Nobody Wants Pandemic Movies, What’s The Point Of Police? 01.30.23

But National thirty one, I said, National January. It's National thirty one plan for a vacation day, National Backwards Day, Inspire your Heart with Art Day, and National Hocolate Day. I felt like Hot Chocolate Day, said whatever. I hate. I hate the fact that there are things like that, like inspire your heart with art that is a good sentiment that nobody should be ashamed of like having or partaking in. But like I can't not see it in that font that like wine mom font, you know, like

like yeah, been stitched into a pillow or whatever. The imagery is just fantastic. It's a it's a it's a small child with their like hide hands like they were doing Thaidie finger paint. So if that doesn't inspire your heart, Jack, I don't know what will. How did they do that? Wanna That's the whole thing, dude, inspire your heart. Art just inspired your heart. That art inspired my heart. Now go to some artie to be a competitive parent. I'm like, we need to do that art project. We're like, what

you got kids. My name's Jack O'Brien, ak Potatoes O'Brien, and I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host, Mr Miless Miles Gray a k A. Big Daddy Grain almost almost I will be there, but yeah, it's I was just saying I can't leave y'all part of me, just if I'm like if I'm like, if I have the voice in my body, I get on the mic. That and also I just wanted to kick it with our guest today, So yeah, yeah, this is uh, that makes a lot of sense. This is long overdue

Bill to be joined in our third seed. One of my favorite humans, one of my favorite creatives. He also co founded a humor magazine, Mental Philosophy, ran the New York studio for I Heeart Well Great Podcast, part Time Genius before moving on to start Kaleidoscope, a very exciting podcast studio and hosts the show star Line Drive. Please welcome to the show, the brilliant, the talented man Gashatika Off. I feel like that was too nice an introduction, man,

you heavy man. Big fans over here, big fans, Her majesty, hold the baby for another day. I could be here for the hold on, hold on, let me look at it. If this is right, full disclosure, Her majesty, have the pregnancy salad, which is this thing in l A that supposedly like induces labor but like it's just like a t MZ like l a myth basically. But it's funny when you go they make you sign a book is ship. They're like, oh you haven't, okay, you gotta fill out

the book then, and it's just wild. I'm like they have a God complex about it there, like put your name in the Book of life, right, like leave your inscription pond the wall for the other travelers that are curious. But it's such a scam to me, like because you're dealing with something too, and it also didn't work. It's just it's but it's brilliant, right because for people don't know. There's like this thing is like the pregnancy salad and

what it's supposed to do. People come like when they're around the time they're expecting, they have it and supposedly would induce labor. But like you're already dealing with people that are like very close to having a child anyway, So you can describe it to fucking anything, you know what I mean. It like you'd be like l a water, you know what I mean, take two SIPs l a water every day. But is there anything special about the salad, like it's a spicy or is there like no, I

guess I fucking down like a couple. Like I was like, hey, brings something actually dressing real quick because I wanted to know because all I knows it's the dressing, right, Yeah, there's something in the dress. It's a straight up vinaigrette. It's just a big that's I'm like, this is genius. This is genius. They don't know. But you put a placebo affecting people's heads. I love that. And they're just making bank off. There were so many other pregnant people

there was wild. Yeah, I misunderstood what the pregnancy salad was, and I ate just bushels of that ship trying to get a junior situation, but it had been good for the show's visibility and did not work out. Disappointed a lot of people that day ecut to me, I was like, Jack, that's not how it works, man, I don't know. Maybe it's like a big type situation where you interacted this magical, mundane thing and the impossible. Yeah, these are exciting, terrifying times.

So glad to spend them with you. Miles. Yeah, and I guess you're also daddy. What what's am? I? Am? I ever gonna not be nervous in anticipation of this child coming up? Or were you cool, calm and collected because everything I'm I was telling Jack earlier, I'm like, I'm just a wreck right now. When the fund is when's it coming? I was? I was so anxious. But I was also trying to like finish all these like like we had a cover story and the author dropped out or the writer dropped out, and so I ended

up writing it. So I was like, I was like trying to get Lizzie to like hold off like having this kid and tell us finished. So but um, but yeah, I mean I I was anxious the whole time. I was actually the whole like the first few months. It's crazy, you have an alien in your house. I'm cool with that.

I've always been an alien in my house. So I went on this, uh, this astrology for the reporting for the show, I went to India and visit all these like crazy astrologers and things, and like one of these guys told me that like he was talking about black magic and all this black magic that had been put on him and like how he found this amulet and he burned in and reversed the curse on these people. And then he was like and also, Tamil's the most

important language in India. It's the only language aliens understand. It's like I was not expecting any of this, but particularly that part, like Tamil Hubris coming at me the one language. So yeah, the show seems amazing, and it sounds like the research has been pretty a journey, I

guess to say the least. Yeah, it's been wild. I mean like it's it's one of those things that like I did it kind of as a lark because I knew that astrology was ridiculous, but also like a part of my life like my parents were only married because there um charts matched, and and like and my mom's chart had something that said, like he couldn't have a mother in law or her mother in law would die, and like my dad had lost his mom as a baby, and so like they got paired up as a result

of that. They were like each other and and and so like they went on dates and wrote letters and all this stuff and then decided they did like each other. But but like so like I'm here because of astrology, whether or not I believe in it, you know, we're just like like this, but like we met the first

astrologer who was on CNN. Like in the early days of CNN, they were just trying to figure out like how to get ratings, so they put an astrologer on like like hey, uh, there's that page in the newspaper and we're a news channel, so fuck it, let's give it a shot. Should we also have a crossword puzzle? But she was like like she was like all these anchors would like deride me on like on air, and then asked me to do their charts right after, Like and the thing, I feel like that's the my my

