The Vergecast - Finding your digital prophet

Episode Date: March 14, 2014

The Vergecast is a discussion of all things relevant and irreverent in the worlds of art, culture, science, and technology. On this week's episode, we discuss SXSW, compare Jared Leto to a beautiful pony, and explore the notion of heaven as portrayed by Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and welcome to the Vergecast for the week of March 10th, 2014. I'm Josh Topolski. I'm T.C. Sotic, and this is my third week in captivity. Please help. And... I'm Katie. Yeah, Katie. Good old T.C. and Katie.

My two favorite people to do the Vergecast with. I look like there's an oil, an oil spill on my head with this hair. With my hair. It's getting really long. It is getting long. Here's the question. How long will it get? Pig tails long.

I'm thinking mini pony. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like Jared Leto. Yeah. I want to have like a Jared Leto style hair situation. His hair is very long. I'll never be as beautiful as Jared Letto, but I can have long hair like him.

I want to be like, he looks like a beautiful horse running through the fields of. Like a tiny little pony. Like a pony. Who loves his own? Like a beautiful pony. Yeah. I think, oh, we're drinking. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Look at him. He's a beautiful man with a beautiful head of hair. I need to get some highlights like that. He looks like Gaius Baltar from Ballastark. He really does. Let's have a little clink of the old Cheers. Yeah, cheers. Cheers.

Cheers. What do they say in Canada when you cheers? Cheers. Sorry? Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, our glasses touched. Sorry. Sorry, this is such an aggressive action. I didn't mean to. Please forgive this intrusion on your personal space. Someone asked me to wear this hat today. Who's someone? Who's that?

Someone who's a special lady in your life? A special fan. Someone in your life, special lady, maybe? special dude, special broham. I mean, I'm not judging. I'm, you know, whatever is, I'm cool with whatever. I think it's Baruman. Baruman? He just tweeted, oh, so glad you're a cowboy.

I'm an urban cowboy. Oh, yeah, check it out. I shouldn't want my boots today. I tried to bring my bolo tie, but I couldn't do it. Anyhow, this is the verge cast. This is the verge cast, man. That's it. What did you guys want to talk about today?

Well, there's a lot to talk about, I think. Right? Yeah. What were we talking about just before? We started rolling. I was talking about, I was talking about how I wanted to murder TC. And I was saying,

he was like, please kill me. That's what he, I mean, he wasn't like, and I don't think he was joking. It was like, I'm ready to be done with life.

I've had it. Why? And then, and I was saying how amazing it would be if I killed him live for real on the verge cast. Like that would be one, that'd be a podcast you'd never forget.

We have a spear in the office. That would be really easy to convict to. We have a giant spear. Unless it could be, there was some, that's like on the good wife, you know, do you watch the good wife?

I just told the good wife there'd be there would be a scene there's like he killed him on the on the verge cast and there's like there's video 20,000 people a million people watch it it's 20,000 by the way, don't worry it's not a million. But it would be like the wedge cast or something. Something like that, right? And then it would be live but then like the good wife be like, wait a second, that knife wasn't even his and like his hand is like look it's been edited or something and then. And then she'd make out with her with will comments.

Hey, spoiler alert, okay? Maybe. No, they make out. They do. Oh, I haven't seen that episode yet. and heavy. I haven't seen it yet. They do everything.

Spoiler. And they show it on CBS, which I thought was shocking. I need to catch up. I'm still watching scandal. Full frontal nudity. Really? What are we looking at here? What is this?

A clip? It's just a random clip from the, a trailer for the good wife. John Show the nudity? It's such a good show, though. It's the best show. One of the best. It's incredible. It's unbelievable.

It's on CBS, a network known for several horrible, horrible programs. I hear it's better than House of Cards. I actually think, look, House of Cards is very good. I think some of it. strays into a level of incredulous, you know,ness that is pretty... I find it a little bit sort of meandery. Meandries, I think, well, that's not my main issue. When he kills the president, it just goes way over the top.

Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. No, but that's the thing about House of Cards. Like, that could happen on that show. And they'd be like, yeah, that's a totally reasonable plot point. Frank Underwood puts Rice in his Stevie. Yeah, it's kind of like Homeland. Multiple shows.

Twitter alert. I hope, by the way, I hope you're not watching this vergecast for any information about anything or any real conversation. Important opinions, though. So, Katie, we were talking about your haircut. You said you get your haircut by a woman named Letitia. Yes, in Brooklyn Heights. And I was like, oh, you're wearing a Brooklyn, you're like showing off your Brooklyn street cred. Yeah.

Brooklyn Nets. I went to one game a year and a half ago. How was it? It was okay. Yeah, me too. I'm a big fan. I have their T-shirt. Do you see Jay-Z?

No, Jay-Z was not there. He said every shit. It was for... Every game. It was for Carl's birthday. Does he like the Nats? No, we just decided together that we were going to like the Nets, and so we both bought T-shirts. Well, they're awesome.

They're all black uniforms. They're in Brooklyn. They just seem really cool. They all listen to... I'm trying to Deer Huff or whatever. I don't know what... Excuse me? They're all...

I'm trying to think about band. They're all really into Interpol. I don't know. What's a cool... My references are all off. I don't know. I have not been sleeping a lot. What's a cool band now that everybody's like, it's like, indie, but they're cool.

The National? No doubt. Now, the National's like really popular. Yeah, they're too popular. But they actually, I think they played at the Barclay. Oh, they did, but I didn't go because I was like, I'm not going to see them at fucking Barclay. I got to say something about the National. I really have a new...

Well, it's too big a venue. I agree, not intimate enough because you're into that intimate indie vibe. Here's what I want to say about the National. Uh-oh. I didn't realize this. Number one, they're from Cincinnati. Oh, I didn't know that. Which is a tough place for anybody to be from.

And I think people in Cincinnati will back me up on this. they've been at this for a long time. 99 is when they formed. Wow. So just nothing but respect for the national. Also, the lead singer, if you saw him on Saturday Night Live, they were just on with Lena Dunham. He is a dead ringer for Randy Quaid in Independence Day.

A particular Randy Quaid in Independence Day. Here he is. Can we get a close up on him? I mean, he looks so much like Randy Quaid from Independence Day. Oh, my God. Can we get a shot of, yes. Sorry, myself. Wow.

Just get in there. Can we get a side-by-side of Randy Quaid from Independence Day, please? I'm just going to wait. They're like live. I love that they're doing this live. Aliens. I like, I like, so my, so you're Randy Quaid.

Yeah, I don't even remember what he sounds like. That's what he sounds like, exactly. I'm supposed to be the person keeping us on topic today, and I'm just going to let everyone know I'm not going to do my job. What's the topic? What's the topic? We're supposed to talk about. Worst Verge casting ever, am I right, guys?

No way. This is awesome. In Austin, Texas. They're so. South by Southwest. Otherwise. So you. Brand Hellworld.

Hell, brand hell world. Where's my side by side? This is nonsense. What's worse? Watching this or listening to it? Being in it. Wow.

Oh, John, you don't like, I'm sorry. John, in the control booth, I was just told being in that room is the worst. You know what? The free wine's okay. You don't have to be in there. The perpetual bondage. No one's forcing you. I mean, it is your job, but, but.

