Tomorrow - 189: It's the End of the World As We Know It

Episode Date: March 30, 2020

Hello! Josh and Ryan are back, delivering hot takes and updates from their respective bunkers. This week they discuss Tiger King, Animal Crossing, jade face rollers, and the looming existential threat to modern society. Oh, there's also a weird spaghetti metaphor! Stay home! Stay safe! Save lives! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to Tomorrow. I'm your host Josh with Tvolsky. Today on the podcast we discuss furries, motion sickness, and Cuomo. I don't always one minute. Let's get right into it. Ryan Berfack. Well, it's better than ever. By what metric? All by all metrics, by all possible human metrics. Everything is good, nothing is bad. Hope has been restored.

Balance has come back to the force. The Sith have been defeated. I'm of course talking about my rewatching of Rise of the Skywalker. Or Rise of the Skywalker. I can't even think, the movie's so bad, I can't remember the name of it. Is it Rise of the Skywalker? No, it's the Skywalker.

It's the Skywalker. Stupid, bad, title, horrible title. This podcast is just about how much I was disappointed by Rise of Skywalker. Or maybe it's Rise of the Skywalker. I think it's Rise of the Skywalker. I think it's Rise of the Skywalker. The Rise of the Skywalker.

The Rise of Skywalker Skywalker rise of the rise of the rise of the rise of the skywalker By men and it's the rise of Skywalker. We put the thaw in the wrong place unique me york was Red leather yellow leather So these are these voice uh, other these like these are these voice, uh, these like, uh, these are what actors. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't show you backstage. When I, when I was in seventh grade or sixth grade or whatever, I went to a, uh,

performing arts, uh, junior high. I did not know that. That's so far. I went to a, I went to a creative performing arts junior high called a Rogers in Pittsburgh. And it like, it, it was like a magnet school where you had to be like a special talent like I am. And by the way, I went to sixth grade,

barely went, skip seventh grade, barely got out of eighth grade and then immediately dropped, and then went to high school for like one month and dropped out. So very normal stuff that my parents were very pleased about. But in my short time at Rogers, I started there. I originally went for like, they had some,

they had some like, I mean, actually, I should talk to my mother about this, because now I'm like sort of remembering stuff that I want to know if it's true or not. They had a media program, which was like, a thing that was like computers and design, and like, it was like some weird thing, but that's what I went for, because I was a computer nerd. It was something that was like computers and design and like, it was like some weird thing, but that's what I went for

because I was a computer nerd. It was something that was like computers and publishing and design. It wasn't like journalism, but it was like mixed media, multi-media thing. But then like when I, right before I was supposed to start, they're like, oh, the person who runs the program like has like left the school or has died or something,

and we're not doing the program anymore. And they're like, is there anything, like, are there other programs that Josh would be interested in here? And I went into the drama program, which was like for acting and stuff, right? And it was run by our drama, so I was run by this guy named Doug Pona. I don't know why I remember this, who was in a movie starring Jeff Fhie that was made in Pittsburgh.

He had a very small role in it. That much I remember. Jeff Fehie is the guy who plays the lawnmower man and the lawnmower man. Um, and wow, I'm really on it. Probably on our ramble here. At any rate, so I remember the thing you were just doing, we used to do this thing in drama class that was like, we would go through these and I think about them all the time.

These like things that are like he wanted us to repeat. And one of them was like, it was like, we would go through these, and I think about them all the time, these things that are like, he wanted us to repeat. And one of them was like, it was like this. It was like, close cover before striking. One was bridge freezes before road surface. It was like stuff like that. Like things you see all the time, and we would like do them like a chant. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of those.

One of the weirdest ones was great stuff. I got to college. I went to college for radio TV film and English with the theater concentration. So I spent a lot of time in like acting classes. And I knew a ton of those like weird rhymes, phrases, things you would like like theater games and warmine and stuff. Right. Right. And there was one that I didn't know that every other person knew and they thought it was astonishing that I didn't know it. And I was like, oh, wow, I guess, you know, cultural blind spot. And then when I became an adult, I've asked other people and nobody's ever heard of it.

What is it? Wait, what is it? It's what to do to die today at a minute or two to two? A thing distinctly hard to say but harder still to do will beat it to two at 22 to red it, that, that, that, that, that too. And the dragon will come when he hears the drum at a minute to two to two today at a minute or two to two. Oh my god. Dark is really strange. That is very unusual and it kind of got got pretty like fantasy novel. Yeah.

So you can stuff about a dragon in there. Yeah. It's one of those things that you go to Theater Party in college. And if you check all your inhibitions and like judgment at the door, you will have the best time of your life. Because everything is free and everybody's kind of gay.

And there's like weird music playing from like a Broadway show that played for two dates and then closed and like everybody's brought mixers and baked goods and everybody's dancing and like be hooking up and it's just like a big human mess of like joy and anything that could give you serotonin because all those people were like depressed and the outside world didn't like understand them and And so like our parties were so good, but they always ended in something embarrassing like that or like everybody playing like fucking assassins. And I'm just like, God, this is so good and so crazy.

If anyone ever knows the things we do here. And as an adult, it's hard to find that like, that like companionship with people. That's why, hey, that's why Kevin space he got me to and man He was looking he was looking for that kind of companionship. No, it's like what you were describing He definitely sounds like the the stuff. I was just thinking of like All the stuff that came out in that Kevin space history Yeah, he was like hanging out with these like young actors and you know

He's like at these parties and yeah I think you should definitely only hang out with theater people your and you know he's like at these parties and yeah I think you should definitely only hang out with theater people your own age and everybody should like yeah age from age to purpose. Yeah, or you're like you were like everything is so free and everybody's a little gay and it's like I totally get it and I can I meant like we would come to the party sometimes wearing eye shadow not like everybody's blowing each other. I mean, that's not, and I didn't need to suggest that, you know, things be a little bit gay that there were Kevin Spacey, me two situations happening.