brain doesn't want to believe in it. But then like all these things happen in my life and I'm like, man, like, so I got I can't admit, like we're gonna cut this ship. I'm not adjusting, you're cutting this. But I like, like, I think I told you this when you were telling me that you're going to do this show. That like my three best friends and my wife are all born within a day of one another. Yeah, like all the first people that I hired it cracked. We're all like

born in the same week. And like all the ship that you know, I'm not I'm obviously not checking for but it's checking for me whether you like it or not. Jack Well, I mean that the crazy serious thing that happened to me was like I went in as a lark and and my friend A J. Jacobs, who's this writer, he was like, you should just like follow everything the

strolger says to the word, so like hire someone. And when they when the strolger is like that person isn't right for your show that you got let him go and it's like good tape or whatever. And and he during our reading, it was like all a really nice reading and and except he said, like your dad is gonna fall ill and might not make it through this year. And then like twenty minutes after our session, I was like hang out with my cousin at the shop, and I got this text from my dad that was like,

I have metastatic cancer. We didn't realize this is a threat to my body. And it's like, yeah, I mean it was. It was awful, But it's also like one of those things that like there are things that are just so eerie that they're hard to discount, you know, and and and so like you don't want to believe in something, and at the same time, like once someone said something, suddenly it gains this new truth or something.

You know, Yeah, pregnancy salad, you know. Reader, We had somebody, We had somebody who was going to tell us what the sex of our second child was going to be based on the rolls of fat in our first child's thighs. And she like had an annulet like we didn't like go to her or like she was for her first child, and she had it like put an ammulet over him and like went back and forth and was like, oh, it's a it's a girl for for certain, and we she was like talking to us through it, and she

was like, except sometimes it's the opposite. I was like, you know, there's only two options. It could be that could be the what I said to Yeah, there's this story I heard about this guy in the Middle East who who is a sonographer and he looks at baby's palms in utero and then tells rich moms the exact moment that they should have a c section so that their baby will have the like perfect birth going forward.

And so like I talked to ob g Winz about this in India and they're like, yeah, people come in and they're like I need my kids lived in this exact nineties second window and like and they have to do that, and otherwise they lose business or ever, right, and so like it's this craziness around babies. But I was asking him. I was like, what about this guy

who reads palms in utero. He's like, first of all, like I have the best scenography equipment in the world, and like, you can't read a baby's palm in it. And and secondly, most babies hold their palms and fists and so reader, they're like, how you gonna see their palms? I've seen them, I'm seeing them don't. Don't you think that that salad place should be just like selling it's dressing though, like you do, like you can buy it again.

Like it's just I think with everything, like whether it's astrology or pregnancy salads, there's always a fun to think that there just might be something that we can't quite fathom that has like a power that we can tap into. So I get that. But just me looking at like just the grim nature of our capitalist economy, I'm like, holy sh it, dude, you can start a fucking racket

with a bunch of things. It's like, yo, dude, you have this bobo right, Oh my god, you can get birth within at least four weeks of that, but you gotta happen when your thirty six weeks pregnant. And it's like, sure the map there works out, but you know, we all do what we got too deferred results. You do, like you're eat this salad and your child in their thirties will have the greatest run of luck ever, Right, I feel like, yeah, that that might work, like just

very very specific things. Yeah, yeah, like a like a thousand dollar Ivy League salad. Rightly, Yeah, there it is ship okay, exactly that is a kind of dumb ship that like happened in like New York or LA. Yeah, eighteen years, you had an eighteen year window, right, But also, you know the way that Ivy League schools work is actually, you know, if if a family has enough money to spend on a thousand dollars salad, they'll probably like but

don't read into the data too much. It's causation cas alright, man, I guess we're gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're gonna tell our listeners a couple of things we're talking about. We're gonna talk about the Memphis Police Department who apparently gave a white cop a slap on the wrists and no murder charge because you know, there was a white officer who was present and tazing and yeah, just all around. Still

dealing with the fallout from that. So we're we're gonna talk about the Tyree Nichols case. We're gonna talk about cancel culture striking again. Louis c. K Man like he had a sold out show at Madison Square Garden. I didn't even hear about it. He really did. Yeah, he

had a sold out show at Medison Square Card Good. Yeah, we're gonna talk about there's a bunch of pandemic themed movies comedies coming our way, and I'm just curious particularly yeah, to get you guys thoughts on like what it feels like we don't want to watch I I at least will speak personally, don't want to watch pandemic themed content

at all. And I remember when during the pandemic, I was very hungry for pandemic themed content, like you know, people grappling with all of this, and was went back to be like, well, it's surely they were like great, you know, novels written during the night pandemic, and like the big one was written like thirty years later, and that's still the best thing that I've written. Kim was The Plague. But the best thing I've read is Kim is the play hold on that you You wrote him

the Plague? Yeah, I wrote it. A few people realize that and that they were like this guy should edit Cracked. Yes exactly, you should start a humor magazine. But the yeah, I don't know. I So I'm just curious, like what we think it is, just like people are ready to

move on. Is there something about you know, we're we're still there's World War One movie that's nominated for an Academy Award this year, So like War obviously photographs better than plague, but still it's like something that makes more of a cultural imprint, and pandemics just don't. It's like they're written and disappearing anchor something. So I want to talk about that other stuff. But first man guests, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from

