No, it's the one between two Eyes on Me to me against the world, against the world. There it is. Was that ninety four? I feel like that was like ninety four was right before. No, It's like that shit came out right before all Eyes on Me. That's when people were like, is this guy okay? It was ninety five or something or March ninety five. Yeah, yeah, And by then I had a shitty enough little mustache that I was able to buy that album. One Tupac, Sir,
one Tupac for me? Would you like one as well? Brian?
Oh, yes, two PACs of me and my pal, my college roommate over here. This is my colleague in my colleague would like two tupacs four pops if you will.
It's a joke we make down at the market. Dose. I'd rather do tupac. Yes, that's French. We're world travelers. Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three, thirty nine, Episode three of der Daily's Like I Say production of I Heart Radio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness. And it is Wednesday, May twenty second, twenty twenty four.
Guess what for all the people who wanted to burn sometime on that computer lab computer library computer. It's National Solitaire Day and the image seems to be like the Windows stock version of Solitaire, which shout out to like the tropical fish cards.
I feel like I always like to do the card on that mode anyway.
It's also Emergency Medical Services for Children Day, National Vanilla Pudding Day, National Bio Musical Instrument Day, in National Merit Time Day, shout out to boats.
And shit, shout out the boats and sit. Yeah, do they have like an update to the Solitaire game? People playing more high tech like three D graphics Solitaire. I don't know, you see the flip of the card man? I don't Yeah, would you would? I? I don't know.
Yeah, it's I feel like they do. They do nominal upgrades to it.
But I haven't been like on a PC and then been like I'm gonna play Solitaire in maybe ten years. So most Solitaire ever played work in the front desk at a health club, like a fitness club. Just yeah, Solitaire for.
Days, because it was like for a while, like that was just like the one way you could get away with doing some other shit like at a job or something. Like you got a computer and You're like, do you either have ski free Solitaire or Mine Sweeper or that kind.
Of shit, and you would just Mine Sweeper a Solitaire, And then I was like, man, this is rough. Anyways, my name's Jack O'Brien aka every pass you take and every move you make, every time you take masturbation breaks your car watches as you. Oh, can't you see your car smells your d I don't know. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how they're doing how they know about our sexual activity. That one is courtesy of Macaroni on the discord. Yeah, our cars know
about our sexual activity. I'm coming up with my best guess on that one. That that was an addition for me that I I think it must be smelling smelling you to be like, oh yeah this guy. Oh, it's like I just if the seats like I gave you, if the seats can air conditioned, then I guess it could reverse the function and a cool air they can probably inhale some too. Yeah, well some musty air. Glad
Glad my car doesn't have that feature on it. I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host, mister Miles Gray Miles Gray here.
Akay, look it's a showgun win Noogun the Lord of Lancersham currently watching Gojira Godzilla minus one. I've watched it two and a half times now.
Right now, well we're watching it right now. Bro. Wow that she came out of nowhere again. I'm sorry every time, every every single God anyway, I'm distracted, I'm distracted. But anyway, yes, thank you for having me. I'm i am here, I am hey man anytime, not watching God's uh myles. We are thrilled to be joined in our third seat once again, been way too long by a brilliant and talented political strategy of storyteller artist who writes and has performed her
poetry on stages everywhere, including the White House. Please welcome test I'm.
I'm excited for that.
Good to have you, good to have you.
To be clear that way, it wasn't like this White House. It wasn't the last White House. It was like Obama's White.
House, you know, yeah, yeah, it was Obama was white yeah yeaheah, it was. It was Trump, right, big Trump, big Trump then yeah, and he in turn big fan of poetry, so it makes sense, my Muslim poet yeah, yeah, yeah, I love invite my favorite Muslim poet Lauriates to the elector. And now has I met his movie? The biopic is getting getting some heat over in con Yeah, that's like a big movie.
Wait, there's a Trump biopigrum.
Yeah, with Jeremy Strong playing what's his name? Yeah, and then Jeremy Strong playing Trump, Jeremy Strong playing Trump's like mentor, although that would be kind of surreal to see the Jeremy Strong version like just you know him being uh, you know, succession boy. Then just saying like yeah that's Donald Trump. That's fine, we'll run with that. I'd rock with that. And then like, what isn't it one of the guys who is like producing it is like a
huge Trump don't owner? And now he's like trying to threaten it by being like, I didn't know you were going to make that kind of movie is going to be like a glowing portrait. It's like, what the fuck? Yeah? Dan Snyder furious about it, it says billionaire Trump daughter Dan Snyder reportedly furious after watching Trump film he funded tried to block its release. That's wonderful, is that? Dan Snyder, who used to watch footballers yeah, yeah, wow, amazing.
Who would have thought someone who was resisting the name change of the most racist one of those racist team names.
Ever, it was like, I think we're gonna want to keep it. Yeah, I think let's keep let's keep that. Man. My goodness, what's new with you anything.
I have a poetry book that just came out at this planet, just to believe.
Grasping at this planet, just to believe. Ah, hover looks beautiful.
Thanks. We've been writing poetry for a long time, kind of like on the side of everything I do in my life. And this one is a collection of poems I wrote over the course of Ramadan, which is the holy month for Muslims, and so I would write poems every day. I had a group. We had like a group of seventy people. Oh wow, And this is a collection of poems written over ten years, which I'm really excited about. I'm excited to have it out in the world.
Wait, seventy people writing poems together, poetry to Yeah, that's cool.
The book is the book is just my poems. But we had seventy people writing daily poems.
Yeah. I know a lot of writers who are Because Hollywood has stopped employing writers since the strike. Basically, I know a lot of writers who are like getting into writers' groups and stuff like that.
Oh my god, it's the only way I can write. I have a writer's group I meet with, Like, I have a writer's group every day of the week. In ADHD world, is called body doubling, where you need to see another body working so that you can be inspired to work.
Oh shit, yeah that say that again. I'm just yeah, I'm really coming to terms with the fact that like I don't, like, I really have bad add that I'm this is.
It's why, like the only projects I've been able to get off the ground are ones where I have like someone that I've like been working on it with.
