NYTimes Covid Fanfic, Cocaine Bear Gets Us 02.28.23

my boss of the motherfucking Pope. That is courtesy of Salvador Jolly, in reference to the new Russell Crow Joint, in which he is the Pope's exorcist and gets to utter the line he got a problem with me, pick it up with my boss, the Pope, which I'm trying to make my own new catchphrase. I'm trying to absorb

that into my life. Well, I'm thrilled to be joined by a very special guest, co host one of the very cases on Mountains Lightmore, an Emmy nominated writer, artist, comedians behind many acclaimed podcasts, author of the upcoming New York Times bestseller I'm going to Manifest It into Existence, Raw Dog. It's Jeni Minion time, Jamie will take over the dailies. I guys, Dominion guys say below and Bana. Look,

I think it's fun. I think it's fun. I don't know if I think it's may have been so long that I haven't even been able to really fully talk minions on the daily night guys, way too long. It's been that long that you haven't been that fully talked about the latest The Rise of Grew Yeah, oh, the Rise of Grew. Yes, and that I'm legally married to Kevin Lemignon. There's just been so much going on. Yeah, I'm so excited, Hi, Jack, so excited to have you. Thank you so much for being here. It's so so

wonderful to have you. Did you say Dominion Times at Dominion Times? Yeah, Jurassic Park Dominions. Okay. I was just wondering, like that was the first time that I realized that the minions were behind the Dominion voting scandal, like the mess the name of the voting machines. How am I the first person to write this conspiracy theory? Come on?

And I mean they like exactly they work. They work for the most most evil master you know available At the time, I just love that in Minion World they have an elaborate reason for why the minions were had no ties to World War Two. You're like, oh my god, they were living in a frozen cave then Jack of course, yeah,

yeah for both of the world wars. So so relax, Yeah, I mean, I can't lax when it comes to the make up too, and if they should have tried harder to get out of the frozen cave, like, I mean, did they get the news? Did they just did they

sit one out? We don't know, we don't know. They're supervillain circles like for all throughout all their existence and then just didn't didn't even know this was coming, Like come on, they're out by the sixties though, so you kind of I guess we just need to wait for the next movie to find out what they were up to during the Gulf War. I don't know. Yeah, nine to eleven the Gulf War. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of the architects of all that CIA like false information,

Oh for sure, for sure. Wasn't it yellow cake uranium that was used to false yellow Interesting. I'm just I'm just connecting dots that are there. I'm not adding anything to this anyways. No, you're just stating facts. I'm stating facts. I'm doing my own research. We are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the author of the new book Overthinking About You, about the intersection of dating a mental health. You know her from just between us.

It's the brilliant and talented Alison Rasco. Oh, thank you for having me. I did not know any of that about the Minions. Yeah, oh my god, well I haven't seen one. I haven't seen a Despicable of Me. I haven't seen a Minion movie. I don't know about this rich history. Oh oh, there's so much going on and trouble Jack. Have you have you seen them all? Because of your kids? Or you just watch? I feel like

not in order. It's like I'll walk in for a scene here and there, and but usually like if the kids are watching a movie, it's an opportunity to like go get adult things done. So but I've been sucked in for entire chunks of the Minion movie. What is adult things? Do you? Like, go watch meet Joe Black or something? Just constantly paying bills, just bills, stacking up on my desk and then just nailing him out the door with a real haired look on my face. Yeah, yeah, no,

I go watch Meet Joe Black. I don't know. That's like the adult movie. I guess I got adult things to do kids, like the True Love between the Grim Reaper and somebody who Met the Grim Reaper ail though it's not lady. I actually have never seen Meet Joe Black. I just my parents had it and it was two VHS tapes, so I was like, damn, that's were you kind of like walking into the room to make sure that they were occupied and then going to do kids stuff. Was it like a reverse of how I treat you?

Were just like me, I need to make sure I was good to go watch Pinocchio and you can watch That's like you can watch Pinocchio three times and the run time of Meet Joe Black, that's true. Meetcho Black is very long. And my dad really loves it, like has has given like he doesn't give me a heartfelt so little queezed about much, but he has been like that, Meet Joe Black is a hell of a film. Someone had to say it. He may be the first someone did. Alison,

how are you doing? Where are you coming to us from? I'm in Rainy Los Angeles. So no, it's really going on. I don't know how to function overwhelmed by the wetness. It's it's been, it's been rough. We're just like not, we're not built for it. And then every time it comes up, for like for people who live in cities that get snow, they're like, oh, shut the fuck up. For You're like, okay, but it's raining, it's actually really hard for us. We're not built for it. It just

falls apart right away. Like, so it starts raining hard Friday night and someone to meet, like one of the traffic lights in my neighborhood went down. A car immediately like sped through that intersection, knocked over like telephone electric pole, like knocked out power and internet to our entire neighborhood for the whole weekend. It's just like, this is just just rain, just rain. Yeah, my friend had another one where somebody hit a pole and then she lost power

