The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist (Best of 1/24/22-1/28/22)

Episode Date: January 30, 2022

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's Season 221 (1/24/22-1/28/22) Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I'm Jess Costavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Hello, the Internet, and welcome to this episode of the Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laughstravaganza. Yeah, so without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. It's one of our favorite all-time TDZ guests. One of your favorite all-time TDZ guests. The brilliant, the talented, the raw, the major, Caitlin Gale! Welcome to the skate park. I'm old, I might break bones. It's me, Caitlin Gale. Your favorite roller skating grandma.

What's new, Skate? What's new is everything. I have, yeah, life is very different. Every time we speak, there are changes. You know, life's the river of time. It flows forward, and we all flow with the river. But boy, yeah, when we check in, it's like different locale, different scene. But yeah, I'm in my new house.

I have a new house in my desert compound whoa yep yep oh we're gonna talk about compounds today oh yeah i'm compounded i'm fully ready yeah if you hear some booms it's because i'm marine base adjacent so if you want an indicator as to the threat level in terms of our global situation they're they're dropping stuff for fun out in the desert again oh wow but yeah that's where i'm things are great i've painted my hair remodeling stuff i can do mitre cuts now i'm a true i yeah what's a mitre cut i'm laying baseboards in our home and uh to achieve a seamless look at corners and to merge pieces when they are not long enough to cut them at a 45 degree angle on the miters fit them together i'm i'm asleep uh i've just put myself to sleep but i can do it i can

functionally do it and we were both acting like we knew because we have no like tangible works because like oh yeah you got it the fortnight the miter yeah i just didn't know how you did your miter cuts. Well, who would he add? The pen is miter. You know, then the solid. Yeah. The pen is miter. Is that Jessica Fletcher behind you holding a handgun? Oh, it is. Yes. Yeah.

That's a good old JB. So Caitlin has a background of Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote. And I didn't know, is there an episode where she pulls? She's squeezing off that 38. She holds that thing. Yeah. You know, I'm kind of deep in season one right now. I feel like this particular still is from a credit sequence, but I think it's later on in the series when she's like teaching a class and for effect pulls out a gun as if she was.

And then it bangs. It just has the bang coming out, the little flag that says bang. Oh, yeah. Joker style. I feel like it's fairly visible in my zoom. Maybe if I rotate my. Oh, God. Everything's. Oh, yeah. Oh, there it is. Oh yeah. Joker style. I feel like it's fairly visible in my zoom. Maybe if I rotate my, Oh God, everything's.

Oh, yep. Oh, there it is. Oh, there it is. I see the bang. Joker style bang for everyone listening,

but it will tease you into looking up Jessica Fletcher with a gun that says bang and it's worth it. It'll make your day. It's a pretty delightful. Jessica Fletcher, the original Joker. If you ask me, first of all,

she, no doubt ask me. First of all, she lives in a town that has the highest per capita murder rate in the history of towns. I think. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the first articles I wrote. It was talking about the most dangerous fictional towns to live in. And Cabot Cove topped the list. I'm not surprised. But yeah, I mean, there's one common factor to all these crimes, and it's that she's around.

Right. So what? She's like, oh, somebody better investigate. It's like, do you ever think that she's marking these people and then trying to clean up her steps? I'm like, I'm going to look into this. to clean up her steps or be like i'm gonna look into this the clues that are left behind are like are like i left my hat at the scene of the crime level uh so it's like i mean either the this is just geographically the like happens to be the worst criminals uh the worst murderers to ever do it or she's bad at framing people well so part of the murder

she wrote situation is that there's almost a confession at the end of the episode so like they're not supposed to believe she's the killer because we almost hear from the killer's perspective what they did and why they did it and i just finished watching one because i just listened to television while i'm working so i just have listened to a recent episode in which a bus driver killed a man twice to hide the fact that he killed him the first time. So we got two confession scenes. And I'm so sorry for spoiling this 40 year old television show. But that is the outcome.

It was Ben Gibbons, the bus driver. That's who did it. Yeah. But yeah, boy, when you come around to a second confession scene that Jessica Fletcher has teased out of someone by Hook and by Crook, it is, man, what a formula, you know? What a show. Don't let me talk about it. I will keep talking. You have to, most people have to

physically restrain me from continuing to discuss Murder, She Wrote. And Jessica Fletcher, in her own way, like the Joker, they both proved the pen is miter. The pen is miter. Oh, yeah. In many ways. She'll cut you at a 45 The pen is miter. Oh, yeah. In many ways. She'll cut you at a 45-degree angle, no doubt. Yeah, yeah.

What is something from your search history? All right. In my search history is how to shoot a dick. How to shoot a dick. With a gun. Okay. How do you shoot a dick with a gun. Okay. How do you shoot a dick? Just aim, right?

How to shoot a dick off? So, okay, apparently. Shoot an aspirin pill off a dick? What are we talking here? Like some William Pelt type stuff? I was looking this up. Robocop, shoot the dick off. Oh, right.

Just blow that thing away. You would think there'd be more how-tos. And I was looking it up for a friend's like i'm in a writer's group and well i was looking it up for their script and then i came across a whole facebook group about shooting your dick off what yeah what is the confusion i think it's pretty straightforward of and this is just you know me being a guy thinking i know everything but i have a pretty clear idea of how to shoot my dick wait are you is that more like how does someone shoot their own dick off or you're saying

how do i i'm interested in the act of shooting someone's dick off how How do I do that? More like in all the ways that there is to shoot at your dick. Right. There are good ones and bad ones. So we're talking about self-owning with your with a firearm. Yes. OK, got it. And you're saying you found a Facebook group of people who had blown away their phalluses with firearms? No, just a group of people who had blown away their phalluses with firearms no just a group of people who were intrigued by the idea of shooting their dick and the guy who started it accidentally shot his own dick while doing a demonstration and that brought the group together even closer while doing a demonstration for the group wow we're just talking about it, but Brett lives this stuff, man. Damn.

He's talking the talk, man, and walking it. I would assume that how not to shoot a dick or how not to shoot your dick off would be the more popular search term, but we all, it's interesting times, you know? Then again, the easiest way to not shoot your dick is to not shoot your dick. It's to not fuck up being stupid with firearms at all. Don't point a gun there. I feel like there's so many videos like that where, like, there are cops doing, like, demonstrations with their firearms and just, like, thying themselves constantly, trying to, like, holster their weapon or whatever.

And you're like, what the fuck? You just shot yourself in a classroom. classroom like what the fuck is this it'd be a huge problem if cops had bigger dicks fortunately hey i'm here all week, Boston. ACAB in the morning. What's new, folks? Well, that's cool. I can't wait to read or see that movie, whatever they're writing about. Who did that RoboCop edit? Summer of Tears. Was it Summer of Tears? I think it was Summer of Tears.

Have you seen that, Zara? No. Okay, I don't know if you're familiar with RoboCop, but someone gets... Oh, yeah. ...D-shot in there. But there's a cut where... RoboCop, I know. Yeah, where they extend that out and it becomes like a carnival of people getting shot in the penis.

Oh, my God. That's amazing. And it goes for so long, you can't believe someone bothered to fund this production. Because it's done very cinematically. I want to share that with my friends in this group. Oh yeah, they would love it. Yeah. So it was a thing where people, like different sketch comedy groups, did a shot-for-shot remake.

