Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three, twenty six episode for guys. It's a production of iHeart Radio and it's a podcast where we take a deep dive into america shared consciousness. And it's Thursday, February twenty second, twenty twenty four.
To to to two four to to wait too, yeah exactly. Guess what shout out everybody working in the supermarket Supermarket employee Day. It's shout out also National Chili Day. Ch I l i okay for all you chili lovers out there. Myself included nationals cook a.
Sweet more of a key bos guy.
Thank you, thank you, Wow wow wow wow.
Well your left eye open, Jack, because you're gonna miss National Margarita Day. And everyone likes to Spicy margaritas are everywhere now and I kind of hate it now. Every everything's like we have spice, Like people have shit written on windows. I'm like, we have spicy margarita's. Okay anyway, National Spice shot out Market Day, shout out to all my golden staters. Were the poppies or what Yeah, what's starting at wildflower? Yeah? The golden poppies bloom, you know
what I mean? And it's national California day.
Okay, and you're flying back today.
You're going back. Yeah, we're out of Sunshine State to the Golden State. We're gonna rip through this one.
Just real half ass or as we call it in the industry, because Miles is a plane to catch.
My name is Chuck.
O'Brien aka oo wee. I've got resting butler face. Now, Oh can I take your luggage?
Sir?
Just don't ask me to iron over anything.
I'm not good at that.
Yeah, I suck shit at that. The courtesy of the b Squad in reference to my time as a butler. You know, my first job, or one of my first jobs out of school, butler, It was just just a concierge at a fancy British hotel, and I knew how to iron my clothes. I did not know how to iron a gown.
Which I was asked to do very early, and a very patient, push British woman showed me, was like, here, let me show you how to do this, and there.
Now you know how to use an iron. And I've married that woman. That's right, she's now my wife.
Unimpressed, I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host mister Miles Gras.
Yes, I may be in the three h five, but it's still a one to eight every day. Myles Gray aka you meet her for lunch just to hit a ullo. She's faking a smile, orders her lunch to go. You tell her your fine, take in your time. She nods in, gets up, and then be lines to the door with her BURIEDO break a bat a boat le you're taking a nel mouthful up, thinking, man, what the hell? All right? Shout out to Doc Doc Lobster for that. Doctor Wops aka this.
Is our guest today is one of my favorite to sing in front of because he just like puts his face in his hands and just fully appreciates how dumb this show is yeah, and gives it to us with the.
Fever dream that I wander into every time I'm.
On Yeah, yeah, Look, you know what I was broken up with at a Chipotle and an oyster? And I mean I have another breakup story out of a food based breakup store I have still having told, so I'll keep that one on deck for another time.
It's amazing that you didn't develop like an eating disorder of some short of some sort if anything.
I just learned as fast as possible because I have no idea when the meal could be ruined. But I being broken up with, yeah.
You do eat pretty fast for a only child. Usually people who eat fast are doing it to try and get the food before their siblings.
I did spend a very good amount of my time in my childhood up the street from my house in a Catholic house that had like like a bunch of kids shout out the Shrek family, and I would just like, you know, I knew. I learned how to go ham in a very quick amount of time. Like I was eating like a firefighter, basically, just.
Like what the Shrek family was it like Fiona and Shrek.
And they're also no no different spelling, different spelling, okay they were anyway, like damn we the Shreks when that when the movie came out, and I was like, respect.
Respect, We're thrilled Miles to be joined in our third seat by a podcast or extraordinari who is too good to be on this show?
Come on? What is he doing here? You know him?
From this Day and esotery, political history from Radio Topia, A Good Sport from Ted and Pushkin thirty for thirty for ESPN the five thirty eight politics podcast, where I first caught wind of him, the lead producer on the Puzzler.
It's Jody Ever.
Good right, I appreciate this, and I'm sorry you have a plane to catch. I appreciate that we're here on what is it National Phone? It in on your podcast days fight.
That's right, No, no it's not, it's not. I have I have plenty of time. Ye were just we're just while.
We're each singing, I just want to say each singing a like five verse ridiculous song. I had some time here to google National California Day, which is a deeply weird thing that you would have a national single day to celebrate a state. But and I can't really figure out why it's February twenty second.
Yeah, rubbing it in for to other people that it's like sunny warm here.
Yeah, it's not bad.
Your your day probably sucks compared to ours on this Nationville California Day.
You know what's wold. It's just it was only done because of this calendar website said it was. Yes, there's they're just like it just said literally. Founded in nineteen or in twenty seventeen by National day calendar to cethbrate California is the thirty first. It's a thirty one proud date history. Wow, I can't even.
Spell thirty first as a dog situation where they's, well, we have a calendar and we have to put something on every day. Yeah, there's fifty states, so that's a good number of days right there.
So it says that it's it is to celebrate California as the thirty oneth state. It's three one thirty one.
Yeah, thirty one leapiers in leap yeers, it's the thirty oneth.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Oh man, we are in a leap year.
How's everybody celebrating you guys doing anything wild for leap year?
You didn't get my invite for my big Leapier white party. No, it's in the Hamptons. It's just a real bash. Yeah, it's amazing my home.
He's turning ten, which is kind of cool. Is that real? Yeah? Worse fortieth birthday? He's turning ten, but we're calling it his tenth birthday.
Does he have like a ten year old's birthday?
No, he's just because it's a leap years to come around every four every four years, They're like, bro, your your birthday doesn't exist this year, so.
You should have to celebrate that that as that age, we.
Go, Yeah, we'll go to Chuck E Cheese and we'll all get in fist fights with the other stressed out parents.
Yeah, I'll get your first boner.