I was just thinking like, one of the things that I remember in some of those stories was about like, just like Kevin Spacey, like hanging out with like, all these people and like, you know, it was like when he was like fairly young and I was like, oh, that Kevin Spacey, it was like really into those parties. Anyhow, sorry, very dark. Well, I mean, that was like when he was like fairly young and I was like, oh, back in his base, he was like really into those parties anyhow. Sorry, very dark.

Well, I mean, that's also very like New York in the late 80s, early 90s. Like, it's like pre AIDS crisis. There was just like a ton of like, writhing bodies and back rooms and then like post that. You got a lot of like key, house parties with like a ramic in full of K and like you would like you would like Oh, is that like put a lampshade on your head and like do some fossier? Is that the is that think is that like wait because like what era is the club kids? Yeah, that's

happening at the murder the murder era. Yeah, that's happening at the murder, the murder era. Yeah, that's happening at the same time. And that's what really brings all of the 90s to a close. But there's like the difference between like the underground people and the yuppie people and the yuppie people of like underground New York. We're doing the same thing, but it was a more like beatnik, I think. More like dinner parties or whatever. From what I've like read and watched and whatever, I was obviously a child. I mean, it was like, it was a you were not even more. I was a child. I was, I was a young, I was a power ranger at the time, I was obviously a child. I mean, it was a, it was a, you were not even more. I was a child.

I was, I was a young, I was a power ranger at the time, I believe. That's wonderful. That's, is that a, is that a euphemism or is that you were actually a power ranger? All right. Hey, let's talk about what's going on out there. A coronavirus raging, rampaging, ravishing the countryside,

ravishing is the wrong word. But raging and rampaging across the countryside, ravishings the wrong word, but raging and rampaging across the countryside, horrible numbers, tons of deaths. There were more 911 calls placed yesterday than there were on 9-11. They're the job, the reports of jobless, the jobless reports are like a filings or whatever are insane. Record high.

The New York Times actually had an amazing cover. I don't know if you saw it, but it was like they had the chart running underneath. It was like the front page of the actual paper and it was like jobless claims like are at their highest level in history or whatever. And it was like the chart like over time and then they had

a whole side of the paper that was cut out basically where like the one from this week was going all the way up the side of the paper. Like the chart started in the middle of the paper and cut across horizontally. And then just shot up along the side vertically. I have to say like whoever designed it is a genius. In fact, I want to find like they have these front page. Whereas they have the times in print. Yeah, show me the, don't they have like, oh, here it is. Oh, it's right here. It's today actually. Let me show this to you. Okay. It's kind of amazing. I mean, whoever is behind this concept should win a design award, but that's the least of our problems right now. I'm going to share this with you just so you can see it because

it's really cool. But yeah, it's crazy. This was today's. This is Friday, March 27, which is when we're recording. Oh my God. You see it? Yeah. Was I doing that justice? I don't think I was. It's I think you explained it in the theater of the mind, but I think it when you see it actually laid out, it's insane. The theater of the mind is where I'm most effective actually. The mind theater, 3.3 million unemployment claims were filed last week, a record number. I mean, to be clear, at the height of the of the 2008 recession, they were like, it was like just over 500,000. So this is like insane. Like nuts. Yeah. I mean, it's nuts. What's going on right now is nuts. I mean, we're watching the total collapse of like

everything all pre-conceived notions of what the world was functioning like, you know? I think we still are not gonna understand how big this is until after. And I think, you know, I was joking around a little bit, but I was like a little bit serious when this first started. I was like, wow, we have a world that's like pre virus and post virus. And like we are going to. Like the American economy can't, it's not just gonna be business as usual.

And like our healthcare system can't go back to the way that it was. Like we're gonna have to overhaul it. And like, we're gonna have to try some stuff even if we make mistakes. Like we can't, it was, I mean, there's no way to try some stuff even if we make mistakes like we can't it was I mean There's no way to just like 3.3 million people unable to pay rent like that's not yeah

No, it's crazy is that we made so many people living paycheck to paycheck the people who had paychecks We're living paycheck to paycheck and working for bosses living paycheck to paycheck a companies that are paycheck to paycheck With like state governments that are deep in red, it's like we can't. Like, I know we talk about it every week, but it's like Republican economics just don't work and we have to stop. We can't every 10 years try it again. We just can't. We have to stop.

Like we have to just understand facts. Like, I don't, I mean, people learn. Right. Well, I mean, they're there. I mean, it is... It's interesting, it's going to be interesting to see, to do some, I hate to use the word autopsy on this, but to do an autopsy after all of this is over, and it may not be over really ever to be honest, the way things are going, but to understand what was true about the things

that you heard people say about things like healthcare and what was a lie, you know? Like, I think that we're gonna discover that it's gonna be much clearer. I mean, this is like post-Obamacare. There, you know, this thing happened, which was very present in the 2018 midterms, where people who, I think, people who were like,

essentially like Republicans, right? The Republicans tried to kill Obamacare in 2018, right? Or right after Trump took off,, they started working on it. And suddenly, all these people who had insurance, who had not had it, were like, oh, I need this. And they were mad. And they fought, they went out into the streets and fought, like, they literally went to like town halls and yelled at like senators who were trying to kill it. And that actually had an impact. And I think it's because people were like, oh, wait, I have this thing now that I didn't have before. Obviously, it's not as comprehensive nearly as it should be, but like more people had it than didn't have it.

Well, it's like you couldn't create social security or libraries today. But if you try to take the more people freak out. Exactly. I heard an interview. I heard an interview with David Belite, who is a professor of history at Harvard, who is talking about how in times of crisis, people remember why they need government and they turn to government. And in times of press parity, people turn away from it because it's hard to do your chores. And you don't want to.