Like everybody got a different scene to do a shot for shot remake of robocop and the person who was in charge of the dick shooting scene just had robocop just shooting so many dicks off by fatal farm fatal farm they're the best yeah that's right and i haven't thought of them man i've thought about those guys in a minute. Also really, really good. What is something that you think is overrated? Something I think is overrated is the metaverse. I saw this video of a rave taking place in the metaverse.

And the person who tweeted it was like, oh, doesn't this look like fun? And I just thought to myself, no, it really doesn't. And like, why would I want to sit in my house wearing an Oculus to attend this? No, I'm not interested. I mean, we are investing everything, every ad dollar this show earns into putting it purely on the metaverse, building out a metaverse experience. We believe in the metaverse here. No, I'm just joking. Yeah, it looks like shit shit it looks like absolute shit it does it's i saw somebody i need to find this tweet but it's

basically applying that that theory that like whenever somebody's at their peak fame that's when they stop evolving as a human like with regards to everything from fashion to like their acting to their like ability to use technology and someone was like i think that happened to mark zuckerberg because like once he became a internationally famous like ceo like that that was around the time that this sort of thing would have been considered cool it was like you know sims and second life and like that and vr was still like kind of the wave of the future type thing yeah it just seems very like retrograde he's got that oh six technology swag yeah exactly he's like dude what i feel like yeah i feel like it's such a throwback

to like yeah the sims like i feel like we've been here before and also i just feel like any kind of technology that means that people are going to have to wear something bulky on their face like an oculus to experience it really i just don't see becoming like very commonplace i'm sure people are like i know people people are like i know people who are having great experiences with their vr headsets and i love that for them but i just don't see it being like a commonplace everyday household thing like people just don't want to wear a bulky thing on their head yeah or just or like what it offers right and i've i've consistently said until it's something that is really blurring the lines of our like reality and like what our

perceptive reality i don't know like that's that's the kind of push where you you'd be like oh shit man like you put this thing on and you really might think you're on top of a fucking mountain like maybe that happens and then we go down a slippery slope with people just like in their houses not doing anything because they just have a headset on but for me i think i just see limited use like again i'd love to watch like an immersive music video with a headset that might be cool or you know play a certain game or anything but i don't know like long hours long wearing is just i don't know for me i just want to i just want to go to the matrix if i'm being honest yeah i i feel like that it's good for like people have created like some cool video games to play with them like and i've heard of people

doing like hangouts with friends that they like can't otherwise see you know like hanging being in the same room with people that are like across the country like during the pandemic might be a cool thing to do but like everything about the facebook like facebook you don't need the facebook's metaverse to do any of that shit like people already have it and like in fact connecting it to a massive corporation that is trying to like up like sort of manipulate your behavior and like monetize you is like the exact opposite of what would be cool about right absolutely completely agree so i watch nba basketball and like sometimes i'll be watching a like you know philadelphia broadcast i think it was i forget who it was i think it was a philadelphia broadcast

and there was like a ad for like broadband internet and they had like the family doing vr they were like now we can do vr together and then like the dad like puts on the vr headset and then like the whole family everybody has vr headsets on and they're all just like wandering around with their hands in front of them like they're blindfolded. So it's just like it's entered the it's entered the zeitgeist. But like the majority of people don't really know what it is or like how people use it. So, yeah. But yeah, I think most of the videos people see are people falling over or like like plowing through drywall because they're so like disoriented.

or like like plowing through drywall because they're so like disoriented having a vr set so i get why they're like and vr and the depiction of that is like disoriented people in a room it's never like vr and it's like kids being like thanks dad i just got a new uh i got my third degree in particle physics like right that's not what it's offering you yeah but anyway you know look out for the tdz meta app or whatever the fuck it's gonna be called our metaverse dude yeah you buy into ours we just berate you for buying into it what the fuck's wrong with you all you need fucking money back all you need is the tdz nft the nft dz to enter the chat with us and it seems like you're in a room with miles and i yeah folks we're gonna have avatars

we're gonna have a really great offer for you guys coming out of the second mid-roll uh stay locked for that because zeitcoin is launching yeah and then what is something you think is underrated faking it till you make it dating hot single moms being dumb as hell on twitter zz top small trucks a good pair of boots, a functioning pancreas, karaoke and losing weight to ride a horse. What's that? Faking it till you make it. I think that is a good life lesson. I think so, too. And it's something as I've gotten older, I've realized literally everybody is doing. Nobody knows what they're doing at any given moment, particularly when you come into a new chapter of your life. I think I've heard people on here talk about this thing before,

but when you're little and you look to your parents or adults in your life, you think that they are possessors of knowledge or answers. And sometimes they are, but as one as one now, as, as a stepdad to three boys who I've, you know, helped raise for a dozen years now, man, we do not know what we're doing at it. We are just figuring it out as we go along. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know what I mean? There's nothing wrong with that. It's, it's literally how anybody does anything as far as I'm, I'm concerned. Now, there's some things that you shouldn't fake, you know, like open heart surgery or flying a plane, shit like that. Very important roles in our lives from day to day.

Don't fake driving a car until you make it either. That's probably a bad one. I'm on my grind out here performing heart surgery in the back alley every morning. Long haul trucking in my 18-wheeler. Do I know how to use car with air brakes? Nope. Let's get this paper this morning, fellas.

Yeah. Rise and grind. No, it's true. And also, I think just in general, right, more than like fake, it's not really about being deceptive. Because I think there can be that sort of tinge of that phrase, faking it until you make it. Of more just like, just be confident in what you're doing and continue to do it because i think to that point it's easy to look at certain jobs or like things you might aspire to do like i remember when i was lobbying and i really wanted to do comedy i was like i

don't know man like i just i what's it gonna take to do it and i just had to really back myself really just to be like i want to do this shit i. I think I'm funny. Like, fuck it. Like, let's just do this shit. And I'm a walk around like I know what the fuck I'm doing, because to a certain extent we do. But it's it's about sort of also crossing into that next, like, I guess, emotional phase where you're able to look at yourself and say, no, I believe in what I'm doing. Yeah. And yeah, that's potentially I'm just emulating other people who seem successful, but it's just confidence. So exactly'm doing. Yeah. And yeah, that's potentially, I'm just emulating other people who seem successful, but it's just confidence.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, just, just, uh, you know,

don't be a dickhead about it, obviously when you have that confidence, but, but be humble, but, but be, you know, confident that you're going to figure it out.

Eventually you do. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there's a lot of people who are monsters in the entertainment industry or, you know, six very successful people who are, you know, really awful to people underneath them. And I think that's like built on their insecurity that like, oh, no, like everybody's going to find out that I'm like I'm a fraud. everybody's going to find out that I'm like, I'm a fraud. And it's like, no, not nobody. It all just looks better. Like you're comparing your insides to other people's outsides, basically.