In the ballpit, as one does. They got rid of the ballpit. Too many bombers to it's all just a video game arcade these days. Yeah, yeah, Jody, we're gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment.
Teller listeners.
A couple of things we're talking about. We got the first little taste of Trump's new reality show wherein he's going to be picking a vice president with it's I don't know that how much it's his idea and how much is the mainstream media's idea. But I do feel
like the mainstream media needs this. They're like the primary is really under delivered for us, and if you look at the video, but like this is mainly Fox News being like, Okay, I'm going to give you a list of six names, and you tell like it's like a first or something. You know, you tell me if they're on your list. Anyways, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about frozen embryos being deemed literal children according to the Alabama Supreme Court. We will talk about measles making a comeback.
We love it, don't we, folks.
All of that plenty more. But first, Jody, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history?
This last week has been one of the more busy weeks of my professional life in a good way. But I've been like, really just hold up and kind of with blinders on, so I haven't searched much with the one thing I did spend a long time searching was and it's My search history is mostly this is New Balance five to seven four US, which are you know, one of my go to shoe and I've worn that
shoe basically for the last ten years or so. But there's this very frustrating dynamic, which is I buy a pair, I really like them, and then they run out, you know, they wear out, and I go and look for that pair again and they don't make the color any more. And I have this thought of, like, I should just buy three when I find a color I like and just stock up. I've never really been that way, both
in terms of sneaker collecting or foresight. And so this week was my one kind of like non working on podcasts excursion was to try and stock up on colors that I liked in the five seven fours that's spent way too long. Well, they're not making a color that I love right now?
What was that one? Just so further sneaker head out there, so I can envision.
Oh, the one that I the last one I really well, there was one, the one that like really led to this moment regret. There was one I don't remember the exact name of the color way, but it was like it had like a light blue, it had like a sky blue and a little bit of yellow on it, and it was just really really nice. And it's the one that I wish I had bought five of and just worn for the next five years of my life.
But are you are you like doing like a Steve Jobs kind of thing with your with your sneakers? Your life might be this is it like.
On the sneaker front? Definitely like I'm not, you know, I liked I like the way those shoes look. They they toe, they toe a lot that I think is perfectly on brand for me, which is like.
Very are intended just so we can get that out of the stay.
Yes, that was very intended. Yeah, they project Dad first and foremost, which is very comfortable with, but a little bit of you know, a little a little more interesting. And so I think the five seven fourth square that for me. But yeah, I would very happily just like have fifteen pairs of that. I was sitting there and every six months just put on a fresh pair.
Yeah. I just recently blew through my first pair of new Balances that I'm like, oh yeah, because you know you, I'm like, I'm like, I need my dad's shoe life. I need I need comfortable shoes. I can't just walk around and untied Jordans all day like I used to, where my my feet just get just wrecked.
Yeah, it does feet when you take a lot of a lot of steps under Jordan.
That's the big thing.
I barely time my shoe Like I only started tying my shoes like maybe two years, like a year ago. So yeah, I keep them loose.
And some of the Jordans are like starting to feel to me in my old age, like the boots from the face off Prism.
They're just oh like magnetic to the ground.
You use a hand to like get my legs moving a little bit around the house.
Are you a socks or a slippers person?
Socks?
Socks?
Yeah, I have. I have socks my uh, and I have grippy socks too, Like in the pandemic, like when it started, and I was, you know, because I don't wear shoes at home, I just had socks that were that felt like they had traction. They'd be like, well, I'm not totally fucking around with my footwear right now.
Yeah.
You like to be able to jump stop wherever you are even Oh, yes, you get able to stop on a dime?
Yeah, euro stamp, Yeah exactly. After repeated blows to the back of my head trying to do that, yeah, I was like, I gotta get grippy socks.
What uh, what's something, Jody? Do you think is overrated?
This is not exactly exactly overrated because I love it. But I was thinking about this past weekend. I conned my daughter into alphabetizing my vinyl collection for me, which was great. It'd been like two decades of mess and then I was like, oh, this would be educational to her, and you know, really it was just finally getting around
to doing it. So we sat down and wetized my vinyl, and most of it is like stuff that I bought, you know, for like two dollars a record, three dollars a record, like many many years ago of hauled around and I love, you know, I love listening to it, but I've gotten a little bit into just buying stuff on vinyl, like a lot of people have lately, and
it's really expensive, like it's crazy. And I was reading something yesterday about someone saying kind of like everyone that they know who collected vinyl for like the practice of it, you know, not not necessarily for the fidelity of the audio, but like just it's fun to collect and it's good. It's nice look at the artwork, and it's nice to
have music collection. All those people, at least this person claimed, are moving to CDs now because you still get that active collecting, but like you're not dropping forty dollars on piece of vinyl. So I think Final is writing this weird like maybe overrated curve or whatever. I think it's gonna and I start I've started to feel that myself too, like, oh, it's really fun to do this, but gosh, I cannot drop twenty five to forty dollars every time I get a new piece of finyl.
You don't think, because I've thought about this myself, and the reason I've justified my vinyl collection is that if there's like the world's electronics go out, my CDs are useless, my MP threes are useless, But I can still put my ear to a needle and move the record around and still hear the music or like muse it round. Like to me, it feels like the one apocalypse proof form of recorded music.
Yeah, if you had to do that, just really like hand rotate the record, I feel like that would get annoying for you.
I think there was a whole and the director's cut of Station eleven, there's like a ten hour section where they're just listening to need a simone by hand cranking it around. It's really an incredible scene.
Vinyl, right, at least compared to me.