your search history. So recently Miles and I have been working on the show about a Robin Hood character, which which I'm super psyched about and Miles is incredible in. But coming out in April, yeah, I think may look. No, we're working on just so you know, this isn't a joke, This is gonna be a dope. Yeah, I'm I'm actually really excited. This is the first like narrative kind of podcast I've been I've hosted a voice so yeah, but

go on, go on there. We're sending a reporter out next week to various parts of Grease to to chase down some of these myths of where this guy is hanging out, this fugitive and one of the places that we're sending him is mount Athos. Have you have you heard of Mount Athos? Yeah, it's it's this peninsula increase, and it is super strange. And I only just read about something like I'm reading about it in sort of

like real time. But but it is this place that's supposed to be like super sacred to Christianity, and and so like the Russian Orthodox Church is there, the Greek Orthodox Church is there. But the craziest part about it is no women can go on and go into Mount Athos. But like so even the animals there are all male. They don't have any female animals. They're reverse Jurassic Park, reverse Jurassic Park, fucking in cell Jurassic Park. And and it's like because the it's sort of this like tax

haven slash, like Paradise splash whatever. I remember reading about this in the like I think Michael Lewis wrote like an article about the financial collapse in Greece's roll in it, and there was a bunch of it set in Mount Athos. First, that's definitely right, and and so like Putin apparently has hidden a lot of funnel a lot of money through

the Russian Orthodox Church that's there. And it's these two like rival Orthodox church on this one island where it's only men and it's just like the this fascinating strange place. And and apparently in like the nineteen fifties there was a Greek reporter a woman who was sort of like reached the island for three days before she was caught.

Like but but but they're like people who are constantly trying to get on the island or get get onto this peninsula and and and can't make it on wow, okay due to the ecosystem, Like well, like they can't control everything, right, and how do they police the birds flying in and out? I just have like world's best chicken sexors out. They're just like checking on every bird. Well they don't they friendly only have eggs on Easter

like like they don't. I. I don't know the specifics of it, but I but I know that like there's there's like a pastoral land and they're only bulls there, and there's like the only birds that chirp for supposedly

male male What what's the logic of it? Is it like some Adam and Eve stuff like where they're like you know, you know what happens when the females are around it is it is partially yeah like likesion and but but but also but also they land that I can't have those on what the fun is going on here? What it supposedly it's the only like the only woman who's been on the land is the virsion Mary. Like it's so yeah, there's like a whole story. The way to keep its sacred is just a bunch of lonely

men cranking off like like men's weekends. It feels it feels right, Yeah, there's an article we're probably not gonna have time to get to, but it's all about like the crisis of men in the modern world, and it's it it's not written from like the men's rights movement, but it's like just men are doing worse in school, like by like drastically like boys are doing worse than school. Or it's just like this sort of global thing across

societies that men are struggling. And this feels like I don't have the explanation, but the need to create this this sort of thing where it's like just just us, me and my boys can be ourselves like without women aroundably probably has something to do with cis. Yeah, you're dealing with like who thousand year old cultural norms and you're wondering why people are struggling in the year. But what you could do is so like we could burp without having to say excuse me or like it's just

like so mad. That's so tight, dude. As for the fellas, what can I says my ultimate man cave? Now that's great. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back and talk more, get to know you better, and we're back. And man, guess what is something you think is overrated? I think Bono is overrated? Whoa and and I don't mean I mean like I like Bono himself as a musician, I guess and and like but dude, what wait what what you were just talking about? How chill mount at

those dido is overrated? I'll tell you why. I think why I think Bono's overrated because every time someone pitches you a podcast and they're like searching for relevance, they pitched that they're going to get Bono on the podcast. The idea that like, you know that this is gonna change whether or not a podcast works is like ludicrous

to me. But it's always like no, no, no, they said they were gonna have Bono on, we should like sign him to the three show deal, you know, like like Bono was the bane of my existence like at my Heart and and uh and now I feel like like people throw it out, like it's like you're still seeing Bo's face on a deck for a show. I've

never heard Bono on a podcast. I mean, like I'm sure he's been on a podcast, but like he's not going to come on your real estate podcast to talk about like you know, fancy New York apartments, Like that's

not gonna happen. And what's going on? And yeah with like how he's diversifying his portfolio as he gets older kind of ship like that happening, But it is funny yet to your point, just some inside industry baseball, like when we we've looked at pitches for shows at my Heart, like there is there is something he is, like an ever present like potential hosts that a lot of people are like, yeah, and this thing about Tupac's unsolved murder, You're like, no, no, you're not. What are you you

talking about? Just because he did like a show with one of the producers fifteen years ago, Like no, like and no one wants to see that ship or here. But that's like that's exactly how tangential like Bono is to so many of these things, and he still shows up everywhere. It's like climate change, like HIV aids. I think there was another pitch where it was about something like with the eighties or something, and then also having Bono voice that were like, yeah, he anything that touches Africa.

