Tomorrow - 156: The Secret Knowledge

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

This week Josh and Ryan take a deep dive into the latest developments with their best frenemy, technology. Topics include Google Stadia, Apple's TV play, and what exactly the teens are learning on Instagram. Will technology save us all? Or will it lead us down a path of madness, Theranos-style? Download episode 156 and join us as we move ever closer to the brink. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to Tomorrow I'm your host Josh Walskowski. Today on the podcast we discuss Stadia, Castlevania, and propaganda. I don't want to waste one minute. Let's get right into it. All right, we'll look where back-line. Here it is. Here we are. Two responsible people delivering a podcast to the fans. It's been a whole week. No, it hasn't It hasn't been a week. It's actually been less than a week because we we're off schedule

But now we're back on schedule. I think it's great. Yeah, and and we're gonna stick to the schedule and and then we're gonna improve the schedule We're gonna shorten the days between our podcasts until there's just one podcast every day all the time. We wanna do daylight savings time to the degree that there are no days. I want there to be a new tomorrow every time you finish a tomorrow. There was a new tomorrow every day,

which I have to say is true consistency on the universe's part. Wow, wow. Can we talk about Elizabeth Holmes for a second? It's all I've been talking about. So I don't, I'm sorry. First off, I mean, look, whatever, I don't, Elizabeth Holmes is a, her story is incredible and you should read the book, Bad Blood. That's my recommendation. I haven't watched the documentary, but what I will say is like, what is truly shocking and annoying and like really aggravating is how many takes,

how many takes there are in Elizabeth Holmes, trying to like explain how people were duped by, I look, what is it, how did it happen? It's like, and actually, I retweeted somebody at the year yesterday, almost, I don't know, where's my retweet at? Um, yes, this writer, Julia Carri Wong, and I share it with the Guardian. And she's like, I'm honestly replaced by the idea that homes are some great unsolvable, misdre complicated character worthy of deep scrutiny. A

young woman of marginal talent with shower to fame, mystery, complicated character worthy of deep scrutiny. A young woman of marginal talent was showered with fame, fortune, and adulation. Should no moral conscience. It doesn't seem that complicated. And so it is true. It is very simple. A person who basically had no moral compass was given a break because of her family connections

and her existence as a a blonde haird white woman in like a rich family. And then like everybody kept going like the more money she got, the more people with money were going to other people with money like, oh, she's great, you should definitely invest. And anyhow, the long chart of it is like, there are so many takes on it. And all of them are bad, basically, for the most part. All of them are trying, any take that's trying to, like, armchair psychology explain why a scammer, like scammer scam worked?

For the most part is, like, you know, it's pretty obvious why they, why the scam worked. It's the same. Okay, so I read the book, I watched the 20 and 20s, Maxwell, I listened to the documentary, I saw the Alex Gibney doc and I love Alex Gibney. My problem with the doc in a lot of the takes is twofold. Number one is that like in broad terms, there are no such things that have worked and it is interesting to see all the glitz and glam of Silicon Valley on in the film, especially for an enterprise we know didn't

work out. But the book works way better than any of these other things, because the actual interesting part of this whole story is the little ways in which you have to undermine science and ethics and your employees and investors every single day with arranging meetings in a certain way. The ways that psychological abuse and control and obsession with subterfuge and results and a complete denial of science

led one of their employees to commit suicide. After asking for help multiple times and you don't get that story in the doc and in a lot of this, it's really glossed over and that is the most fascinating part. I mean, it is interesting to see her, quote unquote, charm and her physicality in the doc. But it really is supplemental because they don't go into detail

about why the science wouldn't work. And the book by John Kerero really does. And that is what's fascinating. And I don't want to be the negative Nancy over here, but this is kind of also the story of Uber and the ways that Uber system doesn't work. And yet that house of cards has not fallen apart. Their drivers are making 65 cents a mile with no benefits and debt because they had to

purchase a card to do their jobs. And Uber is not a profitable company. And it's really, really undermining public transport and it's bad for the environment, it's bad for urban planning. Uber is not doing a net good and it's not sustainable. And but because they are able to snow everybody with great marketing and a convenient product

that sounds great and in the short term, feels like something you would wanna give money towards and it feels like something you would want to give money towards and it feels like something like really great. We're not dealing with the fact that every day that company works all day long to undermine and cover up the problems of their model and the fact that it isn't profitable and it isn't sustainable at scale. And I mean, Netflix is not a profitable company, but at least the content that they make is building out some in dispensability in the entertainment industry.

So that eventually they'll be able to leverage that debt and become a profitable enterprise. But it's really odd because Uber's, like biggest innovation was the app and the like rollout of the client side and driver side apps. But the rest of their product has not innovated and it hasn't iterated and it isn't working great.

And autonomous vehicles are not gonna save them. And the fact that we're constantly obsessing over Elizabeth Holmes' funny voice, it is funny. And it's a funny meme and I do it all the time. I think it's hilarious that she never blinked. But we really need to talk about the fact that like scientists and ethicists were unable to do their job because there was so much money and excitement,

cover and political will covering it up. And that's happening with other companies. Well, yeah, I think the thing, and by the way, this is a lot of the rage that is fueling the conversation about technology, the debate of technology right now is like, oh, what happens when the technology goes from being this cool toy that we all love using

to being a thing that is a part of real life? Like an inter-alcohol part of how we build our lives. Yeah, I think that that, I think the translation between, I mean, I think that our understanding of an appreciation for how real technology is, and by the way, this was something like when we started the verge, we were talking a lot about about how like, about how like, the fringe culture of technology was becoming the center of culture and that and that everything sort of pass through the lens of and was reflected by technology in some way or increasingly felt that way.

And like, I think that this is a really interesting manifestation of that concept, I'm not like whatever, I'm not taking credit for what we're all talking about right now. But I am saying that that was something that early on, we were all sort of like, there was a lot of conversation particularly around the features, the early features we did at the verge, we were doing, we did this big thing about like, I was actually just waiting about the other day,

but we did this thing about synthetic meat and how the meat crisis is, I mean, it's actually like threatening humanity that our overproduction of meat is really bad for the planet. And it's like, here's this technical solution to it. And so we were really interested in those types of intersections of where life was taking place and how technology would alter it. And now we see the technology the technology is like where it's like where there's so many parts of our existence now where that where the awesome innovation, the idea has transformed into something that is much more sort of has become much more fundamental or much more important. And the ramifications of that have not been no one has really well studied the no one the what

happens once it happens, but also the way that we got to those things without ever thinking about it, right? You hear a lot of people talk about the ethicists that people need to hire at these tech companies to be able to grapple with what they build. It's like, if thinking about ethics was at a core, was at the core of the industry that drives these innovations, then we wouldn't be having the same conversations. And the innovations might be a lot fucking better or a lot different.

And so, you know, it's this interesting thing where, I mean, I'm still, I still remain excited about the potential for technology, even though like, I think like lately, you know, it's hard in like in Trump world, and it's hard in like the world of like, we're Facebook's like literally just, I mean, it's just a story today about how they were storing passwords and plain text files. You know, it's like, it's hard when you feel all these violations happening at every moment to still be optimistic. And when like, you know, when it's like you're on the 10th

version of the Galaxy phone and it's like, okay, they put the camera over there now and it's like, cool, you know, and like the innovations are like, you know, we're in the, I've said this before, we're in the valley, you know, I mean, but the reason innovation so personally and to get so frustrated is because it has so much potential and because I, it's the thing I think about the most and I love the most and it could be better and it needs to be better and I have high standards because I love this and it could be the thing

that saves everything, you know, but you know, but know? Yeah, but you look at Elon Musk who is unquestionably a genius in many ways and a visionary, but also you get a sense of just a total abandonment of like ethics and of like sometimes like sane thought or like appreciation for like human beings or appreciation for workers or appreciation for like the impacts that his projects will have on like the larger infrastructure. In me, while like he also was doing a lot of projects that like would potentially benefit

infrastructure like wildly and benefit the planet wildly. And so it's like, but like even there, it's like when you think about like if he's like the new Steve Jobs, you know, and by the way, Steve Jobs also had lots of these same fucking problems, you know, it's like at what point do we get inventors and companies and and and venture capitalists who actually are taking into consideration, um, you know, actually taking into consideration the reality of the world that we live in now and the world that they're helping to build or or or or dismantle. I just don't think we need, um,

like type A aggressive rule breaking hyper capitalist. I don't think that that's necessary for innovation. In fact, I think it like holds otherwise brilliant minds back. And I don't see a critical discussion of that happening because the very people who need to have that discussion are crippled by the need. It's sort of like the workaholic thing. It's the need to work 80 hours a week. Are the very people who would benefit from pulling back and having a larger discussion because they're intelligent and talented and they could really affect change are the people who think that,

like you need to be working 80 hours a week and studies and science show that you don't and that enabling your workers to live even if they're Uber drivers, even if it's a class of people you don't respect, enabling them to live better, fuller lives leads to better products in like a better world.