Yeah, well, I'm sure, yeah, yeah.
So people are skipping the tapes tapes, which is right.
Well, that's the other question, the tapes. But I guess, I guess the tapes aren't as like interesting of an artifact and then and so forth, and if you're really just in it to kind of like be able to flip through stuff or whatever and just like you're collecting. Then CDs might be the answer.
But I think like a lot of the hip or bands are putting out tapes now too, like oh yeah, is that in la where they're like, no, dude, put Aren't dar Demo on fucking cassette? But then it like it sounds like whatever. God, I mean, it's cool, I get it, you know, do what you want to do.
No, it's funny. You go to band camp and it's like you buy it and the options are basically like P three cassette and fifty dollars vinyl that'll take eight months to arrive because Taylor Swift gets the print all of her stuff before any indie band gets the print.
All the world's vinyl is going to making that.
It's true, it's a huge shortage. It's kind of an incredible thing that all these big artists like leap Frog, all the all the other folks who want to put stuff out on vinyl.
Is it the material that there's a Is it like helium like one of those materials that secretly is just like we have a finite limit of vinyl in it.
It's more the manufacturing facilities. But I'm not sure, but I think it's that, you know, it's vinyl has taken off a you know in the last few years, but not to a place where like it's worth opening a vinyl factory in you know, in Cleveland or whatever. So there's still a limited, limited manufacturing capability, but like a
really exponentially growing demand. And so then yeah, it's created this whole thing where like Taylor Shift can put out all her back catalog on vinyl, you know, have it on shelves in a week, and indie bands need to wait like eight months in line, you know, Right.
Will there ever be music stores like physical media stores?
Again?
Like not not you know.
Used record stores like we have now, but like, will there be a future where there's a record store, just like it's not abnormal to see one?
Do you guess think?
I think so. I mean, at least in New York, there's like I mean, I was at the the Rough Trade has like a proper record store here in New York, a flagship store, and it's like looked like a you know, record starts a bunch of new vinyl, and actually there's a cassette player. I noticed on per sale there too, But I don't know, I mean, I don't think there's going to be in every neighborhood or on every corner.
But yeah, right, oh wow, it sounds like too. It's like, because CDs, you know, became the norm, all the vinyl operations just started to cease to exist, and so you're left with like less plants. But also apparently there's a place that The Apollo Masters fire of February twenty twenty also had a huge setback on the vinyl industry. The only plant in North America equipped to manufacture vinyl lacquer discs, which is a key step in manufacturing process, had a
three alarm fire that completely destroyed its facility. That's great. Yeah, so now people are going to a manufacturer in Japan. Oh yeah, so this shit is Yeah.
Can I tell you my favorite little at about vinyl
records that I learned in just fairly recently. And I'm sure I will get corrected by the Reddit page if I screw this up, but it's something like this that the like physical way that a needle interacts with the grooves on a record has a little bit to do with the instrumentation on the record, right, And it's basically that like higher pitch stuff has shallower or smaller grooves, and more bass has bigger grooves and Moreover, as the needle and the arm gets closer to the middle of
a record, it becomes a little more unstable just because of the physics of it or whatever. Which is all to say that throughout the like sixties seventies when they were pressing vinyl, it was very risky to put bass heavy songs on the towards the middle of a side of vinyl, right, because it could potentially like throw things off.
So to me, so like to me, you know, I've always been like, oh, I love all these Fleetwood mac records where like the end of side one then on this beautiful acoustic little piece, you know what, wonderful track listing in our program. And it's actually just because of the like a physical problem they have to do that. But it has like defined for me, like so many of these records that they end on these little acoustic moments.
Yeah, like put the bangers up top. Yeah that basically the Beatles White album like opens with back in the USS or or whatever, and then amazing what uh, what's something you think is underrated?
Jody Mittens, that's not that interesting. Actually know you might wait wait, can I ask your questions? Sorry to break?
Can something be underrated if it's on the list of favorite things from the song favorite Things? Just a question I'm put putting out there, but it's true.
We'll let the listeners decide.
I don't know if it's underrated, but it's something that is that I've really loved in my life and I'm ranting to everyone about. But is this product? I don't know if they're gonna sponsor the show. Maybe they can sponsor the show. It's called Brick. Have you heard about this? Brick?
And it is Mittens.
I switched from Have you heard about this?
I love Brick?
Yeah. I threw them through a cop cars windshield.
No exactly exactly. They're great. No, no, no, so so brick is this is this device? I've been on a long quest to like remove apps from my phone and sort of not get caught in the rabbit hole of you know, social media and all that stuff in my phone.
And I've tried all sorts of things, including going to a flip phone for a while, and that was no good and I had to go back and I finally discovered a thing called Brick, which is a product, and it basically is a piece of software that lets you decide what apps you want to have on and what apps you you don't want to have on. So you can basically take your phone and just say, like I
want Maps, I want Spotify, I want so forth. You know, I want all these things, but I also don't but I don't want to have all the social media and email and all that stuff. And the way you turn it on and turn it off, the way you activate it is by tapping it against a physical square device called the Brick, and that thing lives on my fridge. So it's sitting on my fridge, and when I want to basically unlock my phone, I have to walk over and like tap it against this little thing that's that's
on my fridge. And when I leave the house, I can't unlock my phone because the Brick is back on my fridge and it has done wonders. It's incredible. I have finally kind of like on on rabbit hold my phone, and I only have things on there that are like useful, and I don't have any of the distractions yeah.
Oh so it basically is like, okay, time out for these other apps. Yeah, until you come back for the brick tap. Okay.