It's it's like, oh, we we got the present for us. You know, remember Project Red or sept What is something that's just so wild that that like I feel like I can't get past them. Sorry, I can't both past like the cool the coolest possible. A lot of people haven't. Yeah, I think it reveals that like cool factor or the age of the person putting the deck together, you know what I mean. Dude, this thing about Crypto, Dude, you

know he's sick to hostess fucking what? No. Yeah, it's like it's Hamilton's but older like Hamilton's but more irrelict. Like I feel like it was irrelevant when Hamilton's like you know how Hamilton's just like aged like bananas, and now it's just like I thought it was so cool when it first came out. Now I'm like, I can't listen to a single song without like stringing at this ship, and like I actually never really fucked with you two, but like I've never either, Yeah, we never funked with

you two. Man you at the band? Okay, yeah, but yeah, it's uh, it's to that point though. I feel like we also see lin Manuel Miranda as a host pitched as a host too. Yeah, you know, like certain things like someone like lin Manuel Miranda. So I guess we always have. I guess is he are new Banu? Is this all to say? Is lin Manuel Miranda taking the

mantle for Bano? I don't know. I actually got a text from one of the I guess the agencies have ears in our recording studio because they just told me I can kiss any future of having a Hamiltons cast member on TDZ goodbye. So well, we already booked a v digs good luck. What is something, man, guest, do you think is underrated? So? I feel weird saying this. The arts with hearts today that you push in the beginning, So I think clubs and making your own clubs are

are underrated. Because Ruby my kid, and I like I was traveling a lot, like not finding more like time for stuff. And then we decided to have like a Tuesday night art club where we like make mocktails and then do art and uh and and Ruby makes like a mix of music for it. And now like people want to come to Tuesday night art club and it's like it's like something so small and simple and there's like nothing that goes on. But it's just like, I

don't know, it's it's awesome. So I feel like when you put a label on something, it's it just makes it like more fun. And so yeah, so what's like, give me, give me an idea like that. You know, it's the hottest club in town. People are banging on the door saying, hey, I brought females with me. The ratios are right. I want to be part of the You like, what's the kind of like what kind of

like what was the last art project you made? So we took we took a bunch of like cardboard and make these giant faces out of them, like include them together and stuff. But like we're gonna do like a sneaker project where we just like call like paint sneakers together. We're gonna like okay stuff like that, like like white slip on canvas shoes or whatever. Yeah, like fans and just get a bunch of POSTCA markers and and like yeah, see now I'm already like, yeah, how do hey, how

do I get in? Yeah? But is it? Is it like through a laundromat? Like do you have to walk through a laundromat? Like the hottest fourth dryer on the left. Yeah, it's like but honestly, like like now somebody and more of my friends are getting like sober and they don't have things to do, like and you know, the evenings and like, and I have a kid, and I'm not gonna like like I still have to own being a dad and so like it's like an awesome way to to sort of force my friends to hang out with

me and like and hang out with my kids. So it's amazing. I love it. I'm going to steal that idea. It's worful. Yeah, and I'm not gonna site you boys guess what daddy just thought of on his own right now. But I mean, but but like you know anything like my my I have some friends who do this like weekend in America and they just pick like you know,

a different strange place they haven't been. And once, like you know, well once every three months four months, they take a field trip to this place and they have T shirts and like suddenly a T shirt makes something feel like more real or something that's Oh, that's great. The weekend in America, if they like discovered any under known about gems uh, I forget they told me about somewhere they went, yeah, yeah, you'll have to cut them on.

I'm not telling it. You're you're about to answer the question. No, I mean that they were talking about some like like in Montana. There's some old like like the oldest Chinese restaurant in America, I think Montana and the and like so, so they went out there and like you know, the cowboys stuff. But then also like eight old Chinese foods m not Chinese. Yeah wow the pek in Noodle Parler, built in nine nine, the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant

the United States in Butte, Montana. Wow, we just blew up Butte Montana. Yeah, beauty. Uh, sorry about that. Sorry. Never run with hipsters. Hey, set your airbnb rates high now, you know it just just't make that money while you can because they're cut ahead of the surge. Alright, let's talk about the Memphis Police. So on Monday yesterday, they confirmed that a sixth officer have been placed on administrative

leaving can action with the death of Tyree Nichols. Preston hemp Hill, the one white cop who was involved and who is not facing murder charges. H he hasn't been fired. He is the previously unidentified white officer who pushed Nichols to the ground and then hit him with a taser and I believe could be heard yelling on one of the videos. I hope they stomps his s at one point and he's just so he's just on time out. Yeah,

he's just on time out. So there you know, any any speculation that, oh it's I think you spent you said miles, Like it's weird how they were so quick to the b Yeah, listen to all what we've been saying all along, how they should deal with this ship by like when when every officer involved is black and

but then but not like this. It's like but unless there's a white guy, in which case his white supremacy will also protect that person in the commission of a Yeah, yeah, but uh it's it's this I wish we just like could reach the point in like mainstream discourse where we can just stop. Like we just called policing a failed experiment, and that's just being that's being very charitable even calling

it an experiment, given the origins of policing. But like you know, like there's countless deaths, there's countless videos of people abusing their power and being in brutalizing innocent people, and our reflex is to immediately try to problem solve, like as if this whole system of policing is like a man like a malfunctioning So no speaker that just needs to be unplugged real quick and then plug back in and then it'll start working like it needs oh wait,

maybe see to update the software that's the problem. When really now the ship is broken and it's not worth continuing to try and think that we can solve our

problems through this very narrow lens. And so like we can't expect any other outcome aside from the one we're seeing, because the whole concept is are just predict hated on the idea that our society's issues stem from dangerous hoodlums or someone having a mental health crisis, rather than the fact that we are being preyed upon by the wealthy and the powerful, and the proof of that predation is in how our social fabric is deteriorating before our eyes

and the desperation that we see in our communities. That's that's what we need. That's the fucking boogee, man, we gotta go after not what's this motherfucker doing in this part of town? Beat him up? Shoot him? Why is this person yelling? And gotta stick shoot him? Like, we're not fucking We're not, We're not dealing with the actual issues.