And then when everything falls apart, you have to get into good habits again. And right now, I think we're going to see a massive... I mean, we already see Republicans, everyone's a socialist and a crisis. And Republicans turn towards the only remedy, which is unity, and the only place in our society, where everyone has a quote-unquote everyone. Obviously, this isn't actually true, but the only place in society where the ideal is that everyone has a voice, and everyone is represented, and everyone's interests are just as important as anyone else, is the government. And so we have to stop acting like it's inherently evil. I can't think of a

modern president that has done more damage than Reagan with the greed is good and you just get government out of my backyard bullshit because government is not inherently bad. It's like a tool that can be used for good or bad. But, and it's important that we regularly have discussions about waste and about corruption and about, about like the onerousness of certain regulation, but we're not a society that can have that discussion in a healthy way because of lobbying, because of citizens united,

because of a number of factors. And we need to get to a point where we can have a normal discussion about what a healthy government would look like. And the answer can't be like the smallest possible because people have needs beyond what capitalism and beyond what their basic paychecks can at the moment can bring them. And those needs are, they're not just human rights, they're good for everybody. If everybody is healthcare, we don't have pandemics like this because even the least among

us can go get tested and they're not going home with $40,000 in debt and they're not going to switch hospitals five times and they're not. And we can then track who they interacted with and test those people and then we can shut a pandemic down. And it benefits rich people and the economy as a whole. And this is a lesson I think people are learning. And the same thing applies to education. The same thing applies to healthcare,

applies to education, applies to childcare, applies to time off, applies to, you know, the amount of hours we work every week. And I think people will have to wake up in the way that we have been woken up by crisis before. And so I'm not saying any of this is worth it. It certainly isn't. And I don't think Trump, the Trump presidency, if it has positive effects on people's understanding and people's like, if it has, it ends up like we overhaul the system in a major way because of him.

I don't think it's worth it. And I'm not ever rooting for this kind of thing to happen. But if there is a silver lining, it's that people will have, you can only deny reality until it's like life or death and then you're either dead or you realized. And like, that's going to be a pretty good place to start a conversation. No, I do. I think it's, I mean, look, if the only silver lining we can take away at the moment is people are going to see through the bullshit, which I do think has to, if it's not happening, if you're not seeing how corrupt and evil, I'm low to use the word evil because it's kind of like has essentially religious

connotations, but like, I don't know any other way to describe the behavior of the Republican party and of Donald Trump in particular, except like evil and craving and frankly murderous at this point. I think, and like if I say so, I do think we have to start an I am the I am the ultimate hypocrite when it comes to, but I'm going to try to stop using the word evil and start using more descriptive words so that people can sort of, the people who have had their head in the sand at minimum will be able to start understanding

like the context for what they're seeing. So like it is greed, it's laziness, it's stupidity, it's ignorance, it's denial of science, it is ego-tistical, it is an obsession with individualism. I'm gonna try to use those for example. Yeah, that's right, evil. That's right, because evil, like that's what I was saying,

like evil is not really, does not really sum up. Evil is like a kind of like this vague term, which does literally have like religious connotations. And like this is, all those things you just mentioned in so many more. And it is like, hopefully people could, I mean, you know, like, I tweeted, I tweeted a thing last night that was basically like,

you know, Trump like refuting, he was basically like, oh, I don't, I think like, you know, Cuomo's making up that New York needs so many ventilators. And it's like, you know, your denial of helping to get those ventilators in this stance of like being like, oh, I think this is a political thing, is literally like actual youth, like you're literally euthanizing people. You're literally murdering people by not providing them the help that you can provide them. Like where if you have a governor of the one of the largest states in America

in terms of population and who oversees, you know, America's not only one of America's largest cities, but I guess maybe it's a larger city in terms of population, but also, I mean, in arguably one of the most important cities, particularly when it comes to shit like the economy, you know, like this is where Wall Street is, like, and you're not. What people talk about when they talk about other cities, and I think this is important to note, when people talk about other cities,

they talk about San Francisco being like the number one in tech and LA is the number one in entertainment, where Dallas is number one in whatever, or Chicago is number one in whatever, Atlanta is number one in whatever. Cowboy boots. New York is either number one or number two in everything. Right.

So it is a humble bread. It isn't, it isn't, it is, it is, New York and California are the underpinnings of the American economy. And it doesn't mean other places aren't important. It means that we can stand if another place takes a hard hit, we can as a nation stand and help bounce them back, like bounce back from that.

To be clear, right. Without New work in California as the engines of our economy, like when we get bruised, everybody feels it. When New Yorker California catches a cold, the rest of the country catches that cold. Right, well, literally that's what's actually happening right now.

But the reality is, so I tweeted this thing saying, this is, you know, so what I was, so I tweeted this thing saying like, this is basically like real time, like we're watching this guy do like a mass murder in real time. And you know, somebody was like, oh, your Trump derangement syndrome is showing.

It's like, no, actually this is not hyperbole. Like if Trump fails to recognize the crisis and fails to believe the governor of New York and fails to provide the help that New York needs to keep people alive, that's like effectively murder. Like, if you're like, if you, if you can stop someone from dying and you choose not to, you're basically killing them. Like, I mean, this is, and the thing is, this is why I, I know I bring everything back to it, but this is why it bothers me that minority communities don't get listened to, because this is the AIDS crisis. No, it's not a one-to-one comparison, and I know that it is disingenuous to act like it is, but especially to the AIDS victims or to

people who are still diagnosed with HIV and are trying to get rights and health care. But it is the same thing of Ronald Reagan effectively created a plague and murdered thousands of gay men in the 80s and nobody reported on it, nobody cared until it affected every family in America. And this same thing is happening. Like you, a whole generation will die because of direct choices made by the president.