The physicality of it's cool that there's no right, a physical space that's like your that's like base for your phone. Like I'm off base, I can Yeah, that's exactly right.
Yeah, yeah right.
That's because the problem is that like iPhones have that screen time thing where it's like you can tell up and close all these apps, but it's still the way to unlock. It is still on your phone, and you find yourself going and undoing the settings, and the fact that it's just a physical, separate space has made all the difference. Like it's really yeah, it's great.
It's like you can't psycho analyze yourself. You can't fix the broken tool with the broken tool, and you can't you can't fix your phone addiction with button.
Phone right, your phone. That's cool. I love that.
Give it a show.
Have you have you ever like accidentally not unlocked your phone and like gone been out for the day in New York City?
I mean I'm doing it every day. I'm basically now when I leave the house, my phone is bricked, you know, And so and so I've had to like tell people I work with, I'm like, I don't. I no longer have email or slack on my phone. If you need to reach me, text me or call me or just generally I'll be back in a couple of hours. It's all, yeah, yeah.
That's pretty cool, all right.
Brick and mittens, you know, under undercut the mittens. You can keep it in or you.
Can I think we keep it in. Mitten's mintens are are great. Just one of a few of my favorite things. Let's uh, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back and get into the news. And we're back. And this is just a little minor one, a little check in. But Fox News did a little town hall event hosted by Laura Ingram where she asked Trump about six possible choices for his running mate DeSantis, Scott Ramaswami, Donald's, Byron Donalds.
Gno, and Gabbard.
Are they all on your short list? I'm I didn't watch it. I'm picturing this having the music from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire behind it as she's like, do you will you lock this in? And Trump said, yeah, honestly, all those people are good they're all good. Oh, they're all solid, which people people are like.
Oh my god, he.
Announced his short list.
No he didn't.
He just answered the question that you posed to try to make this into a story like that. The mainstream media needs a something right now to fill in for the fact that there is not going to be a primary season that people will pay attention to, and so they're going to go with this would be my that's my prediction is that they're just going to really turn this into the Bachelor Vice President edition.
Yeah, it'll be the Faschelor and where this is all headed.
Jack. I'm really glad you kind of honed in on that dynamic of how that question got asked, because it is such a hallmark of how people ask questions of
Trump and how he wants to be asked questions. But it's this like reporter floating an idea and then all Trump has to do is yes and and pray along and acting yes, and it's like people do not you know, I mean, you're literally collaborating with him in that point, in that way to create this news moment insure that like I guess the Fox News, but even you know, quote unquote mainstream reporters find themselves playing that game where they'll just like float ideas and then Trump, I mean,
he will go along with almost anything that you say to his face if it has this tone of like, you know, it's a lot like I think she could have snuck in, like Stacy Abrams's name, like into that list and Trump would have been like, oh yeah like them all, you know, yes, I'm into it, you know, like you like he just so that was the dynamic that I most sort of jumped out to me is so frustrating, and we're seeing it all happen again. The way that he gets asked questions like he hasn't actually
thought about these people. He isn't going to actually engage with their merits. He's going to make it a reality TV show. It is like hilarious and fucking heartbreaking to me that the Santas is on that list because the Santus will never ever, ever ever get picked, and mostly because he's too short, and that's just like how Trump works. But you know, it is just so funny that he's on that list.
Does that help him that he Trump kind of towers next to him, you know, like I.
Think Trump, I think Trump like literally just thinks of these people as casting and when he gets it in his head that he's too short, he's just too short, that's.
Right, Or does he think of it like he's like Pence was too tough and he had a spine. I need I need a weakling who wears custom boots so I can really push him around and embarrass him, because it feels like he would if DeSantis was his VP, he'd right be like, folks, I want you to look at Ron's boots.
Take him off, yeah, show everybody just humiliate him like that would probably be the most entertaining is he has Desanta's and then just make some meat ship because I also Desanta's what turned out to be like heading in when he's on the cover of Time magazine and.
People are like, he's just smarter.
Trump, I was like, this guy's gonna be like very boring, and he was actually one of the more fascinating people to watch run for office because he was so uncomfortable and weird. Yep, So I don't hate the prospect of him again. I don't think it's going to happen because Trump is just like I feel like he's more likely to just like pick the liver king or like somebody with big muscles that he is, you know, the big muscle is down here.
You know what I'm saying. I pick the undertaker from WWE like damn, but Desanta is like I have having Desantas squirming in the spotlight was a fun, you know, sport. So I wouldn't like that.
You know there's anything that Trump notices, it's that right, Yes, Trump watches TV with the sound off and he just makes you know, he just looks at someone and Desanta's like Sweaty's squirming.
Onder the loser.
Yeah, he is a short loser, it turns out, which yeah, unfortunately for him. Trump did especially laud Tim Scott, but mainly for how much Scott talks about him.
So I again.
If he's trying to pick the best sick of fans that's gonna make him look good, maybe this is the pick. If he's trying to pick like this strongest, the strongest guy, which seems like what he did not pick the strongest guy the first time around. He just picked the one that his supporters were telling him, or you know, his analysts were telling him was the best kind of strategic
triangulation move. But he said of Scott, I watched his campaign and he doesn't like talking about himself, but boy does he like talking about Trump.
So yeah, it's kind of like the whole thing was just you know, sort of rigged de facto meant for his nomination anyway, It's like, well, I can't speak ill of the guy who I'm going to have to beg for a cabinet position eventually. So yeah, here we are.
Almost as all right, let's talk about the Alabama Supreme Court. Yeah, in a first of it's kind ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court just declared that frozen embryos are children and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death, making it even more terrifying. It'd be a doctor in Alabama. Now, Yeah, this is this was I think inevitable.
