Musk Company Town, Daylight Savings War Redux 03.10.23

on The Discord. I think in reference to the fact that we didn't drop an episode without warning one day earlier this week, and that is on me. Apologies, but everything is okay, and yeah, thanks for bearing with us. I'm thrilled to be joined by today's guest co host jumping in last moment. Due to some technical difficulties, it is super producer Becca Ramah. Not gonna lie, Jack. It took me a second to figure out what song. Well, I didn't have the if I could, if I if

I had a helium balloon here, that would have helped. Yeah, that would have helped. But I got it. Towards the end, I was like, okay, Elvis Costello modelo rhyme. I have to hand it to mister Lockerroni or missus LOCKARONI. I actually don't know. Well, Becca, thank you for jumping in

last moment. Of course, we are thrilled to be joined in our third and fourth seats by the hosts of the podcast Endless Thread from w bu R MPR's Boston station, which examines the blurred lines between the online world and reality. It's Amrie Siebertson and Ben brock Johnson. Wow, you said my name, so chef's kiss perfect? Perfect, No, no, thank you. I went and listened to how you say it, and I figured you probably usually get it right some days.

That's right, the most basic amount of homework, the least amount of homework, exactly, and I will take the credit. Thank you, Yes, thank you, thank you. I am a professional. Also the best, the best and most fully committed Frank Ocean impression I've heard at least today. Yes, that is what's important. I mean, it's probably the fourth or fifth that you've heard. I truly did what. I was like, My my son has a balloon with helium in it in his bedroom, and I was like, should I go

because his voice is pitched up at that part. Yeah, I was thinking about it, but I didn't want to do it to his Ninja Turtles balloon. I mean you were I couldn't and I can't sing, so I commend you. I can't either, and slippery slope. Helium's a slippery sloped. I have passed out more than once from helium. So wow, Yeah, you just the line between the right amount and the perfect vocal register and power on the floor. How long have I been blacked out for? It is very thick.

This is actually an intervention memories a healing in that it's a helium problem. Yeah, for the helium heads bad news. It's an exhaustible resource that we're apparently running out of. It's just like stored in a cave somewhere, I guess. Any boy, that's we had balloons that floated on the ceiling. Did you know the Goodyear Blimp is full of helium? Helium? That was yeah, I assumed that they weren't with the same Well, yeah, hunt, we have to every time the

story of the Hindenburg, right, I think? So yeah, I'm just holding Do you think if we all just had a quarter everyone in this zoom room we all just took turns taken a hit from the good Year Blimp pass out. Of course Amory wants to take it there exactly. You know, truf give one the Goodyear Blimp the cipher for the good Year Blimp. Okay, I've said some weird expectations of myself. All yeah, just how how many hits do you think it would take to get to the center of the and it would be like it'd be

like one yeah on the floor. Your voice was at a point that only teenagers could hear, because, as we talked about, they have different hearing, they have different frequencies, and you guys are both in the process of Before we started recording, you were talking about how you're both in the process of menacing some teenagers, trying to get

some no good kids out of a park that you frequent. Yes, I have some no good kids in the park near my house and they clearly I mean I love that they have a spot to rebel against sure the man, but they litter. They leave their crushed bottles and beer cans everywhere. And Ben just recently saw that spot for the first time when we were on a walk near my house, and you can attest ben right, it's atrocious.

It is a disaster. It's like the giant floating like massive plastic in the Pacific Ocean, except it's in the

woods next day, land locked, the land locked Pacific traffic trash. Yeah, and what we've heard is that that's where the cops grew up partying, and so they don't do anything about it because it's just understood to be the wasteland safe zone, safe zone for teenage partying, interesting children, children of cups and okay, yeah, see that's where I'm like the line not great, because I was about to be like, okay,

well I was a degenerate out of park. But I was also like a a what's the word I'm looking for, a nerd degenerate. So there was no alcohol involved. I was just like late night at a park being like, okay, this is in my house. This is a great place to be. But if they're littering, not okay, worse off if they're cops children. So absolutely, you were just leaving your magic the gathering cards in the park. No, No, that's my brother, so let's not. She was planting flowers

there after hours, beautifying. I was a girl scout, so not probably nice. All right, Well, we're going to get to know you both a little bit better. But first we're going to tell our listeners a couple of things we're talking about today. Elon Musk apparently wants to is in the process of building a utopian in very big scare quotes company town. What could go wrong? We will talk about that, but we will definitely be talking about daylights here time, because that is apparently the most divisive

issue happening in politics. And we might even bid a fond farewell to chewing gum, which is apparently dying of slow death currently, which makes me sad because I love to have a good chew, not if Amory or my wife has anything to do with it. Yeah, I'm a chain chewer. It's a problem. Yeah. Do you have a particular brand that you're loyal to? It's a good question. I was chewing I it is evolved over the years.

I think my favorite flavor is cinnamon. I used to love a cinnamon gum, but it loses its flavor really quickly. So I migrated over to the thing that has really done me in, which is like the hard capsules, the ones that are like little nuggets you know, and I increase. Yeah, yeah, kind of candy coated, and I upped my intakes, so like, my tolerance has become higher and higher. So I used to just chew one little note it and then I was like, oh, that feels like nothing in my mouth.