Yeah. And no need to do that. Because at the end of the day, it's just, just, just back yourself. That's, and that's really the hardest shit to do. Because a lot of the time I'm like, I don't have all this anecdotal data to suggest that I can do what I'm doing. And you won't, you won't have that data until you do it. So that's like kind of the rub there is like, you got to actually start, got to take that push to the next phase. I remember even starting this podcast. I wasn't

podcasting before this. And I was like, fuck, man, I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do. And I, in my mind, I'm like, well, Jack knows what he's doing. So based off of that, and I had to step up acting like I've been podcasting for a minute and i you know straight up i was like i'm using the confidence of just jack being like hey i think this could be a good podcast for me to push aside any doubt i had to be like fuck it i guess i guess we can do this shit and the fact that i threw up right before we started recording it every day for the first two years like i was like no this is just a stomach issue it has nothing to do with and i would have my sympathetic gag reflex too jack had to have his teeth replaced

literally like the aneurysm on everything it's it's very yeah it's pretty bad yeah the same thing with with me like when we started george center and lauer after hours i'd never done a podcast either and eventually you just you know you pretend like you know what you're doing. And then people actually start giving you feedback and tell you they're listening. And it becomes a blast. Or doing weddings, you know. A friend of mine asked me to do theirs in like 2006. And sure as hell had never done a wedding before.

And they asked me because of my beard, literally. They were like, you look official. I swear to God. That's why they were like, we like your that's where to god that's that's why they were like they were like we like your beard is this in north carolina uh yeah yep that's official out there like exactly you got the beard i think like i looked official but also kind of like a wizard at the time so they just they just asked me to perform their wedding and then other uh friends that were there saw me do that one and then asked me to do theirs and so on and so forth.

And now I got a little, you know, side hustle going. Speaking of beard, because you do have like a ZZ Top beard. And I do, you know, one of my favorite things about your AK is your taste in music. You have just like a great. Very eclectic. Yeah. Very eclectic, but it's always the hits that I've heard of. So I don't have to do too much research. Why is ZZ Top underrated?

ZZ Top is underrated just because I feel like most people that aren't intimately familiar with their catalog don't realize all the songs that they're familiar with that are ZZ Top. They think it's like all these different classic rock bands. I've had many conversations with friends of mine who aren't into them as much as I am. And I start naming songs and they're like, wait, ZZ Top does that one? Wait, they do this one? And you just keep, they have so, so many hits and they lasted over the decades. They evolved their sound. You know, they started playing in the late 60s, early 70s. Then when the 80s came, you know with eliminator and and they they updated their sound with the synth and stuff and you know some of the the most classic early mtv videos just absurd absurd videos uh that are fun to go back and watch um and billy gibbons is just uh like one of the greatest guitar players of all time but i feel like he's not ever listed in that same tier that a lot of classic rock guitarists

are right and uh yeah and and that's that's basically why and also like they my dad always had a super long beard growing up so i associated them with my dad like i think you know in that little kid brain logic like well zz top are my dad's friends like they all look right you know what i'm saying like it didn't make a damn bit of sense, but that's what I told myself at four years old. Yeah. Having a look going into the 80s was, I guess, lucky. I don't know.

Did they always have the long beards? Very early on, they were on. They they were clean shaven, but basically early 70s, they grew out the beards. And of course, you know, Frank Beard, the drummer, is the only one that doesn't have one. And he has a has a classic mustache. But that's the key to kind of their timelessness is that they've always looked like they were pushing 70 years old because of the dark sunglasses the super long beards kind of their their dress and and aesthetic and so they you know into the 80s their look didn't change the only thing that changed was like the guitars got like neon colored and they wore fur coats and shit and you know kind of had like a synth synth wave vibe to them

and then and then all throughout all the decades they've literally it's been hard to tell how they've aged and of course recently uh dusty hill passed away the bass player so uh rip to him so that they they lost lost dusty i'd say probably like six or seven months ago and uh so yeah that's uh yeah that's uh that's that's why I think that they are underrated. Everybody should go listen to just listen to the greatest hits. You know what I mean? And realize. And they've got some silly ass songs, too.

They've always looked the way that they do, but they're singing about like they're singing about some perverted shit, you know, like like the song Tube Steak Boogie or Pearl Necklace. What's that about? I don't get it. You don't. Okay. This is for off mic conversation. So good, good.

Having the iconic look heading into the eighties with MTV bad for the SEO and like listing of bands in your iPod era with the very last possible name in any alphabetized archive. That's a good point. I've never thought about that, actually. Never thought about that, but you're absolutely right. Miles, do you have a singular musician that you are like, that's my dad's friend? Because I have, like Billy Joel, I so associate with my dad for some reason.

I'm just like, yeah, they're probably friends. They're probably hanging out somewhere where I'm around i thought my grandfather knew miles davis right because i got this plaque when i was born from one of my grandfather's really good friends that was like this plaque from the album miles ahead and it was like this sort of presentational miles davis album and it said like two you of presentational miles davis album and it said like to you know miles young miles blah blah blah and then i was as a kid i was like man my grandpa got this from miles davis his friend right and yeah so that that was one in the back of my mind i never quite articulated out loud but whenever i looked i was like damn he knows miles i mean

you're that's rad yeah you you do come from like really cool people who did hang out with like great artists so like probably not the same for you i had to create a fictional universe where my dad hung out with billy joel yeah he was he listened to piano man and you're like i wonder which one my dad is is he the real estate novelist right i mean my my iggy pop almost killed my dad i don't know if i've told that story what yeah that's like a whole they live together for a second what yeah miles how have you never told that before because i say too much shit on this show you know i gotta have some stuff for the book for the nft okay yeah yeah for that you know yeah when this all goes off the rails when

this all blows up and you're doing the like vh1 behind the podcast series yeah they'll eventually do you have to bring all stories about my dad yeah those childhood stories right we should have seen this coming iggy pop almost killed his dad all right let's take a quick break. We'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into

the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives.

Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. is Grant and my pal Michael F. Florio as we give you all the info you need to absolutely steamroll your fantasy league

and bring home a championship. You don't need to spend hours each day breaking down every stat and every stitch of game tape to set a winning lineup. That's our job. We'll provide all the insights you need to set the best lineups each week. All you need to do is listen

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or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds. Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared.

And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. I mean, my reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest,

a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate

a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore, the story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back. And speaking of fans, you know, I am a member of the Kid Rock Fan Club. Just one of the greats to ever do it. Yeah, just... What more can you say than that? What more? Yeah.

This guy, he dropped a new fucking track called We The People. Okay. And it's just a tour de force of all kinds of sick ass phrases and hot takes in the form of a song. And I guess I'll just play. Well, I'm not gonna play this whole fuck. It's four minutes and there's no way we'd ever do that. But let's just go through some highlights.

I'm just going to play some selections. This first part is kind of like in the opening of the song and it's just it's just letting you know kind of like uh the way he sees the world mind you this is the first this is the first lyric that he says when the song opens up wear your mask take your pills now a whole generation's What? Boom. Oh, no. So, that's clearly a pandemic take, I'm thinking. Take your pill? What's your pill, though?

Is it because vaccine shot didn't rhyme with mentally ill? Yeah. I think that might be it. You know, right? Yeah. Okay. But that's definitely the rise of mental illness in the country definitely started with the pandemic and people wearing masks. And, you know, he's saying stuff, he's taking shots at Fauci, Joe Biden, but he does, again, want to let you know, he's like, I may masquerade as a racist, but I'm certainly not. Otherwise, why would I say this in my song you piece of shit i don't see color black lives matter no shit motherfucker

that that's followed usually in conversation by all lives matter. Yeah. No shit, dude. All lives matter. Yeah. Oh my God. Fuck you. What the? Okay. So that's a very like.

You piece of shit. You piece of shit. Black lives matter. Of course, motherfucker. And who's this piece of shit? Is this a black person telling him black lives matter? I think so. Okay.