A lot of people once you know, rowe Fell, were like, you know, IVF is also the other thing, because these antichoice people fucking would love nothing more than to go after IVF and get continue the sort of like these these cell clumps are people and they have rights, and if you drop a test tube with it in there,
that could be murder. Although that's still we still don't know what the bounds are of that law, but the very least there are stiff penalties that could easily bankrupt any sort of healthcare provider because of you know, something happened and this, you know, this comes from these lawsuits where these parents who had IVF treatment had their embryos frozen, and like a patient at the hospital where the embryos were at had got access to these embryos and then
dropped them, picked them up with the bare hands. Yes, something that is cryogenically frozen. I don't know if you've seen the movies, but that's a little bit. I think that's not like taking a pint of ice cream out
of your freezer. But anyway, and then yeah, so because of that, these embryos were destroyed and the parents sued the clinic for quote wrongful death, and they these the court loved nothing more than to oblige them and said that, yeah, these are these people do fit the definition of a person or child.
The quote from the Chief Justice is fucking terrifying.
Dude, this is wild. So yeah, the Chief Justice of Alabama Supreme Court said that, you know the people of Alabama have declared and have adopted quote the theologically based view that quote, life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy god. M hmm so just hm hmm, so.
No more capital punishment Alabama?
Is that? What? Wait? No, no, no, I mean. But then also, how conversely, how would you look at the idea of science being able to to create life out of the you know, the the actual human intercourse version versus you know, because right now IVF eggs are retrieved, they're fertilized with sperm, and then they're rated for quality, and the higher quality embryos are the ones that are transferred to the uterus, and often more than one at a time are done so in order to increase the
chances of success. And so that's the that's the thing where this chief just is like, well, there is a version that you could do that wouldn't put it at risk. So in this version, according to this Chief Justice, who is not a fucking doctor, is basically saying every time an embryos created, it has to be transferred to the
uterus and regardless of quality. So you're saying like and if a doctor be like this has actually a very low chance of being successful, They're like, well, we got to try because that embryo is a person and if you destroy it then that's that's a no no, and you will incur the wrath of a fucking holy God. And this is like obviously terrible because it's just it's expensive,
it's needless, very painful for the patient. And this is just sort of like the abortion bands where logic does not prevail, where they're like, no, the doctor must wait until the patient is like on death's doorstep before they can intervene and ask a court if it's okay to terminate a pregnancy, and the Chief Justice is sort of logic for this more arcane version of IVF that he feels is more in line.
With God's law.
He was like, well, you know, it's it's fine because the Italians made this a law back in two thousand and four and then completely left out the part where the law was fucking rescinded a few years later because it was so fucked up and backwards. So yeah, this is just a very you know, the next sort of the next target in terms of reproductive rights that anti choice people are going after. And yeah, obviously people are scared because it could go to other states.
I mean, you're right, you're right to point out that, you know, it is clearly there's just a top line agenda here and everything is kind of retrofitted to fit into it, including not sort of thinking through the rip
effects as you were saying. But like on the on the front end, I mean, it's just I don't know, maybe it's just stating the obvious, but like the idea that you're trying to essentially make a law that points out that, like a random person shouldn't walk into a facility and grab frozen embryo things and then accidentally drop them on the ground, Like I think we do we need do we need a law? Yeah? Do we need a law exactly? Do we need a law that then defines embryos people in order to kind of like put
guardrails on that kind of behavior? And so clearly, like you know, this is exploiting a moment in order to take a bigger, a bigger stance here and set some really sort of scary precedent. But I mean, like not everything and I understand this hell often works, but there it's probably another way, you know, like the pre war should have been like how about a key? Yeah?
What if that ship?
Yeah?
How about how about gloves next to the cryogenic freezer.
But the gloves have the Bill of Rights and the gloves of the you know, some Bible versus on the back.
Right commandments on the back, so that you can did anybody notice if this justice's hands were bandaged up while he was delivering this because it feels like the sort of thing like you.
Could sit inside job.
Yeah, I'm just saying, so show me your hands, sir.
It's it's clearly the most efficient way to get this ruling.
Yeah, exactly, because it's like such an inexplicable move like move by the person to just go in there and be like doope to doop de doo.
Yeah, what are these things do?
Yeah, So this is going to have immediate, really fucked up consequences for fertility specialists. They don't really like doctors aren't even sure how to proceed in light of this, because point they've been given absolutely no guidance and it's just so kind of out of left field that there's not a clear path.
Forward for them. So no, yeah, and like using laws from like the nineteenth century to like kind of be part of like their reasoning. I mean, it's just you know, it's by every definition, the most regressive form of creating a law to punish people for whatever. Again, because the agenda is these clumps of cells are human beings, and I think that's what a lot of people whenever these sort of declarations are made, You're always like, okay, so then what does that mean? Like what rights do they
have too? Like if they are a person, then do they have don't they got rights? And then how does that work? But the other thing is too with these embryos that are stored, they're saying that like you can't these these IVF clinics have to store the embryos like imperpetuity dues. Like there's no there is no like disposing of embryos. They said, even after quote even after the couple's children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren have died, they
must remain in cryogenic storage. And again it's just to make it completely.
Catscade of little ripple effects. I mean, I can just imagine like the clerk for this judge like every ten minutes walking back into office and that Okay, I just figured out, like we're gonna have to answer this thing too. It's like okay, oh, but what about okay, so I guess that's store them forever. Okay, write that down. Okay, now we'll get you.
Yeah right, all right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
And we're back.