And if that isn't murder, it's at least manslaughter. I mean, it's definitely, I mean, the point is that we do have to, I hope the people are, I mean, I'm not, I think we're way beyond like the claim of hyperbole. Like, this is like, it's really happening. Like, what's really happening? Like, the president was like, I'm going to,

you know, use the Defense Production Act and get these companies to make ventilators and like, he just lied about it and didn't do it. And the companies aren't doing it. And like, people need these things to stay alive. People are dying, like, by now, like, by the hundreds. And that's only going to go up. It's like, I'm not trying to let them. My mind is that is that when Americans talk about the Chinese government fudging their numbers or lying or trying to do PR spin, they act like with such disdain, like the Chinese

government, which is a constant liar. And it's like, what do you think our government is doing? Have the same venom and disd like, what do you think our government is doing? Have the same venom and disdain, just because you're familiar with the fact that Trump is a reality star, who does reality star methods at every turn, doesn't make it less morally disgusting that as a nation, we're just allowing this.

Like our representatives are co-signing every lie he tells by not acting. It's absolutely outrageous. And, you know, we're all very upset, obviously. And it's just, it's crazy because like every once in a while I say like a turn of phrase, like I'll say to John, like, well, it's not the end of the world. And he's like, well, it kind of is. Well, it's like, I keep forgetting that this is kind of the big one.

It's the end of the world as we knew it, not to get breaking into a musical number, but it is the end of the world as we knew it. And it's hard. Our brains aren't built to accept that much change that quickly. And so I'm trying to be patient with family members that are not, that keep acting like things are going to be normal in a month. Like I have family members that are like, well, we'll just get together in a month and I'll give it to you. And I'm

like, no, like don't purchase anything at Costco because I will not be seeing you for the course of the summer. Like just don't do that. Or like if you have a gift for some me to give to someone else for their birthday, like, that's not happening. Like, mail it. Like I don't know what to tell you. We're not gonna get all get together for like a while. And if we do, it will be through some like, extenuating circumstances or like, we'll have had to accept that we'll be murdering people to do it. Right. Right. It's... That's why this like discussion of Easter. It's like, oh, the Easter discussion is my favorite. That's my favorite. Like, we're gonna, we're gonna, we all fucking did all this shit.

We worked out entire last minute solutions to this. We all separated, we shut our whole economy down to like hit the undo button on Easter and just start murdering people. Like literally, I think that no one in the, no one in the major cities is buying it. Certainly no governors, none that I've seen. I guess there are some people like some fucking,

there are some governors out there like, yeah, go shopping, it's no big deal. But like, their shit hasn't hit yet, you know? And it's like, if you live in New York now and you think you're going back to work in two weeks, then there's something seriously wrong with you. I can't imagine being in this place, in this moment, and not hanging on every word that the governor says, who, you know, is like,

for better or worse, like the only person that is regularly speaking with clarity and intelligence about what is going on, you know, at a, sorry, I'm very sniffly right now. This could be, this could be COVID. Hold on. It's not, I just have allergies, but goddamn. Bad time, like, come on. Does it also have to be during allergy season? You know, it's like everybody's like false flags all over, you know, every day I wake up, I got a false flag on my body situation.

Anyhow, you know, it's like, nobody's like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go back to work in two weeks. Like if you, if people, if like anybody from our company was like, hey, it's been two weeks, we're clear to go in the office, I'd be like, you're clear to go in the office. I'm gonna stay at home until the governor says like, we, if our company was like, we're doing this, I would message.

And they're not like, to be clear, they're not. And we were, and we had people staying at home, like, I think ahead of the curve. Well, you had the curve. You've been great about that. Yeah, and I mean, honestly, as soon as this shit started, I was like, I was like, seriously, like unless there's some emergency, like don't go in.

But like, but I think that, but I think generally like we've been good on that. And I just want to say. We've been very good on it. I want to be clear about that. I'm not very clear about that. Medical situation. But it was a company was trying to get,

I would get on Slack and message every single person I could get my hands on and tell them not to. clear about that. Medical situation. But it was a company was trying to get, I would get on Slack and message every single person I could get my hands on and tell them not to. Right, exactly. And listen, I don't think anybody who's watching what's happening here is going to be in a rush to go back until they hear very clearly like, you know, the cases are on a down, a massive downturn. We have treatments that are now very effective in preventing or

quickly ending this, if you have it, there's going to need to be a massive data set that we see that says, all right, the weather has changed, the treatments have changed, the cases, the rate of cases has gone massively down. Now we can start to think about returning to normal life. And by the way, I say this as a person whose industry is going to be deeply affected, right? Our industry's going to be deeply affected by this as every industry is basically, unless you work in like the grocery store industry, which apparently is crushing it right now. No surprise. You know, my have a kid who's stuck at home

who can't go to school, can't see other children, who can't play normally. It's like really fucking painful to watch. Like nobody wants, there's no person who wants to be doing this. You know, it's like, it's detrimental to our way of life. It's detrimental to like our mental health and our, even our physical health to some extent. And so like this idea that like Trump thinks he can bully the United States of America into sucking

it up is one of the ultimate shitbag moves of all time. And it just plays a total lack of intelligence, of empathy, of just awareness of the fucking situation. And it blows and I'm exhausted by it. Let's talk about something else, shall we? Let's talk about, let's just change the topic. What else is going on that we can talk about that isn't, that's very little, that isn't coronavirus. Actually, let me take a couple of quick things

about coronavirus that I think are some bright spots, some things that we've covered recently. So one is like, we have a great story, I don't know if you've read it, you've read it, I know, which I think is a really interesting, like, it's not like a straight up, like, this is a coronavirus story, but we did this great feature about how porn stars are trying to break into being like cam stars and like, it's actually very hard for them to get like to build like such a Passionate direct following and I think it's a really interesting story that everybody should take some time to read I mean we're trying to like part of I think what we're trying to do now is also see the the way this is not just about like this

specific thing that will make you sick but about how like it's changing a lot of, the ways that we interact with each other and the way society is functioning right now. We did a story, which I think is awesome. MIT has this project for an open source ventilator that's like, you know, cost roughly $100 to make. I think it's super interesting. And it's, you know, it's giving me, giving me life. And literally we'll be giving actual people life at some point. And then like, you know, another thing that we've covered a little bit

is all these live stream things that are happening. Diplos doing this Twitch is doing a 12-hour charity stream. And it's just so interesting to see us all shift to this always online state of affairs. And to kind of step back and admire how as Matt as we are about the internet all the time and about the tech companies in a moment where like we're so cut off from one another, like literally, you know, physically cut off from one another.