Very mad. I'm coming at this person. You piece of shit. Of course it matters, motherfucker. Like everyone else's. Like blue lives, man. You know what I mean? So let's get that.

Yeah. I just like, it's interesting to think about him sitting down to his red, white, and blue moleskine and writing these. He's got a moleskine? Yeah. these yeah yeah yeah for sure he's an artist yeah right so he's like a wealthy person too like right let's be real he's masquerading as like some like poor guy he has money so yeah he probably would have a moleskine yeah and just writing these phrases that are i don't think they're the sorts of things that have been written down before because they're just like things that people shout

when they get drunk and are angry about nothing. Okay, well, I want you to hear the chorus a little bit and then he has some fuck yous to throw out too. CNN, fuck TMZ And you social media trolls, y'all can suck on these all right there's another part where i just they he even got let's go brandon in the song yeah so it's just it's really got it all. And then I just do want to, I guess this is the interesting part,

even though he's pushing back against like the liberals and, uh, the rest of America and the mainstream media, he does have a message, which isn't just all just fuck you motherfucker and suck my balls or I'm not taking your pill. He does. I do just want to point out how down to earth it is of him to be mad at TMZ.

We've all been misquoted by TMZ or we're leaving dinner at a fancy restaurant and TMZ just suddenly they're there asking you questions and it's just like, Americans are tired of this shit. We the people

are tired of TMZ asking us friendly questions. Every time I get expensive gas that Joe Biden has made $8 a gallon, you know, he is there. I'm in my pajamas. Right. You know? Every time. Just trying to live my life.

Exactly. And then I also just want to, like, the craft of leaving us hanging when he said suck on these. Because you don't know what he's talking about. And then, but then he like slowly reveals nuts. These nuts. Exactly. But again,

even though he's saying, he said, yeah, he said, even though you want to hold these, I do want to heal the country, which is an interesting turn because right after that, he sings this.

Okay. A little cultish, but yeah. Yeah, it's very cultish. I mean, this, the big kind of discouraging revelation from this song is that he, like Trump, is not going to let a single failed political campaign dissuade him from running, from continuing to pursue politics, it would seem. That's why I'm running for governor of Michigan. Ow! I forgot about that. Wait, is he really?

No. No, he's not running. But he's done all this campaign. He talked about it. Yeah, he talked about that. Wait, is he really? No, no, he's not running, but he's like done all the campaign. Yeah, he talked about it and he was like doing like concerts and mentioning it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, luckily we just, we just have this terrible, terrible song to deal with. So nice try. The song's actually going to be president in 2024. I'm sorry.

Right. It's the GOP nominee. It's actually the newest supreme court justice since prior uh it's we the people by kid rock it's an nft of we the people by kid rock is our newest supreme court justice that's that's where we're at i feel like it it does like the the positioning of we just have to come together and like criticizing division as like the enemy and like divisiveness and like not coming together like that, that does seem to be coming. The new reality is that the right wants us all to come together. And so does a lot of like the quote unquote centrists like that.

It's more like the knee jerk. It's like, hey, can we can we not be so repulsed by racism and bigotry that's what they mean by come together they're like i'm a bigot but like let's come together and yeah i may be actively trying to do things to disenfranchise you but that doesn't mean you gotta just like make fun of me on SNL all the time. Right. Come on. It's like really unfair. It really hurts my feelings. Anyway.

So, yes, just wanted to touch in on that bit of right wing creativity before this next piece of right wing creativity. Yeah. I mean, well, Amanda, any any insight from your time with the Proud Boys? Does this does this channel the vibes that you were feeling backstage at the resurgence of Nazism in America? The Right loved their rappers. They sure do. They love bad rap music. They love MAGA music. It is really embarrassingly bad. Sometimes the music comes on and it's like people live performing and you're just like, man, I wish that you could just like, can the Nazi just talk again? Like, can we get this guy out of here?

Because it's just so awful. I mean, because this is like the best they have to offer, right? Because he's like famous. There's a bunch of people who are like performing at like Trump Doral and stuff who were just like. I guess Kanye too. I mean, if he really did a show, that would have been something at that time. But yeah, so that's just so wild to me. Like I can only imagine where you have to go to these events and like,

listen to these people speak, but then you're like, fuck, there's four musical acts. Like I can only watch these little girls like sing like third Reich hymns for so long before it starts getting stale. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. But again, in the movie version of your story there what you will that's somebody will get up and rapping he'll be like suddenly dream weaver will be playing in your head and they'll be soft focus and they will have bars like the dude who was rapping at the capital on on january 6th who shot that music video oh Oh yeah. That's right. Yeah. Like that's the moment you're, you're at the Capitol. And then you see the guy rapping and like,

hold on a second. That's right. I'm like, stop the seal. That's right. Let's get this. Let's get this out of here. Let's get those ballots.

Oh shit. Anyway. All right. We'll speak to other people who were there at January 6th with you doing, doing their thing, we got to meet 25-year-old Jeremiah Kaplinger, who entered the Capitol, smashed some shit up, had body armor on, but just didn't have criminal intent. Come on, look at him. He's a nice guy. My honor.

Look how stringy my arms are. Okay. And this body armor is more like I'm cosplaying as one of my favorite characters from a Telegram channel that I'm on all day. But yeah, his defense of like, I was just there to look at stuff. It may have held up for maybe 10 more minutes had he not posted like a dumb, like little Facebook flex post with a Cersei Lannister quote. And this post has brought us to the point where now, where federal prosecutors are having to explain the plot of Game of Thrones to begin to connect the dots for people about what this person's intent was at the Capitol. So two days after the insurrection, this guy posted an image of a soldier from the American Revolution with the caption, quote, as said by Cersei Lannister, I choose violence. So then in the footnote of this document, they're talking about how this whole thing happens, quote,

Cersei Lannister is a fictional character in the HBO television series Game of Thrones. After being confronted by a group of politically empowered religious zealots who warn her that if she does not yield to them, there will be violence, Cersei Lannister responds, I choose violence. They go on to say that the footnotes also explains that Cersei used, quote, a weapon of mass destruction to blow up one of the largest and most important buildings in the capital city, which contained politicians and religious leaders. I mean, I didn't even make that connection.

That is good background. Yeah. And I don't even think that guy did. You know what I mean? Probably not. When I read that, I was like, oh, that's right. Because what was that shit called? The night, that green shit that they used to blow up the...

Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Whatever. See, this is how long the show has been, and i put it to the back of my mind but i think for them it's just like i like this quote of being like i have a binary in front of me and i'm gonna tough guy it out and then so they go on to say quote in stating i choose violence cersei lannister embraced and then carried out mass murder to achieve her political ends in the context of kaplinger posting this just two days after january 6th kaplinger's adoption of this quote is alarming and provides insight into his mental state and intent storming

the Capitol. I mean, I choose violence was a meme by that point. So by like references saying that it was Cersei Lannister, like attributing it to that character, I do feel like he's kind of freighting it with a little bit of extra. When shit posting becomes. I'm about to blow shit up. Yeah. When your shit posts are exhibit A in your federal prosecution. They're like, I'm just shit posting, man. They're like, no,

look, really understand what you're saying here. Oh, right. Huh. Maybe. In your experience, uh,

being there, seeing these people, Amanda, like there, there does seem to be like a blurring between people thinking or at least like portraying it as like they're there for the lulls and you know the people who like we got trump elected as like a bit basically and now kind of bleeding into nazis like straight up nazis who are trying to overthrow the government? Like what just that

cosmic gumbo, I guess I would call it, of like different types of motivations and types of people? Like what what did you what were your impressions? Over the last year, I have every every Nazi, every literal like neo-fascist white nationalist that I have met is proud of January 6th. They think it didn't go far enough. They think the founding fathers would be proud of what had happened. And they think, you know, like they're willing to admit it. They think that the whole FBI Antifa thing is stupid and embarrassing. antifa thing is stupid and embarrassing and some of them will say differently um publicly especially if they're like lower level elected officials but behind closed doors that's what they all say

compared to like this like weird like i mean i'll get like people who will tell me many of the people that i met were there throughout the past year most of the people there were there on january 6 and i'll have like you know like grandmas being like, yeah, it was a prayer circle. We held hands and prayed and like gave Bibles to the homeless people. And I'm like, and she's, you know, they'll be like, oh, like all, all the violence was Antifa. And it's like, what, like, what are you talking about? You know? So when it was actually happening, like everybody was all in, I mean, I mean, I was at the Capitol, so I wasn't, you know, like far away. so i don't know maybe there really was some giant prayer circle closer to the white house but when i was there i

mean people were all in the point that people were cheering when the police were like you know having pepper bombs like at us because they thought it was to get antifa they thought it was to get the counter protesters that were stopping us from coming into the capital um so in the moment everybody was all in it's just like what has happened since then right how you explained it to yourself and others right yeah no i mean i was at a prayer circle at the capitol that day we like we didn't even it was a complete coincidence we didn't even know what was happening we didn't even notice it really because we were so into our prayers just yeah yeah and then yeah when and then when jake put on his viking helmet and like left you're

like all right later bro i guess i'll see you yeah and i remember you texted me you're like man that jake guy's pretty he's got he's got some ideas man yeah dreamweaver was like a lot of intersection with like you know like, like Viking Scandinavian mythology. He was really putting me up on. But yeah. So you're saying like in a way that there's like two levels of engagement, right? Like with the more chest out fascists, they're like, yeah, we did that. And I don't want to hear someone trying to say that it wasn't us because that was like they were they're proud of seeing that.

And then on the other hand, you'll have these like older people who are less like if they're there their mindset has just been more like like that they're on more of a benign mission than maybe like a militaristic one yeah i i think i mean like obviously like i think you know saying that people that were there were tourists is incredibly disingenuous obviously bullshit. But I will say like those, like those, some of those tourists were just useful idiots that, you know, you need bodies,

you need people or you can't have, you know, what you're trying to do. And so I, I think a lot of people were very convinced they were on the right side and that even some of the police were on their side and they saw like what they were doing as like good. And I think they just don't know how to like reconcile with that. I mean, even speaking of the police were on their side and they saw like what they were doing as like good and i think they just don't know how to like reconcile with that i mean even speaking of like jake he was at the other rallies and you know families line up and take pictures with him

and i think you know like i think a lot about like those families and those little kids who like took pictures with you know the q anon shaman and like what do they do with those pictures now like are you still happy you have them like have you have you disconnected this much in your brain it's just yeah it's very it's very strange and it's um i i would listen to people as they would talk about what they witnessed at the capitol and they would say things like you know i saw a bus pull up of people and they went and changed in bushes into maga gear which like why wouldn't they just change in the bus that's stupid already and then it would be andGA gear, which like, why wouldn't they just change in the bus? That's stupid already.

And then it would be like, and they'd be like, like one lady was like, I think that they were sex slaves. I think it was Antifa sex slaves that were drugged up. And I'm like, I mean, just literally any thought to not have to take responsibility for what you did. Right. And it sounds like there's a lot of like, you know, inbuilt world building and paranoia fueling things. I really think about that one part of your write up around like the day before, like everybody was just sort of in this sort of stance of like, are we about to be attacked? Like, are we like something going to happen to us? So that way. So if we need to project more aggression outwardly, like that's just a function of us trying to protect ourselves.

Like what was that sort of energy like? Because that really struck me when I read that part of how everyone was sort of in this like group mindset of paranoia to begin like justifying a lot of violence. It was really weird. So the first rally was in November, shortly after the election was called. And that was like, I mean, there was violence and there was some paranoia. But the next rally in December is really where it kicked up. And just being around people who literally would say to me, oh, you're going to your car, you know, six blocks away, there's a lot of enemies afoot.

You know, you have to be safe. You have to be vigilant. Like somebody has to walk you, you know, you can't go anywhere alone. And like downtown D.C. is where this is happening. And downtown D.C. is pretty safe in general. But during COVID, it's pretty much abandoned. So we're the only people there, you know. Right. And it was just, you know, in November, people were still, oh, I back the blue and thanking the cops and shaking their hands. And by December, it was, you know, the cops are useless. They are unable to do anything. You know know blue mayors in every city just let violence you know run unchecked and the cops can't help us even if they want to and so it was like building up this narrative the only people that we could trust to protect us were the proud boys right

yeah there was like you're you're reporting kind of i guess i like saw the proud boys i saw the people like crashing in but then there are all these people maybe the people who are like claiming they were in a prayer circle but they're like not the Proud Boys but they're in this like group where they are under attack and the Proud Boys are the only ones like

there to protect them like was like a kind of level of I don't know like the dynamic that hadn't really come across to me that's so interesting because I mean like I've I've had a really hard time consuming media like I have not followed the arrests or anything from January 6th especially I've just been busy I've had to lead two lives and that's been taxing but I also like I don't I found a lot of the coverage frustrating and and for me I mean that stood out to me. But I also like, I don't, I found a lot of the coverage frustrating and,

and for me, I mean, that stood out to me so much. It's, it's like shocking to me that people are surprised by it because it was, I mean, it messed me up for days. Like that rally in December, I was, I wouldn't shut up about it. Like my friends were probably like tired of me, you know, I couldn't stop telling people, I'm like, something bad is going to happen. Like, I don't know if it's next time or the time after that, but this is going to be really bad. And then, you know, lo and behold, it wasn't great. January 6th, not so good. Yeah. or like a like sort of fringe paranoia thing to now something that's becoming like a more popular

opinion that we're like headed to something that looks like a civil war like i feel like we're maybe already in sort of a cold civil war with the occasional flare-up but the more like we kind of exist in the post-january 6th world, the more it seems like a lot of the stuff that you were seeing behind the scenes is not, it's not a, like, that wasn't a breaking point where people like took a step back and were like, oh, wow, that was bad. And we need to like learn from that. It's like, you're seeing those, that that belief system like become more and more popular and widespread, like that paranoia of like we're under attack and like only like strong men can save us. Like you saw that in the New York Times, Frank Bruni poll of undecided voters. People being like, yeah, we're like the crime is out of control. And like, it's because we defunded the police and like all these like far right talking points that have just like kind of made their way out. I don't know. It just feels like the in that sort of civil war conflict that people were saying like would never happen the like i i also think that like the mainstream media and a lot of people underestimate how strong that like proud boy side of it is and has like continued to become

like what what are your thoughts as somebody who's like kind of been there for first hand seeing it well i think it bleeds into like every facet of what we're seeing right now i mean if you can whip people up into a frenzy and convince them that there's enemies everywhere you can get them to do anything you want as long as you're like providing a way to protect them and so a lot of what you're seeing now with school boards is stuff that you know i was in like little classes being coached on how to like run for school board in like february of 2021 right and it's know, using those exact same talking points. And instead of doing it in a militia or probably street violence kind of way, it's like, how can you do this, you know,

with a suit on? And that is why like CRT, you know, critical race theory being such a big thing. A lot of it comes from teaching people, like, this is how you combat this stuff. This is like, if you don't want to defund the police, if you want crime to be, you know, lower, if you want your kids to be safe in school, like this is the stuff that you have to do. You have to run for office. And like, this is why I knew, I knew CRT was going to like be a really big deal. in april i was at trump dural and a um a woman named landon starbuck whose husband is running for congress she was like crt is what they are teaching your kids the democrats to make them more susceptible to child sex trafficking so

they can like you know like traffic your kids which is like crazy right like it's it's so removed from reality that teaching people critical race theory is a way to make them susceptible to be child sex trafficked. There's no like logical connection, but it worked because everybody in that room was like, yeah, absolutely. I know those buzzwords.