And the fallout from Trump's financial ruling keeps coming. First, he starts selling the sick Golden sneakers at Sneaker con and now New York is losing two of its most promising and successful entrepreneurs. The guy who made Dilbert and the dumb guy from Shark Tank are both They've both announced if New York's gonna be a dick about it, then they're not. They're not gonna do business in New York.
So this is following the ruling that Trump has to pay three hundred and fifty five million dollars plus interest for lying about his wealth and inflating the value of his assets. Canadian businessman in Shark Tank goon Kevin O'Leary, he told Fox News that he will never invest in New York now because it is a lose, loser state.
Sir, are you vying for a cabinet position too? What's going on? He said?
It was already a loser state like California is a loser state. There are many loser states because of policies, high taxes, and uncompetitive regulations. It was already at the top of the list of loser states. Never invest in New York. And I'm not the only person saying that I love. He really has the trump ism of like people are saying, I'm not the only one.
A lot everybody.
Everybody's saying these people are losers.
The New York is the top of the loser states. So funny, Yes, everybody says they're a loser, also behind your back, and they just don't tell you to your face, but like everyone's saying it.
Also, if there's one thing O'Leary is an expert in, it's being a loser. According to his turn on Celebrity Jeopardy, Yeah he got is that Aaron Rodgers?
Yeah, oh yeah he might.
I think that's Aaron Rodgers at twelve thousand, eight hundred dollars and mister Wonderful at negative two thousand, eight hundred. It's up there with Wolf Blitzer on the list of like Celebrity Jeopardies where you're like, oh, this, this is this paints you in a completely different light than what is portrayed on Televion yeah.
I wonder he like wolf did poorly. I didn't. I didn't catch that one. Oh man, really yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, you got it.
You gotta watch the highlights of that one. That's pretty funn I think he's also it's him, and also the other person is I think Senator Mark Kelly. It looks like, yeah, Aaron Rodgers.
I mean I remember that being like one of the rationales for like why he might be a good host is that he did well in Celebrity Jeopardy. The fact that Aaron Rodgers is at twelve thousand, eight hundred and Senator Mark Kelly is at eight thousand and six hundred.
An astronaut, you know, yeah, and then mister wonderful's ass he owes money. Yeah.
And then Scott Adams of course wrote on Twitter that he's canceling all New York City business trips until the Trump property seizure is reversed. Also, no new businesses with New York entities.
So oh, people were did the public did the publishing industry move towns? But we'll see they don't fucking work with him anymore? Oh right, right, right right.
People questioned why he would even be going to New York. He defensively said, everyone in my line of work has regular NYC trips, But since his strip was dropped by its distributor after he went on a bunch of racist tirades, his line of work these days seems to be making YouTube videos and solicitening crowd funding money with cartooning lessons and a new I guess there's a new like red band trailer version of Dilbert that you can get a version of Dilbert Spicy Dilbert.
Oh my gosh, you know.
I yeah. I got my start here in New York in public radio and worked, you know, for WMC. And like this story of like people claiming to leave New York and take their business elsewhere. I mean, it's like the oldest story in the book. And I mean it often plays out with like New Jersey and New York and New Jersey cutting its taxes to try and lower businesses away, and you know, it's occasionally happened, but it just it does not happen. People do not follow up
on this. I mean, I think for the obvious reasons, but it's like this is the cultural capital, this is
the human capital. Like people do not realize that, like this is where the people who actually you will need to populate a lot of your businesses are And I just like, I don't know how what game people think they're playing when time and time again, you know, even like you know, post pandemic, this whole story about office occupancy being a huge problem in New York, it's like bouncing back in the last six months in a way that people didn't really you know, it is starting to
bounce back. I just I just think people don't realize that they're never going to win by like playing this game with New York City.
Well yeah, and also just having like the least principled boycott ever to be like, and I'm standing on like this is this is this is a very like highly moral ground. These are this is why I'm saying we shouldn't do it, Like because even truckers were also getting in on this too. They started grumbling about how they could bring New York City to its knees over this shit by boycotting the city.
One trucker on TikTok. Maybe. I mean there's a media element here too, right that it's like, yeah, we put a spotlight on these people and they're grumbling, and then we don't actually follow up on their actual.
Because yeah, there's this guy like you're referencing Chicago Ray on TikTok and he said, I've been on the radio talking to drivers for about the past hour, and I've talked to about ten drivers.
Uh huh.
And he said, I don't know how far across the country this is or how many truckers are going to start denying loads going to New York City, but I'll tell you what. You fuck around and find out. And two days later he took the video down and folded like Origami, and then he said, quote, just to be clear, I'm no figurehead of any movement. I'm not leading, nor have I encouraged or am I encouraging anyone to do anything other than what they were doing prior to their
ruling Friday in New York City. And they also mentioned that his grandson saw his shit go viral on TikTok, and I think presumably maybe didn't want to embarrass him any further, because it's probably bad enough that his grandpa goes by Chicago Ray. Other truckers just out of like they immediately dismissed this boycott. They're like, dude, I haven't heard a single thing about anything being close to an
organized boycott or strike or whatever. And it seems to be like there is organic anger over New York City from truckers, but that seems to stem from the fact that a lot of trucks, like truckers are now made to pay tolls in the city, and they're more like that would probably be a bigger reason where you'd see something organized from truckers, not because they're all like, it's not fair that the guy who did fraud and hasn't denied that it was fraud. He just said that he
has a right to do it. I don't like that they're enforcing the law against this person.
Still, I mean, that's a pretty big statement coming from I mean that that's the he covered Chicago territory for all the rays.
Yeah, I mean he is Chicago Ray.