And if Uber drivers are better cared for and healthier and safer and more rested, I just think that you'll have a better product and a better service. And maybe some of those drivers will have innovations to pass on to you. It just to me, I look at someone like Jeff Bezos and I think he's made incredible products, but the idea that there seems to be a blind spot with how Amazon affects the environment.

And yet there's an obsession with Blue Origin because we want to explore nature and space. How do you hold though those ideas in your mind at the same time, I don't know how you do that and how someone that powerful. Like, truly the richest, most powerful man on the planet maybe is unable to take action on the most pressing issue of our time because it might make him slightly less powerful. You know what I mean?

Like, maybe it makes him slightly less powerful, but he would still be extremely powerful, maybe still the most powerful in a world that is sustainable. And I'd rather be slightly less infinitely powerful and have a thousand years ahead of our society than be the most powerful man in the world for 10 years before the oceans boil.

And I know it sounds apocalyptic, it sounds alarmist, it sounds really negative, but the focusing on Elizabeth Holmes' voice and her obsession with Steve Jobs doesn't drive the actual problems and the actual interesting part of the story, the actual thing that's fascinating. It's sort of like a crime,

like obsessing over the fact that son of Sam spoke to his dog, doesn't really do anything about the fact that we have such systematic mental health issues that our murders are the most grizzly and we have the most serial killers in our country like that's fucking wild and we need to have those discussions not like you know dog memes about son of sam you know what i mean yeah no well i mean we can do both can i mean we can do both but it feels like people only have the

willingness to do one and then once it's out of their system, once they've meme Elizabeth Holmes, it's boring to them. And then they move on to, like, from Lori Loughlin to Elizabeth Holmes. Now it's going to be, you know, Devon Nunez doing Twitter. And then we're just going to keep moving from on and on from these things. Yeah, yeah, it's great. But, you know, it is like on the one hand, like the thing. And then we should move on. I want to see, I want to see anyone who tweets at me. Any mentions? I have a lot of people that I'm planning on assuming for her, to be my feelings on Twitter.

Twitter, which by the way, like it turns out as not actually a perfect reflection of humanity and maybe actually highly not applicable to what's going on in the rest of the world, but certainly a fun place to yell at each other. But what I was going to say is, you know, the thing about her voice also is like, which like, you know, I'm all for like a good sort of like, let's joke about her voice because it is so completely fucking bizarre. It also kind of raises like, you know, I don't want to like to knock all of like the, you know, seemingly woke people out there, but it does raise, there are questions to be raised

about why she had to do the voice, why she was doing the voice in the first place, and what it says about the people she was doing the voice too, and what it says about the how seriously we take women in these positions, and there's all these kind of essays about why did these old men invest in it, and everybody's like, well, they were horny, and it's like, that is one way to put it,

but I would think that I would say, don, they were horny. And it's like, that is like one way to put it. Like, but I would think that I would say like, don't just miss their hornyness for money over their hornyness for like a young woman. You know, anyhow. I mean, the boys thing is basically just code switching and the ways in which marginalized groups have to like fake a personality or a expectation. And I constantly think about the fact

that if I put on a straight dude voice and fucking stood slightly differently, if I would view, what is that your straight dude? I mean, it was an attempt. If I was able to do something like that, would my career be different though? Yeah, I don't know.

But it's not naturally what comes out of my mouth. Like this isn't an affectation. So. If I, I'm Elizabeth Hall, I have ideas for innovation. Like, would I be farther along? And that's kind of like a much more interesting discussion than like this woman was delusional and thought people thought that was her real voice. It's just way more interesting to me. Mm-hmm. Well, okay. I mean, listen, I, I'm, there's a lot of, there's a lot to unpack

there and I would love to impact more of it, but we have other topics we had to get to so we should do that Listen, just because just because you've got a huge heart on for Google stadia. Wow Stadia Stadia Stadia Arcadia is how I think of it. Yeah, Stadia sound. Stadia. What does it sound like? It sounds like a medication? Stadium is what it sounds like a medication It sounds like a medication. It sounds like a medication. Ask your doctor about it. It's for a restless leg syndrome.

It's like steady. It'll steady your leg. Steadie, I guess it'd be a better one, but it's actually pronounced steady. It's the A is. Do you feel yourself in movies, lightly jiggling your leg, wondering, do the people next to me know that I have ADHD? Try Stadia. It may cause suicide. No, so Stadia. It may cost you a side.

Yeah. No, so Stadia's, oh, I will say this. We were talking last, we were talking on the last show about how I'm like, I don't care about streaming gaming. You can't do it on it. You can't play it on a plane. Like it sucks, whatever, fuck it. I am like somewhat interested in,

I'm somewhat interested in Stadia. Like it looks like it could be, I'll be honest with you. I don't have that much room in my life for like more video game options. Like I'm already daunted by like, you know, steam. I'm like, oh, I should check out what's up, what's going on on steam, you know, or whatever. And you know, it's like a billion games that I want to play. And then I'm like, well, I gotta get,

I'm gonna set up my PC and do, you know, it's like, okay, I'm like, I am already out. Right, I'm just like, even looking into it, I'm out. So now I'm like, okay, I'm gonna come up with I'm gonna go on another fucking gaming system. Another controller. I have an ottoman in my living room that literally just has controllers and like like docs and you're like your controller ottoman. That's a that's a there's something that a west down. It's insane. I look at it sometimes and I'm like, can I throw some of these out? And it's like not really because if I want to play on my Android phone, I need this

thing. And if I want to play on this, I've got to have these. And I got this one over here. And it's insane. Yeah. That's right. So, yeah, it's like the controller. Another controller.

You know, when John Wick opens his chest full of weapons and they're perfectly arranged and the foam has been cut out for the perfect shape of all all this. But it's for me to play Angry Birds. That's like what you're doing. You're just trying to, yeah, you're just trying to get a multiplayer game going and you're like, you have to like break open up your concrete, whatever. The point is, the point is, a competition I think is good and I think that this is a good solution for some people. And if they want to fund game development for games that wouldn't have otherwise been made, that's cool. But there are lots of questions

about how this is going to work and who for work. And their big mistake was, their big mistake was calling it Stadia. Well, no, was just demoing Assassin's Creed. Basically, for me, immediately, I'm like, out, I don't give a fuck about the Assassin's Creed series or whatever, and so now I'm sort of like stuck having to sprain interest in Assassin's Creed.

Yeah, I mean like it just seems like I wouldn't you roll it out with a price and then a suite of games that you originally produce that you can't get anywhere else and say to people like it costs this. This is the internet connection you'll need and we promise you like this you money back guarantee if you experience lag or whatever and really like reassure our fears and then also present us with some stuff we wouldn't have otherwise had and be like listen Google's entering gaming we're not taking away from anywhere else we actually made some of our own original games and hopefully you'll like them and there's five or six launch titles like the way that anybody enters a console race. Yeah I mean right I mean so the thing is it's like I assume Yeah, I mean, right. I mean, so the thing is, it's like,

I assume they're all PC games, right? Yeah, it seems to be like, and it doesn't seem like we're getting VR or motion or any like individual like gimmicks. It just seems to be like a standard Xbox game is now available on your PC or Chromecast. Right, but I think like, I think that there's, I think that there's,

you know, I'm okay with that. I mean, if it's good, I just, I don't know. It's just the thing to me is, I do love the idea of not having to buy a box and it being just like totally awesome. But like, I don't know. It's like sometimes like my YouTube videos are like really pixelated because like my streaming is fucked up or whatever. I mean, the Chromecast itself is not my favorite way to watch things because yeah, sometimes it's good to just have a dedicated box. And I know that like it does work and it's an option. It's a low cost option for people, but YouTube isn't like kind of local. I mean YouTube isn't not buggy. And like the future is all about like your home server. Okay, it's all about local.

I don't know. At any rate, at any rate. I mean, this doesn't hurt the switch. I'll say that. The switch is gimmick is a little live and kickin'. Yeah, I don't know at any rate. Okay, yeah, speaking of the switch. So anyhow, so yeah, they announced it,

yeah, and I guess I'm somewhat interested now. I'm a little bit more interested. I like their controller. I say it's an attractive controller, and I will definitely check it out. But I, it's like, if it does, if it did like big picture mode, if it was like steam and I had access to all the stuff

that was coming out on steam, but it was like super easy and accessible, and the streaming worked really well. And the latency was like basically non-existent. These are all things that I would probably aren't going to happen. Then I'd be very interested because it would simplify, I think, because I keep thinking, like, I built this like PC a couple of years ago. And it's like, it's fine, but it's kind of a bigger box than I want to have in my living room. And then I've been looking, I'm like, what's the smallest one I can buy?

I've been looking at all these different custom configs, and they're pretty fucking expensive. You're spending a good like 1,500 bucks on a specialized gaming mini PC, and you're still dealing with the interface interface of the PC even with steam even like big picture mode. There's still like a lot of like sketchiness to the whole experience. Oh yeah.