Then I up to it to two. Then I up to it to three at a time, and I started getting very bad headaches. I say, so, do you have TMJ? Also no, but I have been told that, you know, any day now, I'm gonna start having real job. So I have scaled it back a little bit, and maybe that's why the industry is struggling. Yeah, you are responsible for the dip and sales. The actual bubble had to burst. That sounds right there. It is. But before we get to any of that stuff, we do like to ask

our guests. Amory will start with you, what is something from your search history? Well, my personal and work search

histories are are pretty different. I guess work lately for an episode that we have coming up, which I don't know, it's a complicated story, but I found myself googling gifts from the Chinese consulate to foreigners because that isn't a piece of this particular story, and this person received a very beautiful, delicate yellow vase from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, and they claimed it to be a very rare, very

prestigious honor. And so I was googling around to see what I could learn about what the Chinese Consulate actually gives to foreigners that they want to that they want to thank, and then my more personal search history. That's just like, I've been on the hunt for raspberry rallies, the new flavor of Girl Scout cookie, for months and months now, and they are not available anywhere everywhere. Yeah, yes, so I've procured. I finally procured a couple of boxes

because I set a calendar reminder for myself. I knew one particular troop was going to have them on February twenty seven. So I, oh my god, thin mints, but like with raspberry in them, yes, exactly. And there's vegan, yeah, and I'm vegan, and so there are only a few vegan Girl Scout cookies. And I've known this was coming for months and months and then I couldn't get a damn box. But I'm gonna have to call my mom and a few and be like, can you hunt down

the kids at school. I need some cookie. Oh yeah, you just you have a connect now, Becca, former you know, former Girl Scout sales associate. My mom used to run a little cookie market out of her classroom when I was a Girl Scout, and I would be like the top seller in Texas because kids would just like bring

cash and buy cookies for my mom's cookie booth. And she didn't get in trouble at one point because they were like, you can't sell things to the children, and Mom's like, but like, I'm not profiting so right, it's like I don't benefit. The Girl Scouts get the money. But she could be with these because apparently these are hitting the resale market and being marked up, which is crazy. I haven't even thought to check the resale market at might get to that point. It's actually right next to

the helium black market, is them. So these are dry, Like I was picturing a cookie that had like some raspberry jelly jam situation. This is just a raspberry flavored cookie, no mint, just a kind of vanilla raspberry type deal inside a chocolate coated But but they're shaped exactly like thin mint. What do you mean? Just what do you mean? Just a raspberry chocolate cookie. I was I had jelly on the brain, you know, I was ready jelly jelly, and there's no jelly that I was assuming that when

I Googled. I was like assuming it'd be like a short bread you know, jelly cookie take. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a classic cookie. Cookies don't Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. How about you, Ben, what is something from your search history? Usually I tease Amory about being um, kind of like a bit of a grandma. I was going to say before like the only time she started complaining about the kids in the woods was like after one of the

weekly grandma meetings that she goes too. Surely, but um, but I I But in this moment, I was like, how do I find my search history? I had like one of those moments where I was like, how do I even get to this? And it legit? My most immediate result is view my Google search history? Okay, no, but I one that I had recently was Aqua Lagoon water Park, West Springfield. So I live in central Massachusetts.

And as Amory will know, and our listeners, if they've listened to our swimming whole episode will know from listening to endless thread. I love a swim spot indoor, outdoor, winter, summer, spring fall. If I can go swimming, that's like one of my top If I have some free time, I'm looking for a place to swim. And I was supposed to hang out with some friends recently and I was

like desperately searching. I was supposed to hang out with some friends like close to where I live, and I was I was like I didn't really want to take them to the why, but I was like, we should

go swimming, Like how where can we go swimming? And I used to live in New York City and they had this place called Spa Castle out in Flushing that was like amazing, and I had all of these like the copper room and the ice room and the salt room, and like you could go into all these different rooms and also had these like this sort of like palatial set of different um swimming pools a hot times. Yeah, yes, yes, and it is massive and amazing. I actually don't know

if it's still open. I haven't been for a long time, but I was kind of looking for that. I was like, we gotta have a spa around here somewhere right now. The answers now it's like college swimming pools that I'm not allowed in, you know, without being a called edgecap which was a long time ago, or or y mcas. There's no like I found this, you know. I mean the Lagoon water park that reviews did not look good. It's like in a hotel, I think, but yeah, that's

winter swimming in Massachusetts? Is that? Are you only doing that indoors? I'm as swimming or I'm not bold enough to do it. You're not like a whim hoof method person who's like out here being like you have to shock your body and put yourself in pain every day. I have done that. I have done that and enjoyed it, but it's not my like regular like get together with

some friends and jumping the water man. I love a good water park and water parks I feel like are underrepresentative on the West Coast as compared to the East Coast. And I've always had the theory that it's because the air is thinner and less like there there's less humidity out here and so it's just colder when you get

out of the water and southern California. But I don't I said that on the show and people explain to me that I was wrong, And there are plenty of water parks out here, but it just feels like less of a cultural thing that everybody does. That also in America, like there's there's like we are we are poor in water parks. I think America is like Europe has some like incredible water parks. I feel like whereas. I think it really depends on where you are, because being from Texas,

there are a lot of water parks. Oh yes, I feel like should be in Texas. I grew up in water parks. Now, as an adult post COVID, I don't think I could ever step foot in a water park. But when I was a blissful child, I was at schlitter Bond every summer spring break, like we family vacation schlitter Band and there's just schlitter South Padres on San Antonio, like there's there're everywhere new bronze fouls. Uh. And then there is um this other one, like this indie park

in Waco which was crazy water park. Yeah, it was like this tiny, tiny little water park, but they also had like a wakeboarding park which got famous for this very dangerous slide that they had. And then you had like Brazos River Ride. It's like it's just water in Texas. It's like the whole thing. It's the only fun thing about Texas is doing water related things. I love a famously dangerous water park, a documented thing about Okay, yeah, yeah,