and she had to stay at my house for a night. Yeah, it's funny that it's not just the weather, it's people driving into poles seems to be a main cause of the issue. Yeah, fascinating. I didn't see that part coming. Yeah, yeah, just right, away. There's a a knocked over telephone pole. The trees are getting knocked over too, which I'm a little confused by. I think just the wind climate change. I'm not sure that's what I that's my catchphrase, the

wind climate change. I'm not sure that. And the Pope is your boss. Yeah, Pope is going to figure it out, all right. Also, we're gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're gonna tell our listeners a couple of the things we're talking about today. We're talking about they were like two big COVID stories that were like revised over the weekend or over the past week, Like one in the New York Times it was like, masks don't work at all, Like never at

all have they worked, and that is a fact. And then another that in the Wall Street Journal that claimed that they now have like it was like breaking news, we now have like evidence that COVID was caused by a lab leak in Wuhan and yeah, it just feels like there's and then Woody Harrelson's sl monologue was like a weird anti vax rant. It was Yeah, I watched that show and I like it. Yeah, big fan. Okay, well,

I guess we'll get there. Yeah, we'll get there. I mean it wasn't like a full on anti vax rant, but like he had this long like it was weird long like story in the middle of it. Yeah, so we'll talk about that. It just feels like things like in what's supposed to be the center are moving right in a weird way. So we'll talk about that. We will, of course talk about Cocaine Bear, which also, according to

our writer JM maybe the ultimate pandemic movie. I've never seen a concept for a movie I would want to see less whoa And maybe that's because I know the bear dies, like right, I don't want to watch a movie about an animal, and even if the animal's doing bad things and then the animal dies like no, thank you. Yeah, yeah, it looks like the animal is very fun. I'm trying to think. My reaction was quite the opposite. Yeah, it's having fun before it goes out. But yeah, I can sympathize.

I guess my mind didn't immediately go to like, oh, I have to know before I watch anything if any animals diet it, because if they do, I have to opt out. So no, John Wick, no, I've never been able to see a single John Wick movie because even though I hear they're excellent, because I know that the central, you know, act, the catalyst moment, is his dog dying. So it's no for me devastating, It's no for me.

But before we get to any of that shit, Alison, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history? A lot of my search history is like what my dogs can and cannot eat? So a more recent one cocaine is that seems on this movie it seems like dogs get really good at jumping. But it would be my guest. I recently google can dogs have sparkling water? And what do you think? Was the answer? But what would your guests be? I? No, too spicy? My guests would be yes, and it will

be hilarious to watch them react to it. So it was they can have it in small amounts. Yeah, if there's no flavoring, okay, so you can't have any kind of flavored sparkling water, but in a pinch, I guess they can have a little bit. But it seems like it also seemed funny they were like in some picky drinkers might be intrigued by the bubbles. Okay, you're on a slippery slope there, like Perier. Please, Yes they did. Did dogs like it? I don't know. I never tried.

Now I'm a little curious, but I personally hate it, so I have I've never liked sparkling water of any kind, and that's deeply upsetting to everybody in my life. HM. So you were like thinking about going out to buy, like acquire some sparkling water for your dog, Like it wasn't a thing you had laying around them or like sipping on it, and the dog was looking at you, and you're like, oh, maybe it was like a thing where you're like, I feel like they might really fuck

with sparkling water. Let me let me look into this. No, my fiance is a big fan, and he he asked the question, and I did the google. M. That's true teamwork. Yeah, that's partnership. What is something you think is overrated? Okay, so we're we're planning our wedding and so that obviously gets you thinking about a lot of like these traditions around that. And something that I, even before this process,

has found to be overrated is a formal thank you card. M. I think it is really annoying for the people to do who are writing them out, especially after a big event, and then I think most people read them for one second and throw them out right. So I'm more of a fan of a of a text, a quick text thank you, but a formal thank you card. I don't know, I'm wondering if as a society we can sort of

start to leave that behind. So I've recently received one from a couple for an engagement party, and they took a video and it was very charming and like they you know, them just expressing their heartfelt thanks and you know, it seemed like it took less time than like writing

writing a thing out. And then we just attempted it yesterday because it's my five year old's birthday and so we were like, well, we don't go through the trouble of having him, you know, us writing the cards and then painstakingly getting him to write his name out like a couple words. So we did videos after he opened it and was like super excited about the gift, and it worked really well. Like I think, little videos are fun, are a fun alternative. Also probably a little taxing, especially

from kids. Yeah, from kids, it's definitely fun. Oh wow, So then how do you get them the video? Is it in an email? Is a yeah? Email? Just a text or yeah? Email sense I like that, So an update on it? Yeah, Jamie, we did go to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday party. I know, but I'll pretend to learn again. Yeah, I'm so excited. I saved a couple of questions for you for on mine. So, yeah, you said you said that the one you went to there's no more band, but there is one Chuck. There's

the Wonder is an animatronic Chuck. And when you enter and the lights are all because like it's we did a thing where you go in before it opens up and like have like the video games to yourself. But you also get a tear Chuck. Yeah, elite tear Chuck experience that the couture Chuck Chuck E Cheese experience. But when you when you enter in there no lights on his eyes are like black holes, and yeah, it'll happen upsetting. Yeah, it looks like a character from one of those medieval paintings.

