The thing I haven't sort of gotten a real answer to is like where are all the cars going now? Because like you know, it's traffic much worse on the b QUE or it is like you know, for instance, the b QUE is literally like it can't take any more cars, like if more cars.
Queer Expressway, Yes.
That's what we call it. Well once it passes into Bushwick, you call it that you're bullying.
Is really on point.
I'm advocating for queer people, you know, like there's a lot of queer people in Brooklyn.
It's just so as.
A window now where it can talk New York, no, where you can pretend that you're better than New York. But that wind is going to close pretty soon. But you know, you could get it and.
We can't even open our windows.
It's a lesson I've taken. Yeah, that's a lesson I've taken from the the year so far.
Yeah, we fucking suffered. Get out of the way. Yeah, our city.
Ship right now, Our city's on fire.
Hey I'm bunning over here.
Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three, seventy two, Episode two of Dilly's I Guys Stay production of iHeartRadio. This is the podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness. We do have a YouTube channel. This episode is going up on YouTube. You can go check it out on Friday. It is Wednesday, January twenty second, twenty twenty five. Come on, it's not that date. That date, it's never gonna get here. Come on, Project twenty twenty five.
That's that's the future. The future doesn't exist. My name is Jack O'Brien aka Zei.
Guy's got trend Internet trends. My friends, zeich Guy's got trends, my only friends, the trends.
That one courtesy of less zero on the Discord. Lesson Zero written all cool and hackery. That song by the Doors I don't know, feels appropriate as hell right now, to be.
Honest, Jim Morrison impersonation, by the.
Way, anybody can do it. It turns out that guy couldn't sing for Ship. It's just kind of drunk and uh is just do loose. You can do Elvis too, you don't.
Yeah, Elvis had, Elvis had okay pipe.
You can do Elvis. I'm just like you. I can I can do I can do Elvis, I can do Jim Morrison, I can do Springsteen.
You know, the white guy bloot rotation.
Dream blood rotation. I'm thrilled to be joined in our second seat, our miles seat, by a hilarious stand up comedian, writer, actor, improviser.
It's probably you know, Oh my god, Hi, Hi guys, Hey, hi.
You got the height.
I wanted to go totally different than I normally do.
Just play a character for the entire episode.
Hey why not? You know, welcome to comedy thing. Thing.
That's good too.
We are throwing to be joined probably in our third seat by a podcaster extraordinaire, you know, from this day in esoteric political history. He's also hosted thirty for thirty three ESPN, the five thirty eight politics podcast way back, but that's where I first found out about him, so I'm always.
Gonna break it Trump was elected president.
Way back when Trump had the red and black lumberjack and the hat to match. He's the lead producer on The Puzzler. It's Jody Abergade.
Nice to be Yeah, as always, it's great to have you, Jody, And you post these video episodes two days, three days after they come out, exactly so perfect, exactly of orders, you know, fourteen executive orders later, exactly this.
Way more relevant than that.
I think it's depending on like Trump's attention span and signing his own name, which I feel like is long.
It's like carpal tunnel, Like his hand is cramping up.
What's the tariffs on? Sharp? And it'll slow down? Yeah?
Yeah, Jody, how are you doing?
Uh?
Paul, Jody, you guys picked a good one. If you landed a good one in terms of real you know, the news cycle, my overall level of comfort and ease. Uh, it's gonna be an interesting one. I appreciate you both being here. Jody, we were talking about the old New York v. L A comparisons both you know.
The coastal elites go ahead to you're freaking out a little bit, collecting.
Character syndrome for both cities. We're like, well, that's not That's not an important city. We're an important city.
I do love that. Right now, New Yorkers can't say they hate us because La is La. People are like, we we get so much hate. You'll be like, I'm from LA and people will be like, I hate La. And right now while we're burning, people are like, you guys got heart?
Can I tell you? I am a new Yorker, and I'm one, you know, and I hold this like irrational, like New York is the greatest city in the world.
New York, No I do.
I mean, obviously I do too. I think there are other great cities, but I kind of like, I really indulge in that. And over the last like four or five years, I've known a lot of people have moved to LA. I have become kind of like humored with LA, and but then we're pretty cute. A couple of weeks ago, I decided, just as the New Year was starting, I was like, hating LA is back, and I actually tweeted it. I actually tweeted it, and I was like, the playing ice is over, It's.
Time to start fires.
It was the day before the fires broke out where I like planted a flag. I was like, I'm gonna talk shit about LA. And then the fires broke out the very next.
Day, and even the climate scientists and the fact your bravery that you've stuck with it every single day tweeting something aggressive and mean about LA ever since then admirable.
Yeah, they deserved it. I remember that one. I remember you tweeted they deserved it.
They deserve I'm like putting like refund request to go fund.
The emojis everywhere you know, this one looks suspicious broadly across every goof.
On me saw Jody looting an evacuation zones.
It's crazy she's starting so that the right wing comedians will have something to complain about.
Yeah, New York can't hate on LA What do what do we have?
Exactly?
Literally everything.
Most everything else.
Meanwhile, I've been over here like talking, like the one news story that gives me hope is the congestion pricing. And I'm just like everyone in New York, I'm like, what's it like to be around that?
Like this would be the world with it with and then it's just like this fututure, futuristic Valhalla.
Yes, exactly, law, a single law aimed at improving the lives of citizens with no clear corporate tie. Now where it's like and you have to give us all of your credit card information.
Watered down and delayed by months and months and months. But yes, yeah, yeah, we're.
Going to find out they're killing kittens for it or something later. All right, Jody, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell the listeners a couple of the things we're talking about today.
Where to begin. We'll talk about, you know, just a quick rundown of Trump's executive orders that are getting pushed back in courts and aren't getting pushbacks in courts, And then we do have to talk about the elon musk Nazi salute.