Yeah. Well, at the time I was like, what the fuck is CRT? Like I had no idea. This is April. I don't know what this is. But that kind of like paranoia and fear that they just go,

they dial it up all the way and it makes people do like whatever. So it makes them trust whoever it makes them willing to run for office. It makes them willing to give their money because they're just so afraid all of the time. And I don't see, you know, in the media, there's a lot of people just they're given like equal, equal platforms as though both sides are, you know, making good faith arguments. And obviously that's not true. Well, we just need to come together like kid just come together right right right on these nuts come together suck on these yeah yeah yeah so i i don't know i don't know when people are

going to wake up to it because it's it's happening you know it's no longer just happening in violence which is bad but like right you know i think it's worse when it's happening you know in the local election level where people you can do violence like a limited number of times before you're no longer allowed to do violence but if you are on the school board you can do a lot of harm for a very long time right right yeah it's to that point of like, you know, the ability for someone to evolve. I know, you know, when we were DMing you were to your time, like, I know vaccine cop, like I was at some like Q shit with this guy. And, you know, and we were talking a little bit about Q. And, you know, like, even there, right? I mean, I'm also really interested to see like, what the cognitive dissonance is like in real time when you're like in these groups, and everybody's getting ready for one thing to happen, and it doesn't. And you do see sometimes there'll be like a minority of people who may question like, Oh, like, what, what now? And other people like, just don't fucking worry about it, man. Just fucking keep going, keep going, keep going. What is that like sort of what is that process like? And is that even something that is potentially that could happen on a wider scale or like, you know, obviously those people in a minority because they're the ones who are going to somehow, you know, look at their situation and try and have a reckoning with it. But, you know, what was sort of that like just to kind of watch that happen in front of you? So, I mean, obviously what I was doing was, was doing was a self-selecting group of people.

A lot of these QAnon events I went to were between $500 and $1,200 to get in the door. If you're having questions, you're probably not going to pay all that money. What I would see more of would be problems that people would have with influencers. Maybe someone doesn't like something that Mike Flynn said, or somebody doesn't like something that, you know, some other, you know, Lin Wood said. But that being said, the influencers themselves are very good at like dealing with that and kind of like trying to make those like fears go away. And I have found that when things don't pan out, people, if they get upset, blame an influencer. So the way like QAnon works is that, you know, all of these Q drops came out and there's no that's no longer happening.

But people would bake them and they would try to figure out, you know, whatever secret meaning they could figure out. And a lot of the influencers, you know, would speak on these Q drops. So it's easier to be like, oh, well, you know, so-and-so's interpretation was wrong versus, you know, Q is wrong. And there's always, you know, some excuse. Lin Wood in particular would say stuff, you know, like Q is you and Q is me and Q is all the people who hate child sex trafficking. So, you know, we don't really need to have any answers because Q is what you feel inside, which is like genius if you're trying to manipulate a bunch of people, but it's also very dumb. Are there other people that you see as like,

okay, this is somebody that we're unfortunately going to be hearing a lot from in the future? Like, have you heard about this guy, Donald Trump? He used to have a reality show, and I think he might have a future. Now, do you, like, is there somebody that has a lot of, like, power in that underground that you saw that we should be worried about? Well, first, I'm going to just say I'm shocked about vaccine police making national news, because that's a weird dude. I mean, even at a QAnon event, you're like, wow, this dude is extra. So we all he just tapped into the fact that we all want to drink our pee. Yeah. Yeah. You know, speaking to the nation.

Like there was one influencer in particular. I was it was actually at the event where I first met vaccine police and I was in my hotel lobby and some random people were like, did you want to go to a, um, a baptism on the beach? And I'm like, yeah. Okay. So they put me in their car and we drove like half an hour away to go to this baptism. And, um, the guy who was like running it was this guy named Brad Barton who had, I don't know, like 30,000 followers on Telegram at this time.

And since then, he has like 130,000 followers. He hosted a 9-11 Memorial Day event that featured General Flynn and Lin Wood that I paid $500 to go to. And I had to bring my own chair. Holy shit. Which meant I had to buy a chair at the event in addition to buying my ticket whoa okay yeah okay i gotta ask okay keep going because i have more grift questions yes yeah i call it my byoc my bring your own chair event so i did that i went to another event he had in south carolina so he is like becoming huge but he's not really like

gaining me like media traction he certainly has a bigger following than vaccine police does. I did get to keep the chair. I was a $25 chair. I got a deal on the chair. So, okay, the chair is like, it looks like a plate, but then you twist it. You know, it's like finger trapped. It's kind of like, you like pills. Like it kind of looks like that when you pull it out.

So it's like portable. So you can put it in your luggage when you're done. The chairs were $35, but the woman selling the chairs was like friendly with me because I had seen her so many times. So she gave me a bargain for $25 chair. So $500 for the ticket, $25 for the chair. Wow. And that's like, and that's someone who that's like their side business. Someone just like, I know they're not going to have chairs here, so I'm just going to set up my chair shop. Oh, man, I'm going to really mess your day up. OK, so she sells all this Trump stuff at like every event you can imagine, like like Second Amendment or events like things that Trump derail. Like she like donates money to Trump, at least blinked out purses that say Trump on them.

She's got she actually sold me. I have a hat that like fuck biden that she sold me i'm at a different event she's every every q and i or trump event you can think of they have a presence her little company does but yeah she knew it wasn't for your own chair event so she ordered a bunch of chairs because she also sells them at trump like rallies when he speaks so wow there There's a whole side world of whatever you want to sell. I'm always struck by the Black people selling the stuff at the events. And I'm like, look at them just hustling. Because I'm like, I'm not sure how many of these people. I saw one video where the guy was like, I'm just selling this shit because it sells.

And you're like, wow. Yeah. What an interesting. And then you have the people who are like, I'm so devoted. I do custom bejeweled pimp cups that say, go, Brandon. We got it all. Right. Yeah, let's take a quick break. I do want to ask about weaknesses and that, like, the scammability of the supporter base seems to be one potential one. But yeah, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back to talk more about this. But yeah, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades.

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It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago, when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks.