That's just like them going going nuts on like the idea of a punishing god. They're just like this what circle of hell? Yeah, how did the kids react to the animatronic? Did they ignore it? Did they engage with it? Completely ignored it? Well, that's just not to call your your child and their friends disgusting. But what a what a loss, what a missed opportunity, and what a lost generation. I was trying to get attention to it. I was like, you know, doing a little dancing over by it and

being like it's it's kind of jag it out. His mouth wasn't moving, but his hands were in a way that was completely dissociated from his voice, but it was close enough that you you could kind of tell that that's what was supposed to be happening. That is something that bugs me. I mean, the top two Chucky Cheese things that right now, right now, it's always changing. Butting is that people they're like, well, did you know his

middle names entertainment? I was like, all right, call me in twenty fourteen, and that's when I didn't know that. I didn't know that any other Oh, his middle name is entertainment. I don't think I've ever been to a true Chucky Cheese. And now you can't that's the problem. You can't go all the all the animatronic bands are gone, even the Chucky ye're describing, which is in mid two thousands model after he's already been changed from a rat

to a mouse that skateboards. Yeah, he's already got the voice of the guy from Bowling for Soup, so it's already a lesser experience. He used to smoke. He used to smoke a big fat cigar. But now really, Oh yeah, early Chucky was the bandleader. He played no instruments. He just yelled at the band. He didn't even sing nd style. Yeah, he just he was an MC. He smoked a big cigar. He was a rat, and he ran a casino and that was what happened. He's still giving rat, by the way,

because of the code. Like his fur is like a dirty gray. It looks like every rat I've ever encountered, and we think that's what you get from him. The vibe Chucky you should be giving should be like if you was in your house, you would kill him. Not you would? Yeah yeah, Now are you saying that you don't like the lead singer from Bowling for Soup because that's one of my favorite bands all time. No, I'm

I'm glad that he's getting those Chucky checks. I think it's more just like they made Chucky so friendly when he used to be a little hostile, and I kind of liked when he was a little hostile. I don't even remember when he was hostile, but I've watched so many hours at a video out. Yeah. Anyways, Pasqually is the best character. Did you see any Pasqually? No Pasqually, I don't think so. I don't know who Pasqually is, to be honest with you. He's the one human of

Chuck E Cheese. He's an Italian pizza chef, but he also plays the drums. Oh okay, and he does stand up common No, no pasquality that I saw at all. Unfortunately, pizza is still very good. They are they have shifted into a new thing where it's like very needy and they like they open the chuck the announcement that Chuck E Cheese is going to come out by like running a siop where they're like attention, someone's car is parked in the loading zone. They like read off a fake

license plate number. I thought it was real, but then like they accidentally played the recording a second time and it happened again, like twenty minutes later. So they just have that as a thing that I think is designed to get everyone's attention and get everyone to like shut

the fuck up so Chuck can do his thing. But they the most noticeable kind of dissonance is between how excited they want you to be for the arrival of Chucky Cheese, the person in the Chuck E Cheese costume, and how like uninterested everybody is in it, and no kind of their knowledge that that is also the case, Like the people who work there are just kind of like, yeah, kind of going through the motions. Unfortunately, but it was a blast. I do recommend a Chucky Cheese birthday party.

It's I wonder how much time we have left with Chuck and friends. They seem to have reinvented themselves as just like an arcade, which isn't a thing that really exists in most places anymore, and so kids think kids call like arcades, Chucky Cheeses and the and the five year old set. So yeah, I think they've just I think they did a smart thing. Got rid of the ball pits, unfortunately with COVID, but yeah, it was the easiest way to you would get so sick. It didn't.

Who knows how many diseases could be contracted, right, Yeah, the balls at the bottom of the ball pit were presumed. I hope that when they got rid of the ball pits, those were donated to science, just to be like, what what has been growing in here? Yeah there's new species? Yeah, absolutely, Alison. What is something you think is underrated? I'm a very picky eater, and something I've realized that I haven't been eating enough of because it is delicious and lovely is melan.