He's the ray for all.
Of What does New York Ray have to say?
Oh?
I know exactly was that was what.
It was on my mind. But maybe maybe.
They famous ray versus Chicago Ray.
There's so many rays in New York claiming supremacy over one another. The first famous rays fa.
I think there's a there's a pizza shop I've seen called like original Famous Rays. Yeah, just like and you know, you look at that sign and you're like, there was just like thirty years worth of backstory, collection of words.
The original not like those busters over one block up. I think they're like a dozen that claimed to be the original Famous Rays. But yeah, god, the ray Wars of the nineteen seventies or whenever the fuck that happened, that would be amazing. Famous Rays. I don't know what they're famous for. I don't think it's their pizza, because that is probably I'd say, like Famous Rays is the most mediocre of the New York pizzas, Like it's it's good because like it's.
Which what are you thinking about?
I'm thinking of the one on like in the thirties on the East Side. That was the one that was like close to my the apartment of like that I spent most time at at that time. So and it was not good. But yeah, it's also highly variable too, which not great for a pizza chain. All right, should we talk measles huge comeback with a with a possible exception of justin Timberlake's album, The worst comeback of twenty
twenty four has been measles. Right now, there's a measles outbreak at a South Florida elementary school.
Uh oh, miles, have you been thinking why am I on trial? Well? Have you been hanging out at any elementary?
This is where that this is where a court order actually really is saving your butt.
Here.
The World Health Organization just warned that last year's measles cases saw a seventy nine percent increase from twenty twenty two, which is pretty bad for a disease that was declared eliminated from the US in the year two thousand. The big problem here, of course, is that vaccination rates are falling.
In twenty twenty one twenty two school year, an estimated ninety three percent of the country's four million kindergarten children had recorded getting their recommended vaccines for guarding against measles, tetanus, polio, and arrisella. That which might not sound bad, but that number was down from ninety four percent the previous year
ninety five percent the year before that. It also means that nearly two hundred and fifty thousand kindergarteners are potentially not protected against measles, which.
I think you mean two hundred and fifty thousand kindergarteners are are now open for natural immunity.
Yeah, exactly to be naturally immunized.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've been immunized. That's what That's what my kindergartner asked when I said, wait, did we get you your vaccine? Yeah, that I've been immunized.
Yeah, I remember those three weeks of school you missed you were getting.
But yeah, like any vaccines, you know, it's not one. So you need large vaccination numbers to act as a firewall to keep it from spreading. And we are trending
in the wrong direction. There have been reports and measles outbreaks in recent years prior to the pandemic, like the one in Disneyland, but following the COVID shit show, things seem to be getting worse thanks to what they're calling spillover a hesitancy, which is, you know, fear of the COVID vaccine causing people to avoid other vaccines.
So there's a dynamic here that obviously played out during COVID, but like there's a distinction between vaccine skepticism, which I think is you know, worth interrogating, and it's pretty it's pretty awful as well. But then also this downplaying of the disease itself. And I mean that's one of the you know, many things in the around COVID that just made so thishearts like people were twisting themselves into logic to then just say like, oh, actually, you're not that sick.
And I think that's starting to happen here too, where people will be like, oh, measles is not that bad. It's not just I'm skeptical vaccines for all these reasons that I've deluded myself. But it's more of that next logical step is than to say that these diseases aren't bad.
Yeah, it's natural. It's from the earth. Man. What's more natural than measles?
It's measles, don't the black plague?
Yeah?
Yeah?
The I mean, so there are a lot of people actively doing what you're describing, downplaying the severity of measles, like the president of the Children's Health Defense, which sounds great name, sounds like a name that like ten years ago, I'd be like, sign me up Children's Health Defense, But now, like, knowing what we know, I'm like, this was founded by RFK Junior, wasn't it? And guess what it was? She said,
it's not a super severe, serious illness. When you're a child, it's a couple of days in spots and then you move on, and kids love spots, like Mike loves Polka dots. She didn't say that last part, but like that's basically trying to make it into like a fun a fun thing, yeah,
that you know, we shouldn't be too worried about. Unfortunately, there is a type of thing called a wellness influencer, and they've been promoting the idea of measles parties to expose kids and just like get it over with, which is a very dangerous relic of the past that largely ended with the availability of vaccines and now is coming back because.
Do you know what's in the vaccine? Can? Because then yeah, no further questions, your answer. Do you know what's in your diet cream? Soda? You're drinking right now?
Found com and soda, No further question.
I mean, you're on your questions, you answer your question. But yeah, I mean it's just like it's so wild too, because like every time, like the so all of this started because of that fucking stupid debunked medical journal post about the guy who is trying to link the MMR vaccine to autism, and every journal who published it had to retract it. They had to be like, this guy's
a fucking fraud. And it was exposed that he only started doing this for his own personal gain because he had a financial stake in an alternative MMR vaccine, and that was like his way to be like, oh man, this will get that. This is the best, this is the best marketing ever. And now look at where we are. And yeah, you have people constantly being like I just don't know. Like I know people who've said to me like I just don't know, like what will happen if
I take the COVID vaccine or whatever. I'm like, what are the possibilities that you've heard of? And it's like, well, I just don't know.
You just don't know. I can't predict the future. It's just like Okay, yeah, no, that I guess that's true. And you know how that we can do to argue with that. So you know how you'll react if you have COVID? Do you know know absolutely for certain that there's a one hundred percent chance that I won't have
a bad reaction to this vaccine. It's like, you know or have the numbers where here's the percentage chance that you'll have a bad reaction with the vaccine, and then here's the percentage chants that without it you're going to get a serious case of COVID that will kill you.