There's a lot of like you know, driver up a very yeah, a very holistic solution will be would be fucking awesome. I think the other issue is that a lot of PC games aren't necessarily controller centric and that is an issue as well. I also think that gaming doesn't benefit from Google's usual iterative, we'll fix the bugs as we go along, and it's gonna get better and better,

or we'll kill it, approach to things like gaming. The PlayStation 4, when you plugged it in and played your game, it worked, and there are little bugs, and I wish I could change my username, but for the most part, that's why I buy a console, because it's a simple solution and it works and I don't have to fiddle with it. And an area where there's lots of little asterix

and we're going to get to that along the time and oh, this bug is happening and oh, you're only experiencing lag because we're doing a server update and those will get less frequent. They need to come out with this as a solid product and they can't do the Android thing where they're like, we'll get to those other features later. Like it has to just work.

Yeah, I agree. And I don't know. They've done a lot of stuff like this and it's just been like kind of a mess. So I'm not gonna put too much faith in it, but I mean, competition's competition. Let's see what everybody else does. No, it's not like, it's good.

It's fine. It's great. I think it's great. I love it. Yeah, I love the idea. Here's what I do like. Is that they've had like an, they have a like integration with Google Assistant where you can be like, how do I, yeah, I mean, I'm sure it works like shit. But, I love the idea. Here's what I do like, is that they've had like an, they have a, like integration with Google Assistant

where you can be like, how do I? Yeah. I mean, I'm sure it works like shit, but like I'm telling you when I was playing Resident Evil, the remake, there were areas where I'm like, where the fuck is the key? I mean, I have to do that in every game, like every game. Yeah, and I had like, I have my phone open next to me,

just like, sitting open on some shitty ass IGN, like, disgusting, like, fucking pop up at a really sweet situation. You're on Twitch streaming and you're trying to do a tutorial and you got your Twitch dashboard open on your computer. You got a tutorial on your phone.

The PS4 is running and you're just like, I just want to find a key. Like, yeah, no, no, no, no, it's bad. It would be really awesome if there was like, if there's an actual intelligent way for like the assistant to be like, oh, like you're looking for X, here's how to find it. Like that'd be fucking cool,

but there's no way that's gonna be like really elegantly in a good way. Well, let's see, I hope that they can really pull it out. I really hope they see. They've been hiring a lot of talent. Yeah, sure. We've all been seeing the hiring, but does it mean that it's gonna turn into a real,

you know, so many pointed out, they're like, apples, like, their media jobs with the media in the title are up like 50% year over year. So it's like, okay, cool, that doesn't mean they're gonna like drop some sick media product on everybody. Well, we'll get to that. But first, let's talk about the Switch. Yeah, let's have a Switch.

Whatever, the Switch had a big announcement yesterday. I mean, that's a bunch of new games. A lot of indie games. Oh, I don't know how you like, figures like Stranger Things 3, the game is an indie game exactly, like I understand It's like an indie developer, but it's stranger things three sort of like indie movies that are $7 million about it Yeah, yeah exactly like

$7 million on that point on that point Let me just say the stranger things three trailer came out yeah, and it's it looks fucking off So good and like I'm trying that's like I know it's like I know it's I know stranger things is like popular And in some way like it's the big bang theory of like weird horror stuff because it's like a bunch of, it's like kind of accessible to like regular like Milly Bobby Brown. It's like pretty accessible to like enormous.

Yeah, yeah, you know, but like also it's a lot of fun and it shows really good and entertaining. I mean, they did have that, they did have that one massive turt of an episode last season where 11 joins up with like some weird punk crew in Chicago. But I'm just gonna pretend that didn't happen. Like I'm so dreading, I'm so dreading them bringing that crew back. Like you don't even understand. But some things are basic and popular because they're good.

Like everybody is always shitting on stuff like Starbucks or Disney World and I'm like, yeah, but those are, they're really good. I mean, Disney is just by sheer force, just by sheer magnitude of owning the child entertainment market and sheer, I mean, they own 40% of entertainment. And sheer money, yeah.

It's like if Disney World wasn't actually pretty entertaining, it would be crazy. Anyhow, but so the Stranger Things 3 is one of the games, and it looks funny. I mean, sort of things 3, the game looks like fucking zombie ate my neighbors. And if anybody knows me, I love zombie ate my neighbors. Zombie ate my neighbors.

Zombies ate my neighbors. Zombies ate my neighbors is one of my favorite Super Nintendo games. And I guess it was an arcade game as well. I don't really, actually, it might have just been a Super Nintendo game, but anyhow, one of my favorite Super Nintendo games. And I guess it was an arcade game as well. I don't really, actually, it might have just been a Super Nintendo game, but anyhow, one of the first things I did when I got the analog Super Nintendo emulator was like,

busted out zombies, hey, my neighbors. And this game looks a lot like it, but obviously it's like modern and more detailed. It's funny how completely cemented, like retro game style has become in video games. It's really interesting because for the longest time, I'm sure there's more to say on this. For the longest time in games, we were like,

we got to make it more realistic. We got to make it more realistic, guys. At some point, somebody was like, what if it looked old? People really like that. I have to say I really like it. It's like Dead Cells has a very retro look to it, although it's extremely modern retro. And I fucking love it.

I think we really honed that art style at the time and it was a format that worked. And when we made the jump to 3D, N64 and PlayStation 1 games weren't great because people were really figuring out how to do it. And they didn't know they needed two analog sticks for things and stuff like that. But I think that we had really perfected

that 2D aesthetic over 30 years. And sort of like how graphic novels and motion comics and anthology books and little comic strips, all of those formats can exist if you perfect them. But for a while, we got a little distracted with the flashbang of Triple A 3D. Yeah, and like, and like, we're like, oh, you can like, you know, like, Mortal Kombat, everything and like, it's like, yeah, I mean, that's the really

probably not the best treatment for every game. But, but so, so, so that's like, so there's a bunch of games that seem really interesting. Like, there's this game, Katana Zero, which is 100% like very similar in the retro style. It kind of looks like a dead cells-ish side-scroller, which I'm definitely into. There's this game Rad, which I'm less excited about. I mean, I know there's some big ones. I'm gonna talk about them in a second. There's a game called Creature in the Well,

which looks completely awesome. Apparently it's pinball inspired. I don't love that. And they announced this game. They also announced this game Overland, which I actually downloaded the Mac version yesterday. And I, it's an interesting and really beautiful game. I don't do not like the mechanics of it at all. It may be more entertaining on the Switch, but, but most importantly, I guess, I'm sort of, I'm sort of bearing the lead. They announced Cuphead, which is this massively popular game for the Xbox. And I guess, do they come out for the PlayStation as well as the Xbox?

No, the Xbox, the PCX. Yeah. And Cadence of Hyrule, which is a Zelda game, but it's made by an indie developer. Yeah, it's like a rhythm styles. I don't think. Yeah. And I don't know the rest of nuclear throne. I'm just looking through here. I don't know. This looks good.

I guess I'd play this. It kind of looks like Robotron just undergray. I mean, the switch is just basically the ultimate console for indie games. And they really do well there. And I think Microsoft realizing that is in a market that they're going gonna really pursue as hard And that they kind of just want you to be able to play good games anywhere Putting Cuphead on there is an early step towards

Then putting a lot of Xbox content on this way and also shifting Xbox from like Box that you buy into like a brand right? This is sure what they've been what Microsoft's been doing with all of its stuff is like, their Microsoft is basically like trying to be like a services company. I mean, everyone, I don't think they're killing, right. I don't think they're killing the Xbox necessarily, but I guess if the Xbox were like turned into a service

and I didn't need to buy a box necessarily, yeah, I think they're gonna sell Xboxes and they'll at least maybe another generation, or maybe two, but I think that the shift is clear that they're looking at something like Stadia, but a more iterative version of getting there. Do you think, like, I was just thinking about 5G, I was like, oh, well, once 5G happens,

like everybody will just be streaming everything everywhere all the time. And then I was like, gee, I wonder if we're gonna find out that like 5G actually gives everybody cancer instantly. Or like, you know, at some point we're gonna be like, wow, like we really don't know. And 5G has not a lot of range, so it's gonna take a very long time to roll out.

But I'm just saying like, we, you know, there's so much shit just flying through the air now. It's like piercing our bodies. Like, I don't know. Listen, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, as you know, except when it comes to 9-11, in which case I'm a huge truth or, but no, like,'t know, listen, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, as you know, except when it comes to 9-11, in which case I'm a huge truth or,

but no, like, you know, you do have to wonder at some point, it's like, is this all this stuff good for us? Is good for our bodies? Is good for our minds? It's hard to tell. I don't know. But it got cup head on the switch. That's important.

And that is the important thing. And Castlevania collection coming to this wedge. Wait, is it? Yeah, what? Konami is doing several like collections for the switch. One of which is eight Castlevania. Where do you? Where is that? That was announced a few days ago. It was. How did I miss that? I don't know what we did about it. You did? Yeah. Oh, I've muted you. Just kidding. Hold on. Let me look. I'm googling right now Google. Canonami, here it is.

Yeah, oh boy. For confirmed game and for mystery game. Unfortunately got out Castlevania by Dead Cells, so it doesn't matter. And also there's this game that's coming out for Bloodstained. This game is coming out for the Switch that I just saw, which is called like,

it's like a ritual of the night or something, which is like a total castle in your rip off. It's by the people who did the original castle man. We did somebody in there. So here's the thing, like I guess, I get less excited about like old games. Like I love the idea, but the truth is like they're not really as good as new games for the most part.