I think melan has a really bad rap. A lot of times when you're like, oh, I'll have a side of fruit, people will be like, what kind of fruit? And when people say melan, they go, oh, but good melan is really love and it's harder to get. I feel like gross melon, Like when I buy berries. Berries are so expensive and then they're like moldy in one day or like taste disgusting, where like you buy a whole melon, you got fruit for days. Less chances that

will be horrifying a bad bite. So I'm really pro melon over here is my new thing, and you just you out, Yeah, they have for not much, leaving the melon intact and then just like kind of chipping off pieces as you go. Do you cut the whole melon up and like just have it that way? Because yeah, I do feel like melons. Melons have a better shelf life than other like kind of fruit once you open them. Yeah. I got all these half open bananas and they don't

last well at all. No, oh God, I think it's I think something that gets in the way of melane eat melon eating is that it seems like a lot to work. But if you sort of go into and say, okay, now I'm going to cut up my melon, you pre cut it all up, then you have melon for days. It's already ready to go. I like melon for day. Is that that's enough to sell me on a melon? Yeah?

I can't remember the last time I bought a melon, But I also I don't know, I can't remember really the last time I brought I bought produce that was like not disgusting. But that's what I'm saying that melon is a way around disgusting produce and it's much more for and it's affordable. Yeah, and great names for the melons, cantaloup and honeydew, well named fruits. I have a lot of pun possibilities. Are we including water in the melon family? Definitely?

Oh yeah, yeah, of course, Okay, okay, I'm just checking guys. Of course, Jamie, did you not read the notes that we got from the melon lobby that this is all a way of pushing all melk make sure to read the brand name next. Yeah, but I do think watermelon has a good wreath, whereas honey Dew and Cantlope are the real underrated all stars that need to be back in the circulation. Hm. Absolutely, rap a little rap a

little ham around that ship. Oh so good. I don't I don't think that's there's there's another word for it, that for the ham that you're supposed to use. But yeah, yeah, it's Do you guys have any ham melons that I get order for my appet user? And they're like, wow, this guy, this guy knows his culture cultural force over here. All right, Uh, let's take a quick break and we'll

come back and we'll talk some COVID stuff. Cool. No, yes, and we're back and they're there are two COVID stories that seemed to be making the rounds from big mainstream media institutions, The New York Times as well as the Wall Street Journal and so so, first up last week there was a story from Brett Stevenson, who's like their tread Catholic columnist and has has said like wild shit about like climate change and you know, just dismissing it

as like an activist thing. That's that's the thing that I'm noticing more and more popular, and the mainstream is like, yeah, and sure, climate activists will tell you that this is something to be worried about. But this time he came through with a story where he was he was quoting a study from Oxford that it is basically like masks don't really work, or we don't the study, like the actual abstract of the study was like we don't have

evidence that masks work. And when people who understand how studies work like dug into it, they were like, this is a study that should basically be read as there haven't been enough good mask studies essentially like that that was the conclusion that that was drawn. But that's not the tradcath read. That is not the tradcath read. He he need to take that up with your boss, the Pope, Jack,

like this seems like a problem. It does, and yeah, you know you but my quote is actually that if if you have a problem with me, you can take that up with my boss, the Pope. I don't take things up with him. I'm actually scared of him, right, but yes, like, yeah, just the details of the studies are all examples where people like didn't have proper education on them on like how to use them, or there was like no way to guarantee that they were using

them with any sort of consistency and so like. Basically, the two scientific sides of the conversation are like, masks work when used correctly and consistently, but mask mandates don't work because people don't actually like follow them versus masks work, So of course there should be mandates when you're trying to prevent the spread of disease. Like, there's never any scientists who's coming out and being like, masks themselves never work,

and why are we even talking about this? But the way he opens the article is there is just no evidence that they masks make any difference, full stop. And I don't know so wild. I'm getting a master's in psychology and I'm right now I'm in my research class, and so I couldn't be more prepared for this discussion. You know, you going to these classes and you're like, oh, why would I even need to understand how to read

a research study? Like, you know, but it's so true that like when people like write these like click baity articles off of these research studies, it's like they're pulling the wrong thing. They don't even understand what the study is saying. It's so easy to like trick people, But this one feels like especially egregious, and that like the study itself wasn't even making the claims that like, let alone like that this guy's making, where like some studies

and themselves are just bad studies. And I think that was another big thing is like we just haven't even had enough good studies on masks. Like if anything, that should just be this should prove that we need to like spend more money researching masks so that people will

believe it. But I also feel like even if we did those studies, people who don't want to believe in masks would be like, well, those are the fake studies right right, which I totally agree, is like complicated by a sort of fundamental misunderstanding that like not all studies are created equal, They're not all done as broadly and

how I don't know. I feel like sometimes when like I'll go ahead and throw my own mother under the bus in this case, like if my mom's coming to me with like I saw a study, she'll talk about it as if it's like from the University of good and accurate science, like just like it was study, therefore it must be true with which I did at one time. Also, But then it's like the more you look into it's like sometimes studies are paid for by people who want

certain results. The you know, control groups can vary and just like all this other stuff that's like more common knowledge now. But even so this is like such a bad faith reading of a study that we don't even know how like well it was conducted. So it's like a hat on a hat issue, little pulpe hat on a pulp had if you wouldah, And it wasn't even a study about COVID, right, it was like done before COVID.