Like the internet has been such an amazing tool and such and these tech companies who listen, I still have a lot of anger about a lot of the stuff they're doing. But I think we also are seeing like, well, this is what they are started, this was the idea they started with. And here it is, like a lot of the stuff, like here it is coming to fruition in a way that feels like really like surprisingly good and natural and nice, which is like a very strange feeling to have about which is like a very strange feeling to have about like Facebook or Instagram or whoever, you know. And I think we should, you know, acknowledge that there are good things that are happening in the face of all these horrible things. And, you know, you can't let, don't let the man get you down. That's what I'm saying. You know, you get a fight, you got to fight back with all your with all you whatever you have left you get to get your animal crossing out

Get your switch out put your animal crossing on there and just plant some trees or whatever the fuck you do in that game because I'm not playing it Do you plant trees in animal crossing? You can plant trees. Should I play it? It's I don't I don't know if you would enjoy it. Really? I think you would if you went in with zero expectations and just enjoy the like game play loop. It's like getting into like a Zen sort of like zone and then everyone's smile you got like a hit of it's like dopamine.

Like Laura's playing it constantly. Like as soon as it goes. It feels really good. As soon as it goes to bed, she gets out the switch and she's just locked into Animal Crossing. I'm like, do you care if I watch? She's like, I don't care. Like I'm like, I'm like,

we're literally watching the West Wing in the background. She's like, does not give a shit. By the way, the West Wing is hilarious to watch right now. It's like, the West Wing is normally hilarious to watch. But I was like, God, I don't know what to watch. I need to watch something. I'm like, oh, the West Wing, remember that? Like, we were in the middle of like season three.

I was like, the West Wing would be a trip to watch right now. And I gotta tell you, it is, I'm almost wondering if like Trump has watched the West Wing because I feel like some of his stuff, I feel like he thinks he's like the president on the West Wing. Jed Bartlett, I believe, is his name. Oh, totally.

Anyhow, you sound distracted. What's going on? Are you reading something? No, I'm thinking about what it would be like if Will McAvoy on the newsroom had to report on coronavirus. Oh my God. He would give an impassioned speech about how we can't let fear stop us and we should all go out into the world

and let the chips fall where they will. I don't know. I don't know. That probably out of touch. So that's definitely the kind of, that definitely, I mean, it would make for a good speech. He'd be like, Americans don't care about invisible enemies. We've taken on Al Qaeda.

Whatever. Yeah. That sounds about right. We took on the reds. Oh, wow. Well, we're still taking on the reds to this day. You know, the reds got us. They got us good. The reds. Oh wow. Well, we're still taking on the reds to this day, you know, the reds got us. They got us good. Reds, baby. Anyhow, air podcasts. Oh, no, I love the reds

care girls. They're they they love saying slurs. They just say them. You know what I love about? They'll just want to fang it. One thing I love about free speech and comedy is like it's all about just doing racist slurs. It's all that slur. When you want to showcase the best that free speech has to offer, I think the only way to do it is to do it. It's a boldly mentally handicapped people. That is how you do it.

To do a slur, a racist slur, a homophobic slur, a slur about people with disabilities. Any of that is the way to go. Yeah, that's super cool. And definitely the most like probably the most helpful thing you could do right now is be sarcastic and do coke. Definitely. Definitely.

Oh, I can't even imagine like, I haven't listened to, I actually have an, I'll be honest to you, I've only listened to a few minutes of like one red scare podcast and I had to turn it off because it was so bad and stupid. But, I started doing Coke so that I could save my rations and I've gotten really skinny and I wanna get COVID so that I could be like hot and you're like, is this satire or, and even if it is, why isn't it good? It's, if this is satire is why isn't it good? It's if this is sat tire why isn't it good? and anyway right I I uh yeah I saw anyhow so that's all happening um

give me back to video games for a second transition back to video games for one quick moment are you have you played the new Half-Life game? I have not played the game. I haven't played it either. I honestly, here's the thing. I think about, I actually bought Dramma. When I went out to get some stuff like medicine to have in the house, like, well, we should get Tylenol

because apparently Iberprofen can react badly if you have COVID-19 or whatever. I was like, oh, I'm gonna get some drama mean because I do get like motion sickness while playing VR games. And I was like, I'm just ginger. And he points a fan at his face and he's wearing it. Does that work? He swears by it.

So what is he, he eats like some, just eats some raw ginger? Ginger or ginger ale, just something with ginger. And then you let, like you point a fan at your face and it helps trick your body into thinking you're in motion. So you can get that like that, what is it called the like gap in perception that you know, that's so interesting. Well, I was playing, I played boneworks for like an hour

and I was like, I need to like lay down. This is bad, you know, Resident Evil 7 was like the vomit comment of our apartment for a while. I was both really wanted to buy my car. Did you actually throw up playing it? Yes, and it took, it would take me out for like four hours. Oh my God, no, no, no.

So like, so I bought drama because drama definitely works for my motion sickness. When I've had like on trains or in cars like sometimes I get motion sick and that has definitely worked. I haven't taken it yet. I've been thinking every time I think like I literally my whole energy spectrum is like, Bob at this point in the day, I'm like, damn, I can't wait to fucking game, man. I'm gonna get the new half-life. I'm gonna get my headset on or whatever. I'm gonna play. I'm gonna finally finish, you know, control or I'm gonna get my headset on or whatever. I'm gonna play. I'm gonna finally finish control or I'm gonna like get deep into the outer worlds or whatever.