And again we're just we'd rather do this thing where we're holding onto this broken fucking system and not just not just looking back and like, Yo, there's not a single thing you can show me that that indicates to me that this works, right, that's all the only thing. The only thing it does is continue to be a venue for increased spending. That's the only thing I've seen go up in a positive way, quote unquote. And that's where people that are invested in the carceral state. Yeah,

a lot of money gets spent. And also, you know, there's an argument that like this is working the way it was intended to work, you know, like that this is from the early days of American police being founded as a like slave patrol up to today. Like that, it feels like there's a pretty straight line that would

suggest that this is what they had in mind. And yeah, people are getting rich off of it, and it feels like they just try and weather this ship, you know, just get get it past so it can keep doing what we wanted to do. And to see, like I mean in New York, the library budget got caught so

that police brought to go up. You know, it's like these are places that are like lending ties to people so that they can go on job you know, for job interviews and like doing all this training and all this incredible community work and like you know, for for

more policing. Like it just it just feels ludicrous. Three percent of US counties increased funding for police departments in two Like at this time when we're supposedly like as supposed to be out on police, they the whole and like you hear people like Bill Maher over the begin it's like, well, I mean, look, the cops were black that murdered him, So it might be that this this issue is bigger. It's not just about race or like I don't think race has anything to do like dismissing

that it's it's it's really just about white supremacy. The police are. They uphold the system of white supremacy, So it doesn't matter what you look like. When you enter that system, you are you are there to uphold it. So it's not a mystery that it's like, wow, how

could they do that? Because you hear people also say we just need more cops that live in the communities they patrol, or what if we just have more black cops, But the research doesn't show that that has does fucking anything, that has very minimal impact, if any, because again, like we're saying, at the end of the day, you're sending these people into cities as police and the game is predetermined, which means that these people think that they are peacekeepers

dealing with some insurgent population that they have to defend themselves from. And I also have like quotas to meet and like yeah, I mean it's I mean, so what do they do, what serving? What what safety are they providing?

Robin panaky on WANCT put together like an exhaustive list of statistics that just point to that underline, like what the funk like two percent of violent crimes are actually solved by the police four percent of police time four percent is the time that police spend devoted to dealing with violent crimes in any capacity, which is the only percent that you hear every time you bring up defunding

the police, investing in alternatives to policing. They people are always what are you gonna do when someone shows up your house with a sub automatic? Okay? You know how about this? Okay, So let's say that happens and you've got seventy two feral hogs running wild on your property, you gotta call. Well, five percent of the time is the police actually are able to respond to a nine one one call in time to prevent violence from happening

or even catching the person. So like we're every like, the success rates are fucking so low that you're like, well, if the whole point is like y'all stop this, y'all stop that, the numbers don't back it up, so we need to be we like, but again we're talking about upending the status quo and like abolishing the policing. But as it just logically it's not doing what even it's supposed to be doing. So from that standpoint, it's a fucking l and all it does is created just a

tremendous loss of life. And I don't know, like we we have such a problem even defining what we need, Like it's that like is it policing, you know, we need more policing or do we need to ensure that

our communities are safe? And we need to figure out how to ensure that safety because it's not just we'll send the fucking patrols out to sweep bullshit up and brutalize people, because like we need safety, right, we need safety from lack of services or lack of a social safety net, or safety from like an economic system that sorts people into disposable and non disposable and the blink of a note Like those are the larger issues, but we get really if they've done a fantastic job rhetorically

of like acting like this is a thing, like these are all like anomalous one off problems, right, rather than a completely failed thing. So most of us like feel like we're walking around and like looking a fun house mirror where it's like that doesn't look good. Actually, what I'm seeing, but I guess I'll keep going because the way we're talking about it is just to be like, I don't know, maybe we can fix that thing a

little bit. One of the things we talked about, like this idea that local the local news is like reliant on the acific leads, that leads ended the police as a source. But there's just been so many like cartoonishly just blatant failures by the police, just constantly, Like I'm just that that's if if the media wanted to portray this situation as it was, they would have no shortage of evidence of police failing on the job or committing

violent crimes on the job. But instead they really shy away from it, like I was just every time something like this happens, I'm just like I just added to this mentalist with it. Like the child who was being held hostage by her dad and the police gotten a massive shootout and just shot her like to death when she was when she got away from her dad and was like running towards them, they were like, we didn't know if she was armed, and so they shot her

to death. The cop who drove across country kidnapped a child and murdered her whole family, like the gold the Golden State killer we found out was like, I mean, this was a couple of years back, but he was a cop who was using his ability like too, you know, his access as a cop to commit like one of the most heinous like strings of mergers back in the seventies. And they knew he was a cop because like based

on all the ship that he knew like that. So it's just there's such a immense body of evidence that it would be like so easy for local news to stay like stick with that if it bleeds, it leads like thing, if that's what they want to show, But they they don't, like they're they're part of a broad system that wants to shy away from that reality. Yeah, it's again to keep you know, so these hedgemonic systems in place, and there's no there's no appetite to do that.

And yeah, to your point, it's like you could every day there's something like, yeah, well guess how they funked up again today? Right, you know you could do that, you could do that constantly, but instead they're like, wow, and this guy hit the TikTok dance like challenge, like flawlessly with a bunch of school kids. Isn't that amazing? Okay, Well, later on coming up in the hour, we're gonna talk about some dogs you can adopt who were shot by

drug dealers. According to the police, they need a home. Like just every single thing is just fed through this lens like rhetorically that it's it's it's just always framed as well, how do we fix this thing that's completely broken and useless? Right, rather than being like this thing is broken and completely useless, what the funk are we gonna do about this? And extremely dangerous? It's broken. It's like those were you guys young enough that when or

old enough? I guess that that like that, there was a big health panic around old refrigerators, just like left in people's yards. I mean, I'm older, but but I don't. They're remember that. There's like a special episodes about like old refrigerators because old refrigerators, I guess, used to lock from the outside when you would close them. Oh, so people would get like kids get stuck inside. People would

play hide and seek. There was a very special I think Punky Brewster where she got trapped inside and they found her almost too late. But revived her with CPR. But anyways, it's broken and it's killing people constantly all over the place, like those old refrigeratorgerators. That is a reference that everybody understands. But I'm at the same time, I'm sure Punky brewstered it up copaganda for yeah ship, But yeah, I mean again, it's it's it's it's weird.