Yeah, Like I'm co host. We do a show every day. Oh my god, Jack, this is this is But every time I don't record, every time I don't record the show, I don't I don't bathe I could barely eat. I track everything, and then I'm right back into it when I'm like, oh, Jack's eating too, Okay, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. Yeah, yeah, I have a real
uh what's that? What's that show with Adam Scott Severance? Yeah, I have a real severance thing where I just come to and I'm recording this show and then when I don't go away and don't remember anything, and they're like, how was work, And You're like, I think, think good good, Yeah, let.
Me press play and find out.
Shit. Well, congratulations on the book. We're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we are going to tell the listeners a couple of things we're talking about today. We have an update, So Red Lobster did officially file for bankruptcy. The New York Times wrote a very like poetic like sort of oh bit for the company. But we have a little bit more on what was going on. It seems like there
was some chickanery happening behind the scenes. You will not be surprised to learn, I think we mentioned this before, but that they were bought by private equity in twenty fourteen. So yeah, the clock just started taking in twenty fourteen. Basically, yeah, we're gonna talk. Scott Johansson has lawyered up because because of open Aye's assistant basically sounding exactly like Scarlett Johansson to the degree that they like did this massive launch and then had to like take it back down. So
we're just going to talk about that. There is president for people like there's a lot of Internet legal experts, which is where I get all my legal advice, of course, Yeah, who are like, you can't copyright a voice, so Sam Altman is fine, leave him alone. The same people who are like, just just mail yourself a copy of your script and it's copywritten. Yeah, exactly, oh is it? But
it turns out that's not the whole truth. We'll talk about Jesse Waters mocking rage rituals on his show and getting owned by guests, just the rhythm of the Jesse Waters show, which is just I'm starting to think he has like a humiliation fetish. But we'll talk about it. Something he's a sad guy, all of that plenty more. But first has we like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history?
Okay, I got on the Bridgerton bandwagon. I googled did banks exist in eighteen thirteen?
BECAUSEY talking about the one sister who's rocking the band.
Yeah, that one sister has like the really long bangs, and I was like, this looks like a ninety, you know, like a twenty twenty bang.
Yeah.
So then I googled, and then then I went down this like rabbit hole of learning about hair during the regency era. Right, So I guess they did have bangs.
Oh they did.
I just I just didn't believe it.
Yeah. Yeah, there are some paintings they're just like, not the famous one, but it was their name? Is it Eloise? Who got the banks?
Well like this that one sister had like really long banks And I was like, because the first one in season one she had that short, weird short like Audrey Hepburn type bangs.
Uh huh yeah Eloise Elois got yeahs yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was like did they have banks?
When did bangs start?
I don't know that's what.
Is that? Something you can google? When did the When did bangs start? I'm looking up portrait de la trie Jean Samari by Renoir. It's a portrait painted in eighteen seventy seven, and she's working with bangs. She looks great banks by the way.
Oh yeah, girls always get banks and they like break up with guys. So I feel like.
Yeah forever, Yeah, I gotta gotta try to bang out. Also there's I mean, well Caesar, right, isn't the Caesar a very banged male haircut in a way. Yeah, like bangs bands the front, that's all. Yeah, yeah, it's a Caesar. All hands on deck to the front of the class. This is this is an interesting page. That's just like ancient ages bangs and it's got some like Egyptian Oh yeah, the Egyptians were rocking bangs fourteen nineties to the fifteen hundreds.
Bangs had a little bit of a moment of course, was rocking bangs, R bangs around totally.
Bang's been around.
Yeah, I like those doo though in my mind also, I'm like the bank It's so funny because looking at that character. I'm watching this new season too, and it feels like it's it's like a it's like a wig bang, you know what I mean, like bangs, like it's part of the hair piece. So like yeah, sometimes it has like different like levels of body to it. And I'm like, mister playing with these fake bangs. And then I was like, is were there is this allowed?
Were I keep googling?
I've been watching this whole season just like well, like the last season there was like an Indian character, so it was like did people from India go to England and I was like, duh, of course we were calling nice by them, so that makes sense right right. I was googling. I don't know if you saw Caught in this last season, there was like a rotating band. The band was rotating in the center of the dance floor. Oh no, you know, like a pedestal. Yeah, And I
was like, how did that happen? Did they do that? I don't know everything every episode I googled something.
Yeah, was there like a little mouse doing like a powering a wheel that was making it rotate?
Yeah, that's what I was wondering. I was like, they didn't have electricity.
Yeah, well, I mean that's the thing where like obviously they take liberties, especially with like race relations. There are some Irish people underground, just like shoveling cold working the fellows, Yeah, exactly. Did you watch Queen Charlotte though, That's like the closest one where they reckon with like the post racial kind of vibes of the show. And I was like, oh, because every yeah, the other ones always Charlotte. Yeah.
I was like googling her. Then I found like all these old pictures of paintings of her and what she was supposed to look like. And apparently she wasn't as gorgeous as they make her out to be in the real in this TV show.
And neither was King George.
No.
Yeah, this whole the whole series. Have been googling a lot.
Realizing like, maybe I'm not watching it for the historical accuracy at all.
Oh this is picture, this is made. I've got it.
Yeah, I love it, love it, love it, love it. What is something you think is underrated?
Okay, underrated for my type of people? I went to bass Pro Shop yesterday.
Oh yeah, shop, I love yo. You nailed it by like I think, not my thing but bass. But yeah, unless that's unless there. Yeah, like you're like, yeah, had to put fifteen's in my in my Honda, you know what I mean, putting a new sound system in there to put some Subwolf first base. I went to bass pro Shop. You know we do it. Okay, So a bass pro shop and what would you say? We're there?
Well, I'm going camping this weekend, so I needed a sleeping bag. But you know you're in there, there's like stuffed bears, there's geese flying, you can there's a whole aisle for beef jerky. Yeah, there's every kind of cooler you what, I don't know. I was really impressed. Yeah, I was impressed.
What got you the most the beef jerky aisle.
The beef jerky isle was very intensive because there was like I didn't realize there was so much equipment involved with jerking beef and you could get a gun with you put seasoning in and shoot your meat.
I don't know, I spent a lot of gun to beef. They also have sleeping bags that come out of a gun. Yeah, they have pillows shoot out of a baska.