Yeah, and I think that's fair, but I do think that Konami's not making new Castlevania games. So if you love that those games and like a remaster lets you go back and play and be in that world, that's a great thing. Yeah, Konami's busy making potential machines. So I would like to see like snatcher, like the original snatcher or like the best version of snatcher for like the switch.

That'd be really cool. Yeah, I don't think remasters are always like sometimes if they're a little too close to original just upscaled and stuff, I'm not like total. I don't feel the need for that. But when it's a reimagining of a great game that really refines what made the original game great and you make it clear that it's not that original game that it's like a new interpretation or whatever, I think that's awesome. There's a lot of properties that need a fresh coat of paint.

But sometimes the new megaman's great. But sometimes you want it to be the original. Like the snatcher for, I play the Sega CD version, that version is pretty close to the TurboGraph X and the MSX versions, I think, without a ton of, I mean, it's got some graphical changes, but I think it'd be cool to, the original snatcher available for like, whatever. I mean, this is just me.

I think playing with some of those old properties is fun, and I like that. Like Sonic Mania was blast. It was fun. It was really refined, but it wasn't trying to just be Sonic 2 or whatever. And you can get Sonic 2 in a variety of different ways. I don't know. I'm excited that this is just going to be something I can have on my console legally, because I love Castlevania and it's gonna be nice to have that. And it's cheap, it's 20 bucks for eight games. No, I'm with you. It's fine, it's nice, it's good.

I'm glad it's happening. They need to do Dracula X for the proper version of it, for like the turbo do over, the PC engine version of it. I like the turbo do over the turbo. The PC engine version of it. I need to get and play that on my Switch. That would be fucking awesome. All right. What else?

Okay. What else is on our list here? I know we have a lot of things to get through. What are the other things? Oh, Apple. I'm going to talk about Apple. Oh, yeah, it's about Apple. Apple, I don't know.

They released a bunch of stuff this week that I don't care about, like new iPads, which oh, I did buy my mom a new iPad because it's her birthday. Yesterday was her birthday, so I had a birthday. Have a birthday, mom? Mom, Topolski. But also, and, you know, they're not available yet. You have to, we're still, she's waiting, so we had to send her, we sent her the cover.

She got the cover in the mail, but we'll get the rest of it later. She's like, I love it. They at least do AirPods, I guess. I don't use them. So, I mean, I use AirPods and I just bought a pair and I looked at what the update is and I was like, a wireless charging is not always the most convenient. They don't have the wireless charging thing either, do they?

I mean, Siri sucks. So like, hey Siri is not a feature that I really care about. Yeah, so honestly, I mean, so it's like just, you know, they're a little bit of a bump, but there was nothing like, there's no banner update to it. And this, they're having a big event on the 25th, March 25th. And everybody's like, talk about services. Everybody's like, it's gonna be news,

their news magazine service and TV. They're gonna do a Netflix competitor, whatever. Casey wrote last year, at the end of Casey Johnson wrote last year about like a passive mention in the Guardian, a little bit detail on like this idea that they were looking to buy Kondaynast. And you know, I think that would be a really interesting development if Apple were to buy a large publisher. It also moves Apple into a very interesting space, but so does the TV thing,

where they go from being like this kind of like a store for things to the people who make the things. And historically, I haven't seen companies like Apple have a lot of success with that. Like, I mean, you could say Netflix is a clear sign, you know, or Amazon. I mean, Amazon has had success, but it's not quite to the level of like Netflix success Amazon is that success just by sheer power just like the money by the money, right?

And I think that Apple has something similar Going on like but Apple kind of falls on its face whenever it tries to do stuff like this like Apple music is a success But only because they jammed it down our throats like whenever it tries to do stuff like this. Like Apple music is a success, but only because they jammed it down our throats. Like, they kind of fall on their face whenever they try to do something like this because they just, they come in trying to apply ideas

for hardware design to like narrative television without understanding the medium in a way. And Netflix definitely has its things you could critique. Like, there is a lot there, but they do seem to understand video and they understand TV and that isn't something that you can just be like, well, we'll just pay a bunch of people to make shows. Running a studio is a lot more than that. I speak from experience. The way that Hulu works when you develop a show with them is very different because they're owned by several broadcast networks and they're just putting their toe in digital.

They're coming from a very particular perspective as opposed to studios that have always been digital like Netflix where there's a lot of freedom. Both models have their benefits, but Apple coming in, I haven't been sold as to what their philosophy for their streaming service should be or why that their streaming service will offer me anything that any other tech company during a bunch of money. I mean, they're gonna, they have a lot of talent. I mean, I guess they have talents.

Like JJ Abrams in this person, that person. But it's like, you know, that's like, I mean, to some degree, talent needs a set of tools to work with. Well, I'm just saying, like there are shows that are produced by like great classic talents that have been just fucking rocked my world, but there's a lot of tools to work with. I'm just saying, like there are shows that are produced by like great classic talents that have been just fucking rocked my world,

but there's a lot of shit. I mean, the shows that I've really been loving and have like really enjoyed and been like, yes, more of that. Like, Stranger Things is a really good example actually. Nobody ever heard of the Duffer Brothers, right? That's the guys who made it. Nobody really ever heard of those guys

before the first Stranger Things. Like, and I'm pretty sure that the story of of stranger things is that a bunch of people passed on it Like they were shopping that I could be wrong and a bunch of people passed and Netflix was like sure we'll do it So like but you know, I think that like what actually is exciting about the current Rise of streaming is that like you know, I know like for instance like I just started watching shrill last night I know a lot of people who are very famous are involved in the production of Shrill, but like, and a lot of like, people that I,

who names I know from TV, but it feels like something that like doesn't, isn't like about like, this one powerful person put it all together, you know? Yeah. And I think that, and it, and it, like, it, it feels like a show that's like, is like, loose of a lot of the things that like, the really powerful people, it's like, I watched them with that show,

what's the show with James Franco and that where he's the twin? This is the fact that I can't remember that it's like a best trip club or whatever, about about the do's? The do's, the do's. Watch the first season of the do's, and it's good, it's fine.

It's like, it's got some like really good moments, but like, it wasn't like, to me it wasn't like the OA, which I mean, the OA is like a very, I know it's a very polarizing piece, but it is new. But it's like new and different and it's made by people who aren't like, Martin's brought to you by Martin Scorsese. And like, so I kind of don't care that Reese Witherspoon, you know, of course, who I love in his America sweetheart.

I kind of don't care that Reese Witherspoon, you know, of course, who I love in his America sweetheart, I kind of don't care that Reese Witherspoon is like producing that for Apple. That's what I mean. Sometimes people are really talented. But the like infrastructure, the environment, the just the sheer process of how shows get made, there's a difference between how HBO's infrastructure and their processes internally work then say ABC or Nickelodeon. And you can see the end result there. And I don't think that Apple knows how to build a process to get the result they want. I think they're hiring marketing names, throwing money at it.

And buying Kondaynass to me makes more sense because Kondaynass, again, it's a company I could criticize for hours, but they understand print and publishing. And so that integration with Apple's resources could be great. But they're not purchasing a network or a streaming company or a studio. They're trying to like fuse something together. So I don't know how successful this would be. I'm open to it all working.

It's just money and a lot of devices and people's hands will make this thing profitable, but will it make it good? Well, I think it's also that lock-in that you see with Apple News. That's the other piece of this is the news side of it. Besides the TV stuff is like the lock-in is like, oh, now you have the... Apple's gotten really bad at this shit where they're kind of forcing you to upgrade and trying to like, you know, like, casually get you into their things

that you actually end up paying for, like their music service, which is like, try it out. The next thing you know, it's like, you're just subscribing to it, and you don't notice. I think that, like, they're gonna get people to like, join in and subscribe, but, it is like a little bit of like like what is the motivator for subscription, you know, and I mean, and they're made listen, there may be shows that look fucking amazing.

My bar for like something that is convincing enough for me to get a subscription is really fucking high at this point, because like between what is available on things like AMC or even some of the network stuff and not very much, but like, you know, some of the sitcoms, like the good places is really good and that's an NBC show. And like, there's like all that stuff. Like I still watch Modern Family and find it like fairly entertaining. I mean, like HBO at Netflix and Hulu with a couple of stuff.

No, I'm saying I have serene. So I have HBO show time. So much. HBO show time Netflix Hulu. That's a shit load. Plus Amazon Prime, which is I have HBO showtime. HBO showtime Netflix Hulu, that's a shit load, plus Amazon Prime, which is another whole bunch of stuff. And I don't, there's no way I can watch all the stuff that they're doing.

