla hat now? Yeah, dude. 78 bucks. Like, he tried to do just, like, tunnels. He just tried to be like, we're going to make tunnels that people can drive through. And, like, he fucked that up massively. But, like, got the funding and, you know, what was able to.

He gets the funding. He wastes the money. He stops us from having the train that goes up and down. California, that we need all real bad. Right. Yeah. And this, I'm assuming this will, flying cars will be available to everyone.

It won't just be the obscenely wealthy. No, of course not. Every example I've seen even now is clearly like, they're like, you can get one for 20 bucks, I think? Yeah. No, it's just going to be more, yeah, they're already pursuing it. It's just going to essentially be helicopter flight

for the extremely wealthy. The big problem is infrastructure, like not in the skies but on the ground since companies haven't figured out how to site permit and construct enough places for vehicles to land and take off. And yeah, it would necessitate pilot training, which as we saw

in the latest episode of the, or the latest season of the rehearsal, takes a lot of time. Costly licensing. Aircraft manufacturers need to submit designs years in advance. And there are flying cars now, but they don't look like cars.

and they kind of exist in a weird legal gray area with these electric vertical takeoff in landing vehicles or Eftol's. And they're just designed for very rich people. There's one company that markets the very first certified commercial flying car ever delivered. And it's a picture of this weird, like, three-wheeled car. You ever see those like three-wheeled cars out on the road?

Yeah, like a Raptor, I think, is what they're a key, whatever those. It's like one of those, and they just, like, parked it in the driveway of a mansion, and then they just inserted a photo of, like, a 70-year-old rich guy in a tuxedo next to it. They're just like, this is, this basically sums it up. They're like, rich people want to be in a tin can in the sky. That's right. It's unregulated. It looks like a Chrysler prowler.

That's exactly what it looks like. Yeah. I don't even see where the fucking wings are. I don't know if it's like it's like it's. I think they just move the front wheels of the Chrysler Prouler to the back. And they're like, eh, and that's, that fucking flies, dog. And it's a 190-k now. And you have it, and it comes with a tuxedo.

You're good. Free t-gocks. And it's just like a Halloween store level t-shirts. This is a T-shirt with the t-sito print on the front? Because they are impractical and elitist. Of course, Donald Trump is embracing them. In June, he signed executive orders establishing a, quote, pilot program for EvToles that would apply to emergency medical services, air taxis, and cargo deliveries, among other areas.

Okay, I like medical services, great. Start with that. And then he goes, taxis. And you're like, that's where the lobbyists are. They're like, hey, man, what about the fucking taxis, too? Because I'm going to get some more rich people in the sky. I mean, the road's already unsafe with people in, like, on the ground in cars. You know what I mean?

Like, add to that some wealthy person who already thinks they're now literally above it all and above the law. Like, they're not going to get in their fucking EV toll and be completely fucked up behind the joystick or whatever they fucking fly this thing with. Yeah. I guess at that point, they would have a chauffeur. Yeah, I'm flying it with my mind, obviously. Yeah, with my neuralink. Yeah, exactly. That's why it took me to Odyssey Video, officer.

If somebody doesn't maintain their flying car, it could drop a hubcap and guillotine you. And that was from Elon Musk, who wants to kind of push forward with us. Man, he sure is concerned about guillotine's for some reason. Yeah. A lot of, could guillotine you? God. Could Galane Maxwell you? Who knows?

Trump administration announced they will allow companies to test air taxis before they're formally certified by the FAA. That was just last week. Oh, thank God. Someone could go wrong. Jesus Christ. All right. That's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show.

It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. I'm going to be able to be. Ah, come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon,

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I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us, father and daughter, for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi there, this is Josh Clark from the Stuff You Should Know podcast.

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