You're getting paid right now to drink wine and just like talk about whatever you want. Yeah. It's amazing. But you guys don't see what happens off camera. Somebody just asked, have we completely given up on the illusion of discussing tech on the first cast? You guys want to discuss some tech?

I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I want to talk about tech. I think that I'm, like, not going to talk about a smartphone. Don't talk to me about it. Like, it's got to be a really interesting development in smartphones to talk about it. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just not interested in talking. I mean, certain technology, like, like,

I would talk about the, well, I mean, it's not really a tech story, but I would talk about what Casey wrote at South by Southwest, which is about how South by Southwest interactive, which is supposed to be this place where, like, you know, beautiful, amazing, new ideas about, like, the future of our world are born is actually, has actually become this, like, really weird brand. Like, he, you know, it's, like, called it an orgy. Yeah.

And, um. A rollicking corporate brand orgy. Yeah. Which I think is, like, totally valid. Who is this guy, Mark Little, wants us to talk about tech? Doesn't he use capitalization when spelling his name? Who is he Dana Boyd? Yeah, here we go.

Look at this. Oh, man. That's not it at all. Were you drinking on Saturday? No, I'm telling you he looks like him. You just say it's the wrong angle. I'm a little disappointing. Can we get him in a plane or something flying into the alien ship?

I got what you need, John. You got the right image? I got it. He really does look like him. Anyhow. So what we're talking about? Oh, South by Southwest. So, yeah, the thing is, I mean, it's not a surprise.

I think this has been this way for a long time, but it's just like a, it's just like a brand. It's just a cluster fuck of brands and it's all really nasty, lame shit. It's like this guy's Shingey from AOL. Do you know this dude, this digital profit? This guy's like my least favorite. And by the way, I'm sure he's a really nice guy and I feel bad saying this because I'm sure he's a lovely man. But he calls himself a digital profit or that's what AOL calls him or something. Can we get a picture of Shingie up on the screen view screen here?

Can we just get Shingie? Just do it Google search for Shingie. It's really great. could just get an image of him up. I'm not going to talk till there's an image of shingy on the screen. I don't like to put people on blast, but he kind of looks like what Sonic the Hedgehog would look like if he was a human being, I imagine.

He's super excited about everything. I feel like, well, he's profiting off of the digital, fourth-gabing digital. Here's shingy speaking. It's a better image of shingy. This is too dark. I need to see shingy up close. Wow, there he is. Can we get audio on this?

Is this him profiting, right, to being a prophet? profiteering. Look at those nails. Put your brand in the middle of those or even deliver one of those experiences. Is he... The largest contributor to stress today is media overload.

We know that there's a challenge in terms of attention. But if you do get it right, Mindshare equals market share. And that's where consumers are going to pass your brand on. Nice. Whoa, here he is thinking.

Mind share. Wait, I'm sorry. Mind share equals... It's Catherine Hepburn. And this is it. If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. I think what we need to do is get into a fast experimentation mode. The platforms allow us to do that because you fundamentally have between six seconds and 13 hours to tell your brand story today.

You're not limited to 30s and 60s across the end. You have these different brand expressions today, these different engines to tell your story. Yeah. So I would love to see your embrace. There's enough. That's enough of shaghy. I can't. Wait, just to clarify, he is employed by.

He's employed by AOL as far as far as. As far as I know, and he's the, his title is digital profit. Of course it is. And he's talking about how you can get your brand, just jam on your brand, get it jammed up into somebody's area. Anyhow, but like that's South by Southwest. Here's the most striking image. Actually, Valleywag, Sam Biddle, I think, posted this. It was a, it was like a picture of shingy on Mashables, like, wrecking ball.

There it is. That's what South by Southwest is. It's like a sandwich of garbage. It's a garbage. I'm sorry, Shigney. I'm sorry, I know you're a nice guy. But you're a human being, and I don't want to diss you. Like, I'm sure you're a lovely man to hang out with.

But like your stuff that you say sounds really horrible. And you're, and you're, I'm not going to, you know, teach his own. Your look is your look. Like, whatever. But, you know, being called a digital profit and saying shit like brand message or whatever is the worst. So, uh, I mean, is that tech? Is that a tech conversation? I don't know.

Hey, wait a second, buddy. Hold on. Huh? Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget, Ching you junior over here.

title to New Trend will be befriending unfollowing. Shingy. Anyhow, so that may be a text story. I'm just, I think

that's the kind of text story I'm interested in is like how South by Southwest went from like a really cool interesting group of people telling each other very interesting stories

and sharing knowledge to, you know, an Oreo 3D printed Oreo like marketing machine. And in Casey Newton, one of our writers wrote a really cool story about by the way,

I'm not like bitter. This sounds like I'm bitter or whatever. Like that's just one little bit. That's just, no, but that's just like one small part of like what's going on in the world. That to me is, and I think some of like,

you know, why I don't want to talk about like the new smartphone or like, you know, I don't want to talk about like iOS 8 leaks, except I will say there's this like, Mark German from 9 to 5 Mac had these like, had these iOS 8 leaks and they're like, they're going to,

they're going to have like text edit or something or it's, you know, some really sad stuff. They're going to. Walking public transit directions. You get public transit directions in. maps. Like, it's just the saddest update you can think of to, because all this stuff is incremental. Like, and that's why, like, you don't hear us talking a lot on the Vergecast anymore about these,

like, weird little incremental. Like, hey, there's a new 6.5-inch smartphone. Like, we're very, you know, I'm sure there's a set of people who's interested. We'll cover those when appropriate. We review them when appropriate. But, like, when it comes to the Vergecast, like, you know, I don't want to sit here and talk about a 6.5-inch screen on a smartphone unless there's, like, a really good reason to talk about it. I kind of do. Look, and you know what? This is the, this is the sleep, sleepless mind of a baby daddy? What is happening? Anyhow, so are you talking about tech, Mark Little?

Where appropriate, my man. We should talk about Cosmos. Although, wait, Mark Little also points out that he came up with drum roll as a replacement for Vergecast. It's pretty good. Which I thought you were not on our side, but now you maybe are on our side. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Anyhow, but so what's in the news?

What do we have on our list? Tech is dead. Is tech dead? Is tech dead? There's no more technology. It's all been done. I don't think that's true. There we go.

There we go. Yes. That's more likely. I still feel like you got the wrong image on the right now. Look, he looks like Randy Quaid. He looks good there. Okay. Katie, that's enough.

Maybe you go to back off that wine a little bit. We don't want anything embarrassing to happen here. Like the entire thing. We wouldn't want that to happen. Okay, so what's on our list? Yeah, she's a F word pretty early today. She's in repeatedly. Yeah.

Okay, so, Neil, hey, you want to? No, Cosmos. Cosmo. I was going to say, we had an amazing interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson. He came to our office, our student, and sat down with us. And obviously, he's super fascinating guy. Brilliant, dude. We interviewed him, I interviewed him a couple years ago on The Verge, the first season of On the Verge. And he was so, were you there? Yeah, was there.

Yeah, he was like so engrossing. I don't know if he did this with you, because I don't know the whole thing. But he would like, and I was like, oh, we got to wrap up. It's like, 45 minutes. I was like, we got to wrap up. And he's like, no. And we talked for like another. 15 or 20 minutes because he just wanted to say more stuff.