A mosquito gun where you like shoot it with a gun. I was like, how are you going to shoot a mosquito.
With a gun? What is it? What comes out of its? Probably the salt one probably right, like the bug blaster that they use for flies, so you know things like this. Yeah, because there's like the one used with flies and you basically fill it up with salt and the little gran granules of salt act is like buckshot to just like blow their wings apart and render them useless or dead. Yeah, it's really cool, really high tech stuff, really high tech stuff.
You've never been to a vast pro shop I've just driven past them on the outside, but they do look like magical places.
Oh you should go, You'll spend hours and hours.
We were just talking about how they like a racist gun collection, like some of the Yeah, yeah, like gun collections.
I was gonna say the first time I went, I was like, oh my god, brown girl going into the store, that I'm going to get like harassed. But you know it was fine.
Yeah, wait where you or are you going? Are you doing a desert camp? Are you doing a forest camp?
We're going to.
San luc on the I think, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I have a group of camping friends, so like we go camping, Like during the pandemic, we were going camping every other month, so I had like have gear.
Yeah what happened You didn't have a sleeping bag already?
Oh I did. I wanted a better one.
Oh so you're leveling up, You're okay, okay, I forget that. Yeah, you weren't using the one with the orange one that had Michael Jordan printed on the front like all the kids had in the nineties.
And I also got it like leveled up in the lantern. I got a headlamp this time.
Yeah, I gotta get a headlamp, huge interchangeable lenses. I think you want to go to red to red lights. So it's yeah, yeah, I.
Got one of those.
Okay, okay, okay, I know i'd see the coyote, but they can't see you. That's sort of So is is beach camping like even colder? That was a question that I had. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my god, so cold. The night is so cold, it's crazy.
We used to do that in high school, go down to Leo Correo Beach and get like because I was like the one place where like as kids were like, yo, you can go down.
As a kid and get so drunk and smoke weed all and no one gives a fuck. And that was my first four ray into beach camping, was being so underprepared, but just to be like, well it's a place to drink alcohol without adults around, so we will camp. That's fun. Yeah, well, good luck with your camping. Good luck? Did you did you make out? Did you come away? Are you the type of shopper who goes in, gets the thing and can get make it out of there without picking up
extra like impulse bies? I bought a bear horn?
What am I going to do with a bear horn?
Corn? Yeah?
I was like, do I buy a bear spray or do I buy a bear horn? I mean I didn't even need I don't even know if there's bears at this camp, I'm probably fine.
Yeah, I don't know about each bear camping, but yeah, why not?
I was the bear.
I'll tell you. They're like, you know, you know what you're gonna need.
No, I have told myself to myself.
Like that. I was like, you, like, an, I got bear spray, No, you need a bear horn? So what that shit is just so loud that it just will put a bear off and they will retreat.
I don't know, I like was stearing at the aisle items for a very long time?
Or is it the other most powerful thing I could imagine where it calls bears to you, like an army of bears.
Oh right, and you're just supposed to play dead, right, Like one of them you're supposed to play dead, the other one you're supposed to run as fast as you can, which I can never tell which one it is, because like black bears and brown bears like kind of like.
I was just about to say, well, I think it's like whichever one starts with a bee is like make yourself big, except they bust start with a bee.
Right.
So yeah, it says if you counter a grizzy, but do not play dead. Stand your ground, don't turn your back and run. Speak firmly. That's what the grizzly. It said, do not play dead with a with a grizzly, stand your ground. Yeah. So just like act, I think you just got to get lookro we're not about to be disseminating bear survival information. We should have doctor ray Wing.
Except out here someone's be Like I was listening to the Daily like guys and they said start playing Kendrick Lamar not like us and seawalk and the bear will turn no again. I was like trying to come up with the new monic. I was like, grizzly bear, give him a scare, but that also works for black bear.
So like I gotta come up with if the bear is black, lie on your back.
There it is okay. These are not right. These are not run around go to town. Wait, aren't you a scout leader? Shouldn't you be kind of known? Like I'm a Scout leader for kindergarteners. Man, they're not gonna remember any of this ship.
No gonna remember. Yeah, if there's a bear there, if you're going.
To remember for the rest of that, they said the only time he said. Playing dead may work if you're being attacked by a mother grizzly defending her cups, but is the wrong thing to do if you're being attacked by predatory bear.
Yeah, I'm sorry. Are you a mother? And are you I'm just trying to get some context as to what this interaction is before I decide what my strategy will be here. Yeah, but if you're if they're hungry, they'd be fine with you just playing dead, well they you, Yeah, yeah, this is nice. Actually, but bear smart dot com in their myths section told me to do this. Bearsmart dot com. Yeah, that was the first one Google served me. Again, I'm not sure if this is even useful, That's what I said.
This is Yeah, this is not bear information we're giving up.
I mean, I'm sure I'll be fine on this camping trip.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all that.
It'll just be like the It'll just be like you know, because like beach campers also have like a vibe too.
I feel like the people who you know, beach camp like it's it's more the humans you want to keep your eye on than like the wildlife.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back, and we're back. That's actually that's the thing, right, the bear versus man thing, where it's like which one should you be more afraid of? Yeah? Yeah.
The question that's being asked of all women right now is like, if you go into the forest, would you rather be stuck with a bear or a man?
A man? Right?
Yeah? Bear?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah? Is it a mother grizzly who wants to protect her cut? Right, because that's actually the situation I want to be in because I'm very lazy and I just want to play that right and then stop, it's not even fair? All right? Uh So, updating the sorry about Red Lobster declaring for bankruptcy. They have officially done it. Wait, what was the overrated again? Amark tripping overrated?
Oh? I didn't do overrated?
Oh, I just wrote San Luis Obispo because you had mentioned that next year overrated for no reason. Oh oh oh oh yeah yeah, I think no, I fucked up, Tess. What is something you think is overrated? Oh?
My god, I want to say democracy interesting. I want to say I'm not democracy itself. I want to say this election cycle and getting these stupid texts from the Democratic Party that are like, time is crunched, don't you want to donate to us? And then I respond with what about the genocide? And then no one responds to my text.