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working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and we're back and you know florida always leads the way maybe even more than donald trump since january 6th but so late last year our boy desantis proposed a bill that would allow parents to sue schools if their kids are taught critical race theory or even if they suspected it yeah and now

that logic is evolving into a new bill that it's essentially makes it illegal to make white people feel bad about like reality like anything yep yep that's that's what it is uh the the bill which just made it out of like a education committee says this quote an individual by virtue of his or her race or sex does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex an individual should not be made to feel discomfort guilt anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race facts don't care about your feelings i thought though no right we know like come on like there's nothing consistent this is just amazing that like this is uh you know the darling of the right in

conservative debate culture and and all that bullshit ben shapiro his whole slogan is facts don't care about your feelings and yet this is the epitome this is the the most like i i don't want to feel bad about anything bullshit that i have ever read it's pretty incredible i mean i think most observers are right to point out that it's like this looks this bill looks like it's tailored exclusively for white people you know i mean like this who is this for because it's obviously you know this is this isn't an actual problem you know or but it's more just like the legal equivalent of like sticking your fingers in your ears and closing your eyes and screaming as a way to like avoid you know having any kind of reckoning or self-awareness around history.

But yeah, I mean, this is all just sort of part of the same effort to just nullify the concept of discrimination in the hopes that it'll just create more racists without any kind of historical awareness. Yeah. Like what does that future look like if they are like continue to be successful and it's a world where you're not allowed to bring up like it it's like i'm trying to like put it in the context of like the future dystopias it's just like not a future dystopia that anyone had really laid out you know like what what is the florida version of the themen, like, museum? It's like, well, yeah, right? They actually take into account, like, what happened? Like, what's that version?

It seems like, just in general, they want to set the table energetically to be like, hey, man, everything's all good here. Like, nobody's oppressed here, okay? And, like, if you're bringing that up, like, that's bullshit because nobody's oppressed here. Oh, so it just looks like modern America. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I just I, you know, similar to the Texas abortion law and this one, the part of it where it says that basically anybody can sue anybody for this and claim that they were breaking the law.

It's just we're we're turning the the public into a bunch of dog, the bounty hunters. But about abortion and critical race theory and shit. And like the ability to do this means that it's going to have people just accusing folks left and right, just, you know, just because they don't like them. You know, you're pissed at your neighbor because they blew their leaves into your yard. And then you claim that they were talking to your kid about martin luther king or the civil rights or some shit and like it's just it's uh that's the future instead of having this like police state where there's like a one in their mind like you know some communist police department that is is coming to your home and and arresting you it's just everybody is going to be able to point the finger and accuse each other It's just everybody is going to be able to point the finger

and accuse each other of breaking laws. Like that seems to be the Republican dystopian future they're going for. Sounds like Cold War East Germany. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just everybody, like we've enabled everyone to go on a snitch mode. But yeah, and it's just very cynical,

but this is, again, a cynical party doing whatever they can to kind of keep this going. So if there are any there's any sort of historical precedent that makes what they do now look bad, it's like, well, then we can't talk about that shit at all. of this country and like how these younger generations and the diversity of America begins to change more and more and more. I don't know how many kids of color you're going to be able to like get away from this idea that oppression isn't real because on some level it's going to be lived. And that is a whole other dimension to you can you can only teach people so much. But if the lived experience is one thing that does that does move people in a certain direction but i think that's the most optimistic read at the moment yeah all right let's uh let's shift focus over to the biden administration they're not nailing it with like the the big core promises they made such as securing voting rights and minimum wage debt, that stuff.

Climate change. Climate change. You know, they're still just like throwing up their hands and being like, I mean, what fucking cinema? Yeah. Yeah. So that's not looking good. So we wanted to check in with one of his other campaign promises that I hadn't even really noticed at the time.

But this is a quote from Biden during the 2020 campaign. I promise you, if I'm elected president, you're going to see the single most important thing that changes America. We're going to cure cancer. Woo! That is big. That makes me so scared that their cure for cancer exists. They're just trying to figure out when to deploy that shit. Yeah, seriously.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, that almost seems like, yo, I was talking to the homies at Merck. Right. Like an October campaign surprise or something. Yeah, exactly. They're going to save it for the second term or some shit. Right, or midterms or something.

He's like, y'all, if the house goes red, I mean, I got this cancer cure. Maybe not. I guess y'all weren't good this year. That's his Bin Laden's body being kept on ice. That's like, yeah. Right. That's a bold statement.

Yeah. It's kind of strong. He came with it. I thought for sure Yeah. It's, it's kind of strong. He came, he came with it. I thought for sure. Like I know it's, you know, it's in the italics and everything. So I assumed it was on the, the show document that it was a real quote,

but that does not sound real at all. Yeah. We're going to cure cancer. That sounds, that sounds like a Simpsons quote or something of like a politician, like running for office. That does not sound right. Fucking absurd. and all the rain will be root beer yummy you're like yes i love this guy and every pet you've ever known will come back and greet you uh you know from your childhood

exactly who what other presidential candidates person necroman? It wasn't just a one time, you know, his riff gun misfiring. This was a thing that he repeated another time. He mentioned it. Another direct quote. I've worked so hard in my career that I promise you, if I'm elected president, you're going to see the single most important thing that changes America. I've worked so hard in my career that it's it's like the central like the that neoliberal idea that like well you just study hard work hard and like it pays off and you become a billionaire and if you don't then you should have worked a little bit harder and that is just

that ideal misfiring in his brain to be well i've I've worked hard. I mean, look at me, I'm running for president, so I must have done something right. And therefore, I'm going to cure cancer. It's definitely got guy whose wife is threatening to leave him energy. And like, babe, I swear to God, it's going to be different this time. Like, you know, we're going to buy that house that you uh that you've been wanting you know we'll uh we'll we'll spend more time together and i'm gonna cure cancer i mean it also has like the dude talking to lenny and of mice and men energy like right before he shoots him in the back of the head yeah yeah no it's all we're gonna cure cancer, George. Oh, boy. I'm so sorry about this. I'm sorry, buddy. Yeah, sure.

Sure, we will. Wait, so what is what is that even feasible? I mean, because what what's like the because I get their constant advancements, right? I always see different like obviously the oncology treatments and that that research is is rapidly progressing all the time but like is that even is that even close like is even swinging at something that can even be hit for a single it's close for so cancer is a catch-all name for hundreds and maybe even thousands of types of diseases we have cured some of them like that's that's the sort of shit that also america is really bad at is like stopping and being like yo they just cured like this type of cancer they used to like the doctor would just tell you you have 18 months like now they cure it like that shit is

wild we don't really report that but yeah so it's not a single disease. There are massive advances happening all the time in like cancer treatment and even like cancer cures. By the way, I do want to just note that this idea that sounds so absurd to us that like we are assuming that it was like immediately buried by the his like administration staffer or his campaign staffers. Trump heard it and immediately said that he was going to cure cancer. Jesus Christ. Like a rat battle of false hope, as JM put it. He would cure cancer

if he elected. That's incredible. We will come up with the cures to many, many problems. Many, many diseases, including cancer and others. And we're getting closer all the time. Somebody taught that man about type one diabetes. Cause I've had that since, since I was nine years old and there's still no cure in sight for that one.

So, uh, you know, cause somebody taught, taught Trump, you know, tell him, Hey, Hey, you know what your bitch ass can't do? Cure type one diabetes. And he's like, well, actually I can't cure the greed for the pharmaceutical companies is the problem. We could, it's just that insulin, that insulin flow, baby. That's quite the profit margin. Trump had proposed shrinking the National Cancer Institute's overall budget by almost $900 million. So that was what he had done to, you know, help.