And then one other question, just as I weigh my options, but like, what are you know at the measles party? Like what are the snacks?
Right? They are used lollipops. They're lollipops that you comes in, lick a lolly, leave it at the door. Then you reach in a bag, take one out, like it, put it back in, and we do that about for about five rounds, and then we're okay.
New York I measles outbreak in twenty nineteen I think it was, and the measles parties thing came up, and I just found our is written around that period where just my heart goes out to the reporter who has to write an article headlined, Yeah, why measles parties are a bad idea for parents? Yes, And they have to call up like a very credential person from the CDC
and ask them should you have measles parties? And then they're like doctor from the CDC has to give a quote saying you should not have measos parties because quote, vaccines are very effective. Right, yeah, you have to write up this whole article, but yeah, you shouldn't have a measless party.
Yeah, then they have to like write a first person account.
Yeah.
The clink of the glasses and hum of children chattering with one another.
Set the scene here. You want to go gonzo on this, I think I need you to go hunder s Thompson on this one.
And then our junior himself, of course then a major source of measles misinformation. He once claimed that chicken soup was more effective than the vaccine. There, he is your presidential candidate. Everybody are FK Junior?
Yeah yeah.
The people on the right are arguing, of course that mules vaccine, not really talking about the musles vaccine so much as just blaming any outbreaks on migrants being allowed into the country by Joe Biden.
And yeah, yeah, yeah yeah so but I also just like how there was like in back, like when there was an outbreak at like an immigration detention center, what a euphemistic name for that facility like that, They're like, oh, man, like it's because of the migrants in there. We're getting all this, we're getting like all this outbreak happened, and it's because a lot of the staff. There were plenty many staff members that refused to get vaccinated anyway, just
a snaky in its own tail at this point. But hey, it's Joe Biden. I wonder if they have the what else they can blame on? I guess they there. Really, there's no there's no end to what conservatives will blame migrants for, like anything. No, Like yeah, like Taylor Swift is popular because of migrants. They're actually the ones playing her songs, and that's why she's so popular, and actually migrants are responsible for you know whatever, whatever the outrage your is.
Yeah, all right, well, Jody, it has been a pleasure having you as always on the daily Zeitgeist.
Where can people find you?
In fully, well, it is always a pleasure to come on. I really am in awe and you've set the bar. You set the bar at the beginning of this show for the amount of singing, so I just expect every time I'm on whether it'd be more and more.
I don't know.
People can find me, you know you you thank you for saying all my credentials at the top there, but I don't know. I'm still making The Puzzler. That's very fun. People should go check out The Puzzler. It's a daily puzzle podcast hosted by A. J. Jacobs. I think he's been on. Yeah, I think it was on with do you guys. I think we're gonna try and get you guys on the Puzzler sometime soon. So you know, it's very fun. So people should keep saying that.
You know, I'll be pave it when I'm on, but you know, I guess we'll see. Yeah, we actually get that.
You know great.
Is there a work in media that you've been enjoying?
Oh, you know I ripped through that that Hulu FX series about Truman Capoti. I don't know if you saw that Capo the Swans. The Swans, Yeah, like I yeah, just this past week basically I watched like One a night and got through the whole first season and it was great. It's like very dishy and easy to watch and just like an incredible lineup of actresses and actors.
And then it's directed by Gus Van Sant, who's the name I haven't heard in a while, and so that yeah, yeah, it's like it's like kind of beautiful and interestingly directed, So I don't know. It was very fun to watch Amazing Miles.
Where can people find you? What's working media you've been enjoying at Miles of Gray, at the app based platforms, Find Jack and I on the basketball play Yes Miles and Jock boosties, and if you'd like Nady day fiance, catch me on four to twenty day fiance. A tweet I like it's a quote tweet by at Obra de Arte. I think is what that handle is. The first is just a highlighted I think part of a Wikipedia article. It says William Shakespeare wore hoop earrings in his spare time.
At that time, it was customary for poets and religious people to walk with hoop earrings in their ears. And a heart Day tweeted he was Latina with the big ass hoops. That's great, very good.
You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. A couple of tweets I've been enjoying America's lounge singer at kranng T Nelson tweeted, one of life's little joys is when you don't watch a show because you don't feel like it, and then when the season is over, everyone agrees that it sucked. Yes, I was right to not watch that show. I chose not to because I am wise, and that's just a feeling that I identify with.
Like, yeah, exactly exactly. I knew you were gonna hate the ending, and that's why I didn't watch it.
And then Mike f At Deputy Warlock tweeted, when people get food poisoning, they always tell you it came out of both ends. There's no need to malign the ass in that scenario. The food was going to come out of there regardless of whether it was poisonous.
Leave the ass alone. Okay, yes, that's right.
You can find us on Twitter at daily Zeikeeist. We're at the Daily Zeichist on Instagram, we have a Facebook fan page and a website, Daily zeitgeist dot com, where we post our episodes and our footnotes where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Miles Wethong, do we think people might enjoy it?
I mean we were just talking about vinyl and just classic vinyl sounds, and I just think of break dancing and DJ yes, yes, the vanility of it all and this one the poets of rhythm. This track is called Augusta Ga and it's just one of those seminal b boy breaker tracks. Got a great drum break in it and look, you know, sound cool at your next party by saying like, oh, this is the phot's a rhythm, Well goes to Georgia. Yeah it is, so check it out.
Yeah bitch it is duh. Anyways, you can find that song in the footnotes. The Daily Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That is gonna do it for us this morning, back this afternoon to tell you what tis trending and we will talk to you all then Bye.
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