Yeah, they're like, you were asking about democracy and you're like, no, okay, yeah we got another we're asking about the genocide. I got another one that was like have you given up on Joe Biden? You're like, and they just don't give up on me, babe. Yeah, they're still doing that shit where they like, are they're using the this rhetoric. This has happened so many times.
And my mom also has given my number to the Democratic Party, so I also get her spam text and there's always this one that just is.
Not mad, just disappointed. I saw that the time please sign to confirm your support for Joe Byron in twenty twenty four. Oh boy, yeah yeah, so yeah, you know what I mean. You're saying democracy as it is being used rhetorically to tell people like, don't demand more of the incumbent, but what about democracy?
Which is yeah, well, look like I have a twenty five year long career in doing electoral politics. I have been spent my whole life. I've spent my whole life getting out Asian Americans and Muslim Americans and South Asians to vote, and and I like created all this messaging around like you know, we need to go vote so that we can show these people in power that we have power. They need to be held accountable to us.
And I feel like in the past six months that rhetoric has, like the mainstream rhetoric, has just made every reasoning I've ever done in my campaigns kind of fall apart.
And it just.
I haven't been able to work an election cycle this time. I do not have it in me to like re enter this kind of civic engagement world, which is awful to say because you know this that I've been doing this work for twenty five years.
Like I'm so.
So like heartbroken by like how how like democracy has been falling apart in this this time period that I would just rather write poems in the corner of the world instead of like trying to encourage someone to go vote in this in this period.
Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, it's it feels like it many people are like just reaching that point where it in past cycles, like it's been easier to like sort of connect yourself to the stakes and like why it's like why this is important. But it's just like, also you see the cynicism of just like the people in power and how they rule, and you're like, this is so fucked Like we're just we're just talking about democracy like it's some like this myth thing, Like it's not.
I don't see it functioning in any fucking way at all, aside from the fact that there are elections where people vote and they count votes for things. But in terms of the idea of like an electorate also being able to exert any kind of influence over their elected officials that I mean, like just look around. I feel like I see story after story work that is not the case at all.
Yeah, even that what we've heard about like Congress people like people are calling into their Congress members about what's happening in Palestine, and those calls are being deleted by the staffers, Like so we're the people in power aren't ever actually hearing from the electoric.
Because it is. He gets mad at me if people call about that. He gets so stressed out, so we got to delete it so he doesn't do we get more Goza calls today. No, no, everybody, the phone was like ringing all day. It was just it was it was just like telemarketers. You don't keep on keeping on, Senator, Yeah, killing it, killing them, killing them, kill them, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah, no, it's it's yeah. I don't blame you because it's I mean, like the cynicism I feel is at an all time high,
all time high. Yeah.
And just the discourse around even like the mere idea of people wanting to exert, like exercise or use any form of leverage they have to try and get a candidate to do something different is being just met with like just oh, so.
You love Donald Trump? Okay, all right, I didn't really. No, that's very clarifying. I never said that. Glad to hear it, that you love Donald Trump so much. Well, you know it's not going to be any better if he's president. Right, Oh god, yeah you're not. You're completely missing the point the point of democracy. Yeah, it's it's not.
I sit back and I just accept what is put in front of me, Like there is a little bit of back and forth here, although yeah, like when you read the stories.
Even like it sounds like it's not just fucking Biden. It's like there's even senators too who are just completely baring their fucking heads in the sand and being like, oh, I don't know totally these polls are right, I don't know. I can't believe it.
Everyone's so scared to say anything right now. And then now now with all the student protests happening, I don't know, masks are coming off of all of a sudden because students are like practicing their right to protest and their right to speak out on these campuses which they're spending so much money on.
Well, right, it's my right as a senator to say, I think those kids should be killed. Okay, I think exactly they should be deported. Yeah there you go. Oh Jesus, that's a solution. Yeah, yeah, because I don't really I'm not smart, so this whole thing is very inconvenient for me. So yeah, all right, let's felt that one felt that overrated for sure, just a little.
It's just a little overrated.
Yeah, because it's also I'm sorry to go back to this, like even though so many headlines every day, like with Trump, even like with this like latest video he posted where there's like something about a unified Reich like in this like I don't know.
If you guys saw this game.
He didn't see that.
He posted it and like it's it's like a headline from like a World War one thing or whatever. But obviously people are like, look, look what he's trying.
You see what this is? What this guy is gonna do?
This is and all of the emphasis is on how bad Trump is and the idea that no one is saying, well, can Biden do better? Like that that is being completely obs cured and also is being like erased from the conversation. Is so frustrating because it's basically telling everyone in the electorate who has a concern or an issue that they they want addressed. It's like that actually doesn't fucking matter right now, because we just need to focus on how bad this fucking guy is. Okay, and I don't want
to fucking hear it. Okay, I don't want to hear it.
Yeah, And yeah, that's just how do you how do you look at that as a system and be like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this works, this is good. This this will help. Thanks for good is the solution? Yeah right, all right, shall we get to the endless shrimp I think big news
in the world of endless shrimp deals from Red Rodder. Yeah. So, now it does tie back to kind of a ongoing theme here, which is when when there's like a an institution in the world of like consumerism, commerce and it just like kind of dies even though it seems like it's been doing basically the same thing that it's always been doing. Toys r Us is an example from the past.
Jay Crew is an example from the past. KB Toy, like all the toy stores, all any company that was like, yeah, they were good at that very specific thing and like seemed to be growing and growing, and then they just like went away. It's usually because a private equity company came in bought them or like became a major investor
in them. And these private equity companies, which if they were acknowledged as like the massive companies that they are, like they you know, they're like a bunch of shell companies, like embedded with within one another because they don't want people to know how massive they are. But if people knew how massive they are, they're like the third and fourth biggest companies. Some of them are like the third and fourth biggest companies in America, like behind Amazon and Apple.