How like every day there's like you see the news when this happens, are like, oh, you know, like it's it's just it's just raising more questions about our our our policing system. But there's just really again, there's no real good faith effort to do anything about because, like you said, of US counties increase their funding in two off the heels of all this, like yeah, we got

to really think about this. It's all lip service because at the end of the day, like for for us to live in a type of world where we're looking out for who is actually causing harm, it's just it's it's actually a threat to the economic system. So like one very specific change that we could see them make include crimes committed by police in the crime rate. So when you fund the police, like the Scorpion Unit, let's see what happens to fucking violence in the community when

you include all the violence that's being perpetrated by them. Yeah, what if you drop a scorpion into this precarious situation? Sounds like a good idea, but yeah yeah, and just like even the way things are worded, you know, like Scorpion, like what the fuck feel like? Yeah? They but again like they can't help people. It's a paramilitary death squad exactly. They knew exactly what they were doing. This is a group called Scorpion doing what you would expect a group

called Scorpion to do. Yeah, not the not the kid gloves soft touch brigade. Yeah, alright, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk cancel culture and pandemic themed comedies. We'll be right back, and we're back. And Luis e. K was trending on Twitter, which is never it's never a good thing, rarely hasn't been a good thing in a while, but this time was because I guess good for him. His recent Madison Square Garden concert sold out.

Guys killing it. Wow, he can't even kill his own career, look at him. So TikTok or Italia lick Stune went viral by she just like got up and was like, can we stop canceling guys who are brilliant artists over hearsay, like yeah, women have stories of him then being creepy, but then you know, and yes, their stories may match up. But because of that, we're gonna just make it so they can never work again. And as she says that, like behind her those digital billboard changes to read tonight

louis sold out, so extremely well done. But yeah, I don't know. It's cancel culture is like you have to have a pretend boogie person that that is like made for for powerless people to feel like it's like effective, you know what I mean, Like like powerful white guys, I'm like, oh, the cancel culture. It's like come on, they're even like come on, you know they can't cancel me.

But I'll be like, oh, the cancel culture. But at the end of the day, societally, we're not we're not actually ready to hold people to account or of experience the kind of see change that would actually be like, yeah, you know, what you're doing as foul should actually exclude you from like from participating in X, Y and Z or whatever. But it finds a way now where very quickly, you know, I think it's I don't know, it just

it has. It has this way where like in the beginning you feel like, oh, thank god, look some people are like not booking Louis c K. That's good. I like what that's indicating. And it gives people a moment to feel like something like maybe something is happening, but then it just comes right back. That's why I think cancel culture is much more effective as like this specter to raise for like you know, the powerful to deploy

against themselves, because it's not going to do anything. I mean I I was in a fairly after fairly soon after the like LYK stuff like came out, Like I was in a room with a with like a newscaster because we're on this like attracting various like podcast. It was to the space or whatever, and and and she was like, I don't even understand what he did. Like

that that was so bad. And it's like how I mean, like one just just being in that room with women and like like you know, not letting them leave and and and exposing himself doing all these things was was awful in itself, but like the fact that like he he had his manager, like basically anyone who was about to speak out or like wouldn't can assent like like basically like shut down their career and not get them like the any clubs and stuff like like he he

canceled like several women's careers, like you know, like like like tons of you and and like and I think like in that mix of of problematic people and men in particular and whatever, like like somehow because they had different gradations of what they did and their awfulness, like people just kind of all forgot like a lot of the worst ones and only kept like the I mean even like you know, the president who's who's assaulting women and whatever, right like like the accountability for him wasn't

wasn't particularly great and it's not like he got canceled in a big way, and so like I mean, I I just think that like I in some ways like it's it's to me, it's it's this is maybe not fair thing to say, but like I feel like you end up being so numb from like all the accusations and stuff that people like stop investing in like how much how much it's worth? You know, I like to not well I think the numbness comes from the lack

of accountability that follows. Yeah, because if if if you knew there was there was a cause and effect sort of sequence, then you'd be like, yeah, fine. I'm always outraged to hear that someone's like, you know, experiencing a lack of agency or having some kind of transgression they're experiencing at the hands of a sexual predator. That should

That will always be upsetting. But to your point, it's sort of the same way we feel about mass shootings or lease violence when it happens over and over and over and over again, and you're just like, I'm I the only I can't be the only person who this really bothers, Right, You're being gas lit by your society into just being like, y, yeah, no, we we saw that, we know it. We know that that's bad. That's bad, that's going to end the world, and we get no, no, no,

we get it. It's bad. Where we changed our heads so that we're now our logo is green. So like Louis not on FX anymore, right, Louise Louis lost his show on FFX, and I think one one of his movies got buried by being like incredibly creepy, like the movie That Got Buried was incredibly creepy. But also like so people are coming through and being like, well, yeah, he's got fans, what do you want them to do? But like a tour like that counts on like many

institutions to come together. And also he has like subsequently made a movie that was released just one a fucking