Yeah, you don't have to put a question, you don't have to put a.
Long anti defam. Major League seems to think it was just an awkward gesture.
Of every kind.
Yeah, that's true. We don't want to they don't have the same musk.
There, you go, straight up intentional and aggressive Nazi salute. And we'll talk about why primates, including people peeing groups, all of that plenty more. But first, Jody, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are?
Well, I it's very see everything I say now will be casting this New York versus out. It's very cold here in New York right now, and it snowed recently. But it is like hard for you, Yeah, I know, it's very hard for me.
I went sledding with my daddy covering the city.
Yeah, hush, and there's no cars now because of congestion pricing, so you can just slush your way down the middle of the street. It's really wonderful. But I got I got thinking a lot about the like real feel temperature, because you know, we're getting these forecasts now in New York where it's like it's thirty degrees but it feels like negative five. And you know, I've basically come to the conclusion that, like, why don't we just get the real feel? The real feel is the real should be the real.
Temperature, like it's forty degrees, but it feels like your mother kicked you in the teeth.
And I mean, all I do with temperature is feel it, Like I don't have any other things that I do with temperature. And so I started to just like go down a little rabbit hole of how that temperature gets calculated. And I couldn't really explain it to you, but it is kind of fascinating how the rise of real feel.
And I know it's just a guy in central parts.
I don't know.
I'm comfortable.
A smiley face is on a doctor's little range.
Yeah, yeah, but this is but I genuinely like I would like to propose that we make real feel the temperature, feel the default temperature that we get. I mean, what's the.
Point every measurement? Though? It's like we thought we could get rid of daylight savings. That bitch is still on our ass. You know, we thought we could do like metric measurements that made sense. No, no, and then now it's like what you're feeling isn't really how It's like the weather people are gaslighting us. They're like, no, it doesn't actually, it's not actually what you think it is.
Yeah, we just need to get our We just need to get the pulling in and then we'll know what the temperature is outside that that is really interesting. I've also never heard it referred to so consistently as real feel. It feels like they they're winning some branding war right now. Because I've always called it like the feels like temperature or the wind chill factor, which is real.
It sounds like there's more things than just wind chills, that's right.
Yeah, yeah, I think humidity has something to do with it. You know, did you get enough sleep the night before? Like all those things, kind of going.
Through a wet cold. It's not something that I realized, you know, like a wet like when the air is both humid and really cold. I didn't realize how cold that could feel until I was in Ireland one winter and it like gets there, like they say, it gets inside your closing. You're like, oh, you affable Irish people, and then you feel it. It's like holy shit, it's like inside, It's inside everything I'm wearing right now, there is the British. Yes, and I did say that to
make sure that they liked me over there. Yeah, yeah, Jody, that sounds really uncomfortable. Over here. We're checking the air quality on air now dot gov. And a little feature that I want to shout out the air now dot gov people on is they've built in a little moment of suspense, a little storytelling into the app where you go there and you hit the like where I am, and then it starts at zero at like very clean air, and then it like kind of it needles up to
the bad. It needles up to the bad air quality that you're at, which exactly how bad is this air? How much mesophilioma is this going to?
You're just trying to get you to stay on the app for a second longer yeah.
Yeah, well you know that that app was purchased by a private equity firm two weeks ago, and now they're just trying to extract as much well from it as the.
Same guy who tells them what it feels like in New York is like, you know, their focus group.
So can I ask you, I'm happy to not talk about what's going on in LA and talk about some of your things, like Trump's executive orders. But yes, it does. Is I've heard over and over from folks in LA, like the kind of all that muscle memory of deep COVID is kind of back, and like the masks, the isolation, the sort of like just sort of hyper weird reality. Is it? Is that right?
I mean I think it's reverse you go, Yeah, you were going about to say it's like reverse COVID where you wear your masks outside and take them off inside. Yeah, we were thinking that too. I think it really depends because there's some parts of the city where people are just acting totally normal because it's such a big city. And also I think people are still tired from taking all those precautions in COVID. But in my mind, I'm going a little COVID crazy I'm like, when do you like,
what about my dogs? Like I can't mask them, Like like what's the air quality? Like I went to a kid's birthday party yesterday and everybody was unmasked and me and my boyfriend were masked because we were like, well the air quality, it says it's not great. But also is that just what LA normally is?
Like borderline choices are back exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
But then also I feel like it's not as isolated because people are able to be around each other and like help each other. There's a lot of mutual aid going on. There's still shows going on to like raise money and stuff, so it is different.
Yeah, the thing you're afraid of is not other people, it's the air. So that's kind of.
The paranoia is like when do I unpack my stuff? Because like I unpacked my stuff and then it was like the winds are coming back and the fire weather is back, and then you're like, a fuck, am I gonna catch it? The fire? Like you know, So there's that for sure.
Our important documents now live in a bag by the door, and.
Yeah, I have a going to be You have a goat tub.
I have a go tub. It's go tub. All right, Jody, what is something do you think is underrated?
Uh? Well, my underrated it relates to something I've been noodling with lately, and I'm curious for.
This electric guitar.
My underrated is drinking.
Uh huh.