Like they're these massive companies that operate essentially as a parasite. They like get you to commit to them with money, and then they insinuate themselves into the bloodstream of your business in a way that benefits them and literally kills the host and like then they move on. It's they got the blood. It's this massive, like clearly broken part of how capitalism works right now that nobody's doing anything about. And in fact, it like seems like it's like invisible
to the mainstream media. And like this red Lobster story is a great example, Like it hit and everyone's like out of business because they fucking did too many stream Yeah yeah, there's so many jokes and fun headlines about I mean we did some thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think but even then, when we saw that, we were immediately like private equity. I think in the middle of her like, hold on, let's just google red Lobster private equity, and we did, and we're like, oh, that's
what the fuck it is. And then we're like Okay, soon enough, they'll.
File for bankruptcy and cut to now they have, and so the private equity aspect of it, the company, Golden Gate Capital basically did what all private equity firms do
when they buy a brand. They start liquidating assets and trying to get as much money out of the company as they can cash out of the company as possible and drink all their blood because fuck longevity and like so, when a company like Red Lobster owns the real estate that the restaurants operate on, you have less to worry about when times are lean because you don't have to worry about like paying rent, because that's not part of your operating costs. And that's what makes these private equity
firms so dangerous. They see that, like, the only valuable asset a company like Red Lobster has is the real estate. So Golden Gate Capital sold the real estate to help fucking fund the purchase.
Of the company.
Yeah, and then did a lease back where now they're like, all right, Red Lobsters, you got to start paying money back to the new people that own the real estate because we sold it for money for us. This is a critic of private equity. I lean apple Bomb put it this way, quote. Once they sell the real estate, then the private equity company is golden and they've made their money back and probably more than what they've paid.
The retail apocalypse is all about having your real estate sold out from under you so that you have to pay the rent in good times and in bad And so once they got their real estate money, Golden Gate sold about a quarter of the company to a Thai seafood company, Tai Union, who is now operating the restaurants and is now basically holding the bag because they're like, oh,
this shit is this shit does not work at all. Yeah, And like we're saying, most headlines you're gonna read about this bankruptcy don't mention private equity at all, like in the headline, and why would they, because like you go to Fortune dot com and it's just like, oh, what went wrong with red Lobster And it's like there's not even a fucking mention of it. Some articles do explicitly mentioned private equity, but not as basically saying like it's
all because of this is how private equity operates. Like they were purchased by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital, and the story isn't Oops, we sold too much cheap shrimp.
It's oops.
Private equity is fucking hollowing out companies and greed and chaos and the markets and sue because of their greed and.
A jingle Quick starts. Boston Market is also in a similar situation due to private equity. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they've been private equitied up to the gills. There is like a story where the shrimp company that like owned Red Lobster was then like basically selling, basically committing to these massive orders of shrimp so that they could like pay themselves essentially, like they were kind of double dealing.
But again, it like everything, all the laws of like the basic laws of like supply and demand and like markets just stops functioning when like private equity gets involved because private equity is they pretend like they're an owner, but they're actually just a parasite that is just trying to drain the company of like all money, and they
don't care if it dies. It doesn't matter to them if it dies because they're invisible, So they just get all the money and fuck off to the next company that they're gonna put out business.
I mean, I really I feel like this should be illegal. But then it's like what you said, it's private because we have all this protection around what we have protections around monopolies, we have protection around they're trying to like get TikTok banned in the US because they you know, we have all these other laws protecting businesses. I don't understand how they were. They're literally able to sell the land underneath the underneath the store out under them well.
Because it's like, well, we own the company, so now we own the real estate, and now we can do whatever we want. And now our business model is so backwards that we don't care about operating costs because we already made our money selling the fucking real estate. And who gives a fucking freend lobster eyes or whatever, or the people who work there don't have a fucking job anymore, and like, yeah, I mean it is difficult because like
they're really fucked up versions of the story. Like when you're talking to a lawyer at the DOJ who does was specifically working in like private equity cases is stuff when it like relates to things like healthcare, like you know, fucking retirement homes and things like that and elder care, where these companies just go like, well, we found a way to run this business very lean and make a
profit for ourselves. And now a retirement or elder care center is not running like above board at all or like just has you know, barely enough staff, barely enough equipment. And then when people tragically die, people like the victims are the victims or the families of the victims have no legal recourse because the way these are structured. They
go and they're like, well, who actually owns this? I mean it's private equity, but the way we're structured is we represent a consortium of investors as like a fund, so it's there's really like and that's how they get away with like this really fucking heinous stuff.
Yeah.
One thing though, is that it did like Slate dot com like they they they acknowledge like the private equity part, but they also did a thing about like people who worked at Red Lobster. We're talking about how bad the endless Shrimp thing was, Like how people would get fucking wild over the endless shrimp and they're like, look, man, I got literally have a lot of fucking table, Like
you can't get a to go box. That's the fine print of this, right or people, Like they said, one person would stay like for hours and like nap at the table in between, like heaping servings of shrimp scampy o pasta can't make me leave. That's not it. No, where's that in your fine print? Asshole?
Yeah yeah, but you know all these like Asian buffets do it, like yeah, the people go and eat the shrimp and all those and they're able to survive because they're they own themselves.
Right yeah, and they're like, well, we know how to run a business and it's not to be like let's make this sell Yeah. Yeah, let's make this as difficult for ourselves as possible in terms of operating. Yeah.
But yeah, another one bites the dust. And I didn't realize one thing with Boston Market. The thing that's really kind of fucked them over. I completely didn't realize is they basically gave the rest of like the food service world the idea to be selling like delicious rotisserie chickens. Oh really that's when Yeah, that's when Costco was like I see, and then everyone was like, yeah.