He's so smart and interesting that it just makes you feel like, it made me feel like the dumbest guy in the world. Oh, I didn't feel dumb. Okay, okay. Well, you know. I guess you're, I guess you're smart. It felt like talking to appear. Yeah.

No, no, no, no, no. That's the thing about him. He's like super in your face. What an ego? What an ego? He's an awesome kind of like super in your face. Like he. Yeah, no, it's like, it's like, it's like, you want him in your face.

Yeah. Some people you're like, dude, get out. Just stop. Yeah, he's like, he's like an evangelical son. He's extremely intelligent, but I also find him extremely kind and thoughtful. No, he's, yes, yeah, totally. And, like, very easy to talk to. Like, I was nervous.

This was the first one-on-one, like, sit-down video interview I've ever done. And I was very nervous, but we made eye contact the whole time. Well, that's good. We drank wine. You did have wine with him. Which just proves my theory that you have a drinking problem. No, I mean, so. I'll drink to that.

All right. Cheers. We don't have to do this every time. Sorry. Why shouldn't we do it every time? Huh? Let's talk about more tech. No, but so Neil, Dr. Tyson.

Oh, all of a sudden, Neil. Actually, is a huge wine buff, which I found out when I interviewed him for the Verge 50. And he hated your wine. He did hate the wine. Just think about the kind of wine he's drinking, because let me say something. No, I know, right. He has the money to buy good wine. He has a wine cellar at his house.

Oh, God. I'm so envious. And so I said to the guys by. in the wine. I was like, get something nice. They got a $32 bottle of wine. I'm like, okay, fair. Like, that's a nice bottle of wine by my standards. And he took one sip and was like, yeah, this could use another eight years. Another eight years. And he would know. And he would know. You can tell he's somewhat disgusted by the wine he's drink. But he drank a full glass. He drank a full glass and I did not because I was trying to like. And it was like one in the afternoon. Be a professional. Yeah, that's so great. Well, I was going to, my week would be shot. Dude, I mean, he's going to get in, he gets into some sick limo and just goes to his next awesome event. And I saw him outside. And I saw him outside. leaving and he got into a big like a not a hummer but like a like a suburban yeah he's a total player i mean i mean that's i only like suburban is apparently like that's the car like i

now get uber once in a while i'll get an uber black car and a lot of times they send um because they have like uber t uber x uber black car and then uber whatever's above that it's like something a jet it's like uber ultimate i don't know it's like a bentley anyhow but but they send Suburban's all the time. That's nice. Which are like huge. Maybe he got an Uber. I don't know.

Anyhow. He was getting into a car. Yeah. And then what? He had an interview with People magazine. Probably a very different interview. I bet. Right.

But he talked a lot about wine. That was probably most of the interview off camera. Gave us lots of good wine advice. But, you know, and also said some really interesting stuff. I wish I wish you to use some of that advice today with this bottle of wine that we're drinking. God knows. I don't have a wine celebrity. I can tell you this is crap.

I like it. Shout out to Justin. Yeah. Thanks, Justin. The wine brand. By the Barrowbad just said he was going to fight somebody. I know. I was going to.

Wait, Alice Hamburger's, is he trolling us on Twitter? Yeah. This is the worst charge cast ever. Can I just say? It is kind of bad. We started, can I just say before we started, we were having like a really great, exciting conversation. And then something happened during the intro that just threw us off.

It was teasing stupid hat. Yeah, probably. Anyhow. No, let's talk about Odyssey, though. Spacetime Odyssey. Cosmos? Yeah, let's. Have you seen it?

The review. We all watched it, right? I've only, I only started watching. I didn't. I have a baby. All right, well, I'm going to talk to you now. Do you understand? You don't understand.

Yeah, go ahead. You guys talk. What did you think? I'm going to join my wand. I thought it was fantastic. I thought it was really great, too. I was surprised at how closely he stuck with the Carl Sagan. Like, I mean, like, the cosmic calendar, the spaceship of the imagination.

It was all like, I'm not. I'm not going to say ripped off. He used the word borrowed, sort of like as an homage. It was a reboot in like a very literal sense. Yeah, he said it's a continuation. It's like the second season of Cosmos, but it's 30 years later, which I did not know was what they were going to do. I think the most controversial part of that first episode, though, was the religion segment. I mean, he's clearly a hardcore atheist.

Definitely, and he's made very strong statements to that effect before. And he's unabashed in his sort of. you know, science as religion viewpoint. And I mean, I don't think religion in the sense of, like, worship it, but just... You know, I really appreciate the fact that they included that thread, though, because I think one... And it was very clear at the end when he talked about Sagan and what Sagan's mission was and how this is a very practical thing. It's not just like, oh, look at these cool NASA photos. It's like science is a real fucking thing that improves our lives.

Have a bomb. Yeah. It's a real thing. Yeah. It's like... It's an absolutely necessary. It's super important. Not only to improve our lives, but, you know, from a nationalistic standpoint, like, you know, America's.

And, no, that's, that, that's one of his huge trips and one of the things he talked about when he was on, on the verge. And I know that he's, he speaks about often is this concept of, of the love and appreciation and need for science as like an underlying driver of like who, like, who, like, in America, who we are and what we do and what we will, you know, it's not about just about like, hey, it's like, cool to. experiment and find something out, it's like, hey, this stuff actually lead to legitimate new areas of exploration, of business, of intellect. And it's not, and that drives like a nation or a world, you know, forward. Yeah. And I think that's true. You know, I think science underlies, you know, so many of the advances of civilization, you know, I think about like longevity and, I mean, health in general, just full stop, like anything related to health is like, that is science. inaction. That is, you know, that is like really insane progress. We've expanded, expanded and

extended, like, the human lifespan by 40 years or something in the last 100 years or, you know, to 150 years or whatever it is, just because, like, we know we've learned things about how stuff works. And, like, you know, learning about how things work and taking that apart and utilizing it is, you can't put a price on it, you know, it's the most valuable thing. I'm really glad they, opened with the cosmic calendar concept because it's like one of the, you know, just putting the historical perspective in there is so important. You know, just the idea that

in 500 years we went from like inventing the first telescope to putting someone on the moon is absolutely insane. No, it's crazy. I mean, it's crazy. The things that even in the last 100, the things have occurred in terms of discovery are astounding. Well, and also that when put in perspective that that's what it was what like five minutes at the end of an hour right

or something like all of meaningful modern history was like six seconds or something right in the final minute of the final hour right it's just it really is uh I mean I hope I don't know if it's happening or not I do hope things like this spark a new appreciation for I feel like we went through a period and I'll just say like the Bush era was the was the you know pinnacle of just utter ignorance and stupidity amongst like the populace of America where it was like just denial of facts you know and like our up from from our government down to like just ended the average citizen we were like denying truth and facts in replacing it with I don't know what greed or you know like just forced ignorance if purposeful ignorance I don't really understand it because

to me you know like it's the most disturbing thing in the world to imagine that like the president the United States lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to, like, spark a war, which we know basically happened for real, like definitely happened. And, you know, I think that if I were a part of the populace that voted for that guy and was like, yeah, creationism and all this other stuff that was happening during that time, I would feel like this wine is definitely having the effect. I'm way down a rabbit hole in this one. I think that we're still a very real fight.