But if you can't diagnose cancer, then's not there like that's that's what he was trying to do yeah it's all negative thinking come poorly in your old age exactly scientology they got some interesting ideas about whether cancer is real or whether you're just scared but anyways or you just need more e-meter readings yeah so biden's idea was basically based on this thing where they would create a version of darpa like you know the amazing like futuristic technology weapons designer called arpa h that would be like the health care version of darpa where like you just have all of the smartest people using all the money and all the futuristic technology to like try out all these outside the box things on cancer cures instead of like fucking bombs that can like dig 30 miles underground. They're just going to be like, yo, this hypersonic missile cures cancer.

This drone cures cancer. It also happens to kill everything within a 13 mile radius but the cancer is gone technically so yeah it won't show up on x-ray exactly exactly it's just obliterated so in the spring of 2021 biden put together his proposal for arpa h with a budget for the year 2022 of six point five billion dollars. So he tried and it was unsuccessful. You're never going to believe this. It was unsuccessful.

It's been cut down multiple times. Now we're looking at a third of it. And also he proposed he changed the proposal from being a standalone agency. And the whole point is like it's standalone agency that like can think outside the box on all this shit, like to being a wing of the National Institute of Health, which is like very bureaucratic and is sort of the thing that you would propose this idea to like get around is like,

well, so here's like what's interesting about this idea is we have this like thing of people who are just kind of like blue skying it and seeing like if they come up with something and everybody's like well that so that doesn't you don't really have anything then you're just like giving the national institute of health more money and they'll fuck it up somehow so i don't know it's it seems like it is not shockingly a watered down version of a watered down idea that is now being funded at one third of what the request was there is still funding for it but it doesn't seem like we're gonna get this like thunderbolt from the sky also like you think about how much covet has disrupted

the hospital like i have family who had to get cancer treatment and during the pandemic and it was not easy you know what i mean and to even think it's like yo get the fucking hospitals running first before you start being like and then we're gonna cure cancer because so many people have had to delay all kinds of checkups and things like that and the stress of living in a pandemic you're fucking you're like being on top your health can go into the back real quick and next thing you know you could have serious health issues absolutely it's like there's so much shit compounding this that it's very very frustrating yeah almost like the whole health care system needs to be fixed and not just like, I'm going to get a splashy headline by making the A-team of cancer research. But yeah, I mean,

so he in February 2021, he said he was going to do everything we can to end cancer as we know it once we beat COVID. And like you said, that the idea that they're two separate things is wrong and misguided and the pandemic is massively affecting millions of. Yeah, it's all, it's all systemic, this whole, this whole thing. And I've been intimately familiar with our healthcare system. Like I said, I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was nine years old, spent a week in the hospital. And so it's, you know, I've had a lifetime and I've gone long periods of not having health care. I've literally had to shoplift my insulin before.

That is a true story from Walmart. You know, when I was 18, I got kicked off of Medicare and literally had to sweet talk the ladies into handing me insulin, you know, at pharmacy and then uh and and then you know slipping it into my pocket before i walked out and i'm you know not proud of it but i don't give a shit because it's walmart fuck them but uh also like you shouldn't feel ashamed that you have to exist in a fucked up yeah exactly exactly like it's like oh i have to i have to do this to actually live yeah yeah yeah there's there's so like there's immediate things that need to be addressed first like that. Now, the concept of ARPA-H, it sounds cool as hell to me. I know in practice, the people that are actually going to be making this thing function and the bureaucracy, like you said, Jack, is going to make it an impossible, impossible thing to accomplish.

But I love the idea. to accomplish but i love the idea it's like a futuristic like uh like it feels like the plot setup of like some some michael bay movie or something where we find out that the government funded this secret department that you know basically solved all of the world's ailments and and uh and diseases all they had to do was create an island full of clones yeah exactly shout out to that movie. That movie doesn't get enough love. The Island. Yeah.

One of the greats. I like that one. Yeah. But yeah, it's just, I don't, you're absolutely right. It's going to get fucked up. And do you blame anybody for being cynical anymore? No. When like this, something as like, as should be universally proposed as like trying to

cure diseases that everybody gets affected by gets trimmed down from just a measly 6.5 billion what's our defense budget like 800 billion dollars 6.5 billion and we can't even get like a third of that passed for this yeah this reason maybe that was their thing is like maybe they'll think it's for DARPA for like defense defense research they're like yeah yeah yeah great man uh let's put 200 200 billion good good good like yes the h actually stands for hellfire uh hellfire missiles that's yeah it's arpa it's just a whole arpa department just for hellfire missiles oh we already have one oh it's for um helicopters helicopters yes okay yeah We need more attack choppers. Thanks.

Shit. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, the look at the amount of money and lives spent on a response to 9-11 as opposed to the current pandemic. And like, it's like, it's we care so much more about like violence than we do about like the humanity of of the people in our country. It's awful. I think. Yeah. And this cynicism just comes with observing how, you know, just more, you know, speaking of just specific about the United States, you know, the reflection of how you feel the country treats you or how much you think the government cares about you. treats you or how much you think the government cares about you and it's very apparent that they don't give a fuck at all so yeah when you when you have people who don't give a fuck promising you things like hey man we're gonna get you healthy it's like okay yeah yeah right you know

what's really frustrating too is that like it's particularly about biden is i think biden thinks he gives a shit he just like doesn't he thinks he's well he's just yeah he's just he's a fucking relic man and he's like in that like liberal headspace where it's like well i said the good things and that's putting hope out there right but like come on folks it's hard out here you got to contend with all these lobbying groups like we do the best we can and then we just keep this thing going and that i think that helps him sleep at night that or his just severe old age think that helps him sleep at night. That or his just severe old age. Yeah. That helps him sleep upright sitting at his desk for 15 minute increments every five minutes. I would love to talk to him for like 20 minutes just to see like if I could fuck with him.

You know what I mean? Just like kind of get him saying something like, yo, I agree with that, man. Keep going. Keep going. And he's like, yeah. And all the all the black people uh they'll do a black people test uh where they gotta vote for me and then they get their black card like yes joe keep talking that shit man and you're like oh please please please get this guy away from him he's entertaining all his worst thoughts yeah you always hear stories about uh like but this guy in person

like the the specifically the president's like you know clinton is one thing on camera but like you get him in person he knows everyone's name he like will like hold a really in-depth conversation with you while doing the new york times crossword puzzle and sexually harassing a woman in the back row or something but like i i feel like our last two presidents are probably like if you got them in person, you'd be like, you know, that that level of ego, it creeps me out. Like, I've been around politicians a few times and that just or like just very successful businessmen, CEO types in general. I it makes my skin crawl to be in the same room with them quite often. And I don't, I don't know that I could handle being in the same room with a sitting or former us president. It would, it would be overwhelming. And I would say some

shit that would get me in trouble. Probably. Yeah. You're like, Oh, you're like, what's that war criminal? Hey, man, come on now. That's not fair. I fair i'm sorry sure the hague would love to see you though anyway well thanks for the poke obama don't give a shit about your year because i'm i'm in obama's house in hawaii yeah definitely that was the whole thing i envisioned we're out here and looking at diamond head you know what i mean He's a good scene building. He's definitely a good job. He's definitely a good coach.

Oh, here you go. All right. That's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show. It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. Thank you. Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson.

We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio

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