And yeah, a lot of the studies, a lot of the studies that were in the thing were from before COVID or like right as COVID was happening and people didn't have like any education on how to wear masks or like they gave a huge chunk of the population of people like traveling to Mecca for the pilgrimage, like a bunch of masks and then they were like and

they actually got COVID more than the other people. But it was like they had no control, no understanding, no insight into like whether they were wearing them, like if they were wearing them the entire twenty four hours, which presumably they were not, and it was like not at a time when masking was particularly popular. So yeah, it

just it's a mess. It's like very complicated, and it just feels like there is this push in the center to like revise things so they're not complicated, and so that the government was wrong and doing it too because they were mean, because they they're just mean strict parents, Like I don't know, I feel like they're working through

some issues or something. There's also just like this sense of like, well, if something is not one hundred percent effective all of the time, no matter how I do it, then it's useless, right, Like it's like and you see that with like vaccines and boosters and all this stuff, where it's like, yeah, you know, it's not like when you get in a car accident and you still get hurt,

but you were wearing your seat belt. You're not like, well, I'm never gonna wear my seatbelt again, Like yeah, like this expectation that like, well, if it doesn't work one hundred percent, that it's totally made up and stuff like this supports that when like any basic understanding of like how germs are transmitted, masks are clearly doing something. Yeah, the seat belt was a metaphor that like letter to the editor used, like it was universally, like this article

was panned by scientists. They were like this is crazy that but yeah, they were like, so should we stop requiring like putting laws in place to wear seat belts because sometimes people don't wear them properly and like get hurt as a result of that, Which, Yeah, I think

that's a good metaphor. This is a minion shit, I mean, and also it like it, I don't know, there's still so many like I've seen a lot of im you know, compromise people online being like I'm once again being bullied for wearing a mask at the fucking airport, like yes, for and this time it's like by people that probably wouldn't have been doing that three years ago. It's really really bizarre to see that kind of shift. Yeah, that seems to be like the aggressive behavior we're seeing is

not people being like could you wear a mask? It's like help, it's people getting mad at people wearing a mask. And like, just in my personal life, like that's what what I've seen is someone walk in and be like, what the fuck we wearing masks? Huh? It's just like

like what, I just don't and like that. It's kind of the same question I have for like a Brett Stevenson or you know, any of these people who like work for these big you know, centrist journalistic institutions, is like, what do you think you're helping here by like trying to shame people for having suggested like we know that they help people sometimes, so like what exactly are is your angle here? Is kind of right question that comes

up a lot. It just seems like annoyance. It's like a way for people not to feel bad about their choices, right, because if masks don't work, then I don't have to

feel bad that I'm not wearing a mask. And I think that that's really been at least like you know, my theory like seeing being like one of the last people I know that's still mad masks, even though I'm surrounded by liberal minded people, people who took COVID very seriously at the beginning, to see them all sort of drop off on wearing masks, and I think it is like almost this exhaustion of like I can no longer mentally tolerate the idea that I need to mask or

that COVID is still real, and therefore I'm going to I have to believe that it's not, so then I won't do things that like are scientifically proven to help. Yeah, this article was written because audiences want it to be true, essentially. Yeah. Yeah. There's also a Wall Street Journal article that was like, we now believe that COVID was like leaked by a lab and wuhan and didn't come from the wet market.

And it really like the headline really seemed to indicate that this was like settled, and then all of the follow ups are like, this is still like an active debate where most of the evidence suggests like the actual like the normal version of events that we got was the right one, Like all the early cases seemed to cluster around this wet market. And yes, there is a lab that would be a candidate for like leaking this sort of thing in Wuhan, But that doesn't mean that

it happened that way. And even and like the Wall Street Journal headline made it seem like this is settled, but then the report again that they were talking about like was they were like, we suspect this with a very low level of certainty. It just gets filtered back to being yeah, we we figured it out. Racists were right. Well, it was like, it's like, and for those of us with brains that are so tiny, what is the ideological advantage of this being true versus the wet market can

blame China? Yeah, okay, just confermo. Yeah, so that's what the Wall Street Journal is going to do today. Cool? Yeah, yeah that it was like China was working on this virus that got out of their lab, and so it can one hundred percent put the blame on them, and

like their massive cover up of what happened. It's interesting because the story keeps coming back, right, like we had the Vanity Fair article a few months ago, and now it's like getting on Wall Street Journal, and it is this interesting thing of like if it ends up being true, I'm very scared, Like I don't want it to be true, because then I think it will just lead to so much like racism and anti Asian hate and like strange relations, and like I much prefer that it just like was