Like progress is not inevitable. No, it is real. It is real. And we're still coming out of this like period. of just like sustained in unbelievable ignorance that like it's like either you're not paying attention or you don't care or like you're you're just doing it to be an asshole like you're being ignorant to be an asshole like I think that we're still coming out of that and I really hope that things like Cosmos start to help to shake more people out of this weird trance they've been

in about um you know what I think the internet is like one of those tools where it's so easy to convince yourself of that you're right and that the things you believe are true because there's a bunch of people on the internet who are like yeah you're right those things you believe are true and finding truth and finding real answers to real problems is like um the basis of science you know and i think it's so important that we actually um put value in that like consider that to be a highly valued thing i mean i don't know i don't know what the solution to that problem is i mean a tv show um like it's a great show i enjoyed it a lot from what i've read the ratings had not been what they were expected to be,

which is disappointing. But I don't know how you solve that problem, right? Like NASA's budget this year is flat again. It's the same shit. Pop culture is a huge deal. Especially like a network like Fox, like that's one of the things that I was most excited about. This was far and away the biggest launch of any television show in history.

Yeah, it's weird. Like Fox put so much money. It's so weird this on Fox. It's like they have to pay back all the damage they've done. Yeah. A network that's known. for American Idol and family guy. And also for Fox News.

It's known for like the most destructive force in journalism since, I don't know, like Hitler controlled newspapers in Germany. The Daily. The Daily. The Daily. But it's all the same. Except for the Daily. The Daily.

Which is an amazing beacon of light and otherwise gloomy place. Yeah. But, you know, Rip. Yeah, Rip daily. Rip daily. It was a good year. But yeah, no, Fox definitely has to pay it back. And that's what they're doing now.

I just think it's so crazy to me that we have this almost like a real, I don't know, I don't know if this isn't true in other countries. I don't want to speak for other countries. I live in America and I grew up in America. But it does seem like, and I don't know if this happened during the Reagan years and then it sort of got solidified in the Bush years, but this like appreciation for, it's like a willful ignorance that is almost like it's not cool to be smart. It's not cool to know things.

Like it sucks. Like you're a terrible person if you read books. And I think that that really has cemented itself in some part of the firmament, some part of the layers of dirt that we stand on. I don't know what I'm talking about right. Yeah, I don't know. I honestly don't think it's a modern phenomenon. No, I mean, probably not.

I mean, you know, knowledge is like scary, you know. Like the thing about atheism and religion is that, you know, it's speaking as an atheist. Yes. It's scary to go like. Oh, yeah, like, there are no easy answers. Like, there isn't a simple, like, God's got it? Why do you think I have a drinking problem? No, tell me about it.

Like, actually. I know, sure. Because you recognize absurdity of life. Well, but you still believe in the heaven that exists above, above the planet. Where there's lots of fill-off the cream cheese. Fully spreadable cream cheese. Just so soft, ready to go on any bagel that you choose, no matter what type of bagel. Is that the Jewish version of bread?

I have a gluten intolerance. What? That was racist. You know, and everything bagel, onion bagel, raisin bagel, you won't put green cheese

on that? No one's going to stop you. Anyhow. Continue. Bagel. Up in your bagel heaven. What was I talking about? Atheism.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's just scary, you know, to go like, hey, I don't, there's,

God doesn't have it because he doesn't exist because it's a made up idea. Because like, you know, anyhow, I'm getting, right now I'm getting so many death threats

and hate mail. I can't even, I can't even keep up. I can't even keep up with it. But here's what I'll say about. Can I say I'm talking about atheism and I'm sure people will be up in arms? But the most controversial thing that I've ever said in public is about being a vegetarian. That's like far and away.

Like right now if I was like meat eaters are terrible, way more controversial than like God is dead or whatever. I mean, among certain audiences, I'm sure. Here it is. Is this a real thing? What is this? Is this bagel heaven? That's heaven. This is real?

That's how I learned what heaven was as a child. My parents put me in front of the TV and I watched those ads. This is an ad? Is it a print ad? What is that? It's a fucking insane. Well, here's the thing. Not everybody that I'm probably within this group as an agnostic atheist, but I, you know.

Really hedging your bats there. I'm writer than you are. What was I saying? I don't know. I don't know. We should have started, you know, like, not everybody that believes in God is, like, completely disavow science. Like, that's a completely. No, I agree.

I agree. Idiotic. No, totally true. You know, connection. It's just that the Bible contradicts all scientific discovery. Well, yeah, but not everybody believes the Bible literally. No, I know. But then what is religion?

I'm sorry. Like, I have to ask that question. Like, if you don't believe the, okay, literally, like, what is the Bible's purpose? But, like, if you're, if you believe. There's praxis and community involved and all kinds of other things that are unrelated to the scientific method. No, I mean, there's like, obviously some cognitive distance involved. But, like, you know not to murder people without the Bible, right? It's called morality.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, you don't need. the Bible to tell you not to steal from people. I do. Maybe you do. Oh, boy, I should not be going down this path. Where's Paul Miller when you needed it? This would be a great conversation for him to join in.

Is this the commercial? This is real? That's my lady. What? That's her lady. Did you have this in mind when you were talking about? Cream cheese heaven? That looks like Sandra Bernhardt's sibling.

This is disturbing. And there's like this beef cake, this beautiful beef cake there, kind of watching her. Like that? Growing up, that's actually what I thought heaven was. The Verch House brought you by... Was just like Philadelphia cream cheese. Yeah. It's creamy.

Is that the tagline? It's heavenly? What's Philadelphia cream cheese's tagline? I need to know right now. A little taste of heaven. I'm pissing so many people off right now. No, like that's actually what their tagline is. I'm sorry, I've just seen tweets from people who are like, I've, I've, I've, listen, I just

want to say, if I offended you at all, that was not my intention. If you are a Christian and you believe in science, that's wonderful. I think that's great. I do think there's a, I do think at some point you get to a, what is religion if you are a believer in science? Well, you're not, I mean, like here's the thing. There's a difference between the Christian who is, you know, on board of science. Totally comforting. I agree.

I wish I could be comforted by religion the way that other people are. Me too. I mean, I'm sure that like, look, when I feel like bad turbulence on a plane, I get really religious, really fast. Because like, you're like, well, you never know. I'm going, the plane's going down, so I better just be like, hey, God. The only time I'm religious, the only time I feel even the slightest hand of religion is the plane, terrible turbulence on the plane, it's like white knuckle turbulence. And I'm like, all right, God, I know you don't exist. But if you do, I don't want to die.

You're like the worst kind of atheist. I am terrible. I can't believe I admitted that to the world. There are no atheists in foxholes. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. It means when you're on an airplane that's going down, you're not an atheist. You're like, God, help me out.

Because you'll, he's just grasping. You're like, I'll take anything, you know. So it threw me a parachute. I'd be like, cool, I'm out of here. I mean, I'd be calm. And I'm, by the way, the idea of the game is coming. There's plenty of cream cheese coming. You're like, I would welcome death because I want it so badly.

The idea of jumping out of a plane is terrifying to me, but I would happily take a parachute if I felt my plane was going down. Yeah. Think about that shit. Let that stew for a minute. I try not to fly. Are you finishing? Oh, it's the worst.

Okay, fine. I hate it. Yeah. All right. Can we talk about it. that isn't atheism or religion. This one's, this is the worst.