I have so many games that I haven't played. Like the back dog isn't thin. The fallen, the fallen Jedi or whatever it is fallen order than last Jedi. Whatever the fuck that game is called. The Star Wars game is really good. I'm like pretty deep into it, but I'm like, and I think like I'm gonna play it.

I just got that state of decay, new state of decay. I got, what's the other game I just bought? Oh, I got zombie, zombie you basically, which I wanna like get back into. And I'm like, at this point of the day, I'm like, fuck yeah dude, tonight's the night, game on. And then by like eight o'clock,

I'm like, I'm so fucking tired, that just the idea of even picking up the controller is bumming me out. That is why animal crossing rules because you don't need to focus, you don't need a ton of attention. You're just like doing little cute things and you're making things all even cuter and then, you know, a kitty stops by and is like, hey, thanks for being great. And you're like, I am great. And then a butterfly lands on your nose and you're just so happy. Is that happened? Oh, God, it all happens. And then a butterfly lands on your nose and you're just so happy. Does it happen?

Oh, God, it all happens. I know you can catch tarantulas in it, which is cool. Yeah, it's kind of cool. I don't know. Anyhow, you wrote a guide for us about playing any game, emulating games, which I think is very helpful and useful. Yeah, I think I saw a lot of people on social media pulling out old systems only to discover that they didn't work or that they couldn't find the game that they wanted to play or that like they don't hook mod so you can just like put a bunch of ROMs or ISOs or whatever on the SD card and then you plug that right into your

TV and it runs it on the original hardware and I'm very excited to play with it but I haven't been able to really like get into it because my TV doesn't take the inputs and I don't have a SCART cable for the OSSC, so I had to order that. But I mean, all of which to say, I saw a lot of people having these similar issues on social media. And so I was like, I think a majority of people don't understand that their cell phone

can emulate an N64 game. Like you don't need to find the cartridge. So we put together a guide that's on the site about, uh, all my picks of the best, uh, emulator apps. Obviously, people listening to this show might understand how to use retro arc and tell me, no, Tony knows how to do it. But Tony got a rat. Very pie set up and is living around. But if you don't, and honestly, I know how to use retro arc and I don't always love having to deal with it. Um, there are really great apps. And some, there are some emulators that you don't, and honestly, I know how to use Retro Arc and I don't always love having to deal with it, there are really great apps, and there are some emulators that you can't use in the Retro Arc engine. So you're not going to be able to download the Redream Core.

You have to buy the app for it's like $5 for an unlimited license, but there's a free version on the purchased version, just like upscales the games and gives you extra features within games. But the redream emulator is like a perfect Dreamcast emulator, like it's flawless. And I don't think people realize that that's like around and you can do that. So yeah, we can put together that guide. And I think that, I feel like the whole world is into video games right now. Like I think Animal Crossing just, they amount of just physical sales sold in the UK surpassed every other Animal Crossing title combined.

Yeah. And that's without digital sales, that's not worldwide. So like I think right now the whole nation at least is deeply, deeply into the escapism of like Isabel or whatever other video games. And it's kind of a fun time to be the friend that can like offer people recommendations. Yeah.

Yeah. I am, I'm, again, this all goes back to my big issue with not feeling like I want to play games. I want to escape from this reality. And I just need to be able to have the energy. How do you find the energy? How do you find the energy to play? I mean, what if I want to play a game

that isn't Animal Crossing? You know? I have to do two things to find the energy to really do anything that isn't work or laying in bed. I have to lay in bed and be depressed or lay on the couch and be depressed or do nothing just staring to space. For as long as it takes for me to get over that, that's just my personal mental health

journey. Without the ability to leave my apartment or see other people, that's kind of the best way I've come up with because if I pretend that it's not happening or that I'm not depressed, or I'm not exhausted, I'll just bottle it up and it will all come out later. But once that's done, I've been trying to carve out hours where I say, like, I'm taking a lunch break in the middle of the day. Like I understand our website. It's my number one priority.

I want to make sure everybody hears from me. I have slack on, but for an hour during the day, I'm not writing, I'm not editing, I'm not answering email, I will pull out animal crossing and John will make me a grilled cheese and I'll just sit. And honestly, like, it, it, it has transformed the day because the little breaks that we were getting, like leaving the office to go by a sandwich or taking the subway and commuting home or you know we're in a meeting and someone's presenting something that doesn't apply to you so you can look at your phone. Like those little breaks that the day don't exist when you work from home and so it's just chores

and work and being in a relationship and whatever fucking other shit like if you have a kid like it's all that stuff all the time and if we don't carve out time for like the things that are quote unquote non-essential, like we're not going to have them and it ends up there like way more essential then. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It's also like grooming stuff. Like I, oh, oh, oh, yes.

I was really struggling with, I would wake up at 8 a.m. for our editorial meeting. Then I would just go right into work or for our vet meeting on Slack. And then I would just go right into work. And then we have an editorial call at 10. And then I was like, well, now I want to go to this work done. And I was just like not showering in the morning. And now in the morning, we do our vet meeting. Then I take the time to go in the shower, brush my teeth, shave, and then sit down at 10. And if I don't get a ton done in the morning, it's like, I wasn't doing that before this. Like I was traveling into the office.