It's like, it's gonna be a point, there is me a point where it's just like, listen, this is just more than I need and want. Like, there is a limit. Like, so I think that Apple adding to the mix, it's like, it's nice, it's great, I'm happy for them. But I do think there's going to be a question of, what is the thing that you need? I'm going to spend another $10 a month because I need to have it. Let me

put you this way. And I, and there are wonderful, there are, I subscribe to the New Yorker. Do not subscribe to vote. Do not subscribe to GQ. Do not subscribe to vote. Do not subscribe to GQ. Do not subscribe to wire. Do not subscribe to, I'm trying to think about their condinous titles. A bunch, I know. Right. We subscribe to the New Yorker. We definitely read that, like the physical magazine and the obviously digital. You know, if you're like, wow, you can get all these for $10. I might be like, okay, cool, but like, I already pay for the New Yorker. And I don't know that I care about the other ones. And I guess if it's like cheaper than, if it's the same price subscribe to the New Yorker and I get all of them, I would do that.

I also think it's just a thing where like, there, this is a time when a lot of people are going to enter the space and Disney needs to be looked at as a monopoly. And this Disney Fox merger is a travesty, frankly, for the entertainment industry. But Disney Plus streaming service is going to be bringing you a shit ton of things you want to watch. Oh, that's amazing. They now have, I mean, look, FX, Fox,

the entire trailer when I saw the trailer. I almost subscribed. I almost subscribed to the CBS thing for the new Star Trek show. And I didn't think it was that good to be perfectly honest with you, but I'm fairly certain that the new Twilight Zone is going to be only available on the CBS streaming thing, right? Yeah. Okay, so that probably will push me over the edge to at least paying for the run of that show, for paying for that subscription. And so like then we're gonna end to really kind of fucked up territory with like how much I'm subscribing to things.

I mean, me personally, but I think a lot of people feel this way. We're selling out $300 a month for like entertainment, streaming entertainment, like that's wild. It's a bit much. It's a bit much, you know what I mean? It's a bit worrying.

And so anyhow, the point is, I guess what I'm saying is, you know, I am, you know, I'm someone alarmed, I'm someone alarmed and disturbed and frankly not totally sold on the idea that I need Apple service in my life and they have shows that are so good that it's unparalleled. You know that the quality is unparalleled. But I can be proven wrong. I can be proven really wrong. I'm ready to hear that Apple is the way forward

and I have to be a part of it. I have a failing Disney Plus is gonna come dick swinging and Apple is gonna have a couple cute little things that are offered but that it's to me, it's not a sustainable. I don't know, I mean, I would love to be proven wrong but I don't know that that's Apple's forte or where their focus really needs to be right now.

Right. Well, we're gonna find out on the 25th. I guess we will. I will say I'll give them credit that they're getting a bunch of releases out. They updated iMacs. They did the, uh, they did the, the, the iPads. They did the AirPods and the whole thing is like, we're going to get all this stuff out of the way because we're going to spend a lot of time on media. It also feels very honest about what these updates are.

They're not things to have a keynote presentation with like, you know, doing a Ouija board to get Steve Jobs to hold up this like the AirPod 2. Like, we really don't need the pomp and circumstance for the AirPod 2. Which is great because we definitely need way fewer of these events that are full of this kind of bullshit pomp and circumstance like and now this huge excitement. And now we're bringing out Vanessa Cardboard. The developer behind the news. Did you see the cardboard? Yeah, I just made her up. Is that a person? That's not a person? No. I'm

really into Vanessa Cardboard and I think that should be a thing. That should be a person. I love the sounds of it. Thanks, Greg. When we were developing the icon. I'm so excited to tell you about Rise of the Ninja 4. Is Rise of the Ninja thing? Hold on, Rise of the ninja four, not a thing. Nope, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Should I buy bloodstained curse of the moon? I'm thinking I'm gonna do it. Yeah. I haven't played it. It's eligible for 35 gold points. I don't get to understand what's going on in Nintendo.

I can't keep track of what the points are. They're points are so stupid. Are you subscribed to their thing? Are you a subscriber to switch online? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Is it worth it? It's $2 for the year.

Oh, that's not bad. And you get cloud-saved. So my, you know, my very clumsy ask, my break and switch, and I need to know that my games are saved somewhere. So it's worth it for me. Yours is just like insurance. Yeah, you're like, I just don't trust myself.

No, I gotta know that my Pokemon are in their bank or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, anyhow. Okay, sorry. So we're gonna find out what's going on with Apple. And the media thing's interesting, the news thing is interesting.

I just think it's like really an eyebrow razor. People were talking about them wanting 50% of the proceeds from subscriptions, but then also if they own CondayNast, and suddenly it's in their best interest to promote CondayNast content. Yeah. How are other publishers gonna feel about that?

And like, so maybe, but that may not happen, by the way. And yeah, whatever. So 25th is going to be a shit show. It's going to be a rock and rock and shit show. But yeah, I don't know. I get, I don't get, I just don't get very excited about these particular types of, I miss when everybody used Google reader. I still use RSS.

It's great. It's all you need. What? RSS. I love it. Check out Feeley. Have you heard of Feeley? Yeah, it's really good. I mean, I have solutions, but I just miss when we were all just using Google Reader. Well, everybody's making a newsletter now. All you have to do is that's the great new social network that everyone's doing. $5 a month and you can got my thoughts on, you know. I'm sorry. The bachelor. I'm sorry I got to say, I got to say,

the newsletter fatigue starts now. I'm already, I already have newsletter fatigue from all the people, I'm not non-personal people. I just don't love the idea of like, everybody that I wanna hear their voice, I have to use love the idea of like everybody that I want to hear their voice I have to use Patreon to get the exclusive bonus newsletter and a t-shirt and that's how our media works now It's just very depressing. I'm glad that there are individual artists that can like carve out a career in a way that they couldn't before But the future of media is not patreon and

I don't know. Anyway, anyway. Well, in other news, Instagram got a report coming out that just as bad for poisoning your brain with conspiracy theories as every other social media platform. Yeah, I mean, this to me is not a surprise. Taylor Renns did a piece for the Atlantic, right? Yes. About oh turns out there all these conspiracy accounts on Instagram and there's all these like teens into it and it's like Okay, it's the internet like the it's like when you make

Bad salacious ideas available to people they're gonna gravitate towards them and they're gonna share them and they're gonna talk about them They're gonna start to believe them because that's how people, like I remember when I was like a, I'd say in my early late teens, early 20s, you know, I was so fascinated by like the Robert Anton Wilson conspiracy theory stuff and like, behold at pale horse and all the stuff about the night's template and the, you know, the, the, you know, I of course talk about all the time, my favorite book, David Ike's The Biggest Secret, which is all about the global cabal of lizard people controlling. And I was enamored and fascinated with the concepts there. We were coming off of, of course, this is the age coming off of the X-Files generation,

which is very much like, oh, there's a big conspiracy. But that's also fueled by the same shit. And it always feels really exciting to be, I think there's a process and I think it's like real true for pretty much everybody. If you've been traditionally schooled, and then you, in your sort of formative teen, let's say, teen or young adult years,

find someone is like, do you know about this secret knowledge that no one's telling you? I think there is a natural, almost I would say like biological response to be really excited about that and really interested in it and to feel like the thing that you all that want always sort of feels latent late, which is that there's like something that someone's not telling them. You know, like I think in life, we all feel that there's something we don't see and that

can be sinister or it could be like mundane, right? But like we all tend to believe that there's a there's some mechanics behind everything that we're not privy to or we're not in control of and that can be either frustrating or mesmerizing or you know, fascinating at turns. But I think that so I think there's this natural proclivity for people to be like attracted to and excited about learning the secret knowledge. The fucking problem is no one guessed what it would be like

when you brought that to the stage of the internet and when you brought it to the stage of things like social media because that hadn't been invented yet and no one could imagine it. And it was like, you know, it's not like you called a friend up on the phone and you were like, I just read this book and it turns out the world is run by lizard people.

It's like you published a newspaper that became immediately available to every single person on the planet with whatever story you wanted and now it's instantly being read. Like there's no one was ready for that when it came to like bullshit. Like there's no one, no one was ready for that when it came to like bullshit. Like this is the thing that I think about,

I'm not wanting the New Zealand shooting, and you hear about, we talked about this a little bit on the last show, but you hear about all these people talking about, oh, you know, he was immersed in all these forums and he was on all these social networks and he was spreading this, you know, and involved in this sort of, you know, doctrine of whatever know doctrine of whatever and it's like yeah like we only thought that these systems were going to be

used for good and now that they're being used for bad people are like I don't know like what the fuck do we do with that and so is it surprising sorry I'm really ranting but is it surprising that we've discovered that yet another social network that does the exact same thing that all the other social networks do is being used in exactly the same way it's like to me it is the least surprising thing in the world it is to me a foregone, it is the least surprising thing in the world. It is to me a foregone conclusion. And by the way, check out Chloe Kardashian's Instagram account for a second and read the 9,000 fucking comments that she gets on a typical poster,

the 20,000 comments or whatever. It is a dumpster fire. It is fucked up. I mean, her shit's fucked up too. But I mean, very fucked up. But like the comments, the people participating in conversation, the shit the people are saying that it goes unchecked, the arguments the people are having,

it makes YouTube look chill and sane, okay? So like, I don't know what the surprise is to be perfectly honest. The question is what's the fucking solution? And none of these tech companies have an answer and let's be clear, their bottom line relies on them sort of continuing to not have an answer because time is time, attention is attention.