I mean, when I say it's the worst. I think this is great. We come back, we're going to come back to this every week. Let's talk about tech. What's going on with tech? Tech. Are there any cool?

Are there any cool? What kind of smartphone do you think God would use? A huge one. He could. He wouldn't have to, he doesn't worry about it. He probably needs much bigger than a 6.3 screen.

Yeah. Curved though. Curved. Keep the glare of heaven out. He just want to see cream cheese reflections while he's, while he's checking his Google calendar. On the eighth day, God created.

Oh, yeah. By the way, God uses an android phone. Did I mention that? Okay, there we go. Jay Wayne. Finally. Final. Junior wants us to move on.

What about, we could do, speaking of airplanes, we could do the Malaysian tragedy. Jay Wayne. Jay Wayne does not like this conversation. Not surprised. By the way, this is not the worst. I'll say,

this is not the worst Vergecasts ever happened. I've been on worse. I think this is great. I'm having a great time. Whatever. It doesn't matter. It matters to me. there's this airplane that was in the sky and then it didn't land oh no one knows where it went

yeah yeah yeah i mean this story is fascinating there's um let's talk about this this is not this is actually is a bit of a tech story i mean you want to talk about tech i mean here's the thing about tech like let me just say this so i can just get it out in the open like the way the verge thinks about technology is that it is um deeply connected intrinsically connected to so much of like what is going on in our world that, like, we're not, this isn't about tech. It's like, hey, there's this gadget over here. It's like, this stuff is all strewn in together. It's all connected.

And so this Malaysia Airlines, this Malaysia Airlines story is really interesting because there is a, there is a, you know, news aspect to it. Like, oh, my God, this plane's missing and did it go down and what happened. But the actual story is like, how did it go missing? Where did it go? What do we know about it? How do we track it? You know, it's really sad, but it actually reminds me of the movie Contact. where Jody Foster's falling, you know,

at the end, falling through that ball. Spoiler alert. And they're like, yeah, spoiler for a movie from the 90s. It's a good movie. It's a great movie. Yeah, they're like, oh, you were, like, oh, you were. By the way, to bring a circle.

For 15 seconds. Yeah. And then they were like, oh, wait. The in ball recorder had like 24 hours of time. It's chilling. It actually reminded me of scandal. Okay. Spoiler alert on scandal because I've never seen a single episode.

And I know Carl's like, scandal's the best. It's terrible. That's how Carl talks about it. That's his voice. Is it terrible? It looks terrible. It's amazing.

It looks like the worst. If you like the good wife, like, game over. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. All right. I'll watch it. Don't listen to Katie.

Seriously, you think it's bad? I think it's terrible. Shut up. Sorry, I just caught this headline on our site. Can we talk about this for a second? Disney is released an EDM album with a remix is from Evichie and Cascade. Sorry, who? Disney, Disney, the Walt Disney Company.

Disney. The Walt Disney Corporation. I know them. If you like The Little Mermaid, you'll like Scrilix. Wow, wow, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, what's the name of the crab of the Little Mermaid? Sebastian. Sebastian.

It's like the Sebastian, like, Snippy, Snap remix. It's like samples of Sebastian. And it's like, wah, whoa, whoa, whoa. Well, I guess Disney did Tron. Well, they funded and released Tron. Yeah. Yeah. God, this is, come on.

Let's talk about something. Malaysia Airlines. Yeah. So where the fuck's that plane? Where is the plane? So we were talking to Chris Ziegler about this. He's actually, Chris is like an airplane buff. He's an airplane nerd.

Like he knows stuff about airplanes that you can't even begin to imagine. That's true. He's actually working on something right now, like a story about something about what's, there's a new discovery that this, there are electronics trans that we're transmitting on this plane or from this plane. or from this plane for five hours after it kind of dropped off of radar. Interesting fact, like it drops off a radar 100 miles outside of Malaysia. Right. I had no idea that...

Yeah, when they're over the ocean, they're flying blind. Which is terrifying. Like, hey, just check it out. I mean, I assume that they can see other planes, but in terms of... I'm never leaving the continent. Yeah, you don't want to do that. You don't want to fly over the ocean. That's insane.

But so the story has got a little bit more interesting because there's this now. They're saying, like, hey, the plane. It was like, hey, the plane went into the ocean. It dropped from radar and it probably crashed and they just can't find it. Now they're saying, well, there's five hours of transmitting data past the point where it dropped off a radar. And what Chris was saying to me, which I find fascinating, is that it might have landed somewhere. They're like, what are you doing? What's happening?

Can you stop that? We're on a national, international broadcast right now. She's whispering trash talk. Are you trash talking to him? No. This is outrageous, Katie. What did you say? He's just like threatening me.

He's threatening? Are you threatening her? This is the worst. This is the worst way I've ever done. Does she threaten her? Be honest. Absolutely not. It's the same accusation she leveled last week.

It's a blast, really. Listen, people's lives are at stake here. And we're having a petty feud. They're not at stake. I'm pretty sure. like. Okay, all right. We don't know.

What I was saying is Chris was like, we don't know what happened to this plane. It's possible. It could have landed somewhere. Yeah, that's weird. No, that's a possibility. Isn't that creepy? No, but he's actually on the Lost Island. It's lost.

No, or somewhere else. They may just be, you know, might not be identified yet. We don't know. It could, yeah. It's not on the Lost Island because that doesn't exist. Wow. This feels really incensed. You know why?

Because it was from a TV show. Yeah. I mean, I didn't watch the show. On ABC. It was interrupted by. There's a golden retriever. So like this whole thing from the stolen passports to now, like, wasn't anyone else just like, how the hell? Yeah, apparently that happens all the time though. Right. People stealing passports. Oh, yeah, you're going to edit yourself on a hell. How the heck? How the heck?

How the heck? Keep it clean, Katie. That's great. I'm going to cream cheese heaven. Okay. How. Yeah, keep your language nice and clean on this verge cask. We want you to say anything that was off color. Go on. I was just like really taken aback. by the fact that you can steal a passport and then fly, take an international flight somewhere. Well, I mean, it's probably not that simple. But, like, apparently it happens all the time. No, I don't know. You have to, you have to, somebody just tweeted somebody was standing behind, standing behind me.

You just, that was a made you look moment. No, somebody was like, who's the person? Here's what they said. You just got trolled. Why has that same guy been standing behind the glass near Josh the entire podcast? Tired of seeing his. His ass, literally. Oh, it's Evan.

Is it Evan? He's got a nice ass, though. Yeah, he does. It's pretty good. That's technically a violation of some type. You know how you said you were going to murder me earlier? We have this ass comment on record for HR now. Wow.

You just self-doxed yourself. Believe me, there's plenty of bad stuff on record for me, okay? Who is doing this woman, Tricia Nieder, is doing drawings of members of the verge. Have you seen these on Twitter? The creepiest thing I've ever seen. So she just did one. Can we get this up? Can we just look at who just tweeted at me and this image?

First off, it's a great drawing. It's disturbing. It's upsetting. But I like it. There it is. Can we zoom in on that? Is that you? I don't know.

You tell me. Yeah, that's definitely. Is it me or is it Randy Quaid? I think that's you. Or the lead singer of the national. We got to do this one of Deter. That's very well done. Dieter.