Man, just get your Costco chicken. Like like, Boston Market just didn't have a way to, you know, to compete after that, not that that was like the only thing, but that was like a huge Do you guys have Kenny Rogers roasters? I think I lived in Kentucky maybe at that stage, like early nineties, there was this there that was like the first rotissery chicken I ever saw was Kenny like a Kenny Rogers owned chain of like
rotisserie chickens, and that shit was so good. It was like yeah, And then I remember Boston Market coming along Boston Chicken I think it was called back then, yeah, Boston Chicken. But yeah, I feel like I was at the early adopting edge of rochessery chicken. Back then, they only had one Kenny Rogers I remember in the Valley was in Burbank, and I just never I was like, I never, Like I didn't even know who Kenny Rogers was at the time. I was like, what the fuck
is this? And then I then I saw the Seinfeld episode and I was like, I think it makes you lose your mind. So maybe not. Yeah, this ship was founded in ninety one, early days. Kenny Rogers roaster. Yeah, God damn, you gotta know one to hold him and no one to pull That's right, man, all right, let's uh, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about open Ai, the other scam of our lifetime,
and we're back. We're back. And so we talked about how chat gbt's new assistant was being sold on being flirty, like that was what they talked about at first. They were like, yeah, it's like kind of flirty and fun and like we'll just it'll be like having a real assistant. And then came out and people were like, this sounds like Scarlett Johansson's And then fucking Sam All just tweeted the word her like he has like a liar, liar curse or something. He just like couldn't help himself. He
was like her, Yes, it's her. And so now the story continues to evolve the net now they're basically getting in trouble for it. Yeah, I think. So.
Scarlett Johansson released a statement and it basically outlines kind of like what her interactions were with Sam Altman and open Ai, and she says that Altman first reached out to her in September about potentially voicing Sky because he believed it would quote breache the gap between tech companies and creatives and something about her voice being like a comfort to users, like that would just kind of help people transition into this apocalyptic technology or they want you
to believe it's apocalyptic. Anyway, So she declined. She was like, yeah, let me think about that.
It's a no for me. Dog, she was like. And then so I worked on the film, so I actually had to watch it all the way to the end, so I know what happened in the movie. It was hers like thirty minutes, which is apparently all that you've seen, right, Yeah, and I don't want to tell a user that I'm also having simultaneous conversations with eight thousand other people or whatever. That line was in the look that was dope. But
then so she did so she declined. And then two days before the chat GPT demo came out, with the sky demo came out, Altman reached out again, asking her
to please reconsider. Two days before yeah, yeah, exactly, just someone probably reminded him, like, a you may want to fucking circle back with scarlet Man because anyway, Yeah, he had his AI legal team, akay, just a real legal team look through his interactions and they were like, we're fucked here, Sam, You asked her, dude, yeah, there's like a paper trail, and before she could say fuck off, dweeb, the company went ahead and released the demo.
And despite the fact that like you said this, motherfucker literally tweeted her h e er that when the demo was released, he just said, this is a bad mix up quote. We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice. Sky's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson, but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. We cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before.
Any outreach to mister whitt Wow. Out of respect for her, we have.
Out of respect for her, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products. We are sorry to miss jo Hansson that we didn't communicate better.
That is real.
Do they really think she wasn't going to lawyer up?
Like?
How did they not think that?
I don't. I think it speaks to an arrogance of these people generally that like even when they they think that, like they don't realize how eerie their technology is, and like Scarlet, like we really think like you can help usher, Like they're like, dude, no, so we'll reach out Scarlett. She'll be like, yeah, oh my god, it's so cool. Would love to be involved. And yeah, there wasn't just a massive strike of writers and actors that were all about being like yo fuck ai. Yeah, so we want
to ask her to be her mmm okay. But basically it seemed that like once her lawyers she lawyered up when she saw this, and once her lawyers asked their like, we'd like a step by step explanation as to how the voice of Sky was even made open air. I was like, it's all good man, taking it down. It's actually cool. We actually don't need to give you that because we're gonna take it down because we're like, we just the thing we hate is a miscommunication. So that's
why we're taking it down. It has nothing to do with like how we came about that and whether we had microphones placed around her house to hear how she says various or just feted a bunch of movies right and trained it on like a bunch of lines of dialogue or whatever. And that's the thing.
It's like, because these companies are already facing huge lawsuits from like news outlets and other like writers and things, because these models are trained on other people's fucking work. So I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think that maybe Scarlet's voice may have actually been involved with this, like development of the sky voice. Also fucking Sky Scarlet, like there's.
Just sky is where her character goes at the end of the movie. Okay, I'm just saying, connect the fucking dots smiles or actually her name is Skylight. Oh, it's nothing to do with Scarlet, it's that Wait, god, it just sounds like an Australian person saying Scarlet, shut the fun Scarlet scar Sjanson Skylight jokes dancing. Yeah, that's the
full name of her. It has nothing to do with the movie or that, but yeah, I think what's even wilder, though, is recently Sam Altman gave his interview where he was asked to predict the future in regards to fucking AI and just listen to his answers. He's got some like this guy can like see the future in like new dimensions. I didn't even like, can't even think of that is crazy. Yeah,
so he's being asked by this guy. He's saying, hey, man, so like where do you see, like what jobs do you see becoming like actually in demand because of AI? And this is his very fucking groundbreaking answer.
That's a great question, and I don't think I've evergotten it before. It's people always ask like what job is going to go away? The new one is a more interesting question. Let me think for a second. I mean that there's like a lot of things that I could talk about that I think are sort of less interesting.
Or like such a bullshit try and answer like some.
Theoris of killing time people do or fifty million people do. Get to the answer for the broad category of new kinds of art entertainment sort of more like human to human connection. I don't know what that job title is going.
To be, but I think friendship.
And I don't know if this like we get there in five years, but I think there's going to be a premium on like human in person and like fantastic experiences.
I don't know what we'll call that. Yeah, we'll call that fucking concert events Disneyland going. I think there's going to be like I don't know, like really cool thing like premium on like people like sitting around a table and like consuming food together or something, you know what I mean, Like it's just like really, I don't know, it's like I'm trying to think like one hundred million, fifty million. That's it. Like listen to any like tech
person like that. They're great at They will compliment the ship out of the interviewer, and then they'll also just like throw out massive numbers at various points. I'm not I don't want to like talk about the ones that are going to be like small. I want to talk about the ones one hundred three hundred million out of the way. Yeah.
His answer reminds me of like back in the world of voting, like four years ago or five years ago. That's like election cycle, everyone was talking about relational voting, and all relational voting is is like when one person and talks to their friends about voting and encourages them to vote. But it became as like breakthrough cutting edge for your organizing, right.
I mean, that's that's a really I mean, it's a brilliant page to take out of these grifters in Silicon Valley because there is so many things of just pivoting and describing something that exists in like these new fantastic terms and you're like, oh my god, dude, did you hear what Altman said? Premium in person fantastic ex that's when you're like, dude, you're cooked.