Grammy last year, So he's like not, he's not. It's it's another thing like BP claiming that they're now an energy company and they're actually part of the solution at this point, you know, it's a it's just a cosmetic change that's being made, and it is I think you guys right, Like that is what is so maddening about it is because we're all like kind of just sitting here watching it happen, while people are like no, no, no,

like we we do get it. We're doing something in response to this, while not doing anything in response to it and just watching the problem happen over and over

again and get worse. The other thing that's maddening is like so many of these people like should have been canceled long before, right, like like like the whispers and the rooms about like Louisa kay or like you know, the when got up to blind items like you could identify like so many of these people and like you know Cosby or whoever, Like there's so many people who

like the industry knows about and just protects because this money. Yeah, so many people whose careers were canceled by Harvey Weinstein or louise E k like that. The number of people whose careers were canceled by them out numbers like their careers being canceled, you know, like like like you said, so hey, but you know, I gotta like you said, it's an it's an agreement of many different factor of our many different bodies and organizations to make it happen.

And again just more it's it's always indicates. It's like, well, the public outcries over it aren't enough, you know, because at the end of the day, it's profitable because they're saying something gets so that the only thing that matters, So fuck it. Yeah, like why I switched, Wait what about renewables? No, that's not profitable, you funck with Keep pumping the dinosaur farts, that's right, all right. And then finally I want to talk about just pandemic themed culture

pandemic content. So there was a movie that came out I think a couple of weeks ago, called Sick, written by Kevin Williamson, person who were at Screw Sam set at a secluded cabin during the early days of the pandemic. I don't know, like I I didn't really hear that many people talking about it. There's one coming up with Adam Pally, which sounds like great, like I love an Adam Pally comedy where he's playing an obnoxious asshole. This one it's called Who Invited Charlie? And it basically seems

like it's What About Bob set during the quarantine. Even the name titles like okay on Mary, What About Bob? Pretty closely Who Invited Charlie? It's just There's also Life Upside Down, a romantic comedy that was mostly filmed during lockdown with iPhones and iPads that was like, I, I didn't know about that one at all. Is this the one that with Bob Odenkirk? Yeah? And then there was Yeah, there was also a Jutt app Oh no no no. So then there was a Jutt Apatow comedy called The Bubble.

I was completely unaware of. I had no idea this was a thing. Yeah, is it just isn't like when a like someone puts out an album so bad they're like, I just shut then up about that one. We don't just talk about. Yes, it came out on Netflix. Was it show bit satire about how the pandemic affected a blockbuster movie with just like tons of COVID gags that were already like kind of stale. It also had a thing where I guess they were they were joking about how like it seems like the people in charge of

safety mandates are making it up on the fly. Oh my god. Yeah, I was just totally unaware. There was a jut Apatow movie about how the CDC is like making up all the COVID safety measures that's appetiles drift

to the right. Just like yeah, I don't know, but yeah, like all these movies seem like they you know, we talked during the pandemic, Like I said that, like it didn't seem like there was a ton of stuff that came out of the nineteen eighteen pandemic and you know, other than a novel that from Kemu that goes written by me, obviously, they came out like thirty years later, and you know, is is really great and was like kind of the best thing that I read at that

time to like help me get my mind around what was happening. But I it does feel like the stuff is being made, it's just like it's not resonating, which I just wonder if it's like some mixture of it not being a fun thing to watch. No, it's stupid people in development who are opportunistic and not realizing what the real development cycle looks like. From when you're like yeah, yeah, yeah, green light that thing from Jodd apataw cut to two years later and I was like, what the funk is this? Right?

Like it I get like a rapid response. Maybe like you're saying. At the time, I was kind of like curious about like what stuff would be out there that's reflective of like the situation I'm in. But the more we think about it, I'm like the I'm like, I'm only filled with discomfort looking back on the like like in the early days and just where we're where we're

at today. I think, I mean the other trend I've noticed and I mean I guess I wasn't even aware of like how much stuff was coming out about pandemic

themed like stories. But I've noticed like a lot of body horror and in like films like like the Menu has something and then like that Banshees of inneration or whatever that that movie was, and and and it's like there's a lot of like self mutilation or like mutilation that that that's been happening in films too, and and like I don't know, it's it's it's odd to me because like I feel like all after going through that period and then and then seeing headlines like you know

we were talking about earlier, like all I want to like being is in like spaces of like comedy or like you know, things that are joyous or like wondrous or whatever, and and like and and yet like I feel like I keep I keep tuning into comedies and then seeing this just's just Australian reaction. I guess, yeah. And I wonder if like the you know, like when talking about World War one or something that that's easy to sort of wrap your head around, like you're saying

jack because it's like war. But like I wonder if like if there is something that's even about this period that's written after the fact, if if what the if the themes are even gonna really necessarily be about COVID nineteen itself or like that it's revealed just a deeper societal sickness like that, Like but I don't know if but I don't know if we're like they're with the commentary yet, like many people are pointing out how fucked

up the situation is for many people. But I don't know if that's like the main thing we're taking away from this. Still it's like, yeah, well I didn't get it, and I gotta like we're not really we haven't zoomed out, and like what this what what error we're really in right now? We we we went through something and like I haven't really processed it. Don't want to face the

fact that we haven't really processed it. It's it's interesting that the idea of like body horror and like mutle lation, because you know, the Iraq War was also a massive cataclysmic event that we lived through that never really had its apocalypse. It never had its like on screen movie that really like broke through and everybody watched. You know,

there there were some, but they weren't like blockbusters. They were not like things that were like culture defining or like hero porn, but we did have the like torture porn break like movies happened at that, like saw and stuff like, so that that's like how we dealt with it was by watching people get mutilated and slow motion. So in that sense, like right, the body horror as