So I've been thinking the cold No, it's it's related a little too It's related a little too dry January going on all around. And then you know, the Surgeon General recently issued that the sort of warnings on alcohol and basically so like no drinking it's good for you, and or any drinking is bad for you. And then just in general this you know, these kind of stats and just this cultural thing that we all see. I like,
drinking has diminished considerably, especially among young people. And I've been thinking of the last couple of weeks about that trend. And on the one hand, I like, you know, I've cut back my drinking a fair amount, and I think like drinking is pretty harmful. But I've also been thinking that maybe that the like decline in drinking might be a symptom of, or a symbol of, like the people
called the loneliness epidemic. But like, I really feel like there's a chance that it like young people aren't not drinking because they're like making healthy choices, but because they're at home on screens alone, and I think that is like, yeah, they you know, and so like, I don't know, it's just been this interesting kind of thing I've been trying to puzzle through because there's part of me that's like, yeah, drinking is really harmful, but then this part of me
it's like, yeah, we need to go out, like grab a couple of drinks with friends, Like we need more of that. We are very isolated from one another. So I'm just you know.
I would also say, like there should be more options. I think things being open longer should be more, like, should have more options like juice bars and coffee places. Like people were talking about how we need more twenty four hour like coffee places or whatever, like where people can go hang out and just like chat and have things be open. I think, like drinking's sanctioned at night,
you know, and so those places stay open. But I think if we just had more like what is it called like third third spaces, Yeah, even you know, I think a lot of people do stuff in like parks and things, but they're not always in the best situations or available or whatever. So I agree, Like, I get what you're saying about the loneliness thing. I'm like, we
all need. And people were talking about how we don't have enough house parties and then we were like, we don't own houses, Like what are we supposed to do?
Yeah? Yeah, but yeah, man, nine years ago, I would have agreed with you so hard on this one. But we should drink more, too hard in fact, And now I don't drink anymore. But h yeah, I agree that. I think I think it's good to have a place something that gets us out. I think I think social isolation is a major problem. Yeah, and it sounds like America's top doctor, the Surgeon General, caught the woke mind virus and needs to be stopped. That's exactly what I do.
Just want to say, like, this is too bad.
We can't be vaccinated against the pokemon.
Oh my god. I mean, listen, I've got a couple of podcasts I'm gonna recommend for you that I kind of function as a vaccine.
By the way, who is Joe Rogan? I'm kidding.
I will say, I don't think there could be a more New York take that is anti la than you talked to to LA people are more like, yeah, man, if I if I hadn't gotten off A nine years ago and switched over to meditation, I would agree with you.
I suggested juice bars.
Juice bars probably did suggest juice bars.
Another be smoothiet arawak.
That's right, that's right. Jody wants something you think is overrated.
Gosh overrated. Well, I was gonna I was my overrated was actually weather forecast. I'm back. I'm just hung up on this. That's gonna be my answer. But I think, yeah, and just in general, like all this stuff is weather forecast, smoke forecasts, all this stuff is mostly just winds us up, and you should just got to step outside to find out what it actually feels like, what it really feels like, what.
It really feels like. Listen. To do your own research is what is to you.
To all of the LA people. Do your own research and decide when to leave based on how close you smell the fire.
That's right, that's what That's precisely what I'm saying.
All right, let's take a quick break, we'll come back. We'll get through some executive orders. Talk about Elon Musk's Nazi salute. We'll do it all in a moment.
We'll be right back.
I will not do then salute in a moment, Jack.
We'll do it all all. We'll do it, and we're back. Donald Trump is back. Also, I guess this is the first full episode we've done since he was sworn in as the forty seventh President of the United States and immediately did a shock and awe executive order blitz all these terms that are evocative of only good things in history. But you know, this is what was promised by Project twenty twenty five, that we knew it was coming, and
yet here it is the straight agenda. That's right. Some of the things that he's done are illegal or at the least are going to face legal pushback. Eighteen states are suing to stop the birthright citizenship order. He's trying to overturn birthright citizenship for people born in the United States. You're not necessarily a citizen if he doesn't want you to be.
Okay, But also I'm like crying that it was only eighteen states.
Yeah, so far. But yeah, again, we knew that this was coming first.
And that's in the constitution, So you know, it's a little hard to undo the constitution.
Right, he is just saying no more Constitution. There's no evidence on pushbacks on some of the more striking actions like pardoning all the January sixth rioters. For some reason just keeps coming coming back to me as being like real troubling.
Are you just doing the same thing I'm doing, which is like keeping the sort of leaderboard in your head of which is spiriting, and it just keeps shuffling like your fatou.
I have officially, as of yesterday, become a political I've decided not to think about anything anymore. I'm a lot happier.
That's so smart. I love that.
So not into politics anymore. I don't know what's going on.
Oh my god, have you tried the Haley Biber's movie.
Oh my god, I love the Haley bebers movie.
It goes really well with choosing to be a political and not thinking at all. Yeah, what's everybody's leader for the most troubling? Uh? You know? Birthright citizenship number one with a bullet For me, it seems like that's going to be really bad and immediately actionable in a way
that includes violence and destroying families. For some reason, like the January sixth rioters being like all of them being pardoned at the same time, when you look at some of the you know, deep dives into like the culture that was growing in those prisons and around those prisoners, and when you look at what far right extremism has done over the course of the history of this country, that one seems like significant to me, and not just as like a own but like as like, uh, you know,
strategically they're going to do something, They're going to do bad things.
On that point. So I was surprised, I gotta be be honest, I was surprised that it was a blanket pardon for all fifteen hundred. I mean, I was that went further than even I expected. But like, how many times have we heard stories from Iraq or Syria where they're like, why is this extremist group all of a sudden,
why was there this coupor, Why was this violence? It's like, oh, a hundred prisoners got released, right, all these radicals were in prison and a prison got broken out or collapsed or whatever, Like this is literally you know what happens Like to your point, I mean, I'm just realizing in real time, it's like these groups of people are now longer in prison, and then lo and behold a month later you have this kind of political violence.
So that one and you know they've gotten riched in prison, so we're even in more trouble.
They've been warming up their pipes. They have that singing performance on that one. Something working out and.