I mean even a disney World. When I was a kid, like the best part of my trip to Disney World was a place called River Country. I remember thinking as a kid, like this seems irresponsible part of Disney World to like have, because it's just they built a water park into the swamp, and it's there's just so much brown water that like kids are swimming around in, like so so much ground to cover for a lifeguard. But they shut that down and now it's like this post

apocalyptic rotting husk of an old water park. Nice. If I wasn't going to be a podc if I wasn't going to grow up to be a podcaster, I wanted in sixth grade, I really wanted to actually design water slides. Yeah, I mean I had like a moment where I was like I was super into it and drawing them and stuff, and I think that's got to be a job. I just I just never found my way. They didn't have that major in college when I was there. Yeah, they

should get on it. College is amory. What's something you take? Is overrated? Oh? So many things? And yet I really don't like to yuck other people's yems. But sure this is a take. Okay, I think Trader Joe's is overrated. Oh my god, thank you? Yeah, I know. So here's here's here's my thing I've had. I've had good experience

as a Trader Joe's. Like if I go on a reporting trip, I spend fifty bucks and I have food for the entire week because I eat like I'm on a camp trip and I just make myself like peanut butter banana sandwiches. But if i'm you know, if we're being honest about Trader Joe's, the Trader Joe's that I've gone to at least are in like affluent neighborhoods that maybe don't need the cost savings of a Trader Joe's

set up. I don't like when you when you get hooked on their particular products, and then if you can't find a Trader Joe's, you're like, but what about my sweet potato nioki with brown butter sage or whatever it is, you know. Yeah, and the produce. I'm a real produce gal, and I don't think the produce is ever that terrific. It's not like an afterthought. Yeah, it's usually really bad.

I will give you that. Like now, as a grown adult, I'm like, Okay, maybe Trader Joe's isn't the best option, But when I, like when my partner's not here and I'm like alone for a while because he's been traveling a lot, Trader Joe's is the better option if you're trying to buy for one person because they do make

portions small. Like if I buy like a thing of frozen fetched bowls or you know, even certain produce and things, it's like much easier to buy for one, whereas like if I'm buying for both of us, we'll probably go to like a Whole Foods or you know, a regular grocery store because you can actually buy for a reasonable family.

But if you are buying for one, I do think Trader Joe's is in a pinch great because You're right, there are a lot of things that are just like I love it because I love it, but I's not practical. Always little packages of nuts and seeds. They're perfect. I get it, but it's yeah, I think it's it's it fills an important role in some people's lives, but it's never going to be my my grocery store of choice. And when people are like there's no Trader Joe's, I'm like, yeah,

deal with it. The five other options. Let's up those parking lots. Parking lots. The parking lots are crazy. In every Trader Joe's, it's like, it's never right. What is this such a weird seems like a decision was like O small cars for driving to the Trader Joe's made right, I don't yeah, or like an argument that we're like living in a computer program. That's the only like that's the you know what I mean, there's something about that the perking lot is terrible in every Trader Joe's. We

this must be the same ration. They also made the decision, like I remember researching how grocery stores are distributed, and like they all kind of followed the same design for for a long time, like that they would all like kind of flow in the same circular direction that like the human mind is like most comfortable going. I think it was counterclockwise, and then Trader Joe's was just like weird going to just put things randomly like where it's

not it's going to be randomly placed. And I think that then up ended the standard order of like everybody kind of agreeing that they would design their grocery stores in the same way. And it I just I always feel a little at see when I like walk into a Trader Joe's, like as to where I'm gooing and like where to find stuff? Yeah, I have to ask the Trader Joe's employees, And then that brings in a whole new problem I have with Trader Joe's, which is

that they want they want to know about me. I want to have some conversation, just like a man, and the jury is still owed on whether they're union friendly or not. So right, you've been going through some of those good point struggles too, Yeah, Trader Joe's feels like the sort of place that would have a company town if company towns were like more normal, like yet they would have like little towns next to the people who

live near these. Trader Joe's practically are town generally speaking, I stay away from anybody wearing like repeatedly wearing Winan shirts on purpose. It's like proud boys prooys about them and in Trader Joe's employees. I don't know. Yeah, i'd stay out of that company town. I don't know. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back, Ben, We'll hear you're overrated and you guys is underrated, and maybe

get into some news. We'll be right back and word back and Ben, what is something that you think is overrated? I had, I had two things. I'm not sure which one is better. I'm just gonna go. I'm just gonna I'm gonna breeze by one and say TikTok explainers because half of them are bs I feel. And then I'm but I'm gonna go to a bigger one in this moment for me, which is that and this this is

a this is a theory. It's not deeply researched. I'm gonna say train derailment stories, train derailment stories are overrated. And what I mean by that is that ever since the horrible story in Ohio that we all followed and were just incredibly sad, I mean I was incredibly saddened and angered by to see that story sort of play out and learn who's you know, who's who's suffering from it and who's not suffering from it, if that makes

any sense. I just feel like now I'm seeing trained derailment stories all the time, like I'm seeing them over and over, and I guess what I can't tell in this moment, and this is what I mean by overrated, is whether this is a sort of like a larger issue that we are now coming to terms with because they're actually happening, because there is an actual jump in trained derailments, or if the media generally is now all

of a sudden like trained derailments. Jimmy, go give me the latest trained derailment story, you know what I mean, Like there's more if it's like big plane and big automobile in trains not seem like the big bright future that they that they can and should have, probably for the sake of the planets, And that seems like a little late for them to jump in on that. But yes, and I just feel like it's it's one of those things where like I can't quite tell what's happening there.