transferred from animals to humans at a wet market, like that feels like, you know. But then I'm sometimes like, oh, well, do I have to like allow for the possibility that this could be true since all these major news organizations keep talking about it, right, But like they keep talking about it, but they have yet to prove it in any definitive way, right, like with the same level of

accusatory like baselessness that they did three years ago. Yeah. Yeah, And I mean like when you look at what scientists were warning about and like before COVID happened, like they were all about, like, yeah, this zoological like the leap from animals to humans is the most likely way that this is going to happen. And but when you look

at like how how it happens. Usually in like movies like Twelve Monkeys or something like it's it's a science like an evil scientist wanting to hurt people, And so I feel like there's something about that version of events that is just like I don't know, like more narratively appealing, and the right is trying to like hapitalize on that

to drive up the racism industry. I don't know. Well, then it's also feels more preventable in the future, right if it was just like this lab leak from a foreign government versus true, these diseases passed from animals to humans kind of naturally, and that's something that can keep happening.

It again, is like a way to like feel safer or something, and then kind of tying it all together and the pop culture realm Woody Harrelson's SNL monologue was this weird rambling anecdote with a punchline that was basically just like the vaccine. So he was like the biggest

drug cartel. He was like, imagine a world or he said, I have a script where the biggest drug cartel in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes and people can only come out if they take the cartel's drugs and keep them keep taking them over and over. Who's gonna believe that crazy idea. Yeah, he also called himself a Marxist while he was like doing this, which Brett,

that's like, I mean, I guess I don't know. I don't know much about the politics of Woody Harrelson, and I stand by not knowing that that's a strong decision. That is such like lazy word salad. That again, it's just like that's just like not someone you expect to hear that kind of bullshit from. Yeah, very bizarre. The whole monologue. I was like, who approved this, Like who wrote this and approved it? Like what did he just

go rogue? It was like so kind of like stumbling and strange and yeah, I mean, and then Elon Musk being like this was a great monologue. That's like that to me is like just like if you had any doubt about whether it sucked, right, that's the new fear.

I feel like it's like if Elon Musk will approve of what you've done, you're like no, no, no no, no, no no. I wanted so much more from him after I saw a triangle of sadness when he was like a socialist boat captain who just like right, who like has like coherent perspectives, but of course in America, Like it's going to be more like somebody who's you know, listened to too many episodes of Joe Rogan and it thinks that that makes him like a freethinker. But yeah.

He has previously posted about the theory that five G is exacerbating the COVID outbreak, and once signed up to co star in a movie that was just like Twelve Angry Men but made by nine to eleven Truthers. So he yeah, like I had the same reaction where I was like, not Woody, and it's like, oh, he's been wood He's been Harold, Haroldsonning, He's been Harold. His brain's been boiling in that in that big old head. Yeah,

well that's a damn shame. Yeah. Also, the oh Man twelve Angry Men by nine to eleven Truthers does sound like a really solid thirty rock fake thing. Absolutely the world has turned into thirty rock. Also, his dad is one of the suspects in the JFK assassinment, like in a bunch of JFK assassination really theories. Yeah, this is why his dad like murdered a very famous judge. Yeah, Um, which is like a whole nother Banana's backstory to Woody

Harolds Woody Harrolson is murder, nepotism. Yeah, yeah, that's right,

wild wow. Yeah, I'm confused and I feel lost. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, but I do think that there is just an overall movement towards the right, like that's happening in the mainstream culture, because the American like media and like the American sort of central ethos like Jack's socialism as a as anything serious, anything that could be taken seriously, and so the other option is like leaning towards the right and like slowly moving everything towards

the right. And so it just feels like people are still like man, Trump, Trump's an idiot, right, but they're just these like tiny like baby steps that are being taken by what is supposed to be the center. And it's a fucking bummer. But I think probably is where

things are headed more and more. Unfortunately. I wonder, like on the set of Saturday Night Live, if there was like pushback that this was going to be their monologue, you know, like, how does the cast and writers feel about that that this show is becoming more moderated to the right and everything. Yeah, given the makeup of that room. I would assume that there is, but I don't really

know where like the buck stops in that situation. Like Pedro Pescal's monologue from a couple of weeks ago was clearly him just like telling a story that he tells to people because like it's charming in person, and like it's just like famous people tell them. They're like famous people stories that everyone's charmed by. And so I wonder, like if that is a genre of like monologue that they have of just like just let wood he get

up there and do his thing. In this case, it was ill advised, but the studio audience was like, huh, Like even though there's like a giant sign that's like clap laugh, like blasting them in the face, you know, they were still kind of like the will When there was ever a punchline, you could tell there was just like relief from the audience. Yeah, but that's like, okay, this is I'm meant to laugh here. Because he didn't sort of know what to do with the rest of it.