Yeah, I got to say my leader board. I mean, the J six stuff is just really just sort of awful. The pulling out of the w A Joe to me is just like such a clear I think, like own goal, you know, I mean, I get the like performative, owned the Libs politics of it, but I just feel like there's going to be another pandemic. Watch it's going to deeply harm him like that. There was no one who was just kind of seeing that is remarkable, But I guess what do you expect.
I'm very concerned about like the health related stuff, and given my background and everything, so that's something.
What is that background again? Because I've stopped including it when I.
You don't need to include it. It's worth noting, is that I'm a PhD drop out. That's what I am. I'm a biomedical engineer.
Biomedical engineering.
But it's fine, and this stuff John right, I'm very concerned.
I'm very concerned at the lab engineering the next COVID had you stayed in that PhD.
No, I'm not even kidding. The job that I had before my PhD was in infectious diseases. We were working on a non active memolavirus control to like test to make sure people didn't have it because at the time that was happening. And then my friends who stayed at that job were working on COVID stuff. So like, yeah, I would have been involved in that if I had stayed at that job, like for several more years. But that's like I worked with infectious asas week. I should
have married. I should have married Hunter, you know, getting gotten a pipe parted.
It's not the first time, but we've suggested that for you on this show. Yeah, yeah, you would have been out there just trying to make sure that we didn't know the truth about ivermectin.
Yeah.
Those feel like the top three to me. But I'm happy to be overruled. Listeners. Reach out with your faves, you know, let's treat it like recommendations.
Please send us your panic attacks.
But you know, the legal battles is where the action will be over the next couple of months, and there have been some legal pushback, and I think, you know, think about this day four years ago or eight years ago, right, I mean, you know, we were all out there wearing our pussy hats and you know, marching in Washington, and that's not happening now. There isn't that mass mobilization, but I think there is. The legal front is still there,
and I mean I remember eight years ago. The moment to me that most stuck out from the early Trump years, of the early Trump days was when there was a night at JFK where right after the Muslim van went into effect, a bunch of immigration lawyers went to JFK and sort of stood on the ground and aided immigrants
coming into the country. And it was like, to me, that was the moment where I was like, Okay, I see the sort of on tours of the the quote unquote resistance, and I was like, you know, the lawyers are going to save us. And I still think that that is out there. I don't think we're going to see another mass millions of people in the streets, but I do think we are still are going to see moments like that.
So it'll be interesting to see if the Supreme Court can keep up with his corruption. You know, it seems like they want to let him do whatever he wants, but like he's just he's moving so fast in so many different directions that trouble being like what what do we what do we make the laws so he can get away with the maximum amount of bullshit.
I do think like in the last eight years, there have been like a lot of people, like you said, Jodi, who are who are now lawyers or policymakers who weren't in those positions before. Like I know, a lot of like scientists who went into like legislation or policy or like politics when they weren't originally going to because of him. So like hopefully that's has someone into accommodation. Yeah, some of us did a favor to science by leaving it,
and you're welcome. But yeah, so I think like that pivot and that incubation period has happened, and like hopefully we'll see that in like behind the door, behind the scenes more.
Yeah, all right, So I think the other most striking thing from the first couple of days of the Trump administration was Elon Musk, among the most powerful people in the history of the planet. He's going to have a major role in the Trump administration. He's been doing all sorts of far right sympathizing and just influencing around the globe. And he gave a speech after Trump was sworn in
that included giving a full on Nazi salute. Like when I heard this, I was like, well, we've seen people give kind of Nazi salutes before, and then they're able to it just like kind of fades away, fades away, they're able to be Like I wasn't really.
Like I seen someone raise their arm at an angle before.
Yeah. Yeah, but this this is pretty unambiguous. We're gonna for the people watching on video, will we'll show it here. This is from a New Republic article called did Elon Musk just give a Nazi? Seriously? Just give a Nazi salute? Yeah?
Yeah, Actually is.
That the elections that come and go. Some some elections are you know, important, some or not. But but this one, this one, this one really matters. And I just want to say thank you for making it happen.
Thank you.
Okay, he okay, So for people who are just listening, he hits his chest, he like bites his bottom lip like he's about to you know, do a push up or you know, lift a weight, have another child, to have another child, then smacks his uh left chest and then gives such a hard Nazi salute that he audibly goes like as he's.
He's and he does it.
Does it again?
Yeah, it turns around and if.
You play them side by side, it showed like you can play with Nazi pro uh like protesters or marches and him it's like the exact same movement. It's crazy like he's been saf snked it up.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure we all thoughts on this. One of them is to me, like, I think a lot of the conversation around this has been like, well there's a line there, you know, there's a very reasonable line, don't give a Nazi salute, and he lost that line. To me, though, the line is not don't give a Nazi salute. Maybe is it unreasonable to think the line should be don't give something that
could potentially be interpreted as a Nazi salute? I mean the line should actually be a little further further back, further back, like that's the lapse of you know, I think he intentionally gave that salute. He knew what he was doing, but even the lapse of judgment, of not being able to recognize that this might be misinterpreted is just as bad as anything.
Yeah, yeah, it's so just this is not a one off. So this is from the New Republic article must Just one month ago, Musk came out in full support for the far right Alternative for Germany Party, which has been accused of neo Nazi sympathies. Less than two weeks ago, Musk hosted AfD leader Alice Weidel in a livestream on x where the pair dismissed Adolf Hitler as a communist. Musk has also voiced his support for British neo Nazi Tommy Robinson in an attempt to influence politics in that country.