It may be both, but I just it may be both that it's like it is a problem that's happening more. And also we are like hyper at tunes to it right now. Yeah, there's you know, I just feel like I keep seeing these stories and I'm like, are they are? We? Do we need all these train derailment stories? Is this a thing that's happening all the time and now all of a sudden we're paying attention. I don't know. Yeah,

I mean it does. It does feel like a bad thing to be happening all the time in the background while we ignore it. But also I also I also think that there's definitely, I think always a media bias for towards like I always bring up this snowstorm that happened in New York City and the media was caught flat footed, like they it was like twenty percent chance of snow this day, and then there was like a blizzard that stranded people in their cars, like in the

middle of the street. And then the next time that there was any chance of snow, it was like snow, and like that's the thing that just always happened. So I yeah, I appreciate your point on that, but this does feel like one where, especially with like the union conversations that have been happening and Biden's a big train guy. I don't. I don't think my theory is all that crazy. I'm just gonna say, you think it's that, you think

it's the air you think it's the airline industry lines. Yeah, not necessarily, but you know, like they're high speed rail in the United States would be a very good thing. And when you have a lot of stories all at once that are instilling a fear of train travel in people, because like you said, maybe it's just that there are

a lot of train derailments right now. But the more fear that is instilled, the easier it is to talk us out of something that is actually a very good idea for you know, society and for the planet and the future of transportation. So Southwest Airlines, like Michael Clayton, bad guy was out on the train track to Ohio, Like right, we don't know exactly. I mean the stick of butter, we kind of do that light rail between Dallas and Houston, so crazy. Southwest headquarters are in Dallas,

so true. Yeah, but are they inspiring the media to cover it? That's my point. See, I'm always like skeptical of that, Like every like I feel, like, you know, on the on the right. I always hear this like media conspiracy stuff, and I'm like, man, do you guys, I mean, I work at public radio. I'm like, do you guys realize how disorganized we are? Like? This is not nobody it has the ability to be to make a phone call unless they're Rubert Murdoch. It talks news.

Nobody has the ability to make a phone call or a comment that actually drives trash coverage down the chain, at least not in my brain experience, Amory, what's something you think is underrated? Well, this isn't going to do anything to disprove Ben's accusations that I am an old woman, but they're both elderly things. But I'm gonna I'm sticking to my guns, and I'm gonna say flossing. Flossing is

highly underrated. You don't know all the shit you're missing in your teeth until you start flossing, and then once you start, you'll never go back because you know exactly what's in there and what you got out. And everyone should be flossing. So I'm sticking to it. Spicy take, thank you. I am now flossing daily for the first time in my life. Really yet to have my teeth cleaning like chick follow up, like final exam. It's how

I'm viewing it. So I'm like, I've never had a cavity in my life, and I'm like thinking that, like for some reason, this is going to be like the first time I had, Like so you get at yeah, I get a cavity from flossing somehow. Talked to a dentist who is saying that, like your mouth is constantly at war between like cavities and gum disease. Like those are the two things that can be going on in your mouth, but like it's kind of one or the other because they're like caused by like bacteria that are

like at war with one another. And so if you're not a cavity person, you probably are dealing with gum disease and or like vice versa. I would party in there at the very least, like cavities, gum disease or party Like there's a party in your mouth. Yeah, there's a party in your mouth something Yeah your breath smell like yeah, then how about you? What's something you think is underrated? The whold my nip subreddit. I really like the hold. I know, I know what it sounds like.

The hold my Nip subreddit. And this is of course something that we've discovered through making endless thread over the years and looking at a lot of stories on Reddit, and you know, you get into some weird subs, and I got into this suble a while ago. Now it's part of the constellation of cat related subreddits. And I don't know if you've heard of my hold my beer, of course, you know, hold my shar Oh, my man,

that cold, my cosmo. And so this is this is just footage of cats high on cat nip, and it's I find it to be very you know, just to bring me a little bit of light and joy when I'm feeling when I'm feeling gloomy. Hold my nip is good. High animals, that's a yeah. Yeah. And I'm not pro high. I'm not pro getting your animals highness saahly. So I'm not sure. I don't know. Maybe maybe folks feel weird about katnip in general, but I will watch it on

the internet and I will enjoy it. So amazing. We we just found out about shower Orange as a subreddit, so this is a new Yeah, we had a whole shower Yeah, yeah, still haven't partaken, did you guys, for for the purposes of research, partake in the show? Yeah? Yeah, Bend. Did I think you recorded some in the shower? Right? Wow? Yeah I did. I still haven't tried it. I don't know what's wrong with me. It's amazing. It lives up to the hud. I mean, I've had a showers oil.