like metaphor for our own self inflicted. Yeah, yeah, I wonder if that's all like kind of just different ways that our traumas coming through to the surface and like bubbling up. See, I knew I wanted we had a story on the dock for a little while and I was like, no, no, nothing to say about this. I wanna I want to see what man gues has to say about this and brings springs through the heat. Hey

what about that pregnancy salad? Though I think that had something to do with it too, I don't know, that's my sense. What do you think about that? Jack? I said that just now. I love it all right, still got it? This guy still got it? All right. Well, let's see it hit us with your theories on what what's happening with with if there is maybe maybe I'm miss maybe I missed some pandemic themed thing like I know, I know hurt the hurt Locker was in a Rock War one, So like, has there been a hurt Locker

for the pandemic? Right? But is it? Like but but nothing is quite having the apocalypse now, Like there's not a film that you could say like, oh, this is the Apocalypse now. I guess contain Jen was the one that but it happened ten years Yeah, maybe it was Crash. Paul Haggis is Crash. Just to come back to that, well, I think I think that one really sums up everything

about the human condition. And I've always said that like that's the one that really brings it all together for me, absolutely made me want to be a better man, made me want to be ludicrous. Such a pleasure having you Where can people find you? Follow you here? You all that good stuff. Well, first of all, I miss you guys. I I really like it's it's really such a pleasure to be hang out with both of you. And so please come to New York and hang out with me. Um,

you can find me at Tuesday Night Art Club. That's yeah, we'll show up one of these Tuesday nights unannounced tak My show is Skyline Drive and so like if if people check that out, I'd be thrilled. And yeah, I'm on I'm on Twitter and Instagram as m Hatika there, which is not easy to spell, but it's I think the only one. Yeah, there you go. And is there a tweet or some of the work of media that you've been enjoying. Uh, it's not a tweet or work of media exactly. But I saw photos of that palace

cat in the um. It's like this wildcat that's small and cute and super cuddly and and it's like called the original grumpy Cat. And they found it in Mount Everest, which they didn't think it existed in before, and so like, I've been obsessed with that recently. That's amazing. And is it still up there or that it's Yeah, no, they're They're like, there are I guess these cats all over like this region, but like very very few and far between, but they had never found them on Everest. Yeah, miles,

where can people find you? And what's the work of media you've been enjoying? Yeah? Day to day find me on at Miles of Gray where there's a symbols. Maybe I'll be daddy, maybe I It'll be another day or two, but hey, I'll let y'all know when that happens or else. I don't know. I'm my mind is from between the police violence, smash shootings, rampant inequality, you know, fucking pregnancy salads. I got, I got, I got a lot on my play.

But anyway, find also Jack and I on our basketball Podcastles and Jack got mad boost these we're talking about the NBA, which is fun stuff, and then fiance. We're talking about fiance. Um a tweet. I like, let's see, oh, this is from you know, Blair baby at blair sake, just to eat it. I just like this, just as where she is in her life. Just said, tonight is my first night of adult soccer. It is gonna be humbling for me to not be good at first, as I am a lion in a titan in the sports arena.

But God may no mistakes, but God makes no mistakes. Uh yeah, She's like, I don't know she I was deeming her. She's like, yo, I don't know how this is gonna go. I've been played since I was ten, and I was like, it's okay. Just because you were d one volleyball doesn't mean I feel like my prediction for that. Yeah, yeah, perfect hat tricks. Left foot finished, right foot finished, headed goal. There you go, Son tweets, I've been enjoying. Let's see here, this is just a

good one. Uh, somebody are Jones? Both of Jones Jets tweeted if no one has said this yet, I'm fairly certain. This also makes whatever number of the day is the same weekday every month. So since we're talking about dates and horoscopes, it's just a screen cap with you know, like some footage or a photo. It's a it's a meme, and it says me explaining that if we had thirteen months instead of twelve, every month would be exactly twenty eight days. The first would always be a Monday, and

they would always be a Sunday. Every month would have exactly four weeks instead of four point two five seven, and we would properly align ourselves with the cycle of the moon. That was a revelation for me. I have to go back on what I said when I disagreed with Ben Boland's take that calendars are are bad. I'm gonna revise that to our calendar is bad. Yeah, and we should that's what we change immediately. Uh, send you've tweeted, everyone should have a friend who has no idea what

your job is and doesn't care. I think that's good advice. I have lots of those friends. Yeah, they're calling them friend in return. Yeah. You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. Were at d Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, Daily Zeitgeist dot com. We post our episodes and our footnotes. We link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as song that we think

you might enjoy. Miles, is there a song they'd like to leave the people with? If this is your lad Well, I don't know. I don't know if it is, it could be. And this is the thing. If I'm not on the recording, it doesn't mean things have gone into labor. I'm just we're managing a lot of the household, of course, And it's weird that you're like, well, what is the last song this I didn't The song is called Forbidden Fruit. That has nothing to do with me. This is my

last one. It just happened to be. And this is from the artists Mono Drone and it's like, uh, it feels like kind of like easy listening DJ Shadow if that makes sense. You know, like very sample based instrumental stuff. But like it's not like spooky. You don't feel like you're getting like followed like a like a rain. So check this out. This is Forbidden Fruit by Monol Drone. There you go, alright, well we link off to that in the footnotes. The daily like guys, the production by

heart Radio for more podcast from my heart Radio? Is that the heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen your favorite shows. That is going to do it for us this morning, back this afternoon to tell you what's trending, and we will talk to y'all. Done, Bye bye, m m m