The more those fucking people are reading about conspiracy theories on Instagram, the more ads you can fucking serve them on Instagram. And that is their business. And that is how it works. So unless you can upend their business model somehow, significantly, they're not really gonna work that hard to curb that shit.

That's one man's opinion. I think people are naturally storytelling creatures and they're naturally emotional, especially impressionable teenagers who haven't heard bad stories several times or bad narratives. And if you're a platform that Constantly Talks About, we enable people to tell their stories and share their memories and create dialogues and discussions and brand themselves, all of which is just a form of saying, tell a story or share information.

You have a responsibility for what you're enabling people to share and how your format shapes the stories and narratives that are shared and I think like people are going to seek out the ones that make them feel a certain way and That feed into whatever their needs are quote-unquote or whatever releases You know the most energetic activity chemical releases in their brain. And I think like if you are a platform, you have responsibility to both your users and like your advertising partners to create an environment where what you're doing is productive

in some way and not just an attention hole. And I don't know that any of these companies care or are like grappling with that in any capacity. And it's not like shocking to me that infinitely available like infinitely available narratives mean that people will seek out bad narratives. Like that's not shocking. The reason that like journalists and the media worked for the time that it did was that a group of people sat together and felt like some sort of worked for the time that it did was that a group of people sat together

and felt like some sort of responsibility for the limited space they had, what they should share. Because the news at 11 was an hour long and you had to sit down and have hard conversations about what you put up there. And we're in a place now where it's all unlimited. And so garbage gets just as served as good stuff and without a curation or an editing or even just a calling of the worst of it. Like, when it's available, someone's news at 11 now is sitting in their bed, staring at their phone, like hearing about how the Jews secretly run the world and we have to stop them.

And that's their news at 11 and then they turn it off and Instagram makes a few cents and that's that on that. And it, we're in a place where I don't know how we like unring that bell except that I hope that everybody wisest up at some point. But I mean, conspiracy theories being like the way that people interpret the whole world based on information presented to them by tech companies,

like user generated nonsense by the most mentally ill people with the most free time. I don't know, like I don't know how we pull back on that, but I do know that like, it's not shocking that that was found on Instagram. I don't know why, I mean, we all seem to have this collective delusion that Instagram was slightly better than other places.

I don't, I don't know that any social media platform in the available paradigms is able to effectively fix this problem. And I don't know how we fix it without institutional changes to education and publicly funded news. I really don't know. I don't know the answer, but I know that I... It's really long.

And hearing about... Apple did make an investment in the news literacy project. And they're backing a bunch of news literacy thing. I mean, obviously, like, there's up gonna be a push from some of these companies, but, you know, I don't know, it's like. Other countries have whole news literacy programs in schools, and it's like a core part of the curriculum.

Yeah, I mean, understand how it's, I mean, that definitely helps. Like, we have, definitely have to get people like able to parse the information on their own. But it's still like, it's really hard. I think it's just really hard. Um, you know, uh, it's going to be hard to put all of this back in the box. And I think there's going to have to be a generation of, I think it's going to be a generation of people who kind of grow up with the, with the, you know, with their shields up, right? Like, like, if we're, if we do it right, hopefully the next

generation or maybe the generation after that, if we don't fucking totally destroy ourselves, we'll have there, we'll have like the literacy, the literacy education will be there. There's just a general shared knowledge of what's up and what general shared knowledge of what's up with the internet and what is good and bad on it. Hopefully, some aversion to this concept of everybody screaming at each other all at once on these social platforms. Some version of that will let people have their shields up in a way that gets us back to some sane way of communication. Because I think we all know increasingly, the full info onslaught is not actually good for people's brains, for their emotions, for their existence.

I mean, the older generations did not address climate change because the thinking was that a generation's gonna have to grow up and do this work from the beginning and chip their patterns in blah, blah, and that didn't happen. And I worry that our generation, on our grandkids, if they survive to that point, will turn to us and say, you enabled an information apocalypse because you liked tapping on photos and scrolling, just like our grandparents liked cars. And you didn't grapple with this problem when you, when it was beginning at the root. And nobody was shissing to the Mark Zuckerbergs and Jack

Dorsey's of the world like get your shit together. I think we need to like at this point at this inflection point and like history say like hey Like Elizabeth Warren talking about breaking up these companies and and hire oversight and the EU doing really I mean, it's not perfect, but really broad intense work at attempting to grapple with the ways that information moves and the way that the internet has changed society. It's at least an attempt. And I worry that we're not looking at ourselves or our local leaders or our governments and saying, okay, experts in what's going wrong should lead us to tell Silicon Valley the things we need them to force them to do.

We're turning to Silicon Valley and saying, hey, you invented Instagram in the iPhone, you want to invent a solution to this and they're not invested in really doing that. And they're not good at it. So why are we asking them to do it? In solution is not going to be another app. The solution is going to be someone coming in and saying, your app is great, but this is what you're legally not allowed to do and you're making a ton of money.

So you'll absorb this cost because we have to protect society. And like, I don't think that's fucking crazy. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's like oil companies. Oil companies are printing money. We should have stepped in and said, okay,

40% of that has to go to developing solar technology and sorry that one day the money's picket won't be going. But, you know, we don't want to be in 2019 thinking about the oceans boiling. And we didn't do that. And now we are. So I just feel like this is our version of that. And we have to get serious about it now because we know that it's wrong. We know. Like we do know, even normies and like locals know that they're not getting great information. That was the fake news meme. The reason that phrase took off was because they don't know which information is bad, but they know they're being lied to and that a lot of this is conflicting and that it doesn't

make sense and the stories they're being told don't match up and that they don't know, they're doing their research on vaccines because they don't know what to believe. They know that that's like a thing. And so when we know it's a problem, like we all kind of have to step up, especially voices in the media, need to step up and maybe it takes journalists demanding that the platforms that our links get shared on

have a responsibility instead of trying to push this onto users. I mean, this is, yeah, I mean, this is, you know, I mean, there's so much to be said about this, but I mean, the entire inner structure of the media industry, his incentives are just all so bad and wrong. I mean, you know what I mean? It's just like, it's very hard.

I mean, you know, it's like you get beat up from one side if you don't move fast enough and do enough. You get beat up from the other side. If you move too fast and break things. You get beat up for trying to make something. You get beat up because you made something in a capitalist society. You get beat up by readers, if you don't do that.

You get beat up by your accountants, if you don't get crazy clicks. It's like people are like, you're fucked either way. You need more jobs or journalists. And then it's like, you're fucked either way. You need more jobs for journalists, and then it's like, you know, there's jobs for journalists, but they're not the right kinds of jobs, and then people are mad, and it's like, you know, and then it's like everybody wants,

like the problem is the only incentives for journalism right now are the wrong incentives. It's like, they're like, it is still like, click-based incentives, you know? Yeah, just the, and we've identified that as a problem since like 2013. It's ridiculous. Oh, from long before that. I mean, no, but I mean like that was the point at which like clickbait entered a like mainstream People know what that word means as a problem in the way that it is still a problem, you know, you know

Well at any rate. Okay. All right. What else is on our list? There's a lot to unpack there But we're not gonna get to all of it right now. What else do we have on our list? I mean, what else is going on? Oh, by neighborhoods, you want to have a neighborhood? Sure. Joe Biden is polling real high, and he's, he wants to announce Stacy Abrams as his running mate really early on.

Yeah. To kind of cut off the idea that he's gonna do only Neo Lib capitalist. Or the T.J. I mean, listen, I said this to Laura. That it's like I said even move. I said this to Laura like either earlier this week or last week at some point, I was like, what if Biden? Because I saw reports and they're like, oh, he's waiting.

He may announce. He's going to announce in April. And he may announce like his VP pick alongside like is a kind of big splash or whatever. And I was like, I said to Laura, I was like, what if he announced with like somebody like Stacey Abrams, who is loved by the wayferler left, the harder left. She loved by everyone I think. And well, I mean, I think she has a popular kind of appeal. I think she ran a local campaign that had a national stage. And she clearly is like stands for so many of the right things that particularly like younger voters

and voters of color and like you know, the newer block of voters who've been disenfranchised with the Democratic establishment stand for. And so like it kind of would be this fucking insane situation. Now, the initial response that I saw from people, of course, these were people on Twitter are like, you know, he's using her as a prop if he does this and this is fucked up and it's like,

which is super offensive to Stacey Abrams. Nobody has been more in control of her narrative, her life choices. She's spent how many years running ground game before ever running for an off public office? That's right. I don't know if this is if the rumors true. I don't know what they're thinking or talking about.

I can't comment on that at all. But let's just say for a suit, let's just assume for a minute that Stacey Abrams is gonna, whatever the decision that's made, if this actually happens, that she's going into it with her eyes wide open and knows what she's getting into and wants to be getting into it and knows who Joe Biden is and likes Joe Biden and wants to be working with him in some capacity. Like you really can't question her motivation.