Citrus oil in general in your zone is a good thing, I think, but in the shower it's even better. One of our listeners that actually pomelo shower. Pomelos are the the way that's or pamello. I guess that's how you pronounced that. Anyways, it's a great fruit, right, Yes, it's a great fruit with a lot of like puffy padding around it. But yeah, it's like a sweeter grape fruit. They are wonderful. All right, Let's get into a little

bit of news. Let's talk about so Elon Musk wants to build a utopian company town in like near his boring and SpaceX facilities in Texas. Planning to turn he bought thousands of acres of Texas land, and I guess

is incorporating them into a town. There's a sign up that says welcome Snailbrook, Texas established twenty twenty one, and this well one of our you know, Cody Johnston, one of our favorites, had this tweet where he was just documenting this person speed read Dan Vibolager at Vibolager on Twitter, who was did a long thread of who should Elon Musk date. As a physiognomist and master matchmaker, I've identified

twelve potential sweet sweet sutresses for our chief tweeter. I've analyzed their social media profiles and suggests Elon Musker his team reach out to one of them one of these lovely ladies promptly as just a very dark thread wherein he ranks one of the people, fashion model Claire Jamison. She is the youngest and the purest on this list, eighteen years young, solid personality, and then at tenth former

Victoria's Secret model Magdalena Frank Hawiyak. She would be higher up the list except she's the oldest on here at thirty eight. Chris, Yeah, very gross. It just it feels like there's already a cult key aspect to the the energy around Elon Musk and company. Towns just don't have the best history just in general anywhere you don't say yeah, it turns out and I'm so tired, man, aren't you guys tired? And for the rest of the episode, we're actually just going to cut off here and go take

a nap. Becca, as a Texan, how what are you feeling right now? Not good? But also this has been like the downturn of Austin for so long because Austin has become the little tech capital of the South. It you know, has Facebook's offices over there. You got now Twitter because of Elon, but also SpaceX and Tesla. Like last time I was in Austin, which was in November, I drove past the Tesla factory and I was like,

this is crazy. I've never seen anything like this before, Like just like against the highway was huge and all these Tesla's and I don't know, it's really poisoned. I think the culture. I think it's soured the vibe there too, because now you have all these tech bros coming in with their tech money in a place that used to be pretty affordable. To be honest, I talked to a few of my friends that live in Austin, and they're

paying as much rent as I am. And I live in New York City, you know, And I'm like, that should not be the case. You should not be paying more rent some of them than I'm paying to live in New York City. That is baffling to me. I'm like,

I'm never moving back to Texas for many reasons. But if you're going to tell me I have to pay more in rent, out of a solution for you, Becca, because the rent is actually going to be lower than what it is in the surrounding community for people who work and live there, but they have to work at Tesla or SpaceX, SpaceX or boring. Okay, SpaceX are boring. And it's also like you you'll be able to live in one of the residents is not the residents that

they're building. That is like just in the offing, overlooking the whole thing that is being built specifically for him. That is like a giant mansion, but that like literally the layout from the town. And don't worry, Darling. Yeah, I think, don't worry, Darling vibes, Crypto Island vibes. I just feel like, like, here's here's what I think is the good news from this story. Maybe is like my friend Ted Man, who he writes for The Wall Street Journal.

He did a big sort of investigation on on boring company and kind of that company's impact on towns that it promised to dig tunnels for a few months back, and like the the takeaway is like it's all bullshit, man, Like he's just you know, like, I don't think that this is gonna turn into like like so many Elon Musk promises, this is gonna sort of like here in

a wisp of fart smelling smoke. You know. It's just like, I sure that's my prediction, not knowing much about much, but I just think every time he announces something like this, everybody's like, is it going to happen? And it's almost never happens. Yeah, it does seem ill fated that somebody who wouldn't even give his Twitter employees toilet paper at the office would now be like in control of an

entire town, suburban community. I mean there is a part of it too that it's like I feel like Texas is prone to cults for its like spaciousness and like devoutism over there because I went to Baylor. Yikes, and it's in Waco. I don't know what you're talking about what I've never so it doesn't like I do feel like sadly with like the weird tech broke culture that like something could happen of this of like out of

all his you know, outlandish promises. I feel like people will move here just to be a part of the culture. It kind of doubles down on the thing that does work for him, which is creating a cult around him, create like just doubling and tripling down on the you

know belief that America has. Like I talk about how like America it has this danger where like in the UK, there is like the royal family where they like put all their like self serious solemnity and like you know belief in leadership, and you know there's almost like a spiritual aspect to it, and that is like disconnected from

the actual person making the decisions. But in America we like collapse all of that into the president and now we have like a somebody running for president who has a death cult around them, who what was the president fairly recently. And I feel like Elon Musk also has this kind of dangerous combination of just people who are like almost spiritually devoted to him because like there's not a lot of space for spiritual and like interpersonal connection.

Like so just like all of those things that you know, people used to get from church and being part of like a union or you know, being part of their community and knowing their neighbors, like all that stuff is getting replaced and like collapsed into like how they feel about billionaires and shit like that. And so yeah, well the same thing that attracts some people to him is the thing that makes me, that tells me inside to run away. Yeah I don't. I just yeah, the best

thing about Tesla he was not even responsible for. And so the rest of it is is a still to be proven concept that is coming out of this figure that to me is so unsavory. Yeah, there's nothing me, there's nothing pulling me towards the vision that he's trying

to build. Yeah. No, My only hope is, like I sometimes I wonder how much of that, like we on our show, we you know, we say about them with this sort of connection between online communities and real life community communities, and that's where what we're sort of looking at. I do wonder if Elon Musk his you know, his image is larger on the internet, if that makes any sense, and like that's the thing that I cling to in these moments where I'm just like, yes, yeah, I'm concerned