All these would seem to suggest, I don't know that, despite earlier denials, Musk does seem to harbor actual Nazi sympathies. And then he did that on the biggest possible scale at a time when people are like this guy has way too much power in this administration in the world, and immediately after the president is sworn in, which like, I don't know, I feel like Trump and Elon Musk over the past, you know, eight years have sort of been one A, one B and like controlling the news
cycle and having all eyes on them. And there's definitely like a yes, my precious like energy to that where they like need that shit. And I do wonder if this was him knowing like, I gotta go big here because everybody's going to be talking about Trump and all these executive orders, so I need to do the most Nazi thing to get all the eyeballs. So just a theory on.
Grimes is like defending his video game playing abilities.
What the fuck was that about?
She's like the father of my child actually is a gamer. And then later Elon Musk was like, yeah, I used people to whatever you know, and and I can't believe I ever listened to her music like she was so she was so great when she first came.
Out to separate the art from them from.
The Nazi ex wife or ex partner.
What the fuck was that about? Exactly? It was that he was particularlyked.
He was like ranked top seven, which is like you cannot like those people if they're playing on their own, they cannot like spend any amount of time away from their playing. For like eighteen hours a day like to get that ranking, because it's so incredibly hard, especially on
that specific video game from what I've heard. And then so and then when he went in and like live streamed him playing, there were sections that were like Elon's maps, and like, why would you name your own maps Elon's maps unless somebody was logging into your account and playing
for you and they're not even called that. He didn't understand how to use them, so people were like, like, he he wants the approval of like gamer in cel, like all of the like all of these different groups that he thinks are cool, and so some of them were like infighting against him, like gamers that he pays attention to on Twitter and all these other things. Like they were like, oh, he's like asthmin Gold is one of the Twitch streamers who has like kind of right
wing ideas and was also like rebelling against him. So it was this whole thing, like a gamer infighting right wing thing where people were like your fucking loser, dude, And then Grimes defended him, and then he was like, oh no, yeah, I do use some people to up my scores. He's like using other people's labor to make himself look better.
Basically, that doesn't sound like Elon Musk. I'm not sure if I can believe this. I'm sitting to say, with Grimes using other people's labor to make himself look more brilliant.
Yeah, can I Can I float a theory to you or a question to you? Yes, that actually relates to I think the video game thing and the Nazi salute and what we saw, you know, on Monday in Washington. But this window. One thing I've been thinking about is I wonder if the window between the election and this week was the kind of pinnacle, the peak of kind of the proto fascist tech elite having cultural cachet, and like that was the window on which Elon could feel
that he was the coolest person in the world. And I wonder, I genuinely wonder, you know, this isn't just hopeful that whether like we just saw the peak of that and that maybe the Nazi salute was going a little too far, or that maybe now that there's actually going to be some sort of policy and some sort of implementation of this stuff. And I think it applies to Trump too, that like what Trump really wanted out
of the presidency, he got on Monday. He wanted to be there signing a bunch of stuff, acting like a king, getting a lot of agulation. And now it's just downslope from here. And so I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm kind of wonder if we'll look back and say, you know what that was the they touched the hot stove, they flew too close to the sun up until this past Monday.
I would hope so, But I feel like they were almost like more industrious during his four years than like Biden's administration was in like achieving their so called agenda points, do you.
Know what I mean?
Like, I don't like, I mean, it was chaotic, but I feel like that was part of their intention. So I would hope it's the peak, but I think we should prepare for it not being.
Yeah, and I'm mostly talking from like a cultural sense, and obviously that all sorts of policy ramifications people will be in genuine harm. But you know, these worlds are are very connected, you know.
Yeah, I was trying to like talk about this and failing yesterday. I'm having a hard time getting my head around this cultural moment because, yeah, I would like for that to be the case, that everybody sees that and
like this is the worst things get. But there also feels like there's just this America loves a winner type thing, and that there's also this America has a mind boggling blind spot for how influential wealth is and capital is in this country, and now that all the capital seems to be getting in line with this vision, I feel like we're in a really dangerous place where, like, I don't know who applies the breaks at this point to this.
And the media environment is so broken that like, yeah, there may be people who will just never see Elon Musk give that salute, even people who would think he's a cool guy but then would see that and be like, whoa, what are you up to? Like they will just literally never see it. Yeah, I don't know how that. Yeah, yeah it's true.
Let's take a quick break, we'll come back. We'll talk about who some people who are interpreting that salute in various ways, and we're back and just staying on the most powerful person in the world openly giving a Nazi salute for if you'll indulge us for a few minutes here,
For some reason, this seems important. So maybe one of the most eyebrow raising defenses of his salute came from the Anti Defamation League, who tweeted that it was merely a quote awkward gesture and we should all cut him some slack during this quote delicate moment, which I think seemed to shock a lot of people that the ADL was defending a literal Nazi salute there, you know, seemed to be I don't know, their reputation is pretty significantly
out of line with what their actual work has been forever, but especially in the recent years. We've mentioned before that it was founded to defend Israel, not really fight bigotry, and the fact that they run a program that sends US cops to train in Israel should probably tell you something. That's something that we've covered before. A delegation of top
American law enforcement officers is in Israel. This is from a Intercept article is in Israel for the ADL's National counter Terrorism Seminar, which includes training on topics such as leadership in a time of terror and balancing the fight against crime and terrorism. So yeah, the current executive director recently compared the Kafia to the Swastika, has repeatedly aligned the organization with the Trump administration and refused to call
out the Trump administration's playtant hate speech. I will say one group that is calling it a Nazi salutor does seem to be like, hmm, that looked like that's what we thought it was, right. Are actual Nazis? Christopher Pohlhouse, the leader of the notorious neo Nazi group Blood Tribe, posted the clip of his salute on telegram with a lightning bold and the caption I don't care if this was a mistake. I'm going to enjoy the tears over it. So that seems like he might be like, oh, I
don't know, did he mean to Who knows. Another neo Nazi leader, Christopher Hood, who founded the New England Race Separatist movement nc NSC one thirty one, one of the less popular CBS crime dramas, also posted the clip to telegram with themog exclamation point, question mark and smiley face. There's yeah, there's a bunch of it like. One of them shared the clip with the caption incredible things are happening already lmaoh.