I mean, you can't be like- Yeah, how kind of sending to say she's just a prop? Like, she's a very, very, very intelligent- Well, a lot of people are like- Very wise, a lot of people are like, a lot of people are like, a lot of people are like, as anybody, I mean, a lot of the comments are dumb. They're like, what about,

what does Stacey Abrams have to say about this? And it's like, that's how it works. Like, she obviously is not, they're not gonna be like, hey, Stacey Abrams is gonna be the VP and she's gonna be like, what? You know, like, it's gonna be, it's not gonna be a surprise to her.

This isn't shocking. You know, but people are like, oh yeah, she's been asked. It's like, yeah, I think if they're talking, if this is a rumor, it's a conversation. It's a rumor because there's a conversation. And we also haven't heard from her in a while. And it would have been smart for her

if she was entering those conversations. Yeah, keep quiet. And I do think it's a, say what you will, maybe a, there may be something about it that is, what's the right way to, what's the right word I'm looking for? Maybe a, there may be something about it that is, what's the right way to, what's the right word I'm looking for. There may be something that's kind of like, phony about it to some extent in the sense that like, maybe Joe Biden, you know, his,

you know, maybe he's doing it to hedge bets against him being like an old white guy who's got like kind of a Some questionable votes in his history and some questionable moments But if it is It's a pretty brilliant version of how to do it, you know Because he gets a he gets a runny mate and a partner a partner in the White House who absolutely stands for the things That so many of the people I know who hate Joe Biden are very, very supportive of. And so like, I mean, I would genuinely be reassuring

to me in the main ways that I don't care for Joe Biden, because even if in the most cynical version, he was like, I guess I'm stuck with this person or whatever, even if she is just completely cynical, it's a completely cynical way to use her, even if she's going into this eyes wide open knowing that. I don't think St.C. Abrams would let the worst of his, I really believe in her and I really do support her and I seriously like her and I think it would

soften Joe Biden running for me. And I think it would actually be a really smart move, even the most cynical version of it, because having her there, I think would, like it would lighten my conscience a little. I think it's, listen, I think it would be unquestionably a positive thing. I think that the motivation around it, and you could question the motivation, but you could also, but like I don't know what is in Biden's, I don't actually know what is in his mind and heart

in this regard. And he may very well look at the group of people who are potential VPs and say, I think this person is the best possible VP. And I think this person will help me balance where I'm maybe old and stodgy and don't know everything that I need to know, even though he's got a lot of experience, like policy experience and a lot of, obviously, professional and political experience. You know, that could be the case, or he could be like, I'm doing this as some bullshit ploy, but like, it's going to be real if they get elected. Like she's going to be the vice president of the United States of America.

And I don't think we can like totally discount the goodness of that, or the potential goodness of that, even though this is all rumor right now. So I thought that was interesting. I do think like I'm not in no way am I like, I mean, my preference in many ways would be that Biden doesn't run because I think we already have a pretty packed, there are a lot of viable candidates running. And if I've got a pick, I guess if I have to pick

an old white guy, I guess I'll pick Bernie over Biden. The question then of course becomes though, that's like making the assumption that like all these old white guys are essentially the same. I mean in the sense that like Bernie's is electable. Like if the common wisdom with Biden is that like American centrist Democrats want a, you know, want a, an old white guy that they're just comfortable with that or whatever. And so like, Bernie has as much a chance running as Biden and beating Trump, which is like, high. Okay, cool, but I'm not sure that's actually true. I think Biden has name recognition.

Like he was VP for, he was VP for eight years with the most popular president of all time. Yeah, it's more about Obama. And that's right. And our most recent president who people generally thought was pretty great and was like one in kind of a landslide victories twice, like pretty big victories.

And so like I think there's a lot of like people just know who Joe Biden is and Like know his track record and are like I know this guy saw him in the White House all the time They associate him with a steady. Yeah, stable time. That's right. And so like I don't think there's just yeah I don't think you can just say there's it's one to one like I do think that's like being a little bit too liberal with no pun intended with like how we view old white guys But to be perfectly honest, like I would prefer almost any of the other candidates to an old white guy, like I'm sorry,

but like I would really prefer that the next president of the United States is considerably younger and not a dude. And not a dude. I mean, I'm falling very farther and farther into the peat camp because I think Pete provides both the steady stable, like what's the word? I hate using this word, but like the civility and like the manner that the Biden's appeal,

I guess, is, but he also is younger and he has fresher ideas and stuff. And I think Biden and St.C. Abrams running would kind of take the wind out of everybody who isn't them's sales. You know what I mean? Like it becomes just Kamala, Beto, and Biden in that scenario. And I would rather see the conversation keep going for at least a while than end up in a 2016 stereo again. Yeah. I just look, honestly, at the end of the day, I just need to Trump for Trump to not be president. I think we've already said this till a million times.

A million times, but I just really need to have a president who is a baby. I can't get to my mid 30s and have Trump have been president. Yeah, I just see a sane person. I just see a sane person. I don't want to read about him. my mid 30s and have Trump have been present. Yeah, I just, you know, see, I just see a saying, I just see a sane person. Well, I don't want, I don't want to read about, I don't want to read about him, you know, bitching about John McCain seven months after the guy's dead.

I just, like, I'll just say this. Listen, we're all exhausted with fucking politics. Like, Trump's policies are bad. And the insanity. Trump's racist, his policies are bad. He seems like maybe he is actually mentally ill in some way. Like, he needs like real like mental health like help But I don't but like I more than anything

I just want to not be thinking about the destabilized world every second of every day because of like one insane shitty-ass person is the president and Like I felt this way when Bush was president. This is like Bush on Crack, you know, this is like Bush on the strongest cocaine of all time I mean Bush was an unsettling feeling in the back of my head most times Trump is not Hearing us talk about if you're sick of hearing us talk about this think about how sick I am of thinking about it Yeah, and it's it is genuinely it's this isn't derangement syndrome or whatever We are genuinely in a crisis every moment of every day.

And if it's exhausting, it's because that a crisis in every moment of every day is exhausting. And this cannot go on any longer. So at this point, I just think I don't know. None of us know what this formula for beating Trump is. But I think we have to examine every option. And if Biden Abrams is an option that can please a lot of people,

let's just like, let's go. Like, I don't, you know what I mean? I guess I'm at that point where I'm just like, oh my God, it sucks. But if you told me, I'm sorry. If you told me right now, okay, and this is just, I'm gonna be very real. If you told me right now,

you're like, I went into the future and I can guarantee if Joe Biden runs, he will beat Trump. I'd be like, that's into the future and I can guarantee if Joe Biden runs, he will be Trump. I'd be like, that's good. Biden's fine. Great. I'm sorry. I just, I just know I want universal health care. I want universal health care. I want there to be, I want, I think we should socialize a lot. I think we should produce defense, fun spending. I think we should stay out of, I want to renew deal, stay out of foreign conflicts. I think the green new deal is a great fucking idea.

I think we need to shift hard away from, you know, this fucking climate change denial bullshit into climate change panic and like actual policy around that. But like, and I want all that to happen. And like, you know, double triple undoubtedly, I have a fucking kid. But listen, so many of the fucking socialists I see on Twitter don't have children.

Like, live in this world with a shot with a five-year-old girl and look at the way the world's going to be for her and like, believe me, you'll want the things you want like twice is bad. And so like, that all that said, like, until we get, we move this fucking deranged lunatic out of the White House, nothing good will happen. Like it doesn't matter how good your policy is if you can't get to the White House. Now, you may argue, well, they can. Fine, I don't give a shit.

Doesn't matter. It only matters if you can get there and prove it. Prove that you can get there. I don't care. If you are the primary victor, like the reality is, and I know everybody's like, oh, it's all a rigged thing, and the DNC, it's all like a scheme, and they're gonna just,

you know, they got a peg-biden, but like the reality is, like, say what you wanna say, man, Nancy Pelosi is fucking good at some things. Like, she got to where she got for a reason, and she's good at certain things, and like, you can't deny it. And there's a reason why like, AOC isn't like, just fucking bashing Nancy Pelosi every time she gets an opportunity, because she's starting to realize and doubly that like

working with Nancy Pelosi is better than working against Nancy Pelosi. And so anyhow long and short of it is like it doesn't matter like who it is. It just matters that they get rid of Trump. And then we can begin we can begin to put back together whatever was happening that was good in this country because look there was still a lot of bad too. And then we can begin, we can begin to put back together whatever was happening that was good in this country because look, there was still a lot of bad too. Obama, there was a lot of bad shit going on too. But like, there was at least a glimmer of forward progress. We weren't literally like supporting white supremacists openly, you know, like we were, we were, we were at least

tilting towards the right direction, if not all the way moving in that direction. So like, we just need to stop the Trump shit right now, that's job number one, and I don't care who it is. I don't care who it is. I mean, we just have to get someone in office that isn't Trump like immediately. And then we need to spend those four years. And I'm glad we're finally having these discussions

about information monopolies and about the electoral college. Because once somebody else is in that office, we have four years to prevent a scenario where something like that happens again. And by the way, I just want to say like, we're one of the four years where we don't get President Ivanka Trump. Yeah, and one of the things I want to say is that shouldn't get happened. One of the things I want to say is, maybe it would happen, but one thing I want to say is, we probably sound like Panic maniacs because we're like, just get Trump out of the White House. And I know that like the red-pilled right-wingers

are like always like, oh, I love it. He drives the lips crazy, but it's like, yes, he does drive us crazy, because he's like a low-information, mentally ill maniac, who sucks, and everything he does is stupid, and backwards, and horrible, and most of it is like violent and racist. And so like, you're right, he's driving us crazy by being a shitty person with shitty ideas.