about all of this stuff. And I also like wonder how much of like his sort of outsized figure is really like not connected to real people and real problems that they're living with and living through and working on. Yeah, but you know, maybe that's I mean, that does kind of align with this Wall Street Journal article, which actually think your friend that you had mentioned is a writer

on ted Man. Yeah. Yeah, it uh kind of goes into detail that under Texas law, a town needs at least two hundred and one residence before he can apply to incorporate an approval from the county judge, and Bastrop County hasn't received any application from mister Musk or any of his entities, so you know. But it also says that he's been trying to like keep this a secret and they want to do things before anyone knows it's

really happening. So yeah, right up the gate. Yeah, I mean, and he did do a tried to do it launch a company town in twenty twenty one in Boca Chica Village for SpaceX and residents of the town said that he just like took over an existing quaint little village, bought up the majority of the homes, not all of them, though, and then renamed it Star Base without asking anyone and

just announced it on Twitter. And his rocketship launch pads have been ruining the local beaches and destroyers an ecosystem that's been there for hundreds of years. We love modern day colonization. Yes, all right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk daylight savings and chewing gum. And we're back. And so this weekend we're set to

lose an hour thanks to daylight savings time. We've talked before repeatedly about how dumb daylight savings time is, and you know, organizations such as the American Academy of Sleep Medicine are kind of against it, but there are you know,

there's just a lot of inertia behind it. And so it's there was this moment when end Daylight Savings Time bill like flew through Congress and we were like, well done and dusted, because we don't pay attime or I don't pay attention to help how these things actually get passed into law. Very well, now it's been swamped by split opinions from the numbers and lobbying from sleep specialists on the one side, and then commerce the commerce side on the other. And oh I thought we were good.

We're not good out. Oh no, this is terrible news. Yeah. Can you what is the actual because I feel like we all complain about daylight saving saving or savings. I should know this from watching VP because that the one characters that was like savings, but now I can't remember if he was like, no, it's singular, No, it's plural, plural, yeah, savings time. Yeah, they they're propaganda is in the name

they gave it. There's so much. It's not just saving, it's savings, saving things, savings daily because we all complain about it. But when we get that extra hour of sleep or when we go from it, you know, getting a little more light in the morning, yeah, it's kind of pleasant. No, Yeah, so I mean the I think the thing that most people like, permanent daylight savings would give you more daylight in the in the morning, I think,

or longer days. I forget which one it is, but I think I think it's just like the studies have been that it's just bad for us to change our clock, like our internal clock, Like our internal clock is not on board with regulators. You know, it's it's not paying attention to that stuff. And so there are more car accidents in the immediate aftermath of daylight savings, and you know,

the clock going back the other direction. It's really bad for teenagers like who really need a lot of sleep, and like the school system is not built to give them a lot of sleep. And so so now like not only is there there's the lobby of keep it the way it is, there's the lobby of like we need to make daylight savings permanent, and then there's the lobby of like we need to keep like do the

other like make standard time permanent. And there are fine reasons on all sides, I guess, but I think I'm pro daylight, like making daylight savings permanent and just like moving on with it because it does feel like there's just a lot of negative impacts that happen when you change the clock on people and their body has to like catch up, and just like making that a regular thing. So when we spring forward, you want us to stay

that way? Is that right? Yeah? I think that's right. Okay, that does keep the day longer, right, because that means sunset is setting an hour later than in normally would because we ate an hour. Yeah. Its like in the fall when you fall back, you're losing an hour. Yes, I mean you're gaining an hour, You're an hour sunlight, that's right. I mean, yeah, in the morning or the afternoon, I can't I can't even remember which. I don't think

my clocks have been. It's five pm, but your clock says four pm, so you're dark and it's dark and you're sad. Yeah, but in the spring, your clocks is four pm. But now it's surprised it's five pm and it's still light. Yes, okay, Yeah, I feel like it's like I always think of it as like the summer, the summer part of the calendar, that's the good times, and then in the winter that's like the weird times where we change in order to fix something. Yeah, That's

how I've always thought about it. And I also just feel like we should be you know, we used to all like kind of do the same things at the same time because it was more connected to nature, and now that like we're all like staring at our blue screens into the late into the night, et cetera, et cetera. We struggle with this stuff and I feel like, yeah, just I don't know, keep keep it natty. Is that a thing to say? I don't know. Y. Yeah, we'll

add a fourth group to it. Yeah, where's Yeah, if we just abolished clocks and we all just did what we wanted into the void, how about that time as a construct. It's tough because I tend to instinctively not want to be on the same side as the golf course lobby, but powerful, powerful groups are like the golf course lobby wants permanent daylight time because it would bring

in up to ten percent additional revenue. I just want them to make up their mind, listen to the sleep scientists, and do do what they tell them too, so that people are like have have better quality of life as opposed to like whatever business interests are. Yeah, I would personally love to not have to switch a clock again, just because I think my kitchen clocks I never change them. They're still off. I'm telling you what's going on over there.