Why? There are, listen, I mean, there is a huge advantage. I mean, like, look, I'm still working in Zell and it's like, y'all, I need me all the time. But like, I'm home for dinner. You know, that's cool. I'm home for bedtime every night. I'm here in the mornings, like, I can hang out a little bit

because I'm not rushing around to try to go in or whatever. That is, like, kind of amazing. And like, I will say, I will cherish this time, even though I'm still rushing around to try to go in or whatever. That is kind of amazing. And I will say I will cherish this time, even though I'm still like we're going to we're dealing with a lot of work right now, like across the organization. But like, I'm happy to have that time. I mean, it's funny, the grooming thing you mentioned

because just before this got on to do the podcast, I was talking to Nicole DelSandra, who is our editorial ops person at the Culture and Innovation group, which is our little gang at Bustle. And we were talking about, one of the things I've noticed since I've been doing Zoom stuff every day is like, damn, my eyes look really like puffy. You know?

Like, I'm definitely not sleepy enough, and I'm definitely drinking too much, and that is 100% the cause. Like, I'm like, if I didn't drink and I slept like 10 hours a night, I'd be all set, I think. But she's like, oh yeah, like, get this, like, there's this like stone you can get. And she's like, get, she's like,

I started using this and it like relaxes your face. And I'm like, oh my god, this is exactly what I need. And then I started looking for expensive eye stuff, eye cream or whatever. And I bought a really expensive tube of special eye cream with nutrients or whatever. But it's actually that stuff that I would never pay attention to normally,

because I'm so busy, just like, I'm spending so much time rushing around and not thinking about myself. But I started using, I got a things set up on our treadmill here, and I put a laptop stand on it so I can work from the treadmill. And I did a mile and a half while working the other day, which is not much, but when you're not walking around at all,

it really is pronounced how little you're doing things. And so anyhow, so little stuff like that is actually kind of nice, but I don't know. I don't know why I'm rambling now, but yeah, I don't know. It's a different thing. I think there's a whole different way of living. There's a temptation to like,

drop everything that we were doing and like start over. And I don't think we should drop everything. Right. What do you mean? You like in human entities? I'd be like, I don't think we should drop everything. Right. What do you mean? You like in humanity? I'd be like, I don't really need to look good. So I'm not gonna like, you know, I don't care about whatever.

I don't really need to be like, you should look good for yourself. I mean, if you feel like, I don't need to move my body. We're stuck in the house. Like, well, it is what it is. Like, no, try, just try. I know I'm saying this because I have the exact same thing.

I'm not trying to be like, scoyly, I'm trying to tell you like I understand and like, but we all have to try to put on like ring fit and do some squats. Like, yeah, I mean, the, the, we definitely should be, people should be exercising. I don't mean like you gotta like get cut. I mean, like just keep yourself

moving around and try to like get in the steps that you would not that you would normally be getting if you like we're out in the world because we're definitely not doing that. I'm definitely not doing that here at home. There are other things that you know there are other upsides but ultimately you know it's like yeah anyhow. All right, what else is there going on out there? What are their messages? Can we send to Tony? What are their messages of support can we give to the people in the world? What else is I mean, this is, you know, the, the coronavirus story is so dominating, it's so completely dominating that it's like, it's hard to think or talk about anything else. Well, it's sort of like, I mean, it is Trump,

but it is also like Trump, which people were so sick of hearing about Trump, but it's like, but his election affected every single thing in the world. Like, it's hard to just take, like it's as if if everything in the world is spaghetti, he is the sauce that is on everything and getting everywhere. And like, we have to just sort of deal with that. And that's what this virus is.

Like, you know, a great album just came out today, Do Alipa's Future Nostalgia, and it's a 85% score on Metacritic. It is wonderful and it's disco and dance and it's just wonderful. And she has just really progressed as a performer and a musician in such a short amount of time. It's very Kylie Minogue. It's very, it's just amazing. But so stream that, that was gonna be one of my nice things. But this morning, John's parents aren't in the best of health,

and in particular, they're going through some stuff right now that's very inconvenient, even just logistically in contrast with COVID and stuff. And you know, both of our works are, you know, you know, it's been a struggle to keep the quality that we want the site to be at and balance everything else and to make sure the numbers all work and to make sure, you know, we're reporting on this in a way that we feel good about. It's a ton of fresh challenges and so it can be really overwhelming and so John's work has been very overwhelming and he was also trying to make breakfast this morning and then he got a bunch of calls that he didn't want to get and he had to deal with the social worker and all this stuff and like I just asked Google to play a couple of the songs from the new album and it's so silly but like

I will forever now in my memory relate this very good album with this moment in time when I like really really needed a happy song to dance to to make John Lath and like it broke up the morning and he like before we started recording he came in and was like thank you so much for doing that and it's like it's hard to separate what's happening from like everything else and so I guess like it's sort of like like do you have albums where like when you hear the songs you think specifically of where you were and what you were doing and why you needed that like song so much me I Me? I try to forget everything as soon as it happens. That's my goal. I'm just, I mean, all my music memories, most of my music memories are sad to be honest with you. I mean, it's because you need it the most when you are sad. I think it's more like, I have, my mind gravitates towards like depressing music, might like taste, gravitate towards depressing music, but I also don't like, I'm not a person who pairs

like things with music very often. I'm sorry, this is probably not the answer you're looking for, but I don't, my brain doesn't love the combination of music and situations, except like, obviously dance parties, you know, like, but like, I'm not like, you know, not to get personal, but like I would prefer to not have music on like during a sexual activity, for instance, like I find it very distracting, you know, or like, I don't know, I don't really like concerts that much. I don't like live music. Like I, you know, but concerts, but it's like, I don't like people. But I listen to music really differently than most people too. And I'm not saying I'm special or whatever, but like because I was a producer, I like listen to it in a way where I'm like,

constantly dissecting like the production. Yeah, I know. I got John Hades watching TV shows or movies with me because I spend the whole time critiquing the like technical aspect. Right, right. Yeah, so like it's harder for me to put like, to feel totally like with music like uh un un un involved like it's paired with something where the

music isn't in some way a focus or a distraction from what is happening so that's just that's just one man's problem though that's just me well for me it's like everything that's happening is gonna be reflected through the lens of this. So it's like, you know, that album is great, but it kind of sucks for her that, or it's good. I mean, I really can't say, but this moment in time will be like married to it because I think a lot of people will be doing what I did, which is like dancing

in their own apartments or like listening to it in headphones or something, and that changes the experience of like when a good song comes out and you first time here at the bar that weekend and you're like, ah, it's already here, like, let's get a beer and dance or whatever and that will not be the relationship people have with this music. And I think it's kind of similar,

like the Tiger King on Netflix phenomena. Yeah. Everybody's talking about this. And it's crazy because I followed this story for years. Like I remember I was in vegan Facebook groups and they were talking about these animal crazy animal rights people and their insane stories. And then I listened to a podcast that kind of summed up everything that had happened in that world. Um, and it was crazy.