And okay he's race separatists. No one wants to hang out with you anyways. Okay, nobody is trying to mingle with you at a fucking happy hour, right, so don't worry about it.
Yeah, another self described deth no nationalists and anti so that might share the clip in a post, writing, Okay, maybe woke really is dead, guys, am I right, got one, we got one.
There's anti woke and then there's there's that. But wait with the ADLU is it coherent to their politics to not call this out or is it boot licking? Is it sucking up to power and wealth?
I think it's both.
Yeah, I think.
It's they're going wherever Israel is propped up.
And so.
I think like, given the relationship between Trump and then Yahoo and like what Trump has said or intends to do, I think that aligns with their their goals. And then I also think, yeah, everybody is falling in line right now.
Yeah, it seems to be kind of in line with they if they are not really against defamation as much as you know, involved in a political cause, they are like a lot you know, like TikTok and other you know organizations that are all just trying to you know, Donald Trump is a fairly simple instrument to operate where you just like, say, do you agree with him and flatter him and do you know, just display loyalty. He's like a.
Wire a couple mil into the bank account.
But yeah, exactly, buy a bunch of his meme coins so that he becomes even richer.
I don't know if this means anything, but I checked the Fox News website and the only mention of Musk's salute on that site was a write up of AOC pushing back on the ADL and saying, you know, like, what are we doing here? Folks? This was clearly we all know what this was, Like, how can you possibly call for understanding in this moment? Which to me, you know,
I don't know. It's interesting to me that that's the one thing that got attention, and I think it shows like, huh, maybe like actually taking a stand gets people's attention, and like the language of the right has been that for the last eight ten years, and AOC knows how to play that game. And I don't know, maybe I'm overreading it, But the only mention on Fox News was in this moment where someone actually like clapped back.
Yeah, do you think though that they're well, I'm not sure. I don't know the language of the article. You're talking about Do you think that they're like putting her out there as chum so that people get distracted because she's so incendiary to the right.
A little bit though, I I yeah, I mean sure, yeah, I think AOC is going to get attention no matter what. But like that's the game we're playing here, right, Yeah. I don't think AOC cares if she's all over Fox News and people are talking shit about her.
Yeah, yeah, I mean like sometimes I just feel like they use people that like that are almost like trigger words to the right just to distract from the actual what like her putting her as a shield in front of musk kind of like look at her saying this stuff about the ADL rather than her points are valid.
Oh, it's certainly like a third order story, right, if I'm covering the actual thing, it's like refracted through this now spac Yeah, but yeah, you know.
Yeah, just a couple more quotes from a people weighing in here. The Proud Ohio chapter posted to a clip of the month video to telegram with the text, hail Trump. They just got.
Worse how they went having your Google doct right now?
Just the ones he got in his email.
Yeah, I'm just scrolling through my inbox here.
So I fucking hate that there's like Proud Boys chapter Ohio. First of all, Ohio isn't real and we all know that. And second of all, New York, Yeah, Ohio, that's a Twitter thing. Everybody jokes about Ohio not being real. But second of all, like, why do they I hate that they're so organized? I hate that they have such structure. They have like a secretary taking notes on how many times they say like slurs?
Right? All right, should we talk about primates peeing in groups? Would that? Would that be a good palate cleanser?
This one's for the girlies, ladies, right, yes, yes.
Since time immemorial, men have been wondering this question. Why do they keep like getting up and trying to get away from us to talk.
Shit about you dude, to see if we need protection?
Everything cool here, Everything cool?
That guy wasn't weird?
Was he?
All?
Right?
So? Scientists at Kyoto University recently discovered that peeing is seemingly contagious amongst chimpanzees. They watched six hundred hours of footage of captive chimps at the Kumamoto Sanctuary, which captured more than one thousand three hundred and twenty eight urination events. I have a slurpee, that's right. Do slurpees make you pay?
I don't know, okay, I'm just trying to think of some big drink.
Big drink, big old slurpee, big drink. They found that when one chip decided to pee, others would often follow suit, which is not unlike humans. Our decision to urinate is influenced by social contexts that lead us to your innate simultaneously with others. This is usually something that we talk about with the context of sneezing, like that yawning is
the one. Yes, sneezing, I'm like, oh good idea. In the context of yawning that like yawns are contagious and even though they feel like a thing that our body is forcing us to do, it was like, no, it's it's our brain. We're just we're silly. We will just
do whatever everybody else is doing. But yeah, like with going to the bathroom, it does feel so like if you're at the end of a long road trip and like suddenly you get to your front door and you're like, wow, I really had to pee that whole time, But like somehow your brain you're like super ego. Like all of your you know, conscious consciousness, scaffolding has like kept that
reality suppressed from you. So I'm not sure shocked that we're learning that this is like highly contagious and socially defined, but it's it's just like.
That's like when toddlers are in emergency situations, they fall asleep, Like it's an evolutionary thing for them to like fall asleep just to be quiet, to help their families or whatever.
Toddler never learned that one.
No, you're like trying to recreate emergencies just to get a break.
You're like, oh, no, a robber my toddler now six year old, but he was evolutionarily designed to create new emergencies. Yeah, when an emergency, that's fair.
My daughter, when she was like three four would develop this thing where she would talk about if she needs to pee, and I was like, like, we really can't, like right now, you know, that would be very inconvenient. She'll go she goes, okay, I'll just do the trick, and I'm like and for a while I was like, great, okay, you're doing the trick. And then after a while I was like, wait a minute, what's the trick. She's just like I just decide I don't need to pay anymore.