It's like and I still smoke weed though, and everyone like yeah, yes, that is what kind of cultural right. All right, let's take a quick break we'll come back. We'll talk a little Cocaine Bear. We'll be right back and we're back. And so Cocaine Bear came out last weekend. I think it did pretty well. I actually don't know. I usually yeah, it came out. It did like did well right behind Aunt Man seven or whatever, right, the one that like made everybody just be like, I don't know, man,

I'm out. Yeah. We always think it's the one that says it makes people say I don't know man, it I'm out. But then they're like, well, it made a billion dollars, so yeah, you have to watch seven more. It is doing pretty well. Yeah, so Cocaine Barry debuted with twenty three million, So that's that's pretty good. It's like it seems like it's escaped the Snakes on a Plane curse, where it's like if the Internet loves the thing and says they're gonna go see a movie, they

actually won't so you can just ignore it. Seems like they kind of got this one right by just making it super fun. So I still haven't seen it. Jam a writer saw it, and yeah, so first of all, I do just want to continue with So JM argues that this whole thing is a metaphor for COVID and like the uncertainty around that and just like a thing

happening that like our brains can't make sense of. I also, just so the Wall Street Journal, not to keep picking on the Journal here, but they dropped a story on people, like an alert that was like the true story behind Cocaine Bears, even crazier than the movie, which is a movie in which a bear and just a bunch of cocaine and gets superpowers. Like what was what was wilder about it? According to The Wall Street It's their explanation was that like an an ad guy mate, they were

like that. So part of the backstories that they have the actual cocaine bear at this Lexanan Kentucky museum, the Lexanan, Kentucky's fun Mall, which is an intriguing place having fun and is very smart marketing. Yeah, just a fun mall. Hopefully not a yeah, hopefully not a promised that backfires. So it's just made up by some ad executives like that. So there was a bunch of cocaine drop from a plane in Georgia. They found the cocaine and a bear next to it that had eaten some of the cocaine,

and that is the extent of the story. And then two Kentucky ad execs were like, wouldn't it be funny if we took this taxidermy bear that we have and put it in our thing instead it was Cocaine Bear. And that is the story that the Wall Street Journal claimed is crazier than a bear actually ingesting pounds of cocaine and getting superpowers. I mean the Wall Street Journal, in addition to having a lot of bad journalism, they're

also just fucking dorks. So of course they would think this boring ass story is more interesting than the plot of Cocaine Bear. Yeah, I do. I do think that this um, this bear taxidermy in Kentucky is fun. It's wearing a little hat and yea a red gold chain, which is fun. Something that has changed about me recently is that I'm really into like seeing taxidermy in a public place. I'm like very ready for it as long as it was like, as long as it was ethically done.

And I do ask every mall manager and every airport manager that has but I've been to a couple airports recently that have taxidermy there, and uh, I like it and I took a taxidermy class myself and I liked it is fun. Wow, what a turn for you think different finding a bear that overdosed on cocaine in the woods and then stuffing it. Is that ethical? Well, it's like more depends on like what species the bear was. There's like a bunch of time I've read a lot

about taxidermyla. It depends on like what species of the bear was. As long as it wasn't you know, killed to be stuffed. That's obviously like the biggest ethical issue.

But if it died as natural causes or even cocaine causes, it just really can't be taxidermy causes that I think taxidermay just like freaks a lot of people out, which is understandable, and you obviously shouldn't kill an animal specifically to stuff it, right, But you know, cocaine bear lives on in a way in the fun mall question mark. Maybe better places for it, but maybe not. That's fine.

I'm open to being taxidermy, Okay, any particular airport that you want to see yourself displayed that I think Logan International and the Jet Blue terminal would be good. Oh you had that answer? Ready to go near the legal sea foods if possible. And what would the display like, what would be happening and during the display, like what would you be teaching? Would you be podcasting? Would you be No, I think it's pretty similar to cacaine. Yeah, I would be. Yeah, I'd be wearing a hat and

a gold chain. Yeahs look like someone who partied too hard. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'd like to really get a retroactive party girl personality

when I die. Yeah, that is fun. Yeah. Elizabeth Banks has said that she responded to the script because she read it at the beginning of So Elizabeth Banks is the director, and she read the script at the beginning of the pandemic and thought that quote there was no greater metaphor for the chaos that we were all feeling in twenty twenty than a bear high on cocaine, which I like, I do think that this has to happen. Right.