And now this Netflix documentary came out and people have the time and it's sort of the chaos of it and the desperation of these people is super relevant to our current moment. And so it's like people are obsessed with it, but I think forever in some way this guy Joe Exotic who like had his own zoo and this, I mean, I'm not going to spoil anything, but go watch it. He's like kind of tied to this moment because we all collectively needed a bigger train wreck than ourselves to pay attention to. Right.

Right. No, I mean, I think that's, I get it. It's sort of weird, like it's hard, like every nice thing will have to be a distraction of some kind. Like it's not like I could be like, oh, and I'm loving these socks. It's like, I'm loving these socks because it's cold in my apartment that I'm trapped in. Right, right, right, right.

No, it's all tainted with a little bit of the bit. It's bittersweet. Bittersweet is how I describe it. Yeah, I just, I just, you know, can we ever go back to the way we were? Can we ever go back to the way it used to be? I don't have the answer, but I do think we should wrap up because we got to wrap up because I don't want to do more of these. I don't think we need to make them as long you know, this is obviously already done an hour or whatever, but I also need I have a bunch of things I need to do and we're having today our first ever

I should tell the the I should tell Tony he'll be interested our Editors we normally meet so we have an editorial with several editorial meetings every day for the input team and we normally have like A four like a four o'clock meeting that we normally have like a four o'clock meeting that we do, but today's four o'clock is gonna be a happy hour, a non-work happy hour, which I'm very excited about. And I wanna make sure I get everything done before that. So I can truly relax with...

Trying to have priorities here. With the crew, yeah, yeah. And I think tonight I'm going to, oh, well, maybe I'll game, I don't know if I'm going to game tonight. I'm definitely going to get animal crossing though. Like I'm definitely, definitely getting we have two copies in this house and it has been a balm on the burns. Yeah, I think that's what I need is something maybe a little bit more like I don't feel the pressure to put in a lot of time. And I can just dip into it, you

know, yeah, maybe that's the answer here. Um, well, do you have any nice things to leave on? Um, I mean, my Jade face massager is, but it by nice thing. And I, I don't have it gotten it yet, but I'm excited to start a new skin care routine that involves me rubbing my face with a stone. You know, that's my nice thing. Yeah. Yeah.

You have a nice. I would say, uh, there's an nice thing. Yeah, you have a nice. I would say there's an anime on Netflix called Cells at Work, which is basically, it's like, it takes place in a city, but the entire city is a human body and each character is a humanoid, but they each represent a cell in the human body and the antagonists are viruses and bacteria and stuff like that, cancers, stuff like that. And in each episode, you see how the cells work together to take down the villain, but it's all pretty scientifically accurate and it's sort of represented as a sort of represented as a anime, power rangers, sailor moon, style, fight, but what goes down is representative of what actually happens in the human body, and it has been very weirdly calming

for me to watch this show, because it's very reassuring to remember that our bodies are amazing and powerful and we can overcome disease and that we have survived this long at all is astonishing accomplishment for some goo that arose from like a lightning strike on a fucking planet that's mostly made of water. Like it's crazy that our bodies are as amazing as they are.

And you'll also get a better understanding of how our immune systems work. And I think we could all use that right now. So it's also just a fun show. It's genuinely a really fun good show. It's on Netflix. It's very good. So I would say if you've already watched B-stars

and Tiger King, that's a good follow-up. Wow. Okay, interesting. I've never heard of this show. It's very interesting. It sounds very interesting. I don't watch love anime. Like Laura definitely.

You gotta watch Beastars. You gotta watch Beastars. I do. What is incredible? What's Beastars about? Beastars is, you know how like Zootopia is like sort of like a furry paradise, like Disney's furry paradise. Yeah, it's a really animal-free movie.

I've only watched like 30 or 40% of that movie. Like, when Zelda was much younger, like I tried to like, we tried to like watch it a couple of times. So I've seen like the first like 40 minutes of it. Like 40 minutes. It's a fun movie that's like a pretty, with a good message that is also like, not a perfect metaphor for race or anything. Like it's a little heavy handed,

but it's fun and it's sort of like, what if all the anthropomorphized animals really did live in a society together? Like how would it work? That's what B stars is and it's about the like, push pull of predator and prey in a society together like how would it work? That's what B stars is. And it's about the like push pull of predator and prey in a society. And this wolf has like sexual feelings for a bunny

that he's supposed to like look down upon or want to eat. And it is fascinating and so weird. It's very like twilight. I can't tell if it's wonderfully good or like just weirdly sexual enough to keep your attention, but you gotta watch it. It's super worth discussing. Yeah, yeah, interesting.

Huh, well, all right. I accept it. Well, that's it. And Tony accepts it. All right, well, I guess we should wrap up. We should go back to our respective duties and get prepped for this very important happy hour. Yeah, I got a shower at some point. You're very important. You keep showering.

You got to keep showered, you got to shower nonstop all day every day. That's my policy. That's my policy. Bye. Goodbye. Well, that is our show for this week. We'll be back maybe sooner than next week with more tomorrow. And as always, I wish you and your family the very best and your family is totally fine and really adjusting nicely to this new stay-at-home lifestyle. you