Like my god, I mean, the mind over matter is incredible, but yeah, she's just she just developed her own trick where she just doesn't need to go to the bathroom. Which made me a question, which made me question whether she ever really needed to go to the bathroom. And then I think that gets into this sort of yeah, sociological element to this, which is she she likes a trip to the bathroom or you know whatever.
Jody believe little women, Okay when they say they have a trick to just not have to pay anymore.
This one trick that doctors don't want you to make it so you never have to go to the bath just do it.
It's the Nike logo.
I do like to sometimes, you know, take a little stroll to the bathroom even if I don't have to go too bad, and like to see what the bathroom of a given restaurant is. The legs. Yeah, lighting, but they have one of those weird sinks that like doesn't really have a basin. You know, have you ever seen those? Those are starting to be a thing. Oh, like Kim Kardashi and Kanye did you ever see the picture of the inside of their kitchen where it's like a faucet on a countertop. Yeah, like a little line.
And the water runs off into it.
Yeah.
I will say like going to the bathroom. I was like kind of joking earlier, but it also is like
a really great place to check in with women. I've made so many friendships in bathrooms that have been like lasting, honestly, some of the first when I wasn't in stand up I went to sketch Fest with my boyfriend at the time who was doing improv, and I met so many stand ups, so many female stand ups, and we were just like lounging in this nice ass bathroom and we were bonding and I kept in touch with them and like asked them stand up advice and everything like later on.
But it really, like I think it really is for women, like a great check in and a place of like comfort and like support for each other. It's beautiful.
Wait, take us take us inside this back because Jack will do that, but I won't. I won't go. I won't just go parsing again to check it out.
Yeah. Yeah, Jack's always going into him's restaurant.
I'm always going to check in with women at the restaurant.
Yeah, that does the chat and the bonding happening in can you as you're peeing is there?
It just depends. Often there are lines, which you know that's an issue, Yeah, which like we should have more stalls, we should figure out whatever, non binary bathrooms, but not
in America. Yeah, but we sometimes we'll make we'll chit chat in the line, and then sometimes sometimes it happens in the stall, like if you run out of toilet paper, if you need a tampon, if like some you know, sometimes you're there with friends and then somebody else hears and makes a joke or something or like at this thing, it's just it's just a beautiful place for for camaraderie, you know, it's it's I just love it. I'm like,
men need more of this. That's the put all the men who are in the loneliness epidemic in a bathroom together, in a nice bathroom.
Yeah, peeing alone. That's the next book.
Yeah, don't you guys all just Piana Trough.
Isn't that that used to be away back when men were met? No, Yeah, I've been to like the really old sporting event venues like Fenway Park and the Kentucky Derby, Like infield are the places I've been where everybody's just standing around a single trough, peeing into it and just yeah, mostly pretty drunk, so everyone's cool with it. Yeah.
Wait, can we go back to the study for a second, because it's one line you read where the scientists at Kyoto University watched six hundred hours of footage of captive chimps and captured quote more than one three and twenty eight urination events. Yeah. Probably as a former scientist, is this a good use of their time?
Yeah?
I used to watch like raps touch things. I used to have to go through hours of recordings of raps like touching different objects in a circular maids or whatever. So like you do have to like sit there and like time it and record it and whatever. But especially I'm assuming with chimps, there's so many like I hate behavioral studies. I hate them so much because it feels like so imprecise, because it could be they could be
influenced by so many things. Like there was a study that came out that you found out that like male male researchers affected the behavior of mice differently than female researchers. So it's like people who are involved in the same experiment and we're doing it in the same way could still influence the behavior of these animals. So that's always yeah.
Yeah, for to find out that the male influence was just like picking the mice up and like moving them around, like yeah, just like them.
Yeah, trying to teach them how to like DAP. But but yeah, it's so it's like super informative because that's what you can't do to watch behaviors of animals. You just have to watch like a bunch of footage and record it and as it's strict of a measurement as you can.
But it's like the sort of thing when we just we always bring up like when AI is used in a way that is like guys, not this like that we don't need a worse coke commercial. That's just a smoothie made of every previous co commercial. This would be like scroll through the six hundred hours to find the urination events. That's great. That that is a that's.
Yeah, there is a lot of that of like trying to automate some of these like image processing or video video processing things like that's something that like I even like worked on at the in one of my rotations or whatever on my PhD. But it's still sometimes there's qualitative things too that they want to observe and it depends.
Like that chimp peeing or not. I mean that's a difficult AI task. Yeah you have to, you.
Have to and like the duration and yeah, wait.
Isn't this actually a storyline in that show Silicon Value where they design an app to see penis is import and then or for hot dogs and then it actually is able to identify penis is important for some great it's a great storyline. That show continues to be the most pressure show there is, but it's literally I loved that.
I was in Obay when that was happening, and tech people were like that is us do you have?
I'm like, oh no, oh it shouldn't be. All right, Well, Jody, it's been a pleasure having you on the show where can people will find you? Follow you all that good stuff.
Well, look, I host this political history show called This Day in Esoteric Political History from Radiotopia. We're trying to actually do more conversations about what we're going through right now through a historical lens. And I'm just kind of really happy with those conversations. Listeners have really enjoyed those, so you know, if you want to hear about weird historical moments, but then also kind of need a little help processing what we're going through and is this unprecedented.
I host it with two actual historians. It's really a fun show, so I would encourage people to go check that out. And then one other silly thing that I'm doing but I've been enjoying is every week I get a New Yorker in the mail, and the New Yorker cover has a title. I don't know if you knew this,
but every New Yorker cover has a title. Yeah, And so I've always played a game for myself where I try and guess the title and then I go flip open and see what the actual title is and see how close I am whether I like mine better or like theirs. But I'm doing that on my Instagram page now every week. So that is hit new series where I guess, try and guess the title of that week's New Yorker.