Yeah, congratulations. You trolled us by putting someone an insane person in charge of nukes that can kill all of us. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, And they're hurting you. Yeah. Okay, anyhow, let's wrap this nightmare up. Now I'm so depressed, I guess they're drinking lately. Let's go to nice things. Okay. Nice things. You get you out of that.

All right, fine, do your nice things. Let's get it going. To anyone who thinks that we're very negative on this show, we have a whole segment of the thing. We saved the real negativity to the right at the end. We caught, we caught, we trapped you. Like, you know, like you were smelling a beautiful flower and you know what?

Well, you know what? Venus fly trap. Should we say that tomorrow, like going forward with our plan is? I think one thing I want to say is we're working on input, which is a new technology publication. There's going to be a lot of stuff around that in the very near future. We're working furiously on this. This is not, like, this is coming. And we're very excited about it.

And I think tomorrow will be a part of that. I think, you know, I think tomorrow is a little bit, has a little bit on an island right now. And I think that, and I feel very strongly, so I'm excited, like, there's gonna be an evolution of what we do with tomorrow. And there's gonna be like a lot more sort of activity around the stuff we're doing on tomorrow

with like other things we're doing out on the web. If you miss aspects of the show or you have ideas for new aspects of the show, we are going to evolve and the show is right now, it's on an island, but when we have, when input launches, the show itself will be a part of the wave of things we do around that and it's very exciting. So we're gonna keep chatting and hanging out with you every week, but it's to get you hype for this Just like this almost like a Teasing you yeah, well, I think it's like, you know, we've gone through a lot of iterations of tomorrow and and I think it There's and I love that about it. Yeah, and look a part of it

It's just like I need if I don't have somewhere to rant like a maniac a maniac every week, I get, I get really bent on a shape. You get it, but you start tweeting, nobody wants that, nobody wants that, no one. So anyhow, so yeah, there's a lot more talk about there, but I think it'll be exciting and I'm excited personally about kind of moving the ball forward. Well, speaking of other nice things, I have two. I have been watching the Good Fight on CBS All Access, a streaming network that you shouldn't

subscribe to. And the show is, it is an evolution of a very standard network show. It was a spin off of The Good Wife, but it centers around Christine Brandes. The Good Fight. I've never watched. I saw Watch The Good Wife after what's his name died. I'm sorry, spoiler wife, but it centers around Christine Brandes. The good fight. I didn't watch it. I stopped watching the good wife after what's his name died. Sorry, spoiler alert, but a major character. Yeah, a major character.

It's phenomenal. It is the best show on TV. It is dealing with themes of liberals considering using the ugliest tools of conservatives and Nazism and fascism, frankly, in context of very realistic law cases and It is much more political than the good wife ever was and it's much more about the ways we communicate and the effectiveness of doing things you know is wrong in service of like to end justify the means and the way that in our desperation for a change in the world that especially women

and marginalized groups. It's about a black firm at which a couple of white lawyers are now working, but they're disgraced white lawyers and they, the way that. Just disgraced white lawyers, they um the way that the Scravest White lawyers I'd watch that show. It's the ways that that especially women um and and um black women and the intersectionality of of marginalized groups, the ways that those groups are scared and they're desperate to uh try to get some control over their own destinies back and and it's just fascinating. It's such a good show.

Christine Bransky is doing a master class and you should really watch it. It's so good. I know I recommend a show every week, but God, the good fight. God. You're really going for it. My goodness.

I love the good fight. I can't speak highly enough about it. There's that. And then the other nice thing was that I went to dinner with my oldest friend and the best man at my wedding to reclatt, which is a cheese-centric restaurant in the East Village. And oh boy, that is an old stand-by restaurants, but it is so good. Just pick a night, go with a friend, decide things you don't wanna talk about, like Trump

or whatever you don't want in your mind, and go to self-uncheese, because it was a release valve that daddy didn't know he needed. It was just so good. Oh God, cheese is addictive and great. That's amazing. And it has made me somewhat hungry after I tell you.

Oh, so good. And then I tried to do, I took home a doggy bag and I tried to make the leftovers this morning. And a fresh cheesy meal does not keep. But oh, it's good. Cheese needs to be, it's got to be enjoyed either cold or recently melted. A meal fresh.

Yeah. You can't like, the in-between is not good. No reheating cheese. I mean, we've all tried to reheat pizza. It's never this thing. It's melted. You can't like, the in-between is not good. No reheating cheese. I mean, we've all tried to reheat pizza. It's never the same. I get to good things. Nice things. First is, my first is food related, actually.

Jumping off your cheese thing. We got that you can buy white castle veggie sliders in the freezer section of your local grocery store. And last night I had a few drinks and was like, man, I'm hungry. What do we have that I can eat here? And I got to say, the only instructions on the, which I think is really impressive.

The only instructions on how to prepare the veggie sliders is microwave. And the instructions are like, put the microwave on high for 40 seconds on each side and call it a day, which is like, clearly this has been like chemically engineered for people who've had a few drinks and need to eat something quickly. No, yeah, this is a high people.

Yeah, you're a high people. And they're, I gotta tell you, they're fucking delicious. They're really good. Really good. You know what I, you know what I paired them with? Some mayo chup, which is the, the Heinz ketchup mayo. A different competitor?

Dude, mayo chup is fucking good. It is really good. Anyhow, it's the mayo ketchup mixture that everybody needs to have in their home. I think this is a special sauce. It is a special sauce in the UK or something? I mean, that's McDonald's, little sauce. Or like sauce, like, no, there's just something else.

It's like, no, it's not called special sauce. It's called like, what did people call it? People, I was like tweeting about it. People were like, oh, it's like saucy sauce. Or some shit like that. It's like saucy, you know how the British are they always have some weird names. They're always calling things knobs and thinning Yeah, then the second thing is like I swore I wasn't gonna do it But I think I'm very tempted to get the analog is doing a

Sega Genesis. Oh, yeah, that does it does game gear master system Genesis and then I think there's some support of CD games, Sega CD games, and there's, I think there may be support for 32x games in the future. I just thought I'd come to your house and play with all these ads. There's a rumor, but here's the fucking, but here's the fucking problems that they're super impractical.

I just want them because like analog is, so first of the hardware is so fucking good. And I do actually have a box full of Genesis and Masters and games at my parents' house that I would definitely go and get. Oh yeah. And, and like, I just kind of like, I, I don't know, I really respect what they're doing as a company. And I want to support it.

And also, I have this problem and I need to get help because I can't stop buying new electronics. By the way, I was at a target literally earlier today and almost bought a S10 Plus, which is like, I mean, seriously, there's like something very wrong with me. But I did, I were framed. The guy at the store was like, why do you think it is?

Like, why do you want to get a new phone? I was like, there's zero reason. Like, I don't even want this phone and I'm like, why are we even talking? He's like, there's zero reason. Like I don't even want this phone, and I'm like, why are we even talking? He's like, okay. No, but he was definitely trying to sell me the phone, but I didn't go for it. So anyhow, yeah, no, so those are my two, those are my two,

nice things. And I think they're pretty good. I think they're pretty nice. I bought, speaking of purchases, I guess this is a bonus nice thing. I bought the Mondo Tees, does these drops of pop culture related, really high quality stuff. And one of the things they do is they do obscure pop culture music on vinyl.

And I had bought the Josie and the Pussycats vinyl from them and it was exquisitely made. And I just also bought the ones more with feeling a Buffy musical episode vinyl and I absolutely adore the music on the on one's worth feeling which Josh Sweden composed and so I bought that by me and he's canceled. Josh Sweden has been canceled. Sure. So don't talk to me about that. In my personal calculations I'm not giving up Buffy or Rosemary's baby but I don't want to hear Michael Jackson or Woody Allen movies. And you know what, I can't explain to you how that works. If you put on thriller and watch Manhattan, you'll find that they're actually timed up perfectly.

And all the children in your neighborhood run away. You didn't know that. It's like dark side of the moon and and we would have watched. Yeah, PYT and Hannah and her sister has just worked so fucking incredible. And now, all right, okay, I think this is the point where we should wrap up. Yeah, we'll be back next week obviously, but why am I saying this now? Anyhow, we should wrap up.

Yeah, and then just like move on with our lives, let these good people who are listening and move on with their lives. Yeah, just get back on Twitter and eat and cheese. Wow. Well, that is our show for this week, we'll be back next week with more tomorrow, and as always, I wish you and your family the very best, though I've just learned that Apple has acquired your family and is doing a limited run series featuring your family, but but it's behind a paywall and there's no nudity.