It's at the top. What did you do to do? It's at the top here. What did you just tweet it? John. No. You drop it. It's coming up. It's coming up. Okay. Great. Deider Bone. Bone. Bone zone. He was almost on this.

What is this? Ariel is, hold on. Do I follow her, by the way? I need to. I didn't. I can't believe I wasn't. So Ariel, our new writer just dissed me on Twitter. She did. Josh's lack of cream cheese ad knowledge makes me wonder if the quote, cream cheese taught me about heaven thing is Canadian specific. I think it might be. The Airy all like, yeah, cream cheese heaven.

It sounds like, yeah. He probably didn't run this ad in America. You know why? Because we know what real heaven's like. We don't call Macrode and Cheesecraft Center. Do you remember this article that was written in like the Atlanta Journal? Hey, guys. Hey, you know what?

You saw that. You saw that. You saw that. I did see that in upsetting, Katie. Don't do an F-bomb to him quietly on the Verge cast. That's not right. Who tell you it's Canadian manners, I guess, is what we're seeing here. I don't think she's a real Canadian.

Really? Please elaborate on that story. She doesn't say sorry enough. I say sorry constantly. Why don't you say like sorry? You say sorry less than you say the F bomb. Sorry. You say the F bomb a lot.

Sorry, dad, that you have to watch this. He's not watching this? He watches everybody. Oh, he's like, well, that Josh, he talks a lot. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry. You know what? I'm the host.

And that T. I mean, we're co-traditional. Traditionally, I am the host of the Vergecast. Well, you're very talkative. I am talkative. It's probably because I'm Jewish. I thought you were an atheist. Well, I was raised Jewish.

Social, culturally Jewish, religiously atheist. Which means I'm just very nervous. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. So apologies to your dad. If you're watching.

Hi, Katie's dad. I guess I'll let Katie talk more. Your daughter's normally very nice. Katie, why don't you run the rest of this thing? Okay, great. Thank God. Take a break. Drinks with a phenom.

I'm all right. Cheers. Cheers. Uh. Bilateral cheers. Do we want to talk about gas leaks? Yes. Oh, my God.

Yeah, I'm terrified. I'm super freaked out. So I was listening to NPR today. And NPR, it's funny. WNYC, which is the NPR. Of course, I was listening to NPR, right? So it's just stereotype. Clichet, New Yorker.

Jewish New Yorker listens to NPR. Okay. They were like, they had a show on a couple of days ago. It was about the failing infrastructure of New York. Right. And today they're like, yeah, this could be evidence of the failing infrastructure of New York. I live in a house that was built in 1860. You do?

Yeah. I live in a very, Are you kidding? Yeah, for real. It's super duper old. And now I'm just like every day. I'm like my family's going to blow up. 1860.

Yeah. That's like Civil Warrior. Yeah. It's really old. Are you kidding? That's when it was built. We have like records. Yeah.

It's actually what's interesting about my house is that Thomas Ricker, who lives in Amsterdam, has a very similar tiny house. I have a very tiny house. And Thomas Ricker's, that's so upsetting. Can we get that on screen, please? The Deeter image. Totally unrelated to my house and two explosions. Please get the Deeter graphic on screen.

Immediately I won't say another word until it happens. There we go. There we go. By the way, that was the longest moment of silence ever in the history of the Vergecast. In the history of Josh. Actually, yeah, my uncle used to pay me money to be quiet. How long can you be quiet? I'll give you a dollar if you be quiet.

I'm not a terrible kid, terrible adult. What are you going to do? Um, anyhow. So, yeah, so there was this terrible, huge explosion in Harlem, East Harlem. Um, apparently a gas leak leveled two building, seven people are dead. Uh, I mean, just look at this. I mean, just, it is breathtaking that, that, that, that something like this could happen. It's not, it wasn't, you know, it didn't happen on purpose. It wasn't planned. There were no explosives in this building. As far as we know at this point, and I think probably for real. Ariel, our new writer, did a great piece about how this happens

and why this happens, which is really interesting. But it just made me feel just utter and constant fear now about my house exploding. Yeah, what's especially insane is that apparently they've been like reporting the smell of gas or a gas leak for like two weeks before this happened.

So what I read, which was very, very sad, was a woman talking to the New York Times and her husband was unaccounted for and they lived in one of these buildings. so super sad. But she said to them something along the lines of, we thought we smelled gas before we went to bed, then it went away.

So we just went to bed, and then the next morning, there was this explosion. And I think in terms of Ariel's piece, what was most disturbing to me was I think it was something like 35 or 38% of gas mains in Manhattan are made of chrome. What is the makeup? Some, whatever the material is that makes them more vulnerable to these cracks and predate

1960. In other words, they're outdated and they're vulnerable to cracks. That's terrifying. No, it's... That's terrifying. No, I mean, the, the, uh, on NPR, they were saying that the average

age of the Mains in New York is 56 years old. Yeah. Which is really old. And they're made of you know, this, uh, what is it? Um, uh, cast iron. Cast iron, that's what it is.

Not Chrome. No, not Chrome. I'm thinking about... Chrome is what you put on your wheels. Chrome is what you... I wouldn't know. Is a browser. Yeah, it's an internet thing. It's weird that my reference point was about wheels.

Yeah. And yours is about browser. Just shows how out of touch you are. Tech. Tech talk. Tech talk right there. But... So anyhow, it's just terrifying. And since my house is super duper old,

I'm just imagining everything in it is ready to explode at any given moment. And, you know, today we had our heat on, and it's making some weird screeching. noise. It's hot water heat. It's not gas or anything, but it's making some weird high-pitched screeching noise. And it's like, oh, this is it? Here we go. Yeah. We're going to blow up. So it's a terrible, it's a terrible tragedy and a shocking story. And also, like, I think, not to get all political on you yet again, but is a demonstration of the need for us to be concerned about the infrastructure in America. Not just, you know, this is a, this is a

privately owned company that is responsible for these gas lines. But, you know, they're responsible to the citizens of this city. It's a public utility, though. It is a public utility, but I mean... Like Conunditson has the privilege of being over it. It's not Conant. It's National Grid. National Grid. I think.

No, it's Conant. It's Conant. It doesn't do gas? Yeah, they do. Do they? They do gas? I thought they only do electricity. Very confused.

At any rate... Also, I've been drinking. At any rate... This wine is really affecting me, I have to say. It's just in high and alcohol. content? I don't think so. I just didn't have lunch. Justin's messing me up. So the thing is... A little high. The point is, it's like infrastructure is a real issue. I mean, there have been... Frontline action, I think I actually did a great piece on infrastructure,

if I'm not mistaken, a couple years ago. I could be totally making that up. But there's definitely, you know, our roadways, bridges. Bridges. They're collapsing. We're literally, like, America's, like, falling apart. And think about how much money the federal government spent on public projects. I mean, have you seen this? National Park building, international. Look at, there's a great chart of the, of the spending, our budget in the U.S. Look at the, look at the budget for defense spending versus the kind of thing, the spending we're doing on things like infrastructure.