So how's it going? How close? It's going?
Great? H So far, it's been two weeks into the to the year, and I've had one where I liked my title better, one where I like their title better.
The which was because there was the Elon Musk getting sworn.
I liked their title. That's on my Instagram page.
All right, is there a work of media that you've been enjoying? Is that the work of media that you've been in?
Oh?
I guess that is the work. But no, the day we're recording this, Garth Hudson from the band died today, the last remaining member of the band. And I watched a really wonderful fahl God. I wish I could recall the name of the person who did it. But if you google Garth Hudson, or if you go to YouTube and search for Garth Hudson, one of the first things that come up was just a kind of really lovely tribute to to him and his contributions to the band
and his sort of genuine weirdness and avant gardeists. And so I'm taking a moment to kind of enjoy his work in the band and all that.
Right, Paul, wonderful having you. Where can people find you? And is there a working media you've been enjoying? Hi?
Thank you? I am so.
Out of it.
Oh, Hi, Hi.
Oh my god, Hi, what's going.
Faulted?
Hi was like, you are on a pod day.
I was looking at Garth Hudson. He lived to be eighty seven. Okay, that's beautiful. Uh there's also an English footballer named Garth Hudson. Okay. I I'm gonna be at Sketch Fest on Saturday, and I'm going to be on Comedian Clash with Jackie's Neil friend of the Pod, and I'm also co producing facial Recognition comedy at the Lost Church that night. Tickets are going fast. Please buy them. Please tell your friends to buy them. I am trying to find a work of media because I fully did
not prepare for this. I'm on Blue Sky a lot more, but I'm noticing like people are kind of like going in between IT and Twitter a lot. So I'm like, I'm going in between. Have you noticed you've been losing a lot of Twitter followers because of Eli?
Oh yeah, yeah I have too, and because I think a lot of people are quitting Twitter about It's true. Yeah.
Okay. There is a tweet from dex Dexerte and it says chapel Rone says she doesn't play first person mode on Fortnite because she wants to see her Ariana Grande skin, which I thought was cute because she's there. There are pop girlies and they're all we have right now.
Mmm, I'm gonna pretend like I understand all the references.
Really, you don't know that you can wear like a person's like skit as a character. So if you're not in first person mode, I don't know why. I know gamers references that.
Yeah, yeah, I got that. The I know what a skin is, and I'm assuming there is an Ariana Grande one. I don't know what ties it all to her?
Is wh Oh she's playing her white character Ariana Grande, no chapel Roun just plays Fortnite and she wants she doesn't want to do first person mode because she likes viewing herself as Ariana Grande, which makes which made me happy.
Okay, got it?
They like to play each other. All these pop girls are getting lung. There was a time when they weren't. They're not nicking the watching each other.
That is nice, all right, got it? Let's see. So I just wanted to give a little further detail on something that Paul mentioned earlier. Grimes tweet him over the weekend. Just for my personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first American druid and Diablo DIABLOA to clear Abatois or Zeer and ended that season as best in the USA. He was also ranking in Polytopia and beat Felix himself at the game. I did observe these things with my own eyes. There
are other witnesses who can verify this. That is all. And yes, Pokey Pup on Twitter tweeted for your personal pride, girl, this is so embarrassing.
Thank you.
Yeah. You can find me on Twitter at jack Underscore Brian and on Blue Sky at jack ob and the Number one. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist, at the Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website Daily zeikeist dot com, and you can go to the episode wherever you're listening to this, check out the description and you can find the footnotes, which is where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode. We also link off
to a song that we think you might enjoy. Super producer Justin Miles. Miles will be back by the way in the not too distant.
Future, but it's like an Avengers movie. Miles will return.
Miles will return, still sending a lot of good energy to him and his family. I was texting with him this morning. He's still very funny, which I don't know how he is still so funny at a time like this.
Honestly pretty fucked up, you know what I mean.
Kind of a fucked up guy, you know.
What, Miles, that's fun.
But with Miles out, we like to turn to super producer Justin to recommend a song that he thinks people might enjoy. Super Producer Justin Conner, is there a song do you think people might enjoy? Yeah?
I wanted to attempt to lift your spirits after a rough news cycle today by recommend this amazing song. It's called It's Not Easy by a band named Ofege and they.
Were a group of high school in Mount Rushmore songs.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're a group of.
High school students like age fifteen to seventeen, which is really hard to believe after you hear the song. They were recording back in the seventies during the much overlooked psych rock movement in Legos, Nigeria. And it's got this nostalgic, fuzzy, peace loving, open hearted feeling to it. This is by far the most popular and accessible song. I don't even know if people listen to the songs I recommend on here half the time, but I highly suggest checking out
their whole catalog because it's impossible not to love. And there's something very special about this song specifically, so that again is It's not easy by Opega, and you can find that song in the footnotes.
Wait, I have a question. Do you guys have a tdz Spotify playlist of all the songs you recommended?
I don't think so.
Really there I think there was at one point.
Yeah, I thought there was at one point.
There was at one point. I don't know if it's being kept up right sure or not.
Well, I've just found new work for no pay.
Yes, thank you.
I appreciate you can one of your discord people into doing that. Yeah. I'm sure someone's right on it somewhere.
Yeah.
Yeah, amazing song sounds wonderful.
Yeah, the best multiple votes.
Of approval, So go check it out. The Daily Geist is the production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, that is going to do it for us this morning. We are back this afternoon to tell you what is trending and we will talk to you all the bite, oh my god, bite