If the clock doesn't automatically switch is not going to change. Sorry, you just avoid that room. You're like, yeah, I'm unlike away time forever. I'm like, I must keep my phone near me because I don't know what time it is on that clock. So and then chewing gum just a concerning report for those of us who enjoy a nice chew that, you know, while other candy is improving following the pandemic, gum is still eight point eight percent below

sales numbers in twenty nineteen. And gum took just like a massive hit during the pandemic due to its they they said, due to its social nature, which made me think of like a bunch of friends just sitting around. I'm like handing each other pieces of gum and just like I'm like pointing at their jaw. You guys want

to choose some gum tonight, let's choose. I'm thinking, if you remember all the gum commercials from I don't know, the early aughts, they it's like all about you can sing you the double mine that there's a lot of a lot of the gum commercials that are like, oh my god, they're about to share their first kiss. I

remember that one very distinctly. I remember what the brand was, but it was like this boy and this girl and like the note or like the gum rapper tune into like love notes and then they like finally share their like first kiss. Yeah, so I'm sure that was what I was thinking. Here's a weird question, though, like when when was the last time anyone here kissed someone else with gum in their mouth and gum and the other person's mouth. No, no, you just prepare with the gum. Yeah, yeah,

but then you got like spin it out. That's true. That is like a weird thing that I remember doing that. Actually, I feel like I feel like it's Yeah, I was like you said, I feel like it's a mistake you learn in high school when you're first starting to learn to kiss, Like like, yes, I hold up one finger put in a piece of gum, yeah, exactly for about three to four minutes, and then my wife and I

have a nice kiss on a babe. But yeah, I don't, I don't know that, like it just it seems like we're so The theories on why gum chewing was down were people were wearing masks and so they were the only ones having to experience their own breath. I would always put in a piece of gum when I was wearing a mask. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's like I choose. Well, first of all, it does move your mask around a little more. It does get a little fog gear in there, so that's a problem. But

but like I chew gum for me. I've never chew gum for the benefit of other people. I'm sorry, Like it's not to make my breath fresher for you. It's like I want a fresher situation or I enjoy the act of chewing gum. So yeah, do it for you, man, that's right, Sam a mint Gurley, I do love a mint. I'm all about. Yeah, it just needs something going on. Yeah, I to be frank, I love them. They're like edibles. They're like mint edibles, like we know. That's because they

they're like relaxing. Like sometimes I don't know, I have too much coffee. I tend to be like you know, so if I if sometimes I'm out and I'm like you know, at an event or something, and I need just like a little bit of calmness, and it's two for one. I'm getting a fresh breath and you know, I'm a little and it's like the point like it's like five milligrams like such low dosage and it's just like truly just like a calming feeling, like you don't

feel high, it's not too much. And I also learned that you digest differently by dissolvable versus by like a gummy, and so it's a more like baseline like feeling versus like a gummy can be very volatile and how it reacts because it has to go through your metabolism first to dissolve, so it kind of can be very like, oh, you're really high or you're not high at all, whereas like a mint, you can kind of get the same

feeling every time. Yeah, you know, after after listening to that, I feel like like a fear and loathing in Las Vegas if they had, like you know, some of those in the suitcase full of drugs, like they would have a better time. Yes, Like I'm you sold me, I'm in. Yeah, I love it. Last time I was in Portland, I bought some and they were like so good. Yeah, I don't know that it's I am. I will go into a gas station and buy the whole box of the type of Trident gum that I like because it's hard

to find. And so when I a Trident man, I am a Trident man. Have some blue peppermint Trident, which is my second favorite flavor of pineapple. Twist is weirdly my favorite. It just has a nice it lasts a long time. And you know what, I forgot a very important brand of gum that I did love, not just the hard case but the Mentos. M hmm, what's the like red lime? Mentos red Lime. That fruity gum is great. So if you like the Trident fruity, maybe maybe treat

yourself sometime to Mentos red Lime. There's also the story was upsetting to me because there's all they were like, they're also facing competition from natural gum brands because those brands aren't full of micro plastics, which I was like, No, have a bunch of those pe fasts forever chemicals. To me, what this is implying And that's not great. So yeah, anyways, bad news for cheers out there, bad news for big gum.

But maybe maybe an alternative future where I think these gums are made of the core ingredient chickle, which is like how we got to gum in the first place. Yeah, chicklets, Yeah, there you go. I used to love chicklets. Oh my god. I love of chicklets growing up. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't seen a chicklet in him in a chick lit minute. Those lose their flavor. Three choose in like you how we feel about Trident though. That's why I'm shocked that

you're a Trident man. Oh I feel like Trident has the best lasting of like some trident that the cinnamon doesn't. Doesn't work that way. But okay, yeah, fun fact we only go into the office one day a week these days in post well we're not post pandemic, but you know what I mean in these yeah, weird times they are. And most of what was on our desks before the

pandemic was gone. But something that survived was a post it that I had left on Ben's desk because he was chewing Trident gum and I left him this note I'd gotten him like a pack of I don't know, orbit or something else, and I said, this is because Trident sucks and you deserve better gum. So better Ben. Yeah, yeah, so Jack, I'm going to say the same to you. Wow. I'm not trying to again, not trying to yuck. You're yum,

but I do think they are. You should explore the horizons even more with gum get those sales up for us. I think those trining commercials were was like if you can't brush true Trident really and do you remember those? Those are like early nineties. They were like dentists say, Trident is basically the same as brushing dentists. Yes, And I think that I printed on me pretty strongly because yeah, I'm still brand loyal to try to. I really want

to know what your dentist says. Will you let us know, Let's see how flossing is going and Trident is going. I just I want to know if they say to you. I want to know, like if they say to you Jack, like you really need to flosphore, because then we'll know it's bullshit, you know, Yeah, that's right, and I'll need a new I'll need a new underrated. That's well, Ben Amory, it's such a pleasure having you both. Where can people