It's depressing. It's insane. It's insane. And like, look, so far, you know, I don't know. I'm not going to get into terrorism and stuff, but we've had, you know, 9-11 was awful. but uh it's just such an but this is awful too and like a hundred of these is even worse and like if the infrastructure doesn't get if we don't care about it we don't think about it like

a hundred of these is what's in store but it should be such an obvious and like uncontroversial point that like this this public stuff that we spend money on as a society enables us to do things privately right the interstate highway system right you know that wasn't a bunch that wasn't like you know a company like google or microsoft saying we need to build some roads. It was all of us together. I mean, this gets to the, you know, this kind of leads back to net neutrality and talking about like what we value here and how we manage it.

I mean, I think net neutrality is a great, the internet is a great example of the next infrastructure crisis in America where it's, where it's massively needed utility for all citizens of this country and of all countries. We have the ability and the opportunity to make it a, um, a widespread, you know, easily accessible, open thing. And the direction we're headed is, you know, the FCC in cahoots with, you know, private companies is managing it into a private, expensive service, which will be controlled by people who have interests outside of what citizens the citizens of this country need. They're controlled by monetary interests and in the interest of making money and getting

paid for everything. And so it's like, it's like one of these things, it's like, we can't keep up the infrastructure we have that is shared. And we can't build new infrastructure where we need things like an open and free internet. Like, what is, what is the future of America if we don't do something about? And also no one gives a shit about science. Right. This is why, this is why the space program is being taken up by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Because NASA gets $17 billion a year. I'm not saying they're not profit. I'm not saying they don't want profits from that stuff, but at least that will drive them to do something. Yeah.

You know, in America we can't even see, I mean, the government can't even see the reason why we would want to work on a space program. You know, like they can't see the value in it. Well, it's a long-term thing, and profit-seeking companies are absolutely essential for innovation and, you know, driving the economy and everything else. But they're also beholden to shareholders in a way that makes them focus on quarterly results. Right. You know, you can't, you know, we have big problems that require really long term. And most companies aren't Apple in the sense that, you know, Verizon's not Apple. Verizon is happy to be relatively complacent with what they have, you know.

If they weren't the widespread Fios would be happening right now and it's not, you know. Comcast and Time Warner, this like, you know, disgusting merger that's probably going to happen where it's going to create this like insane conglomerate, you know, it's, their, their motivation for innovation doesn't exist. And it's like, and it sounds like at a very basic level, like, oh, that's some nerdy, like, what does that matter? Like, I need cable. That's not important.

But it'll matter when, like, you can't get the things you need on the internet because they have decided that it's more profitable to charge you for them. And so it's like, it's really a disturbing situation we have in this country. Well, what are we supposed to do about it? A violent revolution. I said this a couple of verge casts ago. The only answer ultimately is a violent overthrow of a corrupt government. And, you know, actually, like, that's upjoking around a little bit, but also somewhat, like, look at other countries.

Like, what's happening is violent overthrow of a corrupt government. And our government is, like, we have a great way of, like, demonstrating that we're not, we like to act like we're not corrupt. And it seems like we're not corrupt. We have, like, a tremendously corrupt, diseased government in America, which is poisoned by private interests and people who want to hoard money. And, like, it damages the populace of this country. in ways that, like, we don't even, we can't even begin to understand. And yet, this fucking wine. And yet, and yet, like, we're not, there isn't, Occupy Wall Street was the closest thing we had to violent revolution. It was, it was a whiff of, it was a babies, you know, by the way, as a new

father, I'm aware of what babies can do, not very much. It was like a baby's version of, of, like, a real, you know, revolutionary sort of movement. And I think that, I'm not saying we need to overthrow the government. I'm not. I'm not. Let me just say, let me just say this clearly. Do not overthrow the government.

That would be a bad idea. But I do think we need a stronger reaction to this stuff. Like you guys, like, you know, net neutrality sucks. Like, we'll black out our website for a day or something like that. Like that can work in small doses. No, but we can't overthrow the government every two and four years. No, but like literally overthink.

But it's like you're trading one. You're trading like one, you're trading like one evil for another. Exactly. Right. Yeah. Like I don't feel like I'm overthrowing the government when I vote every four years. But I think, I think it requires a fear and knowledge and understanding of what is going on at a level that will make you do something far more meaningful. And that's like, that's not like, that's not like.

You're saying we should vote for Rand Paul. No, don't vote for Ram Paul. But I do think people getting involved. I think people getting, I think people getting legitimately involved in what is going on in their local governments and trying to find ways to affect real change by displacing, by removing people who are cancerous, is like a serious. is a serious component of it. I'm really on a roll here. My God, I'll probably get shot leaving the building. Don't say that. By me. Oh, my God. It's easy. Just behind me. Just clips me, and that's it.

Anyhow, I just think, you know, look, we have, I mean, we have, I don't know, what do you do? We're not going to have a revolution in America until it gets really bad. But I will say this, we have a growing disparity between the haves and have-nots. Everybody knows that. And at some point, that begins to, like, really rot.

And when it rots, like, you know, I don't know. You don't know. I mean, shit gets bad. Shit gets funky. I am so glad to be a Canadian citizen right now. Oh, you think you can run up to Canada? Yeah, I'm a dual citizen. Guess what?

Nuclear conflagration. That wave of nuclear waste will just flow right up to Canada, right? What are you talking about? Judgment Day is what I'm talking about. Universal health care. You're basically in a business anyway. How's that universal? Most Canadians live within 100 miles.

How's that universal health care going to help you when a wave of nuclear waste from our... What nuclear waste? Judgment Day. What are you talking about? Have you never seen Terminator 2 or Terminator 3? No. What about Terminator 4? No.

You've never seen any of the Terminator movies? No. Are you kidding me? No. Please leave. No. Just get out of here. No.

How have you never seen a Terminator movie? I don't know. I watched a lot of Melrose place. This is disturbing. I told her sister. There's like, you know, we watch like Beverly Hills. You had to admit this is the worst verge cast ever. I think it's great.

You do, really? I've been like to talk about violent revolution and overthrow it. I'm going to be arrested as soon as I leave. That's your problem, man. People want, people have been tweeting me. They want me to talk about Vox.com. Oh, let's talk about that. That's exciting.

The new news vertical that is being launched by Vox Media, our parent company. I would love to talk about that if we're allowed. I mean, we can talk about it. All I can say is, uh, uh, uh, uh, All I can say is it's an exciting and interesting new venture for our company. It is going to be very different than what we do, very different than... Here's a little bit of their... They have a video, a wonderful video, actually.

Ezra Klein may be a bigger nerd than anybody at the verge. Asver Klein is a big, big nerd. And I really like him. He seems like a super nice dude. He's not only super nice, but he's super smart. And like everybody who's... Did you say he's not super nice? I said he's not only super nice.

super nice, but he's super smart. I think you skip the word there. No, he's not super nice, but he is super smart. No, he is nice and smart, but all, but that whole team, they're very smart people that have very good ideas about how to cover, um, uh, sort of a broader, more general news, uh, scope in a new way. And, and it'll be different than the verge. Like, if you read the verge, you'll find it's a very different, um, publication.

But I'm excited about it. I can't really reveal. Yeah, they're hiring incredible people. I can't reveal much. because I know a lot. I'm not going to tell you guys what's going on. But what I will say is that the thinking that's going into what they're doing and the stuff that our product team is building with them is really exciting.