Man, if you're if your brain is boomeranging back to just regular life as you look into your AI future.
H that's that's right, Like, like, how is AI connected? I think that's true. I think people will in the future put more of a premium on being together in person. What the fuck does that have to do with AI whatsoever? Like the AI will make the experience premium. Yeah, yeah, premium in person fantastic experiences where you're like premium and just like so like so so authentic, but like so yeah,
you know, experiential immercy. I want to look like I'm not I'm not even looking at like ten years from now. I'm looking like thirty fifth, like ten centuries from now. Yeah, Okay, And that's and that's what I see right now. People are people are just gonna be yearning for it, you know, and after you know, this will be after the inevitable resource wars and we're trying to figure out when I own all the water, So you'll actually get into whatever the fuck I tell you to be into Yeah, the
uh is? I was just like kind of seeing what they were saying on the open A. I read it and like, first there is one person who just quote tweet. He was like a thing that I think a lot of people are missing, and then like just quoted the thing where he's like, you know, we got a totally different actress who is her own voice, and people are uh huh.
But do we have the audio for the voices?
No. I was trying to find it this morning. Have you been able to find that? Which one like? The Scott Sky's voice sounds like, oh yeah, I mean we think Sky is related to sky Rizzy, by the way, and why, hey dad, why do so many people like sky Rizzy? Why are so many? Why is sky Rizzy so popular? Is a question ts that my six year old asked.
As long as he's not asking you about skibbity again, skimmity toilet, he knows what that is. That was what we talked about last time I was on your show.
Yeah, jesus, let's see. Let me see if we can hear it here. Hey, catcht How are you doing. I'm doing fantastic, Thanks for asking. How about you? Pretty good? What's up? So my friend Barrett here, he's been having trouble. He's got that rap, you know what I mean, rasp to it, you know what I mean? Yeah, And just the overall energy is very similar. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. It's like a combination of her voice and like a little
bit of like Siri mix. Yeah, a little bit hyper, yeah, a little Yeah, it's the her voice on uppers Deck. What if it was like a little more perky, what if it Yeah, yeah, but still got that rasp to let people comforting. Also, a lot of a lot of fake legal experts in the subwriter are like, well, it doesn't matter. You can't copyright a voice. So I just wish Scarla Johans would just shut up and stop being mean to Sam Altman. And what is that even? Based on what logic is copyright a voice? So I don't
know what you're talking about. And somebody was like, actually, Bette Midler successfully sued the Ford Butter Company in nineteen eighty eight because very similar she was approached to sing in an ad for Ford, said no, Ford got an impersonator instead to sing a Bette Midler song in their ad. Gotcha fucking audacity? Amazing? Yeah, Yeah, I keep trying, so we'll see, but it is pretty funny that they are this fucking stupid. And finally, I want to talk about
Jesse Waters. This seems to be the rhythm of his show over and over again, where he like brings somebody on his show, mocks them and immediately gets owned by the guest right or right or he. It's usually usual foxing where they think they've booked someone who is not intelligent, but then actually knows how to speak very well and
just dunks on him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It feels like his show is structured like the toll Booth Willie skit on that Adam Sandler album, where like different people just come in and politely tell him to go fuck himself, and he's just like fuck you with a polite smile. But yeah, in this case, videos of rage rituals in which women go to the woods and smash things or like shout, how.
Have I A is a woman not known about?
Well, you're you're not on TikTok enough, clearly, because that's where they're apply.
This is what I have to do on camping.
Also, it costs two thousand to four thousand dollars these things.
Like I get the catharsis of screaming and getting your frustration on a very physical way. But to charge people two to two grand.
To do that feels Look, yeah, what does the money go? The wellness industry as wild?
But one day option is two hundred and twenty two dollars. What I'm in the wrong industry?
Oh yeah, yeah, seriously, yeah, get off. These writers' groups start doing rage outs with creatives. We go to the woods and we throw rocks into a stream, and it's like three grand, pay me, that's it. But Jessee Waters, you could probably predict his objection, which is like, what are women so angry about? What are they mad at? Are they mad at me? They're probably mad at me? Right, So he dedicated a segment on his show to this trend, asking why are women so mad these days? Gee? How
much time do you have? Asshole? He said, women are very upset. Why mystery? Probably something we did, And then he proceeded to condescendingly interview the self proclaimed which Mia Magic, who runs the retreats. But she was like, Hey, I actually read your shitty book over the week You shouldn't say shitty. She was like, I read your book over the weekend. Man like, so I know you a little bit.
So when he balked at the suggestion that men should be more emotionally available and vulnerable, Magic countered you got a divorce, Jesse. Right, I'm sure you had a couple of nights where you were sad and where you felt lonely. You know, I think that everyone needs to feel comfortable to feel which, yeah, we should just play the quote because he's really being a smug prick, and then just
the chest pass right back. It is like you're divorced, right, Guys, you know you're not saying so you're saying a lot really fast. So we have to write this down. You said listening, holding, listening, nurturing, these things women should expect from men.
Bringing nature, going out into nature, great because nature.
Okay, listening to them, holding them, taking them on walking. This is the first time he's ever heard, am I missing anything?
Asking them what they need for support, asking.
Them for He's like he's taking a fucking order, like someone's bizarre order at the restaurant. Okay, so you want to taking someone to.
Hear your needs? Okay, I never heard that one before. All right, go on, Jesse, Okay, these are this is this is being vulnerable.
Being vulnerable, I think men.
A deal killer. You got divorced, Jesse, Right, I'm sure you had a couple of nights where you were sad and where you felt lonely.
You know, everyone the most vulnerable.
Manual every meet, But we have to go. You're a good wach so weird, we have to go.
Okay, And he said, you're now we gotta go because you're a good witch.
Wow. Yeah, but yeah, it's He's like, I'm I'm the most vulnerable. How do I get me out of this moment as fast as possible? God? You know he fucking like when they like rapped recording, he went to his like fucking dressing room and just like looking in the mirror with like tears in his eyes. Just smile, never bra but just fuckings his veneers cracked through the sheer
tension in his job. You're good, you're smiling. Yeah, man, Me and magic though two to four grand like him always repeating this same ritual like he's got He's probably has like a humiliation thing, right. I feel like he was maybe trying not to like have an orgasm during during that part where she was humiliating him.