We've been talking about how like during the Iraq War, the Second Iraq War, like nobody was really seeing movies about the Iraq War, but like everybody was watching like these torture porn movies and then like fast zombie movies and like that. So I don't know if like drug crazed animal is going to be the next like version of that that we use to like deal with our complicated, unacknowledged angst around the pandemic. But there seems to be

like an argument for it. I don't. I think I'm gonna have to see the movie to fully understand, like what what exactly it is about it that is evoking COVID. But I think it's like the unpredictability, Like I've never dealt with a bear on cocaine before. What what do I do to protect myself? Right? Yeah? Yeah? Do you run away? Do you lie down? Like if you climb a t tree? Like bears can't climb trees? Right? Oh wait when they're on cocaine, they actually can according to

this movie. But the I mean in real life, the bear just immediately died. It seems just died. Yeah, it was really sad, I know. Yeah. I would also watch the sun Dance Sleeper hit about the bear that eats cocaine and just dies sadly. Right, it's more of a family drama. U. I honestly, I haven't seen it yet. I'm gonna see it this week, but I don't know like I this movie and a couple of different movies that have done well recently. Just I feel like it's

like these feel like depression movies. Basically, we're like movies that don't have anything to do with anything really and they're just like fun and distracting and they're just like

big goofy movies that are about whatever. Like I felt the same way about Like, And that's not to say that that genre of movie can't be saying some thing, and like I take Elizabeth's Banks at her word there, but it's like the same thing with like Megan like did incredibly well recently, and like that does have like some commentary, but it's mostly just like I want to see the robot dance and kill someone in an elevator and that would make me feel good on a Tuesday night,

to distract from the world falling apart. I like that genre of movie. I'm glad Cocaine Bear people are liking it. Yeah, Megan is truly at its best when she's dancing and just like putting on cool sunglasses. It's really a lot of fun. I saw a very online video on Twitter of the of Megan dancing to the Ariana Debos rap. She's doing flips to Angela Bassett did the thing. It

was very exciting the internet. Yeah, yeah, well so we at least the Wall Street Journal totally fucking up reporting on the movie is another way that we can add to the the idea that the Cocaine Bear represents COVID and our experience with that. Allison, truly a pleasure having you on the daily zeitgeist as always, Where can people find you? Follow you, read your words, all that good stuff. Yeah.

I have a weekly podcast called Just Between Us that has its main episodes on Wednesdays and then also like a fun Reddit exploration episode on Mondays. And then you can check out my book over Thinking about you Navigating Romantic Relationships when you have anxiety, OCD and or depression. Pretty much anywhere books are sold. There you go and is there a tweet or a work of media that

you've been enjoying. Well, I found this tweet that I thought was just so lovely from Jack Kalil and it said, my mom started painting in her late fifties after an ever having done before, and this utterly distinct style has flown out of her and it's taken. I'm real convincing to make her believe that she's genuinely talented and these are real art and I just wanted to share them.

And then he shared like four screenshots of like these really beautiful paintings and the tweets like blown up and has like over almost like two hundred and ninety thousand likes, and so I just like like to imagine like this like woman seeing her paintings getting the credit that they deserve. It brings me joy. Amazing. Jamie Loftus, where can people

find you? And is there a workimedia you've been enjoying? Ah? Yeah, you can follow me on Twitter still at Jamie Loftus, help Instagram, Jamie Cary Superstar, listen to the Bechtel Cast, listen to any podcast you want, really and then buy Raw Dog, my book about hot dogs on May twenty three. You can preorder it now and you should go do that, and you you absolutely should right now. It's very good.

It's so good. Oh yeah, you guys are exciting. Yeah, and we just revealed like the hardcover art today, so I'm really excited about it. The tweet I am enjoying is from Jacob Aller at Jacob aler O l e R. I don't know why Jacob was watching a it seems like a silent film about whalers, but he posted some screenshots and captions. That whaling slang still goes because it's like two whaling captain's shaking hands and then the they say farewell captain, greasy luck. And I want to integrate

that into my my daily. That's my new that's my new email. Sign up greasy luck. Unto you, Yeah, very luck. Do you have a problem with me? Talk to my boss, the Pope, and please sign all your emails like tweet. I've been enjoying Loan af Chen tweeted forty four year old guy at your work who says metric fuck ton. It's about a bear who does cocaine. Yeah you heard that right. I just thought that was Yeah. I love that guy who says the metric fuck ton all the time.

You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. 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 footnotes where we link off 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 a song that we think people might enjoy? Well, this is a track that I

thought was very touching and charming. Um. This is a song by Ella j which is Jay Dilla's younger brother. It's a song called Maureen that's just an homage to their mother and it's very It's just very nice and it's got a cool style where it's got like this boom bap like soul full style. It kind of reminds me of old Kanye West before he turned into a fucking super villain speaking of minions. My god. But yeah,

but I love this track. It's got a lot of heart and Yeah, if you want to check this out, it's called Maureen by Ella Ja and you can find that song in the footnotes good Notes. The Daily Zeka is a production of iHeartRadio from more podcast from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That is going to do it for us this morning, back this afternoon to tell you what is trending, and we'll talk to you all then fight, Hey