And I'm very excited about it. What's going on with you guys? Are you threading each other again? Are you? And I have to say, oh, so what I want me talking about? Oh, Jay Wayne Mayher wants us to talk. I don't know, how do you pronounce your last name? Maher?

Mar. Mar? Bill Marr? Like Bill Maher. So Ariel's, Ariel is a finally got at my back here. Yep. She's seen the Terminator.

What a traitor. How the hell have you not seen Terminator? I haven't seen a lot of things. I got to see Terminator either. Shut up. Seriously, shut up. Are you serious? You never seen Terminator?

I've seen, no, I saw the one with Christian Bale. Dude, please get out right now. Like, you need to leave and just get your, go upstairs. I've seen Blade Runner. Get your, just put up your shit in a box. It's a different generation. No, it's not a generational thing. it's it really is gone with the wind of generational thing is Lawrence of Arabia is is

Ben Hur is citizen Kane is uh do you just sit at home and watch Turner classic movies with Penny all day see Cm nonstop it's that noise is that guy that's been behind this is that ass sorry I just spitting it I apologize is the control is the control booth going crazy what's going on with those guys they look to be under control when do we start this I don't like are we almost done it seems like we should be ending pretty soon. Can we not... Should we talk about Need for Speed?

Can we not broadcast? Is there a way that we can just... This will be the live one. Nobody will ever see this? Is that... Oh, really? Are you serious, John? You're not serious.

About what? About what he just said to me. So you're just kidding, is what you're saying, what you just said to me. Okay. Nothing. It's about a conversation, John,

and I had earlier. Yeah. Okay. Anyhow, you want to talk about Need for Speed? A lot of tension. I have nothing to say about it. I didn't see the movie. Chris did not like him.

Let's talk about Aaron Paul. Okay, let's talk about Aaron Paul. Yeah, he's just... No, no, hold on. I want to hear what Katie. I say about Aaron Paul. Very good-looking human. You have a thing for, like, boyish?

Carl is watching this. I don't understand. Carl, no, no. Carl looks a lot like Aaron Paul. I disagree. Strongly disagree. Well, you're wrong. Aaron Paul has like a boyish kind of like he's blonde.

No. Aaron Paul is not blonde. Yes, he is. No, he's not. Yeah, Aaron Paul has blonde hair, basically. He has like brown hair. He has like dirty blonde. It's like brown.

He's got a blonde. face and you know it. A blonde face. You know what else? You were saying Brian Bonsol you were really into and I think he's got kind of this blondeish boyish thing going on. I'm worried about you. And also Carl,

Carl does not look anything like Aaron Paul. Yeah, he does. He totally does. You need glasses. I have contact. Are you wearing contacts right now? They're not working. Yes, they are.

New ones that function. I've talked to my sisters about this. We all agree. Well, your sisters are just humoring you, I think, if what's going on. No. No way. Do they look alike?

They both have facial hair. They look a lot of like. No, he looked not like to like. T.C., will you please back me up on this? I'm not going to get involved. Oh, really? Now you're not going to get involved? Here's your chance.

Looks nothing like him. That's right. Thank you. I think they're both very handsome. I mean, I look more like Aaron Paul than Carl does. No, you do not. I don't look anything like him. That's my point.

I don't look anything like him. That's what I'm saying. I look like Zach Galfinacus. A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. So anyway, movie looks awful. Can we get that side by side up, please?

It was a really bad movie. Can you tell us about it a little bit? There was Aaron Paul. Oh, Jesus. And it was basically Jesse Pinkman driving cars. I don't understand. This is not part of the Fast and Furious franchise, is it? It's just like the same movie.

It was a video game. It was a video game that EA made. Okay. And we got to know. They were a thousand of them. No, it was unbelievable. We got into the theater, and the EA logo splathing. up on the screen as if you were playing a video game and everybody just started cracking up wait what happened you're in the theater you know how like it shows all the studios no science bitch that's it that was the week of March 10th from our family to yours don't use natural gas no you're not ending this you don't get to say it when it ends just you're going to

cowboy hat on, you're in control. You're not in control. Do you feel in control? A little bit. No, you're not. That's the Vergecast for this week. I'd like to thank Katie and T.C. for being on it.

It was great. Always a great time. I'm sorry, guys. You know what? Are you guys going to talk about gonorrhea real quick? It's going on with my hair right now. It's not good. It's doing some really funny stuff.

It's not good. I think we're upsetting Billy and John, our producers. Oh, yeah. They thought this was such hot shit before we. started. They're like, it's so great. We love the Vergecast. What do you think about the Vergecast now, guys? How are you feeling about it? Huh? That's what I thought.

Can we talk about... I'll see you in hell. Can we talk about hat technology? No, we gotta wrap up. That's the Vergecast for this week. Very sorry, by the way, very sorry about... Sorry. Sorry. Is what's happened. I'm not drunk. I'm just tired and I am a little, maybe a little buzzed. That's the Vergecast for this week. We're very sorry about what it seemed like to you. I assure you that there's... is some audience for this. You just weren't it? Probably. If you want to reach out to us and send us a

message about how much you disliked what we did today, you can email us at Vergecast at theverge.com. You can leave a comment on the post when it goes up or the one that has gone up. You can drop something into the forum, into the forums on the verge. Please don't. Don't do this. You're doing this. I hope you don't have lice. That's all I have to say. And, uh, oh, it's a really good look for you, actually. It's a really good. So sweaty.

It's so sweaty in here. This is so disgusting. And yet I do actually think this is kind of a good. That's the best you've ever looked. It's kind of a fresh look for me. I'm not going to lie to you, but this may become my thing. I'm going to be like the guy. Oh, they're like, oh, Josh Topolsky, the guy who wears the cowboy hat.

Like, yep. That's me. Anyhow, by the way, it solves my hair problem completely. I guess like bald dudes are super into hats, right? They're like, hey, check it out. I got a thing going on up here. It's not hair, but it's a thing. That's the Vergecast.

You can email us. A Vergecast at Theverge.com. You can leave a comment. You can throw somebody in forums. You can find us on Twitter. The Verge is at Verge. I'm Joshwit Topolski. T.C. is laughing stoic.

Don't say it. Totally garbage Twitter name. Katie Drum and it's Katie Drum with two M's. Because she doesn't know how to spell drum properly. Because she can't spell drum. Yeah. In Canada, that's how they spell it with two M's. And that's it.

That's it for this Vergecast. And could be it for every Vergecast ever, frankly. Somebody just said best Vergecast ever. Yeah. So he just tweeted that to me. It was probably my dad. It wasn't. Oh, really?

Is your dad named Henrik Yonson? No. Well, then I guess it wasn't your dad. Let's say that's now. That's it for this Vergecast. Really? We're not going to talk about gonorrhea? Okay.

What would you like to say? Next week we'll talk about it. Because by then there will be no cure. So Trisha Nieder just did a new image. Can we get this image up? I don't know how she's turning these around so quickly. Can we just get the new image that she did for us up? It's of me.

It's very good. Very good stuff. And it looks a lot like what you're looking at right now. You guys are too slow. Yeah, look at my feed. There it is. It's disturbing, isn't it? It's like a fedora, though. People really are liking the hat. All right. Anyhow, that's the Vergecaste this week. We'll be back soon with so much more. And until that happens, I have to warn you. Something bad is coming for you and your family. And I can't stop it. May God be with you.