Just yeah, Okay, there's so many if you just search Jesse Waters humiliated. It's like there's like so many things, like whether it's like his mom or other guests whoever come on, there's always like something and he's like, ayay, thank you, okay mom, good, good to know.
I wonder what his wife is thinking watching this.
His ex his ex his ex wife, ex wife, that's right, X ex wife. Yeah, I don't know my wife anymore. Oh Jesus dude. Noel Waters. He married her in two thousand and nine, went ten years. Filed for divorce in twenty eighteen, after Waters admitted to an affair with a producer on his show. On his show, yeah damn, Jesse, damn bro have.
Written it better?
Yeah? I mean, should I say to poet, wow, M vulnerable? Yeah, gotta get vulnerable with that, I'm sure.
But you know, like in that instance, do you think he really even perceived that divorce as an l He's like, not, I found a better one, of course, but I liked more than my wife, so I win and she's crying haha.
Jesse undefeated. Like that was when he like doubled down into like his like I'm don draper type of thing right around that time. Yeah, huh interesting. Yeah, oh he ended up marrying this produce. Oh he really did the switch. Wait he admitted to an affair. She admitted to an affair.
No, he admitted that like he had he had the affair, and now he is married to the person that he had the affair with. Oh, like he fully did the Tarzan. He's like, let me grab the next vine and let me let go.
Of the other one. Yeah.
Yeah, well he wrote all about it in his book.
Yeah, in no way a self serving account. In no way self serving, one sided account of what happened there. I'm sure. I mean you know what that book is called How I Saved the World?
By No, it's not, is it really?
Oh my god? Oh boy you And then he has another one, Get It Together, Troubling Tales from the Liberal Fringe? Wow, get it Together? Which is weird? That is like, where's your son?
Yeahs do you think you talked about the divorce on Get It Together? Troubling Tales from the Liberal Fringe or How I Saved the World? Because either one, it's weird, like how I Save the World, I've been cheating on my wife and marrying this associate producer and now having my kids question what their family life is about.
Whatever does matter. I'm we're good here, we're here, We're good, We're good. Well, Taz, what a pleasure having you as always? Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
Well, I'll be in the forest raging and throwing sticks.
And getting lamming a sand dune with a piece of drift.
Yeah, and like bear horning bears.
Now.
Actually, I might have a new podcast coming out soon, so keep your eye out on that. Might do something with Jenny Yang.
Oh you love Jenny Yang.
Very excited about that new project. And you can find me on the Internet's at Tazzi Star spelled like Mazzie Starr but with a te on Instagram and wherever your social media, and you can get my book. Please get my book. It's at Large Press and wherever you get your books.
To tell us that name one.
More grasping at this planet just to believe.
And we will have that link in the footnotes. So yeah, if you're interested in that gang, you will find a way to get it. Just check the footnotes.
Thanks for having me this. I always love coming on this show.
It's always having miles. Where can people find you? Is there a work of media you've been enjoying? What about Taz? Oh?
Yeah and Taz.
Is there a work of media that you've been enjoying?
I mean Bridgerton Obviously, I've been obsessed with Bridgerton's So that is where my head is right now.
How many episodes are out? I feel like, did they put out They did the thing where they put out half the season once and then I.
Basically watched like, I think twelve episodes in the past twenty four hours. I think that's what's happening. Shit, Like I definitely did a big binge.
Maybe it was like two days, but that's not this this season.
You're saying, like no, no, no, I did like season two and season.
Three, got it, got it, got it? Yeah, yea, yeah, Okay, I.
Did a major catch up.
Yes, yes, Miles. Where can people find you as their working media you've been enjoying? Yeah, find me at Miles of Gray on Twitter, Instagram, wherever they got the ad symbol. You can find Jacket on the basketball podcast Miles and Jack got Mad Boosties. We're talking about the NBA playoffs because now we've got our conference finals set up. In finals, the Celtics are cake walk in it. They're sleepwalking into
the finals and that's okay, and that's okay. You can also find me talking ninety milos not and you can also catch me talking ninety four to twenty day fiance with Sophia Alexandra. Don't have a work of social media, but I will say I encourage everybody to watch The Godzilla Minus one if you haven't. It's the again, the way they make it out like a human story despite it being about Godzilla. It's it's it's wild, it's wild,
and I can't stop thinking about it anyway. That's that's it, and that's it from me on that, and that's all I've got to say about about that is Miles. You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien tweet I've been enjoying, Actually it's a TikTok at Trent Underscore Miller Underscore, who is a realtor who does like speed tours of Oh, there's just like sprinting from room to room and pointing at things while having what appears to
be a nervous breakdown. Just a lot of fun. And then I'm also enjoying a tweet from Othilius Maximus who retweeted a video of this Katana becomes engulfed in flames when drawn. It's a video of somebody pulling at Katana out and it like has a bunch of sparks that light it on fire. And Othilius Maximus retweeted that and said, this is the type of shit the Jizza wraps about. Uh yeah for real. Uh. You can find me on
Twitter at Jack Underscore Brian. You can find us on Twitter at daily Zeitgeist where a d Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, Daily Zeigist dot com. We post our episodes and our footnotes or like off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Miles.
Oh well, I'm saying, keep your eyes locked on that Facebook page all.
You never know what can you never know what's gonna pop up? So good anything at all. But we'll see this track. Let's go out on this.
Mike Will made it featuring Little Uzi vert track called blood Moon that came out last year.
I didn't hear it until I saw it like on a on a Twitter clip of Joe Budden acting like a hater and then he's like the beat is actually pretty dope, and he's like, wait, actually this this, this is the way I can I can't help myself. I can't help myself. Music is this is good.
It's making my next snap and it will make yours too in the positive way. So again, blood Moon Michael made it featuring lil Uzi Furt. All right, we will link off to that in the footnotes. That is like as a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio ap Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for us this morning, back this afternoon to tell you what's trending, and we'll touch hell then bye bye,