find you? Here? You guys all that good stuff. Usually I'm in the kitchen making making snacks for myself and my kids. The show is called Endless Thread and you can find it wherever you listen to this podcast. You and I'm at the brock Johnson on Twitter because I'm trying to I'm trying to write on the coach cotails of Dwayne the Rock Johnson, our next president right then

the Brock Johnson. Yes, I'm at Amrie Music A m O R Y music all one word and the show is at Endless underscore thread and we have a pretty active subreddit which is endless thread dot reddit dot com. There you go, And is there a tweet or work of media that you guys have been enjoying. I just

like Atlanta. All of Atlanta, I feel like, is the thing that I just keep coming back to, Like it makes me sad that it's over, but like, also, they did so much cool shit on that show, and it's just like if I'm talking to somebody about things that I'm consuming, I know it's old news, but like I just I kind of feel like that show. I hope that that show taught me things, and I feel like

that show showed them. I just think it's a great example of like what television can be when it's weird and might it gets super weird and I just love that show and that's I don't know, I feel like for me, that's yeah, that's it. How about you? Amor. We did an episode about this, but Goosebumps now exists

as a musical and it's pretty delightful. And I'm on a not so secret campaign to give Goosebumps the Musical the stage that it deserves so much so that we did this episode obviously, but we also have a change dot org petition to help get Goosebumps the Musical to Broadway.

I think if you, just if you need a little spooky delight, fire up the goose Bumps the Musical soundtrack on wherever you listen to those kinds of things and and treat yourself, and then listen to our episode about Goosebumps the Musical featuring R. L Stein himself, Wow, singing the whole time, right he does. He does make a

cameo on the soundtrack for the music. Wow. You talked to us about it that we did a whole bonus episode just with him because he was a real delight And there's a there's a tie in between goose Bumps the Musical and the song Escape aka the Penia Colada song. Oh yeah, so I won't say more than that, but yeah,

I have to check it out. It's a real silly treat maybe the least haunting song of all, but I love that song that they went with that one super producer Becca, so wonderful coming in last second and like it was meant to be, like it was the plan all along. Wonderful having you this co host. Where can people find you? Follow you? And is there a work media you've been enjoying? Yes, you can find me and follow me at Beck's ramos b eccs R A M

was on all platforms. And my piece of media is this tweet from Lucas Battle Luk a s Battle on Twitter. But also I actually originally saw his TikTok on this which was a lot funnier than the standalone tweet. But it's a screenshot of Cole Sprouse with a cigarette in his hand from the Call Your Daddy podcast where he

was absolutely fucking insufferable. I did not watch the whole thing because like I simply could not, but the clips of him on the podcast keep going viral for like literally him being a venomous, horrible piece person on this planet. He's like, yeah, all my girlfriends of cheat on me emotionally, and it's like, yeah, after you like literally emotionally abuse them and cheated on them. But you know the whole thing,

contact me if you want to get into it. But it's the screenshot of him holding the cigarette looking like such a pompous art asshole, and he's like the and it goes me ordering an almond croissant, and then all the seats under it are like these dougiast things when you go to duncan and pronounce its So could get a sandwich please with my kolata? And I was at a coffee shop the other day and someone did come

and being like, yeah, can I have a song? And I was like, we're in a coffee shop in bed style, let's not do this today. All of the catchiers are like all right, Cols Brosse. Of course for other elderly listeners like myself is played Jugead on Riverdale and oh yes, he's a Disney kid the Twins that Cody also like the Twins from what's the Adam Standler movie? You know? So no, I'm not familiar with uh. He was like the Little Boy and the Adams. Gosh, I don't know,

you know, if you know you know big down? Yes, okay, he's yeah, he's the kids. I don't remember if there's two of them, or they just played them interchangeably like Mary Kaid Ashley full House style. But it's been a while, but yeah, they've been child stars forever. It's been notorious in the industry that Cole Sprouse is a nightmare to work with and is just like kind of an insufferable person.

They have. They made their names known when they were at NYU, and they were difficult people, both him and Dylan. But I guess it's been like this opposite thing where people are like Dylan's lovely or he's like fine enough for someone who grew up in the industry, and Cole is awful. So who knows. I've not worked with either, so don't cover me. I'm just reading the Dumoi haa goss amazing. You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore.

O'Brien tweet I enjoyed, please be gneiss Nice tweeted remembering this on International Women's Day, and it is an exchange from I guess twenty twenty one, where Alexis geez All tweeted, oh you're a feminist name every woman and Eric Priesca tweeted Whitney Houston, which got me and I'm every Woman, and I feel like I had to pass that on like it followed this. Yeah, you can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at the Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram.

We have a Facebook fan page on a website, Daily zeitgeist dot com where we post our episodes and our foot notes where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Super producer justin what is the song that you think people might enjoy? Seeing as how it's Friday for listeners, I figured I'd

leave y'all with a banger. I've been on a bit of a Brazilian funk kick lately and this song has a bit of that with the UK trap twist to it. As it is produced by Troy Boy and artist I recommended a while ago. This song is fun and bouncy. It has the high I pitched Luke going on in it and a lot of energy. So this is ning game Door May by Troy Boy mc land and trop Killers. Do not at me on the pronunciation, as I do

not speak Brazilian Portuguese. Once again, well you can find that in the footnotes The Daily Zeite Guys is a production of iHeartRadio. From more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you're listening your favorite shows. That is going to do it for us this morning, back this afternoon to tell you what is trending and we will talk to you all then. Bye bye